H3SW: Secondary and Primary skill graphics

Hello!

I have started working on the secondary skills.
First of all, I have collected all Heroes 2 and 3 resources, plus the few amount of already converted skill graphics.

The 0.8 beta todo list states 16/28 done. Which images has been done?

And about mainly there are 3 types of skill icons:
- one normal 44x44 for the hero main view window
- a 82x93 if you right click a secondary skill, or primary skill. Strangely this size is exactly the same from heroes 2 primary skill icons!
- plus tiny 34x34 for the hero trade screen (25x24 for the 4 primary skills at the trade screen)

Perhaps the most hard part is the largest 82x93 ones. The tiny at the trade screen should be simply done as a resize from the 44x44 size.

So my question is how these things are going, on which skills should I start to work?

Greetings! For v0.8 beta release of H3SW we consider only 44x44 Secondary Skill icons (and we can add 34x34 ones too later). Currently there are these icons which can be updated in future:

Archery
Eagle Eye
Learning
Offense
Intellect
Sorcery
Fire Magic
Scouting (kinda WIP)
Necromancy (kinda WIP)
Luck (outdated)
Pathfinding
Leadership
Estates or Earnings (more info on the skill name later)
Ballistics
Magic Resistance
Air Magic (kinda WIP)


We are going to have all Heroes 3 Secondary Skills. Currently only Air Magic is developed by Sir Albe, and the new Expert Luck icon is under my revision. Many others need fixes, but we are desperately lacking time.

Note that we have Heroes 2 designs prioritized over Heroes 3 ones.

Thanks for the reply!

These are my first shots. I've tried to recycle the original heroes 2 wooden ship wheel, rather than a boat on the sea from heroes 3.
I would say the 2nd row is better, but Im not sure about the expert is good, I mean it has too much gold in my opinion.   Any other ideas perhaps?

Nice progress! I am in doubt too about which variant to choose - I like both. The only viable option will be to check these icons near other ones. The second row is more H3-ish and it provides more difference. We should save both variants and wait for other H3SW team members feedback - but you can already switch to the next image

I'd propose add difference between gradations with decreasing spokes

Not sure about this one. Steering wheels can be different, but I cannot seem to find a 4-spoked wheel.



I would recommend to stick to the starting variants. We are not supposed to degrade H2 graphics in most cases - they are already maximally simplified.

Or, we can try to make 6-8-12 spokes like feanor suggested to me later. I'm on it.

Alright gentlemen, here comes the variant acceptable for v0.8 beta. Some pixel imperfections may be worked out later so feel free to suggest fixes if you see something.



Thank you both thgergo and feanor for drafts and suggestions, it was fun to work on this piece.

So, as Orzie asked, I'm here to help with the secondary skill icons

I have no preferences, making new icons or improving existing ones is just fine for me. In the first case I'd need the original art resources, of course, so if Orzie could lend me a hand here I'd be welcome.

Let's get to work!

Sounds good. Here is the Heroes 3 and Heroes 2 secondary skill icons which were put by thgergo:



We are currently interested only in 1 type of icons: 44x44.

You can see the "already done" icons in my message above. Some of them are clearly rough, like these:

Scouting (kinda WIP)
Necromancy (kinda WIP)
Leadership
Estates or Earnings (more info on the skill name later)
Ballistics
Magic Resistance


So that you can try either to fix one of the existing skills, or make a new one (we currently have 17 of 28). See the included image.

Sorry to interrupt, but I will just inform that I will bring the Air Magic skills as close to perfection as I can. Not that they will be perfect (they properly won't), but I would like to spend a little more time with them first


ORZIE: ALRIGHT, REMOVED FROM THE POST

Perfect. I guess I'll start with the new ones, and then check the WIPs.

I'll be posting my WIPs here for you to see and make suggestions/critics, starting the weekend.

Been working on Defense skill sprites:


Diplomacy will be next

You rock hard, dude. Especially if we take into account that this was made in your birthday.

Anyway, we clearly have 18/28 from now on.

Diplomacy.

This ragged scroll should be assigned to the novice diplomacy, it doesn't fit respectable negotiator

It fits fine for v0.8 beta. Slash didn't have time to fix the Advanced Diplomacy icon. We will do it later by ourselves.

It's very good, I would just change order.

Well, why you don't want to use & upgrade some original HoMM II graphics, e.g. necromancy & luck icons? It may save time u spend on drawing new icons.

H2 Luck is already maximum simplified. I wil retouch the existing Luck though.

As for the Necromancy, it is based on H2 one Still, it needs a lot of improvements.

Finished the Air magic skill as good as I possibly could. It might still need some improvement, but I am unfortunately not skilled enough to do that. I put the separate sprites in the DB folder

This is how the new icons are going to be stylized under H2 (approximately):

I can't judge which version is better. Sir Albe version and this new are good in their own ways. It's a pity, that Sir Albe devote so much effort in vain. We should start a thread where we can gather informations pointing what is done, what particular members are doing currently and plans for future.

Sir Albe's variant didn't differ much from the original to be honest. Neither I think it's so much work: a standard icon takes from 3 to 5 hours for me, and I spend 2-5 hours on graphics every day. You also know what is graphics work.

Sir Albe works acceptable with the portraits, yet his work with testing is much and much more valuable. We also have the map list which needs revising because of repacked objects with nobody currently elaborating this task.

I recommend to make sure if the asset is not already developed here on the forum. Sometimes the quality is not acceptable and we have to use other people's help. In the case of magic icons it was important to have all 4 from the same artist to provide unity in style.

It is all okay Uhm I didn't throw away that much time on the icons (about 9 hours or so), it was just unfortunately the we found out we needed other icons just as I was finished with mine. I just make the icons like the ones of the Fire school which I believe Kivo draw some time ago.

I am getting better at pixel art (at least I hope so), but I am still far from you guys. I don't have no problem in testing the mod, finding bugs, fixing maps and making balance proportion (which I am very excited to show you soon ), so I will gladly do that too.

Once again I say that your work with testing is very valuable. The missing graphics list and the sounds list you made are very helpful for v0.8 release. It saved me so much time I cannot even imagine.