[WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

[startselect]

I gave the gray wood a shot!

Also did some more supports, both crossing the path to uphold the roof and along the walls holding loose rocks in.
Since there are 3 tile high walls covering all but a 2 tile wide strip of the walkable area, I thought about making all vertical spaces atleast 6 tiles tall to show more of the ground, but the walls can still cover the player so either way I'll need a solution for that. I'm thinking of adding a higher collision line for overhanging south walls.
Here the red lines show the normal walkable area, and the lowest red line would be replaced with the green line to always keep the player at least partially visible. What are your thought on that?

[eishiya]

It's very common in games with this projection that south walls come with a higher collision area so that players can't get lost behind them. The goal is so that at least the player's head is visible.
An alternative is to have walls that become see-through when the player is behind them, but I'm personally not fond of that xP

If you make the walls less smooth, you could have more little (cosmetic-only) dips in the top of the wall which would allow you to block off less of the space behind the wall while still making it easy for the player to see their character, since they'd be visible in the dips most of the time.

[startselect]

I've tried to do a minecart now. Really struggling with readability while still using just the 4 wood colors. I even experimented with introducing a 5th color in the ramp.

I tried 4 variations with different color usage and amount of outlines but I can't really seem to get it right. Maybe I just crammed to much detail in there?
I think I like the far left version the most but it does feel kinda bland next to other wooden items in the scene but the second left version is way to sharp.

[eishiya]

Is the minecart an interactive item, or just background decoration? If it's interactive, then I think outlines outside of it would be fine, as would extra colours for more contrast. If not, then I don't think it's a big problem if it blends in a bit, as long as it's readable as [mine cart].
I like the left one the most as well.
I'd have the interior fade into shadow instead of just having a solid dark bottom, I think that would help the interior read better. I'd also darken the hook/hitch-thing so that it doesn't blend into the rail behind it. You could also scrap it entirely if it's causing problems, or use a different hitching mechanism.
Edit with these changes:

I also stuck a solid dark brown shadow underneath the cart. It's a cheap trick but I think it helps it read better, and gives the cart volume.

(Nitpick: I'd stick the cart a pixel or two higher, as the wheels don't feel like they're on the rails currently. The wheels do hug the rails, but they don't envelop the entire rail xP)

[MysteryMeat]

it doesn't stand out enough for an interactive. perhaps make the minecarts metal to stick out more?

[startselect]

Yeah it's not an interactive object, it's just a static prop.
I really like the shadow underneath and the faded backside!
The wheel base is based on the image from the permanent way wiki. I thought it looked like it worked like this:

Rails in blue and wheel axle in red.
With the large guide wheels on the inside of the rails and the outer wheels connected to the inner wheels via a bevel where the rails run. But maybe that doesn't read that well. I tried moving it up 1 and 2 pixels but in my head it looks best with the original height but I'm probably biased of knowing what I tried to draw xP
Also made a version with a pile of mined rocks and a version going up/down.

[eishiya]

You are correct in understanding the wheel, but you seem to have forgotten how your camera works xP

We should see a bit of the rail since the wheel doesn't swallow up all of it.
(I've drawn a 45-degree camera here, but your camera might actually be lower than that, showing even more rail).

The vertical cart looks larger than the horizontal ones. Don't forget that horizontal space is foreshortened, just like on the rails. So, either the vertical cart should be shortened, or the horizontal ones need to be longer (wider).

[startselect]

Not understanding how my camera works is my bread and butter xP
Moved the left/right cart 2px higher on the track and tried fixing the foreshortening on the up/down cart. Also made the other wheels 1px thinner.

Then I started on the supported pillars.

Tried to do some rope on one of the pillars because it felt kinda miney

[eishiya]

I think the raised cart looks better. The foreshortened cart looks a little better, but I'd consider making all the carts longer, since people tend to expect a rectangular shape rather than a square one.

The rope is a nice detail, but it feels very thin, I think it would look better being thicker and sticking out of the pillar a pixel.

[startselect]

due to my gridbased ai navigation I'd like to keep the left/right cart 32 pixels wide so I can't widen it much but I made the hitch-thing a pixel less wide to get 1px more for the cart at least. The up/down cart has more freedom and is really only restricted by foreshortening so I made it 2px taller.


I moved the wooden braces 1px closer to the stone pillar to fit another pixel of rope width. Also made a brace for the smaller stone pillar.