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Underrail [PRE-RELEASE THREAD, GO TO NEW THREAD]

betamin

Learned
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
626
This looks great
 

Styg

Stygian Software
Developer
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
742
Location
Serbia
Character Portraits

I've been working on the first character portrait the last few days (among other things). It's not done yet.

PortraitWIP.jpg


This is hard work, but very fun. It's the kind of graphical work I enjoy because you are heavily rewarded for investing in details and there's not much repetition, unlike when you have to draw a complex object from many angles or when you're doing wall spritesheet or some such (I love isometrics really, but it can be such a pain).

I'm debating whether I should refine the portrait with smooth shading in the end or leave it as more of pixel art. Most things in the game (except very small objects) have smooth shading, but portraits are sorta design aspect of their own so they might be fine as pixel art. Portraits are as much part of the interface as of the "in-game" world, so I think it's just as important (if not more important) that they fit in well with HUD graphics and icons. Portrait style will also guide the style of backdrops and boxshots when I get around to them (will probably get a professional to do those, however).
 

Surf Solar

cannot into womynz
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
8,828
Nice! Hehe, I'm doing the same for my game at the moment, so it's cool to see other people having the same issues. ;)

The Potrait looks good already - I'd personally go for pixel-art. The only thing which looks a bit stiffy is the relation from nose perspective to mouth perspective - looks a bit weird.
 

Johannes

Arcane
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Nov 20, 2010
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casting coach
Snipe.gif

Random comment: It doesn't make sense to relate the sniping damage with how high your stealth skill is. Not only it isn't very realistic, it seems boring for high stealth PCs - instead of having to use your stealth more creatively in combat, you can just rely on these snipes. Or if it's too weak for a high stealth PC to rely on too much, it'd probably end up relatively worthless for anyone but the best stealth guys, which is kinda lame too.

Maybe this isn't the case because of some mechanics I don't know, but I doubt it.
 

Styg

Stygian Software
Developer
Joined
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Messages
742
Location
Serbia
Surf Solar said:
Nice! Hehe, I'm doing the same for my game at the moment, so it's cool to see other people having the same issues. ;)

The Potrait looks good already - I'd personally go for pixel-art. The only thing which looks a bit stiffy is the relation from nose perspective to mouth perspective - looks a bit weird.

You're absolutely right about the nose. It didn't register with me before you pointed, but it's clearly inconsistent in perspective in relation to other things. Thanks. :salute:
 

Styg

Stygian Software
Developer
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
742
Location
Serbia
Johannes said:
Snipe.gif

Random comment: It doesn't make sense to relate the sniping damage with how high your stealth skill is. Not only it isn't very realistic, it seems boring for high stealth PCs - instead of having to use your stealth more creatively in combat, you can just rely on these snipes. Or if it's too weak for a high stealth PC to rely on too much, it'd probably end up relatively worthless for anyone but the best stealth guys, which is kinda lame too.

Maybe this isn't the case because of some mechanics I don't know, but I doubt it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Stealth is more of a combat -alternative- skill in this game. Bonuses like these are meant to give it some direct combat usefulness as well so that the characters that invest heavily into it don't end up crippled in combat, because, like in most RPGs, there is a fair amount of unavoidable combat.

Btw, snipes are opening attacks because they require stealth, and it's not like you'll be able to restealth every 15 seconds in combat. So it's not meant to be used as the main attack.

Whether it will be too strong or too weak is too early to tell. I'm miles away from any real combat balancing at this point. If it ends up to be unbalanced, I won't hesitate to change it.
 

Zed

Codex Staff
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Staff Member
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Oct 21, 2002
Messages
17,068
Codex USB, 2014
I draw a lot of pixelart stuff. I'm not very good but I hope this quick and dirty edit could give you an idea or something.

PortraitWIP.jpg
->
dQgMp.png
(ignore the body, it got a little disproportionate after the edit :D)
 

Styg

Stygian Software
Developer
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
742
Location
Serbia
It's been a while since the last dev log. Unfortunately, some day job stuff caught up with me and I didn't have as much time to work on this game as I would like to. But that's been taken care of now and things should be returning to normal.

