TLDR sum up of all this nonsense at bottom =)

While spinning a whole bunch of plates, one of the things I'm trying to nail down is the proportions of the characters. In most cases, I prefer the look and feel of characters that have exaggerated proportions (big heads, short legs) over normal proportions when it comes to pixel work but the game I'm building is going for a very sim like level of realism which is causing me to question which way I should go.

I've finally begun to implement height as being a real thing when it comes to vision and looking over/under things. I've got it worked out to where one inch of vertical measurement = 1 pixel. I've already modified all the current walls I've got built up to the new heights but I'll have to change the height of all characters to match the new system to make things look right visually. Now I've got roughly 30% more space to work with vertically on my characters so I need to decide whether I want to go stylized or try to retain realistic proportions.

Here's a quick mock up of the misproportioned style of characters and what they might look like in the game I made using some hopefully recognizable figures =P

If I decide to go with the stylized look, the characters won't be as tall as they would need to be to fully reflect the 1pixel = 1inch measurement system but there'll be enough of a height gain to not cause things to look way out of whack. Also, I'll have a little more width to work with for most of the bodies. If I were to go full on realistic proportions though, they would be about a head taller than what you see there now and only slightly wider. Discussing it with a friend, I may need to just go ahead and mock up both and see which one feels right interacting with the game world. Most likely, I'll have to do that but I figured I'd ask around and try to cast a wider net of opinions just to see what ya'll have to say about it.

Vision Cone What?

Here's a video that may or may not have finished uploading by the time you read this that shows what I mean about the vision cones working vertically. short walls obstruct vision as it would in a FPS game where if you're taller than the wall, you can still see the floor beyond it if you're taller. The closer you get to the wall, the closer the floor you can see since your angle of vision downwards will become steeper. This is also true for if you're standing on a higher elevated floor. Vision will play a very important role so this type of vision cone stuff has been a pain in the ass to program and still needs some tweaking and optimization but I've got a system that works for now =P

Sorry if my post isn't fully coherent as it's almost 1am and I really need to sleep.

TLDR

For an isometric turn based game, do you prefer stylized proportion characters like FF Tactics or realistic proportioned characters like in the old Fallout Series?

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