H3SW: General Graphics discussion

not much to say besides damn amazing job! must have been hard and timeconsuming, but it's worth it! can't wait to see it in game

What can be also mentioned is that we are able to operatively change the coordinates of walls, coordinates of shooters and missile type of shooters thanks to the tool provided by feanor. The shooter sprite, though being possible to change, is harder to interfere with and is unlikely to be changed.

For now, the wall shooters are:

1 - Archer
2 - Elf
3 - Wizard (with a wrong projectile because we didn't make rays by the time being)
4 - Lich (without the cloud, just like in the original)
5 - Centaur (cropped in the way like the H3 Medusa was)
6 - Orc
7 - Lizardman
8 - Acolyte

Some of the creatures may have wrong coordinates and can be cropped inaccurately. While I can change the coordinates with the given tool, the cropping must be adjusted by feanor manually, so it takes time.

Orzie wrote:

For now, the wall shooters are:

Kill that "feature" and do H2.
Yes, I do dislike wall shooters.
You may throw some rotten eggs or tomatos at me, if you don't.

why don't you like it? I think it's more fun/interactive that way. YOu see the person actually shooting

If you can see the shooter, you can then attack him.
But i don't care whatever wallshooters are see-able or not. (Seer-Able ?)

Maybe... they would be in the tower at start of the fight, and the catapult may destroy the top of the tower and then we would see what creature was inside,... But then it means we'll need 2 shots from a random catapult to kill a tower?

It's really best as is now guys.

I didn't liked the "shooting hole in the wall" thing, so I think it's a good change.

I suppose, we can leave wall shooters as 'official' feature, with H2-style arrow towers kept as a 'non-default' option somewhere in the menu. Like castle building outlines, this is a purely graphical feature, and thus can be switched in a built-in game menu.

Cases like "no wait" or "no range penalty" are different and belong to the minimod concept discussion.

I am wandering about garrisons. They always seemed kinda lacking to me, because the battlefield looks just as normal...

Wonder what you guys think of that

robizeratul wrote:

I am wandering about garrisons. They always seemed kinda lacking to me, because the battlefield looks just as normal...

Wonder what you guys think of that

I wanted to leave them to be made by metsejadur, but I don't know if it'll ever happen, so I'll add that to my list.
I haven't had much time because of irl stuff and exams, which hopefully ends next week. I'll just have to recruit myself to the university and I'm free to work on the mod



But
I wasn't just sitting and studying on my ass. In fact, I've been working on several big side projects.

One was a big minecraft map which includes heroes 2 buildings in great scale and detail. I'll upload screenshots of them in another thread after it's published.

Second project was a standalone homm2 inspired browser game written in HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT PHP SQL MYSQL. I'll upload some screenshots in this thread:
LINK

Third projects is what I started some time ago, backgrounds for the map selection menu. I've made some updates to the barbarian in my more or less free time:

Previous:

Last project was the HD crests. I've already finished orange one and I'm midway through the green piece:
LINK

The updates look fantastic. I can't wait to see the torso/arms/shoulders being fixed in the same way so that they finally blend into the environment.

I also admire the right side of the hair, it's perfect now. If the left side would have little fixes to fit to the right one, the head can be considered done (plus, maybe, a facial expression tweaks, but I cannot suggest anything conscious right now).

People might have noticed the attention towards our recent trailer video and I assure that I also have some other format content for the media in mind. So, here comes a (not) little spoiler for the time being. This development is still a long time to go, but I hope to spend August with maximal efficiency.

I like what you did there . It's getting really close to the textures that Agar put on the castle's walls years ago, which very pleased my eyes. Just have in mind that many have happened in my life during last year and I cannot spend as much time on Mod as before and if any updates will be needed, they might be delayed. Sorry

You already did a freaking lot for the release to happen. It's also because of you I push my efforts further, too.

Unfortunately, Agar and I were not successful in reproducing that texture on the proof-of-concept image, but at least the castle is leaning towards the Warlock texture which is not so bad as I think. There might be more and more hand-drawn fixes though; H2 screens were not only 3D modeled, but also were heavily drawn over in a software like Photoshop, which is very visible on small elements. Probably, they wanted to make the renders look closer and closer to pixel style, but this now gives me additional headache

P.S. I also noticed that the picture has somehow been transformed to JPG, thus the loss of quality. It's much better in the source file, so no worries about the "dirty resolution".

