H3SW: General Graphics discussion

Looks much better. Thanks for this Orzie and for the additional objects of different versions uploaded by Uhm I replaces all Freeman's Foundries with this one.



Change these obelisks to the ones without grass/stones at the button.



Also change some oracles to the new ones without grass/dirt:

Nice. The Oracle will need some more adjustments, but it can stay like this for now, until Uhm or someone else decides to fix it.

I am glad I could help. I've got a few more ideas for alternative objects

Current situation with the Dervish lineup. 2nd and 4th levels are WIP (work-in-progress).

The Acolyte have come a long way, since last time. Great job! The creatures in the line-up as a whole also begins too fit well together.

Awesome !!!

I was working on battlefields and battle obstacles lately, improving old landscapes and adding new ones. Some of obstacles are still in progress (desert, sand, cursed ground), here is preview of what has been done so far

Grass:

Dirt:

Snow:

Swamp:

Wasteland:

Lava:

Lava Overlay:

Lucid pools:

Holy Ground:

Cursed Ground:

?Magic plains?:

these honestly look amazing. 80% of them look good, there are some glitches and lower quality stuff, however you have done an amazing job.

I do wonder though, what would happen with higher density? You could have some special ground where the density is massive, maybe 50% of the battlefield with debris. Could make for some interesting games.

Damn, i'm still staring at these, Good job!

I think that making terrain with many obstacles is possible, I remember that some of adventure objects in WoG and many mods for ERA had unique battlefields with crazy arrengement. There're still a few more battlefields from H1, I really wish to brought them back with new features .

it is exciting! i am curious about something, any vhamce to see "mirrored" buildings ? i am working on my map and would be nice to have dwellings,mines the other way,.. i guess its easy to do graphically. what do you think?

EDIT what about something like this? I needed a wall for my map so I edited the castle. Does anything there look good ?

Ahhh battlefields
Being able to put walls on the map would be a good plus

GodRage wrote:

Ahhh battlefields  
Being able to put walls on the map would be a good plus

so what you think ? i dont know how to add them to the game...still it looks kinda good,but i am no expert

EDITL: another attempt. Curious what you think...if it's shit I won't try anymore

Fences and walls are in my plans through a long period of time but I will have time for them during holidays at last. I've copied your walls, Robi, I will use them for sure

The trouble with mirrored objects is, that they have incorrect shading. They would need major changes to look properly:



These two buildings are taken from a Wizard's village, they're the same but not the same

EDIT: If you need some very, very specific building on your map I can add it for beta version of an editor, give it to you and remove for a final version - your object will stay on map for sure, but will be unavailable in editor .

Playing with collage is a good idea for a beginning, but remember, that your creations must satisfy two requirements:
- Their look must be somehow related with a function of an object
- You must be sure that's what you and other players really need ;P

Those elements of Dragon Utopia don't look very invitingly, but your barrow might be eventually added to the official release, if you really desire it

Of course, I will make multiple versions and you can add whatever you think to the editor. I am new at this, but some might be good enough.  
 
As for your help, that is greatly appreciated. Problem is my map is huge and I already worked weeks on it (directly and indirectly) It is a lot of work that I will do. It is 250/250 map. I also need to either find someone who helps me out with ERM Scripts, or I improvise and don't use ERM  at all.  
 
Either way, we should talk when the game and my map are closer to release, a few weeks at least. More buildings (and especially monsters ) are welcomed, but I will need the full editor to make it work 100%, and that's why I don't care much how it looks for now, that can be done later.  
 
Still, I am really excited! Hope you guys will like my map  
 
EDIT: and yes, thanks for the explanation with the inverted object. I would need some of those when the time comes, especially an inverted mine. THere's time for that though.


EDIT 2 : check this out! Took me a lot of time to make, and damn, I don't know if you like it, but I am very proud. It's a dragon castle! Long time abandoned and forgotten! 
 

robizeratul wrote:

it is exciting! i am curious about something, any vhamce to see "mirrored" buildings ? i am working on my map and would be nice to have dwellings,mines the other way,.. i guess its easy to do graphically. what do you think?

EDIT what about something like this? I needed a wall for my map so I edited the castle. Does anything there look good ?

We are going to have our own walls. I think I have already posted the castle-styled garrisons somewhere.

Uhm wrote:

I was working on battlefields and battle obstacles lately, improving old landscapes and adding new ones. Some of obstacles are still in progress (desert, sand, cursed ground), here is preview of what has been done so far

Grass:

Dirt:

Snow:

Swamp:

Wasteland:

Lava:

Lava Overlay:

Lucid pools:

Holy Ground:

Cursed Ground:

?Magic plains?:

This is great! Very great job so far. It is going to make the game much more beautiful. Honestly I was afraid that v0.8 is not going to look good because we lack time for battlefields, and now I see your post. Such a relief.

thanks for the imput. what do you think of the dragon castle ? curious for some imput from a pro, im still working on the details

There is no need in frankensteined constructs, sorry. We already have a few variations of the Dragon City and it's already enough.
Too much objects looking all the same is not the way to go.

Oh ok. What about if I change the colors so it looks like something else? Besides some more edits, I think it looks kinda good.  
 
edit: i will ask uhm,if it aint too much work. i only want it to make it work with every version,so theres no problem with the def files. pm me please and we can talk more if it isnt too much trouble...

I doubt this is of any use right now. The creation of graphics has always been a complicated task, and this is why it is so hard to find an artist to spend more than 10 hours on a single asset. We already have enough adventure map objects for the new release thanks to Uhm, and the most important aspect of new adventure map objects is not the graphics (new for the sake of new, which should not be imperative for us), but instead the functionality of an object.

About backgrounds and obstacles:
- game engine allows three variations of combat background for terrains (not overlays) - near forests (also default), near mountains and near dead trees. It isn't enabled for all terrains, but it can be done without big troubles (and background choosing procedure also should be edited - for underground purposes, e.g.).
- about obstacles - passability and offsets at battlefield can be edited too.

Uhm wrote:

The trouble with mirrored objects is, that they have incorrect shading. They would need major changes to look properly:

OMG I love that new stuff with real original old stuff!!
But yeah, the whole mountain must be redrawn...

@Feanor - That's great news! I've got trouble with some obstacles, for example Desert has long fissures which weren't present in H2, while Wasteland doesn't have them at all, still they can be prepared from existing H2 images:

Desert:

Wasteland:

Unfortunately, scarps also appear on the cursed ground:

Spoiler:

I would be very glad, if you could remove scarps from the Desert and Cursed Ground and add them to the Wasteland

@GodRage
I've added some objects from towns as standalone objects and I wil prepare the rest after v0.8 release. Mines will need much more work and now I will concentrate on the other stuff, but they might see the light of the day one day

Yay!!! But please don't put all buildings from towns on the adventure map!
Because if we do so, towns will be less "special".


I have an asking...
For making design, need to use the H2palette, yeah ok.
But if I just use theses colors and save it in png*, is it "safe"?
safe -> I mean, can we use them? Because MtPaint, I can't, I definitively can't enjoy this program.

* I mean that:

and select color only with Color Picker tool.

Uhm, please replace the current arrow buttons (intended to scroll the battlefield log) with the ones presented on the promo screenshot.

If it is unable to provide a correct placement for the lower button, please report and I will assign Feanor to change its coordinates.