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Topic: The Barbarian Food Sector

Astuur
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Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08
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Location: Frankfurt / Germany
Posted at: 2011-11-25, 18:44

Okay, I have some substitutes to propose to you all.
With the ration, the obvious challenge was, that it may be either bread, or meat, or fish.
So what do you show, then? I took to the solution, of "packing" up the ration in a box, braided from reed. face-wink.png
The ration is served on wooden tablet, made by cutting an oblique slice from a trunk.
The snack uses the same tablet, but shows the components (I went for the meat, not the fish - don't like blue fish face-smile.png ).
The meal is served on a an ordinary porcelain plate. Okay, I don't really know, where there Barabarians got that from,
but I wanted a clear contrast to the wooden plate, and stainless steel seemed even more exotic.

Any comments?
The final decision is up to Chuck, our Graphic Elder, as usual.

Edited: 2011-11-25, 18:45

Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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Solstice

Joined: 2011-11-24, 00:22
Posts: 15
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Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2011-11-25, 21:06

I like them -exept the first one which is in a box. I think it looks too modern whether the box is braided from reed or not. Could it be some kind of soup in a wooden cup or something? And that cup placed on the tablet. Ingredients of the cup could be camouflaged with steam arising from the cup or something. Or maybe the soup color isn't any of the colors used already in the food components - greenish gray for example would do (?)

Now as I've seen the lowest one (deeper coal mine) some minutes here, the white color of tablet begins to irritate a bit - especially the one that is being carried from flag to flag. Why can't all of the tablets be identical (orientation, color) and only contents change? Would look more uniform that way which might be better.


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Sadchant

Joined: 2011-10-27, 18:09
Posts: 25
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Posted at: 2011-11-25, 21:45

Solstice wrote: I like them -exept the first one which is in a box. I think it looks too modern whether the box is braided from reed or not. Could it be some kind of soup in a wooden cup or something? And that cup placed on the tablet. Ingredients of the cup could be camouflaged with steam arising from the cup or something. Or maybe the soup color isn't any of the colors used already in the food components - greenish gray for example would do (?) Now as I've seen the lowest one (deeper coal mine) some minutes here, the white color of tablet begins to irritate a bit - especially the one that is being carried from flag to flag. Why can't all of the tablets be identical (orientation, color) and only contents change? Would look more uniform that way which might be better.

I agree with that. A cup with some undifined "food" in it would be better, not the green box. The bread could be a little bit darker, the form is ok, the "no-hamburger-style", but on the roads its to white and there would be to low contrast, i think.

But the tablets are nice face-smile.png


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Bitiquinho

Joined: 2011-11-26, 00:18
Posts: 2
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Posted at: 2011-11-26, 01:05

I know this goes against the way widelands works now, but I think that makes more sense that inns and taverns work like the training camp: the workers go to this places to feed themselves, and then return to the mines. The idea of rations is good to, but a building that simply assemblies other products as a single resource seems meaningless.

Ps.: English is not my native language, and is my first post in the forum, so sorry for possible errors. Also, I want to thank and congratulate the team for this game that provides much fun without great hardware requirements.


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Astuur
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Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08
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Posted at: 2011-11-26, 07:09

Thank you all for your comment so far.

First, please understand that I was trying to create a new set of graphics for the existing barbarian food. If the ration, consisting of either bread, fish or meat should be changed to "soup", it would have been easier and I certainly would not serve the soup in a braided basket face-smile.png
It would indeed be an elegant trick to have the inns make a "bread stew", "fish-stew", of "meat stew" and let them look the same in the end. Served in a some sort of bowle.
Given the fact, that none of the developers is overly enthusiastic about changing the graphics, they may not approve the necessary name change. But that should be discussed elsewhere (game suggestions).

@ solstice: I have the graphics in game currently but have not watched for a longer period. You may be right. Perhaps I can change the "china" to "earthenware" and give it a sort of greyish look. Uniformity was not an aim for me. Indeed I tried to create them all different in order to easily tell them apart.

@Sadchant: I had the bread darker initially and changed it for exactly the reason you give. It was even harder to see then.

@Bitiquinho: Hello and welcome to Widelands! Don't worry about your english - it's just fine, and even it were not, it would not matter. face-smile.png
I see your point; taverns an inns so far only seem to pass on bread, fish or meat, which is then called ration ect..
From this point of view, making a stew out of whetever they have, seems better. Making the miners go to the inns would be major change, and I can, so far, not see much advantage from the suggestion. But again, this should be placed in a different forum.


Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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Shevonar

Joined: 2011-09-05, 21:28
Posts: 136
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Posted at: 2011-11-26, 11:22

Renaming a ware should not be a big problem. Simply change the name in the conf file. That causes a discrepancy between the folder-name, which is also the name the game logic deals with, and the name displayed ingame, but that is no problem the user has to care about. By the way, I really like the new graphics and the idea of a "stew" for the low level food. face-smile.png


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Astuur
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Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08
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Posted at: 2011-11-26, 14:03

I'll see what I can do "stew-wise" when I have some time.
Also, I want to wait for some more opinions, about changing this ....
.. especially Chuck's would be helpful (hint! hint!) face-wink.png

What do you think about the Empire and the Big Mac look?

PS: I have a feeling that the white plate's intrusiveness depends largely on your sceen resolution.
at 1900 x 1200 it seems perfectly okay, but at 640x480, it does attrack a lot of attention to itsself.

Edited: 2011-11-26, 14:07

Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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Astuur
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Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08
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Posted at: 2011-11-27, 08:29

I have changed the meal's plate to earthenware, grey with a blue lining, as it is still typical in some parts of Germany.

Concerning the ration, I have replaced the basket with a bowl ... so you can imagine there's stew in there.
I went for the same grey earthenware material here.


Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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Solstice

Joined: 2011-11-24, 00:22
Posts: 15
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Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2011-11-27, 11:09

Looks good. I would try that. I wish that the developing team includes these to the next build.


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Astuur
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Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08
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Location: Frankfurt / Germany
Posted at: 2011-11-27, 20:03

Here is the rest:
modified fields in form and color to look more like rye (and different from other tribes)
(I could not resist to place one single specimen of poppies in there, just in case you see the red dot face-smile-big.png
I have experimented a bit with "wind in the rye fields", but that simply didn't look good.
So no, no wind.
I have also modified the sheafs for a more suitable colour.

The whole set (bread, ration, snack, meal, fields, sheaf) is here for download.
Unpack in /widelands and let it overwrite if you want to try it.
One thing remains, possibly: adjusting the bakery's output in the still and a future animation to look a bit more like the new bread. But that is work for a 3D artist.

Last remark: I'm still not sure whether I should skip the tablet for the ration and transport the bowl without it.


Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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