2021-03-13 - Sprite Updates

[KrazyKarp]

Love the updates, they look awesome!

[Falorni]

Now that thunders got an update.. some polish for Vines, Magmas and Ices maybe? 🥺

[purplehaze]

I have really never been in favor of updating old sprites. These seem to have been done carefully, but it will still take some time for me to get used to them. I do think the Thunders are an improvement and I love the added detail on the Lacula. Not a big fan of the changes in the Magi's body, but I do like the emphasis of the spikes on it's head. The other two I really wouldn't even have noticed were changed, to be honest.

[bloodonmyfangs]

Fantastic job on the sprite updates! They look so good! I was worried I wasn't going to like the Magi update because *old player set in ways*, but they're beautiful. The only thing I miss are the wing ribs. The wings look a bit boring without them.

 

I never particularly liked the Sakuhana before, but the update has definitely improved them for me. They're super cute now. I don't see much difference with the Snow except for shading tweaks which also make it look better.

 

The Lacula is absolutely gorgeous. Such a beast!

 

And the Thunder changes are also really nice, though I wish the lightning around it was a brighter yellow. It blends too much with the scroll background and is harder to see now.

 

But overall, love all the changes!

 

[Zalmaki]

I put together some quick GIFs to show off the differences, in case anyone was still wondering:

[Sarjis]

I like the updates although I'll miss the slight "art deco" style of the Magi. I'd love to see an update to the Pinks. Since they influence gender they should exude femininity and masculinity. The female Pinks could take an example from the female Bright Breasted females 😄. l loved the original Lacula but I'll get used to the new one.

[Stromboli]

hello yes, i have a complaint, why did you make the new thunder hatchlings so cute, i want eight hundred of them now and it's going to take so long to catch that many. 😂

[Moonlightelf]

I am really in love with these new sprites. ❤️

 

On Magi, I was always bothered of their secret hang-buttness due to position of wing-fingers. Now it just looks better! I will miss the little chubbiness of old sprites admittedly, but I do have soft spot for agile-looking Magi we now have ❤️

 

The old Thunders were kinda problematic to me in a sense that I couldn't fully make out what was in the sprite with overly smooth head with no definition to it and the cat-paw hind legs...  Now I can see some of the dragon that I've been looking for, with talons capable of grabbing onto the prey. Also details to head that I never really thought were there in the first place. Not to mention that the Thunder got its majestic side finally with size, no longer being just squished into smaller size as if it didn't have any room to really SPREAD THEM WINGS! ❤️

 

Laculas were to me the shoelace sneks, which didn't really make sense to dragon itself, along with the front part being only place for highlights... it kinda threw me off tbh that nowhere else was coming any highlights aside the head and "neck". It now looks more refined in fact... also looks like chonky snek ❤️ I love chonky sneks. I like the detailing of the spikes and the wings make now more sense as well.

 

Snows... well, not much of change, but the gold on wings is now more apparent to me. I had to actually look twice to see the other improvement.

 

With Sakuhanas, I was always little sad that the pattern on the wings wasn't more visible and looked more or less muddy. Now they just pop out ❤️

 

Lovely work dear sprite artists! Keep up the great work! ❤️

[Sketch]

I absolutely adore the Thunder's shading and overall epicness now. It looks so sleek and the dark shading makes the blue underbelly pop! They look sparky and interesting, and very well-defined!
My Gold x Thunder lineage looks all the more awesome now - thank you spriters!
Truly hoping that I don't end up wanting to hoard these guys - they're stubborn breeders.
     I was never a fan of the Lacula, but oh man! Gorgeous babies! The new sprite helped me pay attention and realize that they have beautiful wings! And that scale texture is phenomenal! I can't believe people are complaining about the Magis either. They look sleek and definitely needed some TLC. I am in love!
I don't have too much to say about the Snows since most of the tweaks involved their sparkly bits, but I certainly don't mind the changes whatsoever. As for the Sakus - I love the changes! Their chests are so much brighter and more prominent, and I love the wing changes! They just look so much more bright and lively, and the edits to their face make them look very feminine and almost elfish. Brilliant work on these pretty girls. ❤️

A big thank you and great job to all of the spriters involved! Sorry you all are getting so much nonsense for these guys - they're wonderful and I'm certainly going to enjoy having these sprites to look at now, especially those Thunders. ❤️

Edited March 13, 2021 by Sketch

[Murkydepths]

I'm pretty neutral about the idea of updating sprites, but I think these one's were pretty faithful! Especially the magi. The hatchlings are actually decipherable now! The thunders look the most different to me, but I quite like the new version anyways. I actually like the Lacula now too. Just some fiiiine art. 

 

Also echoing that is any dragon really needs a sprite update, it's stones!

