Divinitas

[cyron]

neither looks quite right the lift doesn't look like to great a font but the proportions are better the left looks better but it looks squished

[Klokinator]

To be fair, the actual UI is going to be overhauled eventually, he's just trying to see which of the two fonts looks better. I'd say the answer is pretty universal.

[Nayr Farros]

Characters:

[spoiler=Flynn Luteus]

RADIANT DAWN STYLE:

GBA STYLE:

Credit to Jesse

The son of a renowned noble lord, Flynn has lived a sheltered, pampered life.

Having only read about the outside world in old tomes, he has an insatiable curiosity concerning the nature of the Planes and its denizens.

As he came of age, Flynn earned a reputation as an accomplished spearman, competing in numerous jousts and tournaments to honor his family name.

His father, impressed with his abilities, has made arrangements for Flynn to be drafted into a prestigious organization known as the Lucent Creed.

Eager to carry on his father's legacy, Flynn hastily sets out to meet his destiny, unaware of the truth behind the Creed's reputation.

[/center]

Okay, one thing I gotta point out is that your GBA version and RD version look nothing alike.

That said, I felt like testing my spriting ability(been on a break from real spriting for months)so I made a version that looks more like the RD one.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Nayr Farros

[Klokinator]

It's so alike that I almost thought it was a shrunk down version of his FE9 mug haha!

[Agro]

Okay, one thing I gotta point out is that your GBA version and RD version look nothing alike.

That said, I felt like testing my spriting ability(been on a break from real spriting for months)so I made a version that looks more like the RD one.

good lord you move quickly

[deranger]

Been watching this project, looking forward to what's coming.

The left text looks much more fitting.

Regarding Nayr's mug, since this might not be the place for it:

It looks pretty similar and sweet, though its eyes and brow don't seem to line up at the same angle.

[Strunk]

I like both fonts, actually, although I prefer the left one. Also, that is one nice looking end-text-arrow-thing.

[Relentless Halberdier]

Okay, one thing I gotta point out is that your GBA version and RD version look nothing alike.

That said, I felt like testing my spriting ability(been on a break from real spriting for months)so I made a version that looks more like the RD one.

Holy balls, dude.

I feel really bad now because that is friggin' AMAZING, but I probably won't be able to actually have it in the game unless anyone intentionally sets the zoom back to x1, which will revert all the RD-style changes (I think?).

The reason I had both GBA mugs and RD mugs was because I was preparing the RD mugs for the eventual overhaul, while using the GBA ones in the meantime. So now that I've found a way to integrate the RD mugs without further issue, all the GBA mugs are now gonna be put aside.

I'll try and find a way to put this in somehow, though, 'cus it's that good. Maybe I could have GBA mugs be the mini faces?

I like both fonts, actually, although I prefer the left one. Also, that is one nice looking end-text-arrow-thing.

Thanks. It's actually taken from a different game called BlazBlue, I just recolored it. But yeah, I think it looks pretty fitting.

Been watching this project, looking forward to what's coming.

Good to hear, man. I'm thinking the new demo will be up either today or tomorrow.

[cyron]

my sole issue with the mugs are neither look very much like archers

[Nayr Farros]

Go ahead and use it for w/e. It was a good exercise of my spriting muscle.

[Crimson Red]

They're both okay, but I prefer the left one because its smaller and more uniform in dimensions IMO.

Also, great job in general.

[Relentless Halberdier]

So, I started experimenting with adding extra command menu options.

I've added in a new mechanic where every unit will have their own unique skill (not like standard FE skills) that becomes useable when your Divinity counter reaches 10. (Divinity goes up by 1 with every enemy unit you kill.)

Setting the framework was really simple - all I have to do now is code in the effects of each character's Divinity skill and the mechanic would be fully implemented. That's the hardest part though - it seems like it would involve coding in at least one entirely original script, which is probably beyond me at this point.

Good to know the basis for it is there if I ever do want to fiddle with it further, though.

Anyway, to-do list before I can release the demo:

1. Finish tutorial (almost done).

2. Fix mini faces (need to trick the game into rendering them at 1x, like I have with character faces, panorama's, eyes, mouths, etc).

3. Format text (need to make sure all the text fits in the text box now that the font width is different).

4. Make/find RD mugs for Reynald and the first dungeon boss.

5. Adjust battle screen UI to look better at new resolution.

6. Make weapon names display in new, slimmer font at 1x zoom in the combat screen (so I can actually fit the full names in, rather than having to shorten 'iron longsword' to 'irn lngswrd').

7. Do Reynald's tent dialogue.

And some things I MIGHT add before the demo release, but probably after instead:

1. Add in new weapon types and triangles. (Fairly likely)

2. Automated name tags in dialogue scenes. (Fairly likely)

3. Implement 3x attacks. (Unlikely)

4. Implement shove function. (Fairly likely)

5. Implement Divinity skills. (Unlikely)

6. Modify how moving works on the adventure map. (Fairly likely)

7. Make something interesting happen once you open those chests in the first dungeon (too boring right now to walk all the way back). (Fairly likely)

So it might take a liiiittle longer than I expected, but we'll get there soon enough.

EDIT:

Which looks best guys? I personally think the top one looks best, but using that style means I have to have a GBA sprite and an RD sprite for every character, which will set me back a long way in the future.

