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[Pillbo]

One of the best ways to make the game feel more visually interesting and 'alive' is having variety in the hundreds/thousands of items sitting all over your fort. You could make multiple unique sprites, like in the meph tileset, for floors or beds which are randomly chosen, or you can go the no-brainer route and use the system already in place. If you have 7 quality levels and 4 wear levels why not just use them and give more flavor to the player?

I don't think there's a need to distinguish between items that are exceptional quality and below.

I just don't see any need not to distinguish them. What's the benefit to the player to not have visual differences? Meph already showed he can make all the sprites quick so it's not like it's a development burden. It shouldn't be a problem for modding since there is undoubtedly a way to not include every variation should you choose.

The data is part of the object and game, if that data can be portrayed visually (even slightly) the game gets easier to play and visually more interesting to look at. Even if the only result of making all the quality/wear/contamination sprites was that my stockpiles looked less uniform I'd say it's worth it.

[Manveru Taurënér]

One of the best ways to make the game feel more visually interesting and 'alive' is having variety in the hundreds/thousands of items sitting all over your fort. You could make multiple unique sprites, like in the meph tileset, for floors or beds which are randomly chosen, or you can go the no-brainer route and use the system already in place. If you have 7 quality levels and 4 wear levels why not just use them and give more flavor to the player?

I don't think there's a need to distinguish between items that are exceptional quality and below.

I just don't see any need not to distinguish them. What's the benefit to the player to not have visual differences? Meph already showed he can make all the sprites quick so it's not like it's a development burden. It shouldn't be a problem for modding since there is undoubtedly a way to not include every variation should you choose.

The data is part of the object and game, if that data can be portrayed visually (even slightly) the game gets easier to play and visually more interesting to look at. Even if the only result of making all the quality/wear/contamination sprites was that my stockpiles looked less uniform I'd say it's worth it.

If it could be done without directly conflicting with the decoration system and make things seem to be a different system than they are I'd be all for it. But if it can't be made not confusing I'd say it's best to limit it to the more important bits that have gameplay importance.

[Uthimienure]

Having 12 different kinds of beds, dressers, doors, chests, etc, each randomly chosen when made, along with every variation in quality and decoration could produce a lot of needless checking to make sure what you're looking at is what you think it is really what you think it is at a glance.  What's the need for all the extra variation?  I guess some do and some don't like uniformity.  For me, there's little point because there are much bigger issues to focus on rather than all this detail in graphics.

To each their own.

[Starver]

Maybe we're into the kind of territory that (d)esignate|toggle engra(v)ings already gives us. Except more of a global level setting.

Not really Standing Orders, unless, similar to the auto-Forbid bits, it does any auto (d)|toggle variet(y) (or whatever we decide might be made available) on anything newly made.

But there's probably going to be a whole set of settings, at some point. Maybe even sliders (also, e.g. for in-game alteration of prominance of Announce, Pause and Zoom effects on each event), so why not this opt-out too?

[Baloney]

Last year I wrote http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=173474.msg7961853#msg7961853

In short it was about adding the possibility to tween/interpolate between game states so that things move smoothly instead of everything teleporting between positions. I think the game will get a lot more mainstream appeal if graphics have movement between tiles instead of snapping between them.

Has there been any official comment on this?

(I understand that there's a lot of work involved in just making graphics and improving the interface but smooth movement will shoot the game into the stars. Even if the feature isn't added on release I would love for the devs to make it possible for it to be added in later, and not code themselves into a corner where it would involve way too much rewriting to add it. I bring it up just in the unlikely case the devs haven't even considered smooth movement, hopefully someone have or will mention the idea to them.)

[Meph]

Baloney: Nope, Tarn isn't that far into the coding. It's been communicated though, he knows about it.

To everyone: The feedback on the weapon quality was great. So let's do that again. With instruments and instrument parts.

I prepared a dozen instruments in six materials each, as well as all the components. Those don't perfectly assemble, since some of those are internal parts, or belong to different types that wouldn't mix well. The wiki says that no materials are permitted for rings and neck bowls, hence there are none. ^^

[Starver]

Very interesting. Pity we can't partner a shell bell with metal mallet, bone bellows and stone drones.

(And a bit worried you don't have an inside track on the code, or at least the intentions, and need to reference the wiki!  )

[Uthimienure]

That's a wonderful looking set of instruments, Meph... keep up the awesome work!

[Bumber]

The carried v2 keyboard instrument looks like it's got a cracked cage in the center. Is that supposed to be the bellows of an accordion, or something else?

The constructed drums are layered on top of each other strangely. Maybe have one be smaller instead? The top drumstick seems to merge with the right drum in some, especially for stone. Needs a clearer border between.

[Dishmab]

Ive got a fine fort ive been playing with now, and ive been thinking about the graphics you guys are working on. these instruments really hype me up. i think a lot of new players will be attracted to the game come the graphical release.

I have never been a fan of using bone as a material, but the aesthetics are nice. I feel like my game play style will change based on the new looks.

[DeKaFu]

Not sure if this is the place to say this, but I just saw the recently posted images of the new zone painting interface that shows little icons for each of the zones.

This may seem like a minor thing, but...
Is there any chance that the symbol for the hospital might be altered to use the (universally accepted medical symbol) Rod of Asclepius rather than the (modern, US-centric, based-on-an-error) Caduceus?

The Rod of Asclepius (stick with a snake around it) has been the symbol of medicine for thousands of years, whereas the Caduceus (stick with two snakes and wings) was a symbol of trade and commerce until the 19th century when someone in the US army got confused and adopted the wrong symbol for their medical department. It was widely copied from there within North America, but more recently there's been a push to correct it and several medical organizations have made the switch back to the RoA upon realizing the mistake and (slightly unfortunate) symbolic implications.

It just seems to make sense to use the more historically correct symbol.
...and it's enough of a pet peeve for me that I'll probably end up substituting a custom tile to fix it when I play, otherwise.

[Meph]

The caduceus is often incorrectly used as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice, particularly in the United States of America, due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings - the logo of the World Health Organization uses the Rod of Asclepius as its basis.

Wow... first I used a red cross, which turned out to be copyrighted, then looked for alternatives and out ot 4 versions we picked the caduceus. I feel pretty silly right now, of course that will be fixed.

[DeKaFu]

Don't feel too silly, it's not as common-knowledge as it really should be. Thanks for taking a look, I'm happy I was able to help bring it to your attention.

[Egan_BW]

That's what the caduceus and rod of asclepius mean in our world, but they would mean nothing in dwarf-world. Cly each world should generate it's own symbols to be associated with various concepts such as medicine and the symbols for different zones should be pieced together based off of that. :^)

[Novaris]

so....rather a giant cave spider on a spear?