Mattcrampy makes some good points.
OK, let's prioritise then. (apologies for length of post, but I wanted to get all the ideas in)
These are the elements that are not easily distinguished apart from colour:
* Tar/Mud/Gel and their appropriate babies
* Decoys/Mimics/Clones/Inactive Clones
* Potions
* Tarstuff change tokens
* Various floor types - Platforms/water/hot tile, and perhaps bridges
* Red/Blue/Yellow/Green/Black doors and their sister gates.
* Guards/Stalwarts
* Snakelike creatures possibly, though they do have the different tail for the rattler.
* Citizens
Ideas for each individually:
* Tarstuff
Make one type of tar light in colour, one type medium, and one type dark, with corresponding babies. The greys should be different enough to be able to tell them apart.
* Beethro-like creations:
- Mimics: Have them resemble Beethro but with inverted black/white
- Decoys: Have them being much wider and fatter than beethro - they're decoys, they don't need to resemble him precisely
- Inactive Clones: When they're not active, have them as a more solid mass of colour, with little contrast.
* Potions:
For this one, I would suggest the simple expedient of enlarging the potion sprite slightly, and placing a letter in the bottle. M for Mimic, D for Decoy, I for Invisibility, C for Clone and S for speed. Those letters are visually distinct enough that it should be doable in a few pixels.
* Tarstuff change tokens
Again, not too much of a problem, enlarge the token slightly, take away some of the border inside and have the colours changed to the corresponding light/med/dark grey
* Floor types
OK, this one is a bit more of a tricky one. Let us assume for a moment that we are creating a single theme, not six to match each in game. Therefore, we would need to make it clear and crisp. Assume again that we are only considering basic check floor, and not any of the advanced floor types (road, grass, mosaic).
Trapdoors are distinct enough already due to the lines. The same may be said of oremites and bridges. Hot tiles and water need to be made distinct from each other and normal floor (when in B&W). Give water some slight ripples and give hot tiles a... circle on each perhaps, like a plate atop a stove?
* Gates and Sister Gates
This is one that just needs a bit of good artwork. Each door needs to be visually distinct from others. As yellow doors are the most common, I suggest that they remain the same in texture.
Give red gates and sister gates the same liney texture as trapdoors, thus making them correspond.
Black gates are dark enough that they stand out on their own, and would not need any change
Give green doors some kind of mark on each square, perhaps a star?
Give blue doors a different mark on each square. A square perhaps. As long as they're distinct.
* Sworded creatures
Slayers are already different enough due to the hook, no changes needed there. But a guard is similar to a recoloured version of a stalwart. What I'd suggest is making the guard uniform a lot darker and the stalwart lighter, so they can be more easily told apart in B&W.
* Long creatures
The rattler's already distinct due to the tail, but for manysnake rooms this could be confusing. Add in a ringed pattern down the length. The adder has a larger head, but something more would be needed really. Add some diamond patterns going down the length?
* Citizens
This one's the stumbling point. There are so many possible colours of citizens that I simply cannot think of a way to represent them adequately in a way that doesn't require colour. Sorry.
How does all that sound? Feasible?
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[Last edited by calamarain at 08-18-2007 02:39 PM]
They're created by c++ not, by gfx grahpics. We should re-compile DROD in this case...
) needs to be totally monochrome.
