Speculative Graphics Showcase

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Catfish
Health bars can get ugly in ToT, especially when you want terrain units. It's a really dumb design decision by Microprose.

I've seen the Mercator thread before. It applies to sprites, though. I guess terrain could be converted more easily because they don't need to be animated. I've never tried to create ToT sprites - always turn them off anyway.

Ahem... I think you should have a look at that thread again then.

My technique does use sprites, but they aren't animated. And in fact, I created a very easy to use converter that converts your ToT units bitmap to a sprite file in a flash. Simply select which units you want to hide the health bar for and you're done.
And I also posted how you can make sure this new sprite file is used (and not the bitmap, nor any of the animated sprites).

Secondly, I have to remind you that ToT units are NOT 24-bit. They're 15-bit, but of course that still means 32768 colors.

[William Keenan]

I vote for less text and more graphics



Test of Time Version here:

[curtsibling]

I second that!

I am looking for a brave warrior to create a unit based on this here character...

She does not have to be in this pose...Just standing will be fine, but the purple skin is essential.

Any takers?

Perhaps our resident fantasy master, William?

*Edit. Darn image is not working*

[curtsibling]

Here is the image that goes with the previous post...

[William Keenan]

I'm afraid I couldn't manage to convert it to 8 bit, perhaps someone else can. The 24-bit version is linked below.

[curtsibling]

Awesome stuff!

That is a great likeness!
It will provide me with a good basis to work on.

Cheers, Will!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by William Keenan
I vote for less text and more graphics

Well, here come some more words

Originally posted by lajzar
Hmm, had a hard time recognising that as the same graphic. Then I realised that it must have had a different original team colour.

I also juggled them around a bit to fit them in the square.

Originally posted by lajzar
Anyhow, my reasoning on the size of the graphics. I am well aware that they are somewhat smaller than many other graphics, although, I hope, not so small that the units lose their distinctiveness. I just dislike the idea of infantry units occupying huge amounts of space inside the grid. I realise there has to be some level of disproportionality to get infantry and aircraft carriers, but I still like my carriers to be visually bigger, which means I have to make my infantry relatively smaller.

It's a matter of personal taste, but I do like to be able to recognise the unit. To be truthful, I'd have a hard time with many of those WC3 units of yours. I also wasn't sure what you were trying to achieve - ToT or Civ2 - based on the mixed format you presented. My guess, obviously incorrect, was that you were having a crack at 24-bit graphics, following all the discussions in the last few pages of this thread. Clearly ToT units are potentially larger than standard Civ2; the dwarves here accommodate this potential.

Originally posted by lajzar
In the example you chose, those guys are meant to be dwarfs; stunties. They fill the entire width of the grid, and most of the height. That'd make a great mortar unit with a crew of ogres. But those guys look too big to think of them as dwarfs. Put it this way; you couldn't also have a cavalry unit that wouldn't make the guy on the horse look like a midget in comparison to these two dwarfs.

By comparison with other ToT units I've released, the red-bearded dwarf is man-sized and the white-bearded dwarf is as small as my other dwarves. You'll also notice that they're placed higher in the tile to accommodate their width - this makes them look taller than they are. My ogres and trolls are even bigger - as an example, there's a cave troll in one of my earlier posts.

Originally posted by lajzar
One other little thing that bugs me about ToT graphics is that most of the graphics (in the original game) have been shifted vertically to fill the approximate centre of the grid, resulting in ships and other units that look as if they are floating.

This is easily remedied - change them. There are better collections on the Internet. If this is too time-consuming, use the original Civ2 ones instead. The original ToT unit graphics are rubbish.

Originally posted by lajzar
Most of the extra vertical space possible in ToT is, imho, not useful. It means you can have your aircraft fly a big higher, but ships just look silly if you use it, and land units will usually look too tall/big relative to the carriers if you use it. This scaling thing is one thing that bugs me about many tank graphis too. Sure, they're noice and big, beautiful with plenty of detail, but they cover the tile below so exactly that you can't see the terrain

all imho of course. I realise the scaling of graphics is very much a personal taste issue.

