Tolkien Style Tileset

**Per** · May 11, 2003, 11:34

I have no suggestions for the tundra (sorry). The jungle looks like a promising start - the palms are very nice. Perhaps drop the round trees and add a lot more palms to make it look more dense?

Keep up the good work - this tileset rocks!

**Pod** · June 23, 2004, 12:40

In Tolkien's maps, there was always a "gap" between the trees and the river.

Also, you're going about this the wrong way. To get your coast to seem "tolkieny", DRAW it on paper, THEN scan it in. Drawning it on the computer won't have the same effect or visual look.

**maubp** · June 23, 2004, 14:53

Originally posted by Pod
In Tolkien's maps, there was always a "gap" between the trees and the river.

True - but reason the rivers just appear "on top" of the forest is because FreeCiv draws rivers by putting the same river tile on top of the underlying terrain (be it forest, hills etc).

I could do a gap by making that part of the river tile, but getting this to look good on all terrain would be tricky.

Also, you're going about this the wrong way. To get your coast to seem "tolkieny", DRAW it on paper, THEN scan it in. Drawning it on the computer won't have the same effect or visual look.

True - I had a similar conversation with Bart on page one of this thread, now that I have a scanner your suggestion is actually possible.

(But to be honest, I don't really have time at the moment to work on this at the moment)

**Straybow** · December 9, 2004, 13:44

/me reads thread

**maubp** · January 16, 2005, 11:51

Here is the current version of the tileset if anyone is interested. Its been sitting on my hard drive unloved and untouched for almost two years now:-

tolkien_v0_0_1.zip

(Bigger than it needs to be at about 1.3MB as there are several revisions to the terrain included. Well its done now, and most people have broadband these days!)

As I have probably said before, it started life as a double sized version of the trident tileset (see also my bigtrident thread).

The following file (attached to post) is JUST the image file tiles.png in a zip file (the image itself and the entire zip file are too big for the forum to accept).

**statusperfect** · January 20, 2005, 02:47

That's what i call a *bump*...

**ChaosE** · January 31, 2005, 09:59

I just stumbled over this thread .. the work done so far looks absolutely incredible! A pity you had no time to continue the work ...

Does there exist a freeciv 2.0 version of the tileset yet? If not: Would it help if I build one (tilespecs etc.) ?

MfG;
ChaosE

**maubp** · January 31, 2005, 11:00

I have not yet tried my tileset on FreeCiv 2, which I only just downloaded last night. I had a quick read on their website and it sound pretty easy to update the tilespec if that is needed. Please have a go and report back.

In terms of the terrain, there are some loose ends that have been discussed before (e.g. the waves could be improved).

To my mind, the big question is the units. This tileset (and my bigtrident) simply doubled up the existing trident images and as a result are very pixelated. Perhaps a smooth resize would yield better results.

A more fundamental question is should this tileset have entirely new "pencil and ink" images? Are there any photoshop experts that could attempt some semi-automatic conversion?

The colour units certainly stand out nicely - I found this tileset very good for making units and cities standout from the background terrain. Maybe its just that the default tilesets are a little too garish or bold for my tastes.

**ChaosE** · February 3, 2005, 04:12

Hello there,

here is a link to a quick-hack freeciv 2.0 version of your tileset. I gave it a new name (tolkien) and editet all .specs to use this directory, mainly for future changes (e.g. units etc.). The spec files are modified copies from the freeciv 2.0 trident, but artist names and some other details will be wrong. It loads smoothly from the civclient and looks quite nice.

The link: tolkien.tar.bz2 (freeciv 2.0 compatible)

IMHO most wanted would be more of your great detail-work on the tileset itself ... with some time, someone will come up with a good idea for the units

MfG;
ChaosE

**ChaosE** · February 9, 2005, 07:40

These enthusiastic replies always make me blush.

In other words: *bump*

MfG;
ChaosE

**himasaram** · December 3, 2005, 08:48

I really like what this tileset is trying to do. It could benefit greatly by borrowing the unit sprites from the new Amplio tileset, since this has higher resolution than the old ones:

http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/freeciv/t...21&view=markup

Cities are also very pretty but might look out of place here since they're aligned isometrically:

http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/freeciv/t...21&view=markup
http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/freeciv/t...21&view=markup
http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/freeciv/t...21&view=markup

Cheers
-Daniel

**maubp** · December 3, 2005, 16:02

I hadn't see the Amplio tileset before - very nice work. Mind you, I haven't even played FreeCiv 2.0 get so maybe its not surprising that I'm not up to date with the latest graphics.

If you have tried combining my "Tolkein Style" terrain with these units, could you post a screenshot some time?

**himasaram** · December 3, 2005, 19:34

Amplio isn't distributed with 2.0 but will (most probably) be default in 2.1.

I made a quick and ugly experiment yesterday, using ChaosE's 2.0 compatible version of your tileset, copying and pasting some amplio sprites. You can see the results over at the corresponding thread on the Freeciv forums:

http://forum.freeciv.org/viewtopic.php?t=109