The texture is surely getting close to the H2 look. Also I am very happy to see the "Temple of Baa" dwelling look authentic

Meanwhile, I desperately try to finish all my tasks in time so the release can happen before 2019 comes.
So, this is a new concept (not a final version!) of the Dervish screen composition. To be honest, I like it much more, and it is more neatly filled with buildings, so the visual impression is closer to Heroes 2 even with the current level of graphics and that "roads", if I have the right to say so.

I like very much how all of the initial ideas which were designed by younger me and some fellow team members are finally being put into their place, and how organic is the suggested composition. Here, we can see that the left side of the city is for the more wealthy part of the population, also having the (draft, will be probably fixed or even remade for this position!) Temple of Baa as a hint about the nature of the Dervish and the role of this faction in our new campaigns which will be coming for v2.0 revealing our new plot developments concerning the history of Enroth. The right side of the city is for the more common people, with Manticore Pit being put as some kind of public entertainment and a penitentiary system at the same time. The Anubites, a giant reference to MM6 as well, are being presented as a different mysterious race of beings which have some kind of agreement with the Dervishes, and have their own dwelling placed in the outskirts, which are the most convenient for their operations. A similar situation can be seen for the medusae.

I will try to work hard every day because we still have a lot of graphics to do, and I still want to make a separate Dervish Faction preview video for our YouTube channel.

Let me know when the graphics will be finished, I will add them.

If you find time to help me with implementing the townscreen, that would be just fantastic and save a lot of my time for other development objectives. Be sure I will prepare all the required materials for you, my friend.

Since this castle is supposed to have roads in some form, we will need to check carefully how they are interfering with each other. I guess I will prepare some notes, too.

For me, it looks amazing!
When i look at the screenshot, i feel the area around the Statue/bridge/city hall/mage guild is REALLY Heroes 2!!!
Colors of tents of the market are really pure colors... Maybe it looklikes plastic in my eyes...
I would like to see there is a road for the pyramid. ²
Same, a little road for the forge would be awesome. (i guess it's the forge, near the bridge) ²

² road, of a little effect to make the sand less clean, but still less used than the main roads of the city.


I like the concept arts on school paper!!!

Town Screen already looks awesome!

While Ragoon is storming the forum with assets, I also feel an urge to show one piece of the very many, many pieces I am doing for the mod in order to deliver the release in time.

This is what Battle Garb of Anduran will look like in v0.8.

Good work Orzie!
Do you work on each piece individually?
Garb could use a little bit more shine imo, maybe lower right leg armor fix and flatter background in the middle imo.
Maybe a gem in the middle?

And what is the difference between second and third artifact in this setup? Gameplay wise

No, only the one in the center is a new artifact, with the others coming from Heroes 2 expansion.

The artifact in the center is the new Battle Garb of Anduran, which is a combo artifact. In Heroes 2 expansion, the Battle Garb of Anduran was in fact the shield, but we made the shield just another part of the combo.

The combo grants all primary stat bonuses from its parts, plus grants maximum morale and luck and gives an ability to cast Town Portal spell.

I am not going to work on the design any further for the upcoming release because there are too much things to do. If you have a mood to do that, feel free to write me anywhere or visit
Dropbox\The Succession Wars Mod\Graphics\Artifacts\Battle Garb of Anduran.psd

What is the current state of development for Witch town screen graphics in v0.8.0? Because it feels like a very early concept.

The townscreen will be completely remade from scratch, as you might have already guessed.
Same goes for the OST which is not yet made.

It was a major surprise for me people who saw the Dervish actually believed that we will not be going to improve the Witch in a similar fashion.
It also hurts me that people don't believe in us to that degree.

Even the design of the faction is going to be somehow altered. I am looking forward to some Polynesian and Tsantsa concepts, with a bit of those giant head statues and other shamanism/voodoo-inspired imagery.

Hah!

Today I finally decided to try out Witch castle and I was like WTF. I just played Dervish and it was 10/10 in every aspect and here is Witch:

Toads from trees and Treants from the bunkers. Even Wyverns sit on perch in the middle of a pond xD. And whole town screen looks like a tea spilled over impressionist art related to H3 Fortress.

Just as I assumed that it is an early concept

Are units also going to change along with town graphic concept to fit with it? No so sure if current roster would fit shamanistic/voodoo feeling. Aside from T1 there are only beasts.