The Mana World Forums

For whatever reason, I have a hard time deciding between anime/pixel style faces, but I'd lean to the "pixel style" I suppose.

I think an NPC dialog tab could have uses, but at the same time I'd be much happier to see a simple "quest log" tab or window, though I imagine it'd be a hefty amount of work to do. An alternative could be a log/tab that lists the goal/progress of the last 3-5 quests a player has accepted. Hell, even an NPC that does the same, though this is less useful for players away from that NPC.

mistergrey wrote:For whatever reason, I have a hard time deciding between anime/pixel style faces, but I'd lean to the "pixel style" I suppose.

I think an NPC dialog tab could have uses, but at the same time I'd be much happier to see a simple "quest log" tab or window, though I imagine it'd be a hefty amount of work to do. An alternative could be a log/tab that lists the goal/progress of the last 3-5 quests a player has accepted. Hell, even an NPC that does the same, though this is less useful for players away from that NPC.

acctually the pixel faces took less time then the anime face did but i dont mind taking my time on things its just a matter of preference and what people will enjoy. Thanks for your opinions though! i cant choose which one to do either because i like both X_X but ill make a few more of each style to see what more look like rather than just 1 photo.
thanks!

Regards,

I am currently working on a questlog. I ran into a trouble a bit but i will see how to solve it.

Korcha casts Revive! Alright-alright, please don't kill me, Chicka-Maria told me to post here, honestly!!
In no particular order we have: Elanore, Pachua, Lora Tay, Banker, Sagatha, and Katze, the cool cat.


Chicka-Maria, let me know if ya want anything changed, poses, noses(lol) and what not. But, if ya like what you see, will tackle 7 more portraits. Great, yeah? See ya tomorrow.

Korcha wrote:Korcha casts Revive! Alright-alright, please don't kill me, Chicka-Maria told me to post here, honestly!!
In no particular order we have: Elanore, Pachua, Lora Tay, Banker, Sagatha, and Katze, the cool cat.


Chicka-Maria, let me know if ya want anything changed, poses, noses(lol) and what not. But, if ya like what you see, will tackle 7 more portraits. Great, yeah? See ya tomorrow.

wow these look great korcha you did a great job. hopefully after all the outlines are done we can get coloring and details in.

The only problems i would like changed is...

Katze: I would really like a pose sorta like the NPC, (maybe see what that would look like).

Banker: maybe give him somewhat of a hat like the npc has?

I love lora tay and the way she is posed, but maybe make her look a bit older if you can?

You done a really great job. I will PM you with more npcs and their personalities.

regards,

From here on out, one revision will take up one of the 7 slots. Why you ask? Well, it takes way too long for a pose/expression to finally "click" for me. When it does "click" I've already worked on it long enough, lol..

With that said, here they are ...in no particular order:


You know the drill; like it, I'll touch them up and ya send me seven more. Don't like it, I'll fix them. I'm exhausted, so they're a bit on the sloppy side. When I come back tomorrow, they'll all be a bit more polished. Call it a freebie, I don't care.

Korcha wrote:You know the drill; like it, I'll touch them up and ya send me seven more. Don't like it, I'll fix them. I'm exhausted, so they're a bit on the sloppy side. When I come back tomorrow, they'll all be a bit more polished. Call it a freebie, I don't care.

They actually look great and much better than the attempt i tried. I will send more later you have done a great job

regards,

You have indeed become a lot better than back in 2006.

But I am still sceptic if it would be a good idea to add protraits to NPC dialogs. When the developers start doing this now, they will have to keep doing it forever and ever, even when you might not be available anymore. Then someone else would have to draw the portraits, and that person would have to be able to reproduce the style of the existing portraits, or they would look out of place. Skilled pixel artists were always the most scarce resource for TMW development.

In many jRPG's, most NPCs in towns didn't had any portraits, only those who were crucial to the storyline.
So, maybe create "common NPC portrait", or just in case where there wouldn't be available any NPC Portrait, just show simple NPC dialog window.
NPC dialogs are really interesting idea, they simply add more RPG feeling to the game.

