[WIP] Rauthar (wolf race) (comments wanted)

[Azar Wolf]

Thread on my forums: http://eternalmodding.50.forumer.com/vi ... ?f=34&t=80

A full year has gone around, more or less, since I first found Battle for Wesnoth.
This was a project I had started on my own, but after my motherboard died and I got behind by a few weeks of work, this and my other projects slipped behind. Once I had gotten caught up, I had gotten involved (and still am) with the pre-1.0 last-minute bug-hunting expedition for Transcendence (by George Moromisato).

I've managed to dig up my old files for this, and plan on resuming work on it shortly. (What inspired me to do so was browsing around on tvTropes oddly enough...)

Although I very much do have the skill capacity to work on this project myself (except for the unit portraits, as I do not specialize AT ALL in that style of art: I can sketch, make sprites, and 3D models (and all with a whole lot more skill than I could a year ago to boot)), I don't have that much time, any thus help would be appreciated.

As to the Rauthor themselves (the following is quote from my old thread. I Intentionally did not resurrect it, for various reasons, some having to do with past ghosts I would rather not resurrect, and I'd like to leave it at that.)(Further more, I plan on reviewing the contents of this post and making any updates I deem necessary. I plan on working exclusively on getting myself back up to speed and on revising anything that needs to be revised in my plans in the following quote)(And yes, I still plan on having a campaign, once the faction is finished):

(From the last two games I've been working on, Supreme Commander (Mods: Eternal Command (v4), and "Uber nucks" (as named by the community)) and Transcendence (Mod:TransX2: http://neurohack.com/transcendence/foru ... php?t=1660 ), it's become sort of a tradition of marking "works in progress" as WIP, thus explaining the [WIP] in the title)

Well, a little preamble...
I discovered BFW last weekend while browsing a site with freeware linking from the supcom's off topic forum. I played around, discovered it immensely addicting, then started playing around with some addon campaigns... Then, as I always do, I started to explore the data files in the game to see if I could mod it easily... Obviously, I deemed it quite easy to mod, otherwise I wouldn't be here. Anyways, I love wolves and dragons. Since the drakes are already in existence, I felt the need to make a quality wolf race, up to the standards of the races in the default era.

Yes, I saw the existence of a few others- I scoured the wiki quite a bit to learn as much as I could, and I found the warg and werewolves listed in the factions page. I downloaded era of myths and couldn't find a download for the other mod, but it seemed to be almost identical judging by the contents of the wiki page. EoM's warg art was good, but it lacked animations, and not all the factions in the pack matched each other quality wise and style wise (ie, mismatched artistic styles). Not to mention AI devlings would wipe the floor with any other AI. Anyone who knows me from supcom or transcendence would know that I'm a real stickler for matching artistic styles... (And judging by some of the rules threads by the devs, they are too).

I'm drawing all of these units pixel by pixel to try to match styles. However, to speed things up a bit (to make animating stuff easier) I'll have all the parts in separate layers (ie, one for body and head, one for upper right arm, one for lower right arm, one for right thigh... etc...).

So on to this mod: (much of the information pertinent to balance is very much subject to change- keep in mind this is mostly just brainstormed up so something is bound to change or be removed or added.)

The aim of this mod is to provide a new balanced faction, all units complete with:
standing anim/frame
(some) idle anim
move anim/frame
melee anim
ranged anim and matching projectile (when applicable)
Any other applicable animation when appropriate to that unit's role and needs
attack sounds

I hope to eventually create a custom campaign.

