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[Alehkhs]

I don't suppose a unified three-quarter view is on the table, rather than the mix of three-quarter objects and top-down structure? 

[Meph]

If we had an isometric view like in Stonesense, yes. But not with the chess-board like grid DF uses now. Especially when it comes to objects that have an orientation, like windows, doors and the like. It would multiply the amount of sprites, because we'd have to do them 4 times (north, east, south, west). I think it might also cause issues with multilevel view.

[Alehkhs]

Ah, I wasn't meaning full isometric, but just that the "southern" face of the walls be perceptible, rather than entirely parallel with the player's view.

A quick, 1-minute mockup:

[Meph]

Don't murder me for this, but here is a 20min mock-up of a different tree design that respects the position when changing z-levels, keeping the same top-down perspective as other terrain features like walls/floors.

[Meph]

Ah, I wasn't meaning full isometric, but just that the "southern" face of the walls be perceptible, rather than entirely parallel with the player's view.

A quick, 1-minute mockup:

I know what you mean, but it opens Pandoras box. Lets say engravings: Dwarves logically engrave the side of the wall, not the top. So we'd add engravings to East-West facings walls on that large, visible area you added. But what about engraved walls that go North-South? Those you only see from the top, without any nice surface area. We can't add engravings there.

I'm very familiar with those issues because oh-so-smart-me decided to use exactly that style of wall in my own tileset.

[Alehkhs]

That's true, engravings become a bit more abstracted in their presentation with that manner of wall - of course, engraved walls (as with most everything else in the game) are already rather abstracted in the game.

Is there an example of an engraved wall in any of the currently shown mockups for the Steam tileset?

[Meph]

Sure. The general idea is something along these lines:

[Alehkhs]

Hmm. I'm not sure why that couldn't remain in place for all faces of an engraved wall minus the southern, where it would be "extended" upward to create a three-quarters angle. 

I guess I'll wait to see how it all comes together - I'm especially curious to see where things might go with relation to multiple z-levels.

[Mike Mayday]

@Meph - I'm working on something very similar right now

@Alehkhs - I initially proposed something like that... only even more advanced (slightly). The final decision was that we should start with a normal top-down view and then see if we can make a PROPER 3/4 view later on. I very much want to do it, at least.

[Alehkhs]

Yeah, just having a single, unified tileset with all the new graphical support will be great! Hell, if nothing else, I'm sure people will be putting out personal tweaks to it via Steam Workshop or otherwise.


Really happy that there's already been some decent transparency regarding the whole Steam DF project. Excited to watch it as it comes together!

[Death Dragon]

I have the same opinion as Alehkhs. The clash between true topdown environment and oblique objects is a bit too harsh.

Maybe adding the shadows will improve it, but this looks way too much like holes in the ground you could jump over:

[Meph]

I'd like your opinion on something else: Animal men.

There are about 200 of them in the game and they are rarely seen, so some kind of automated process to create them would be nice. I made a little test with 1 basic body, copying over the skin/hair texture and the head from an animal. The results look like this:



Obviously they could look nicer, but this solution has one major advantage: Positions of bodyparts, hands/feet especially are always the same, which means they can show the equipped items (swords, shields, armor) just like regular civ members.

So, what do you think about the look?

Even while naked the sprite would show clothing, as a visual reminder that those are intelligent animal men, not animals.

[Alehkhs]

ooh! I like those.

It's not terribly important, but a possible solution to the "never nude" situation would be to make their intelligent nature evident through posture. I like the hand-on-hip posture, but what if the other hand was up in a hailing position when unclothed? Similar to the Voyager plaque:





But then what if they're holding a weapon.. hm. Well, I suppose that would still be an indication that they were more than your standard animal!

[Asin]

ptw

[Meph]

Posture gets weird once you have legless animal people like snail-men or fish-people, or things with multiple limbs like ant-men/mantis-men. And some animals already look human-like, anything bipedal like kangaroos or monkeys/apes. The clothing really helps to set them apart.