IDEA: Units to look damaged when on low hp.

[Dragon Master]

Have you tried spriting with a graphics tablet? It probably won't make much difference except perhaps make it slightly longer. The ONLY thing Jetryl uses his mouse for IS spriting , does that tell you something.

We all have different preferences, So maybe Jetryl is the sprite master with a mouse, I'll feel more comfortable with a tablet as I'm quite a proficient artist on paper. I need to conquer the digital world!

[irrevenant]

But on the other hand, new artists seem to come and and go, Johann did 5?? story images, Jorgumandr did like 8 portraits, but neither of them seem to still be around. Jetryl is the only real person here who sees it all through. What we need is more people who'll stay attached to the project rather then leaving. I don't blame them for leaving though.

Jetryl is indeed a trooper, but don't assume the other's are gone forever just because they're taking a little breather. They're all volunteers, so you can't expect factory hours from them...

NOTE: I've renamed this thread something more meaningful.

[Disto]

But on the other hand, new artists seem to come and and go, Johann did 5?? story images, Jorgumandr did like 8 portraits, but neither of them seem to still be around. Jetryl is the only real person here who sees it all through. What we need is more people who'll stay attached to the project rather then leaving. I don't blame them for leaving though.

Jetryl is indeed a trooper, but don't assume the other's are gone forever just because they're taking a little breather. They're all volunteers, so you can't expect factory hours from them...

NOTE: I've renamed this thread something more meaningful.

I know, Fmunoz isn't gone forever but he isn't contributing anymore. I'm saying that it's thanks to Jetryl and Co. who get the job finished rather then new guys who come and go. I believe Johann said he would do all of the ones for HTTT and Jorgumandr is still doing more portraits but the fact that we're getting lots of new artists is not necessarily the amazing thing it's made out to be.

[scott]

Jetryl is indeed a trooper, but don't assume the other's are gone forever just because they're taking a little breather. They're all volunteers, so you can't expect factory hours from them...

NOTE: I've renamed this thread something more meaningful.

I know, Fmunoz isn't gone forever but he isn't contributing anymore. I'm saying that it's thanks to Jetryl and Co. who get the job finished rather then new guys who come and go. I believe Johann said he would do all of the ones for HTTT and Jorgumandr is still doing more portraits but the fact that we're getting lots of new artists is not necessarily the amazing thing it's made out to be.

Johann is pretty much gone. Jorgumandr should be around from time to time.

[Sapient]

You could even have wounded units fight worse...it's odd isn't it how a spearman with 1 HP left can still do his full damage potential, you'd expect him to be so badly hurt he could barely lift his spear. (Of course this would never happen in mainline, but if someone wanted to do this in a user-made scenario/campaign/faction it would own.)

the 'swarm' attack special does something like this.

[hagabaka]

I like this proposal. Especially with "swarm" units, it probably makes more sense to have different graphics with different levels of HP. Cuttlefish deals fewer strikes as it's wounded probably because its tentacles are cut off or disabled, but the sprite doesn't reflect it.

Just because artists are busy enough, doesn't make it a bad idea to add this feature in my opinion. Some people who don't have the time to do create new sprites may be able to add wounded sprites. As long as the change makes it optional to use wounded sprites and animations, and/or can fall back to the main graphics, it shouldn't do any harm.

[toms]

From artistioc side, it's rather impossible.
Current units need moving animations (directional), attack animations (hit and miss, directional) defend animations, leading animations, etc.
And this would all have to be done once more for damaged units. Not to think of the doubled size of all unit images.

[hagabaka]

I didn't see this post until I read the thread again just now:

I intend to add this to the engine quite soon...
the code side, that is.

since that's a whole lot of art, I don't expect it to be used that much..

If that's already happened, excuse my pointless post :p

From artistioc side, it's rather impossible.
Current units need moving animations (directional), attack animations (hit and miss, directional) defend animations, leading animations, etc.
And this would all have to be done once more for damaged units. Not to think of the doubled size of all unit images.

