Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

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aquileia
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by aquileia »

I love your drafts, quality work as always!
I wonder though how Kaleh would sheathe that sword in his scabbard, given the additional point on the blade's edge...

If Zhul is bound to the druid line and can't advance to a Shyde/Sylph, the lava-filled room in S6a might need a little rebalancing though.


Trying to wrap up the off-topic discussion:
Neither Khalifate nor the Quenoth elves are stated as monotheistic - the fact that the desert elves worship Eloh (who should rather be classified as a demi-god considering IftU) doesn't mean they abandoned their old panthenon (assuming they had one, that is), and the only thing we know about the Khalifate is that their culture despises magic, probably for religious reasons.

Wesnoth tries to evade the topic of religion, the only definitive appearance in mainline is Eloh.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

New round of sketches! Instead of further diving into the previous set, I continued to work on the remaining units since the faction isn't completely defined yet. More research time means better ideas and more refined concepts, which is good for us, so expect more of these before you see any finished material.

The "moon" and "sun" shamans are (obviously) branches of the shaman tree that will sprout wings at lvl 3, along with a variation of skin pigmentation (sun becomes darker/redder, moons become more pale). The "druid" branch (not shown here) will be derived from the portrait of Zhul and will retain regular humanoid features.

The mounts are for the "beast rider" unit line - a new entry in the faction that will serve as a tank and line-holder. I will let Zookeeper comment on the exact layout of the revised desert elves once it is finalized; at the moment all that matters is that the creature is a beast of burden that doubles as a war mount, and as such we do not want to depict it as too agressive. It should however feel massive, tough, and slow. I hope I achieved these.
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Sun shamans: I like outfits A and B but don't like A's face or B's staff so much.

Moon shamans: I'm not too keen on B. A and C are both good, I particularly like A's staff though C's staff is nice too and may be better for the actual moon connection.

All the shamans seem pretty good, mind you.

I think I especially like beast B, but all of them are pretty interesting. Beast D seems the easiest to ride due to the horns.
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doofus-01
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by doofus-01 »

They all look interesting, though I'll admit I don't like the idea of the wrinkly (cracked mud?) face for Sun-A. Sun-B, Sun-C, Moon-A, and Moon-B have large, distinctive features that should be good for translating to the sprites. Moon-B does look a bit... alien (maybe that's OK).

The beasts all look cool. Should tusks be avoided though, if you want to keep it from looking too aggressive?
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vultraz
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by vultraz »

I really like the staff and hair of Sun A and the clothes and face of Sun B. It's an interesting change to have a masked portrait.

Moon B looks way too alien, so I vote for Moon C.

Beast A looks best, IMO. That hump is B and C is disconcerting :P D and E look like buffalo.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

As ever, thanks for the feedback. :)

In the end, tusks will probably be ruled out for the beasts because zookeeper intends to give them an impact attack (ram/trample) and sharp tusks may cause confusion on that front. I drew them as a test, but there might be indeed a thin line that separates "unimpressive" from "overly agressive".

On the shamans, although the sketch doesn't do it justice, what I had in mind for sun A / moon B is face paint. The pattern would differ from that picture of course, but I think it's an interesting way to give those magic users an outlandish appearance that hints that they are not quite human elven anymore.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by vultraz »

Interesting idea. I think the mask would serve that purpose better, though. (Plus, I just really like the design of it :P )
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by zookeeper »

Sun: A as far as the costume goes. I can't really decide which one's head (out of A and B) and staff (out of all three) I prefer (although A's staff is perhaps a bit massive). If/when you include some sun symbols (in clothing or as the staff orb or whatever), remember that they can all be doubled (because twin suns) if it'd look more interesting that way.

Moon: A seems best overall, but I'm not sure about that disc around the neck. B's neck/shoulders/chest thing is nice, but the high collar combined with bald head and pale skin make her look pretty alien. Perhaps A's moon-style large beads could be two-coloured and show off all the phases of the moon (maybe that was intended and it just doesn't show in the sketch)? Also, considering that these are probably the only chaotic unit and a bit more of a mysterious oddball group, could they have a slightly more ethereally-wispy-in-the-moonlight touch to them? Not much, but just something. Of course that can probably be accomplished by lighting alone.

Rider: of the animals, B, C and D. Overall, I think D is very good already (I think the rider's better than in C, too), but maybe the beast itself isn't quite as massive as it could be? It seems about the same size as a horse would be, so it could be enlarged somewhat (except the horns).
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Elvish_King »

I imagine a tanky heavy and slow beast unit, who lives in a desert, looking like this Bantha from Star Wars.
http://jedipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Bantha
So I would go with Number B. D and E look like they had a sort of cow horns, C is to difficult to read, I think. A would be also ok in my opinion, it reminds me of the tusker line which is in some add-ons.

EDIT: I removed the picture to not infringe the copyright.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by name »

Just out of curiosity, why are their eyes light-colored? Does this represent their inner semi-magical nature or is it just a vestigial feature left over from the forest days?
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Andrettin »

LordBob wrote:New round of sketches! Instead of further diving into the previous set, I continued to work on the remaining units since the faction isn't completely defined yet. More research time means better ideas and more refined concepts, which is good for us, so expect more of these before you see any finished material.

The "moon" and "sun" shamans are (obviously) branches of the shaman tree that will sprout wings at lvl 3, along with a variation of skin pigmentation (sun becomes darker/redder, moons become more pale). The "druid" branch (not shown here) will be derived from the portrait of Zhul and will retain regular humanoid features.

The mounts are for the "beast rider" unit line - a new entry in the faction that will serve as a tank and line-holder. I will let Zookeeper comment on the exact layout of the revised desert elves once it is finalized; at the moment all that matters is that the creature is a beast of burden that doubles as a war mount, and as such we do not want to depict it as too agressive. It should however feel massive, tough, and slow. I hope I achieved these.
I love the idea of the new beasts! I would personally go for A or C, as they look more exotic, something fitting for a world that has underwent such a transformation.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by beetlenaut »

I just want to say that all of these look fantastic, and I will not be disappointed no matter what you choose!
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Iris
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Iris »

I’m a bit late but here it goes anyway:

Sun shamans: Same opinion as zookeeper. Personally, I would use A’s outfit and head for low level units and A’s staff combined with B’s outfit and mask for high level units. I’d particularly like to see the mask concept developed further and used somewhere since one of my campaigns has some sort of light priests who also wear masks. However, I like the face-paint idea too, hence I’m torn between both. As for C, I am not sure what’s going on with the yellow thing around her head, it looks like it might impede vision when turning her head around, which is concerning.

Moon shamans: I’m not a fan of B’s high collar and bulky outfit. In fact, I have a hard time picturing them as part of anything but an antagonist unit for some reason. The bald head and face-paint and staff work for me, though. C’s staff, while far less flashy, also looks cool. A’s outfit is good but the white disc seems both impractical and somewhat funny-looking. Finally, I’m inclined to prefer C’s head over the others.

Beasts: All of them look quite cuddly, especially A (which looks perhaps more like some kind of white boar than a work beast). I don’t think I can provide much input for these, but I lean towards B and C for their ram-like horns.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Wussel »

Awesome!

Looking at that Eloh figure changing transparency came to my mind. Like making the white to a figure of light. The idea would be to have her fade into transparency at the outskirts while being massive in the center parts of body and head. Thus avoiding a ghost like appearance and aiming more for a light bulb.

Who is sponsoring this project? Would be nice to know the UTBS backers.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Xara »

Just a question: when are they going to be included into the game?
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