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[ror6ax]

A suggestion for ease of identification of lower-grade weapons.

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[Bumber]

Masterwork quality sprites don't look any fancier than exceptional, IMO. Yeah, rubies are more valuable than emeralds, but that's not something you think of at a glance. The extra gold is too subtle on some sprites.

I don't think there's a need to distinguish between items that are exceptional quality and below. Masterworks are distinct in that they trigger masterwork loss when destroyed.

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold (+ruby?) to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

[Manveru Taurënér]

Masterwork quality sprites don't look any fancier than exceptional, IMO. Yeah, rubies are more valuable than emeralds, but that's not something you think of at a glance. The extra gold is too subtle on some sprites.

I don't think there's a need to distinguish between items that are exceptional quality and below. Masterworks are distinct in that they trigger masterwork loss when destroyed.

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

Seconded

Edit: Especially as it would be nice to have some indication if an item is decorated or not, even if it doesn't correspond to the actual decoration, which overly decorative quality levels would prevent.

[Superdorf]

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

That'd be nice, yeah.

[Wokko]

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

I agree with these gentlemen

[voliol]

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

Fourthed? Or something. As for the artifacts, I remembered the undead (placeholder) sprites having a similar glow. It's a nice touch, as they both have "magical" properties, of some kind.

[Eric Blank]

I don't think there's a need to distinguish between items that are exceptional quality and below. Masterworks are distinct in that they trigger masterwork loss when destroyed.

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

I do prefer this suggestion over the previous. Although maybe the decoration color can come from the material of the highest quality decoration on the item? That might not be possible sadly.

One other suggestion, is instead of the masterwork version being highly decorated, it could be a pristine, properly constructed vision of the ideal item, and lesser quality levels have variously obvious flaws, like crooked hilts, missing, but not broken plates, obviously imbalanced, top-heavy blades. Boots and helmets might fit loosely/be crooked when "properly" strapped on, gauntlets missing fingers. Spears or other long-hafted weapons could have broken parts of the shaft that were strapped back together with leather bindings and bent at the lowest quality levels.

[ror6ax]

Masterwork quality sprites don't look any fancier than exceptional, IMO. Yeah, rubies are more valuable than emeralds, but that's not something you think of at a glance. The extra gold is too subtle on some sprites.

I don't think there's a need to distinguish between items that are exceptional quality and below. Masterworks are distinct in that they trigger masterwork loss when destroyed.

I'd suggest having undecorated items of exceptional quality and below use the standard sprite. Masterwork adds the ribbon. Decorations add the gold to any quality. Artifacts have the glow, ribbon, and gold (being implicitly decorated with menacing spikes, etc.)

What about encrusted items?

[Eric Blank]

What about encrusted items?

Put a gem of the material displayed on it?

[Schmaven]

It seems like most everyone would agree that showing more item detail in the sprites is a good idea.  Unfortunately, since we're working with very small images, there's a limited number of permutations for each item. The quality levels and wear are very easy to distinguish.  I would draw the line at decorated items having their decorations visually represented just due to the sheer number of possible variants.  Jewel color on the hilt however seems reasonably simple as long as the coding allows for that.

[Bumber]

What about encrusted items?

Aren't those «decorations», too? I guess decorated items could have both gold and a ruby, like the wear/contaminant/quality example sprites. I'm trying to keep things simple in my idea and avoid a bunch of different sprites for every possible decoration.

[[HYBRID BEING]]

and lesser quality levels have variously obvious flaws, like crooked hilts, missing, but not broken plates, obviously imbalanced, top-heavy blades. Boots and helmets might fit loosely/be crooked when "properly" strapped on, gauntlets missing fingers. Spears or other long-hafted weapons could have broken parts of the shaft that were strapped back together with leather bindings and bent at the lowest quality levels.

Wouldn't that be confused for wear?

I think the suggestion to drop different sprites for grades exceptional and below is sound enough. If discerning lesser grades is really necessary, small icons could be added to sprites.

What to do about masterful decorations of exceptional or lesser grade items, though?

[Starver]

Not that I'm sure it's entirely feasible at the given pixel-levels, but base-quality could be reflected by the form (wooden crossbow of very little art being obviously more "sticks" with knots/wiggles; of the finest art would be more pin-sharp lines, well lacquered) while improvement qualities go into the nature/number of the frills (and tassles and bands and end-caps, perhaps like Admirality sleeve ranks and other similar bling). With foreplanning, the irregularities of the basest base item could 'chance' to fit under the every kind of frills-overlay graphic without needing custom frills per base-quality.

'Could' being the operative word. It would more accurately reflect the relationship of respective quality levels, though, if conceivably managed within the resolutiin it has to be compressed to.

A wonky and knotted length of wood should (with the metallic hue-fill instead) be much like a badly cast and rust-spotted length of bar, too, while I'm making wild suggestions for "making it easier".

(The biggest objection being that wear-level masking and baseness of construction are far more likely to clash insofar as trying to convey each intent separately, or perhaps have to receive appropriate customisations according to the mix.)

[Eric Blank]

Yeah it probably would be. The sprites aren't super large, it's probably gonna be tough to tell the difference at a glance. That's kinda why I like the big differences between regular and masterwork and decorated idea over the original with each level being more ornate.

Maybe a single crooked/funny sprites for the two lowest, a good sprites for the two middle tiers, and a red hilt/ribbon on the masterwork, then ornate decorations?

I was also thinking, wouldn't damage be more obvious through cracks overlaying the item not just chunks missing?

[Rose]

If you really want to see every possible decoration on items, there's armok Vision for that.