And here they are, the psycaster classes. I decided to change the procedural generator class's name and symbol so that each base class will be unique. Instead of 'Eye of the X' it will appear 'Disciple of X', where 'X' will be a fictional name.
It was a fun ride going back to my notes created almost a year ago. I've tuned some class specializations and changed some of the old perks. While everything is still theorized, the present information is quite solid at this point.
As you may have noticed, I'm not using the traditional Battlemage and Archmage names as they are not particularly compatible with the world of Underlair. There is no concept of magic in Underlair, 'spells' are referred to as abilities and these abilities are the product of using cerebral waves that can manipulate matter to an atomic level. There is no concept of 'magic' damage either. Damage is strictly based on logic, i.e. throwing a rock with psycrum abilities will cause impact/crush damage and not magic damage.
Next week, I'll present the last set of classes belonging to the Scholar branch. I'm curious to see how it will turn out as I haven't thought about their icons yet.
Stay safe!
Three down, one to go - looking good so far!
ReplyDeleteWhile the icons are distinct, they by themselves don't give me a "feel" of what the classes/specs are about, yet. That might be important, since there will be no full body representation of the character's current look and equipment, just a static portrait.
Looking forward to the scholars, and your improved grammar, too! ;)
Yeah, It's harder than it looks to create symbols that represent these classes. There is definitely room for improvement and I'm open for suggestions. My long term goal aims to hire a dedicated artist to redesign all icons.
ReplyDeleteAs for grammar, I'll have no choice but have someone improve the English for me, in a far future.
I agree with both of you - the classes' nuances can be better conveyed, but it's hard. The set has the "explosion rays" as the basic element, but it contains 3 types of rays. Each type has its own "feel", but I'm not sure they correspond with he classes'.
ReplyDeleteMy Necromancer "feel" is skull (that's rather trivial), Warlock - offensive, Battlecaster has the melee/defense flex and Archcaster is the "rainbow" (mixed, varied). Battlecaster turned out really nice on its own, though it doesn't have the rays.
So maybe the rays can be better adjusted. Warlock gets the offensive spikey ones, while Arch gets a mixture of spikey and wavy ones. The lines on the sides of Battlecaster could be turned to fading "ray particles" or something related, but it turned out really nice on its own, without the rays.
Along your note about "cerebral waves", maybe the basic element could be a brain. It can have a skull on top for Necro, spikey stuff that relay offense for Warlock, a helmet on top for Battlecaster and maybe a third eye for Arch.
Some of what you describe was initially what I had in mind. Unfortunately, when I starting adding rays based on the premise of the necromancer/base symbol, they all started to feel too similar and too detailed for the art style itself. That's why I went with a more "unique" approach. I tried to make some changes a few days ago but they just ended up being different and not a better representation of the class.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the Necromancer and Battlecaster is being well represented because they have a unique functionality consensus - one is tied to death and another is tied to melee weapons (more than any other psycasters). The Warlock is basically a Battlecaster with offensive-only psycrum abilities while the Archcaster is nearly an offensive-only psycaster with no melee governance.
I'm still not 100% on board with some of them but I will leave them as-is for now. I need to finish the Scholar classes :)
Thanks for the suggestions!
I see, so Battlecaster, Archcaster and Warlock all share an offensive functionality, which then requires deffentiating between them otherwise. Maybe this could be seen as a reflection of the professions needing more distinction. Like one offensive and another defensive, one a versatile caster and another focused on necromancy.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, food for later :)
Good luck with the Scholars!
I need to stress that, every class shares an offensive functionality, being it through a melee weapon or via psycrum abilities. Their associated role may not be enough to qualify their functionality as they can unlock some utilitarian skills too. What really defines a class it's their associated skill set. Consider the Gladiator vs Warlock, both offensive classes but with a very different play style; the same thing can be said of the Archcaster vs Battlecaster.
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