H3SW: General Graphics discussion

Thorjac wrote:

Last note: it is polite to give credit, if you edit or use material from someone else, hovewer bad it may be. Good job, though.

Sorry for that, I just wanted to "upgrade" it first time, make it better. Feel free to recycle anything, I've just bored with it for 2- hours

I agree with the MM6 inspiration, although I have never played it so far... Its wise to include them, as its important to include that in this mod campaigns.
My opinions about the acolyte:
- We have already and old mage in the Wizard lineup. Does the acolyte have to be an old one? A lvl 2 unit should be too old in my opinion.
- I agree with Orzie on the colors of the Dervish lineup, on page 4. I feel if we put the acolyte from MM6 as it is, it wont fit in enough into the lineup.

Anyway everything is only up to our free time.

Still we have to save it as something resembling a cult member. The sandals, the short staff and turban should help.

I made a mix-up of the names earlier. The last upgrade of the Follower of Baa is called the Fanatic of Baa, while the Acolyte of Baa is the first version of the Cleric of Baa.

The definition of Acolyte, according to the Oxford Dictionary:
"1. A person assisting a priest in a religious service or procession."
"1.1 An assistant or follower"

The definition of Mystic, according to the Oxford Dictionary:
"a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect."

Acolyte may point more towards a church ritual helper, and not a wandering cultist. However, it can also imply a devout follower, which fits our purpose well enough. It may be a good idea to change the name to Cultist, where the upgraded version is called Fanatic (Alternatives: Devotee, Zealot). Otherwise, Mystic is a suitable upgrade to Acolyte. I feel that the drawback of Cultist/Fanatic, is that it removes a bit of the magical focus of the creature, whereas Acolyte/Mystic fits well into the ranged caster role. Thoughts?

To address your points, thgergo
I assume you meant to write: "A lvl 2 unit shouldn't be too old (...)." I don't think that a creatures age has much to do with it's power in a fantasy game. An old man could be a weak commoner, a great sorcerer, or anything in between. The Acolyte's role in the faction is a ranged level 2 creature. The ranged ability lets him shoot his foes from a distance, but makes him rather weak in melee. An old(er) man with some magical abilities fits well into this role.

In relation to the Acolyte, the biggest advantage of an old man is that he displays great devotion and full integration into the cult. An fanatic old man in ragged clothes, who breathes to serve a cult is a scary thought - you don't know how far he would go, as he would gladly die for the "greater purpose". On the other hand, a young man represents naivety and can be highly impressionable. He does, however, not represent the same willful ignorance, and doesn't represent a completely ingrained and brainwashed cultist. It would be possible to make the unupgraded version into a middle aged man with a brown beard, and make the ugraded version older.

The Acolyte's ragged clothes symbolize his disregard for himself, and his devotion for a higher power. In addition to this, shaving your beard is "illegal" in a lot of religions, and as such has become somewhat of a symbol of religious devotion.

About Dervish lineup colors: that is a question of color adjustments and fixing proportions, and has little to do with the concept of the Acolyte. He can easily be fitted into the lineup.

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Edit:
Dr. Slash, that Pirate looks amazing! The Crossbowman looks really good as well. You might want to consider moving the head a pixel to the right, and make it slightly less blurry/shadowy in some places. (Not that I could make it any better, lol)

I also suggest looking up what Dervish is, to better understand the acolyte concept.
A dervish... is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity. (c) Wikipedia

Regarding Acolyte and Mystic versus Cultist and Fanatic. I think either works, but personally I prefer Acolyte and Mystic.

A new mountains and mines for a sea shore, recoloured swampy trees from H3 and a draft for underground mountains.  

Spoiler:

Wow, these new ones look really awesome, both the shore and underground. Just the assets make a great difference between the two, even though it is the same terrain. The shore assets will work great with some pirate and treasure seeking/sea exploring maps, while the underground cliffs remind of Heroes 3 a lot (in a good way).

Amazing work, Uhm. This will serve well for v0.8. I suggest trying to darken the mountains a little and look what happens.

Actually the sand terrain (like some others) need re-packing. I hope to find time for it soon.

Amazed to see the new underground mountains! The only thing I'd like to see in them is a more rare placement (I mean, the stalagmites are a little too frequent)

New neutral creature for 0.9 release

Barbarian portraits are now properly converted to the H3 format:

October 2013 beta:

V.0.8 beta:


I am currently converting the last class portraits - the Necromancers!!!

Sir Albe, Dr Slash wrote:

Both looks outstanding!

Finally, the barbarians! Thanks a lot Sir Albe. For now we at least have drafts to operate with. The old portraits were really terrible.

For now, your services are highly required at map conversion (I mean, re-checking if they are alright). For the closed beta-test we need at least 20 to be checked. If you will be ready for that task, please report in the Maps thread.

...P.S. Please post a PNG image instead of lossy JPG. We cannot work with JPG images, they have ruined colors.

Final version of Crossbowman and Marksman for v0.8 beta. Special thanks to DrSlash for a nice draft.

What does the upgraded peasant look like?

For now he will not have an upgrade. We do have a draft of the Conscript, but v0.8 is not intended to have upgrades of classic H2 creatures.

I really like the new crossbowman and the marksman, but you sure notice that he is the only upgrade in the Knight castle missing a blue feather. I see it doesn't go very well with his helmet, but do we really want to break the rule of giving the upgrade a feather on his helmet?

I suggest putting it in the game as-is, and checking people's (and our own) impressions of the gameplay. If it stands out too much, we will have to redesign the helmet a little.

Sound like a good idea. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he must have a feather I just thought it would fit in, but I am sure impression in-game will tell

I already received a handful of comments about that, but the Crossbowmen are implemented as some kind of city guardians (and their dwelling will be called Guardhouse). We will see how things will go. It's hard to design a feather for that kind of helmet.

Helmet's contrast should be a bit decreased and it's colours are to smooth; except that everything is alright.

Agreed on that point.

Downscaled necromancers to Heroes 3 portrait size.

Roxane has some too kind eyes. Celia has something wrong with eyes.

Dr Slash I don't know if Orzie told you to make these but I am already halfway through them and they maybe look better (at least different) from yours.

Please upload everything you've done so far here. Your work at maps is much more valuable right now.

I propose slight tweak of unit icons.

I think that in current icons figure (unit) and background shares the same contrast that sometimes makes them indistinguishable. We can see on elf on release screenshot #4, on halfling, iron golem and roc, on some other creatures.
So, I suggest to use milder backgrounds from H1 and MM345 — with color fixes of course.
Examples (already on Dropbox - \The Succession Wars Mod\Graphics\Creatures\!Creature Portraits\Maker\out_png\):


What do you think?