Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[i are not good with compu]

You obviously wouldn't play with transparency enabled all the time because it's ugly as hell.

And cutting the walls in half doesn't share this problem?  :p

That said, were DF to go (psuedo) iso, I'd support both as togglable options.  You could play with either on permanently if you want, and resorting to periodic checks isn't exactly torturous.

psuedo iso means that it looks isometric but no tile leaves it's square... there's no possibility for occlusion

Oh, right, hadn't considered that.  Okay, scratch (psuedo), then.

I recently played an iso roguelike that worked like I described and I could see how it would be a pain in DF to toggle constantly for stuff - hell, I ended up searching frantically for stairs before I realized how it worked.  But I still contend that having the option to turn those effects off and on is the best way to handle it, since both half- and see through-walls are hideous.

On another note, CastlevaniaRL is gorgeous.

[Tormy]

Tormy: pixel isometric is actually exactly as easy to make as top-down. It's cavalier that is difficult because the z-axis is diagonal.

Really? I thought that it is much harder...either way the problem is that we are talking about something, what probably won't be implemented ever OR in X years maybe. [Magic anyone?  ] I guess that the max. what we will have is a separated txt/engine [presentation arc], so basically the display method itself won't be changed, at least not in the v1.0 "era". This is not 100% of course, but we know Toady and let's be realistic....
Just a note: if we gonna have an isometric display method ever, I would like to see a rotatable isometric view. [4 camera angles: N,E,S,W].
Why? Because in a game like DF, transparent walls for example wouldn't work very well, at least imo....example: engranvings/items on transparent walls? How could that work?

[i are not good with compu]

either way the problem is that we are talking about something, what probably won't be implemented ever OR in X years maybe

This is the suggestions forum, right?
... 
Okay good, for a second I thought you were describing something out of place 

[Granite26]

Tormy: pixel isometric is actually exactly as easy to make as top-down. It's cavalier that is difficult because the z-axis is diagonal.

Really? I thought that it is much harder...either way the problem is that we are talking about something, what probably won't be implemented ever OR in X years maybe. [Magic anyone?  ] I guess that the max. what we will have is a separated txt/engine [presentation arc], so basically the display method itself won't be changed, at least not in the v1.0 "era". This is not 100% of course, but we know Toady and let's be realistic....
Just a note: if we gonna have an isometric display method ever, I would like to see a rotatable isometric view. [4 camera angles: N,E,S,W].
Why? Because in a game like DF, transparent walls for example wouldn't work very well, at least imo....example: engranvings/items on transparent walls? How could that work?

I think framing the discussion is helpful no matter how long it takes.

(Especially if the discussion leans to a larger tileset (since we've got more real estate these days) that does some of this in a fake way...)

[Reasonableman]

Rasonable: since I haven't playes Stronghold and Tormy's screenshot doesn't really show how the problem is fixed there, could you elaborate?

Well, Stronghold's isometric system allows you to "pull down" walls and large structures so that they don't interfere with your view. Forgive the large images, but it's a tad difficult to explain properly:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Tormy]

Rasonable: since I haven't playes Stronghold and Tormy's screenshot doesn't really show how the problem is fixed there, could you elaborate?

Well, Stronghold's isometric system allows you to "pull down" walls and large structures so that they don't interfere with your view. Forgive the large images, but it's a tad difficult to explain properly:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Interesting...frankly I didn't remember this.
Now this combined with a rotatable iso view would be a good start. 

[Footkerchief]

Rasonable: since I haven't playes Stronghold and Tormy's screenshot doesn't really show how the problem is fixed there, could you elaborate?

Well, Stronghold's isometric system allows you to "pull down" walls and large structures so that they don't interfere with your view. Forgive the large images, but it's a tad difficult to explain properly:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Interesting...frankly I didn't remember this.
Now this combined with a rotatable iso view would be a good start. 

If you want to see what this looks like in action, check out Mithaldu's Lifevis.  It already has "pulldown" functionality as you can see in this video: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v16314761MGwKDQR7

(that's my fortress hell yes)

[Mike Mayday]

Hey dudes, I think someone brought up the question of flying creatures in isometric view (how you couldn't see where exactly they are) so I made these two pics:

and alternatively, when moused over:

[Mike Mayday]

A GENIUS! The tiles are still 32x32, the creature tiles can be somewhat larger AND we don't have to worry about walls obstructing the view!

[Duke 2.0]

 
 @ Flying unit example:

 Now do it 30 z-levels into the air. Although from what I can see, it would work wonderfully. Lets just see an example, just to see it pulled off. I know for sure flying enemies appear quite often ten z-levels in the air.

 As for the recent example, that would be interesting. Mayhaps some more common joined objects, like the Trade Depot, common bedroom designs, and a dining hall.
 Because simple examples often hide crap like that. Lets just see. I have high hopes.

[Mikademus]

ROTATED CAVALIER

Yeah, that's a good solution!

*Mikademus approves*

[Granite26]

nice.... Now all I need to do is get the whole tile set and convince my graphics card to rotate 45 degrees...

[Mike Mayday]

Great. I will work on a more interesting mockup then.

[Tormy]

Great. I will work on a more interesting mockup then.

Nice, this is getting better and better. 
The rotated cavalier view looks a bit weird at first look btw...but I guess it could work.

*edit*

Mike I think that your rotated isometric view would look like this with some gfx. Not bad!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Duke 2.0]

 Also note: Unless we can make drawbridges look ok, we really would need the ability to have seperate graphics for these things.