The good news is I've taken certain steps that should allow me to devote even more time to this game in not so distant future.


Rechargeable Items

ShieldRecharger2.gif


I've changed some devices to require energy in order to be used. You can restore item's energy by expending energy cells, but you can do this only when out of combat.

So this change introduces a twofold resource management concern for the player. First, they will have to ensure their combat devices are charged up before combat as well as use them more rationally now that they can actually run out of juice mid combat. And secondly, they must be sure to pack up enough energy cells when going out on an expedition.

Most energy cells are single use consumables, so they also act as commodity money in the TLV economy I talked about a while back.

I might allow alternative ways of recharging items, but I haven't decided yet. One thought I'm having is adding power stations at certain locations in the world that you can use to instantly recharge all your items (like in System Shock 2 for example). I'll have to take into consideration the resource management I mentioned above first, however, as I wouldn't want to encourage constant backtracking in order to save money. Perhaps these power stations could have a long cooldown (1-2 hours).
 

Styg

Stygian Software
Developer
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Messages
742
Location
Serbia
Mushroom Cove

Some screenshots of an area I've been working on recently. This place is called Mushroom Cove and it's one of the starting areas.

It's still work in progress, but I'm happy how it's turning out so far. As I might have mentioned before, I do this sort of work iteratively, adding more graphics to a tileset over time and coming back to spice up old areas.

mushroomcove1.gif


mushroomcove2.gif


mushroomcove3.gif


Next on the agenda is working on getting rid of those ugly character and creature models, as well as getting some music into the game.
 

Surf Solar

cannot into womynz
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
8,828
Wow, that really looks fucking good and miles ahead of the initial look of your game. Godspeed to you!
 

DwarvenFood

Arcane
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Jan 5, 2009
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Atlantic Accelerator
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Woow, what a nice okdskool feel I get from the cave, and I've read through the whole thread - you are putting a lot of work into this one, respect!

I get a feeling this one might actually see completion.
 

Flatlander

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Messages
242
Location
Paradise Valley
I like it! Could be more saturated though, the colors are a bit bland.

Edit: Something like
lopbd.gif
, except keep the floor tiles as they are to give more contrast between the layers.
 
In My Safe Space
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
21,899
Codex 2012
Flatlander said:
I like it! Could be more saturated though, the colors are a bit bland.

Edit: Something like
lopbd.gif
, except keep the floor tiles as they are to give more contrast between the layers.
This one is way to bright. I generally agree, though.
 

Flatlander

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Messages
242
Location
Paradise Valley
Awor Szurkrarz said:
This one is way to bright. I generally agree, though.
Yeah, it was just a quick edit. The actual color scheme would depend on what kind of environments the game has (if it's mostly underground and dark the colors should be _more_ saturated and brighter, if there are larger lit areas the caves could be a bit darker to provide contrast) and if it has some form of dynamic lighting.

It would probably be best to have a bright color scheme for the tileset and adjust the the darkness programmatically. Either by having a real dynamic lighting system or just a darkness setting which adjusts the final image or the tileset directly according to current area.

Also,
villain of the story said:
Why is this real-time again? WHY?!
 

Styg

Stygian Software
Developer
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
742
Location
Serbia
Thanks for the feedback, guys. :)

The tileset is intentionally desaturated. Arguably too much, but I'm happy with it so far. Some objects might need their brightness/saturation/glow adjusted, but all in due time.

I realized the problem with the shots I posted is that aren't any light sources, so they are all at about 65% illumination which is currently the starting value for areas like this.

I'll be sure to throw in some lanterns / campfires next time. :) The engine supports dynamic tile-based lightning as I'm sure some earlier shots show.

Btw, engine supports zooming but at the moment I'm not planning to allow it in the final game.
 

Surf Solar

cannot into womynz
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
8,828
I too prefer the desaturated, bleaker tone. Guess it's really a matter of taste. ;)

I'm interested to see how your light sources affects walls, as this is one thing which fucking annoys me with fallout walls, the light kind of gets "sliced", hard to explain.
 

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