The Mana World Forums

Modanung aye aye sir

and yes that is probably a portable ballista xD

Talaroc wrote:The problem with that being that they don't match up to the style of the rest of my sprites. I mean, if people like those a lot better, that's fine, but with either those or the ones I've already got, I have to do some tweaking.

I'm just returned from my holiday. :P

I totally agree with u, I tried to imitate your style but obviously I can't. It's your style, not mine :P
but take them as advices (I mean, 'what I think the side-walk has to be like') cause I think you can really improve it, in particular I don't like so much the standin' pose.

and if you want tell me something useful to do, I'm at your disposal.

btw Talaroc regarding that stance for archer, i havent been able to stop thinking about it

i ahve come to understand your view haflway;
1) does he hunch (alittle) over the bow as the bow is poiinting down and the top is pointing "forward" and the bottom pointing backwards as he holds the bow?
2) holds the bow like a "C" infront of him while standing straight?

Animation:
does he take one step backwards while raising the bow? hmm probably otherwise it would look weird... i guess

*ok back to the movie, just had to ask*

Well, the side walk is going to be improved, in any case.

I wouldn't be the person to ask about things to do in terms of graphics; that would be Rotonen.

no more explaining on what you ahd in mind for the first sprite, like how will he hold the bow will teh bow be aligned with his shoulders or will be infront of him like :

(-
or
_(_^
(

( = illustrating the bows position
__^ = the character tilted ^ where his nose is pointing
- = his nose

moltheni wrote:and if you want tell me something useful to do, I'm at your disposal.

Contact me, there's a lot to do!

degen wrote:btw Talaroc regarding that stance for archer, i havent been able to stop thinking about it

i ahve come to understand your view haflway;
1) does he hunch (alittle) over the bow as the bow is poiinting down and the top is pointing "forward" and the bottom pointing backwards as he holds the bow?
2) holds the bow like a "C" infront of him while standing straight?

Animation:
does he take one step backwards while raising the bow? hmm probably otherwise it would look weird... i guess

*ok back to the movie, just had to ask*

Wow, just saw this. You and I apparently posted at the same time.

Yeah, you seem to pretty much understand the way I envision it.

yeah but i didnt get an answer to if its 1 or 2 thats the first sprite

because hunching has the more hunter/rogue like position(think of it as stealthing hunching over the bow behind a bush as you watch the deer pass by) while standing straight gives a more soldier/archer style to it where line ment of the archers as well as watching over long distance and the more rested look i guess

Perhaps both where the hunching is the resting sprite in combat mode and the standing straight is the more casual stance while carrying the bow?
...

Talaroc please answer me this time in how you see it

In my opinion, the standing straight position (with bow held casually, curve down) would be best for a standard standing-with-bow pose (basically, it would be easy enough to simply have the bow drawn underneat the normal standing sprite.

In combat, I think the ready/resting sprite should be the more hunched version, with the bow pointed 45 degrees down and forward. I've done some archery, and found that to be the natural position for stringing the arrow (which is what the player would be doing between shots). Not very hunched, of course, but somewhat. For the attack, the player should probably stand up straight while drawing back and taking the backward step, then fire and grab an arrow before returning to resting state.

The way I'm thinking about the breakdown of the frames is this:
Resting/ready: 1 frame
Drawing up: 2 frames
Firing: 1 frame
Grabbing arrow: 1 frame
And then a reuse of the first drawing up frame to transition back to the resting frame.

So yeah, that's my take on it.

sounds good i was thinking in that very same way, and if now only a few times, i have also tried archery where a friend of mine tauhgt me some of it, very basic stuff that is (a friend had a bow for competitions that he let me use every now and then)

i read about the amount of frames from the wiki and it said 4 frames thats why i was wondering since it wouldnt be much of an animation
But i see there is 2 more (if you count the reuse of second frame)
which seems to give it a more smooth animation

With regards to the number of frames, until we actually make the sprites we're basically guessing. The goal is, of course, the smoothest possible animation with the fewest possible frames (and, when possible, reusing frames--this allows us to keep the filesize of the character sheets down somewhat to make our devs happy).

I guess you're referring to the technical devs since I don't personally care about that if the extra size is worth it.

Indeed; the devs who have to worry about the size of the game.

png's aren't that big. a 512x512 kb tileset only got about 300kb. i doubt that those few extra kb would kill anyone.

the thing which really blows up the file size is the background music with some mb per file.

the actual contents of tmw (windows version) by file size:

main program: 0,35 MB
libraries for main program: 3,8 MB
graphics: 1,7 MB
maps: 0,06 MB
music: 6,5 MB
misc: 0,85 MB

but nevertheless: more animation phases mean more work with the equipment sprites. more work with the equipment sprites means less pieces created in the same time (unless they will be produced in lower quality). and less pieces created means everyone ingame will look the same.

what are hundreds of animation phases good for when noone is willing to create equipment for so many different sprites?

Crush wrote:what are hundreds of animation phases good for when noone is willing to create equipment for so many different sprites?

I am very willing to create equipment. Even if there are over 100 sprites. I can probably make 1 armor set in 3-5 days with that many sprites. It would be a little slow but atleast we will have equipment.

I've edited a sheet of over 100 sprites before... it will be work but atleast it will be fun (for me anyway )

Oh, and Talaroc are you working on one handed vertical slashing? If not then I can post what I have so far (I worked on it a bit too ).