Bear in mind the other parts of the unit window - weapon icons, affinity icons, stat details, etc - are also gonna become high-res later, I'm just doing it piece-by-piece.

Edited February 9, 2013 by RiskyPLUS

[Chocolate Kitty]

Middle one I say.

Might also want to upgrade the icons to FE9/FE10 style as well, just realized that.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Kitty of Time

[The Iron Rose]

I concur - the middle one for sure.

[Zeo]

I actually like the top one best, but considering it'll all be high res in the future? Yeah definitely go middle.

[Nanami Touko]

Yeah, stick with the middle. Keep art styles consistent.

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

While I do like the sprites more than the Radiant Dawn images, you'd have to make sprites that look like the Radiant Dawn images. And that's twice the work, so I choose the middle one.

[Sui-kun]

Middle. You did some good work on that mugshot Nayr Farros, but it's important to keep art styles consistent. It just looks better that way.

[cyron]

i agree with going with the middle it keeps the art consistent

[Klokinator]

While I do like the sprites more than the Radiant Dawn images, you'd have to make sprites that look like the Radiant Dawn images. And that's twice the work, so I choose the middle one.

If Nayr kept making them like a boss then that would be doable :o

[Nanami Touko]

Maybe Nayr should learn how to make FE10 splices/customs instead of GBA ones for minis. Might make the game go faster :P

[Nayr Farros]

Maybe Nayr should learn how to make FE10 splices/customs instead of GBA ones for minis. Might make the game go faster :P

Splices = Might be possible.(Unlikely, but possible)

Customs = No way in hell

However I have no motivation to try atm. Sorry.

[Excellen Browning]

About the weapons you listed, do with the following what you will.

- If you want to have a +crit sword, and would like to keep the game somewhat based on medieval/renaissance period europe, I'd recommend replacing the katana with the falchion, großes Messer or even the shamshir (which is a middle eastern weapon, I know, but there was a lot of interaction between Europeans and Arabics and Persians back then). Like the Japanese swords, these are all swords which are known for extreme cutting power.

- on smallswords; small swords were commonly used as off-hand or parrying weapons, and smaller swords were used by civilians in street fights. They had no place as main weapons on the battlefield. Reasons for this could be the limited thrusting and cutting power you had with them (remember that wearing at least some form of armor was very common) or just having much poorer reach than whoever you're facing, which puts you at a disadvantage.

- I feel blunt weapons are severely misrepresented, always being heavy, slow weapons, which they really weren't. Using the term War hammer would also be more historically accurate, although it is a generic term.

- The term greatsword or great sword is a modern word, and not a historical one. Historical words for two handed swords were well, two-handed sword, Bidenhänder, épée à deux mains and spada a due mani.

- The term battle axe is applied to axes that are very short, up to axes that are very long. Up to 1.5 meters long they are commonly just called battle axes. A "greataxe" would probably also fall into this category. Cleaving weapons longer than this can arguably fall into the pole weapons range. Pole weapons that can easily be considered extremely long axes were the Dane axe, poleaxe/pollaxe and the halberd.

- great club isn't a historical term to my knowledge. Examples of large, two-handed blunt weapons were the Lucerne hammer and the bec de corbin.

- Lances are by definition weapons designed for use by mounted warriors, so not making the greatlance a cavalry-only would make no sense. Furthermore, I wouldn't know about the effectiveness against cavalry specifically. Walls of spear or pike (especially pike) were the death of cavalry, cavalry charging with couched lances was usually the death of anything, not specifically cavalry.

- The recurve bow is a composite bow. The term composite bow is a term used to define the materials a bow is made with, not the design of the bow itself. Furthermore, most composite bows have a recurve shape. The advantage of composite bows in general was their high power combined with their smaller size. This and some other factors lead to composite bows being better suited for mounted bowmen, however offered no advantage to infantry bowmen. Compositve bows are not more powerful than self bow, they have about the same shooting power.

- The term shortbow does not seem to be a historical term. It might refer to the reflex bow or the mongol bow.

- Common bow designs were: recurve bow, reflex bow, longbow and the flatbow

- Crossbows were common in European warfare until guns came around. And while it is true it took maybe a week to train a guy in using a crossbow, this doesn't mean everyone carried a crossbow. Crossbows were used by dedicated infantry mostly, and they had the nasty habit of being able to penetrate most of the armors available back then. They were slow to fire, though.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Daigoji Excellen

[Relentless Halberdier]

I appreciate the information, Dai.

Thing is, I'm not really aiming for historical accuracy with this. The history of this setting is completely different, so much so that having falchions and katana's and whatnot isn't even that accurate - the human race is more or less united here, and so their craftsmanship wouldn't vary so wildly. Instead, you'd probably have such foreign weapons being crafted by other races entirely, and then the names of those weapons would be in languages unknown to humans.

So the falchion equivalent might be called a Schlarrzta because it was made by Drakaine, or something.

The recognizable weapon names didn't have much to do with lore or history - it was more for my benefit, so I could easily know what kind of weapon was where in the list. I intended to change the designs and names of the weapons eventually, just wanted to sort out the balance and variety between the types out first.

I'll still try and use your information constructively though.

[maverickzx]

Not sure if you are already aware of this. But whenever I go to actually play the updated demo, the game comes up in a decent sized screen but then instantly shrinks to a very small screen and it makes it hard to see what is happening in the game.