Actually, kanosint's idea of them is pretty close to what i had in mind. I'm flattered that it's an imagination-stimulator, it's what i wanted it to be.

Suicide bombing is actually a very smart warfare strategy if you've got a twisted, monstrous ideal and a brainwashed, inexhaustible group of people willing to do it. Just look at the arab-israeli crisis. becoming truly inhuman is the best way to win a war, in fact it's essential.

Where the crow have little regard for their own lives, the bear will be a little dumber and stronger. the crow are monsters, the bear are barbarians and the serpent are devious. We've got a violent soul, a violent body and a violent mind.

Not to make this too political, but the conflict in the middle east was a real-world clusterf*ck i used as the basis for my themes. Radical and violent muslims, powerful and war-hungry westerners, brilliant and ruthless israelis. There's no direct corellation, story-wise, but the factions have some of their roots in what seems to have split our world into factions. We've got the people who are fighting a holy-war, the people who've idealized war and sought it out, and we've got the people who are playing chess. I'm not saying the actual crisis is as simple as that, it's far more complicated, but these are broad themes i've taken as my own.

I suppose great minds think alike, ey Allen? But yeah, the Crow seem perfect for it, too... Which reminds me, I best post a picture of what I had in mind for the whole cloak-thing...



Yes, that's Hennya, one of the Juppon Gatana in the Kenshin anime... Gaunt 'n lovely, innit?

do we want to take this down to a normal size yet?
i would actually love to play some proper scenes of this too.. i wonder if you'd be willing to hand paint landscapes allen?

geti: yes, finals are officially over as of about an hour ago, and i want to take it down to a normal size. Also, i totally want to do some environments. That hasn't really been spoken of yet and that's the next big part of the concept i want to tackle. If you've got a story, setting is sort of important. Any scenes released under this banner will be painted by me. in fact i've got an idea for one that's not completely fleshed out yet. It's meant to be crow vs. serpent. posting the picture itself would be bad for the margins, so it's linked.

kanosint: the guys themselves aren't going to fly, they're more of cave-dwelling diggers. They will, however, be able to leap. aerial dominance is reserved for the serpent, which seems backward but it'll work.

interesting concept, it'll be funny to see the primitive zealot crow rampaging through the high-tech labyrinth of a serpent base. are you thinking of sticking to greyscale or branching out into colour?

Oh hey! How'd the finals go? :3

And I know they won't fly... The cape is for floating, much like a delta flyer/parasailer/batman But with dynamite XD (Not to mention capes look awesome XD) But yeah, you're right, it's less useful in their overall theme.

How do you picture their massive numbers, by the way? Do they gather in whole hordes/flocks (like Zerg, Tyranids, etc.), or more of a wolf pack?
Another thing... They tend to fight underground, do they live underground? How do they fight surface dwellers once they've dug in on a planet? Do they take the fight to the enemy by sending troops up, or do they bring the enemies on their own turf through pitfalls? All good questions, I think, especially if you're going to work on environments now...

I was under the impression that everyone on this planet lived underground, but it seems I may have been incorrect given the value of that missile silo. Ah well. I'm ready to do more code whenever, it'll be fun working on the psycho cavemen again.

Color: i like color. I think it'll be a lot harder for me to do because i normally work in monochrome, but yeah. It's going to be color. When talking about grayscale i was just throwing ideas around, not making plans.

finals: i endured them to the best of my ability. I'm taking next quarter off to take a break from academia if that's any indication.

Massive numbers: i plan to represent these as more of packs and war-bands of cheap yet effective soldiers. not swarms or plagues, they've still got a mind.

Underground-ness: they are best at fighting underground. All their specialist gear is tailored to that sort of fighting. they'll still be competent in other areas of combat. They're just native to caves and the indoors. I've got a very clear idea of their home planet, but that's for later.

The thing is, every single faction must have some of their resources underground or indoors or else they'd be too vulnerable, the same way every faction needs a presence on the surface and in the air. Each has a proclivity toward one of these vital areas of the battlefield, but they aren't assured dominance over them. The serpent has a very slick and specialized aerial presence (i'm thinking ornithopers, flapping mechanical wings). pitfalls would be more of a super-weapon than a common strategy. They're adept and competent at killing on land and in the air, they just specialize in killing in the close-quarter darkness of a cave, bunker or structure.

and, Comment, like i said they all have important assets underground, but there are going to be lots of specialties.

Up next for the not-so-distant future: more sprites and re-sprites of the original sprites!

hooray, more recoding -.-
oh well, at least we're doing it now. perhaps make some gibs for the crow when you resprite them aswell?

Hooray for the BEAR!


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I'm still waiting... WHEN ARE YOU RELEASING IT?!

Joost, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who tires of your impatience. I'm pretty sure you're Dutch, so if you like I could translate it into a clearer message...

He owes you nothing, so he can always just quit this project if he decides it isn't worth his time. And behaviour such as yours makes it more likely that he'll do just that. So please, on this mod as well as on others, stop spamming worthless claims of ignorant greed.

And to counter the irony of not bringing up relevant information myself:

the Crow should have a vehicular digger... Like the Drill Rocket, only not a rocket... A tank which slowly digs passageways... If possible, I envision it having a frontal passenger exit, so it can tunnel through soft earth, hit a bunket wall, blast it open, spout a gust of flame to destroy those on the other side before the Warriors exit... Though I suppose it might be too powerful... I do see them using primitive vehicles for such purposes, though.

Unfortunately, it seems we have more coders than artists on this project, so sprites (which we'd need tons of to finish this thing) are coming slowly and are our limiting factor. Compounding this is the fact that Allen seems to actually have a life, unlike myself and possibly the others.

Naturally, the rate at which we progress will vary, but nobody seems to want to drop quite yet. Work will be done as we can do it, so clearly the best way to speed up this mod is to repeatedly post urgings that contain a high amount of typos, exclamation marks and smiley faces.

Joost just said he's waiting, he didn't use any language that suggested discontent. He didn't use much actual language at all, really! I don't feel any pressure and neither should you guys. However, it is well known that Joost is a proud dutchman and often a very enthusiastic moron who is better ignored than reasoned against. He can only derail the conversation if you allow him to.

meanwhile: (this is looking more and more like a blog than a thread about a mod, so i apologize) someone very special to me is going to Europe for two months. this is our last week together, and i need to have 20 pages of my promo-book done by the emerald city comicon on april 4-5. And just a week ago the post-finals honeymoon period looked so free and leisurely. So, god dammit i guess. Delays are the only thing i seem to be able to guarantee anyone.

then: spriting. finally.

wow, this thing gonna be awesome..

i wish i could help, but my spriting sucks and i can't code(if you look at the code for my project, its just tweaked modding templates) so ill just probobly be the person watching to see where it goes.

im with this 100% tho.

if you need spriting help just pop me a pm with what you want in it and id be glad to help!