Sprite Request: Terror Spiders

[Kyet]

 

I'm developing some really awesome new spiders: Terror Spiders.

 

Changelog, etc: http://nanotrasen.se/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 9b01b6e71e

 

Problem is, although I have had a lot of success writing their AI, making them playable, etc, I'm terrible at spriting.

 

Anyone interested in making sprites for them?

 

Here are the types:

 

• red - a slow-moving armored juggernaut of a spider, red tarantula look would be great

• gray - a stealthy, hard-to see spider, like the alien hunter. Often hides in vents. Could be made visually smaller than the others.

green - a nurse-like spider that lays eggs on bodies. Graphically, having an egg sac would be great.

white - an intelligent, parasite-carrying hit-and-run spider. It should look like a white, fluffy tarantula

black - a 'poison them and run' spider, it looks like a giant black widow

purple - an elite guard spider for queens' nests, it tries to pounce on and stun intruders in the nest

queen - an egg-laying spider, with enormous egg sac and extremely tough carapace armor

mother - a fictional mother wolf spider that carries many young on its back - big but not especially threatening looking, except for its back

empress - a large-size (64x64 sprite) extremely fearsome ruler spider, imagine the ruler of a planet full of lovecraftian spider nightmares

 

 

And the objects:

 

• spider carapace body armor

• spider fang weapon

spider gland object

 

 

Here are some of the sprites I am using now:

(they are, from left to right: red, black, green, white, purple, gray, queen. Empress is not shown because I'm currently using stick-figure art for her)

 

Yes, they're terrible palette swaps of the default spiders.

I'd like sprites that make each class look more unique - not just palette swaps.

 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Guest

[HugoLuman]

I might just take a crack at spriting those, as long as you don't need the sprites this week

[Kyet]

 

I might just take a crack at spriting those, as long as you don't need the sprites this week

Thanks! I don't need em this week. I realize it will take some time to make all of these sprites.

 

Notes you might find useful:

 

• The current sprites I am using are in: https://github.com/Kyep/Paradise/blob/1 ... animal.dmi

• I've put placeholder sprites for the empress in https://github.com/Kyep/Paradise/blob/1 ... rlarge.dmi - they're essentially stick figures, but the size of the icons might be useful to know.

All of the spiders have 'dead' images in addition to their 4 direction sprites. However, the 'dead' images I am using right now are simply the sprite where they face towards the camera, flipped upside down. Ideally they'd have death sprites that look more like a killed alien queen - ie: the creature on its side, blood everywhere. That's very much a nice-to-have, though.

 

 

Here are some reference images that might help:

Red:

This, but more red:

Even better if it had fangs like this:

 

Gray:

This scary gray one:

Maybe a little lower to the ground, so it looks stealthy, like this:

 

Green:

Like this, but green:

 

Purple

 

Black

 

White

Just wish the fangs were a different color, say red, so they stood out more.

 

Queen

I like the basic model of the don't starve queen:

I just wish it was scarier:

 

Mother

One big spider with many little ones on its back:

 

Empress

Spiders + Lovecraft:

 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Guest

[FoS]

 

I started scribbling some spiders as well. I am a little unsure that a 64x64 spider should be done since sprites bigger than 32x32 have weird clipping issues and playing as something that big tends to cause that player to end up hitting themselves more often than not.

 

 

but yeah, smaller sprites would be nice too but maybe not practical as they might be too difficult to see or hit.

 

[Kyet]

 

I started scribbling some spiders as well.

 

Thanks!

 

I am a little unsure that a 64x64 spider should be done since sprites bigger than 32x32 have weird clipping issues and playing as something that big tends to cause that player to end up hitting themselves more often than not.

 

The clicking and clipping issues are why I made the queen normal sized. I saw those same issues during playtesting, and I agree they were very annoying.

They are also part of the reason I updated queens/empresses with projectile spit attacks. They don't need to be accurate - they just have to click in the target's direction, and so long as the spit passes through their tile, it hits them.

Queens/empresses should always have a brood of other spiders to defend them, so they shouldn't be reliant on accurate clicking in combat. If they're having to fight personally, their hive is probably already wrecked or at least in serious trouble.

