More ability icons

[HarlequinCasts]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I've noticed the icons tend to hang around unnecessarily when control is exchanged. Some examples:

In some cases if you take control of a creature that had Batterskull equipped, the creature will still have lifelink and vigilance icons (even though Batterskull is removed from the creature). While the lifelink is not actually true, the creature will in fact have vigilance for the rest of the game.

Also if you steal a Timber Protector, all of the opponents forests and treefolk will still have indestructible on them, thought they can be destroyed.

Hope that is clear.

[Korath]

The lifelink actually is still there, just dormant - the easiest way to see it is to give the creature deathtouch (for example, with Serpent's Gift). You can probably get another manifestation of the same bug simply by equipping a different creature - I see this all the time with Basilisk Collar.

My medium- to long-term plan here is to rewrite the way new abilities are given to creatures so that they work the same way the exe's original ones do - that is, they all get removed somewhat frequently, and then cards are sent an EVENT_ABILITIES message to turn them on. That'll have to wait until I finish my Mana Flare etc. rewrite, which has ballooned out of control, though, and I'm not going to have much free time at all for a couple weeks.

[HarlequinCasts]

Thanks Korath. Wasn't sure if that counted as a bug or not since I figured you were aware of it. Cheers!

[Korath]

The next version of Manalink, still on schedule to be released this weekend, will be using Shandalar's ability icon system. This has higher-quality rendering and effectively no limit on the number of icon types - in sharp contrast to the previous Manalink system documented in this thread, which only had space for two left.

The new Skulk and Menace icons, configured in config.txt as
SmallCardSize:166
AbilityIconSize:40
AbilityIconFile:Abilities40.pic

skulk-menace.jpg (15.69 KiB) Viewed 10898 times

There's a handful of icons Shandalar can display that Manalink can't: either Manalink doesn't have a reasonable way to query for the ability (exalted or undying, for example), the ability doesn't exist or is only loosely approximated in Manalink (arbitrary protection, can't-be-countered), or it doesn't make sense to include while Manalink still forbids all icons from showing up on cards in players' hands (flash is especially prominent). I do have vague ideas on how to get around the last restriction, but it won't be ready for this release.

If anyone has any bright ideas for new icons to include, especially if you can think of preliminary designs, now is the time to speak up. Some strong candidates, all of which I'd have already given icons if I could think of a distinctive image for them, are Prowess, Madness (Shandalar only for now), Echo (with both already- and not-yet-paid variants), Monstrous (probably just already-monstrous, not still activateable), Renown (already-triggered, per monstrous), Soulshift, and Soulbond (already-paired, per monstrous). Less likely are Evolve, Extort, Graft, and Phasing.

[dingbat1]

The next version of Manalink, still on schedule to be released this weekend

WOOHOO.

[Aswan jaguar]

Echo (with both already- and not-yet-paid variants), Monstrous (probably just already-monstrous, not still activateable), Renown (already-triggered, per monstrous), Soulshift, and Soulbond (already-paired, per monstrous)

So you prefer to have 2 icons for those abilities if I understand correctly?

I thought about what designs for the icons I think my idea for shoulshift is quite good and rather ok for echo and an idea for prowess,I couldn't think anything for the others.
Sorry about my inability to design but you will get the idea.
In my design for shoulsift you have the black arrow curve down=a creature goes to gy and the opposite arrow curve up in green=a creature comes back.Clean and represents the ability.
However if it could be done due to icons being very small:if you see my other try I have a big purple dot for creature dying and a pink smaller dot to represent that another creature with less mana is coming back.If the dots could be made like pacman ghosts to represent also spirit it would be perfect.
For echo my idea was something to represent echo waves or another idea was 3 arrows,top and bottom arrow in same direction and the middle one in opposite direction (either parallel to the others or better if it is clean to make a smaller arrow in angle from the end of top arrow to the beginning of the bottom arrow)to represent that needs to be recast or die.
if it can be done in 40/40 icons:
For prowess my idea was a lizzard's (or any creature-like small shade) shade for creature with a bigger shade line around creature with different colour to represent the growth part and a thunder or arrow to represent that becomes bigger by non-creature spells.
The above design without the thunder or arrow it could represent monstrous ability.
And again the above design with thunder but targeting the creature for Heroic ability.

You may not like or be able to make anything out of my ideas due to small icon size however you can't blame me for not trying to help.

[Korath]

So you prefer to have 2 icons for those abilities if I understand correctly?

