BITTERFROST - Test of Time Version

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish

It's the same as yours! Or at least it was until I changed it a few moments ago. I tweaked the Native cities and lightened the civ colours for the Crusader Kingdom.

You're a serial tweaker!

(but a damned skilled one)

Originally posted by Catfish
In fact I'm stumped by most of the artistic decisions made by the ToT design team. S**t awful would be my crude, Australian description.

I would agree totally.

Originally posted by Catfish
- You left the receiver entries out of your "Hoard Chest" and "Fine Treasure" UnitKilled events.
- In the scenario intro (first turn), it says the Crusader Kingdom is in the south and the Bursar kingdom lies along the middle river. Is this from an old version? The Crusaders are in the NE and the Bursars are in the NW.
- I'd try halving the gold rewards for treasure and villages. I'm cashed up to the eyeballs.

I knew there was something fishy about the lack of dough from the hoards...

The new layout of the map corresponds with the world map for the Bitterfrost sequel...

I will say no more!

Originally posted by Catfish

- Irene the Maiden? Next there'll be Charlotte the Harlot.

What can I say?
I'm caught somewhere in time!

(the mid-1980's most likely)

Originally posted by Catfish
I've put cities.bmp and units.bmp (modified the village unit and changed the unit key) in the download. I've also made spelling and grammar corrections in events.txt, bitter1.txt and advice.txt. In case you're wondering about SpriteGen and its effects, I've included the files necessary to hide the health bar for the village and treasure units. These are static.spr, bitter1.scn (with the SPR override disabled) and rules.txt (with the SPR override disabled for said units).

You've done me proud!
These changes will really make the scenario shine.

That's a great many virtual beers I owe you, Catfish!

I have to admit, working with ToT again is great, I had forgot how many scenario options this program has got!

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
I think we've discovered the inspiration behind all of Curt's scenarios:

Damn right!

[Boco]

Make this part of the shield transparent, but add a masked area under it on your unit graphics.

'Sfunny. I was looking at something like that last night with units.bmp. Made the letter area the transparent purple-gray. Put a pink square in the unit icon. Worked great in the right orientation (Sprites would fix it for other orientations, right?).

The killer was with stacks. ToT staggers two keys on the map. The top one hides the bottom. That is until you make it transparent in the unit key. Please tell me I'm wrong.

Psst! The RR is a Mercator Projection, but I won't say whose coastline template I used.

[Catfish]

I think we've discovered the inspiration behind all of Curt's scenarios:

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Boco
That programmer must have been a new parent at the time. The halving makes the color as appealing as peas and oats baby food. ('Poly needs a hurl smiley)

I just realised that my new version of SpriteGen could fix this too. Make this part of the shield transparent, but add a masked area under it on your unit graphics.

[curtsibling]

LOL!

Well spotted, you 'Troopers!'

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Catfish
- Irene the Maiden? Next there'll be Charlotte the Harlot.

Nice one!

Too bad you didn't post at 23:58...

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Can you post your version of cities, if possible?

It's the same as yours! Or at least it was until I changed it a few moments ago. I tweaked the Native cities and lightened the civ colours for the Crusader Kingdom.

Originally posted by curtsibling
I don't understand the Microprose rationale behind having the colours duller than a day trip to Aberdeen.

In fact I'm stumped by most of the artistic decisions made by the ToT design team. S**t awful would be my crude, Australian description.

A few more points:

- You left the receiver entries out of your "Hoard Chest" and "Fine Treasure" UnitKilled events.
- In the scenario intro (first turn), it says the Crusader Kingdom is in the south and the Bursar kingdom lies along the middle river. Is this from an old version? The Crusaders are in the NE and the Bursars are in the NW.
- I'd try halving the gold rewards for treasure and villages. I'm cashed up to the eyeballs.
- Irene the Maiden? Next there'll be Charlotte the Harlot.

I've put cities.bmp and units.bmp (modified the village unit and changed the unit key) in the download. I've also made spelling and grammar corrections in events.txt, bitter1.txt and advice.txt. In case you're wondering about SpriteGen and its effects, I've included the files necessary to hide the health bar for the village and treasure units. These are static.spr, bitter1.scn (with the SPR override disabled) and rules.txt (with the SPR override disabled for said units).

BitterUpdate2.zip

[curtsibling]

I don't understand the Microprose rationale behind having the colours duller than a day trip to Aberdeen.

[Boco]

That programmer must have been a new parent at the time. The halving makes the color as appealing as peas and oats baby food. ('Poly needs a hurl smiley)

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Catfish
2. Determines the colour of the city size and revolt boxes, unit key (shield) and team colour masks for sprites. In the game, the colour on the key is a darker version of this pixel.

And to be exact, to get that darker shade, the RGB values are all halved. They'll be slightly off that in ToT, but that's because the graphics are 15-bit.

[curtsibling]

Catfish,
Nice one!

Can you post your version of cities, if possible?

My thanks!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I like the dithering on that screenshot too, also the strengh shield design...Any chance of a copy?

When I did the terrain last year, I had problems with the dithering where the dark forest terrain bordered the light stuff. I haven't revealed the whole map, yet, and haven't encountered any of this terrain thus far, but I believe that most people would prefer more dithering than what I had originally.

Here's my unit key in all its glory. I like to keep things simple.

Originally posted by curtsibling
How do I go about lightening the colours on the shield bar?

No revelations here - you'd be familiar with most of this, Curt. For anyone else reading this: it applies to ToT only!

1. Determines the colour of the city name font.
2. Determines the colour of the city size box, unit key (shield) and team colour masks for sprites. In the game, the colour on the key is a darker version of this pixel.



Edit: Minor correction - revolt box unaffected.

[curtsibling]

I plan to implement some new sound FX too, as the Urzits and some others need their own noises.

[curtsibling]

Thanks for the feedback, Catfish!

I will sort those box widths, and if you spot any typos or grammatical mistakes, please let me know.

I ran the events through MS spell-checker, but it is infamously treacherous!

I like the dithering on that screenshot too, also the strengh shield design...Any chance of a copy?

I will give those rather nice paving/milestones a shot, as the are darker and fit the broody atmosphere better.

PS
How do I go about lightening the colours on the shield bar?

Thanks in advance, for your superb help, mate!