Baseball: King of Diamonds (v15 p.27)

[Victor Sullivan]

Graphics time!!!!!

[thenobodies80]

Your request of help for graphics was visualized 31 times, anyone has jumped into this one to develope the graphics? It's passed a month since the gameplay stamp, we would like to see an update....

[Joodoo]

I think it might be better if you outline the borders of the bonus with a different color.

[Army of GOD]

C'monnnnn, someone jump on the graphics!

I mean, I'd do it, but my attempt would be worse than the current one...

[Evil DIMwit]

Not an update per se, but in case anyone wanted it, here's the map broken up into a few separate layers, as individual PNGs:
http://rassyndrome.webs.com/CC/Baseball_Breakdown.zip

[natty dread]

Like I said in the other thread, I can give a shot at the graphics after I get transsib to the forge, if you still need help then...

[Evil DIMwit]

Cool cool. We'll see what's up by then.

[natty dread]

I guess this is v10 then?

[bigimg]http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1630/baseball0.png[/bigimg]

[carlpgoodrich]

!!! I'm so happy this map is being worked on again!

Very nice draft Natty! I really like the stripes in the grass. Two quick comments: was the outfielders to infielders connection a one way assault? Also, I think you left out an explanation that the mound attacks the pitchers.

[natty dread]

Did I? I didn't see it in the original...

[carlpgoodrich]

Sorry, bombards the pitchers: "Mound is a killer neutral and bombards the pitchers."

[natty dread]

Ah, you're right. Must have missed it somehow. It'll be in the next update.

[MarshalNey]

It's hard to tell perhaps in the diagram of the earlier version, but carl is right, the outfielders are one-way assaults to the infield (which makes sense, no point in throwing to the outfield).

Besides that, wow, nice job, love the revamp and glad to see this moving forward

The stripes in the grass are a nice subtle touch, you could do similar things with the infield dirt... the basepaths for instance are usually hosed down periodically between innings and thus darker. Along that note, the dirt itself should probably be less gray and more light brown.

Also, if you wanted to include some 'window dressing', you could put umpires at each base, and put in the outfield wall with foul poles. I'm not sure if you had further plans for the background, but this map might be better off staying relatively simple- if not, you might consider adding stadium seats, vendors, dugouts or bullpens, batboys/batgirls... but I don't think the map needs them.


Marshal Ney

[natty dread]

Thanks for the comments. Not bad for a non-american who has never been to a baseball game, eh?

I will fix the diagram in the next update. The sand thing sounds good as well.

I don't think adding umpires would be a good idea though. The players are used as territories so if there are other people there that are not territories it would just be confusing.

So... what's this outfield wall thing? Foul poles?

[MarshalNey]

Yeah, you're probably right about the umpires.

The outfield wall... well, see where you have the home run balls by (or in) the title? Those are balls that left the playing area- i.e., they went over the wall but they didn't go foul. So the white lines along the side of the field indicate fair territory between them, and foul territory outside of them.

To help umpires see whether a ball hit over the wall was actually fair or foul, a stadium has these enormous, tall yellow poles as a reference point that extend far above the wall. Those are the foul poles (incidentally if you're curious, if a ball hits the pole it's considered a home run).

The outfield wall should run along the 'back' end of the field, or in the case of this map the top, curved side. Depending on the stadium it can cover parts of the sides as well, and almost all of them are irregular in some way (at least nowadays... the 'cookie cutter stadiums from the 1960s were pretty symmetrical I think).

One other thing that occurred to me, you could spice up the infielders a bit by putting them in different poses, like the shortstop 'Ozzie' in the classic outstretched dive, or 'Willie' in center field doing an acrobatic leap.

Hope this helps.

Marshal Ney

[Victor Sullivan]

Looks great! I have just a few things:

1. The gloves look rather pixelated around the edges - could use a touch-up.
2. More for EvilD, I suppose, but can the field territories assault adjacent players? I would assume so since there'd be no other way to get to them, but I figured I'd ask.
3. Also, does Home Plate border 1st and 3rd?
4. It would probably be good if you put what Babe's killer neutral is in the legend.

-Sully

[natty dread]

Ok, thanks.

About the fielders, to do that we'd need to find different poses for all of the fielders... it'd be weird if only one or two were different.

[isaiah40]

This is really not a graphics pick. I think that the abbreviations for the out field should be as follows:
1) FR should be RF (Field Right to Right Field)
2) CR should be RC (Center Right to Right Center)

You get the idea. Change all of them around.

[Evil DIMwit]

This is really not a graphics pick. I think that the abbreviations for the out field should be as follows:
1) FR should be RF (Field Right to Right Field)
2) CR should be RC (Center Right to Right Center)

You get the idea. Change all of them around.

Yeah. Only for the outfield, though -- everything else is fine.

More for EvilD, I suppose, but can the field territories assault adjacent players? I would assume so since there'd be no other way to get to them, but I figured I'd ask.

Yes.

Also, does Home Plate border 1st and 3rd?

No and that will be fixed graphically.

It would probably be good if you put what Babe's killer neutral is in the legend.

Not very necessary -- could go either way on this.

[natty dread]

Ok, will do.

Also as a response to Marshalney, I tried your idea of adding the outfield wall and foul poles... It doesn't really work, it interferes with legend information and the title, and it would really require the rest of the stadium to be drawn to make sense, and I don't really want to go that route - I'd like to keep the visual look clean and simple, with the focus and most detail on the playable area.

I'll change the territory labels and post an update...

[natty dread]

[bigimg]http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/2056/baseball1.png[/bigimg]

[natty dread]

Alternate version, with a cute little frame

[bigimg]http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8438/baseball2.png[/bigimg]

[MarshalNey]

Looks like all the gameplay elements are there and clear except for the borders for Home Plate. Nice job.

As for the fielder poses, it was just an idea- I can get you pictures of players at the various positions if you'd like, those two were only an example.

And for the outfield wall, well, if it clutters the look certainly keep it off. Again just throwin' stuff out there

Anyway, keep it up, hopefully this gets a thumbs-up.

Marshal Ney

[natty dread]

The home base borders are there.. it borders CD2 CD3 and Yogi. The circle is the territory, the plate is just an "army circle"...

Something me and Evil were wondering is, is it clear that all the field players (except Yogi) border 3 territories? For example, Ted borders LF2 LC1 LC6.

[isaiah40]

If home plate borders those 3 then can you nudge home plate up and Yogi up so it is a bit more obvious? AS for the other players they are obvious to me at least.