Creature lists and concept art for them

[svenskmand]

Is there a page somewhere describing the characteristics/role of each/any unit? Or, more importantly, the theme of each race? ("Human" is ambiguous as a term.)

Also the formality/nobility you describe, svenskmand, doesn't quite make align with the notion of dungeon building?

The Humans are a noble faction, see the backstory. The humans are only making dungeons because they want the gold in the underground and because they want to fight the Corpars back.

I agree with oln (weak fighter, "cannon fodder"). What faction does the halfling belong to?

The Humans.

Are you sure he should be that formal looking? It's the weak fighter unit, so I would think that it should be more like a militia /ordinary person helping out in fights rather than a royal guard.

You right he is a weak fighter. But now that I think of it I have the perfect idea to unite both our ideas. He should be a midget/dwarf/hafling servant like this (see attachement)

That fits with the humans being snobbish, uppity and vain. Only that kind of people would bring there servant/toastmaster midget/dwarf/halfling with them in the underground while hunting gold and Corpars

What do you guys think?

[charlie]

The Humans are a noble faction, see the backstory. The humans are only making dungeons because they want the gold in the underground and because they want to fight the Corpars back.

Great link. This kind of thing should be at the forefront of all requests for concept art.

However I'll disagree with you slightly (although it is far from my decision) on the nobility of the faction showing through in all the units.

1) They're digging a dungeon. Most of them will not be wearing their finest evening wear.
2) Nobility is normally applied to the select few of particular peoples. "Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary." Thusly, a few important units should have the noble/affluent appearance you indicate, but the workers or lower ranking units probably not, no?

Not my decision, that's just the way I'd encourage it to be.

[svenskmand]

The Humans are a noble faction, see the backstory. The humans are only making dungeons because they want the gold in the underground and because they want to fight the Corpars back.

Great link. This kind of thing should be at the forefront of all requests for concept art.

Yeah that is probably a good idea. Danimal could you add it to the initial post on OGA?

2) Nobility is normally applied to the select few of particular peoples. "Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary." Thusly, a few important units should have the noble/affluent appearance you indicate, but the workers or lower ranking units probably not, no?

Exactly , but I imagine the Halfling as a servant, not a worker.

However I'll disagree with you slightly (although it is far from my decision) on the nobility of the faction showing through in all the units.

1) They're digging a dungeon. Most of them will not be wearing their finest evening wear.

True, but I imagine the Halfling as a servant of the noble people that are down there anyway. Hence he should be properly dressed to be in there presence. The units I think should be formally dressed are the Maiden, Halfling (which is the Maidens servant) and the Cleric which is a holy person, and should be dressed accordingly. Those are the only units. The other units: Wisp, War-Dog, Knight, Barbarian, Wizard, Fairy, Crossbowman, Longbowman, Blacksmith, Dwarf, Angle and King should not be formally dressed, but be dressed in a suitable way so they can fight.

So in total only the Maiden, the Halfling and the Cleric are dressed formal. Which is not many out of a total of 15 units. The other royal units are the Knight, the Wizard and the King, and they should be dressed as they normally are when they are in battle. So the Knight should have a full armor, the Wizard his rope and a staff, and the King a full-armor but without the helmet, so he can look his enemies directly in their eyes.

[Danimal]

i still think the halfling should have a more common kind of clothes, as said they will be the early level cannonfoder till you can attract stronger creatures. So why not go halfway? the concept showed good clothes for them, simple but nice looking. Also added URL to post.

[svenskmand]

But servants can also be cannon fodder right? I think the servant idea gives it a little more twist and makes it more fun than just having a Halfling that have normal cloth.

So why not go halfway?

Pun intended?

Also another thing why hire Halflings as your fighting force in the first place? Why hire half a man for half the price, when he is only a quarter of the fighting force of a real man is? Look at LOTR the hobbits/haflings are always running away whenever there is a fight.

Now a Dwarf he can fight even though he is small, but a Dwarf and a Halfling are also very different.

Just to be sure we are agreeing that when you say Halfling you mean the hobbit guys? Which are actually smaller than Dwarfs (at least in LOTR).

[monobi]

Ok, I obviously misunderstood the humans completely. I'll start on another quick concept later, but first:

If the humans are to be rich and pompous, that is best highlighted by contrast. SO either the villains will have to look grimy, poor and damn right monsterous OR we highlight the nobles in nice outfits and the lower peasants and workers in torn, grotty clothing.

As for the halfling servant himself, what kind of weapon and accessories would you like to see on him? I'm going for a waistcoat (stretched around his oversized belly) and a jacket with trousers but I need to know what he's doing with his hands.

The humor style is quite important on this, also. What kind of humor are people planning? It will effect the art largely. I'll do a proper portrait once I've got the basics (don't expect everything to look as basic as the sketches i've shown so far!) and I'm quite keen to start on the maiden next. Me and my girlfriend are huge fans of period clothing, and she is an upcoming costume designer. I've asked her for advice :D

[oln]

So if i get svenskmand correctly, the human faction is really a bunch of upper-class humans that have decided to enter the dungeons alone?

