New fire dragon

[hunter_z]

The fire dragon has gone through numerous redesigns, I mean...

Official:
-> ->
Unofficial:
->


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So here's my take!

->
I used the pose of the old skeletal dragon: and the color palette of the second fire dragon.
While the relation between drakes and dragons is kind of vague, my personal theory is that they share a common ancestor. Drakes are civilized and have a straighter posture, the dragon I drew is completely feral, is mostly quadrupedal but can stand on his hind legs to appear taller and more intimidating (as if he isn't already!), but that leaves him with a vulture-like hunch. His scratch and fire breath buildup animations could use the standing pose whereas the tail whip attack would have him stand on all four.

I don't know how many animations I'm going to draw myself, but I'm planning to give a few a shot myself. I want it to replace the current fire dragon for the following reasons:
- a BfW dragon could resemble a drake a bit more, since they are canonically related
- the art style is more similar to BfW's, therefore more consistent
- it's easier to draw animations for
- its smaller size makes it fit on the battlefield easier

In my opinion, a simplistic animated sprite beats a complex stationary one any day. The fire dragon we currently have feels more like a statue than a live being.

That being said, I'd love to hear you guys' opinions! Feel free to modify it as you like, and I would really appreciate it if some of you could help me out with the animations :)

[Lord-Knightmare]

Your one looks really terrifying as a dragon should look like. And, it conforms better with the portrait as well.
Animate the dragon fully and you might have a chance to get it to replace the current "stale" one.

One blocked might be that the Skeletal Dragon was redone to fit with the Fire Dragon so that might be a problem.

If it cannot be added into the client, welll, UMC authors like me would love to have it.

[Atreides]

May I use it for the Dragservion Faction fire dragon leader? It already uses the older versions for lower levels but the top level is the mainline and looks out of place. It's just too big.

[hunter_z]

May I use it for the Dragservion Faction fire dragon leader? It already uses the older versions for lower levels but the top level is the mainline and looks out of place. It's just too big.

Of course. It still needs animation frames, however... not sure when those will be done :'D

[max_torch]

If the old fire dragon were to still remain official, would hunter_z's fire dragon sprite still make sense to be used in the Drake campaign WoF? Maybe he could represent a hero character/important character.
Disclaimer: I haven't played WoF.

[Lord-Knightmare]

If the old fire dragon were to still remain official, would hunter_z's fire dragon sprite still make sense to be used in the Drake campaign WoF? Maybe he could represent a hero character/important character.
Disclaimer: I haven't played WoF.

In a very recent comment, doofus-01 has hinted about his own fire dragon for 1.17.x so it cannot be answered right now...maybe hunter_Z can offer it up on PR? (Also, his PR would weight more if added some animations with it which is what the current chonky one lacks).
As for WoF, you can ask Name.

[doofus-01]

So here's my take!

Image -> Image
I used the pose of the old skeletal dragon: Image and the color palette of the second fire dragon.

That does look pretty good.

It does look like a drake, possibly a little too much? I understand why you went with the pose you did, but standing & hunched over doesn't really fit with the dragons, at least as I understand them: magical, intelligent monsters, rather than hulking beast-drakes. I'd say the "unofficial" version has a better stance, but it is subjective, and maybe we need to look to WoF for guidance. I'm not familiar enough with the campaign yet though.

Don't worry about the skeletal dragon, the existing one has no animations so it's not that painful to make one that fits any new dragon better.

[hunter_z]

So here's my take!

Image -> Image
I used the pose of the old skeletal dragon: Image and the color palette of the second fire dragon.

That does look pretty good. :D

It does look like a drake, possibly a little too much? I understand why you went with the pose you did, but standing & hunched over doesn't really fit with the dragons, at least as I understand them: magical, intelligent monsters, rather than hulking beast-drakes. I'd say the "unofficial" version has a better stance, but it is subjective, and maybe we need to look to WoF for guidance. I'm not familiar enough with the campaign yet though.

Don't worry about the skeletal dragon, the existing one has no animations so it's not that painful to make one that fits any new dragon better.

I was hoping you'd notice this post!

