Terrain tiling [Dirt for a change]

[Cernunnos]

Hi all,

Since some times now, you may have noticed there has been nearly exclusively portrait works in this forum.
Those works are really good, that's not the point.
The point is there is nearly no pixel art here! Which is bad.

So i thought i had to resist!

I'm currently merging my old topics about terrain tiling to make this one my sole. It is to say my work on those will be continued here. This way i'll have a unique topic of works and projects, and will not spam this site.
Those old topics were, above all, the two followings :
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22895
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22954
(Which i will be asking to lock in some minutes now)

About the mermen village project, that's about a month i haven't done nothing on it, so i think it's a good idea to go with it first.

For a reminder the first village looks like this:


I think i have finished the second village, which needed to be animated:


This is using 4 frames with 160ms of delay between them. Hope this is ok this way.

And, good news, i just started the third one (even if it's quite difficult to keep with the same style with such a time gap between the tiles).

So, hope you like this second one which is done for me, but if you want me to make more frames, or other changes i can try, even if i'm not animator.

And please resist the portraits lobby!

[mnewton1]

I like them a lot and i can't wait to see the 3rd one. The first one reminds me of a fish... the second one looks awesome

[Thanatos]

Your work is very much appreciated. The game could definately need some more terrain tile variations. It was just a day or two ago, when someone talked to me on the mp server because the terrain in Necromanteion didn't fit into the atmossphere of the scenario.

If I would knew how to get my somewhat existing drawing skills morphed into pixel art, I would even contribute to this area by myself. We definately would need some more devastated, creepy surface terrain for example (dead/wasted lands, haunted forests...) as there should be games possible using the whole ToD-schedule but still having a darker feeling then the actual standard tile sets. I think I saw a post somewhere about such terrain tiles, but couldn't find it again.

However, great work on your mermen villages!

[Cernunnos]

Hi again,

Thanks both of you,

(
@Thanatos, i'll try to do new tiles when finishing the works i'm currently on. A while ago, i wanted to start things in all ways and the result was not finishing any of them... So i will do one thing at a time (but i have some ideas eheh)
)

Ok, so here's my try on a third one, comments and critiques are welcome. I tried to stay in the same idea than with first ones. This one is made in some good old broken prehistoric giant crab claw.............. + some water lilies..........
Well even if it doesn't looks like that, i hope it looks fine.



Comments and critiques are welcome of course, looking the three of them, this last one maybe needs to be darkened a little... i don't know.

Thanks, see ya!

edit: forget the underwater shadow...

[Thanatos]

@Thanatos, i'll try to do new tiles when finishing the works i'm currently on. A while ago, i wanted to start things in all ways and the result was not finishing any of them... So i will do one thing at a time (but i have some ideas eheh)

Ehh... I wasn't requesting those tiles from you in the first place. Made just a statement about the need for some more tile variation in general.

[Boucman]

yay more terrains


I'll try to push the arts dev to have a look when I seem them on the forum

[Turuk]

Ehh... I wasn't requesting those tiles from you in the first place. Made just a statement about the need for some more tile variation in general.

Thanatos raises a good point, it would be great to have a larger variety of tiles in the game, even if the terrain does not change. The animated villages are especially nice because they are a part of the background that moves and gives the player the impression that he/she is not just playing on a flat map, even though it is true. I find that motion through animation or the appearance of motion (by drawing flowing water or similar examples) helps to make the map feel more dynamic.

[Cernunnos]

Talking about animations, of course it's really nice, but to do...



Seriously, talking about new terrains, I had something in mind since sometimes now, but i don't know Wesnoth policy about that.
For some terrains, for example desert, some bones (i don't know, skeletons of beasts, dragons etc...) would go fine imo, but i don't know Wesnoth policy about this kind of stuff.
I assume there's some skeletal units, but lying bones of something is not quite the same, so is it possible to do this? (for mainline)

[Boucman]

it probably is, but it's hard to do well...

there were sevral atempts, but not very convincing.

the skeleton would have to be pretty small to stay at the same pseudo-scale as the tiles...


another interesting terrain to have for scenario makers would be a multi-tiled volcano, maybe as big as 1+6surrounding, with the central tile being lava...

I'm pretty sure the engine can support it

[JW]

I really like your 2nd and 3rd villages! I think I actually like the 3rd one a tad more, but it's hard to decide. The first one though I don't find so attractive. I think it's because it looks like it's in the middle of tipping and falling over, and I am waiting for it to finish the job. It's a little unsettling.

ps, I decided the 3rd one is my favorite for sure.

[beetlenaut]

I assume there's some skeletal units, but lying bones of something is not quite the same, so is it possible to do this? (for mainline)

There is already one skeleton, so it must be OK. Look at wesnoth/data/core/images/items/bones.png.

I love the new village, and the animation of the second one is awesome! I have some minor notes though. It was hard for me to read this as a claw. I didn't know it was until I read about the concept. It's a good concept, but I think light-colored line at the pink arrow is causing problems. The ripples at the yellow arrow are too light to make the lily pads clearly sit on the surface. I think they should be more like the ripples at the white arrow.

villages_with_arrows2.png (9.08 KiB) Viewed 5352 times

I can't wait to see these new villages in the game! I hope they just replace the old ones entirely.

[Mefisto]

I like the new willages too. Maybe the new line? Red coral villages?

[Cernunnos]

I like the new willages too. Maybe the new line? Red coral villages?

lol, Thanks.

I took your advices beetlenaut, at least for the lily pads (and you were true), for the upper line i don't get what you want me to do about it: (+ a shadow)



@JW: i like the first one this way
no seriously it can't fall, since there's a stone behind it + mermen can light their windows underwater so they won't let their houses fall.

[Thanatos]

Thanatos raises a good point, it would be great to have a larger variety of tiles in the game, even if the terrain does not change.

Exactly. Tiles not types.

The animated villages are especially nice because they are a part of the background that moves and gives the player the impression that he/she is not just playing on a flat map, even though it is true. I find that motion through animation or the appearance of motion (by drawing flowing water or similar examples) helps to make the map feel more dynamic.

On the other hand, some games did too much animation, imho. HoMM3's map was some blinking and twinkling overload... I am no fan of too much animation in general. For example: I find the new, always wing-flapping Gryphons annoying.

I have some minor notes though. It was hard for me to read this as a claw. I didn't know it was until I read about the concept. It's a good concept, but I think light-colored line at the pink arrow is causing problems.

You should try and make the "fingers" of the claw more distingushable from each other. I didn't read it as a claw either until pointed to.

Still nice work. I am really thinking of starting on terrain myself.

[beetlenaut]

i don't get what you want me to do about it

I sketched what I was talking about. It looks more like a claw to me this way.

top_of_claw_sketch.png (5.33 KiB) Viewed 5299 times