 

The empress I only made 2x2 (the size of an alien queen, not the silly size of an alien empress) because:

 

• She's an adminspawn-only, primarily RP character, so she is probably the least reliant on combat effectiveness of all spiders. She can spawn queens that make entire nests to defend her. She doesn't care about combat effectiveness, and even when she does, she has projectile spit attack, regeneration, and a huge health pool.

• I felt like the primary purpose of the empress is just like the purpose of an alien empress - to be an interesting RP character and sow terror amongst the crew. Being big really helps her inspire fear amongst some players.

 

 

Do you think the big alien sprites work?

If so, similar-sized sprites should work for the terror spider empress.

If not, I'll certainly consider changing her sprite size.

 

 

Thank you for making these. They're neat. Better than anything I could make.

I assume 1st is purple, 3rd is red. I am guessing 4 is white or gray, and 5 is white or black? Not sure which one 2 is aimed at.

 

What I like about them:

 

• I very much like the fact they all have 4 legs on each side. It always bothered me to see 'spiders' with the wrong number of legs.

• I like the fangs, too. They look much more substantial.

I like how the front/back views account for different perspective.

I like how the colors are blended into the legs.

 

 

What I think could be improved:

 

• Colors. 2 does not look fearsome due to that yellow/blue. 4 uses both white and green, which is risky as I don't want people to confuse the white and green types. 5 uses both black and white, but doesn't look clearly like a black type, a white type, or a gray type. I was thinking of reserving blue for the queen/empress. Since the empress is just a more aged and powerful queen, it makes sense for them to share a color (though the empress' design would look fiercer). I'm not against having a yellow spider - it would always be good to have a sprite on hand in case I introduce a new type, and yellow is one of the few so-far-unused colors I think would work well. I don't think I'll be able to use a yellow/blue combination spider, though.

• Spiky bits on their backs. The spikes on the red one's back look good, and make sense (it is a heavily armored melee type, so they might help discourage melee attacks). White/black are hit-and-run types, though, so they'd benefit more from long fangs, mobility, etc than spikes on their backs. Every type has its own AI and own style, so ideally sprites would reflect how they actually operate. E.g. white type might have muscular legs for pouncing, grey type might be lower to the ground to more easily fit in vents, red would look armored, queen would have a visible egg sac, black would have the black widow hourglass symbol on it, etc.

Eyes. Possibly the only good thing about my codersprites is their eyes. They were big and glowing, which made them scary. They also often told you the type (red eyes = red type, purple eyes = purple type, etc) - even visible when the spiders were viewed from the side. Having obvious eyes that tell you the spider's type from all angles, and improve the fear factor, isn't strictly necessary, but it does help.

Legs. Red/purple/white would benefit from fuzzy tarantula legs. I tried to do this myself but I could never get it looking good. If it is possible though, I think it would look awesome. Green/gray would benefit from spindly legs. Black would benefit from legs that get thinner further away from the spider's body, just as the real-life black widow has.

 

 

[Kyet]

 

Development continues on the Terror Spiders.

In the latest update, I started using FoS' sprites instead of my codersprites.

 

Currently, from FoS' list of sprites:

 

• #1 purple is being used for purple terror, the bodyguard.

• #2 gold is being used for queen/empress, the most dangerous.

#3 black/red is being used for red, the juggernaut.

#4 white/green is being used for white, the infector.

#5 gray is being used for gray, the stealth vent ambusher.

 

 

Here's my current situation with regards to sprites:

 

• Currently, I am using FoS' initial sprites above. That leaves the black spider (should look like a black widow), green spider (should look like an egg-layer), mother spider (a spider with other spiders on its back), and empress spider (an older, more scary queen) still using my codersprites.

• I'm still on the lookout for a complete set of spider sprites I can use (red, gray, green, white, black, purple, queen, mother, empress). Especially one that has each spider's graphic reflect what it does - that would be awesome.

I have no object sprites (spider fang, spider carapace armor) yet. Those are sought, too, but with lower priority.