The Rauthar:
In the lands far to the east of Wesnoth (basically the undocumented area which the wiki says nothing about) lie the Rauthar mountains- a mountain range formed from the crater of a fragment of Irdya's moon. The impact (which occurred several millennium BW) wiped out much of the life on the eastern extremes of the great continent, though it did not greatly affect the western side- some ash fell and clouds of dust filled the air, but they lasted only a few days. The only survivors of the eastern cataclysm were the Rauthar- their geographical location in a narrow, steep sided valley leading up to a coastline of cliffs had protected them from the brunt of the shockwave which moved laterally across the top of the valley. Still, the land around the valley, once a wonderful mix of alpine and deciduous forests was reduced to dirt and burnt stumps [think Mt. St.Helens post-eruption]. The Rauthar, who had lived simple lives as tribal hunter-gatherers and were very dependent on the land were abhorred by what had happened to the lands around them.
It was this that struck them to protect their forests and lands to such a degree, to prevent this from happening again, no matter what the cause (ironically the lands were once again wasted in the Apocalypse after the fall, but the Rauthar had been substantially more prepared and once again helped their lands recover). The Rauthar combined their efforts, bound by their mutual goal and transitioned rather rapidly from simple, tribal hunter/gatherers to a sophisticated, cohesive unified body. Over the thousands of years leading up to the founding of Wesnoth, they regrew the once great forests, restoring them to their former glory, if not surpassing it. They also learned of the other races as they occasionally entered and spoiled their lands. The Rauthar would never make the first strike- but desecrating their lands counted as one to them. Still, they would never chase after them, only drive them out and call it a day.
Eventually the Rauthar had made it to the impact site- travel was slow since they couldn't survive in the wasted lands for an extended period of time (they would starve without food, and all the foods they ate were perishable) and thus traveled at the rate of the growth of their forests. They found that leading up to the impact crater were small fragments of the moon- most were merely pretty stones that had a mild magical hold over their interest, but a few contained gems imbued with the moon's energy, while others contained useful ores. It was then they moved beyond their basic copper and bronze implements and learned to forge iron, then steel, and other alloys and metals and eventually iridium, which, in conventional weapons was useless (it is not very strong), but it had the ability to reflect and even channel magic.
They reached the inside of the crater roughly 50 to 100 years after the founding of Wesnoth. Unlike the surrounding areas, this was a magic place for them. The moon always held some power over them, but it was so distant. Here, at the heart of the impact site, was a place that despite what it caused, became sacred- it was a solitary peak of pure material from the object that created the crater. The mountain was riddled with caves formed over time as the looser material was washed out and the harder material remained.
The Rauthar held mixed feelings about the region. It was the cause for the death and destruction that occurred so long ago, but it was also part of their moon, and it had brought them so many technological and sociological advances. Despite what it had caused so long ago, it remained that without the impact, they'd probably be still skirmishing amongst themselves in the valley, primitive and unaware of the outside world.
They established a capitol of sorts- more of just a collection of beautifully carved out structures in the Rauthar mountains used for governmental purposes seeing as the Rauthar had no real cities still. The caves within the mountain of the moon became a temple, in which lived the Rautharian priests whom defend and maintain the mountain, protecting it from everything- from weathering to invading armies.

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Rautharan Chronology:

