Terrain Tiles

[White Claw]

First draft of the above ground Martian-esque terrain tiles.

[White Claw]

And after uploading, I already made some changes for things I didn't like.

[White Claw]

And the Underground Tiles.

[White Claw]

Attempt 1 to add a bit of color.

[Hooman]

Hey, cool. And I see your mountain slightly exceeds the bounds of the base tile image. That could make for some more interesting variation.

[leeor_net]

That it does! Though I'd like to see it exceed the boundaries a little more.

[havkyp]

If I may provide a small bit of feedback:

One frustration I had with the original game is that it wasn't visually intuitive to me which tiles were rougher. White Claw's versions of surface and underground tiles are so much better!! That said, is there a way to increase the change in visual roughness between the tiles so that it is even more obvious which ones are rougher?

[leeor_net]

Yup. I want to have more exagerated heights in them. E.g., impassable can stick out more, difficult can just barely pass the tile boundaries, etc.

Going to be an iterative process here but already it's better. It's still a bit dark and muddy for my taste but I leave that up to others to decide for sure -- these worked well when recolored for the other two planet types.


EDIT:

Did a little touching up (adjusting contrast/brightness and increased the yellow components a bit) and it feels a lot better in-game now:





Still something a bit off, maybe I'm just not used to it yet. It's still a vast improvement from the original tiles!

Also side note -- right-clicking on a tile will bring up the Tile Inspector -- it will tell you the terrain type, location, etc. This is on empty tiles, of course.

[White Claw]

I can certainly lighten up the textures some (or make them any color I want). Also, I was initially hesitant to make the tiles "too tall," but I can certainly go wild if you guys think the tiles could use more relief.

[leeor_net]

Go wild. I like wild.

Though I will say try to keep it within 64 pixels tall. I can adjust the values in the code if it really looks better taller than 64 pixels though so by all means, go wild and let's see how it turns out.

[Hooman]

Make something really awesome that's 65 pixels tall! 

[White Claw]

Okay, here is another attempt. I'm working on a unified texture so that, regardless of scale and shape, the terrain will (ideally) all look like it goes together.

Here are two tiles: One is supposed to be "clear" (though it could also be bulldozed, I suppose), and the other is "impassable." (I think the impassable is 62 or 63 pixels high.)

Edit: And after posting into the forum, they still look a bit brown...so I added two more with lighter shades.

[White Claw]

Another round of terrain tiles.

[leeor_net]

Have done a bit of experimentation with the tiles you've provided. I have three of the newest tiles in the current tile set and two of the older ones. I think it looks pretty good!

[White Claw]

Are you happy with that color scheme? Or would you like more gradation in the colors between bulldozed brown and impassable yellow?

I was going to make the most recent set with a more brown bulldozed and clear, but was straying away from that based on the previous input.

[havkyp]

Are you happy with that color scheme? Or would you like more gradation in the colors between bulldozed brown and impassable yellow?

I was going to make the most recent set with a more brown bulldozed and clear, but was straying away from that based on the previous input.

Looking good! But I think the colour change between the tile types are too big now, it looks kind of unnatural to have such drastic breaks in colour between roughness types... Is there a way to them to match up better without sacrificing the ease with which you can tell roughness levels apart?

[White Claw]

Another attempt to modify the color scheme...

[havkyp]

Another attempt to modify the color scheme...

Wow... IMHO this is the best version of the terrain files by far!!! Amazing work!

[leeor_net]

I think this is the best tweak so far. In the previous screenshot it was mentioned that there was a large color variation -- I don't see it but that's also because I'm partially color blind. It's enough to make color matching impossible for me. -_- Another reason I don't do the designer thing and just stick with engineering.

I'll get these added into the game shortly and provide a new screenshot.

EDIT:


And here it is! For me it still feels a little dull but I'm going to wait on the opinions of others who don't have the same sight limitations that I do.

I like the terrain detail for sure though and the height differences make a much better looking environment. Definitely feels like a real planetary surface.

