Sleeper Service wrote:Artillery weapons can not be checked in events until they are installed, so unfortunately it won't work that way, you'll going to have to keep those faction augs.
Yea, but the faction artillery could be checked AFTER it is installed, so he could sell faction-specific augments once he obtain artillery. Not ideal, but would still help to allow more diverse play styles, so if it's not too much hassle to code, +1 here.
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So, I've finished candidates for CE's main menu background
I say "candidateS", because, after finishing the first one from preview - which I think looks great on it's own - I've detected small issue with how main menu options composite there. The small nebula (galaxy) is so bright, that it makes buttons hard to read. So, I've decided to use a tuned version of the same hubble background, but it doesn't solve the issue completely. Because during "development" of this, I've, finally, educated myself about using layers properly
I had planet, moons and fleet layered, so I thought "why not check totally different hubble images?", if doing so is just few clicks away? I made something like 20 background, discarded the one that looked worse than original, and as a result, here are nine candidates, of which 3 are variants of the first background:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/gyx41cbyb91oxbu/rainbow.xcf (Updated - now my favorite one)http://www.mediafire.com/download/v29c9skc4oc2x38/red.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/xrdpg3px1dud55x/tones.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/kta88ab6mj7sz1v/saturated.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/rj8pq2pef68fbni/green.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/y9lz67b1hqnm0i7/purple.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/e1amo4lz1565gkc/main_base2-alternative-drained.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/lq57b2d96mxnbq9/main_base2.xcfhttp://www.mediafire.com/download/21sb6d1gn9hy8xm/main_base2-alternative.xcf[strike]I'm really not sure which one looks best[/strike] (
Update: The "rainbow one definitely looks best in-game
), so why not put all of them here and let you (Sleeper) decide which one you think fits CE most? Sorry in advance
While selecting, keep in mind that it looks better in-game, when there is dark/toned background on the place occupied by menu items.
As you might notice, in all backgrounds except the original "main_base2.xfc", I've changed the big planet composition to remove the "empty part" in upper left corner - I think now it's look more coherent with itself, and with spirit of current CE image (although, original version is here too, in case you think otherwise). In the last file, "main_base2-alternative.xfc", everything is layered separately (fleet, planet, moons, background...), so you may edit every part separately, if you think something could be better. As for other files, If you decide to go with one of them, but would want to edit something out, I can re-create fully layered version clone in something like 5 minutes (using backgrounds sitting on my disk and layers from "main_base2.xfc", so just say a word. (
Update: The "rainbow" one is now fully layered, and include FTL CE logo + all other text).
As for fleet - You were' of course, right that satellites will get blurry again when rotated by something else than 90 degrees - I've tried various automatic options, but they all looked fubar, so I decided to edit them pixel-by-pixel by hand. Separately for every rotation variant. Then I decided various size and "depth" variants of satellite image would make it look more natural (following your point about it's being main federation base, I thought that there would be many satellites protecting planet and moons itself, far away, with "mobile" fleet visible closer to viewer). So, I resized satellite, creating 2 additional, smaller and smaller versions. Of course, they looked FU and BAR afterwards, too, so edited them both by hand and darkened them. Did the same with rebel station (which, guess what, required editing by hand for every variant all the same). I wasn't satisfied with the fleet images present in game files (one ship was way too big, other were available only on darkened variant), so I re-created them for all sizes I needed - thanks FTL gods, none required editing pixels by hand. Anyway, here is my WIP file with all things that required pixel-by-pixel editing, + [strike]FTL CE and copyright texts[/strike] (=
Update: + all text layers. Background is transparent, (
Update: and layered and positioned correctly) so everything is ready for copy&paste, is anyone find it useful: (
Update: It got replaced by "CE menu background maker kit", which have everything layered and contains absolutely every part one need to create own FTL CE background menu image of of anything)
http://www.mediafire.com/download/8oqmo4uq7rs3qqh/CE-background-maker-set.xcfAs for fleet - I wanted to follow your idea about main Rebel base + main fleet present here ATM, so I made sure that it REALLY look like most military secured place in the galaxy. Even on this side of planet and moons, countless ships, satellites, and stations are visible closer to planet, + of course, on close-up plane, we have fleet ready to start it's blitzkrieg run. In my opinion, it adds the CE's "harsher galaxy" feel - it looks both awe-inspiring and "This is the place that I don't want to see close-up" way.
OTOH, if you decide that I've overclouded fleet nonetheless, feel free to disintegrate few ships and, overall, modify it as you see fit - every image is "all rights granted" for CE. For everyone else that may want to use them - Creative Common latest, so feel free to do so, as long as you give credits - to hubble
, sanmoku for planets and moons used in CE, and some of them to me, for putting the pieces together. Everything took only like 8 hours of non-stop work yesterday, and 4 the day earlier
I know, I suxx at this - but, what is inspiring, I actually gained much experience with graphic editing and pixel-art, even doing this sole mini project. Kudos to Sleeper, for supporting, maintaining and expanding CE continuously for those years, which as I imagine, took like n+infinity times more than the smallest piece I was honored to do here. Hope it's up to the task, at the end...
Cheers,
/Estel
// Edit
And construction satellite works nice already, can't wait to see it finished in-game!
// Edit 2
[strike]In case you have problem deciding, after look at them again, today, I think that my current favorite is "rainbow", closely followed by "green" - considering how they compose with all text and in-game menus.[/strike]
Update:) "Rainbow" one looks best in game, and composes heavenly with FTL menus added. If in doubt, go for this one, I say