Mod: Community Sprites Update Mod v1.06

[Globu]

Originally Posted by Sombre

I honestly think few of those are actually better than the originals.

Originally Posted by llamabeast

I think none of the ones *not* on your list of definites should be included.

Additionally I don't like Zepath's crone, lord of fertility or sphinx.

When in doubt I think the vanilla sprite should be used. The unfamiliarity of a new sprite is only worthwhile when the new sprite is actually better.

Your enchantress is great.

As for the others, it seems I "clearly" overreached with the definite list.

So perhaps the list of definite improvements is much shorter. Of course, it's likely this will be a pick-and-choose thing anyway, so the question becomes a policy decision as to where to draw the line.

Thanks, llamabeast.

Originally Posted by Sombre

The kind of graphical improvement I'd really like to use would be one that attempted to clean up and sharpen up the graphics in the same style as KO has. Just making them less blocky and lowres, without adding too much detail or replacing them with a graphic that's basically taken from somewhere else (as many graphics are, though usually modified).

I may try my hand at it myself some time later, but I make no pretense here; I'm neither skilled as an original artist or a reviser of old low-res images. My work so far is just adaptations of miniature pics and other images (though I am getting the hang of more extensive modifications in that regard, which may or may not transfer as a skill to revising old sprites). So I suspect I may not be able to produce what you're talking about here.

Originally Posted by llamabeast

Oh, actually I do like Zepath's dragons better than the originals. Though it's a pity their necks are so long.

I think I might like my dragons even more, but that's assuming I ever get round to finishing them.

Originally Posted by MadGiraffe

-dragons! Could be a little more dragon-y (in the chimeric sense) and 'epic'. And some pictures of what you, Globu, consider a 'classic' dragon would be nice.

Actually, you know, I do like Zepath's dragons aesthetically on some levels, but I find the attack sprites to be a little bit underwhelming, and they look anatomically unwieldy. I hope you finish those dragons soon, llamabeast.

And, to answer you as well MadGiraffe, the reason they don't appeal to me so much stylistically, and why I consider them "more fantastical," is because I prefer a style with a bit more of a nod toward physiological believability. Four-legged dragons with wings are usually drawn with dinky connections to the main body and no noticeable musculature to support them, with the hand-wave rationale of "they fly by magic." Okay, okay, I can handle that, since no creature of a dragon size IRL, as far as I've been made to understand, could fly without massively huge wings and musculature (and I don't think there are *any* four-legged creatures with wings, are there? -- that hits pegasi, chimerae and so forth as well), but, again, it's just my preference for a depiction that at least takes into account the need for those things.

In that regard, if you want a picture of a dragon that, anatomically, I find much more believablish, actually, the vanilla sprite is pretty decent in that regard. Not perfect by any means, but much smaller body-size/mass to wing ratio. But I suspect epic and physiologically-accurate pull in opposing directions.

But remember, in the end, I am most certainly not the arbiter of right and proper dragon here. Just stating my own preference.

Originally Posted by MadGiraffe

Here's a list of units I'm currently working on and planning to improve (for now, hope to polish all the graphics to a certain degree eventually, at least fix the shadows/shading/bad anatomy/silly poses): [ . . . ]

Welcome. I'm relatively new myself.

Excellent. I look forward to seeing your work. Although, as you can see so far, it's a pretty tough crowd here when it comes to revising existing artwork.

Of the things you mentioned, I have done a mammoth for Kennydicke's Mongol mod. It's not necessarily limited to use only with his mod and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, but it is noticeably bigger than the standard elephant and mammoth and is not set up with a howdah and Caelians.

Big Mammoth