The full 'Borgo sprite rework

[Chada1]

This is a thread to discuss: This PR.
The objectives are:
✔️ Remove all of the old legacy Humanoid sprites as available sprite options.
✔️ Re-sprite and replace the old legacy humanoid sprites with HD-MAD, with a version available for Syndicate too. (New humanoid sprite line, courtesy of Quill#1995 on Discord.) https://i.imgur.com/55LYZEp.png <= See here for a picture of the HD-MAD sprite line.
✔️ Entirely removed Spiderborgs from the available sprite options and replaced them with the 'Unbranded Android' (The exoskeleton with a visible posibrain and a v. intricate electricity animation)
✔️ Created eye overlays for all of my old treadmate/landmate sprite recolors and streamlined their sprite names to be consistent among every variant including the legacy ones.
✔️ Created a new Treadhead sprite and eye overlays and recolor it for every department. You can see an example of one here: There are variants for every department and this is the medical one, showcasing the coil and screen losing power. https://i.imgur.com/KC4wiJe.gifv <= See here.
✔️ Create new toiletbot sprites and eye overlays recolor them for every department. They'll be known as 'Toileto-Tron's https://i.imgur.com/MMJGuFX.gifv <= See here for an example of one.
✔️ Implemented a new 'borg eye overlay system that allows locking them to intent, help or harm. I've decided to go with green for help and blue for harm, and I'm in the process of migrating all of my old sprites over, but they're p. much done already. I migrated all of our custom 'borgs to this system (Using two help overlays) so they shouldn't experience any difference at all in how the intent functions, it's the same for them.
✔️ Created the new SD-MAD hoverbot series. They're be like HD-MAD but with lighter equipment and they're lifted by propulsion, so they float ALA the current Drones, they have no legs. https://i.imgur.com/SRaqRse.gifv <= See here for an example of one, we have one for every department.
✔️ Created the new off-brand MAD hoverbot series. See above. These will have no equipment and be p. much just an endo-skeleton on the hoverbase. https://i.imgur.com/uPzZphl.gifv <= See here, this is the sprite, but the animation in that gif is wonky, I've fixed that.
✔️ Removed the 'Heavy' sprite series, it's redundant and has no neat features at all, I doubt it'll be missed, I'm sorry if it is.
✔️ Addition of the new Repurposed Icarus Drone sprite series, it's part of the overall goal of trying to interconnect the Synths together, This replaces the current Drone 'borg sprite and it looks v. nice I think. https://i.imgur.com/sKuXBBv.gifv <= See here for the Engineering version, but it has variants for every department.
✔️ Recolored the Medical 'Droid sprite for every department, overlay it, and call it 'Hephaestus Android', as the final branded 'borg sprite we'll have (unless people add more) https://i.imgur.com/hCkoQMs.gifv <= See here for examples, it's available in every department.
✔️Addition of the old style floating Drone sprite (Now titled 'Tau-Ceti-Drone'), can be seen here. https://i.imgur.com/tRgyzHL.gifv <=

 

Examples of all of this in action here:
https://i.imgur.com/bXoutev.gifv
https://i.imgur.com/MMJGuFX.gifv
https://imgur.com/KC4wiJe
https://i.imgur.com/55LYZEp.png

Edited February 16, 2020 by Chada1
Added more info

[Chada1]

The ultimate goal is to make playing a 'borg more atmospheric, and also make 'borgs feel more robotic to the Crew, and I think these changes really help to bring that idea to life and I say that as a 'borg player.

This also hikes the general sprite quality for all of our 'borg sprite lines to custom 'borg level, by making them all have alt-department variants so you can play a single 'borg appearance in every department with that departments colors, and creates a norm of highly animated 'borgs.

Any ideas on how to further do this is appreciated

Edited February 8, 2020 by Chada1
Continuing on.

[Arrow768]

Moved to Projects as thats something being worked on

[Chada1]

This project is now moving to the review stage, but there's probably a fair bit I need to change still which will be uncovered soon.

[Arrow768]

Could you post a "summary picture" where we can see all the different borg models currently in the game. (For one department)

[Chada1]

@Arrow768
Note all of these have an alternate overlay for help/harm (Help is green, blue is harm) and many of them have new animations too, so a plain sprite sheet doesn't do them a lot of justice, but here they are, alongside the frontal eye overlay to show how they would look when powered. This is also chronological order in the sprite selection list. The only one without anything new is the very bottom one, which is explained away ICly by being 'Unbranded'. The floating ones have a flame propelling them that I didn't have on hand, but they're animated too. 