You cannot have your planes too high, either - it can make it difficult to determine tile position in game unless you have the grid turned on. The cave troll I mentioned earlier is about as large as you want to get. The health bar gets in the way as well.

Re: tanks. I assume you're referring to the Nemo-type, in which case, you are in the minority. I guess this is unfortunate for you as there is less likelihood of someone creating units which fit your criteria. You argue that big units make the terrain indistinct. Conversely, I argue that very small units can be themselves indistinct.

You make some good points, but I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on some of them - as you said, it's just personal taste.

Originally posted by lajzar
ok, rant over. Wanna build the graphics for me (bearing in mind how fussy I am) so I can do the more interesting bit of making a rulese file that approximates warcraft?

I think I've got enough on my plate at the moment. Your units are for Civ2 - I don't have this installed anymore and I'm certainly not going back to making 8-bit colour units. That's ancient history. BTW, I've got my own scenarios to take care of, too.

Originally posted by Mercator
Ahem... I think you should have a look at that thread again then.

Yeah, well, I guess I didn't read it thoroughly enough - saw sprites and ran away. Only 4 people have downloaded the attachment to date! I'm sorry to say, I'm not one of them - I'll add to that count. That's pretty piss-poor, but I think it gives you an indication of the mindset around here. Many who have purchased ToT don't even have it installed.

Originally posted by Mercator
Secondly, I have to remind you that ToT units are NOT 24-bit. They're 15-bit, but of course that still means 32768 colors.

Yeah, OK. I responded to that in the other thread.

Originally posted by curtsibling
I am looking for a brave warrior to create a unit based on this here character...

That looks extremely dodgy, Curt. Follows the same fashion statement as William's unit, above. The only thing better are chainmail bikinis on female barbarians - very useful.

[tanelorn]

Guess that's for Biterfrost? (She looks like a 6th ver. warhammer slaanesh daemonette, doesn't she?)

[curtsibling]

Well I haven't been following the warhammer since it turned crap, got rid of Nagash and all the good undead characters.

The purple chick is from a fantasy story of my of devising, a graphic novel I am working on...

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
That looks extremely dodgy, Curt. Follows the same fashion statement as William's unit, above. The only thing better are chainmail bikinis on female barbarians - very useful.

LOL!

I guess her race has a short life expectancy in battle!

I just realised, the CIV2 gifs only support about 4 shades of purple...Another aspect where ToT has the edge!

[William Keenan]

Originally posted by Catfish

That looks extremely dodgy, Curt. Follows the same fashion statement as William's unit, above. The only thing better are chainmail bikinis on female barbarians - very useful.

and

Originally posted by curtsibling
I guess her race has a short life expectancy in battle!

I'm by no means an advocate of mixing reality and computer games, but I beg to differ on you conclusion that skimpy armor makes a poor defense. Ask yourself this question: if you had a chainmail bikini clad babe in front of you, would you really want to kill her?

Originally posted by curtsibling
Awesome stuff!

That is a great likeness!
It will provide me with a good basis to work on.

Cheers, Will!

Your welcome Curt. It was a pleasure to make that unit - and not just because I prefer chainmail panties to panzers - GIFs like that make a good base to work from. They have clean edges (unlike 3D rendered stuff) and good contrast so they reduce quite well. The general lack of detail makes for easy masking and yields good results in the sharping phase.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by William Keenan
I'm by no means an advocate of mixing reality and computer games, but I beg to differ on you conclusion that skimpy armor makes a poor defense. Ask yourself this question: if you had a chainmail bikini clad babe in front of you, would you really want to kill her?

I dunno. Depends how much gold was on offer. What if she was a 120 kg sasquatch with a beard? I'd be up for that.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
What if she was a 120 kg sasquatch with a beard? I'd be up for that.

Are we talking about killing or dating here?

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Are we talking about killing or dating here?

LOL. I think this says more about you than me.

[curtsibling]

Worry not, In Scotland most women are 'sasquatches!'

*joke*