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Community Sprites Update Mod
Version 1.06
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Maintainer: Globu
Contributors: Burnsaber, Globu
Contributors of Work Used Without Permission: Zepath
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DESCRIPTION
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This is an ongoing mod aimed at being a community project that provides
improved artwork (or quality alternates) for units whose sprites are showing
their age in comparison with KO's and Illwinter's more recent standards.

It's rather humble at this point but growing. So far, the mod has 10 or so new
sprites, one fixed version of an existing sprite, and 20 or so sprites by
Zepath (taken from his Nova Deus mod, most of them optional and disabled by
default).  However, some modders have planned to contribute sprites, and other
contributions are most certainly welcome (particularly for some of those
oldest sprites that from the earlier days, like the lich pretenders and
vampires).  I'm adding some here and there as well, though I'm just learning,
myself.

Artwork is a very picky, subjective business, and few will find *all* of the
sprites included to be preferable to the vanilla artwork.  So, as mentioned,
many alternate sprites are not enabled by default (based on my own impressions
and that taken from feedback on the thread).  A visual preview of all
available alternate sprites will be maintained with the mod, allowing the
player to pick and choose by simply commenting or un-commenting-out the
relevant parts of the mod.


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NOTES FOR USE
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This mod is intended to be customized per the player's preferences. It seemed
to me the best idea to arrange it by author/source, so I have done so in the
.dm file.  For each author, sprites enabled by default are listed first,
followed by sprites that you must enable (replace the comment "--" with "#")
to see in-game.

No new units are added by this mod. This is a graphics replacement only.


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VERSION HISTORY
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v1.06: Added fixed Son of Shamshiel sprite (no change to graphic; only removed
       background junk pixels). Added Burnsaber's Deep Seer, Initiate of the
       Deep, and Great Seer of the Deeps replacement sprite (I have touched
       them up slightly in a few spots). Made a few more tweaks to several
       sprites and added a few variants.
v1.05: Added Vampire Queen and Lich Queen sprites. Updated Great Enchantress
       Sprite.
v1.04: Added readme and moved information from mod file comments to it.
v1.03: Added tweaked Palankasha sprite.
v1.02: Added sprites from Zepath's Nova Deus mod (mostly disabled by default)
v1.01: Great Enchantress added.
v1.00: Initial introductory release; gratuitous succubus only.


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CREDITS AND PERMISSIONS
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[*] THE MOD ITSELF: The text, code, and general project of the mod may be
considered in the public domain, free for any use whatsoever.  In the event
that I disappear from the modding scene for an extended time, I grant
permission for anyone to take up and maintain or incorporate the mod.  Any
artwork attributable only to me is subject to the same permissions.  On the
off-chance that Illwinter finds of my usable sprites worthwhile to include in
the game package, I would be most pleased to contribute it, and they may do so
at will, with or without communication or credit.

[*] BURNSABER'S WORK: Thanks to Burnsaber for contributing the Seer sprites.
They have been renamed with a BS_ prefix for purposes of inclusion in this
mod.

[*] ZEPATH'S WORK: These have been included without permission, as Zepath is
apparently incommunicado, based on the fact that Zepath has expressed a
friendliness toward the use of his work (see, for example,
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=555343&postcount=61).  His
sprites have been renamed with a ZP_ prefix and put in this mod's
Cmnty_Sprites_Update directory.

[*] GLOBU'S WORK: My spritework in this mod may be used freely within the
modding community, but note that spritework is based on either reworkings of
vanilla sprites, or (roughly) from images of miniatures, heavily reworked (in
most cases to the point of irrecognizability, which is good) and adapted.
Thus, whether or not these are identifiable with source images, they cannot be
used for commercial purposes aside from Illwinter and the Dom3 modding
community.  For those spheres, here are some specifics:

--> Succubus Sprite: Aside from adaptation for the purpose, this sprite is
essentially little changed from the original miniature, and should probably be
considered derivative.

--> Sorceress Series Sprites: These are adapted from a miniature image, but
have been so layered over and reworked, with original content added, that they
can essentially be considered original works.

--> Palankasha: As if it wasn't obvious, this is Illwinter's sprite with a
tiger moustache.  It's Illwinter's, and I'd be mightily flattered if KO found
it a worthy tweak and integrated it into the game package.