In total there are 11 sprites, all with multi department counterparts, many animated and with swapping lights between intents. The only exception is the very last which is totally unchanged.

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Chada1

[Chada1]

Here's the full sprite list, top to bottom. There was one mistake in my last post tho, the Medical Android below the SD-MAD (Floating humanoid sprite) is below the toiletbot, not below the MADs. (Titled 'Hephaestus-Android')
 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Chada1

[Doc]

Where'd the original drone sprite go? Bring it back in addition to the new ones, please.

[Chada1]

33 minutes ago, Doc said:

Where'd the original drone sprite go? Bring it back in addition to the new ones, please.

The old Drone is being replaced by the new one (The Repo-Icarus-Drone) but if people want it back enough I can put in the work to recolor and tool it to the new style too.

[geeves]

Yeah. I quite like the floaty drone.

[Doc]

I honestly dislike the 'repo Icarus' sprite. The coloration looks weird and ill-fitting; it really does look like it was just a completely different sprite which was color-shifted to be forced into the same theme as the rest. I would recommend taking the original Icarus sprite and instead of completely recoloring it, giving it stripes of coloration on its wings and chassis. It's also a little weird that its gun barrels were just turned into lights, imo. It definitely should not replace the original drone sprite entirely.

 

[Chada1]

53 minutes ago, Doc said:

I honestly dislike the 'repo Icarus' sprite. The coloration looks weird and ill-fitting; it really does look like it was just a completely different sprite which was color-shifted to be forced into the same theme as the rest. I would recommend taking the original Icarus sprite and instead of completely recoloring it, giving it stripes of coloration on its wings and chassis. It's also a little weird that its gun barrels were just turned into lights, imo. It definitely should not replace the original drone sprite entirely.

 

https://imgur.com/sKuXBBv <= This is what it looks like ingame, it looks a lot better than it does on a white white background.
The Drone you're defending has been done the exact same way except with far less animation and light-work. Infact it's p. difficult to do anything neat with it because of how small it is, that's one thing the new Drone gives me the ability to do, I can add a lot of neat effects to it (Like I did)

The idea of it being a great sprite with perfect colors/etc is likely more due to it being the status quo and everyone being used to it than anything to do with it actually being a great sprite with perfect colors.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Chada1

[Doc]

I don't think it looks especially better in-game, personally. The original drone is objectively not designed in the same way because.. it's, not an old sprite reused for a purpose it wasn't designed for? I'm not sure what you're trying to argue there. Anyway, the coloration in the drone does exactly what I suggested- highlighting and varied color design besides just a full, plain coat of orange (or X color, but, per the example picture). Is it shaded? Sure, but it shaded in a very smooth manner- this isn't inherently bad, but it contributes to the feeling of a flat, uninteresting design- you can look two or three spaces above the Icarus drone to see more interesting shading that contributes to a more visually appealing sprite- or, the top of the drone. This makes it more interesting to look at and better designed compared to the Icarus drone, imo- despite it's sprite size, which should make it harder to do such thanks to simply less room for detail.

 

I'll specify again that this is specifically with the repo Icarus sprite- I think you've successfully applied the tenants you're talking about to your other sprites, but.. just, not the Icarus one.

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Doc

[Chada1]

6 minutes ago, Doc said:

I don't think it looks especially better in-game, personally. The original drone is objectively not designed in the same way because.. it's, not an old sprite reused for a purpose it wasn't designed for? I'm not sure what you're trying to argue there. Anyway, the coloration in the drone does exactly what I suggested- highlighting and varied color design besides just a full, plain coat of orange (or X color, but, per the example picture). Is it shaded? Sure, but it shaded in a very smooth manner- this isn't inherently bad, but it contributes to the feeling of a flat, uninteresting design- you can look directly below or two spaces above the Icarus drone to see more interesting shading that contributes to a more visually appealing sprite- or, the top of the drone. This makes it more interesting to look at and better designed compared to the Icarus drone, imo- despite it's sprite size, which should make it harder to do such thanks to simply less room for detail.

 

I'll specify again that this is specifically with the repo Icarus sprite- I think you've successfully applied the tenants you're talking about to your other sprites, but.. just, not the Icarus one.

 

The original sprite has been designed that way, the example I showed is it being hue shifted in exactly the same way except with half of it being turned black. As for the new Drone resembling the old Icarus Drone sprite, that's the point -- This rework is meant to tie all of the Synths together and make them feel like they're all related (In being Robots designed in similar circumstances) to each other, and share similar qualities and all of that. NT reusing Icarus Drone chassis' for Station-bound duty fulfills this especially since they have an entire ship full of Drones to pull from. It's a v. compelling Lore tidbit that's worth keeping I think.

