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[sybir]

Fair point. I was only thinking about items on grass / under trees.

[Meph]

So... we shouldn't post any screenshots, but there are new features in the game now. It's exciting.

In the meantime, please watch grass grow. (None of it is final, it's pretty busy and will be turned down. Bamboo are placeholders for now) Any critique?

[jecowa]

Are we going to have connected textures like you had for your Tables so that adjacent Bamboo can connect?

[Vordak]

How will the plants look on top of these grass tiles?
Do I need to draw a background of grass for plants like situation right now with your set?

Upd. Tell to Toady my observation:
 [PLANT:BAMBOO, ARROW] [PLANT:BAMBOO, GOLDEN] [PLANT:BAMBOO, HEDGE] is better place like plant instead grass.

[mko]

Any critique?

Tiles are really pretty! It is too soon to tell, but I worry that it may be too visible and overwhelming, but maybe more boring grass will dominate noisier and more interesting surface tiles.

[voliol]

Do you have any plans on smooth transition between the grass types? One of the reasons I haven’t been using existing ”graphic-like” tilesets is because of the very harsh transitions between differently-colored grass, and worry I might have the same problem here. Tufts being cut off also looks strange.

The bamboo looks weird to me, like there’s a hole in the actual grass, and there’s bamboo inside the hole. Not 100% sure how to show it though, as I assume other crops still grow on bamboo patches?

I get the wormy tendrils and staring eyeballs, but what are the ones after them before the bamboo?

[ZayZe]

Im so excited for the graphics update...   

[Meph]

Jecowa: Seems to be a yes so far.

Vordak: No background needed. I said the same to tarn, bamboo should be not pathable.

Voliol: yes, there is a good transportation. Bamboo is a placeholder, as I said above. The grasses you asked about are floor fungus and cave moss.

[sybir]

It would be great to see the grass in big picture. I love the initial screenshots for how clean and focused the graphic is - the grass is grass,
I can focus on important things, rather than seeing mishmash of different tiles which represent the grass at different stages of growth (so basically, meaningless thing to me).

[Cruxador]

None of it is final, it's pretty busy and will be turned down.

Did you already turn it down since posting the image? It looks pretty reasonable to me. If not, may be a question of which screen it's viewed on, since I'm seeing it on my phone at this moment. But either way, I've always liked the vibrant flowering meadows of Dwarf Fortress much better than the unnatural and homogeneous modern lawns which tend to inexplicably turn up in a lot of fantasy and historical games.

Maybe it looks too much worse when tiled? It's not like I checked that.

It would be great to see the grass in big picture. I love the initial screenshots for how clean and focused the graphic is - the grass is grass,
I can focus on important things, rather than seeing mishmash of different tiles which represent the grass at different stages of growth (so basically, meaningless thing to me).

To say "grass is grass" in this case is erroneous. Grass has never been a simple homogeneous backdrop unless it's specifically engineered as such. Furthermore, length does matter of you're using the grass to graze livestock, which as far as I can think of is the only case where it matters at all, in a practical sense.

Actually, I think the wildflower blooms in particular are too understated. I  ASCII and most tilesets, when spring comes, the vibrant flowers capture the beauty of the same phenomenon in real life. Since this graphical change is meant to be an upgrade, it would be a shame to lose that with the comparatively sparse and dull flowers shown in these examples. Right now, those show only a dirty smattering of color over a great dominant field of the same late summer green that is shown for growth at other times of year.

[Meph]

There needs to be a balance between realism and video game design.

[bloop_bleep]

What I'm a little worried about is how jarring it might be if you were to stack tall plant tiles next to ordinary rass tiles. The dramatic change in overall color between tiles might seem unnatural. E.g., like with those tall yellow flowers (near the bottom, between the sparse purple flowers and the sparse orange flowers). In fact, you can already see what I'm talking about between the yellow flowers and the purple flowers tiles. Imagine seeing a mostly yellow square like that surrounded by dark green squares like the purple flowers tile. The color contrast brings out the hard edges of the tile grid, especially given that the flowers are cut off abruptly at the tile boundary, which to me seems rather immersion-breaking in a grassy field. I'm thinking soften the edges by either not cutting off tall plants like the yellow flowers abruptly at the top of the tile and allowig them to spill above, or allowing some space for a green layer at the top of the tile, with an organic shape, to break the hard edge.

Otherwise, this is looking really good! 

P.S. Would include an edited graphic to illustrate this, but I'm on my phone right now. Sorry!

EDIT: Whoops, didn't read all the previous posts fully. Sorta similar to what voliol was talking about.

[Cruxador]

There needs to be a balance between realism and video game design.

There already is. That balance is decided by Toady. Wisely, because aesthetically pleasing scenes and graphics don't actually detract from gameplay, which is the premise under which this project is moving forward in the first place.

Furthermore, this isn't the kind of thing that detracts from game development time. It's not like you guys are the ones designing the game. So since you're hired to improve the tileset, it shouldn't be inferior to the original ASCII one. Not just in terms of imposing your personal priorities on the game by making grass less visible (which is a non-starter of an argument anyway, since goblins are the main thing you need to pick out from the grass, and they're also generally green), but by accurately continuing to reflect the beauty portrayed in the game to begin with.

[Meph]

Once again, let's agree to disagree (?)

[Shonai_Dweller]

Once again, let's agree to disagree (?)

You do see what the argument is, right?

Right now the game features spectacular Autumn and Spring scenes added carefully by Toady and now, you've been paid to make a version of the game that people will have to pay money for, and your argument for not including that work is "There needs to be a balance between realism and video game design".

I mean, that's your call to make of course and it's nice that you have full artistic control over your project, wouldn't want it any other way, but you see how people might be concerned (considering we have no other info to go on about decisions that what you say here).