[singthemuse]

Well, if we want to go off the idea that supposedly females are better at discriminating colors, I could throw in my credentials of being a female to say that the different terrain tiles blend beautifully together and, as a whole, look just like sandstone in blaring sun. I suppose the color scheme as a whole could be considered a little dull to some (the khaki of the dunes/mountains isn't my favorite personally) , but it will defiantly make the buildings stand out. It would also depend on the planet type wouldn't it? My only suggestion might be to shift everything very slightly in a more bluish/purple (stony mountains) or reddish/orange (iron rust) direction, rather than the current yellow/green. But that is ~totally~ my personal opinion. Yellow is my least favorite color, though I don't hate it. Again though, it looks just like arid soil or sand so I guess it really depends on what you are looking for. For an arid environment it looks great!

[leeor_net]

Very much appreciate the feedback!

I agree that it could be shifted toward the yellow/ocher palette a bit to give a more 'Marsy' feel to it. The good thing, at least, is that these can be easily recolored in one shot in Photoshop -- I did that with a more purplish/blue hue for the 'Mercury' planet type and pretty much grey for the 'Ganymede' planet type though those were the older tile styles.

Also welcome to the forums!

[havkyp]

Well, if we want to go off the idea that supposedly females are better at discriminating colors, I could throw in my credentials of being a female to say that the different terrain tiles blend beautifully together and, as a whole, look just like sandstone in blaring sun. I suppose the color scheme as a whole could be considered a little dull to some (the khaki of the dunes/mountains isn't my favorite personally) , but it will defiantly make the buildings stand out. It would also depend on the planet type wouldn't it? My only suggestion might be to shift everything very slightly in a more bluish/purple (stony mountains) or reddish/orange (iron rust) direction, rather than the current yellow/green. But that is ~totally~ my personal opinion. Yellow is my least favorite color, though I don't hate it. Again though, it looks just like arid soil or sand so I guess it really depends on what you are looking for. For an arid environment it looks great!

Great points!

Technical question: In order to save time, is it possible to simply shift the colours of the tiles to make them more Mars-like (or other-planet-like for other planet types in the game) without actually drawing new tiles from scratch? In fact, can there be just one master set of terrain tiles, and have *the game* dynamically shift their colours based on planet type?

[leeor_net]

Technical question: In order to save time, is it possible to simply shift the colours of the tiles to make them more Mars-like (or other-planet-like for other planet types in the game) without actually drawing new tiles from scratch? In fact, can there be just one master set of terrain tiles, and have *the game* dynamically shift their colours based on planet type?

Yes and yes.

They can be recolored on the fly within the engine. While this works, it won't allow for special tweaking. That's something that can only be done within a graphics editor.

In a graphics editor like Photoshop, it's very easy to adjust colors. Either desaturate to greyscale and then apply a color overlay (easy) or shift the color palette using a hue or color shift. I can do it very easily... but as is evident I'm hardly in a position to do it well (have trouble with greens and reds, they look the same as yellows, browns and greys).

[Hooman]

Well, if we want to go off the idea that supposedly females are better at discriminating colors, I could throw in my credentials of being a female to say that the different terrain tiles blend beautifully together and, as a whole, look just like sandstone in blaring sun. I suppose the color scheme as a whole could be considered a little dull to some (the khaki of the dunes/mountains isn't my favorite personally) , but it will defiantly make the buildings stand out. It would also depend on the planet type wouldn't it? My only suggestion might be to shift everything very slightly in a more bluish/purple (stony mountains) or reddish/orange (iron rust) direction, rather than the current yellow/green. But that is ~totally~ my personal opinion. Yellow is my least favorite color, though I don't hate it. Again though, it looks just like arid soil or sand so I guess it really depends on what you are looking for. For an arid environment it looks great!

Well that is some awesome feedback! Heh, "like sandstone in blaring sun". I love the artistry of that statement. The new tiles do blend well together. And very good actionable feedback about shifting the colors towards bluish/purple for stony mountains, or reddish/range for iron/rust.

Welcome to the forums!

[JetMech1999]

Definite improvement on the original terrain tiles.  I especially like the coloration on the impassable terrain tiles.