Swoop
 

So, I made a swoop bike....

Well, I made one side of a swoop bike and want to know if I should even bother continuing.

Comments. x_x

looks kinda cool will they fire lazers like in star wars though? o_O

not sure what a swoop bike is but i like it :)

Its a type of speeder...its the 2nd fastest type of speeder bike... a BARC is the fastest...

Oh yeah it kick ass Curt...finish it up....and then make Stefan put it in...and I may buy more gold time to play with it.

Awesome ^^
If you do continue, which i think you should, what are the colors going to be?
And if it does fire lasers, it should take up energy I guess.

Coloring is going to be fun on this...hmm...

Alright, I'll continue & finish it.

As a concept its nice, will be interesting to see it finished :)

It look too much like the StarWars one if you ask me... And the perspective is completely off...

Same as the other vehicles. x_x

u can see the seat in the regular speeder because the angle its drawn at is different from this one. Plus this and the speeders deserve 8 drawing directions because they look goofy turning, but this one will look especially goofy because its so long.

The other speeder has messed up perspective too... You can see the top of the seat and stuff like they're at a 45 degree angle almost... but the handle bars are drawn at a straight on view.

Yes, well, *Shrug*...

I was just following the other ones perspective, and I'm not going to make 8 dirrections because the others dont have 8.

Once I'm done and it's gani'd, I'll test it. If it's fugly , I'll redo it.

I'll gani it for you. Also, I have a suggestion. Tilt the image up by maybe only 10 degrees on a sprite so that it has a nice acceleration gani (the front will go up and back down when you accelerate).

I'll give it a few angles possible, sure.

Well, you either followed the other one's perspective wrong, or the other one's perspective is just wrong itself...

And haro41 is right, you really should make 8 directions, regardless of whether or not the other one has 8 or not... Maybe if you make yours in 8, the Zone staff and players will realize that 8 is way better than 4 for the speeders, and change the old one too.

The other perspective is wrong itself.

And eh....I don't know if I'm ready to be a trend setter. I'd have to get this monkey off my back first.

ah don't listen to them, it looks good so finish it :)

Why not listen to us? Because we're right? Or because you have a problem with me because I pointed out errors in you graphics before?

Either way that doesn't change the fact that the perspective of that graphics doesn't match up with Graal. Graal has an elevated 'camera angle'; things usually aren't drawn at a straight angle view.

I'm not saying his graphic is bad, or ugly. I think his outline was done very well personally. I'm quite impressed... But it just doesn't fit with Graal... Perhaps if he wanted to make a side-scroller server he could use that Swoop Bike. But Zone isn't a side-scroller.

And yes, if you're making a new vehicle, it should definatly include eight directions. The GoKarts on Graal2001 have 8 directions and it made their appeal increase at least 10 fold... That's from something that's four years old. Zone is the new meat, shouldn't it be able to keep up with something that's four years old?

All of the vehicles should have 8 directions anyway... New sprites should be added to the old vehicles, and their scripts should be adapted to use 8 directions. So why not get a head start and make 8 directions for your new Bike, Curtis? Hell it might even give Stefan the initiative to fix up the other bike scripts to work with 8 directions too.

If you're not willing to take the role of a leader once in a while, and do something to keep the ball rolling, you may as well just give up. Give up on life. Go live in a refrigerator box somewhere and eat canned beans all day long because nobody needs someone who is afraid to stick their neck out there. Don't be such a sheep.

On a side note: I would like to know something, if someone has the answer. Who is in charge of the graphics on Zone? Are they looking over everything (or anything) that comes through this forum and onto the server? Or is it just Stefan giving a glance and the okay to anything he deems worthy? Because honestly, without intent of offence, I don't think Stefan is the most artistically oriented person... He seems more like the mathy-coder type to me.

I mean, I know he can weed out the absolutely hideous graphics, and he notices some flaws with perspective, and shading, etc... But does he see all of the potential problems that a Graphic Designer would notice? Shouldn't there be a Graphics Admin looking at the graphics here, helping to correct them, and eventually approving them for use on the server? Or they would give the "Okay" to Stefan, letting him know that "This graphic is good to use on Zone. No Shape, Perspective, or Shading errors!"? Someone like that would be useful... And they would probably get a lot more respect than us normal folks do when giving advice.

I thought there was a Zone Graphics Admin... Galdor or someone? (Another "G" person?) Where are they? Are they looking over this stuff? I haven't noticed them posting at all.

I have a sense of what would fit and what wouldn't fit, and I am doing some graphics myself. The problem with graphic admins is often that they are too focussed on their own preferred style and fail to see that graphics without 100% perfect shading or similar can fit too. There are even graphic staff who think the arms in weapon animations must be animated perfectly, but don't see the huge amount of time it already takes to combine nice player animations using the existing graphics. Sometimes making things more complex doesn't help at all.
So in my opinion it is best to make good looking graphics, eventually fixing the colors or so so that it fits, and then add it to the game and make it interesting, instead of wasting tons of time to discuss extremely minor things. You can discuss the details of graphic design on the Graphics Forum I guess.

yo stefan did you make the beam lightning gfx? the ones in your sig?

