[WIP] Partisan Tactics Battles : Animations, woah

[Xion]

Methinks the floor boards increase the business. They are, I think, too high contrast.
The addition of shadows, I imagine, would indeed help alot, as you yourself have stated, but without them I really can't tell what's cliff or differentiate between elevations.
The plants don't seem to have any form to them that identifies them as plants aside from them seeming to be all like "I'm green, so I'm a bush!" or something similar. They seem kinda...messy.

[willfaulds]

I really really want to say its fine. I've loved following the progression of this project...

But I agree with Xion about the boards. But I actually think the flowers and foliage are fine. Too much more definition and you're going to get more problems in my opinion. Its all about priority and leaving the backgrounds backgroundy is needed to make a game function well. Its got to be playable.

Generally the tile needs some priority tweaking but its hard to gauge without a character in there (and GUI?)

But as it stands I would lower contrast on the boards and desaturate the boards purple shadow a little.

[ndchristie]

That's really interesting, as I haven't even looked at the wood since it was first drawn.....I'll experiment

oh and yeah forgot to say that any shadows you DO see (wood, stones) are relics of the normal shadows system (that has been replaced and therefor is on the outs).

here is with characters but the tiles are not changed at all :



Already on the to do list also is to simplify the brick and earth/stone wall faces, which are just old and bad (only tiles to have not been redone since the project began).

[eck]

I think that removing all those little piles of rock would really help simplify.

[Reo]

Nooo!Please dont remove the rocks,I LOVe them!! ,I think the grass/flower part looks a little buisy tho.

[Faktablad]

In general, the more I look at it, the more I find the aesthetics appealing, and the easier it is to see what the different levels are.  It's definitely easier on the left than on the right to determine elevation.  Depending on how important it is to the game's mechanics, you might want to look at that.

I love the plant life, and almost everything else--I think it's all finely pixeled and it makes a great environment for the characters.  I just think there should be a few places for the eye to rest.

I'm so pumped for this game...stinks that it's not coming out until '10.

[ndchristie]

interesting....and i am taking everything into account for when I update, which will be soon.........


what we have finally finished working on is our lighting system.  remember the tests we showed way back when? well, they had some problems.  now though we believe we have a system that is good as it will get!  there are a few cases that we aren't capable of but at last we have a system the treats bushy grass and characters in a way that looks good :



few stray pixels do not mind them - they are me being lazy ^^ (and not an engine problem)

[Zolthorg]

Excellent lighting system
although i'm not to sure of the shadow  on the ground beside the middle knight, why is it the same height as the on on the top knight?
(i'm assuming the light source is from off in the northwest direction)

I think to debunk the busy-ness, you should take the scene above where you're asking us about busy-ness, and make several copies of it
1 without the well defined rock clutter
1 without foliage
1 with some generic blank space <- important, it seems as though you're trying to fit the whole map into the viewing area, as opposed to utilizing scrolling

and then compare it to this one
i think your lack of definition of forms on foliage tiles is causing it personally
the tiles that lack outlined areas have too many shades and seem almost unfinished
you'll get into a debate with yourself about oversized plants, such as how rpgs like to define "to-scale-massive" grass blades, but i think you'll find the planks and rocks already existing allow you to oversize and define your plants a bit

try it, is all i can say.

p.s. i've been watching this develop for a long time and i read the blog all the time, lovin it

[TrevoriuS]

What is a good method of putting focus on the right position is lowring opacity or lowering contrast in the right areas.

[ndchristie]

Yeah, the plants were meant to be a direct reaction to the oversized chunky plants of most games (which i just don't like) but im finding myself less than enthusiastic about my current attempts.  I think it comes down to an issue of poorly defined shapes and just noise, which could well be doing a lot of the business like you said.  I think i'll firm them up first thing once the walls get done and then thing about the rocks (Which might loose some contrast but are definitely staying as they are one of the only decent obstacles and obstacles shape things in this game a bit more than usual, what with so much direct fire/spells and directional skills.)

What is a good method of putting focus on the right position is lowring opacity or lowering contrast in the right areas.

haha, i'm not daft ^^