[DISC.][PLAYER] Preference for a directional digger sprite?

[namida]

So - one thing I want to have in place for V12.8.0, is a Digger sprite that clearly indicates the lemming's direction.

Only two serious contender proposals have emerged for the digger, so this poll is to figure out which one is preferred.

Option 1 - is we change the digger to use a drill-like device, rather than his hands, and continue facing straight ahead while on top of it. WillLem has made a mockup of a high-res sprite for this, which I have attached to this post ("Digger w_drill.png"). This is not a full animation and cannot currently be used in-game, even with the high-res experimental build.

Option 2 - is that the digger only throws destruction particles behind himself. I've made a sprite that does this, although I think this is limited to "it shows the general concept" and would need some work to actually look better in-game. The attached low-res sprite ("digger.png") can actually be used in-game to test this (replace styles/default/lemmings/digger.png), either with stable NL or the high-res experimental.


Options that I am ruling out right here and now:
- Leave things as is. Digging is an action where the facing direction can be important to know (as opposed to eg. splatting, where it doesn't matter because the lemming will never revert to another state where the direction could matter), so something needs to change here.
- Option 1 for high-res, Option 2 for low-res (or vice versa). While of course there would be differences, eg. if we go with the drill option, the low-res version would not have the clothes / hard-hat, I feel the two should be the same overall action.
- Use something external, like displaying an arrow. No other action does this, it instead uses the lemming's appearance to convey this. Let's not make the digger an exception.

Beyond those, I'm at least open to hearing other ideas, if there are any.

[WillLem]

Here's a VERY basic draft of the drill sprite being animated. Several changes will need to be made to this (e.g. the width of the drill is currently 1 pixel wider than the digger mask coz I miscounted ), but it just gives an overall idea of what it could look like.

Suggestions welcome. This gets my vote for now.

[Strato Incendus]

May I suggest using the drill sprite for the previously-discussed "Upward Digger" instead, some time in the future?

I don't think the aesthetics of the original 8 skills should change more than necessary, hence I'd prefer the "throw to one side" option for the Digger itself.

But upward digging is something we're hopefully going to have at some point, and Driller was indeed one of the names proposed for that skill.