[charlie]

I think the human faction is organized/paid by affluent humans, who are accompanying their minions to mine for gold. Right, svenskmand?

[oln]

Do we have a wiki page where we have written down what we have decided? If not, we should.

[charlie]

Do we have a wiki page where we have written down what we have decided? If not, we should.

The backstory? http://opendungeons.sourceforge.net/index.php/Backstory

[oln]

Ah, we just need to update that a bit.

[svenskmand]

Ok, I obviously misunderstood the humans completely. I'll start on another quick concept later, but first:

If the humans are to be rich and pompous, that is best highlighted by contrast. SO either the villains will have to look grimy, poor and damn right monsterous OR we highlight the nobles in nice outfits and the lower peasants and workers in torn, grotty clothing.

As for the halfling servant himself, what kind of weapon and accessories would you like to see on him? I'm going for a waistcoat (stretched around his oversized belly) and a jacket with trousers but I need to know what he's doing with his hands.

I think a serving dish/tray would be cool, that emphasis that he is a crappy unit and strengthens his servant relationship.

The humor style is quite important on this, also. What kind of humor are people planning? It will effect the art largely. I'll do a proper portrait once I've got the basics (don't expect everything to look as basic as the sketches i've shown so far!) and I'm quite keen to start on the maiden next. Me and my girlfriend are huge fans of period clothing, and she is an upcoming costume designer. I've asked her for advice

I like the crazy humor in Evil Genius, and the Austin Powers movies, but it should of course be fitted to a medieval setting. I look forward to see what you come up with for the maiden And while your at it if you could also make a princess which we will need in multiplayer for "Keep the Princess" game-mode

So if i get svenskmand correctly, the human faction is really a bunch of upper-class humans that have decided to enter the dungeons alone?

That was what I imagined yes. It is the king and his men.

I think the human faction is organized/paid by affluent humans, who are accompanying their minions to mine for gold. Right, svenskmand?

Yes the humans have paid their servants who accompany them down through the dungeons in their hunt for gold and revenge over the Corpars. Of course the humans are also fighting the Constructs and the Undead. And the humans consider the Merchenaries as scum and traitors as they left the humans during their gold crisis (although the Merchenaries also consist of non-human units, but we still need to make a unit list for them).

Do we have a wiki page where we have written down what we have decided? If not, we should.

The backstory? http://opendungeons.sourceforge.net/index.php/Backstory

Yes

Do we have a wiki page where we have written down what we have decided? If not, we should.

So I think the general stuff can be added to the backstory page as Charlie mentioned and the unit specific stuff should be added to the unit lists. I can begin on that later tonight.

[monobi]

Right then. The wiki states "Heroes" - definitely a more fitting name. Lets try and refer to them from now on as heroes to keep the aim of them clear.
I'll give the little guy a dagger to go with the tray.. attacking with the tray is far too odd.

[svenskmand]

We do not use the word Heroes, we use the word Humans. The word heroes does not even occur in the back story so where did you find it? By the way of you have a suggestion for a better name for the humans then please let us hear them.

[oln]

Heroes is used here and here.

[svenskmand]

Ok I will change it to Humans for now. But if anybody has a better name than Humans and Heroes then please come forth.

@monobi: Please do not look at the creature lists in the wiki, they are currently allot out of sync. The lists here in the forum are up to date, except for the changes discussed in this thread. I will begin to clean the wiki later tonight.

[oln]

Nobles?

[monobi]

I present to you what you've made me imagine:


Carries tray nice and high so the maiden can reach it easily.

@svenskmand I'd asked oln on irc earlier for an account on the wiki, I shall help out with the information transfer. Thinking of organising the factions into seperate pages and a generalization page so we can add pictures and greater detail without worrying about page size. That ok with you?

[oln]

Nice sketch, I think that is quite accurate to what svenskmand described.

[svenskmand]

Yeah really nice The only thing correction I can think of is that he should be less fat around the belly. But spot on I must say I like the idea that he always carries the tray high to server stuff for the maiden. We should add that to the list of things the Halfling likes to do and will make him happy. Like units in DK 2 liked to gamble or the Mistress liked the torturchamber.

Nice sketch, I think that is quite accurate to what svenskmand described.

Indeed

[Danimal]

What weapon will he carry? a kitchen knife?

[svenskmand]

I think a serving dish/tray would be cool, that emphasis that he is a crappy unit and strengthens his servant relationship.

Like the tray he is holding in the picture I posted.

[monobi]

Kitchen knife in the undrawn hand is what I imagine to be most suited. Low damage should at least be SOME damage.

[oln]

What do you think about the concepts on OGA.
I did comment on them there, I think the cleric and wisp posted don't need more refinement (unless you want the cleric to be more over the top), the others there were some comments on.

[Danimal]

i love the cleric concept, thougth the others are blurry and the bone golem is too simple, a skeleton with horns dont qualify as a golem.