H3SW: General Graphics discussion

Unless you are personally paying the team on contract base, it is better to adjust to "it is done when it is done" philosophy.

Pitsu wrote:

 Unless you are personally paying the team on contract base, it is better to adjust to "it is done when it is done" philosophy.

I'm a product manager so I wouldn't pay them, I would fire them.

satyrlord wrote:

Pitsu wrote:

 Unless you are personally paying the team on contract base, it is better to adjust to "it is done when it is done" philosophy.

I'm a product manager so I wouldn't pay them, I would fire them.

How would you fire somebody who isn't getting paid and have no contract? I think you misunderstood what it is like to work on a project like this. We work entirely on free basis which means we denote our free time to work on the mod. We have no obligation to deliver the mod to you at a given time, we will share it with everyone for free when it is done. I hope that put things into perspective.

Hint: being a smartass doesn't help much.

Just because of the reasons why we work good enough to not being fired from our real jobs, the progress is not as high as it is supposed to be in AAA projects. Just abandon the hope if you want things now and done, buddy - there are other great modding projects all over the globe.

P.S. Please choose/create an appropriate topic if you want to continue the (pointless) discussion. This one is reserved for the discussion of mod graphics.

A fresh update on the Sorceress townscreen. Shouldn't take as long as the Knight which still remains far from perfect, and has good chances to look even better for the upcoming release.

Wahhh   I would particulary love to see each step between now and the final version of this townscreen, I mean, remaking the top part of the everlast-rainbow doesn't seems easy, and same for all the others parts of the image
The mountains on right part are ... so 3Dish

Quote :

The mountains on right part are ... so 3Dish

Just like everything else on the townscreens before 2D treatment. It's just a matter of time and the mountains will fit in the picture as if they would always be there. Satyr's keg house is also not final, of course, and the perspective of the buildings will surely change.

The work goes on.

Good work Orzie

Just one quick thing. Isn't red tower a bit small? I mean it produces 7th level creatures, so it should stand out a bit more imo, let me know what you think

PS Is my work needed anywhere?

Really like the barrel. It looks damn good! This one seems more promising than the knight one, maybe its nostalgia or you guys got better. 2 questions :any updates on that or is it final ? Also, do you plan to do more for the next release or just these 2? I for one don't mind if they are not delivered all at once, its a lot of work.

Are you making a comeback Ragoon ? That would be a nice surprise! If there's nothing official to do theres always the random stuff. Maybe some new buildings/artifacts or alternate looks/creatures.

I remember talk about the optional mod system, the good part is that you can do almost anything with that. I still remember some alternate upgrades from the past that where never implemented and are not planned anymore. Still hoping for a spier wielding skeleton or an angry peasant with a mace

Ragoon wrote:

Good work Orzie

Just one quick thing. Isn't red tower a bit small? I mean it produces 7th level creatures, so it should stand out a bit more imo, let me know what you think

One thing about the townscreen is that I tried to stay as closer to H2 original positions as possible so that it won't take too long to make it playable for the beta (like I am going to do with the Barbarian, too). Of course, the positions are not perfect because they are fixed to the trees on the background, and the respective sprites also contain pieces of these trees.

Second, it's really a lost cause when you try to upscale the classics. Re-modeling buildings from scratch usually results in less work, so I try to stay close to H2 where possible. It's not that critical for the tower, I think.

And finally, the tower will be higher in H3SW, because its top is cut by the screen border in H2. I think I'll be drawing the extension somehow based on HotA's interpretation.

Ragoon wrote:

PS Is my work needed anywhere?

Of course it is The townscreens in specific may be left for Agar and me though, since we speak in the same language and are able to maintain a chat, but you are welcome for ideas, too. There are just some nuances about the townscreens which make them differ from overall Heroes 2 pixel style which you are already very familiar with.

robizeratul wrote:

Really like the barrel. It looks damn good! This one seems more promising than the knight one, maybe its nostalgia or you guys got better. 2 questions :any updates on that or is it final ? Also, do you plan to do more for the next release or just these 2? I for one don't mind if they are not delivered all at once, its a lot of work.

Are you making a comeback Ragoon ? That would be a nice surprise! If there's nothing official to do theres always the random stuff. Maybe some new buildings/artifacts or alternate looks/creatures.

I remember talk about the optional mod system, the good part is that you can do almost anything with that. I still remember some alternate upgrades from the past that where never implemented and are not planned anymore. Still hoping for a spier wielding skeleton or an angry peasant with a mace Very Happy

Well, it's true that the Knight is far from final: I'm still unsatisfied with the roads and skies in the first place, and plan to redesign them in future (after the beta). There are perspective issues as well as poor situation with the decorative houses, too.


For the beta, it is possible to make 4 townscreens: Knight, Sorceress, Barbarian and Dervish. Currently I'm doing the 2nd to get some experience for the Dervish (I realized that I am not ready to adjust it yet). All 4 of these have good chances to be done in the following weeks if I will keep the tempo. Other castles don't have even drafts for the "proper" versions and I cannot predict the amount of work there simply because I didn't look at them. We don't have any additional building 3D models for them yet, too.

Sure there are still a lot of 2D assets which may thrive under Ragoon's hands: he's got a very nice feeling of H3SW graphic style.

Concerning the options, for us the topmost priority is to make something playable. All optional stuff is another story, we still have the magic system to deal with for v0.9 and the Witch castle for v1.0, alongside the improvements of things that have been already done.

