PNGs to replace watcher_orb_layers

[Pet-Slime]

Hopefully these help. Might need to blank out orb layer 5. Tried my best to make these. should be able to copy paste them into the project when building.

[lamali292]

Thanks for the offer, that's genuinely kind of you!

That said, I'm intentionally using StS2 assets exclusively, for a few reasons:

• Consistency - All UI elements share the same StS2 visual style
• Quality - StS2 assets are higher resolution, avoiding the scaling/compression artifacts that would come with StS1
• Symmetry - All StS2 energy counters use symmetric shapes, so the text never appears off-center
• Layer structure - With your current layering system, layer 1 would always be hidden behind layer 2, making it effectively unused anyway

2026-03-19.08-31-09.mp4

[Pet-Slime]

"Symmetry - All StS2 energy counters use symmetric shapes, so the text never appears off-center"

Not true, like in Sts1, they follow vertical symmetry. As in the left and right sides are mirrored. the top to bottom sides are not.

Silent shows this. In fact, I can do an edit of the silent's assets into the correct shape and color to StS1's watcher energy icon, if you can get me all of her energy layers (please and thank you).

[lamali292]

The silent icon works well visually because it maintains D₃ symmetry, meaning the text is equidistant to every border. This balanced spacing is what makes it look clean and intentional.

This is exactly the challenge with dropping in the sts1 orb here: I can't adjust the text height, which means the text ends up sitting off-center. the distances to each border become uneven, and it reads as visually unbalanced.

The orb's layers are also fixed:
Layer 1 – Background
Layer 2 – Rotating swirl
Layer 3 – Smaller rotating swirl
Layer 4 – Energy gem border
Layer 5 – Decorative borders (VFX)

Base game files attached below

Sry for being picky. I also tried the sts1 assets myself already. beyond the unadjustable text height, they just don't read as a gem the way the sts2 elements do. So the decision to use the current energy gem was deliberate.

(If you would like to try meeting my requirements, please do so.
But don't be disappointed if I don't end up using your textures.
As I said, I've already thought about this a lot myself.)

[Pet-Slime]

The silent icon works well visually because it maintains D₃ symmetry, meaning the text is equidistant to every border. This balanced spacing is what makes it look clean and intentional.

I highly disagree that the silent has D3 symmetry (along the borders). The text is NOT equal distance from every border. Due to the nature of the bottom two boarders expanding and the bottom two shrinking, the text while sitting in the middle, has way more extra room on the bottom than up at the top.

I would also argue that as well when even measuring the points.

It does not come to an Equilateral Triangle. the biggest culprit are the bottom right point.

It sits slightly lower than the bottom right point. In fact, the bottom most point of the gem line (I thought the right was just mirrored to the left, my mistake) is slightly off from the top most point

(assuming the text is centered on the center point of the 256x256 texture), because the bottom two points flare out ~140 pixels from the center compered to the top to points being ~117 pixels, and the top+bottom being ~122 pixels away, there is no way to make d3 symmetry. It is close. but will have the open wasted space on the bottom borders that are farther away from the numbers, compared to all other gems other than Necrobinder. who also has flared points (but has both horizontal and vertical symmetry still).

Apologize for the discussion / disagreement. To the main meat of the post.

Here is the edit I am thinking of doing. (again, using silent as a base).

Flatting the bottom, so the two edge point meet, lined up with the top two corners. This would give it the 7 sided shape that it has in STS1.

I could also do option B, which goes 55 pixels (which is about half way) from the top two points to the very top point, and uses that as the marker for the flatten base.

Which one would you personally like more? I personally like B a bit more, as it leaves a little less open space along the bottom.

EDIT: The cyan lines are the ones that I am actually doing the expanding. The magenta are just the guide lines I am using against the base.

[lamali292]

once again thank you that you are invested in this.

in better words, i just would like it if the center of mass would stay in the middle where the text as i cant move the text from the center. Thats what i mean with distance to corners.

looks fine with text

looks off with text:

center of mass in middle, a bit more like sts 2 style and no compression artifacts and i would be happy.

(i.e just dont remove/add at the bottom and make it bottom-heavy, but evenly instead)

[Pet-Slime]

Question: can you do a test in game for something to see how it looks?

We can't move the text, but if we make the total image bigger than 256x256, can we move the art around? Like if we make the image 512x512 (the artpiece itself is still 256x256) so we can center it on the text better.

Just need to know if like 512x512 would cause any issues in game.

[Pet-Slime]

Anyways, here is 4 edits atm, we can see in game. I did not recolor them yet.

V1

v2

v3

v4

[Pet-Slime]

forgot to re-add the outline for v1 base

[Pet-Slime]

also, I know these aren't completely 1:1 with STS1's watcher shape, except none of the characters are 1:1 with their energy design from STS1.

Like here are the 5 energies from sts1.

They kept the basic shape but all became more angular. Ironclad went from pure circle to an Octagon. Defect got his corners cut (also making him an octagon). Silent went from a smooth / bloaty triangle to hexagon in a vague shape of a triangle.

Keeping the top with a more gradual increase instead of a sharp point like STS1 watcher, keeps in line with you wanting the top and bottom to be more balanced in space. While also keeping the 7 side design of STS1 watcher.

[lamali292]

looks good.
This is my order of preference: 3 > 1 > 2 > 4.
What do you think?
(the rotating swirl is currenlty missing. because of the energy counter changes in beta patch)

Video.Project.5.1.mp4

[Pet-Slime]

yeah that looks fine. I'll do the recolors for v3 and v1. can I get the art for the card energy (or are those just scaled down from the player energy icon?)

So both card energy and energy icon art match.

[lamali292]

these?

[Pet-Slime]

okay. Here is v3 recolored to match watcher colors from sts1. At least 1 version. I am working on another version.

[Pet-Slime]

v3 with a different color set