hey grape should you announce the discord?

sure thing

Just letting everyone know I've made a discord for the times! I highly recommend using it to communicate since it's a bit easier to find posts and stuff you've missed rather than combing through pages of stuff

https://discord.gg/JmDJUgg

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Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=71390&page=25#245 Author: Limor Time Posted: 2/24/2019 at 7:50 PM Hello again! Limor here with the second ever designer's guide! This month I will be featuring an interview with well known designer Upsidedownsarah. I will be showcasing the making of a design for a Qitiari and analyzing a popular theme from a while ago. A few links to check out when making designs are: Themed pet reference pages by Xavion Comprehensive Guide to Themed Pets by Lavelle Guide to Themed Pet Contests by Scathreoite ~What makes a theme successful~ For this section we will be taking a look at the Fresh Earth Vulynx. Most players (even the newbies) have heard of the Fresh Earth. It is one of the cheaper and more populated of the themes. I myself remember purchasing a Fresh Earth as one of my first themes. Taking a look at the flat colors the design can appear somewhat bland without any traits, but this is to be expected with many designs. When taking a look at the color scheme you can find an array of browns with some speckles of green. If you remember my tips from last months issue this design also follows having a similar color scheme with only having a single color (or slight color variants) as a pop. One of the best things that makes this design successful is the aesthetically pleasing color scheme. The design fits the name, pushing the 'fresh earth' aspect of the design. The fresh greens, earthy browns, with darker browns hinting at perhaps a slightly wet ground from a new rain, brings forward an idea of a pleasing design. Even without knowing the name of the design you can get an idea of what the color pallet itself is representing. Being able to get an idea of what the design is without knowing the name shows a truly successful design. Another import aspect of the design is the way the colors work. The colors all fit will with all the traits and this is a MUST for all themed designs. You design cannot be a design if it is not accommodating to all (or almost all) the traits of a species. ~Basing off an idea~ For this section I will show how I personally create a design off an idea. With this design I decided I wanted to make a "Muddy Rapids" Qitatri. The main idea for this was how water gets all muddy after snow melts and rushes. After doing some research online I finally decided upon how I would go about making my design. This was the photo I used as reference but unlike last time I did not use a color picker and just eyeballed it. In this design I wanted the orangy-tans and browns to be the focal point. I also wanted the blue to show up in the design and found the main of the Qitatri the perfect way to show this off. For the back and pelt I chose varying shades of an orangy brown. For the eyes I chose a brighter, some what unnatural, blue. The mane itself was a somewhat grey blue, complimenting the earthy colors. When making a design be sure that the colors are pleasing to the eye and work well with what your aiming for. Now for the body colors I decided to work with the more earthy colors on g1 and g3. Having a tan on the g3 will create a nice offset on the slate blue and I made sure to pull the color to a more bright orange. The g2 I chose a darker blue-purple, creating a pleasing, but not distracting, addition to the color scheme. With all these colors I made sure to check each trait, ensuring that the colors worked well with each. When choosing colors for the mutations you have to take in mind what colors will be showing up on them besides just the trait colors. With the m1 of the Quitari I had to keep in mind that the eye color would be making an appearance and to accommodate this I chose a paler tan which compliments the eye color well. For m2 I chose an orangy tan color, drawing back to the main body color and g3. For the m3 of the Qitari I chose a brighter blue, bringing a nice pop to the design. Now for most species accent have little to no affect. For the few traits accents affects on the Qitari I made sure the colors fit with them. Now when showcasing the finished design (if you plan on entering it for the themed design contests!) Make sure to show six different traits for each gender. ~Interview with Upsidedownsarah~ For this month I will be showing an interview conducted with Upsidedownsarah. Below is some advice and tips from Upsidedownsarah on how to make a successful design and how to sell it. What advice do you have for newer designers? Try to design outside of your color/trait preferences sometimes, to improve your skills and increase your scope as a designer. Try to analyze what it is you like and dislike about designs, to help you better understand how to fine-tune your own. Finally, take the time to adjust the details and polish your work (this is honestly my weak point). What inspires you to create designs, how do you choose what to make a design based off of? I'm an absolute color addict, and for me traits are fun but it's all about color. For example, tonight I wanted to play in the generator, making vene designs. I pulled up a random color combo, fine-tuned it a bit, and chose traits. Then I ran it through a refining process, during which I completely changed up the colors twice--once for a stark black and white with pops of bright colors, and once for a vene in shades of blue and white like a collector's plate. I see things I like and take note of them, as I am going through my day. That way I have a never-ending source of inspiration. It can be as tiny as the color combo of my dog's eyes and fur as he lies in the shadow of my blanket. Or as sweepingly huge as the shadowed velvet darks of a night sky. How do you figure out if a design will do well on the market? Very honestly, I'm still figuring that out. Those who have bought max stats from me over the years know I like blue, and I learned the hard way that too much of one color in your sales stable is not good. I think people like to come in and see a variety, because it makes shopping more fun. So I try to do things I've never done before. For example, I am mildly famous for my blue puffs. But it got to the point where I was overrun with them. So the last puff project I started, I pulled inspiration from the Haunted Depths Ryori, one of my favorites. I created in shades of black and grey with pops of fluorescent greenish blue. Quite different from the others, but still artistically satisfying to me--and though the project is still finishing up, preliminary sales have been promising. How do you decide colors and traits for your designs? I believe the best designs come out of freedom and 'state of flow'--the state of mind where you aren't aware of yourself or really your surroundings, but only of the creative endeavor you are in at the time. So when I'm creating, I try things unreservedly, like a giant science experiment in a lab where you can change any variable you want freely (which is sort of what it is). I have learned to save designs periodically in this state, because my memory is sadly poor. Deciding colors is done based on lots of experimentation, hunches, and guesses. The nice thing is, this process gets refined as you do it over and over, and becomes more streamlined, saving you time and frustration. As for choosing traits, when I'm working with essences I try to choose newer traits as most people seem to prefer them. However, I will choose an older trait that fits the design better over a newer trait. The challenge is to get things balanced, so that the elements of the design create an impression of harmony and of unity in diversity, which I think is the basis of beauty in a design as visually complicated as most six vis designs are. It takes practice and lots of trial and error, plus a good dollop of creativity. Is there anything else you'd like to say? I honestly think when you are designing, it's important to balance what will sell with what pleases your heart. Why play a game and create a project that takes a year or more to complete, only to be looking at pets that don't appeal to you visually? That doesn't sound like fun. It's like a Venn diagram. You've got to find the common ground between what a majority of people like, and what you enjoy breeding. That's the sweet spot, and when you can hit it, it's satisfying. I love knowing people are enjoying the pets I create. That's the most satisfying of all. -- If you have any questions feel free to message or ping me, Limor, and I will answer them in the next article!