Chica (can I call ya that?) you didn't pm me the next seven npc's you wanted done, so I went ahead an polished the previous ones up. And here they are, in random fashion:

Crush wrote:You have indeed become a lot better than back in 2006.

But I am still sceptic if it would be a good idea to add protraits to NPC dialogs. When the developers start doing this now, they will have to keep doing it forever and ever, even when you might not be available anymore. Then someone else would have to draw the portraits, and that person would have to be able to reproduce the style of the existing portraits, or they would look out of place. Skilled pixel artists were always the most scarce resource for TMW development.

I completely understand why ya would have doubts, especially with the lack of determined pixel artists, if any.
I'm willing to work on other things too. Just happens Chicka-Maria was the only one that took me up on my offer. But yeah, anyone that's part of the development team can go ahead an hit me up with a detailed list of chores ...as long as they're not too grand and easily manageable, of course. Deadline's a plus.

However, there's a couple of things I would like to point out. 1 being; I work better/faster when I'm guided. I can't stress that enough, 2; I am, in no shape or form, a leader. I refuse to do any work that requires decision making on my part, so no going about finishing random tasks that are left up to me ...unless of course they're given to me. And finally, 3; no colors, zilch, just good ol' black & white.

shargom wrote:In many jRPG's, most NPCs in towns didn't had any portraits, only those who were crucial to the storyline.
So, maybe create "common NPC portrait", or just in case where there wouldn't be available any NPC Portrait, just show simple NPC dialog window.
NPC dialogs are really interesting idea, they simply add more RPG feeling to the game.

Yeah, I agree 100% But who wouldn't, really? That alone would save tons of time and resources that could definitely be used elsewhere, like say, tile sets. Though, at the same time, portraits give an npc a face, a personality.

shargom wrote:In many jRPG's, most NPCs in towns didn't had any portraits, only those who were crucial to the storyline.
So, maybe create "common NPC portrait", or just in case where there wouldn't be available any NPC Portrait, just show simple NPC dialog window.
NPC dialogs are really interesting idea, they simply add more RPG feeling to the game.

Most of the NPCs listed are important....

Crush wrote:But I am still sceptic if it would be a good idea to add protraits to NPC dialogs. When the developers start doing this now, they will have to keep doing it forever and ever, even when you might not be available anymore. Then someone else would have to draw the portraits, and that person would have to be able to reproduce the style of the existing portraits, or they would look out of place. Skilled pixel artists were always the most scarce resource for TMW development.

I dont think we should lack in something just because other developers wont bother to learn how to draw the same style. After all pixel art is a style as well and they learned how to do that, i don't see why they cannot learn how to draw things such as these as well. TMW shouldn't have to go without because others cannot be bothered to learn.

Korcha wrote:Chica (can I call ya that?) you didn't pm me the next seven npc's you wanted done, so I went ahead an polished the previous ones up..

Sorry for the wait korcha i just finished work and i couldnt send them within 6 hours. I will send them now for you to work on today or tomorrow. I really appreciate your efforts.

regards,

I can see Crush's point to an extent, but honestly we could well have the same problem with Any pixel art at this point. Correct me if I'm wrong, but right now I don't believe there is even one active pixel artist around on any regular basis.

I did like the suggestion of only having portraits for important NPCs (though, to me the 'important' ones are those with a lot of uses/quests, such as Sagatha, Wyara, pretty much any magic NPC, and those with other big uses like those in the GY inn quest).

mistergrey wrote:I did like the suggestion of only having portraits for important NPCs (though, to me the 'important' ones are those with a lot of uses/quests, such as Sagatha, Wyara, pretty much any magic NPC, and those with other big uses like those in the GY inn quest).

Even if all those "important everyday" npcs were finished, we don't have to limit ourselves either. If a npc has an important quest for people even daily quests or required quests for other quests they should have entitlement to a picture as well.

But yes, the important ones are being worked on in priority.

By the way: What about the technical support for portraits? Did anyone talk to 4144 or the Manaclient developers about how this could be done?

I was asked somewhen ago. But I think it currently does not look like we will continue the sdl client. And in the qml we did not implement npc handling yet (and no tmwAthena support).

Regards
Ablu