Just for echo, and maybe not even that. None of the others appears on enough cards to justify having more than one icon each - not because we'd run out, but because it'd be extra images for the player to remember.

[stassy]

For some reason screenshot lower luminosity so it's less visible on the screen
Here is my icon suggestion :

Prowess = strength due to magic

Book is barely visible though sadly

Madness = basic injected eye or void eye, which lose some intensity if not under a white background




Monstrous = Giant Growth style

Need something else to make transition from small to giant

Renown = classic laurel symbol


Soulshift = Same idea as AJ


Soulbond = very similar theme to soulink/lifelink, so hard to get different symbols, something like a handshake might be better

[Korath]

The eye for Madness is a good thought, but it's going to end up very similar to the one I'm using for vigilance. With anything more complicated than an arrow, the normal UI expectation is that icons with the same shape but different colors should mean similar things, so making it bloodshot or even coloring the iris red isn't a good solution.

Most of the others seem like they're too complex to show up well at 20x20. I had sort of the same idea for Renowned, showing just the laurel wreath, but it wasn't recognizable even without the head silhouette whether I drew it with leaves or just as an arc.

Maybe rotate the Boros fist I'm using for Intimidate 90 degrees clockwise and recolor it (to blue?) for Prowess?

Here's what I'll be distributing, for reference:

40x40 version for Abilities40.pic, renamed to png so it can display here.
The Legendary and Ninjutsu icons still aren't used in either Shandalar or Manalink.

Default 20x20 version for Abilities.pic

Abilities.png (38.27 KiB) Viewed 10807 times

[stassy]

The issue with Prowess is that you already said we can't reuse the same symbol if it has a different meaning so need to find something else...

Another shoot at renown, replacing leaf by star:



Madness, angry guy on the side, maybe only the mouth can be done shouting style:



The original idea for Soulbond and forgot to upload earlier, though it still reuse the heart symbol.

[lujo]

Hey, don't want to bother, but I just saw the "luck" counter today, and it's eerily simmilar to the local Nazi collaborator symbol where I'm from (looks like the letter U with "wings" or "ears" at the tips). It seems to only be used on Gemstone Caverns and Chance Encounter, but please, if possible change that to something like the four leaf clover or dice or something, anything but that. It doesn't look like a horseshoe, it looks almost exactly like a winged U. It was the symbol of the only guys in europe who have had a deathcamp specificaly designated for children, and it's also been "revived" a bunch in the balkans wars in the 90-ties. You really don't want that sort of thing anywhere near the game.

[Korath]

Neither the luck nor magnet counter images are currently using the Unhinged horseshoe icon in dev.

luck-magnet.png (27.2 KiB) Viewed 10537 times

Current rebuilt abilities icons:

I wasn't able to find the sources I used for the old Flying, Defender, or Deathtouch images; the new Deathtouch icon (which I drew by hand) suffers the most from it.

The new design for Regenerates is from Glyph of Life's art. The old three-prong version looked a little below par as an ability symbol, but a lot below par when transferred over to the image for matrix counters (for Life Matrix). I'd like to similarly replace Banding, but haven't found anything I'm really happy with. Maybe just inscribing it in a circle and moving it to white where it belongs is enough.

banding.png (3.09 KiB) Viewed 10527 times

[Korath]

Madness, Prowess, Renowned, and Monstrous icons, at both default and double size. I'm somewhat concerned with Prowess looking like it would be more at home in a modern FPS, and I'm well aware of the irony in using the icon of the one set in Theros block that doesn't have monstrous in it. Still, I'm reasonably content.

new-abils.png (12.1 KiB) Viewed 10447 times

I'm also attaching templates for a single ability icon and a single counter, on the off chance someone wants to change just a few instead of making an entire new set.

[Aswan jaguar]

I'm also attaching templates for a single ability icon and a single counter, on the off chance someone wants to change just a few instead of making an entire new set.

And I meant to ask you if it could be made customisable so we can some choose icons from other people.As for the first package of ability icons you distributed we have also Sarlack's icons and Sonic's ones despite your own.
Sarlack:
download/file.php?id=15758&t=1
Sonic
https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c7a2/ ... 3mf74g.jpg
But we would need to have the original individual icons (not the ability bar)to do that right?

[Korath]

For Manalink, AbilityIconFile in config.txt; for Shandalar, [Appearance]AbilityIconFile in Shandalar.ini.