Prehistory- Extent of Rautharans limited strictly to their valley in the east of the great continent. Occasional forays out from there, but generally very limited in extent.
~3000-2000 BW- Cataclysm on the surface of Irdya's moon (probably large impact) causes fragments to rain down on the north-eastern portion of Idrya. A particularly large fragment slams into the north eastern area and decimates the entire region for several thousand miles. The survivors begin regrowing the forests destroyed by the impact. Major changes in Rautharan psychology and society as they adapt.
~200BW-200YW- Most of the forests have been restored, and the Rauthar have developed the interior of the crater and begin harvesting the selenite. Over this period of time they develop the usage and manipulation of selenite.
~600YW- a corrupt wesnothian commander thought that he could use the Rautharan's selenite-based technology to destroy the invading armies of the eastern invasion. His encounters with the enemy had left him demented, and he himself turns to necromancers at one point in his attempt to conquer the Rauthar. Although he's finally defeated, in his invasion, a substantial swath of forest was burned, following the trail he took to the crater. Much of the selenite mines were destroyed in the attack. The Rauthar are as crippled as Wesnoth is by the end of these events.
~During the age of technology- the Rauthar, with their connection to the night sky, were the first to take to the stars (not to mention their technology was somewhat more advanced already). However, the Rauthar remain very isolationalistic during this time period. Most of the population left on a series of colony ships bound for worlds suspected of being habitable.
~The fall- It didn't happen all at once- most of the ecological devastation of the Rauthar's forests resulted from the creation of the second sun towards the end of the golden ages. The forests of the Rauthar died off, and war broke out among the nations remaining due to Uria. With the massively powerful weapons that existed at the time, they turned on each other over the quickly diminishing resources and failed diplomacy, further destroying the land. Although the Rauthar managed to repel the onslaught, almost everything was gone by the end.
~Immediately following the fall- Most of the remaining Rauthar begin a second exodus to the stars using the surviving technology- their lands can no longer support their population. They don't go far, staying within the same star system. A small population remain behind to care for the remaining forests- few survived- and guard the crater. The Vault was constructed to store the data and technologies the Rauthar once used, and perhaps, if ever needed, to act as the last refuge to wait out whatever cataclysms may follow in the wake of the fall. The wastelands where their forests once stood are now filled with half-buried war-machines of the end of the technological age. The lands have been badly poisoned and the Rauthar turn from regrowing the forests to preserving what they have left.
~100-200 years after the fall- the Rauthar see that their forests are still dying off. They re-open the vault and use the technology to create an army of nanomachines to facilitate the regrowth. However, they know the regrowth could take over a millenia. The remaining Rauthar take what they have left and retreat to the Vault, putting themselves in stasis until one day, perhaps the forests would regrow. The world at large has forgotten the Rauthar. Various other races move in to their forests and make their homes there.
<<~5000 years after the fall- The forests have regrown to some extent, and the ecology of Irdya has somewhat repaired itself. Rauthar from the colonies have returned home and awakened those in the vault. The rebirth of Irdya begins.>>?

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Rautharan Psychology and Society/Government:
Rauthar, due to their devotion to maintaining and protecting their lands and forests and sacred sites, have tied their government (a rather loose connection of pack leaders as well as a much more formal collection of regional representatives) to helping to perform that very task- thus, the Rauthar have a very strong loyalty to their state. However, this was a much more recent development in comparison to how the Rauthar used to be. Formerly, they lived in small packs and would often fight (more often psychological warfare than not) amongst other packs for territory. They still have "packs", though these packs are much more organized and formally structured that the natural packs they formed. These packs as well are still fairly wary of each other, but at the end of the day, they know that destroying each other is not going to make their tasks any easier- in fact, it means they have more work to do themselves.
Being a meritocracy, no Rauthar could ever depend on being born by powerful leaders or somehow being connected to prestige attained by another Rauthar for social and political advancement- to gain a post, a Rauthar must prove him/herself superior to their competition.
This often entails a set of various tasks and competitions depending on the posting- Rauthar aiming to enter politics must generally prove superior intelligence, ability to lead, charisma, and strength of will. Military advancement is often through being able to kill more powerful enemies. The head of the Rautharan state must prove him/herself superior in every way. Posts such as this may still sometimes be resolved in highly ritualized combats, sometimes even to the death, though that whom knows he/she is losing will generally back down and submit, knowing that his/her services can still be very valuable to the Rauthar as a people.
Attempting to cheat ones way to the top is severely frowned upon. Doing so results in one being forced to live out ones life in shame, shunned by society.
Because crime is usually punished in incredibly harsh ways, not to mention any crime against the state is considered treason, and treason is dealt with by execution, crime rates amongst the Rauthar are extremely low.
In combat, Rauthar vs. Rauthar battles are very highly regulated and ritualized and the participants are obligated to abide by the Rautharan codes of honor. In combat with other races, the Rauthar generally abide by their rules of honorable warfare.

