Palette swaps

[Velocity Eleven]

I was thinking, everyone seems to hate palette swaps, but I really dont mind them

I'm thinking in terms of a designer, I mean sure its ideal to have non-palette swaps over palette swaps but think in terms of efficency here:

I would rather have 1000 different enemies in a game with 300 models than a game with 400 enemies with 400 models

That being said, i prefer it when palette swaps are placed nearer to each other, say like FF12 where you fight different coloured wolfs at the start than Dragon Quest VIII where the palette swaps are scattered around, I think it makes them easier to identify when they are close together

my only real gripe is when games like Final Fantasy X use them for the uber-bosses... which I think the uber-bosses should be unique in their appearance

 

[Katana314]

I think Dragon Quest had a reason for what it did. Let's say you're colorblind, and you see a wolf at the beginning of the game. You know that it has about 50 hp, only has one weak attack, and should go down in a few-*BOOM* 156dmg. "WTF?"
My point is that it's more important to differentiate two enemies in one battle than it is to seperate a wolf at the beginning of the game from a wolf near the ending; at that point you know you're not likely to be facing a 50hp, near-useless enemy, and as an extra tip its color is different.

In reality though, I think it's a bad idea overall anyway. If you have 1000 enemies, few of them will have any substance or unique strategies to deal with them. I honestly wouldn't mind an RPG with as few as 40 enemies if they all had a slightly different plan of attack.

 

[Velocity Eleven]

I think Dragon Quest had a reason for what it did. Let's say you're colorblind, and you see a wolf at the beginning of the game. You know that it has about 50 hp, only has one weak attack, and should go down in a few-*BOOM* 156dmg. "WTF?"
My point is that it's more important to differentiate two enemies in one battle than it is to seperate a wolf at the beginning of the game from a wolf near the ending; at that point you know you're not likely to be facing a 50hp, near-useless enemy, and as an extra tip its color is different.

In reality though, I think it's a bad idea overall anyway. If you have 1000 enemies, few of them will have any substance or unique strategies to deal with them. I honestly wouldn't mind an RPG with as few as 40 enemies if they all had a slightly different plan of attack.

well I understand what you mean

but different colours doesnt necessarily mean that they all follow the same attack patterns

 

[GothmogII]

Don't know why, but Team Fortress 2 I've always found does this -very- well. I often feel like I'm against a completely different set of characters, damn Blu!

 

[Katana314]

well I understand what you mean

but different colours doesnt necessarily mean that they all follow the same attack patterns

And that's a problem.
Take TF2. When two characters have different playstyles, the game does its best to make sure they look different. It's also notable that some players get alternate weapons with different skins/models. Some of these really aren't so noticable for their size, but it doesn't matter much because essentially, it's still the same attack pattern. You may even notice the weaker, 125hp-characters like the Spy and Sniper look somewhat similar; that's fine because their threat level when exposed and visible is about the same.

My point is that different enemies should be clearly different. A pallete swap between seperate chapters of the game isn't so bad because you know "here I'm only likely to find B type of wolf" but in one area it would be difficult for someone not paying attention to tell the difference.

 

[xbeaker]

I think in many of the RPGs the pallet swaps are a throwback to when they were on the 8 bit systems. Since they didn't have the memory to have art for 500 unique monsters, you make 50 and give them 10 color variations. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy like to pull from thier linage (Dragon Quest in particular) so they still use the pallet swaping.