Effects palette

The Effects palette is used to render special effects, such as when the Shaman reincarnates, the convert ring, hut smoke, hut plan re-colouring, spell range around the Shaman, etc.

The image size is 256×256. Each column represents the colour that needs to be affected, the rows represents the current effect and its level. The effects must follow each other in this order: Red, Orange, White, Green, Blue, Yellow, Brown, Light Blue and 8 Blacks. Each of them has 16 rows and each of them must be even more transparent to the given colour as you go from the bottom to the top of each effect.

What the effects do:

  • Red: red hut plan, red battle alert, discovery, tornado on lava, red circle on minimap and red mana bar (multiplayer)
  • Orange: spell effects, spell range around the shaman, parts of mana bar
  • White: Shaman reincarnation, flatten, convert ring, hut smokes, hut plan
  • Green: discovery, green battle alert, green circle on minimap and green mana bar (multiplayer)
  • Blue: discovery, blue battle alert (multiplayer), blue circle on minimap and blue mana bar
  • Yellow: discovery, yellow battle alert, yellow circle on minimap and yellow mana bar (multiplayer)
  • Brown: Tornado
  • Light blue: Tornado on water
  • Black: effect of the Misterious Black Tribe (an 5th tribe that crashes the game if any followers or buildings placed for them)

It is hard to make this palette, you need patience and you need to set the Gradient tool many times before you get the best settings. First you need to draw the colours. Make a new image with 256×256 size and draw lines to the background layer on each column. Each line colour must be the colour used on the palette, such the first column is the first colour on the palette, the second column is the second, etc. The lines must fill the full column. After you’ve done it, you have to play with the Gradient tool. Use the Rectangle Selection to select the first 16 rows for the red effect and pick a red colour from the palette that’s simliar to the one in this example, and it should go to the most transparent section. Use the gradient inside the selection and your effect is ready (don’t worry about the RGB colour mode, you will put the Pop palette on it at the end of this progress). Repeat this step for each effect and make sure that the correct amount of rows in the correct place are selected otherwise the game will mess up.

If you are too lazy to play with the Gradient tool, there is a sample you can use to make your Effects Palette. This is a Photoshop document that contains 17 layers. The background layer is full pink, you need to draw your palette on this layer as described, and change each layer to look the best on your palette. Note that we don’t guarantee that it will look good! The best method is to make one yourself.