got the interview down, sorry for the wait

The Randomizer
I get bored VERY easily. Just like everyone else. And just like any sane 21st-century person, I like to Google for no good reason. Especially late at night, while eating fried butter on a stick (and yes it is an actual food).
But unlike everyone else, I like to Google useful things. Like, for example, did you know that the founders of Hewlett-Packard flipped a coin to determine whose name would come first in the company? And the lint that collects in the bottom of your pockets has a name gnurr (which is worth 6 points in Scrabble, 2 for the G, 1 each for the n, u , r, and r).
And then there's the super gross definitely useful facts such as the one about an ostrich's brain being approximately the same size as its eyeball.
You;re probably wondering how these facts are useful. Well, here's an example: Since there are 650 different meanings of the verb run, on pop quizes if you have to write the meaning of run and the teacher says whatever you wrote is wrong, you can always say, "But [insert whatever meaning you put down] is another one of the 650 different meanings." And unless your teacher has a lot of time, it's pretty doubtful they'll want to look it up. Especially if you use one of the more vague meanings.
But whatever you do, don't get me started on the kind of people that wander around these days. For example, scientists accidentally killed the world's oldest animal while trying to do research on it. Great job-or rather, good-bye job. (I bet their boss wasn't happy either...)
Well, that's enough. Thanks for tuning in and whatever you do, DON"T type the numbers 52.376552, 5.198303 into Google Maps-it's not for the faint at heart.* Tootles!
~Orc (who, contrary to popular belief, isn't a half-crazed creature waving around a club but rather a sophistacated orca-turned-killerwhale)

(*Don't worry.....:D

bump

((Part one of the designers guide, i'll have the rest when me and Britt finish our project together))
Welcome once again to part three of Limor's designers guide! This month I have an exciting new thing to introduce that Britter's so kindly did with me. If you are interested to do this with me next month and have entered designs into atleast 2 of the themed design contests or been playing for atleast a year please message me! Now onto the guide...

~Revamping a Design~
Now we all have those 'perfect designs' that we made back when we first started that, when looking back on them, are not the best. Perhaps they have a great idea though and you would like to revamp the design to be better fitting.

For example lets take my 'Raspberry Limeade' Vulynx I designed way back when I first started almost three years ago. I remember being very proud of this design and the idea it was based on itself was nice.


The design itself isn't that bad but when varying from the traits show it has some issues. So when revamping the design how do you keep the integrity of the original idea but still make the design better?

I suggest taking a look at the color pallet. Take in what colors there are and think back to your idea. What were you trying to showcase? I mostly suggest adding in some darker or lighter colors, perhaps add in some tints. For example with this design I made some of the pinks some orangey-pinks instead of just the red-pinks.



As you can see just by making some slight alterations to the colors and changing the hues of the original colors you have a design that carries through with the ideas and ties back to the original in ways. With this base change you can now play around with the colors in whatever way is needed to finetune the design. Doing this is a goodway to get base colors for a design without having to completely start from scratch.

~Limor's Newbie Tips and Tricks~
Welcome back! Once again here we have me, Limor, giving you, the player, some tips and tricks for getting around Sylesti! In this section we'll discuss the Lost Grove and max stats!

~The Lost Grove~

Getting to the Lost Grove can be a tedious process, and completing the lost grove can be even more so. One of the main pluses of actually completing the lost grove is the opportunity to get vinethorn equipment, and even more of a bonus, upgrade your attacks strengths. Although the grind may not be for everyone over time the output you get from it will make it worth it!

~Max Stats~
Max Stats are a special type of pet. These pets have full stats in everything (health, mana, proficients) and if you can find (in some cases 150k!) the gold to purchase these pets you can find yourself great helped out. They will make fighting and the such much easier and help you progress yourself along the story lines better.

Here is my girl for example:


All of her stats are the fullest they possibly can be (Lost Grove stats are an exception) and, when aided with armor and the like, she is very powerful.

Super Stats, or stats found in the lost grove, are even more powerful then regular max stats and have even higher bonuses.

A few users to buy stats from are:
Xavion (Max Stats, Superstats)
Upsidedownsarah (Max Stats, at bargain prices!)

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Remember if at any time you have questions feel free to send them to me and i'll try my best to answer them next article!

I need to start typing.....(facepalm)