Basic cultist redesign ideas for readability

[ShockedHorizon5]

Might end up drawing this later, but I'd been looking around and ended up watching footage of the original public beta of The Grave. Besides the level design being wildly different, I noticed the basic cultists were completely different, not just in terms of sprite quality, but also in design. They had a noticeable hunch, and had bulkier robes in the Beta, which had me thinking.

I'm likely coming up with solutions to problems that don't exist here, but I think giving shotgunners and machinegunners slightly varied designs (compared to pistol and hatchet cultists) could make them look great, and be a huge help for readability. For colorblind people or whatever, it doesn't really matter.

Some ideas could be to make shotgunners bulkier and give them the hunched back, as well as the ammo sash seen in the beta, while keeping the modern quality of the models/spritework. This would help communicate that they're a bit tougher than the usual cultists, and would explain the clunking sound they make while walking.

As for the machinegunners, they could be like the shotgunner - bulked up and hunched - but I'm a big fan of their more "priestly" clothes and straightened posture, like they came straight from the church to kick your ass, so perhaps give them some light shoulder armor, or a red stripe of cloth in the middle of their robe. Possibly bulk them up very slightly or give them ammo sashes.

All this is mostly because I think it'd be awesome if more of the basic cultists beyond the machinegunner had unique designs or outfits, but it could help player recognition from a distance to some degree. Cultic's pretty quickly become my favorite FPS ever, and I want to contribute to it in some way.

[#1 Revive Bolt Hater]

Originally posted by ShockedHorizon5:

Might end up drawing this later, but I'd been looking around and ended up watching footage of the original public beta of The Grave. Besides the level design being wildly different, I noticed the basic cultists were completely different, not just in terms of sprite quality, but also in design. They had a noticeable hunch, and had bulkier robes in the Beta, which had me thinking.

I'm likely coming up with solutions to problems that don't exist here, but I think giving shotgunners and machinegunners slightly varied designs (compared to pistol and hatchet cultists) could make them look great, and be a huge help for readability. For colorblind people or whatever, it doesn't really matter.

Some ideas could be to make shotgunners bulkier and give them the hunched back, as well as the ammo sash seen in the beta, while keeping the modern quality of the models/spritework. This would help communicate that they're a bit tougher than the usual cultists, and would explain the clunking sound they make while walking.

As for the machinegunners, they could be like the shotgunner - bulked up and hunched - but I'm a big fan of their more "priestly" clothes and straightened posture, like they came straight from the church to kick your ass, so perhaps give them some light shoulder armor, or a red stripe of cloth in the middle of their robe. Possibly bulk them up very slightly or give them ammo sashes.

All this is mostly because I think it'd be awesome if more of the basic cultists beyond the machinegunner had unique designs or outfits, but it could help player recognition from a distance to some degree. Cultic's pretty quickly become my favorite FPS ever, and I want to contribute to it in some way.

Totally agree, had some trouble seeing a lot of the enemies AT ALL in some places, though some of this is probably by design, had a lot more trouble telling them apart at a distance, relying on their gunshots and walking sound way more than being able to visually tell them apart. When you account for distance, elevation, and lighting, it can be almost impossible to actually distiinguish the cultists in a group until they've started shooting back at you.