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[Taffer]

I can't imagine how hard you are staring at those glyphs when deciding what to cut out or add. Suddenly I don't feel that bad with 1024 pixels per sprite...

I obsess a little over it, yeah. There's kind of a struggle between what looks good in game and what's closer to the vanilla tileset. Sometimes I'll tweak tiles to make them look good in game, only to find that I've strayed from the vanilla tileset in some way.

Edit: Would you consider working on non-square text sets? I found that a format like this is really helpful to give players the maximum amount of ingame-tiles, while keeping the menu small:

The ingame menu is 32x tiles wide, so if you make a 9x18 text font, to go along a 18x18 ingame tileset, you get 16 "free" map tiles, because the menu is suddenly 288 pixels thinner. Just as an idea, in case you run out of things to do.

I have no interest in rectangular tilesets. I just don't find them attractive or useful. I don't mind the width of the menus, personally. Even if I had the time and interest in relying on TWBT for my tilesets, I'd still stick with a square tileset for the text and I'd still use dwarf letters rather than creature graphics.

[Droggarth]

I see the new 20x is a bit more pixelated (in a good way) and is also easier to read, me like! Definitely feels more retro/vanilla now.

[Taffer]

I've been so focused on Revised that I've been neglecting my artistic duty. I hope this preview makes up for it in some way.









...and then there was only one left. Damascus. As with the 9x9 serif tileset, this required redrawing the whole alphabet, as it just didn't transition well. I think Moscow's improved dramatically after the transition, actually. Some of the original letters were shockingly small for a 10x10 set, so this should be much more readable. I'm quite proud of how the walls turned out. It shouldn't be too long now before I re-release in glorious 9x9 and blocky 18x18.

The main download will feature only four 9x9 tilesets and four 18x18 tilesets, one for each font. No graphics, all dwarf letters. Diagonal fancy walls (although as shown earlier, the serif and sans-serif fonts have much more plain walls). There'll be a separate newb version featuring creature graphics and only two tilesets: serif and sans-serif, each with straight walls and dwarf graphics. 9x9 and 18x18. That way I can keep my main download simple and straightforward and I can punt the straight wall purists, the smiley face purists, and the buggy creature graphics fans to a separate download.

[Taffer]

Thank you kindly to everyone quietly waiting for the next release (or not). Damascus is coming along nicely. It won't be long now until I get a full release out (Damascus is the last piece of the puzzle) it's just a bit of polish left. Definitely WIP. All the little dots make Damascus time consuming to perfect; they line up in unexpected ways. It's a balancing act between 'intricate detail' and 'I want to actually read this'.





EDIT: Also, Droggarth fanart:

[Fleeting Frames]

Compliments to Moscow walls above; they flow really smoothly there. I think removing the blackspace helped.

[Taffer]

Taffer v6.0.0 is out. In case you haven't been reading the preview posts: I burned everything down and redrew as 9x9 sets. This improves readability at the expense of a little bit of detail here and there. I think the tilesets have much improved: I really took my time with this and gave everything a good polish. I had to redo the serif font again: the kerning (space between letters) just wasn't working. The new font isn't perfect, but it's the same width and height as the (excellent) sans-serif font, and I've tried to give it some style.

The Damascus font actually came out pretty readable in my opinion. Water, grass, and sand tile beautifully with that set: I wanted to have the big world map be drawn in that tileset, but I figured I'd better stick to the default font. Consider giving it a try.

Hopefully the way I've structured the downloads isn't too confusing. It makes sense to me to split up the dwarf letters and the creature graphics entirely—you had to edit init.txt yourself before and turn the graphics off—but it might confuse people. I've been using 'vanilla' too much and 'canon' doesn't make sense for anything but the default tileset, so I opted for 'orthodox'. And if I have orthodox tilesets, it only makes sense to me (a Crusader Kings 2 player) to have heretic sets (by the emperor...).

Anyways. Enjoy, or be pissed off or indifferent. At least do me a favor though and let me know why you're pissed off or indifferent, so I can improve things going forward.

The 10x10 and 20x20 sets are preserved in Git history. I don't really feel like maintaining them going forward, but I can make them more visible if enough people ask...do give the new tilesets a try though, they really are much more readable.

[Droggarth]

Woah, I happened to continue playing DF just a day before this new release.. wait a minute. *looks closer at all The ‘Heretical’ tilesets while noticing something else.*
Nice! Never thought of using diagonal walls before but since I am a resident heretic here I gotta give Damascus a try, sure looks artsy and spicy to see. Not sure if I get used to letters having lines on the bottom but awesome detail on everything else!

EDIT: Also, Droggarth fanart:

Noice! Definitely my kind of Khorne symbol/mark as it has the broad element I like, thanks! Sorry it took this long to notice, I took a short break from the game.


edit: Heh, for some reason my eyeballs feel like popping out of their sockets trying to read anything other than Damascus' letters. Tested all 18x18 'Heretical' tilesets just now for readability and Damascus, despite taking a second/half a second to focus on what I'm looking at.. at least my eyes are content in their sockets. Mind you my eyes are used to the 20x default one I previously commented on but that aside I'll be playing the game with the 18x18 'Heretical' Damascus for a while or at least as long as I can manage for the sake of artsy looking DF gaming experience. Can't stretch it enough how much of a treat this feels and looks like for this game!

edit2: Aye, with other tilesets my eyes aren't used to some of the spaces between thinner letters, Damascus evens it out for me with those lines plus some of the letters look broader too so that helps. Doesn't help though that I'm as odd as the Warp itself but I hope I've been of some help with my tetrachromat eyes.

