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[Cruxador]

I've been using stump-like tree trunk graphics in my tileset since the start and not one person has ever mentioned it in a negative way.

The people who care about or play with the tilesets of a modder on the forum are a very small subset of the people who play the game now, and is an even smaller group compared to all of those who will play the Steam version. What's more, the method by which these players select themselves is very different. I don't think the assumption that fans of your modding are a representative sample of the market for the Steam/itch version is valid.

Toady just went through all the trouble of adding over 1000 identifiers, so that Mike and me can play around with the worldmap. Lots of variaty sprites, edges, etc. So, without further ado, here it is, please let me know what's good, what's bad.

(Some edges are missing, like the glacier or tundra. The 6 red [ ] in the ocean are cursors, it's 6 screenshots put together. )

(image removed because it's big)

overall it looks good and very readable. There are aesthetic quibbles though. The way the grass is rendered under the mountains really emphasizes that it's actually just pre-made sprites slapped down on a background and is misleading since the game doesn't typically have grassy valleys like that in most mountain areas. The hills all in neat lines like a giant has been planting his garden could be touched up. And I have no idea what's gong on at the poles; it seems there's a transition from open ocean to ocean with jagged hills or mountains. Is it meant to be a ton of icebergs floating around? It doesn't really look right with them being the same color as the water. The permafrost area also looks unlike that kind of terrain in reality.

The evil zones are also definitely not intuitive with regard to what they actually represent.

great: mountainhomes (I hope that different civs will have own flag colors)

It would be cool to have a generalized way to recognize civs at a glance, and colored flags aren't a bad choice.

I'd prefer if the maps had a sepia tone, like the old maps (a link because I couldn't find any reasonably small image that wouldn't break the forum). But that's just my personal opinion.
//edit: Regarding the procedural creatures and no backwards joints because of equipment - seems like non-issue to me because it looks like all procgen creatures can't use equipment anyway.

Maps of this sort will generally have been well colored initially, and just faded over time.

[mko]

I've been using stump-like tree trunk graphics in my tileset since the start and not one person has ever mentioned it in a negative way.

The people who care about or play with the tilesets of a modder on the forum are a very small subset of the people who play the game now, and is an even smaller group compared to all of those who will play the Steam version. What's more, the method by which these players select themselves is very different. I don't think the assumption that fans of your modding are a representative sample of the market for the Steam/itch version is valid.

Also:

- it is understood that tilesets are operating with limited API so hacks are to be expected
- tilesets players are already familiar with how trees in DF work
- complaining about free mods made by volunteers is far less likely than complaining about a commercial game
- people deeply disliking tileset decisions will typically not use it rather than complain about it

I would be confused by tree trunk on seeing it. Even as DF player with some experience I was confused.

[Manveru Taurënér]

(updated image posted on reddit)

Dunno if there's another way to fill in gaps in the mountains that people complained about, but I don't think this approach is worth it. The mountains just feel really out of place and blurry now, looked waaay better before even with the green bits, imo.

[Pillbo]

I think the trees look fine. Leaving stumps when you cut a tree down makes more sense than a hole into your fortress does, but it seems more like a suggestion forum post than a tileset issue. You can't really fix game weirdness with the art.

I am curious what the fungus trees will look like. Are they all spotty and colorful like the logs in the Meph pack mod?

Map looks really impressive, what's the resolution of the map tileset?  It would be cool if it could look nicer when you zoomed in but it looks like your pretty limited in pixels.

[mko]

Savannas got much better! I am also unhappy about this mountains, look quite blobby.

[Rekov]

Has something gone wrong with the mountains? This latest image they seem to have a smudge around them which they don't have in the earlier images.

[MoltenIdol]

TREESTUMPS discussion:

Treestumps are possible, if you cut a tree one z level above the ground upon which it grows. You already have those sprites done i guess.

I vote for shaded sprites for uncut trees

After all, the shading represents the inside of an object, exactly like the shades in the walls.

Who would take the time to complain about usermade tileset graphics for trees, when everyone playing df knows how limited dwarf fortress is in terms of actual graphics support.
Also, people are complaining now, because they know its becoming more possible to do something About it.

[bloop_bleep]

Mountains are looking better, but I would rather the color scheme of the mountains fit in with the background. They currently grind too much with the background I think, and look too shiny and metallic. The clash of material textures is a bit jarring. Just a darkening of the mountains would work well here.

[Shonai_Dweller]

TREESTUMPS discussion:

Treestumps are possible, if you cut a tree one z level above the ground upon which it grows. You already have those sprites done i guess.

I vote for shaded sprites for uncut trees

After all, the shading represents the inside of an object, exactly like the shades in the walls.

Who would take the time to complain about usermade tileset graphics for trees, when everyone playing df knows how limited dwarf fortress is in terms of actual graphics support.
Also, people are complaining now, because they know its becoming more possible to do something About it.

I've yet to see anyone post an alternative to a stump which somehow replaces Toady's procedural ascii trees with a sprite which doesn't look like a stump (since, even the ascii version is basically a stump). Besides "stump with a hole" which seems like the same amount of hypothetical "confusion".

Something could be done, but putting aside what little time there is to reprogram a complex tree growing algorithm and hoping nothing goes wrong on release seems to fall into the "not messing too much with the mechanics before Steam" category.

I like the stump with gradient posted earlier for what it's worth.

On the map:
Dwarf Fortresses look like tents. Especially ones away from mountain areas. I get why they have a silly flag, but it just screams 'circus' to me (and not in a Fun way). What does a player fortress in a swamp look like? Same mountain/tent?

It's a hard one. Maybe just chimneys and smoke can convey it (I imagine they have them, even if the actual mechanics aren't in the game). Or go with vanilla, a giant dwarf statue.

[bloop_bleep]

(top left)



Eh? Eh?

Small hole with fading from outside? Eh?

Doesn't look like a stump, and is still recognizably a tree!

Also, take a look at darkened mountains:



Look more stony and less metallic, right?

Previous mountains for comparison:

[Shonai_Dweller]

I know what this needs, (slightly) different looking sites depending on the biome. Then you don't have the weird rock pyramid/tent player dwarf fortresses in the middle of a plain or cute European houses in the desert.

That's not something the artists can add by themselves though.
Too confusing?

[Bumber]

Treestumps are possible, if you cut a tree one z level above the ground upon which it grows. You already have those sprites done i guess.

Is that true? Wiki says otherwise:

It is enough to designate only one trunk tile for cutting to chop down the whole tree it belongs to. Any trunk tile will do, even those that are above ground, or even a single tile of a multi-tile trunk. As a result, it's impossible to "prune" trees by chopping down only parts of them.

[Fleeting Frames]

I think that statement is missing "(in the future)", but yeah I can imagine Toady adding them.

[mko]

(top left)



Eh? Eh?

Small hole with fading from outside? Eh?

Doesn't look like a stump, and is still recognizably a tree!

This is much, much better.

[SuperPluck]

Just to leave my 2 cents on the TREESTUMP discussion.

I agree with Shonai_Dweller here. A tree stump is a perfect representation of the ASCII tile on the original game and it's what is currently used in most graphics too (well, in some it's only an "O" as well, but that's a stump).

I also don't see a better way to represent part of a multi-level tree than a stump with shading.