Visual improvements

[acote]

Long time fan of tome, just giving some ideas to improve the game visuals coming from a game industry artist/gamer point of view.

I'm not sure how much art assets darkgod actually makes himself, or if he has someone else helping him out. Either way, I painted over two screenshots to show some ideas on how to improve the visuals. (also some of these suggestions might not even be possible given the engine limitations, but again, either way..)

Here's 2 rough paint'overs:






I'd be happy to expand on some of those points if you want more detail.

A.

[evouga]

I agree with everything except removing the character frames. Nothing is more annoying than being 2-hit by an archer you didn't see hiding halfway under a tree somewhere. Anything that calls more attention to on-screen enemies is helpful.

[Sradac]

borders around actors are already optional, you can turn them off, partially off, or all the way on with I think 't' or 'n'

[acote]

I agree with everything except removing the character frames. Nothing is more annoying than being 2-hit by an archer you didn't see hiding halfway under a tree somewhere. Anything that calls more attention to on-screen enemies is helpful.

I see your point. I just think there has to be a better way of identifying over layered units than a solid frame. Especially on your own character. I don't mind so much on enemy units (as you mentioned with the hidden under tree bit).

Also sorry for the typos on my attached images. Somehow "add" came out as "ass".. not sure what's on my mind

A.

[The Revanchist]

I think that, visually, those would be a very welcome improvement. Except, again, on enemy borders.
I don't care how pretty the sprite is, if being able to fully admire it kills me. On the player, though, I don't see why not.

To go even further, I don't know why the Player needs a border, in general.


If I recall, Darkgod is accepting of resources like this. Especially ones as good as this.

[ghostbuster]

These ideas are very interesting and could be a large improvement.
I just have a doubt about the isometric view. Obviously better in terms of immersion in the scene, but this may render characters too similar graphically and difficult to differentiate. And knowing whithout any ambiguity which ennemy attacks, if he is melee or ranged, etc, is absolutely vital in the game.

[0player]

In The Battle for Wesnoth, they have a birght circle around a unit's feet instead of a frame.

[acote]

These ideas are very interesting and could be a large improvement.
I just have a doubt about the isometric view. Obviously better in terms of immersion in the scene, but this may render characters too similar graphically and difficult to differentiate. And knowing whithout any ambiguity which ennemy attacks, if he is melee or ranged, etc, is absolutely vital in the game.

The perspective angle doesn't affect visual design. This means, a strong visual design with proper silhouette and proportions should always be easy to read.

Here for example, the characters are drawn out (sketch only, don't have time to render them out, but it will do). They are both in iso perspective instead of the front view (original) yet you should easily differentiate from the human fighter and the goblin archer. And those a black and white sketches.

[darkgod]

Did you just volunteer to contribute many many many tiles ?

[acote]

Did you just volunteer to contribute many many many tiles ?

If I didn't have a full time job and 3 hours of commute to go through every day, I would think about it.

However, If one day you feel like moving onto a new project with a similar flavor to ToME - I can show you what I've been cooking in my lab.

[Bahndriin]

acote, the drawings you have presented look absolutely gorgeous. I hope you reconsider, even if you draw only a few tiles.

[rexorcorum]

Hi, acote

I'm rexorcorum, the resident ToME artist at the moment . Your thread was moved somehow under my radar until recently Darkgod pointed me in it's direction. I think I'm up to the challenge to redraw some two - three thousand tiles , though I would very much appreciate any help in terms of advice, angles for the isometric view, scale, etc - practically everything that you are willing to share.

We are starting with the trees overhaul.

Thanks for your good observations and advises! Cheers!
----------
P.S. I've sent you a PM some time ago, but apparently you haven't been logged in in the forums since then, cause it is still stuck in my outbox.

[Invain]

I strongly prefer current flat 2D character tiles to isometric ones, if you decide to go isometric please make the new tileset optional. The tiles we have now give a clear view of what's going on and I'd rather not have that compromised for the sake of 'immersiveness'. Same thing with UI borders.

Environment changes look good, especially on the world map screen. Just don't mess with the character tiles

[rexorcorum]

We're starting environmental and the playerdolls are nice enough as they are. Also, ToME is staying top-down, don't you worry. The issue is to have a more consistent representation of the environments, because atm some tiles are full 2D, some semi-isometric, some isometric, etc.

[dyze]

hey, new player here.
being an ui geek i just couldnt resist doing some modding right off the bat.
the player frame was the first thing i removed, this just completely broke immersion for me. what purpose does it actually serve?
i also modded the frames on enemies/npc, only keeping the top left corner.
as suggested in this thread, putting the health bar on top of enemies would make them a lot easier too see.
if you placed the health bar on top you could "ornament" it with the tactial frame, combining the two. here is a crude screenshot to illustrate my point:

you could also make objects obscuring enemies somewhat transparant to also aid visibility.

while i think this roguelike has one of the better interfaces ive seen i still think there's plenty room for improvement. will post a separate thread on ui feedback once i've put more hours into the game..