Mermen Tree Proposal

Post by **turin** » September 25th, 2004, 2:05 pm

autolycus wrote:Beautiful. Maybe you could make it a subtle change from level to level.

For example: change the colours gradually so that the L1 mermaid is blue-scaled blue-haired but the most powerful L4 siren is green-scaled green-haired; the rest are in-between. The staff also might begin as a long plain pole and get more decorative and shorter (so it is an icon-tipped wand at L3) until it disappears totally at L4.

IMHO if they were green they would look like nagas.

Post by **Sangel** » September 25th, 2004, 4:03 pm

autolycus wrote:Beautiful. Maybe you could make it a subtle change from level to level.

Subtlety is a bad thing in unit graphics, I'm afraid. You'll have people wondering which level a unit is on the screen.

Though I rather like the idea of different hair colours - maybe the Siren line should have red hair?

Post by **Jetrel** » September 25th, 2004, 5:19 pm

ixnay on the red hair idea - the red would cause a color clash with the blue.

That's ok for the eyes, as it makes them more visible, but.

I actually had to change the crown on this one from gold to pearl for that very reason - a nasty melange of colors.

Now, I've actually realized I might try some color shifts, so lvls 3 and four might get replaced with more white versions.

But, this is the graphic as it is now:

Post by **Jetrel** » September 26th, 2004, 10:17 am

what i've got so far for level-4.

I went back and shifted teh colors on level-3 to connect the two.

Something about the proportions just doesn't seem right, but then ... fmuÃƒÂ±oz had an interesting angle for these guys in the first place. whatever. I'll figure it out later.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 26th, 2004, 10:29 am

it's tines like this:

Post by **Neoriceisgood** » September 26th, 2004, 11:06 am

Wow that rocks, Give her a harp though.

autolycus · Post by **autolycus** » September 26th, 2004, 2:41 pm

Neoriceisgood wrote:Wow that rocks, Give her a harp though.

No no no... harpies are flying units.

Seriously, why not vary the tines - level one has a plain silver/white band for headgear, level two has 2 or 3 tines, level 3 has a five-tine starburst, and level 4 has a plain gold band. Or something like that.

Post by **Sangel** » September 26th, 2004, 7:13 pm

Hmmm. I think the problem with the perspective is that you have the Siren leaning slightly backwards - not a comfortable "resting" position with her tail like that. I suggest having her lean very slightly forwards instead.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 27th, 2004, 6:41 am

Finished version of level-3. Should correct the unbalance issue sangel noted, and should also correct some issues that crept into the pose as I made her bigger as she leveled.

It was kinda tough, making the unit bigger without making it look disproportioned, or out of place.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 27th, 2004, 7:09 am

It is done. This graphic contains all the updated base graphics for the mermaids.

This means that all base graphics are done.

Animation of them is another, often rather easy, matter. I will have to work my usual tricks to give them nice, fancy animations for their magical abilities (though the priestess line will be little different from the white mage line in that). The animation of the basic attacks for the mermen could actually be done by someone other than me (although, most likely, I will end up doing it

- something about "itch=scratch," as miyo is so fond of saying.).

IIRC, miyo and I came to an agreement about these, that once I had the base graphics done for the mermen AND the naga, they could be implemented, in the interests of balancing them in-game. The animations could be filled in as they are finished - mostly because if I somehow died or something, others could pick up where I left off - the same not necessarily being true of generating base graphics.

To that end, and regardless of whether miyo did firmly agree to that, it is in our best interests to get the base graphics for the naga done next.

If miyo did agree to that, I will likely add said animations straight to CVS, with the possible exception of the fancy, magic animations, which might want for group review.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 27th, 2004, 7:34 am

OMG teh stoopidness. I did my first edit over sangel's mermaid, and kinda ended up making an entire set of mermaid gfx @ 70x70. Oh well - easy fix.

Glad I saw this now.

Post by **Jetrel** » September 27th, 2004, 7:58 am

Fixed all the mermaid image sizes.
Also, just for kicks, I made this (this was what kinda tipped me off about the size issue). This shows oldest -> "current" -> new.

Integral · Post by **Integral** » September 27th, 2004, 1:58 pm

I can't tell the difference between the different level 2 mermaids (well, I can, but only because they're next to each other and labeled). I also don't think I'd be able to distinguish between levels 2 and 3 of the siren line, and level 1 looks awfully similar as well.

There are already way too many units whose levels are virtually identical and make me squint hard or mouse over them (eg, Goblin Wolfrider); please don't make another one!

Daniel

Post by **Jetrel** » September 27th, 2004, 3:47 pm

Integral wrote:I can't tell the difference between the different level 2 mermaids (well, I can, but only because they're next to each other and labeled). I also don't think I'd be able to distinguish between levels 2 and 3 of the siren line, and level 1 looks awfully similar as well.

There are already way too many units whose levels are virtually identical and make me squint hard or mouse over them (eg, Goblin Wolfrider); please don't make another one!

Daniel

There are no white backgrounds in the game, and the Ankh staff should be much more visible in-game - I will make it silver, though.

However, with levels 2&3 of the siren line, they are meant to be similar - like levels 2&3 of the arch-mage line. After all, they are basically the same darn unit - with just a small boost to stats.

autolycus · Post by **autolycus** » September 27th, 2004, 3:50 pm

Thanks very much Jetryl, nice job. No complaints!