Orzie wrote:

Sure there are still a lot of 2D assets which may thrive under Ragoon's hands

Orzie, a lot of what exacly? :p (Could use a link for them on the drive, although I could already reach my space limit, dont know if it'll cause issues). Guess it would be best to aim at buildings atm. And there is harpy waiting for animations too, which I don't think I'll do in the near future. BUT. There are some good news. I'm learning photoshop and 3d modelling + programming at school currently, it might be of use someday

robizeratul wrote:

Are you making a comeback Ragoon ? That would be a nice surprise! If there's nothing official to do theres always the random stuff. Maybe some new buildings/artifacts or alternate looks/creatures.

Hello ^^ I didn't left, but as you saw, there wasnt a lot going on lately on the forum, had in rl stuff going on too. Got any ideas for graphics? I mean, examples. List of creatures for 0.8 is complete, they just need polishment and some animations. What do you mean by alternate looks? :p




AND
OFF-topic: Some drawing I've finished lately Follow my page from the link below for more in the future :p

DRAWINGS:

I was talking about alternate upgrades/models for units and buildings. Of course this is not very important, it just adds beauty to the game. I was thinking of an in-game option where you could change how your units look.

Replace normal skelwton with this one for example:https://melindar.deviantart.com/art/Skeletons-217643541 . A lot of abandoned art there.

Or you could make your own creatures. Few neutrals in Heroes2. Don't know what Orzie thinks but it could easily work as an in-game mod. The "ragoon neutral creatures mod". Sounds good to me!

Honestly, anything you post is welcome! I have been working on a map for months, but its hard because I can't properly test it with the curent game version. What would help me out most(besides the release or beta of course) is random objects. More fences, more witch huts, more trees, more buildings... anything really.

H2 is just such a great looking game. Only seeing new stuff makes me happy!

robizeratul wrote:

Or you could make your own creatures. Few neutrals in Heroes2. Don't know what Orzie thinks but it could easily work as an in-game mod. The "ragoon neutral creatures mod". Sounds good to me!

We currently have 2 neutral creatures in production: the Pirate and the Leprechaun. Well, the Devil can also be considered as such for now.
In future we may also have the Cockatrice, which is a strong campaign neutral, and probably the Werewolf, since we had a nice looking draft of it before.

All other neutrals are questionable, because the creature concepts must be simple (not even DnD which was allowed in Heroes 3). Optional stuff, however, can exist.

Ragoon wrote:

Orzie, a lot of what exacly? :p (Could use a link for them on the drive, although I could already reach my space limit, dont know if it'll cause issues). Guess it would be best to aim at buildings atm. And there is harpy waiting for animations too, which I don't think I'll do in the near future. BUT. There are some good news. I'm learning photoshop and 3d modelling + programming at school currently, it might be of use someday Wink

Good news man!

For now, we still lack the proper design and animation of the First Aid Tent.

Also, a big piece of work is the map objects.
They can be found at:
Dropbox\The Succession Wars Mod\Graphics\Map Objects

Here is the quick overview of what can be improved. If you have any questions (for example, you cannot find a graphic piece you need), please use this thread or PM.
see the big picture

Ragoon wrote:

AND
OFF-topic: Some drawing I've finished lately Wink Follow my page from the link below for more in the future :p

These look really nice! I especially like the knight which looks pretty realistic.

You know, I had some H2-dedicated arts from a Russian artist, and planned to use them for the mod, but I eventually stopped fixing them because I am no artist. They somehow remind me your work you posted above. Perhaps if you will find it fun, you can draw some more H2 characters and they can be used, for example, as single player menu backgrounds along with these after some possible fixes. If you also manage to raise your level even higher, you will be ultimately able to draw the puzzle menu backgrounds as well, which are currently not available to us.

Carlawn, Thundax:

Now gentlemen, I will spent the rest of my evening (less than 3 hours) to the Sorceress screen. I spent more than 2 hours replying to you all (including PM) and sometimes it really bites me hard to know If only humankind could stop time, such things would be easier to handle.

These drawings are looking quite good, although fixes would be nessesary. And I'm not familiar with any enroth characters, but I might draw some creatures someday :p

And looking at buildings, I think I'll try to make underground enterance (bit inspired by h5 one with circular staircase going down) and mantis dwelling first. Also, missing creatures for adventure map, especially those created by me :p Will post results in my thread, but no promisses

Good luck then!    I'll be posting my updates here as well.

P.S. You cannot be unfamiliar to Enroth characters because you played the game and saw the hero portraits
P.P.S. If I recall correctly, only the Mantis is missing from the adventure map. All other creatures should already have mini-versions of various quality.

You see ragoon ? Plenty to do it seems!

Current progress.

Of course, many assets still need treatment, like the Keg House which I didn't even touch yet and the sky which is a major time consumer also. However, it should be all within my competence unlike the Knight where I obviously lacked the skill to make things right. Perhaps I'll be able to update it later too before the release.

Honestly this surprised me. Compared to the knight one things are going fast and smooth! Any info on the new buildings? Barrel is a dwelling, what about the rest ?

What's new?

I was dealing with some troubles IRL, including the recent show and my adventures in the dental clinic. Right now I am preparing info for Sir Albe and also gonna finish the playable Sorceress screen for the beta.

How's your success with the main menu? Any luck with fitting the logo?

P.S. I suppose Uhm was showing the brown panel with the working buttons on the first place.

Oh, you're going to love it, I'm working my ass off Gonna post it as soon as possible

May I make a suggestion ?

A thread for discarded/forgotten pixel art would be nice and maybe usefull for the future.

Maybe it will inspire people both to edit the files, or recreate them.

The question is who would search through the whole forum in search for useless art, collect it and post in the new topic again? It's a lot of work imo, maybe you can do it