I wasn't asking all of these animations an sprites to be made. As long as the feature doesn't require specifying extra graphics for wounded units, and can substitute with the existing graphics when the static wounded sprite is provided, but not defending animation, for example, it would be a useful addition and not necessarily multiplying the size of the graphic data, or the workload for artists.

I don't think the workload argument is relevant. This is no different from designing your own unit, and therefore adding workload for the artists. Either you draw them yourself, or wait for artists, or don't create new units. If extra graphics are optional, you can either make use of it in your new units and create graphics for it, or ignore the feature. Similarly the existing units will just wait for someone to create extra graphics for them, or stay as they are.

[Disto]

I didn't see this post until I read the thread again just now:

I intend to add this to the engine quite soon...
the code side, that is.

since that's a whole lot of art, I don't expect it to be used that much..

If that's already happened, excuse my pointless post :p

From artistioc side, it's rather impossible.
Current units need moving animations (directional), attack animations (hit and miss, directional) defend animations, leading animations, etc.
And this would all have to be done once more for damaged units. Not to think of the doubled size of all unit images.

I wasn't asking all of these animations an sprites to be made. As long as the feature doesn't require specifying extra graphics for wounded units, and can substitute with the existing graphics when the static wounded sprite is provided, but not defending animation, for example, it would be a useful addition and not necessarily multiplying the size of the graphic data, or the workload for artists.

I don't think the workload argument is relevant. This is no different from designing your own unit, and therefore adding workload for the artists. Either you draw them yourself, or wait for artists, or don't create new units. If extra graphics are optional, you can either make use of it in your new units and create graphics for it, or ignore the feature. Similarly the existing units will just wait for someone to create extra graphics for them, or stay as they are.

Yes, but if you add super graphics for one unit, it'll show up the rest of the units. Which will then mean that to keep the graphics consistent and therefore preserve the quality of art in the game you will have to make them. So as far as this goes, this may be added to the game, but the images won't be used in mainline.

[appleide]

How about just giving units a slight tint of red when they are less than 10 hp? Or at least, actually use red hp bars. Right now, a skirmisher with 8 hp (1 hit and then dies), still shows up with a yellow hp bar, even though the number is red on the side panel.

[freim]

You could even have wounded units fight worse...it's odd isn't it how a spearman with 1 HP left can still do his full damage potential, you'd expect him to be so badly hurt he could barely lift his spear. (Of course this would never happen in mainline, but if someone wanted to do this in a user-made scenario/campaign/faction it would own.)

... and because this will never happen in mainline I also think it would be a bad idea to show units as damaged (in mainline) since this would imply exactly this. Using gfx to imply conditions that affect gameplay which isn't there is a bad idea. The way it currently is where units doesn't look damaged is more consistent with the way the game works.

[Kestenvarn]

There is already a slumped and tired sprite for the orc bowman in the death animation if I remember correctly, maybe there are others of a similar nature.

[Ranger M]

Yes, he is slumped and tired, but he is also at the wrong angle, has dropped his bow, and is half way through the process of falling down, which doesn't really work as a standing sprite.

[Kestenvarn]

The only one of those concerns that actually matters is the angle.

[Boucman]

You could even have wounded units fight worse...it's odd isn't it how a spearman with 1 HP left can still do his full damage potential, you'd expect him to be so badly hurt he could barely lift his spear. (Of course this would never happen in mainline, but if someone wanted to do this in a user-made scenario/campaign/faction it would own.)

... and because this will never happen in mainline I also think it would be a bad idea to show units as damaged (in mainline) since this would imply exactly this. Using gfx to imply conditions that affect gameplay which isn't there is a bad idea. The way it currently is where units doesn't look damaged is more consistent with the way the game works.

and THIS, people is true wisdom....

showing units as damage does not make any sense... except for units with the swarm attack special... anything else would probably hit a heavy veto from most devs....


on a different note, no, this is not implemented codewise, but is now trivial to add...

I need to add standard unit filter to the anim filters, and I need to add an HP filter to SUF

both are trivial to add, so post 1.2