Just got a package from Mago with a bunch of sprite mods, some of them look real good... check it all out at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.korax-heritage.com/koraxdev/2d_art/koraxse_spritemods.zip">http://www.korax-heritage.com/koraxdev/ ... temods.zip</a><!-- m --> Here's what he told me:

I'm sending those mods I was talking about yesterday, and although they are just samples, things I made while testing some functions, maybe you want to take a look and maybe find something useful. I've altered things just by changing groups of colors. There are no actual editing on pixels. Here are some descriptions: I tried to get a bright blue color to one of the skies, but I couldn't. I wanted to get a "day" sky to put above the city. I also altered some monsters. Maybe this way they could appear in certain maps of SE (I specially like the idea of having the golden aromored Knight from Heretic as an elite guard of the U-H, in the last map). Different colors would mean a different cast, with improved stats above the normal ones from it's race (just like in Golden Axe). I've also tried to alter the flats and patches. I know you already have lots of them, but I'm sending them anyway. I just looked to find different colors and materials from some patches.

I find some of the concepts quite cool, like the reddish flaming Afrit or the green Wendigo, and especially the different skies (that's what I want BTW for TSP, custom skies in a large quantity). Also, I'm not sure if I understood right that it's just remapping a couple of colors, i.e. creating a new sprite sequence for a new foe/NPC would take but little time, or am I mistaken?

Well, it depends. You can be sure that it take less than creating a sprite from scratch, lines and colors, but some of the editing take also lots of time, and demand great care in selections of areas, since some of them are real complex. As for "fulled" colors areas (like patches, and skies) it is extremely easy: you just have to pick the variation of color you want, although some variations aren't possible due to the original colors (in some cases it's difficult to go from one color to another, etc). As for sprites, things get a little complicated. While the green wendigo (emerald) was easy to create, because I could change the entire monster and then just paint the 8 pixels that form the eyes, in the Afrit or the Golden Knight, it was much more compicated, because you have to carefully select the parts you want (inthe Affrit case, the body and not the fire; and in the Knight case, just the iron plates), then paste it into another place, edit it, and then paste it above the original. But yes, it's still easier to just replace\change colors, instead of painting everything from scratch, adding shadows and lights, textures, muscles,etc... After all, all you have to do is play with the tools and find the coloration you want.

After the sound of it, I'd say the green wendigo could be a high priority as it's a new monster with little effort, and a nice sky for the town would also be appreciated. The rest rather put on backburner, as you'll run out of time most probably, being the only active artist. Actually, I really don't know what I'll do with damage skins available for only some of the monsters. As far as I'm concerned, it starts to become the topmost priority in 2D art. This is IMO a more important feature than a new monster more or less or a new inscreen weapon/spell more or less. 2nd highest priority goes to one-frame standing NPCs, I need following at the minimum: - local leaders of the 3 orders, i.e. the persons you see in the keep, the church and the tower of the magi (in the town) - 3 different tavern keepers/innkeepers (in addition to the existing one) - blacksmith - bank clerk - clerk in town hall (several would be good) - librarian (several would be good) - if time permits, 2-3 generic civilian characters

Well, tets see: As for the DSkins, well, I guess youre right. They are complicated and the most complex ones are still to be done (Heresiarch and Bishop, at least. The wyvern shouldn't have one, cause it's so small, we almost never see them up close and they are already pretty damaged as they are). Although I can cut some details on the bichop's, I don't know tabout the Heresiarch- it should be one of the best skins, cause it's an important foe. Anyway, they should definetly appear, for we already have the most common monsters done. Green Wendigo: it can be done quite easily, as all one base color monsters (such as Wyvern and those ones from the swamps- a blue one would also be cool). Any sprites with more than one color base is more complicated, such as Ettttin, Heresiarch, Bidhop, Centaur (a bit easier),etc. One frame npcs: those can be done in about 1 or 2 hours each, but I'm not sure when I'll have some to spare, since all the work I've done since in College was made in 10 to 30 minutes breaks. I'll try to make as much as I can still there, but this way I would not work on full animated ones, or at least walking ones. I'll also try to make simple animation when possible (such as a blacksmith hammering iron in 2 or 3 frames, plus a standing position, or a frame with people reading, plus the standing one, that sort of things...). Anyway, with only me working, I can't tell how much work will be done. We need another artist. Isn't it time to ask for more members? I can writte the request for an artitst in the forums and the news section of the website. Do you agree?

I have no prob with you posting that, but I'll be very surprised if anyone serious signs up. Even for Q3 and Unreal engine games it's rather difficult to get together an artist team, and Hexen is going to be 8 years old this year.