Unit Graphics

[Mark_Everson]

I think the new guy is good, if you could only increase the contrast of the shield somehow. You're right that it just blends in too much... Perhaps put a border around it, or 'studs' on it to make it clear where the shield ends and the guy begins. Or give the guy some metal chest armor? As usual you have the hard part of figuring how to do it

[Fiera]

Well, I think that making the shield border a little bit darker may be enough...

However, I didn't like very much the unit opse, so I tried a different one too, with the shield on the ground. That way the guy looks less disciplines, very much like he's resting, but still look like a warrior and not like a peasant.

Well, you see it here for yourself: www.geocities.com/fiera_com/hordes.html

[Mark_Everson]

Yeah! I think the last one is quite good. Lets see what the others who may stop by think.

"He, he, we already have a little Task Force... " LOL

[Lord God Jinnai]

[This message has been edited by Lord God Jinnai (edited March 20, 2001).]

[Lord God Jinnai]

Personally if you take #2, but replace the axe with the hammer from your top row, to me that would look best, but not as a horde pic. To me, every time i see him, i think of the "Jolly Green Giant" from the comerical...

IMO if you want to make a fierce undisciplined loooking tile, make the person brandishing a weapon in one hand, perhaps a shield in the other or in a first ready to punch, add blue paint and have him with just a loin cloth.

[Richard Bruns]

I have an idea: Why don't we use all of them?

We can have the computer select one of the images at random whenever a unit is created. They all look like the same unit, but there is some variety. I think that would be a good way to spice up the graphics, at least for the demo.

[Fiera]

quote: Originally posted by Lord God Jinnai on 03-20-2001 10:02 PM Personally if you take #2, but replace the axe with the hammer from your top row, to me that would look best, but not as a horde pic.

I'm not sure which unit graphic are you referring to. I'm sorry, it's my mistake, 'cause I didn't put a number for each unit since the beginning. Now it should be easier to say which one you like and which one you don't, please take a look again to the link and tell me so.

quote: To me, every time i see him, i think of the "Jolly Green Giant" from the comerical... IMO if you want to make a fierce undisciplined loooking tile, make the person brandishing a weapon in one hand, perhaps a shield in the other or in a first ready to punch, add blue paint and have him with just a loin cloth.

Well, I haven't watched the comercial, but I think I know what you mean. Besides, I've been thinking that, after all, Clash is a whole new game, and you'll be happier to have your own style units, so I tried for a radically different style of unit graphic. Re-reading this thread, I realized that some people (LdiCesare and maybe someone more) were looking for something like a Gaul warrior for the horde unit. Well, look at my #7 and tell me what you think. It may need some refining but I like this new concept, and I thiunk he looks both fierce and undisciplined, just like a Celtic warrior running in a frontal assault against the Roman legions.

I've changed the background color of the page too, so it's more like the map background in the game.

See it all here: www.geocities.com/fiera_com/hordes.html

Hope you like it.

[This message has been edited by Fiera (edited March 21, 2001).]

[Lord God Jinnai]

I like #7...maybe add some blue paint or something...many acient cultures painted themselves in battle because of religious reasons, usually because it would bring them power, defense, victory, etc.

As to what rich says, i think we should have 2-4 of each unit randomly generated...maybe 1 male and 1 female (for matricarcial type societies).

[Mark_Everson]

I like #6 and #7 about equally.

"2-4 of each randomly generated" I thought the idea was have units distinguished by culture type? I don't think we can have both 4 culture types and four different randomly-chosen figures for each, that would be like 1600 units total if we only have four basic cultural types. We need to define exactly what we want, and what's practical...

BTW Fiera, can you check in the Map Graphics thread? I left you a simple question of some importance, and I don't think you ever saw it...

Great Job!

[Fiera]

quote: Originally posted by Lord God Jinnai on 03-21-2001 11:34 AM I like #7...maybe add some blue paint or something...

I added a bit of blue paint in the arms and chest, the result may be somewhat confusing, but I like it anyway.