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Rautharan tactics- the Rauthar, although defensive minded, once angered, will generally take the offensive. They have a good mix of units however- the Rauthar (A) lines provide fairly heavy attack infantry, the wolf (B) line provides good scouting options and the ability to quickly grab villages, the spirit line (C) provides units resistant to conventional weapons, and the selenite line (D) provides hard hitting units designed to kill the enemy before they themselves get killed. In general, Rautharan units are geared towards high end offensive combat.

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On to the Rautharan in the game:
Rautharan units are marked as neutrally aligned. [philosophy wise, they are more of a lawful and orderly society, but they could care less about the time of day, day or night]. However, to keep things as simple as possible without making anything overcomplicated, Rautharan magic using units get the same bonus as chaotic units, but only to the magic weapons. They treat normal caves as day. Moonstone caves are treated as night for them. I'll keep it all nice, simple and tidy, so don't worry.
Therefor- use your normal units anytime of the day, but don't send any magic using units to the front lines during the day (unless they have good melee). Also, building magic units in a cave is not really suggested.

[EDIT]-preliminary ideas and brainstorms for attacks are listed. these are quite likely to change over time.

The current units I'm proposing for them are:
Tree A)
A0: Young Rauthar (can be recruited)
L0
These are young Rauthar, training to fight, but not fully initiated into any one "caste".
Claw-blade

A1a: R. Warrior (can be recruited)
L1
Basic foot soldiers for the Rauthar. Soldier and leader upgrade path
Sword-blade

A1b: R. Archer (can be recruited)
L1
Archer for the rauthar- somewhat more expensive than normal archers- they use a metal bow: Rauthar never build with wood. Archer and sniper upgrade path
Bow/arrows-pierce (ranged)
Claws-blade

A1c: R. Night wolf (can be recruited)
L1
Sort of a trainee assassin/commando type of unit- they get stealthed in forests, like woses. Commando/Assassin upgrade path
Dagger-blade +backstab
Spear-pierce +firststrike

A1d: R. Acolyte (can be recuited)
L1
A level one magic using unit. main magic upgrade path
Claws-blade
Moonlight-fire +magic +moon (ranged)

A1e: R. Moon wolf (can be recruited)
L1
Not really magic users (until max unit), but they are tied to the moon like the magic users. Magic/warrior upgrade path.
Sword-blade +moon

A2a: R. swordsman (can be leader)
L2
A better warrior. No ranged attack however.
Sword-blade

A2ba: R. crossbow (can be leader)
L2
Fires multiple, lesser damaging arrows
Crossbow/arrow- pierce (ranged)
Claws- blade

A2bb: R. longbow (can be leader)
L2
Fires once or twice (whatever balance mandates), but deals more damage
Longbow/arrow- pierce +marksman (ranged)
Claws- blade

A2c: R. Assassin
L2 AMLA
Also stealthed at night in addition to in forests. Great for sneak attacks.
Dagger- blade +backstab
Spear- pierce +firststrike +backstab
Spear- pierce +marksman (ranged)

A2d: R. Mage (can be leader)
L2
More magic attacks, still pretty weak melee attack
Staff-impact
Moonlight- fire +magic +moon (ranged)
Blizzard- cold +magic (ranged)

A2e: R. Moon warrior (can be leader)
L2
Gets a magic enhanced sword, still affected by the moon as always
Selenite Sword- blade +magic +moon

A3aa: R. Alpha
L3 AMLA
Better weapons than predecessor, also has moderate ranged attack. Gets leadership.
Sword- blade
Spear- pierce +firststrike
Spear- pierce (ranged)

A3ab: R. Juggernaut
L3 AMLA
Well armored and gets lots of conventional weapons (pierce, impact, blade, and a ranged pierce). Slightly better stats than alpha, but no leadership.
Sword- blade
Spear- pierce +firststrike
Mace- impact
Spear- pierce (ranged)

A3ba: R. Moongunner
L3 AMLA
Uses a rautharan moon gun- its a device that channels the magic from the moon stones using iridium to produce a small projectile. It works like a high end bow- can be fired multiple times, deals nice damage. IS NOT given magic boost but does deal arcane type damage.
Selenite gun- arcane (ranged)
Channel bayonet- pierce
Claws- blade