The unofficial dragon looks really good, and after all, it was the one that the current portrait was drawn after. With a few anatomy fixes, it could be perfected... but then, at least in my opinion, it loses its common traits with the drakes. Drakes and dragons ARE related, right? Regardless, I'm currently drawing animation frames for my dragon. If it doesn't make it to the core game, maybe the UMC creators will appreciate it :) Or, it could potentially make it as a feral drake of sorts... provided we find a place for it in the core game. We could use a mainline drake campaign for sure!

[Lord-Knightmare]

We could use a mainline drake campaign for sure!

Winds of Fate, a drake campaign, is in mainline as of 1.17.0.

If it doesn't make it to the core game, maybe the UMC creators will appreciate it

I want it after it's fully/partially animated. :V

[hunter_z]

We could use a mainline drake campaign for sure!

Winds of Fate, a drake campaign, is in mainline as of 1.17.0.

If it doesn't make it to the core game, maybe the UMC creators will appreciate it

I want it after it's fully/partially animated. :V

Great to hear! I thought I remembered someone mentioning it but I wasn't too sure. The animation will be ready (at some point in the future), though I would like to receive help from other contributors...

[Atreides]

I've already installed it into the Beyond Southern Hells era as the leader of one faction. Looks good although I did notice that it's feet seemed to get partially covered by a impassable wall terrain. Not sure what I did wrong there. :) Barely noticeable anyways.

Looking forward to the animations, I enjoy doing animations from the WML side. Heh, that's how I got into WML by wanting to add attack animation sounds.

[hunter_z]

I've already installed it into the Beyond Southern Hells era as the leader of one faction. Looks good although I did notice that it's feet seemed to get partially covered by a impassable wall terrain. Not sure what I did wrong there. :) Barely noticeable anyways.

Looking forward to the animations, I enjoy doing animations from the WML side. Heh, that's how I got into WML by wanting to add attack animation sounds.

Glad you like him! Yeah, the foot clipping through walls seems inevitable with larger sprites xD

[Atreides]

I've already installed it into the Beyond Southern Hells era as the leader of one faction. Looks good although I did notice that it's feet seemed to get partially covered by a impassable wall terrain. Not sure what I did wrong there. :) Barely noticeable anyways.

Looking forward to the animations, I enjoy doing animations from the WML side. Heh, that's how I got into WML by wanting to add attack animation sounds.

Glad you like him! Yeah, the foot clipping through walls seems inevitable with larger sprites xD

Phew. Glad to know it is common.

[name]

I understand why you went with the pose you did, but standing & hunched over doesn't really fit with the dragons, at least as I understand them: magical, intelligent monsters, rather than hulking beast-drakes. I'd say the "unofficial" version has a better stance, but it is subjective, and maybe we need to look to WoF for guidance. I'm not familiar enough with the campaign yet though.

Over the course of WoF's development, the community fairly loudly rejected the original "hulking beast-drakes" concept and demanded drakes of the more "magical, intelligent monsters" variety, so the latter's how the drakes ended up being in WoF. We also sort of "extrapolated" details of their physical and mental nature from how they play as a multiplayer faction. Altogether we ended up with:

• Lithe for their size, but their size is somewhere between an orc and a horse (big).
• Durable for a flying creature but necessarily lightweight (and thus fragile) enough to fly.
• Can work their way up to a swift traveling pace but are slow to accelerate and not maneuverable.
• Have the ability to spit fire but lack the limb articulation needed for a throwing arm and lack the dexterity to wield a bow.
• Excellent weapon and armor smiths due to metallurgy and ceramics involving high temperatures but bad at most other technologies.
• Innate but few magical abilities.
• Highly rational strategic and tactical planners but also prone to over reaching and over committing when their pride or passions take over.
• Greatly value the lives of comrades and "noble" creatures but entirely ruthless towards serious enemies and law breakers (saurians get leeway here).

Your own dragon character from SoF makes an appearance in WoF, so I tried to follow your lead regarding his personality, though he ended up being more talkative and acts as an ally to the protagonists rather than an enemy, due to the different circumstances.

[doofus-01]

OK, so the noble, equine dragon makes more sense, I guess?

If so, should it be naked? A horse with any sort of armor is clearly a subjugated beast, not a wild stallion. Or it could make sense that a sentient, speaking being can wear whatever their claws can manage - they already gather gold.