Genders for all races

[Dagoth]

Well this did not seem something that could go into mainline (yet, at least) so I decided to post it here.

Originally I made some sprites for a different topic by another wesnoth member who wanted to create a giant rpg thing, but after getting quite a few comments on the quality, i decided to try them out for a bigger purpose.

For now, I finished off some female sprites for the elvish fighter line. Currently, I got these completed, and once I get more time I will create the Captain line as well.

A list of what I aim for:

For Males:

Elvish Shaman - Elvish Alchemist
Elvish Druid - Elvish Chemister
Elvish Shyde - Elvish Laberator (Maybe?)

Female Goblins, Female Orcs, Female Saurians

...and so on.

In the case anyone wants to see what I done, the three elves are here:

[scienceguy8]

It's not so much that both genders are not equally represented due to aesthetic reasons, but rather because it means that much more art to make, and really having some units exist as one gender only does give each race and faction in Wesnoth flavor.

Female elvish fighters I can understand, especially when some campaigns allow the recruitment of male/female elvish citizens who can level up into the fighter line, but beyond that I don't see much of a need.

EDIT: As an example of that flavor I was talking about, correct me if I'm wrong, the bulk of the Saurians are supposed to be female, as female lizards tend to grow larger and stronger than their male counterparts. Saurian fighters are female, while Saurian healers and magi are male.

[Dagoth]

Really? The saurian thing makes sense, but wesnoth is obviously an arcane land of magic and corruption. I would think that the female has more endurance and therfore can harness the magical essence around it (no gender discrimination intended).

And the elvish units were created for mainline or very intricate campaigns, but you should never put your hopes too high.

[Gambit]

This wasn't denied from mainline based on developer preference. It was because, like scienceguy8 pointed out, all the extra work. If someone did all that extra work I think the developers would be more than estatic to have it.

[Dagoth]

Hmm... well I got nothing to lose and plenty of time, so maybe I could try out? I could start from the fighter first, and go on up.

[doofus-01]

Be wary of sinking too much effort into the loyalists. There is at least one post somewhere explaining that they are supposed to be somewhat historical and sending females out as cannon fodder spearmen is a bad idea if you want to maintain population. Elves may be safe to work on though.

[Dagoth]

Be wary of sinking too much effort into the loyalists.

okay, thanks for the tip, I will be sure of that.

[A-Red]

Given that the elves have both genders in the archer line already, it's probably safe from a world-building perspective to do the same with the fighter and scout lines. However, I think there may be some explanation in the manual for the shaman line being female-only.

As for saurians and drakes--maybe they're already both genders. I mean, can you tell female and male reptiles apart on sight? I can't.

[Unnheulu]

Couldn't you automate giving each unit a female/male variant?
I think its probably possible, but, I'll get back to you after I've tried.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, but, obviously a script won't change the names or give them new sprites.

[Aura]

Your sprites look ... awkward, to say the least. Plus, I am pretty sure this:



is intended as a new fighter. I like the idea though, I might try and whip something up.

[eyerouge]

From a feminist & queer perspective I'm personally against gendering anything for whatever reason since the notion of gender (in the meaning 'social role somehow idiotically derived from the individuals biological sex') itself is a non-rational one which only brings constraints to how an individual can develop it's personal role(s) & identities(s) in society. Being/performing male and female-ness only draws borders for behaviour & attributes and kills of individuality... if one manages to put that aside, which we can agree that most of the world and certainly the Wesnoth community does, there might be a positive side of adding more gender variation to the game in cases where it can be done:

• Breaks stereotypes of what a male/female can do.
• Potentially lure more female players into liking the game since they might have an easier time relating to it.

If indeed somebody drew new units and animations and all for the elfs (and/or others which are story wise compatible with doing so) it would nice if Wesnoth was coded in such a way that whenever you recruited a unit the units gender would be picked at random, mixing things up visually in your army.

[Gambit]

it would nice if Wesnoth was coded in such a way that whenever you recruited a unit the units gender would be picked at random, mixing things up visually in your army.

This is already how it's done with the few units that have different possible genders.

[eyerouge]

This is already how it's done with the few units that have different possible genders.

Nice Guess not noticing it as a casual player puts emphasis on the additional art-work that's needed for that feature to really shine through.

[A-Red]

It's not that the female artwork currently in game is weakly defined, it's that the sprites are 50 pixels tall. You'll never be able to make it *that* obvious unless you do something ridiculous like give them a pink bow. The female elf archers are nice in their subtlety.

That elf fighter sprite reminds me--I'm pretty sure Jetrel has plans to do some editing on the entire elf sprite set, so doing anything with those sprites right now is probably a bad idea.

[Zachron]

I brought up in another thread, that the case of Saurians has some biological basis in the sense that a lot of reptile species do not define their biological sex until after they mature, so, whereas we humans take our gender from our sex, the Saurians might derive their biological sex via their social gender.