Forums: General Aethora Chat

I don’t mean to be rude but, I want to get the old player charecter images back. :-(
The new ones are just weird and I had them where I wanted them to be.

Ok, history first:

When I started building Aethora (over two years ago), I stole some graphics from Battle for Wesnoth so that I actually had something to look at. After a couple of months of testing, I figured I’d better get some original graphics. I tried to draw my own, but alas, my talents fall a tad short. A friend of mine collects action figures and he came up with the idea of photographing some figures, then shrinking them down. The process was painstaking, but the results were actually quite excellent. Those were the models that you saw up until the update this past weekend.

So – the problem with those models:
a) they were semi-recognizable – yes, they were shrunk down, but I still occasionally had someone go “hey, that’s so-and-so!” – and they aren’t my intellectual property (obviously it would be tough to tell, and I don’t feel like I’d be sued, but there’s a principle there)
b) they weren’t rendered by an artist – this means that whenever I need new graphics, I can’t call up my friend and tell him to crank out more stuff, because he never drew them by hand in the first place
c) they aren’t Aethorians – they’re just random figures, “photoshopped”
d) since we always need new graphics, our resident volunteer artist has worked hard to create new graphics for NPCs – in doing so, over time he established methodologies and styles that seem to make sense for Aethora. The old graphics are now inconsistent with the newer graphics we’ve slowly added in each update, and they make the game look like it has a split personality

So our artist, Seeker Boltblade, made it a priority to create all new PC models. PC models are the first thing you see when you start playing Aethora, so those were the first to get an update. You might not like them as much as the old graphics, but you have to understand that they were actually created from scratch, whereas the old ones were actually photographs. Personally, I think the new graphics have a more consistent style to them. They have better definition and they are more flexible to work with (we are planning on modifying them and using them as bases for many of the old NPC models that need to be updated). They are also more consistent with the background and tile images.

Also, I’ll repeat the point from above – the new models are original. They are not derived works in any way. The old models were not technically original.

Creating a graphic that small, by hand, is no easy task – and if you think you can do it, by all means, show us your stuff, because we always need more artists.

It is possible for me to make the old models available as well, and I had considered doing this originally. But to be honest, I think the new models look awesome, so I swapped them all out. If it’s really that big of a deal I’ll consider it…

I agree that the new models look awesome, and I like them.
But I think that we need more options for characters. at the very least, we need some more models with the more common weapon combinations (long blade/short blade staff/club 2 wands etc.)

Ah – well, adding or changing weapons on the new models so there is more variety sounds like a good idea. We can do that without too much trouble I think, and increase the number of models there are to choose from.

Sorry to hear that you didn’t like the new PC sprites redbrett. New PC models will be added in the future, although it isn’t the current priority. I’ll try to put several new/edited PC models in the following updates, but nothing too drastic like happened in the last update.

I’m also always open for suggestions like Tremir’s one, or the model with beard mentioned on the Update post.

yeah thanks you didn’t forget me ;-)

Also don’t forget at least 4 female characters – 2 fighters & 2 mages

There are 5 female characters in there, and at least one more that could go either way.

This one could go either way: and so could a few of the others if you really think about it…

ok ;-)

The first one looks like Egyptian male with 2 shortswords, the 4th is pure male samurai, the 5th – male pirate with cutlass. I agree that 2 & 3 are females, but you should increase their breast size to identify them easier ;)
Moreover, that snake in 3rd picture looks awful, I know that it’s a whip, but you should make it thinner.

Well, pictures, interpretations… always difficult. If you see them that way, that’s of course a pity. (For me, they’re pretty obviously female…)
Interestingly enough, though, you identify 5 clearly as male, with 3 as female, while both have pretty much exactly the same proportions. The problem (apart from other implications about female characters and breast size) with breast size is that we can’t have that much detail – increasing breast size means largely increasing chest size, so they’d just be mistaken for men with very muscular chests, as that is the expected form of male bodies in such a setting.

The first one looks like Egyptian male with 2 shortswords, the 4th is pure male samurai, the 5th – male pirate with cutlass. I agree that 2 & 3 are females, but you should increase their breast size to identify them easier ;)

Oh, by the flow of the ather – go play EverBreast if that’s what you want. When you’re dealing with images that are 36×36 pixels in size, you gotta use a little imagination. And Kranodor is right – pixel by pixel, at that size, there is a fine line between a barrel-chested man and a large breasted woman. And besides that, that’s now how the old models looked – there were only like 5 of the old models that could pass for female and they didn’t have enlarged breasts.

Also, for the record, there are no samurais or Egyptians in Aethora (Aethora is not Earth). Earth folklore, myth, and culture may influence the writers and artists, but any in-game resemblance is coincidental.

You said the old ones were action figures. Was the old default adventurer (black clohes/1 sword) image Luke Skywalker? I always got that feeling from it.

Me too I think it was btw it’s samurai (singular) and samurai (plural) it’s just like deer (singular) and deer (plural)