Actually no, I used lightning gfx from a Torque resource, resized, made it 8 bit colors, made it so that the 3 variations can be connected randomly,
and in the gani I have also added a light effect so that it looks more cool :)

I understand you have a sense of that sort of thing, and I also knew you made some graphics, I wasn't trying to say otherwise... I was just saying that Graphic Design wasn't your focus. I was saying that Zone would benifit if someone who's more into Graphic Design were in charge of the graphics...

You're blowing what I said way out of proportion. I'm not looking for some tyrant here... You should be able to find a Gfx Admin who understands the difference between 'different styles' and 'flawed technique'. There are guidelines in the Art world when making certain type of art that are meant to be followed. They make the graphics more... logical, more appealing, more flowing. You can have as many different styles as you like... They all follow the same basic principles though. (Things like Abstract art are exceptions, but those aren't of any concern here)

I'm not suggesting you should hire someone who's going to decline a graphic because of a single pixel error... I'm suggesting you hire someone who can notice things like that, then either inform the creator so they can fix it, and send it again, or inform the creator of the mistake, so they learn about it, then fix it themselves. You should have someone who can take the time and the know how to help the players creating graphics improve their skills... That way, they (the player) can eventually start to spot, and fix these errors before they even submit their graphics ... They might even be able to start helping newer players with their graphics.

It's not just extremely minor thing's I'm talking about, there are a few rather noticeable things that I've noticed you've overlooked... Again, you blew what I said out of proportion.

You mentioned a lot about taking up too much time... Well sometimes it takes time to make something of great quality. And I don't know if you were aware, but this server, "Zone" we're talking about, is actually a Gold Server. That means that you want players to pay $40 American a year to play this server... Which is understandable, you're trying to run a business, you need income. But you have to make it all worth their buck, that means graphics too... Because trust me, that's the first thing these customers will look at.

But... I suppose this is your company, and you should be able to run it however you like. I probably don't have any place saying these things seeing as how I haven't put my lifesavings into the company... I just thought I'd put some advice out there for the taking.

P.S. I just saw Spark's Contact thread and noticed that Garel was listed as the Graphics Admin. Is he/she still around?

I belive Stefan is the Creator of Graal....You're trying to lecture the Creator o_O and are you suggesting that he hire you? all you do is look for flaws that wouldn't be noticed during gameplay, then try to make it into a Huge deal....and there is a "Trial" acc you can get, Graal doesn't force you to pay, before you play. You (the customer(s) ) choose weather or not to buy the game...and you don't have to pay $40 dollars...i only payed 30 :) but i only got a 6 month acc...i need to get $44 to get a year for this....ehhh that's 30 dollars i have to come up with in 68 days or so :( (34 of those days i won't be here, i'll be visiting my dad:)) o and your comic thing is miss-colored on the 3rd frame, in the first one, the guy pointing is wearing black pants, but in the 3rd one he isn't o_O

So he's the creator of this particular game... Okay, that doesn't make him an expert of everything... For example, I play the Drums. If I make up a song, and show someone like Mike Portnoy (Very very good/famous drummer) and he points out problems with my technique in my song, such as, a sloppy time signature change, he can still be right. Just because I made the song, doesn't mean I'm always right when it comes to how it's been made.

I never suggested he hire me for anything. Where did I say something to make you think that? Don't make silly assumptions like that, it makes an ass out of you and Muptions.

Sure, not every player would notice these flaws during gameplay, but some would, and nobody likes sloppy graphics... Hell more players will notice the errors in screenshots, which is where they're going to get their first taste of Zone graphics... Then what about Game Reviews. If Graal ever gets Reviewed by any sort of respectable Video Game Magazine/Website/TV Show they're doomed in the graphics portion of the review, even if the things I'm pointing out are only "Minor" in your opinion. Those folks can be bloody ruthless.

I never said he was forcing people to upgrade... I said he wanted them too, and he wants them to keep upgrading. When you're on a Gold server you expect that much more care in the making of all of it, graphics included. If I'm going to pay $40, or $30 (whatever it costs) every year to be able to play this whenever I want, it better own up to it's price in all aspects... Otherwise, I'll just pay the fee once, and stick to the classic servers.


It's not my comic. It's a brilliantly hilarious strip from my favorite webcomic, WhiteNinja... You obviously don't understand the humor. During the close up of the grapefruit in the 2nd frame, WhiteNinja's friend had removed his pants... An old lady needed to cross the street and there was a puddle at the curb. The pants were needed to cover over the puddle in a gentlemanly fashion.

Garel comes and goes as Garel pleases. Although I havnt seen Garel on RC in months.

who's Garel? and i don't no where you came up with the old lady crossing the street xD....i was letting you no that one of the frames was wrong...o, and if you make the song and everything, the guy (forgot his name, the famous drummer?) but he could tell you what he thinks would sound better, but it's still your song and you could play it any way you wanted....

Wow, took me a while to get back to this... anyway. Garel is supposed to be the Graphics Admin on Zone... They just never show up I guess.

Of course I could still play the song the way I wanted... That doesn't mean I would be better off by not listening to Mike Portnoy. I'm not forcing Stefan to do anything. I'm only making suggestions, and I think it would be in his best interests to follow through with them. *shrug* That's just my opinion. I thought I made valid enough points to have him see things my way. Perhaps I overestimated myself.

Garel made all the graphics in the dropships and a few more. He has a job now and less time for Graal in general it seems, you can sometimes find him on Atlantis I think.