Check it out: www.geocities.com/fiera_com/hordes.html

[Fiera]

quote: Originally posted by Mark_Everson on 03-21-2001 07:41 PM I like #6 and #7 about equally.

As the author , I think that the Gaul warrior has more originality. It would be very fun for me to work among those lines in the future.

quote: BTW Fiera, can you check in the Map Graphics thread? I left you a simple question of some importance, and I don't think you ever saw it...

Oh, sorry! Strangely enough, I had missed your question. I've already replied to it now.

quote: Great Job!

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by Fiera (edited March 21, 2001).]

[Mark_Everson]

All: (Cross-post from Map Graphics Tread Please continue this discussion there for the time being, unless you are talking only about ramifications for units )

Richard made a good suggestion, about using the base Civ2 iso graphics resolution (64x32) for Clash. And Fiera thinks its a good idea too. Please let us know what You think. (We will probably go ahead and put out demo 5 at the old resolution in any case, because I don't want to swich horses in mid-stream...) Some good points about the idea, and further discussion is below.

I agree that we could use 64x32 as the base resolution for Clash. We were looking into things like representing TF composition on the main map, which is one of the things that lead us to the larger tileset we've had up to now as the default. But although that idea would look cool, for a strategic game it really seems overkill in retrospect.

The change would potentially give us access to a vast amount of art that we could use either as placeholders, or for the real thing. I think many artists would be willing to give us permission to use their work. Mixing and matching units of different styles could certainly become an issue. Fiera, what do you think about that? It still seems on balance worth it.

So what do other people think?

[Mark_Everson]

Hi Fiera, you can keep playing .

Like I said, I'm not inclined to switch default resolution till after demo 5 anyway. And we should also wait for at a minimum a few more opinions from team members before making the change.

I think it would be useful for us, if its not too much work for you, to put up against each other the 120-scale units next to similar 64-pixel ones so we can compare what we're losing if we change the default size.

Thanks in Advance!

-Mark

[Richard Bruns]

An idea for the units:

I really liked the way that the building information was displayed in Tiberian Sun. Each building, when selected, had an isometric box drawn around it that resembled a 3-D cube. Information was displayed on the sides of this cube, so it was easily possible to display three or more power bars in an easy to read fashion. I think that something like this would be more vaersatile than a power circle, and result in less clutter on the map. It also requires a smaller tile size

I'll e-mail an example to Fiera and Mark for them to consider.
[This message has been edited by Richard Bruns (edited March 22, 2001).]

[Richard Bruns]

This is the text of the e-mail I sent to Fiera and Mark.

quote: Note that the colors in the picture and the ones I discuss are not meant to be final; a better graphic designer would undoubtedly choose a color scheme that looks better. Key: The orange line at the top right is the amount of movement points remaining. The red line at the bottom left is an indication of the base unit power. This would be changed by an advance in technology. The green line on the left side is the current strength/health of the unit. This changes due to battle, disease, etc. Note that the unit's current power can be quickly estimated graphically. The red and green lines form the sides of a rectangle. The area of that box is the power of the unit; the thing that was previously modeled by the power circle. The brown square that forms the base of the red and green lines is an 'epoch' marker. Brown represents stone age, bronze would represent the next age, an iron square the next, etc. The purpose of these is to enable us to show wildly differing power bars, for example hordes versus musketeers. The epoch marker multiplies the red bar by some number. For example, a brown box with a full power bar might be the same strength as a bronze box with a bar 1/4 of the maximum length. A silver box (industrial age) with a full bar would similarly be the same power as a gold box (modern age) with a bar that extends 1/4 of the way across the box. In this way, we can put the power of everything from a warrior horde to a modern army on the same scale, even though the power difference is enormous. A unit with a gold box and full bar would be 4,096 times as powerful as a unit with a brown box and a bar that covers 1/4 of the box. And if that isn't enough we can add more colors of epoch box. So what do you think?

Edit: I tried to get the img code to work, but it wouldn't cooperate.
[This message has been edited by Richard Bruns (edited March 22, 2001).]