New saurian units

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Talentless
Posts: 35
Joined: June 10th, 2015, 6:43 am

New saurian units

Post by Talentless »

This thread aims to discuss sprites and animations for new potential Saurian units including:
  • Lv3 upgrades of the augur tree.
  • Alternative skirmisher upgrades.
You can check the progress of the individual units in these pull requests:
  • #6905: new skirmisher alternative upgrade branch. Mixed fighter with some defensive capabilities.
  • #6911: level-3 upgrades of the augur tree.
  • #6912: optional alternative skirmisher upgrade for campaigns and UMC. Focused on ranged attacks.
Current unit sprites can be found in this add-on.

---

Initially I'd like to discuss the sprites of the new augur final upgrades. I feel like it's the least controversial change that already proved quite useful for soon-to-be-official campaigns. The current sprites are not quite simple recolors, but they might need to be a bit more distinctive to match mainline quality. Perhaps a slight pose change or a subtle enlargement of the sprite (similar to Ambusher > Flanker) might do the trick.
Attachments
seer.png
seer.png (945 Bytes) Viewed 5530 times
seer-ne-bob1.png
seer-ne-bob1.png (915 Bytes) Viewed 5530 times
prophet-ne-bob1.png
prophet-ne-bob1.png (1.01 KiB) Viewed 5530 times
prophet.png
prophet.png (1007 Bytes) Viewed 5530 times
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doofus-01
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Re: New saurian units

Post by doofus-01 »

Judging the level 3 magic saurians by how differentiated they are by testing your add-on in the scenario editor:
- The prophet is good as is. The color and hat make it different enough, though maybe the staff could be a little gaudier.
- I'm less sure about the seer. This is an alternative proposal for the seer - I'm not completely convinced of it, but I think it would be more easily distinguished on the map.
Attachments
saurian-demo.png
saurian-demo.png (15.56 KiB) Viewed 5321 times
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Helmet
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Re: New saurian units

Post by Helmet »

My 2 cents: if one had its tail curved downward, it would change the profile and make it appear more distinct.
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Talentless
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Joined: June 10th, 2015, 6:43 am

Re: New saurian units

Post by Talentless »

doofus-01 wrote: October 29th, 2022, 11:57 pm - The prophet is good as is. The color and hat make it different enough, though maybe the staff could be a little gaudier.
I've used the Flanker's palette for the weapon: golden base, silver tip. Both staves that I've proposed were supposed to match Flanker's general style, since it's the only level-3 Saurian unit for now.
doofus-01 wrote: October 29th, 2022, 11:57 pm - I'm less sure about the seer. This is an alternative proposal for the seer - I'm not completely convinced of it, but I think it would be more easily distinguished on the map.
The gem on the forehead seems a bit too bright, I'd probably go with something halfway through between our proposed sprites in terms of the headgear. I do like the new pauldrons. I'll try to propose another version this week.
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doofus-01
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Re: New saurian units

Post by doofus-01 »

Helmet wrote: October 30th, 2022, 12:39 am My 2 cents: if one had its tail curved downward, it would change the profile and make it appear more distinct.
Yeah, a slight change in pose would help. These saurians do move around a lot, so maybe differentiation can be found in the standing animations as well.
Talentless wrote: October 30th, 2022, 6:55 am I've used the Flanker's palette for the weapon: golden base, silver tip. Both staves that I've proposed were supposed to match Flanker's general style, since it's the only level-3 Saurian unit for now.
General style seemed OK, I just thought it could go further.
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Talentless
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Re: New saurian units

Post by Talentless »

doofus-01 wrote: November 5th, 2022, 12:34 pm Yeah, a slight change in pose would help. These saurians do move around a lot, so maybe differentiation can be found in the standing animations as well.
I've changed the tail to face downwards. I will also adjust the idle animations. Defend, magic and melee frames will also likely require some changes.

I've also made the gem and its golden trim a bit darker for consistency with the flanker headgear. Let me know what you think.
Attachments
seer edit.gif
seer edit.gif (1.52 KiB) Viewed 5077 times
seer edit.png
seer edit.png (2.65 KiB) Viewed 5079 times
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doofus-01
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Re: New saurian units

Post by doofus-01 »

Looks reasonable to me, though it's hard to tell how significant the tail change will end up being, given the animations and north-facing frames. Looking forward to seeing what you do with those. Thanks.
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Talentless
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Re: New saurian units

Post by Talentless »

I'm attaching a complete set of SE animations for the new Seer sprite (seer-se.zip). I ended up scraping the inverted tail placement to speed up animating process and for consistency with NE pose. Please verify if anything needs adjustments.
seer-se-bob.gif
seer-se-bob.gif (4.32 KiB) Viewed 4370 times
seer-se.zip
(35.49 KiB) Downloaded 62 times
Also, just to confirm, this is the sprite that I'm using as a basis for NE animations.
seer-ne-bob1.png
seer-ne-bob1.png (992 Bytes) Viewed 4370 times
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doofus-01
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Re: New saurian units

Post by doofus-01 »

These SE frames are looking good; similar to the soothsayer but not too similar. Maybe a subtle magic halo could be added as a separate layer :hmm:

EDIT: For "magic halos", I'm thinking some sort of sparkling aura for the healer and staff-to-hand lightning for the offensive unit. These would not be part of the sprite image frame, they can be added later.
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name
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Re: New saurian units

Post by name »

I just want to say I hope the Seer and Prophet sprites can be ready in time for 1.18. They really add a lot to both multiplayer and singleplayer, and feel like some of the only advancments still sorely absent from the game.
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