 

 

Here is the most current overview of what I'm looking for in terms of sprites for each type:

 

• red - a juggernaut-like brute of a spider, like a red tarantula, with vicious fangs

• gray - a stealthy spider, looking slightly smaller than average, perhaps with an alpha like the alien hunter has

green - a green spider with an egg sac

white - a fluffy-looking white spider with long fangs

black - a giant black widow, with red hourglass symbol on its abdomen

purple - like the red spider, except meaner-looking and purple

queen - a spider with a big egg sac and/or one that looks like it is in charge

mother - a spider with many small spiders on its back

empress - like the queen, but older / battle-scarred

 

 

And the objects:

 

• spider carapace body armor - just a body armor that looks like it is made of plates of spider hide

• spider fang - just a large fang that looks like you could stab someone with it

 

 

[Kyet]

 

Still in active development: http://nanotrasen.se/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6967

 

Still badly need sprites, especially for:

 

• Green

• Black

Mother

Empress

 

Would like to do a PR soon, so I can see how the players react to fighting / playing as these.

 

Would really like to get the other classes sprited before I do a PR, though.

 

Edited April 1, 2016 by Guest

[FoS]

 

Ah! I just realized I never posted a .dmi for you.

Feel free to poke/edit/etc these if you want.

spidersinthenight.zip

spidersinthenight.zip

[Travelling Merchant]

 

I started scribbling some spiders as well. I am a little unsure that a 64x64 spider should be done since sprites bigger than 32x32 have weird clipping issues and playing as something that big tends to cause that player to end up hitting themselves more often than not.

 

 

but yeah, smaller sprites would be nice too but maybe not practical as they might be too difficult to see or hit.

 

 

I've got to ask, since I'm new to sprites. How did you get such high detail in a 32x32 sprite?

 

[FoS]

 

I've got to ask, since I'm new to sprites. How did you get such high detail in a 32x32 sprite?

 

Well, I don't really know how you make sprites but I make all of mine in photoshop and tend to use lots of layers for alternate parts so I can easily make edits/recolor things. I think lots of it is just practice really.

 

[Kyet]

 

Ah! I just realized I never posted a .dmi for you.

Feel free to poke/edit/etc these if you want.

 

Thanks.

Still holding out for someone to sprite the remaining unsprited types (mentioned above).

I don't mind if they're recolors.

 

I did codersprites for them all originally, but I'm confident an actual spriter could make better.

 

[Kyet]

 

Current list of sprites needed:

 

1st priority (I'm currently using placeholder codersprites I dislike, because I have no usable sprites):

 

• Green (egglayer)

• Black (giant black widow with red hourglass)

 

 

2nd priority (I'm using sprites shared between classes, or that don't really fit what the class now does):

 

• Mother (spider with other spiders on its back)

• Prince (big boss hardened for battle)

Queen (big boss, if possible carrying large egg sac)

Empress (older, more experienced battle-hardened queen, needs both 32x32 and 64x64 sprites)

 

 

3rd priority (I'd prefer to see them closer to the references I posted, but it isn't a big deal)

 

• White (vicious-looking, fluffy)

• Gray (smaller-looking, stealthy)

 

 

 

Obligatory example image for the Prince class:

 

 

The Prince graphic doesn't have to look like that, or be black, it just needs to look fearsome.

 

[FreeStylaLT]

oh my god why did i come here with arachnophobia

[Kyet]

 

Thanks to Travelling Merchant, the black type is now sprited:

Green/etc still need sprites.

 

[Kyet]

 

Updated (Apr/13) list of sprites I'm looking for:

 

1st priority (spiders still stuck with codersprites)

 

• Green spider (an egglaying, webspinning spider)

 

 

2nd priority (spiders currently stuck sharing sprites with other spiders)

 

• Mother spider (a spider with other spiders on its back)

• Prince spider (a fast, aggressive, tank-like spider hardened for battle)

Queen spider (a huge egglaying and nestbuilding spider)

Empress spider (an enormous, battle-hardened queen that ideally needs both 32x32 and 64x64 sprites)

 

 

3rd priority (new items I am looking to add)

 

• Spider carapace (a drop from spiders that can be crafted into things, can look like goliath plates)

• Spider body armor (a body armor that I'd like to make craftable with bits of carapace, can look like sec body armor)

Spider venom gland (a small venom gland of a spider, a drop from dead spiders, can look like xeno glands)

 

 

4th priority (spiders with viable sprites I'd still like to replace/change)

 

• White (vicious-looking, fluffy)

• Gray (smaller-looking, stealthy)

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2016 by Guest

[Kyet]

Bump. Still looking for sprites from that list.

[Kyet]

Sprite request closed, as the PR was rejected.