I'll try to improve the Icarus Drone sprite and get back to you tho.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Chada1

[Chada1]

@Doc @geeves I plan to smooth out the colors across the different Repo-Icarus-Drone recolors and then I'm also going to get the old Drone (the one you two like) recolored and overlayed and properly setup, and then I'm going to commit them to my current PR as the ACTUAL last branded sprite (I think I want to name it 'Tau-Ceti-Drone' as a homage to that it's a Tau Drone.). I fully plan to add more to these sprites over time in a series of followup adjustment PRs, would that satisfy you both? I can't keep making changes to this massive PR willynilly, I need it to be reviewed, get approved, once it gets ingame I can selectively update and alter and improve sprite lines or entire departments' colorings over time (Which I'm best at)
In the meantime this is what the Drone looks like and I plan to smooth it out like this across each department, the part at the top will be lit up in the overlay as well.

Edited February 12, 2020 by Chada1

[Chada1]

https://i.imgur.com/ePfwhEk.gifv This is what it looks like now.

[Chada1]

https://i.imgur.com/tRgyzHL.gifv Here's the Tau Drone with overlay
When I commit this, this'll be my last update to my PR outside of reviews -- But I'll still change things in follow up PRs, I just need this PR to stay static so it can be reviewed by developers.

Edited February 12, 2020 by Chada1

[Chada1]

This is how the current sprite list looks for the rework.

[Chada1]

I've changed the names some on request of Wezzy. One thing for consideration is we're considering changing the 'Toileto-Tron' to a different name since it's too on the nose. Any ideas? Preferably it still retains the spirit of the sprite name (Toiletbot) but without being too obvious?
Here are the current sprite names.

[wowzewow]

Are you deleting this?

Please don't. It's fine as-is.

It's small and simple, and OK in my eyes.

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by wowzewow

[Chada1]

3 hours ago, wowzewow said:

Are you deleting this?

Please don't. It's fine as-is.

It's small and simple, and OK in my eyes.

 

I did delete that one, yes. (The weirdly colored service one you showed an image of) It now exists as the recolored TC-Drone, so not really deleted so much as resprited/recolored.
See here: https://imgur.com/tRgyzHL
I was going to replace it, but people kept requesting I keep it, and so I recolored and reanimated it to the new style instead ? Everyone wins here.

Though I plan to make additions to the sprite later on but I don't want to start refining it department by department further until they're in the game and I can make smaller PRs doing it piece by piece, It's a really REALLY big undertaking to have to change 6 versions of the same sprite + 3 frames just because you wanted to alter afew pixels and then have to wait for reviews that go out of date each time you do commit anything, so I'm just going to do it over time piece by piece by follow-up PR and get them all in decent shape for now (Like they are)

Edited February 19, 2020 by Chada1

[wowzewow]

alright seems good dude

 

I'll put a hand in respriting things as well If I have some time to burn

[Chada1]

On request of Wezzy, the Heavy and Spiderborg spritelines have been re-added and re-tuned to fit the new system, though I have the idea to alter the Spiderborg line to be more akin to giant, bulkier Drones than the monstrocity they are now.

There are multicolored versions of the spider borgs and they have a new, much better overlay than what they used to have. But I still kinda don't like them much....

https://i.imgur.com/33shHsJ.gifv <= See this gif here for the new overlay.

The rework may be merged soon:tm:

Edited March 1, 2020 by Chada1

[Chada1]

I have some good news and I have some bad news, we will be getting this conceptual spiderborg resprite, but it won't be in this PR. It'll be a little bit after the rework goes live. 

To see the PR: Go here.

It looks really good, though!

https://imgur.com/sfQWDFx <= example of it in action with sci/jani colors.

https://i.imgur.com/OPBJ9NO.gifv <= example of it in action with engi colors.

I plan to give it the same scuttle animation drones have and to also try to update the drones to their overlay, so that it looks more spider-like and glows in the same way. 

The other, updated spider 'borgs will p. much be replaced by these.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Chada1

[Chada1]

Alright the next stage of the rework is over with, the arachnotrons are fully finished, and the drones have new overlays and small sprite adjustments, now they glow a bit more.

A lot of the older legacy 'borg sprites, the basic, landmate, and treadmate series have movement animations now too, and I also added a movement animation to the new treadhead series. 

I decided to pull the Repo-Icarus-Drone series out of the available sprite pool, it doesn't match the new sprites anymore and I decided I don't want to put in the time to fix it up.

This second PR is moving into the review stage.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Chada1