The Mana World Forums

I moved this post from the unnamed Wombat's creature threads to continue with a weapons development topic. It's my first time with weapons and I'll try to do some examples to learn. Here's some sketchs:

Long Range weapons:
* Banshee AK-47:
+ Preview:

+ Spritesheet & XML:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... l/ak47.xml
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... l/ak47.png
Bullet particle
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... rticle.xml
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... bullet.png
(I know it doesn't fit with the game, but it's so funny to use it with customdata updates )
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Two-handed weapons:
* Wombat's creature stick:
+ Preview:

+ Spritesheet & XML:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... t-male.xml
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... rm-bat.png

Can you make something like this blade from Arcuz 2 ? http://armorgames.com/play/12346/arcuz-2

Nice game
That character is a great example of what is possible to do, and what isn't yet (?)
The attack on each view has 3 different variations and can do combos with them: a horizontal slash, a vertical slash
and a frontal stab:
(Im not ripping the graphics, just using it as an example)

In our player spritesheet 1.5, the actions for blades could be:
attack_chop, dagger_stab and attack_2hand

Working with what we already have ingame, I don´t know how to make "combos" with them. It only displays the default attack assigned in the .XML file for each weapon.

Here's an example of a bug in the dyeable graphics system, it happens when the color palette isn't pure.

(¿anybody see the red pixels in the wood? ¿who cares pixels, anyway?) You can try to reproduce the dyeable result with the tools-for-dummies included in this game, and you will see the red pixels at Walking down (1 to 6), walking up (37 to 42) and attack up and down (117 to 120) frames.
Now that most of weapon graphics are dyeable and using a huge 1152x1929 spritesheet, I think nobody will report this or try to help fixing it because it's too much work.

One sheet at a time, but they can get done. You'd be amazed at all the stuff that wasn't even finished for the other weapon poses. We made the equipment into giant sheets to make them easier to work with as overlays. https://trello.com/c/1nTy0pdC

I finally made the whip works correctly, all I needed was to modify the .XML file placed in /items/equip-1hand/ with the settings of attack-action="attack_chop" for the weapon I was using as placeholder in customdata updates. The next weapon to try will be the spear from the spit23 avatar, almost done

One-handed weapons:
* Whip spritesheet (concept by skipy):
+ Spritesheet & XML:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... l/whip.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... l/whip.xml
+ Preview:

I'm sorry but i feel TMW isn't the place for machine guns nor for something like a sprawling out botcheck area like a "gm island". it just doesn't fit imo. nevertheless, the work done here is great, i just whish u do it with some "fantasy capable" stuff. no counterstrike weapons in fable! maybe we learn that a not that bitter way fable and peter molineux did, here at tmw.

Here's the spear+shield from the spit23 avatar, . A similar modification is needed to make it works correctly as customdata, just edit on /items/equip-2hand/ with the settings of attack-action="attack_spear" for the weapon you are using as placeholder
Two-handed weapons:
+ Spritesheet & XML:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... gspear.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... gspear.xml
+ Preview:


About firearm ideas:
Yes, I know i'm evil sharing a machine gun in a childish game, but it's fun
Sadly that action doesnt have a good animation and it looks like shooting bullets one by one. Look for example what Pajarico drawed long time ago (crossbow).
https://www.themanaworld.org/images/3/3 ... 042005.jpg
With a long-standing animation for shooting weapons we could do more interesting stuff, I'm just throwing ideas.

+1 to that ak 47 would be fun kill a mouboo with that

Hi there,
reviving this thread because I was just working on additional weapon sprites. I am not really happy with my pickaxe and scythe (although I think its better than the old one), so the plan is to prepare something like "templates" for sprites, using almost exclusively existing player sprites.
For now I started with chop (one-hand), used for axe, mace, hammer or such, and chop (two-hand), used for halberd, warhammer, two-hand axe or such.
Also this is to try a small little program named "Peek" - it seems pretty nice to make small .gif-records of Vasily's great SpriteAnimationEditor.
So, please comment about this, feel free to propose improvements or to say "it looks shitty, you have to do additional player sprites". (Dont care too much about the blue ball, its just to better see the movement of the variable part of the weapon).

Looking forward to read your comments.

Yours,

-Mick

It looks like a big improvement which also allows for more efficient weapon making (which was notoriously an annoying and long process). I like the animations, they're not too stiff but also not unnecessarily complex.

I would be against more player sprites. Adding that type of stuff slows down development which is the last thing we need. This is a good way to maintain good quality without adding a million unnecessary steps. I say keep it up!

Yes, the last thing we need is more player frames... The animation generally looks good. It is smooth and there are no growing/shrinking parts. However I do feel the attack poses lack power. It also looks like the weapons are not connecting to the enemy. Right now it looks more like they are used as Harry Potter wands. I might be wrong though, as you are just showing the animation, and not a battle.

Hi Ejlol,
first of all, thanks for comments!
I absolutely agree, the weapons will hardly hit the enemy (depending on its type and position). But I believe this is cannot really be solved - we have only 4 tiles for the player including weapon, and the enemy will be out of range to be touched most of the time. Anyhow I try to go to the limits, lets see how it looks like in battle.
Second issue: Yes, its not really powerful, also agreed. However I could not get it much better due to the limited sprites available. There would be more movement required for the player himself, I think. But I will try to play with the .xml, perhaps we can achieve some better and harder-looking hits. (Anyhow if this doesnt work out, lets add blood particles or such .)
Thanks again, and keep it up!

To make it more powerful, I don't think more movement, or more frames, are required. It depends more on the timings of the frames, and how it is drawn.

An attack can be basically split in a few phases. Build-up, slash, hit, and cool-down. If you make the build-up longer, the user will anticipate it and the attack will look more powerful. The slash part can also be drawn more powerful. You can add speed lines on the background, but it is also possible to draw these on the moving part. Another technique is to make the moving part fuzzy. And lastly you can also just draw a slash .

Here is a single frame example:


Another example: https://www.joshuanava.biz/illustrating ... -manga.jpg

Hope it helps

More inspiration, this one does use more frames I guess, but whatever:

Hi again

I believe you are right and we can make it way better when being a bit more flexible (I just know what I saw in TMW and tried to do everything just similar, but I guess improving does nothing bad)!
So here is my try for the left sprites (dont care too much about the change of hands in the attack animation, I believe this cannot be solved with existing sprites).
Looking forward to more comments.

Yours,
-Mick