A3bb: R. Mooncannon
L3 AMLA
A heavier, single shot version of the above.
Selenite cannon- arcane (ranged)
Channel bayonet- pierce
Claws- blade

A3c: R. High mage
L3 AMLA
More powerful version of the mage. No surprises here either.
Blizzard- cold +magic (ranged)
Moonlight- fire +magic +moon (ranged)
Moonbeam- arcane +magic +moon (ranged)
Selenite Scepter- impact +moon

A3e: R. Moon knight
L3
More powerful version of predecessor- now has a couple weapons. Also gets some nice armor.
Selenite Sword- blade +magic +moon
Scythe of the night- arcane +magic

A4e: R. of the moon
L4 AMLA in multiplayer, has L5 in campaign
Can cast the acolyte's spells. Armor is now iridium plated.
Selenite Sword- blade +magic +moon
Scythe of the moon- arcane +magic +moon
Moonlight- fire +magic +moon (ranged)

A5e: R. Avatar of the moon (campaign only)
L5 AMLA
Spells more powerful, also gets a special magic attack.
Selenite Sword- blade +magic +moon
Scythe of the moon- arcane +magic +moon
Moonlight- fire +magic +moon (ranged)
Blizzard- cold +magic (ranged)
Eclipse- cold +magic (ranged)

B0: Wolf Pup (can be recruited)
L0
An interesting unit- it can't attack (only defend), but it's really small and inconspicuous, so it can ignore ZOC's. He can also run quite far. Very little XP needed to advance.
Bite- pierce
Claws- blade

B1: Young Wolf
L1
No longer inconspicuous, he's governed by ZOC's, but also has a ZOC of his own. He can attack. Has even more movement points than predecessor (well, 1).
Bite- pierce
Claws- blade

B2: Adult Wolf
L2
A full grown wolf, he has much better attack. Also another movement point.
Bite- pierce
Claws- blade

C0: Rauthar ephemeral spirit (recruit?)
L0
A fallen Rauthar. May or may not be recruitable. The newly formed spirits struggle to hold onto the world to keep fighting for their cause. They have few HP at this level. Resistant to material-based attacks.
Touch- arcane +drain

C1: Rauthar spirit (recruit?)
L1
The spirit can hold on to existence with greater strenth (=more HP)
Touch- arcane +drain
Extent of mind- arcane +drain +magic(ranged)

C2: Rauthar reborn
L2
The spirit of this fallen Rauthar has advanced to the point where it can control its form and now definitely appears in a Rautharan form.
Touch- arcane +drain
Extent of mind- arcane +drain +magic (ranged)
Sabre of Spirits- blade +drain

C3: Rauthar spirit warrior
L3 AMLA
And its grown more powerful again... This time with some moon-type magic based attacks.
Touch- arcane +drain
Extent of mind- arcane +drain +magic
Sabre of Spirits- blade +drain
Moonlight- fire +magic +moon

D1: Animated Selenite (recruitable)
L1
Nothing more than a magical construct of selenite (moonstone), this creation of Rautharan mages is nonetheless powerful. It is a flying unit, resistant to blade, pierce, cold and fire, but it is very weak to impact and vulnerable as well to arcane attacks. It has limited movement however, as it draws all its power from its controller (the priest who made it.) NOTE: this is NOT summonable- it is recruited like any other unit. It's attacks consist only of magical attacks.
Selenetic lightning- cold +magic (ranged)
Selenetic power- arcane +magic +moon (ranged)
Selenetic aura- arcane +magic

D2: Giant Selenite
L2
This mass of selenite now has a semblance of intelligence and a mild power of its own (thus allowing it to somewhat power itself along as well (more movement) as add more selenite to itself). It also has a mild impact attack (crush) in which it lands on its opponent.
Selenetic lightning- cold +magic (ranged)
Selenetic power- arcane +magic +moon (ranged)
Selenite Shards- pierce (ranged)
Crush- impact
Selenetic aura- arcane +magic