[BlueLatios]

7 minutes ago, Stromboli said:

hello yes, i have a complaint, why did you make the new thunder hatchlings so cute, i want eight hundred of them now and it's going to take so long to catch that many. 😂

 

mood, I'm glad I'm not a freezy type of player but daym those Thunder hatchies aaaaaaa

 

A new chapter of sprites for several dragons of DC, congrats to them! And appreciate all of the team's hardwork and effort put into this change!

[random_dragon_collector]

26 minutes ago, Zalmaki said:

I put together some quick GIFs to show off the differences, in case anyone was still wondering:

 

This is great, thanks!  Makes me more sure than ever that I will miss the old Magi hatchling sprite!  I LOVED it, probably in my top 3 or 5 favorite sprites.  The new one just looks out of focus on my screen.  The wings curved over the back on the old stage 2 were just perfect.  The other new sprites are ok, but nothing that will make me say now I want to hoard that.  I wish that the site would leave the old sprites alone.  Seems like a lot of time and energy is put into something that doesn't make all that much difference except in a bad way.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

What other sprites would people like to see updated most? A lot of the older sprite updates have been more and more faithful and cautious about preserving existing lineages and collections, so I'm less skittish of them then I used to be.

 

I'd say:

- Dorsals

- Stones

- Geodes

- Vines

- Balloons

 

Man I'd love a super shined up Geode, I still like them even now and they have not aged well. They'd look great with a polish!

[HeatherMarie]

So, I noticed this news thread when I checked my phone in the middle of the night but was half-asleep so didn't actually look at the new sprites or anything. Wake up just now and see that the thread has already had a mod-warning? Wow. 

 

I do not like sprite changes, I do not think they are necessary especially in a game where the main focus is collecting sprites/images, most of the time it really does feel like a part of our collection/game/play has been screwed with because they are simply no longer the sprites we loved to collect. Regardless of what the artists may see, to *me* the vast majority of sprite updates we've had do *not* approve on the sprite at all and in fact often take away qualities that made the sprite so appealing in the first place (looking at Reds specifically on that one...). 

 

My thoughts on these specific changes: I *much* preferred the Thunder's lightening the way it was before, the yellow. It stood out more and made the sprite really dynamic, imo. Now it's less obvious and unless looking closely it kind of actually looks like a pattern on their wings instead of proper lightening. The parts not on the sprite itself (like above the wings) get lost in the background and aren't as noticeable. The slightly darker blue coloring is, meh, I don't mind it but I'm not sure why the previous coloring was changed. 

 

Magis... Surprisingly (to me), I have nothing to say there. They aren't among my favorites so I don't have a strong attachment there, but it does seem like the new sprite has kept much of the 'feel' of the old one. A bit of a color change (again, don't understand why), but they seem alright. Also the Snows seem alright, thankfully it doesn't look like much more than some shading and color-shifting. 

 

Laculas are by far my *favorite* change, and I haven't read all this thread so I'm sure other may disagree there. Personally I always thought the Lacula's sprite had so much potential but it was just kind of lacking in some way that I couldn't really put my finger on. I love that it's body is thicker and more defined now (although I do wish the changes would've included making the s2 hatchling's wings more visible, still so hard to see the wings at all!).

 

The Sakuhahas... When I saw this thread they were the one I was dreading most, as they are my favorites out of the ones changed. They.... don't look *too* bad? I really, really don't understand the trend in updates towards making everything more muscular/beefy, they've definitely lost a bit of their softness and that's a little sad. The wings look a little too defined now. I do like the slightly-more-hair-like mane.

 

In all this definitely wasn't the mess I was worried it would be, but I still don't understand the push to 'update' the look of things that we specifically collect because of their look. I'm just very thankful I have tons of screenshots of my scroll over the years so the sprites I actually collected back then will stay as they are at least in my screenshots. (Also so so so thankful they've yet to touch my very favorite breeds, seriously not sure I could handle that....)

[angelicdragonpuppy]

The more I look at them the more I can appreciate the Sakuhana tweaks (even if I'm still iffy on the face, the face on the previous was my least favorite part too so what can you do? I just don't like the tiny snout.) The stance looks more steady and the markings are nice and further defined. The neck adjustment looks much more comfortable and the muscle shading on the leg is nice.

 

The Snow update is still so subtle I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been pointed out, but what was done is nice. It's satisfying to watch the switch in muscle definition on that front leg in the gif.

 

Still really don't like the Lacula changes which is a shame because it's always been a sprite I though "I could love this if something I can't name was adjusted." I just really really don't see anything about the new face that doesn't look inferior to the original in my eyes. I like the new bulkiness, and I can see why the scales were edited, but I think they're a bit too prominent and massive. I realize the previous shading and highlights were somewhat confusing, but I suppose I liked the more subtle texture there over what we have now. Oh well.

