JustTheDude (soon) Cabal of Sprites.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

I thought that contributing something for X-Com mods that I like to play might be good idea. While it was half fun and half pain, now I can appreciate the effort that went into spriting (those damned walking animations) countless items and units. The more enemy, armor and weapons variety, the better in my opinion, so feel free to use whatever I post here.

Its my first baby attempt into spriting, done mostly trough trail and error with the guidance of openxcommods guides with "stone age" methods of infranview and occasionaly GIMP. I hope they don't look too "cartoonish" to be of any use.

Outside of being a fan of XCOM, I also like Command&Conquer and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, so expect most, if not everything I will do to be directly inspired, or maybe closely resembling stuff found in those games.

First sprite was inspired by C&C 3 Tiberium Wars "Militiant Squad". As soon as I figure out how to extract UFOpaedia/Equipment pictures, I will start working on it. PckView can't extract those despite what guide openxcommods says apparently.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/cnc/images/5/5c/TW_Militant_2_Concept_Art.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141020033727

More sprites... *Soon*

Special thanks to creators of X-Piratez and X-COM Files for hooking me up on X-COM mods.
 

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Oops, forgot to add BIGOBS sprite.

[Solarius Scorch]

A competent job, not bad at all! I especially like the sneakers, though was probably a pain to draw.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Yup. I always thought that game somehow "moves and bents" arm and leg sprites, then I saw spreadsheet and I started to doubt in even starting spriting.

Here comes UFOpeadia sprites, however those I'm unable to test ingame as new tool I found can't convert PNG to SPK, only the other way around. I hope they work and keep the "quality".

[efrenespartano]

My boy, those are pretty good sprites. Big kudos for the high quality spritesheet, it is a pain in the back making them! Can I use them on my mods?

I look forward to see more of your work, I love C&C and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a lot too!

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

My boy, those are pretty good sprites. Big kudos for the high quality spritesheet, it is a pain in the back making them! Can I use them on my mods?

I look forward to see more of your work, I love C&C and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a lot too!

Of course, feel free, I'm very happy that my work will be used in a mod. Just as it is written in first post.

[Solarius Scorch]

I allowed myself to do a bit of fixing. Not much, but:

1) You used full black here and there. This is generally a no-no, because the game will treat is as transparent... So there will be holes. I changed the colour to almost-black and patched the holes.
2) The belt clasp was missing, so basically a 3x2 empty hole. So I gave them a new clasp, I hope you're okay with it.
3) The hands felt rather skeletal, so I gave them a bit more filing.
4) Same for the crotch.
5) The golden clasps were too flat for my liking, so I gave them some polish.
6) I also changed the palette to make it compatible with Ufopedia, in case it is needed to show these paperdolls there (same palette as bigobs).

All in all, minor stuff, except point 1) which is rather important.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Much appriciated and basically expected. Thank you. I couldn't check them out in game as I said and UFOpedia sprites I ended making late night, so I'm suprised there wasn't more issues.

Those sprites are made to be adjusted of course, just to better fit mod's aesthetic.

"Golden clasps" were rather supposed to be lights as seen on imagine in the first post, but them being simple clasps actually makes more in game sense.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Now few weapons.

00 is the https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Firefly_laser_rifle
I was modifying XCOM laser rifle so mag sprite is missing, however I quite frankly can't see anything that could be used as magazine in this weapon, so I guess Crystal at the tip could be used as one?

01 is the https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Raptor_automatic_rifle
I removed the handle and added iron sights which this gun was missing. We can't make Starship troopers mistakes of not having them.

02 obviously a mag. Quite big, however I doubt that it could indeed hold 100 rounds of whatever it is shooting.

03 https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Falcon_pistol
Pretty standard looking, not much to say about it.

04 Pistol Mag.

15 https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Airburst_rocket_launcher
Sort of a RPG-7 upgrade that can be loaded two "Warheads?". I guess 2 rounds "Auto Fire" for rocket launcher might be fun addition to any arsenal. Sprite might too big to fit in 1x3 grid as I was working on X-COM rocket launcher base sprite.

16 As with the weapon this also was worked on X-COM rocket launcher missles. Its made that way so that It could fit where original sprite does so that I could test it in game. I guess those last two sprites need the most polish if they are to be added somewhere.

[Solarius Scorch]

Sorry, wrong palette... These look scrambled in the Pedia.
Use the same as in my paperdoll fix.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Oof. I completly forgot that the game uses different palette for each set of sprites.

Not only a palette recolor, but also a slight redesign in small details.

[Solarius Scorch]

Very nice.

But out of curiosity, what is BROTHWEAP_16? Some maracas?

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Its supposed to be RPG warheads for Airburst Rocket Launcher. I'm currently using those sprites as replacement for original weapons and ammo. I have 0 knowledge how to adjust how much space items take, so I used the most primitive way of replacing XCOM missles with two maracas.

I guess for mods that also have standard RPG and one warhead there takes 1x2 space, those could be also made closer together to also fit in that space, thus providing twice as much warheads which to balance could be weaker.

[Solarius Scorch]

Its supposed to be RPG warheads for Airburst Rocket Launcher. I'm currently using those sprites as replacement for original weapons and ammo. I have 0 knowledge how to adjust how much space items take, so I used the most primitive way of replacing XCOM missles with two maracas.

Code: [Select]

  - type: STR_YOUR_ITEM
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3

This is the largest size used by X-Com (barring some unconventional mods). Adjust accordingly.

I guess for mods that also have standard RPG and one warhead there takes 1x2 space, those could be also made closer together to also fit in that space, thus providing twice as much warheads which to balance could be weaker.

Sure, sky's the limit

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

First Tiberium War Brotherhood of Nod armor. Helmet and especially visor looks more like Second Tiberium War era model, but I think it looks way cooler than mere red goggles.

This time it was much easier and faster thanks to using Militiant sprite as base. I think that *soon* I will make even more advanced variant based on this, most likely Confessor

I hope I didn't messed up palettes. Female UFOpedia sprite might have "holes" because Infranview decided to radomly stop using the palette and then fix it while not seeing difference between perfect black and slightly brigher black.

Most prominent inspiration: https://www.deviantart.com/havoc89/art/Nod-Soldier-70318648