D3: Selenite behemoth
L3 AMLA
This huge mass of selenite is barely reliant on its creator to maintain its existence- if it were allowed to become any more powerful, it could break free and wreak havoc for even its creator's side. It boasts a number of powerful arcane type attacks and due to its huge size, its crush attack is quite dangerous.
Selenetic lightning- cold +magic (ranged)
Selenetic power- arcane +magic +moon (ranged)
Selenite Shards- pierce (ranged)
Extent of aura- arcane +magic (ranged)
Crush- impact
Selenetic aura- arcane +magic

NOTE ON SELENITES: they are all non-living units (ie, no drain, poison, plague, etc) and thus have no personal attributes (or names). They have chaotic alignment.
NOTE ON RAUTHAR SPIRITS: they are undead type units (ie, no drain, poison, plague, etc) BUT (i hope I can get this to work) will retain their personal attributes and names.

More NON-playable campaign/map only units

D5: Free Selenite (map creep)
L5 AMLA
This selenite was the product of a Rautharan mage who allowed the selenite to gain enough power to the point it was fully independent and autonomous. Of course they no longer allow this to happen due to this result.
Selenetic lightning- cold +magic (ranged)
Selenetic power- arcane +magic +moon (ranged)
Selenite Shards- pierce (ranged)
Extent of aura- arcane +magic (ranged)
Moonfire- fire +magic (ranged)
Crush- impact
Selenetic aura- arcane +magic

E5: turreted Selenite cannon
L5 AMLA
This is a giant version of the portable cannon used by Rautharans to defend their strategic locations. It has a "bombard" attack (attack over multiple tiles) and is immobile. These are not used by the player- they are AI controlled.
Rotate- impact
Selenite turret- arcane +magic +moon (ranged)
Selenite turret- arcane +magic +moon (bombard)

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Defense wise, Rauthar all tend to be rather cold and impact resistant, but weaker to fire.
The smaller the Rauthar, the more dangerous impact and cold are, but fire and pierce are less dangerous.
Larger Rauthar are resistant to cold and impact, but weak to fire and pierce.
Armor Rauthar are resistant to blade as well, and the danger of pierce is lessened.

All Rauthar gain large defense bonuses in forests, and in the campaign, mooncaves and deepforest as well.
They are vulnerable in sandy terrain and somewhat in deep water. However, in shallow water, they aren't as defenseless as other races. They deal OK with normal cave floors. They are pretty normal when it comes to most other terrain types.

Wolves share the same damage resistance patterns and defense patterns, however, they are somewhat vulnerable in shallow water as well (as unlike the Rauthar, they are still doing the doggie paddle).

They are both able to travel quite quickly across most terrains, other than sandy terrain. Unarmored Rauthar can swim very quickly through shallow water, though all are impeded by deep water.

Wastelands (in their campaign) leave them very vulnerable, and they have a hard time moving across them.

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New info:
When killed, a Rauthar may leave behind its spirit- it'll start back at L0 or L1 however. They'll also be plague immune as a result of this.
These Rautharan spirits may or may not be recruitable... I shall have to see.
I'll also add in magically controlled constructs of moonstone. These can be recruited.

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If anyone wishes to help, portrait art and campaign scripting abilities would be well appreciated.

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DRAFT stats table
//coming soon, once I figure out how to get a table in here... might have to resort to using an image//


Completed art:

Units:

Small Selenite (D1):
This set of frames is used for moving, hovering (idle), and the main attack (lightning). The lightning attack projectile has its own animation on top. The moonlight attack uses a pre-made projectile image I've seen used in various era packs. I might or might not make my own eventually. The aura attack animation is not yet made.
NOTE: the unit does NOT show up very well on these boards because the lightning effect is white and the unit is translucent. BTW- TC is planned to be done in an overlay. Don't know if its possible. Actual graphic is done, but can't seem to implement that TC correctly.