 

And I realized why the thunder looks so filled in around the head--they added the other set of horns! That's completely reasonable, but they really disappear into the wing for me. The new hatches are also adorable, although I liked the previous chonks too.

 

edit: I'm on mobile and have no idea why that first text is big large. ;;

Edited March 13, 2021 by Kaini

[Murkydepths]

27 minutes ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

What other sprites would people like to see updated most? A lot of the older sprite updates have been more and more faithful and cautious about preserving existing lineages and collections, so I'm less skittish of them then I used to be.

 

I'd say:

- Dorsals

- Stones

- Geodes

- Vines

- Balloons

 

Man I'd love a super shined up Geode, I still like them even now and they have not aged well. They'd look great with a polish!

 

I'd like to see alt blacks, stones, dorsals, deep seas, coastlway waverunners, greater spotted drakes get big updates.

 

And in the area of slight updates like we got with the sakura, Blue banded dragons, plated colossi, ribbon dancers, and spitfires. Nothing really wrong with em but polish could make them shine ~

 

But also here's some older dragons I don't really want to see an update to, or if they do get updated should be really faithful! But I'd rather they just not change.

 

Green dragons, white dragons, storm dragons, nebulas(pls no), royal blues, moonstones, geodes, guardians, daydreams, skywings, albinos.

 

But this is all just my opinion, I'm happy with current sprites and I'll probably like any new updates considering how good these ones are.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Murkydepths

[MissK.]

Well this thread escalated quickly. As someone who isn't always fond of sprite changes, I thought they were really successful this time, but I suppose everyone has different opinions. Especially the thunder sprite, while I liked it, objectively looked a bit...squished? on the vertical axis. 

 

2 hours ago, Fiona said:

Yes, she's sure. No updates to Garlands. Remember, wiki images are compressed.

 

I also really like the updates.

 

I might be fooling myself by looking at the images too much then. Either way they look really nice haha.

 

 

[angelicdragonpuppy]

@HeatherMarie I don't think the colors changed so much as much more subtle highlights / shades making the previous dominant color look much less so in our eyes. I don't really see it on the Magi, but yah, the Thunder definitely FEELS darker, even when the base is probably the same. Also now that you've pointed it out, I do miss the bright yellow lightning. I like the new lightning itself, but would've been great if it kept that vibrancy.

 

@Murkydepths Am I crazy or didn't Whites already get one small update in their lifetime? I could've sworn they did (and Storms, too, but even more subtle)

Edited March 13, 2021 by Kaini

[helix9]

Always love seeing sprite updates! These in particular are a really good batch.

[Nerei]

25 minutes ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

What other sprites would people like to see updated most? A lot of the older sprite updates have been more and more faithful and cautious about preserving existing lineages and collections, so I'm less skittish of them then I used to be.

 

I'd say:

- Dorsals

- Stones

- Geodes

- Vines

- Balloons

 

Man I'd love a super shined up Geode, I still like them even now and they have not aged well. They'd look great with a polish!

 

Definitely agree with you here! Stones have so much potential, but I’ve never been a huge fan because of how flat and jumbled they look. And now you’ve got me daydreaming of glittery Geodes...

[Willow_Whispers]

Looking good to me! 😊

[Moonlightelf]

32 minutes ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

What other sprites would people like to see updated most? A lot of the older sprite updates have been more and more faithful and cautious about preserving existing lineages and collections, so I'm less skittish of them then I used to be.

 

I'd say:

- Dorsals

- Stones

- Geodes

- Vines

- Balloons

 

Man I'd love a super shined up Geode, I still like them even now and they have not aged well. They'd look great with a polish!

Oooh, shined up Geodes ❤️ I like that idea already! Maybe even more different colors too given how many different kinds of geodes there are ❤️

[HeatherMarie]

The only older breed I'd actually *want* updated is Albinos simply because that wonky neck is just painful! There are definitely older sprites that don't 'fit' with the current updated look of the site, like Dorsals and Stones and Greens, but again in the majority of updates we've gotten something has been lost along the way and the sprites have often ceased to be what we used to love so much, so I don't actually *want* any of those to be updated unless they were super-minor changes that didn't change the overall feel/look. Which is most likely realistically impossible, so I'd much rather they just not change. 

[Laugh]

I'm already missing the old thunder hatchies, those things were too cute and were on my top 3 hatchie sprites. 😢  I also prefer the older Thunders as I'm not too much of a fan of the gained muscles and like the softer look, but I do really love the new changes to their feet (it actually looks like they have feet now lol)! Other than that, I love the new changes  Great job everyone! 

[Wymsical]

Sprite updates on DC have pretty much always been winners, so I'm always glad to see them. Quite enjoy the new Thunder.