Fun with weapons

[lirmont]

Sword as Weapon.1 on Ramza






Axe as Weapon.1 on Berserker






Shield as Shield.1 on Paladin (female)






Legendary Sword as Weapon.1 on Paladin (female)






Explanation

I don't have a GUI interface for swapping out the images used as attachments yet, and I haven't written it into the Tethical plugin that handles my sprite formats yet. However, this opens games/formats to support a lot of possibilities for interesting things (that were suggested earlier here: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8640.0). For instance, while the image you supply for the sprite will not change (re: paladin_f.fft-type1.bmp), you could potentially attach an endless amount of things (which use images separate from the image the sprite is). Other things I'll be using it for include the "AT"/"ACT"/active turn designation. Namely, YOU could put it wherever you want without knowing how to program so long as the battle template you use depends on the sprite to show the active turn. In other words, it will attach the appropriate graphic (that it supplies) where you described in your Sprite Animator format (that you supplied). This process is the same for weapons, armor, or anything  else you're attaching.

[Celdia]

I love the shield added as part of the walking animation on the paladin, even if the last frame of the backswing looks a little unnatural. That is a great idea.

[Lijj]

Ah Tethical and its endless potentials.

[lirmont]

Samurai with Sheath





The screenshot also shows a partial interface to swap images in and out. It's only really missing the remove feature (and a title icon). The images themselves are loaded by the user after the sprite is compiled.


Dual-Wielding Ninja (female) with Sheaths

[Kagebunji]

That's looking awesome. Eaxctly Lijj, endless potentials.

Great job Lirmont.

[lirmont]

Celes Packs a Bag






Agrias Gets a Job




Mystic Knight (female) Gets Afflicted

[Lijj]

I like that Agrias sprite a ton.
The bag, Idk.. hair moves underneath it while it's static itself;  this shows amazing possibilities nonetheless.

[lirmont]

Videos: Attack Boost (Weapon) and Attack Boost (Text).




Video: Speed Boost.


Arbitrarily include a player's equipped weapon as part of an effect that supports it? Sure, why not.


--

Putting It All Together (In-Game Wrapper)



Video: Named Attachments Demo.

And so, the design process comes full circle, allowing you to slap any arbitrary image onto your animated sprites in Tethical. Furthermore, most of that designing happens away from the engine, so your sprite work is reusable. This paves the way for finishing off the animation-heavy portion of the battle loop. Other than that, there are still equipment, items, and traps to be implemented.


--

Putting It All Together (In-Battle)

[Mobius]

Now that I begin to browse the threads here do I notice the incredible potential this thing has. Holy shit.

I really need to get started on this.

[Mobius]

Time to get involved.

I have a question. Better dump them all here on the board than on PM.


Why is the x2 size the standart size?

This comes and brings buttloads of graphical problems as seen in the images, where sprites made in smaller scales (like FFT sprites, made for x1) don't seem to fit at all in x2 resolution sprited tiles. There's also some ugly blur going on there, as well as white pixels going all over the edges of the x2 sized sprites.

Is it possible to shrink Tethical into x1 size?

This would allow players to resize the screen just like the original FFT and yet have the graphics keep their flow/style. It's VERY hard to sprite in x2, let me add, and alot more time consuming. Not to mention x1 size looks lovely and is a blessing for us pixel artists. Do we have the option of going x1 or is it all set to x2 permanently?

[lirmont]

Why is the x2 size the standart size?

There's no standard size. There's native engine support for a very basic spritesheet that fits those general dimensions. Alternatively, anything that has a formatting document is supported through a plugin I wrote.

There's also some ugly blur going on there, as well as white pixels going all over the edges of the x2 sized sprites.

Opinions about the quality of the effects aside, those are just post-processing effects ("shaders") I ran to break up the monotony of having everything use the default settings. Specifically, those post-processing effects are used to show that you can do exactly the same thing you can with an emulator (like ePSXe, using the OpenGL plugins and appropriate shaders).

Is it possible to shrink Tethical into x1 size?

You can use a sprite that has an appropriate sprite format (as opposed to the native engine support).

This would allow players to resize the screen just like the original FFT and yet have the graphics keep their flow/style. It's VERY hard to sprite in x2, let me add, and alot more time consuming. Not to mention x1 size looks lovely and is a blessing for us pixel artists. Do we have the option of going x1 or is it all set to x2 permanently?

Existing TYPE1, TYPE2, ARUTE, KANZEN, CYOKO, and MON* sprites can be used as-is (*: lots of MON sprites have custom actions that are not supported without creating a format specifically for them). What you see in the pictures are existing type-1 sprites. The only changes made to their sprite sheets are: (1) fixing the portrait to use actual colors (rather than relying on an engine to instinctively know it needs to palette shift to make things show up correctly), (2) team color areas have been tagged with some form of hot pink (so that they'll get turned to black and white and multiplied by the color of the team the unit belongs to on the fly), and (3) the filename reflects what race, class, gender, and format the sprite sheet represents (re: something that might be named "Superknightm.bmp" would need to become "human_superknight_male.fft-type1.bmp").

[Mobius]

Got it.


Btw, the weapons and shield bearing features seem to be amazing ideas, to have units actually displaying their equipped gear. So much, I'd be willing to sprite you as many varieties of swords and shields as there could be. They're small and easy, and I can make them in any angle, so as to even open up the possibility of having them move along with the unit's arms.

That'd be pretty epic, and would add a great deal of customization and personality to one's units. Especially for those using online Tethical for roleplay.

I mean, just think about having customizable gear, and having it show on-sprite. 

Damn. I love Tethical already. You have my full support.

There's no standard size. There's native engine support for a very basic spritesheet that fits those general dimensions. Alternatively, anything that has a formatting document is supported through a plugin I wrote.

Mhm. I worded wrong there. I was meaning the resolution of the whole thing. That's a topic for the other thread.

[Mobius]

Heh. So many things that can be done.

That staff-holding pose would require more poses on the sheet, but what the hell. It's too good.

I see my own sheets with so many more extra poses already.