Animations Completed:
Standing
Death
Attack: Aura
Attack: Lightning (uses stock effect graphic)
Attack: Moonlight (uses stock effect graphic)

Terrain:
Moonstone cave floor (a): <use's type B's transitions> <Modified from original cave terrain- the idea was it could merge fairly seamlessly>


Moonstone cave floor (b): <also has transitions> <Modified from original cave terrain- the idea was it could merge fairly seamlessly>


Polished black rock cave floor (seamless):


Polished black rock cave floor (cut):


(semi) Completed Attack Icons: (may be refined in the future... more than likely really)
Eclipse
Shard


Currently being worked on art:

Units:

Base Wolf image
Wolf portraits?
Attack Icons
Base Rauthar image
Rauthar portraits?
Selenite sprites
Selenite portraits?

Terrain:

Carved Cave wall (with reflections on ground- meant only for use adjacent to polished floor)
wasteland (from blastzone) (stumps from forest, empty ground)
scrubland (mixed plants and dirt)


===================
Edits:

Moved graphics out of quoted post.
1) transparency on the selenite (When not animated anyways) is not meant really for white backgrounds
2) It's just easier to work with out of the post

Added link to thread on my forums (which also host my various other projects)

Updated images (Attack icons)

Changed title, removed duplicate info

Minor edits, Preliminary stats table position added (will probably be made as an image), title changed

[Azar Wolf]

Quick question:
Is it possible to have a TC'd animated overlay?

Also:
I've done a little additional work on the selenite, it now has a death animation (the final 3 frames of it breaking are not finished yet)

[dipseydoodle]

yes i think so by the way the idea and backround of this campaign is a very great idea i've always been wanting a campaign like this, in order to animate the TC you would need to animate ever frame of the sprite with the TC, I think

[thespaceinvader]

Quick question:
Is it possible to have a TC'd animated overlay?

Also:
I've done a little additional work on the selenite, it now has a death animation (the final 3 frames of it breaking are not finished yet)

Possibly. This is something I tried to figure out once before, for something very similar to your selenite, but I had no success at the time, and the project stalled. I've recently come upon a similar project for which I'm going to try to figure out the answer. Watch the Art Contribs section over the next few days, I might get round to posting it...

[Azar Wolf]

Thanks!

At the moment, I'm does some experiments with rendering the sprites from 3d models and then, if necessary, touching them up to wesnoth's aesthetic style.
I've used this process for my transcendence ship renders (which are of a VERY different style), but with the correct render settings and touchups if needed, I might be able to get some good work out of this.

Here are example sprite renders I've done for transcendence in it's own graphical style [THESE SHIP SPRITES ARE NOT FOR WESNOTH! DIFFERENT SPRITES FOR A DIFFERENT GAME! (that's why they are so huge and at the wrong angle) - I posted this disclaimer because people were getting confused.]







Wesnoth uses a completely different style, I'm aware, but point being, that I can probably figure out how to mimic it: if not, I'll just do it the long way, hand-drawing each of the sprites.


///edit///

More graphics completed (more selenite animations, misc. attack icons). No pics uploaded yet.

///edit///

Picks for the couple attack icons uploaded.

///edit/update///

I've begun to make drafts of all the rauthar sprites, male and female versions (by hand... I decided not to render them based on some preliminary tests), though don't expect much for quite some time, as the process is rather slow and time consuming to make each sprite.

[Gambit]

Despite the style differences in art, you're still building on the wesnoth engine, and will need to mirror copies of those horizontally. Or at least I get the impression that the noses on these are facing north?

The TC'd overly should be possible with this. Just use

path/to/file.png~RC(magenta>$side_number):duration,path/to/file2.png~RC(magenta>$side_number):duration,path/to/file3.png~RC(magenta>$side_number):duration

Though I don't think unit.overlays supports frames.

