Re: [Wesnoth-dev] The problem with Knalgans....

[Richard Kettering]

On Mar 1, 2005, at 12:15 AM, James Spencer wrote:
> A number of things.

I believe I've hit a raw nerve, my apologies to the list.
I've responded to james personally.


I would like to express that I think, in order to NOT DRIVE AWAY 
ANOTHER ARTIST, it might be nice to rightfully reward Shadow by using 
the art he has made for the game.
It is some of his best work yet.

This is a matter of technicality - certain units are put in the 
standard distro, such as the "fire dragon" or "giant spider" for a 
number of reasons.  One of the foremost, is that people believe that 
not only is the unit useful for the campaign it is used in, but there 
is a strong chance it might be useful in another campaign.  A good 
example of such a thing happening would be Quartex's use of the 
Mudcrawlers and Scorpions.  We've had other desert things made before, 
which I'm sure Quartex would have loved to have used.  Those died in 
the forum crash, and even neo lost most of his when he switched his own 
computer.


I am of the opinion that the current system of wiki/forum/campaign 
server works very poorly for units, and unit graphics.
It only works for those willing to do a lot of work to find things and 
piece them together - James Spencer is one such example, so is Joseph 
Simmons, so am I.


I am of the opinion that if we take well-drawn, animated units and put 
them in the game, people will find a use for them.
This is where the undead (IIRC, francisco just "felt like" making them, 
and Dave said "sure"), the drakes, the saurians, and a great many other 
units came from.

We are starved for art.  I've worked, enduring many sleepless nights in 
making more.  I can't do it alone, and I think we need to accept 
anything good, because that will encourage an artist to keep working on 
the project.

I criticise people's "mindset", because a certain attitude like this 
drove one of our best artists away from the project.
If people make good art, we should do everything to encourage its use, 
because THAT is what we pay our artists with: the satisfaction of 
making something and seeing it put to good use.  If we decline to use 
it, we should have a damn good reason for doing so.