Morning folks, so yea it has been a little while since I posted here and even longer since the mod has updated. For that I apologize but now it is time to explain what is up so lets start with this.
Technical debt:
Technical debt (also known as design debt or code debt) is a concept in software development that reflects the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer.
In this case it is technical art debt, but for the remainder of this post I am going to simply continue referring to it as technical debt for the sake of simplicity and brevity.
See, Tiandong Heavy Industries originally came out before David started reworking vanilla sprites. Back when greebles reined supreme, and THI's visual design goal was always to be more greebly than vanilla. But now that vanilla art has moved beyond, and is increasingly less and less greebly and designed more gracefully... Technical debt hit me like a brick wall. After all, even in the past I would say THI ships were a bit more greebly than was truly desired for the visual design relative to vanilla. I should have painted over them then, but I did not. So what I face now, is the prospect and ongoing task of painting over the entire mod.
For my sins of the past, I created work in the future. Now some might not agree with how I am doing this, maybe I should have updated the mod with the old art and then do a follow-up update that contains the improved art. But asi es la vida (such is life), it just is what it is and this is how I chose to do the update. It made sense to me at the time, and it still does. This will segue with what I need to do in the Exi mod as well, after all this quest to update all the THI art has made me grow immensely as an artist and will pay off in the near and long term
So here is an example of three updated sprites, the Xiakou, Shouren, and Hujing.
Of course I could show more that have been done, but I shouldn't spoil everything. THI will no longer be a simple kitbash mod, of greebleshitfest sprites. They are growing into their own thing, fitting into vanilla, but with their own style. Truly fitting the original design goal of being just a bit more greebly than vanilla and actually something to be proud of.
Besides dramatically improved sprites, the update will contain one new weapon and one new fighter, balance / polish, and some neat things in the campaign that are both a surprise and incredibly obvious if one thinks about what could be added. The update isn't ready yet, but it grows closer every day. Please wait and see while trusting in me.