[Mabuse]

nice terrain -
nice ships -

[StDrake]

nice spam -

back to the topic, a different graphical style shouldn't be much of a problem, but that huge ship is going to run into trouble with sticking out to neighbouring hexes, graphics getting over some parts of terrain and other units and under some other. It would easily take up a 7-hex spot, but i don't recall the wesnoth engine providing such operability as multi-hex units

[Gambit]

No but you can simulate it by chopping the multihex unit into 7 units. You have moveto events setup for the middle unit. All the other ones have 0 moves. You can check which way the middle unit is facing and reorient the outside ones accordingly. It's on my summer list is why I already have this thought out.

This gets REALLY easy with the new formula AI thing. {VARIABLE leg.x "$($middlex-1)"} or some such thing.

[Azar Wolf]

Those ships are not for this mod...
As I stated in that post, the ships there are for a totally different mod on a totally different game. (this mod has wolves and stuff, if you read the tl;dr uber wall of text that was the original post, the ships are for Transcendence Extended 2, a mod on a completely different game and engine)

The sprites for the era I'm making are at the moment hand-drawn, not rendered like the ships, though the possibility of rendering them and then touching them up after remains a possible option for me to take.

At the moment, I've made a few drafts (read as: shape outlines to color over later) for all the different frames of a couple units so far.

Comments on balance/unit list/background would be very much appreciated! XD

[Mabuse]

btw, the terrain (polished black cave floor) is far to black and i wouldnt call it seamless
even with a lot of lighting up it just doesnt look very good in the game

needs some tweaking

i just tested it.

[Azar Wolf]

You mean the cut one? I need to change that one, since I've known for some time it isn't seamless, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be used anyways...

I'm looking at finding some dark marbled texture or something to replace the other variant too.

[Mabuse]

of course i always look for new terrain to use, and when i tweaked it so i feel i would use it i will post it

in any case its kinda clear that it should not be significantly darker than the cavewalls
since that will just not look very good

[Azar Wolf]

I was planning on using custom walls for the carved caves, though with the new texture I'm working with instead of the old one.

How are the selenite cave tiles though?

(BTW- if you can, do you think you can send me the code to getting them in-game? Although I havn't tried lately, the last time I did, it didn't seem to like it (the editor would crash).)

[Mabuse]

How are the selenite cave tiles though?

(BTW- if you can, do you think you can send me the code to getting them in-game? Although I havn't tried lately, the last time I did, it didn't seem to like it (the editor would crash).)

no problem with the code
remember that i dont have any transition gfx yet, so no code for them


i dont think there is a problem with the selenite caves, i would guess they wil fit perfectly into the normal cave terrain


EDIT:

so this entry goes into the terrain.cfg (in wesnoth/data/core)
in this case i renamed the first file to "blackmarble"
btw, i made it to a "road", so normal flat

Code: Select all

[terrain]
    symbol_image=blackmarble
    id=blackm
    name= _ "Road"
    string=Ryh
    aliasof=Gg
    editor_group=flat
[/terrain]

this code would go into terrain-graphics.cfg (in wesnoth/data/core)

Code: Select all

{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB  Ryh                  blackmarble2                  17}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB  Ryh                  blackmarble3                  20}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB  Ryh                  blackmarble4                  25}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB  Ryh                  blackmarble5                  33}
{TERRAIN_BASE_PROB  Ryh                  blackmarble6                  50}
{TERRAIN_BASE       Ryh                  blackmarble}

the percentages may not be perfect,. of course it may need some tweaking
btw, the change of the core files is just to display it in editor (without much problems)

to include it inyour SCN, you have to put BOTH into one file in your SCN folder and load it
(lets say the file that contains the code is in a "utils" folder inside your SCN folder, you have to put the following line into your main_cfg

#ifdef MULTIPLAYER
{@campaigns/mySCN}
{@campaigns/mySCN/utils}
#endif

however, i guess you will figure it out.
this is 1.6.X code, i dont know how the SCN Files are initialized in 1.7 (1. yet.
(so there may be another sign instead of the "@" in front of "campaigns")

i woudl think that the rest is ok though