[Taffer]

...
Nice! Never thought of using diagonal walls before but since I am a resident heretic here I gotta give Damascus a try, sure looks artsy and spicy to see. Not sure if I get used to letters having lines on the bottom but awesome detail on everything else!
...
edit: Heh, for some reason my eyeballs feel like popping out of their sockets trying to read anything other than Damascus' letters. Tested all 18x18 'Heretical' tilesets just now for readability and Damascus, despite taking a second/half a second to focus on what I'm looking at.. at least my eyes are content in their sockets. Mind you my eyes are used to the 20x default one I previously commented on but that aside I'll be playing the game with the 18x18 'Heretical' Damascus for a while or at least as long as I can manage for the sake of artsy looking DF gaming experience. Can't stretch it enough how much of a treat this feels and looks like for this game!

edit2: Aye, with other tilesets my eyes aren't used to some of the spaces between thinner letters, Damascus evens it out for me with those lines plus some of the letters look broader too so that helps. Doesn't help though that I'm as odd as the Warp itself but I hope I've been of some help with my tetrachromat eyes.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you like the Damascus tileset! I'll give the serif tileset another pass and widen the letters a bit. I can't widen the sans-serif set as easily, but the serif set is thinner than it needs to be.

[Droggarth]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you like the Damascus tileset! I'll give the serif tileset another pass and widen the letters a bit. I can't widen the sans-serif set as easily, but the serif set is thinner than it needs to be.

You're welcome! Damascus is definitely a keeper for me as I just finished another milestone in my adventure after a long trek across the world. Buildings used to look so bland before but now even simple houses and tents make me imagine something much more exotic, I'm loving it. I guess sometimes burning it all down and starting from scratch can really work wonders.

[Koumakan]

Very nice, definitely better than the 10x10

[jaccarmac]

Was using Damascus before and upgraded when I noticed the Git had. Took a while to adjust to the changes but I'm liking it so far. Will need more time to solidify my opinion on it. Super happy for new Taffer updates regardless!

[Taffer]

You're welcome! Damascus is definitely a keeper for me as I just finished another milestone in my adventure after a long trek across the world. Buildings used to look so bland before but now even simple houses and tents make me imagine something much more exotic, I'm loving it. I guess sometimes burning it all down and starting from scratch can really work wonders.

I'm glad to see another Damascus user. It's not perfect, but I'm proud of it. I'm excited to further improve the tileset. Redrawing my work was worth it, even with the rough patches. Thank you!

Very nice, definitely better than the 10x10

Thank you! Let me know if you have any complaints!

Was using Damascus before and upgraded when I noticed the Git had. Took a while to adjust to the changes but I'm liking it so far. Will need more time to solidify my opinion on it. Super happy for new Taffer updates regardless!

I look forward to reading your opinion; I'm happy that you like it and pleasantly surprised to see another Damascus user. Thank you!

It's worth adding that I'm planning on giving the heretic tilesets another pass. The tiles are closer to ASCII than before. This will change now that I have separate orthodox tilesets. There's no reason why I can't have fancy trees again, and I'm looking forward to drawing branches in place of the '1/4' symbol. I'm not going to ruin my tilesets by re-introducing the graphical oddities that made me draw them to begin with—like screw pumps that look like barrels—but there's plenty of room for graphics to creep back in where it's safe to have them.

I don't know if that's good news or not, but the worst part about my new update is how I've redrawn most of the graphical tiles closer to vanilla, and  I want to reassure people that I have other plans. There'll always be the orthodox tilesets for people that want them. My first comment complimented my fancy trees, it would be a shame to do away with them.

It looks very clean and readable, a great ASCII set. Those fancy trees are nice as well.

[Taffer]

Version v6.1.0 released! I tried to fix the kerning on the serif font and accidentally created the new 'Hyrule City' font. (I widened the 'I', but then it just looked obese. So I hollowed it and was reminded of Breath of the Wild, and I took it from there). It even has little triforce-esque mountains!



Hyrule City and Moscow are available as both Heretical and Orthodox fonts, making Damascus the only Heretical exclusive.



The 10x10 serif font has odd kerning around capital 'I', and widening the 9x9 serif will re-introduce the same problem. I'll probably just ignore it and bring the 9x9 serif back (more or less) to where the 10x10 serif was, but for now I've left it as it is. Good kerning or a better serif font, pick one.

[Mallard]

I'm a new player who's been lurking around the forums for a month or so, but I just wanted to say that I love this set. It makes the game look beautiful, and that makes me want to play it more! Thank you for this labor of love.

A quick question: If I wanted to try out the older 10x and 20x version of your set, which one would you recommend? 5.2.1? I'd like to try out the "definitive edition" of your classic set, if there is such a thing.

[Taffer]

I'm a new player who's been lurking around the forums for a month or so, but I just wanted to say that I love this set. It makes the game look beautiful, and that makes me want to play it more! Thank you for this labor of love.

Apologies for my delay. Thank you for the kind note.

A quick question: If I wanted to try out the older 10x and 20x version of your set, which one would you recommend? 5.2.1? I'd like to try out the "definitive edition" of your classic set, if there is such a thing.

I agree with 5.2.1 as the "definitive 10x10". If there was something about the older sets I liked, I'd have added it.

There was a hand-drawn 20x20 set: the release before they I removed them might be worth looking at. My large gand drawn sets never looked right. I was smoothing the blocky edges, but if I was drawing at 20x20 to begin with the whole tileset would look different. 10x10 was already de facto the definitive version, so I made it official.

A long time ago I was using a pixel-art shader than cleaning it up by hand, but that was taking too long. Some people on 4chan like these versions.