A new art direction for 1.8

[Viral]

I rate the screeshots, not the gameplay, so how can I make a statement on the sceneries impact? Probably some of the sceneries are not opaque enough, but the map isnt cluttered with them if u ask me. I hope we will test this soon and sort it out, whether or not it needs adjusting

[Falcon`]

So now you dont mind if map "have too much" sceneries?
Any idea when you release updated Polywork to play with it a bit(even without actual game to test it)?
As I see there is still no news in terms of graphic use in it, just one graphic file that need to be stretched to fit map(no multi-texturing)?

Also yeah, gostek look now like some sticker on screen, its too small and too "sharp" compared to map style. It would be good to check and see how game would look if gostek would be slightly bigger(2-5%) so it could contain ""more"" shading(and less contour). Just to see how it would work in game.

Since you've made a couple of fair points in here:

• As sad as it is, monsteri himself after a couple of playtests managed to crash his client with out of memory errors, most likely due to amount of sceneries. After further investigation it doesn't seem scenery or map related at all. We'll be trying to address this issue in 1.8.
• Consider polyworks dead/obsolete. We've tried to find a developer capable and willing to code it for months now and without success. We'll try to develop a replacement tool instead, but this will take some time.
• If the above two points get done, things like multi texturing or color filters or similar shouldn't be a problem to implement anymore.

[maxiyou]

Hi guys! First of all, I want to say that I really like this visual changes Game need to be refreshed sometimes to keep players online. But my main message to you is different. I started playing this game in about 2009. I was 10 years old kid and this game was one of my 3-5 games to play every night for nearly 3-4 years. After this time, I was dissapointed of changes that touched Soldat - easier game, weak players were able to own a way better player with only barrett/M79/steyr... And now you see - 50-80 players online while there is 100 servers?! I remembered that soldat had 5++ pages of CTF servers, now there is only one... Back to the main idea - guys, you need to pay serius attention to ads nad promotion of your game. This product is addictive, still original and really playable. You need to post it on Steam at greenlight or something and I'm sure that you will have a chance to gain serious amount of players. Just stick to the freeware - paid Soldat will kill your product (of course leave optional payment for fireboots colour, stars on the left of the nicks etc.). I really want to see again Soldat in the way I have seen it at his golden age - 1000+ players online and tons of servers. I really wish you the best and I hope you will consider my opinion, love ya!

[Ussocom]

Dropdown looking sexy, gj

[homerofgods]

Wow! It looks nice  Soldat needs a change like this.

BTW. Any details about 1.8 ? Release date (approximately) or something?

There's no point in talking about a release date yet since nobody knows how much activity there will be, but I hope the new look will inspire more people to contribute

[RocketSoft84]

I think changing the art destroys an essential part of the original game, I played for the simple pixel graphics and beautiful UI.  Michal is still out there intentionally making pixel games met with even better success, I don't think downgrading the aesthetic is going to restore the player base to what it once was.

[Spasman]

If you're going to put the art into high res, then you're going to heavily need to redo the gostek animations because high res art is going to reveal how "clumsy" the animations are to newer players and potentially turn them off from the game.

The trick to Soldat's """"ugly"""" art style was it was imaginative. MM didn't have to work hard on the animations because the player could  fill in the blanks as to what was happening because the low res would be beneficial and blend sprites together. With high resolution, I feel like its gonna look weird to see a player rotate his arms to throw a grenade, or oscillate his legs when walking forward.

I've only seen screenshots so correct me if you've already improved the animations, but I think if you're going to gut the art style, you're going to have to change the other aesthetics of the game as well.

I'm glad you are still updating, those are just my thoughts as a retired loyal player and a fellow developer who made his own game heavily inspired by Soldat.

[Monsteri]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, much appreciated!

It's genuinely awesome. Sincere thanks for all the work.

I have one small criticism: to me, the player models look as if they're *behind* the terrain, as if the ground they are walking on is much much closer to us than the player model itself. At times. Like shown below.

(Probably largely because the new lighting and whatnot aren't applied to player models? Perhaps this is okay and I'm just wrong, you'd know better. Just thought I'd share.)

Thanks again! It looks excellent.

If you're going to put the art into high res, then you're going to heavily need to redo the gostek animations because high res art is going to reveal how "clumsy" the animations are to newer players and potentially turn them off from the game.

The trick to Soldat's """"ugly"""" art style was it was imaginative. MM didn't have to work hard on the animations because the player could  fill in the blanks as to what was happening because the low res would be beneficial and blend sprites together. With high resolution, I feel like its gonna look weird to see a player rotate his arms to throw a grenade, or oscillate his legs when walking forward.

I've only seen screenshots so correct me if you've already improved the animations, but I think if you're going to gut the art style, you're going to have to change the other aesthetics of the game as well.

I'm glad you are still updating, those are just my thoughts as a retired loyal player and a fellow developer who made his own game heavily inspired by Soldat.

Indeed, I've done small changes to gostek positioning to try and hide most of the flaws, but they are still there because the animations are fundamentally flawed. We hope to redo the system after 1.8, it's too big of a task for now. Gosteks do indeed look a little flat as well, which we hope to improve at the same time. You can check out the guy on the chair in blue base for a vague idea how we envision the future gosteks

[Ricrylonten]

I think changing the art destroys an essential part of the original game, I played for the simple pixel graphics and beautiful UI.  Michal is still out there intentionally making pixel games met with even better success, I don't think downgrading the aesthetic is going to restore the player base to what it once was.

Oh my god, Rocketsoft. Now there's a name I never thought I'd see again! Good to have you around, man.

As for the visual updates: everything looks great. However, I hope 1.8 will include some more detailed graphics options for competitive players to minimize visual clutter and maximize performance

[Dusty]

the pictures look great, an upgrade that stays true to the original

hopefully you can maintain a coherent style throughout

[daaw]

Well..damn ..you could almost get confused with some 2016 game.
If other maps be like this ..looks very promising that soldat could finally hit steam.

Monsteri
Soldat Beta Team

...and stop treat your art team as second class, Monsteri is your full team hard working developer,  jeez.

[Falcon`]

I don't, I've started to put their names in release posts alongside devs and other contributors. They'll also possibly appear in GUI's credits section, but we're still discussing that bit.
As for rank, relax - it's just a rank. I can get him "Soldat Artist" if you care so much.

[daaw]

Naa.. it's light-headed comment, I'm just saying ..as i have (i think) seen..that programmers (somewhere) tend to value their skill more than ..for example artist.

[Colt]

This looks rad. I can't wait to be able to play on a Mac (dare to dream) and come out of retirement!

[SpeziFisch]

Since around ten years i totally forgot about soldat, but this news just popped up. Damn this looks great!
I'll try 1.7 today and give it a go again.

[Sonfy]

it is pretty nice.Thank you for that incredible work.I will install soldat again as soon as possible thanks to  new art directionn

[xrealx369]

Great job! Really amazing
Next step : Soldat on steam

[duz]

Beautiful work. Unfortunately there's a ugly HUD to make your art worse.
Are you going to cover all the 287382732 maps with your design?

[darDar]

Beautiful work. Unfortunately there's a ugly HUD to make your art worse.
Are you going to cover all the 287382732 maps with your design?

We will reduce official map list to ~ 15 per game mode, mb. More maybe less, depending on progress.
There's already a new official map pool, which will be released *somewhen*.
I guess the HUD will be touched as well, at some point in the future.

[machina]

I was always worried what this "new art direction" could be for Soldat and this post is a relief for me.

This change was required since a while and I'm glad everything goes into the right direction.