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[Wavecutter]

t doesn't really bother me that they all have the same "chassis". If you look carefully there are a couple of different beard and hair types. That's enough for me. I wonder if he could use transparencies to change beard/hair color?

All that being said, suggesting he start over is pretty audacious after all the work he's done. I also think you could have been more respectful of his current achievements and still offered your criticism. Tough love is for junkies and delinquents. I'm just saying

Also

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Totally cribbed this from the penny-arcade DF thread.

[Ironhand]

Thanks Zoal, and I guess I see where you're going,
but at least for now my goal is not to make a flawless set.

I'm not saying that I don't plan to make a flawless set 
but my first priority is to get a set out there in the first place.

I can always go back and change sprites later.
That's why I'm calling the first release 0.10, rather than 1.0.

Personally, I like a bit of homogeneity in my sprite art.
I'll probably mix it up with different hair and beards,
but I think I'd rather that the first difference that a
person notices between sprites is their profession, rather than their wardrobe.

Also, keep in mind this is all just a placeholder until Toady makes it possible to
assemble sprites procedurally based on description and equipment. 

[Aklyon]

assemble sprites procedurally based on description and equipment. 

That would be interesting.

[Ironhand]

Yeah, it's kind of a joke.

I mean, it would be incredibly awesome.

But if it ever does happen, it'll be quite a while before it does so.


Anyway, this I why I haven't gotten any spriting done this morning:

Spoiler: I've been meddling in a different medium (click to show/hide)

[HLBeta]

I like Ironhand's current approach to dwarves. They may look extremely similar interms of faces and hair color but I find that to be a good thing. The lack of variety among the dwarves' faces makes it easier for me to "read", since the eye is naturally drawn to what makes a particular dwarf different from the others. In Ironhand's set that is going to be their profession color and any tools they may be carrying to further detail their trade instead of their hair or clothes or sunglasses or any of the other visual clutter in the set Zoal posted. Ironhand's set is easy to use because its dwarves are so very similar and it may well persuade me to make the jump from ASCII.

[Wideman]

hmmm it looks awesome dude......

byt will it be ready for tomorrow?? as thats supposedly toady is realsing his new versio XD

also i soo wanna use it as im always being confused with proffessions :/

byt yeah sign me up for play testing....

oh btw GREETS FROM WALES,.... UK .......

[Ironhand]

What I have will be released tomorrow, yes.

So a lot of the professions still look the same,
and you only get domestic animals for now.

[Wideman]

ahh i see...

but i dont mind lol im getting bored of the current grpahics set i am using at the moment lol...
tbh i just wish it had the graphics that the stonesense slate vis is like if ya get what i mean like pal...

[Zoal]

Well, if you don't want to incorporate my criticism regarding original seeds, but there's still something simpler which is important and I hope you will consider.

Your dwarves have a face which is very specific and looks like the face of a certain one man. Your dwarf face has enough detail in it that it really looks exactly like one specific person.
It wouldn't really be a problem on a smaller tileset where the face is so blurred that you can't tell. But your dwarves have the face of *one person* and its repeated ad-nauseum.

Could you create 10 different random faces that are slightly different, and just paste them onto the different dwarves ...

And perhaps a few different shades of beard-colorings.

I think that would solve it. Why not try?

[Ironhand]

That sounds pretty reasonable.

I think I could give some dwarves lighter cheeks or something.
Keep in mind I've still only got about a dozen pixels to deal with.

[smigenboger]

What do you think of doing a horizontal flip for some of them? Perhaps the soldiers (or another grouping) could face the other direction, as to spice up the continuous gazing of the eastern sun. Sheer uniformity looks kind of odd, but then again a haphazard spattering of differently turned heads make look odd too.

(Unless I'm really off, you could have foward-facing dwarves too. Tell me if this wouldn't look right)

[SiN.Daeus]

I like the idea of smigenboger's 'flip thing' because that way it helps distinguishing the soldiers from the civilians during massive crazy slaughters. Also, expanding on Zoal's thing, I think you should make elite military dorfs muscular, because well.. you don't become an elite dorf without doing a few sit ups.

Not bodybuilder or greek mythology-esque, but more definition around the arms and shoulder muscles... or something.

Also, maybe a unique 'seed' for the nobles and unique positions.. dungeon master, philosopher, etc.

[Chariot]

I tend to have military, undead, and nobles facing one way, and all civilians facing the other, as those are the ones that tend to need differentiation in a hurry.

Also, maybe a unique 'seed' for the nobles and unique positions.. dungeon master, philosopher, etc.

Philosopher doesn't actually exist anymore, nor does the guildrep, merchantbaron, merchantprince, etc. They still exist in many tilesets as remnants of earlier versions but have no place in the current game, so not much point in making them.

[Master Catfish]

I agree that simply reversing some would be an easy way to differentiate between dwarves, if you think uniformity is a big problem.  It doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

Personally, I find your graphics set to be by far the most appealing yet.  I will absolutely use it once it's available.  Please, keep up the excellent work!

I hope you don't mind a suggestion.  For the meat icon I see that you have a drumstick.  Unless I'm mistaken, that same icon is used in the fishery workshop, for prepared and unprepared fish, and even some live fish.  If you're tricky, I bet you could make an ambiguous icon that looks like fried ribs that could also be a fillet of fish, or a live fish.  It kills me when I'm playing on Mayday's and I see a drumstick swimming around in a river.

Edit:  Oh!  And if you're still working on the architect having a scroll, I'd recommend having a peek at Mayday's humans.  Some of them have some very good ones.

[Gorfob]

What do you think of doing a horizontal flip for some of them? Perhaps the soldiers

This is a great idea.