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[Kyzrati]

While it's true layering could work without being too slow--after all lots of games do it--it's easier to do that kind of thing when different types of objects are rendered differently. The way the terminal emulator works is by treating *all* cells identically, so adding sub-layers would apply that affect across all cells on every interface layer. The interface is already composed of a couple dozen "layers" , so further subdividing each of those could compound into a pretty bit hit on rendering speed.

There will be several dozen classes, with 2-5 variants each, though the loadout of all robots in a given class will always be of the same category, just like in the 7DRL. E.g. all programmers are armed with some type of electromagnetic gun, all hunters are armed with ballistic guns, etc. Which specific type beyond that isn't too important.

Incidently, I did the same thing with the DCSS sprites, except mine had the same level of "stuff", but with 5 frames of animation for each. Wtf was I thinking? It was SO monotonous.

Wow, animation. Yeah, I didn't go nearly that far, just added some hundreds of new items of my own creation. Really liked those paper dolls. Denzi did a great job.

edit: have you ever noticed how every one of my suggestions, whilst feasible and possibly good, requires extraneous coding that would only slow down project development? Honestly, just ignore them. Iz trying 2 help. Never let me do that

Don't worry, it's not just you
I could give you a generic response like "GO MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN GAME!" if you like

[sambojin]

Will do one day. I have a dream. With ten layers of graphics rips/edits and concept ripoffs. It'll be like Rogue Legacy, but set in the Wonderboy world. It will sell for 99c. There will be legal troubles.........

[Kyzrati]

Haha, well... 7DRL is next week.

I'm too busy working on this one from 2012 to participate

[sambojin]

Do you want tiles portrayed top-down, pseudo-side-on (DoomRL'ish) or full-side-on (DCSS)? I'd probably go for the top-down look, because it's not overly done (or done well) and fits neatly into the graphics/terminal theme. Are rotations necessary? Oh, and colour depth. 16 shades or 256? Or actual mono? Please make it more than 2........

The limits of gray-scale sprites in such a small area pixel-wise actually sounds like a fun thing to work with. Hard, but cool. I'll make up a bunch over the weekend depending on the format you want. Even if they're just used as placeholders to test in the engine, it'll be a laugh to see what can be done with mono shading.

[n9103]

...it'll be a laugh to see what can be done with mono shading.

Feel free to reference any original GameBoy title. Mono was all there was for almost a decade.
Looking forward to them.

[sambojin]

I can work with four shades, just not pure monochrome. But it is the 21st century and all that. If we could have 16 shades, imagine the possibilities

I've even heard of some funny talk about millions of colours. Not even shades of grey, actual colours. It'll never catch on.

[Kyzrati]

Do you want tiles portrayed top-down, pseudo-side-on (DoomRL'ish) or full-side-on (DCSS)? I'd probably go for the top-down look, because it's not overly done (or done well) and fits neatly into the graphics/terminal theme. Are rotations necessary? Oh, and colour depth. 16 shades or 256? Or actual mono? Please make it more than 2........

Back when I did my own I figured front-on made the most sense. Easiest to distinguish, especially for the small dimensions. True top-down might work, too--I guess that would depend on the artist. You can see the 7DRL sprite sheet for examples.

There are no rotations, and any shade from 0-255 is acceptable, though I would imagine fewer shades overall would work better with the sharper look of the interface.

There's a bit of information on how to do sprites included in the modding manual that comes with the old 7DRL version.

One or two of the largest robots (at least the Behemoth) will actually be 2x2 cells this time around, which means double the available resolution for them.

Right now for the new game I only have 12x12 fonts ready, by the way. Haven't gotten around to doing the 10x10 and 16x16 versions for the map and interface (though the art has those already).

[sambojin]

Sounds good. I really should be looking for a job, but unemployed "artist" might work for a few days for me. I'll see what I can do. It's not too bad to conceptualize things in side and top-down, so a few of each might occur.

[firsal]

Awesome

PTW

[Kyzrati]

Read about how all those items were balanced in Cogmind, in 1500 words and 6 charts!

Spoiler: Includes the never-before-seen original design notes from Cogmind 7DRL ;) (click to show/hide)

[Kyzrati]

Working on content now. Read about (and watch!) ASCII particle effects in development.

Spoiler: GIF (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: GIF (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: GIF (click to show/hide)

[sambojin]

You beauty. The excellent particle effects were one of the things that drew me to x@com in the first place. Seeing all that glorious ascii code in action inside Cogmind will be amazing.

I will get around to those sprites at some point, but I've got this horrible idea that I'll always be playing Cogmind without them anyway. Once again you've outdone yourself Kyzrati

[Kyzrati]

Thanks, I'm trying my best to do "glorious" well!

I think ASCII suits the game perfectly, but some people won't touch the stuff so sprites will be necessary, and they'll pretty much even have to be the default

More recently I've been working on ASCII art, yet another type of fluff that I can show off as something unique to the game.

Spoiler: Stuff like this (click to show/hide)

There's more of that stuff in my Twitter, but it'll start appearing on the blog soon, too.

[Kyzrati]

The first post about ASCII art. More to come. (Just finished drawing 600 pieces of ASCII art and added them to the game!)

Now you can see the Neutron Cannon in all its glory:

[sambojin]

Love it. Used to be a bbs'er before the internet "switched on" in Australia. Ascii and ansi art was the default of what was cool back then, so I can't wait to see the rest of the items in Cogmind. I quite like the unshaded "line-art" style, rather than character-textured, block shaded or other styles of ascii art. Checked the blog, and the mixture of block and line art looks great. I can imagine how sick it will look with the "syndicate lighting twiddle" that the UI tends to use for scans/menu changes. Any chance of a quick .gif with that effect over it? It should really bring out the art-style.

Or the "yellow particle beam" effect from the above post, slowly coalescing into the item (2d ascii morphing. YEAH!) Or something like that. Yellow/white horizontal scan with item characters/colours heightened and fading to actual colours would be pretty. Or blue scans? Whatever. There's little reason to not use the particle engine to pretty stuff up, but how much is too much?