[MOD] Crew Diversity

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
User avatar
Gencool
Posts: 409
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:21 pm

[MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Gencool » Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:41 pm

This actually spawned from trying to update the Tardis for AE. Turns out, there's some interesting things in the crew's colour coding.

Crew Diversity

A simple mod to create more individuality between your crew members.

IndividualityMod.png




Planned Features So Far

Random character generation
By having a larger number of variables in each crew member, as well as a larger range of alternatives within those variables, duplicate characters should become less common, and your crew may well mean more to you

Skin tone - Hair tone seperation
The current system used to define the colour of Human crew has the Hair and Skin colours directly linked. This mod will split that, as well as adding new tones for both elements. The same concept can be used in most aspects of the mod

Additional character assets
Creating new items of apparel for species, such as armor, warpaint and weaponry

'Shiny' assets
Having certain assets being less common than others because... well why not?



Current Progress

This all sounds official, but really I've just been playing around so far;

I currently have created new sheets for both genders of Human, as well as Mantis and Rock.
I have 'unlocked' some of the colours left in by the developers, as well as coding in new colours.
I have tested additional armour on the Mantis, and mutually-exclusive 'markings' on the Rocks left and right arms.

(results above)



Current Bugs

The only bug I've found so far also serves as a feature. Basically; where all enemy crew members once wore the same purple jumpsuits as your own, they now where a clean, white version (as sported by Breckon above).
This looks incredibly cool for the rebels, but possibly out of place for pirates etc.
Since there's no way around this bug, I'm embracing it.




If people like the sound/look of this, I shall carry on working and try to get a fully working version out soon =D
ImageImageImage
- Gencool (aka Puppetsquid) -- I make weird stuff
User avatar
5thHorseman
Posts: 1668
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:29 am

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby 5thHorseman » Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:10 am

Congratulations on starting what may very well be the first mod I install for play in AE.
My Videos - MY MOD HUB
Simo-V - The Potential - Automated Scout - "Low O2" Icons
The Black Opal - The Asteroid - The Enforcer - The Pyro

"Every silver lining has a cloud..."
MightyKebab
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 3:00 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby MightyKebab » Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:30 pm

Kudos man, This is an awesome addition to crew personalization! I honestly disliked the alternative crew skins for a fact that, compared to Captain's Edition's crew skins, they're nothing more than a bunch of cheap recolours.


Anyway, looking forward to see more of your work!
User avatar
Gencool
Posts: 409
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Gencool » Sat Apr 12, 2014 12:27 pm

Thanks guys!

To be honest, my good MightyKebab, these are mostly cheep recolours...


Quick update; I've knocked up a 'beefy Rock' alternate thanks to some inspiration by Sleeper Service.
As noted in the R&D thread; the size of the bulky rocks meen that their (one-size) outline wouldn't fit any more.
This is also a problem on my Mantis armour, although less-so.

To work around this, I'm trying a alternate style; selection discs.
Basically a oval under the feet of the character rather than a pixel-wide outline.

You can see the two styles in the pic below - all three colours of Disc and the Outline around the enemy mantis (becuse I havn't done theirs yet)

Let me know your opinions.

FloorSelectndSizes.png
ImageImageImage
- Gencool (aka Puppetsquid) -- I make weird stuff
User avatar
5thHorseman
Posts: 1668
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:29 am

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby 5thHorseman » Sat Apr 12, 2014 1:48 pm

I'd have to play with it to be sure, but IMO it looks better than than the one-pixel outline. :)
My Videos - MY MOD HUB
Simo-V - The Potential - Automated Scout - "Low O2" Icons
The Black Opal - The Asteroid - The Enforcer - The Pyro

"Every silver lining has a cloud..."
Axel6430
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:36 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Axel6430 » Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:31 am

The only problem I would see with separating face and hair is that, for example if you were to make ginger hair, it would also appear on random on people with dark skin, which is kinda uncommon. If you catered to the grey/blond/brown spectrum it could work, though.
Also about the white shirt bug, it's kinda weird. I even tested just adding a new layer to the mantises and it still happened. I wonder what's causing it.
Axel6430
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:36 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Axel6430 » Sun Apr 13, 2014 10:22 am

Actually, about that white uniform thing, it seems it ignores human_layer_1 and displays directly human_base. The face and hair variations still show up, though.
If you recolour directly the human_base sheet to match the default color, and then edit the blueprint so that the alpha of the vanilla player choice is 0 (That way the default color doesn't add up on the already coloured base), that should revert the colors to the vanilla state. No more immaculate pirates ;)
Edit: Actually that's not it, it defaults to the human_layer_1 with no color modification. The solution would be to recolor it so that it matches the default uniform. Then if you want player customisation perhaps you could make the first layer invisible in the blueprints (NPC humans should still default to the recoloured one) and then add a new layer which uses a copy of human_layer_1. Since only one colour is available for the first layer in the blueprint, it shouldn't create dupes when using the customize option.
Edit: Hurray! It works!
User avatar
Gencool
Posts: 409
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Gencool » Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:41 pm

Ahhhh, nice sleuthing Axel.
I think I was quite tired before... Didn't even realise that i'd overlooked that I had clothes in slot 1 and just assumed it was a limit :lol: (May have been staying up late a few nights)

Oh, and with the hair colour thing; I've tested it and altered the values the best I can to stop weird combinations. There's always going to be issues, but you may be suprised at how well some of the odder combinations work.



Anyway; bit of personal stuff - I'm moving to a new flat in a week or so. I have to start packing, so need to reduce the time I spend on this.




That said; I've been busy.



Biggest thing; I've completely re-built the Zoltan sheet in photoshop (as the baked in 'glow' on them was making it very difficult to work with). In the process, I've changed a few of the animations so that they're no longer just a green reskin of the male human.

Unfortunatly, the lack of an 'idle' animation has kinda screwed me over on what I really wanted, so I'm not posting the sheet just yet.
nb: I don't know if anyone has any sway with the devs, but if we could change the default pose (which is currently frame 1 of the downward walk cycle) to the '_portrait' animation (which dosn't actually animate in the hanger) then I would /very/ much appreciate it.



Second, I'm 80% of the way through Slugs. They're now really colourful (like the sea slugs that someone talked about on a post that I no longer the location of).
I've stripped them into 'skin', 'stripes', and 'tummy', as well as adding a new bodytype; 'whiskers'
I don't think there's much else to do on them except their 'discs'.
...I'm tempted to try glowy arms or heads...



Enough talk. Have an image.

Sluggery.jpg
ImageImageImage
- Gencool (aka Puppetsquid) -- I make weird stuff
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Sleeper Service » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:19 am

The selection discs are a good idea. I tried some kind of "crew reticle" similar to that.Though it would be nice if it shifts when the crew moves, always centring on the crewmen centre of mass, but that looked rather annoying in the end. It was also less subliminal than the outlines. I still consider removing the colour sheet altogether. Your own crew is still tinted green when selected so it might not get that confusing...

The whiskers are cool as well, will be interesting to see how the look when the crew is moving. I started fleshing out the bulky Rock sheet, but its pretty tedious. If you want to have a look at the CE files be my guest by the way, it's all free to use (there are some sheets that add personal cloaking and shield sheets and such.)
Axel6430
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:36 pm

Re: [MOD] Crew Diversity

Postby Axel6430 » Mon Apr 14, 2014 12:57 pm

Those whiskers are a nice addition! Makes it sort of look like that slug is of a higher rank, or an elder.
About that NPC thing, I noticed that by making the first two layers "dummy" layers, ie making them invisible through blueprints, and adding new ones in (while copying and renaming the previous layers to human_layer3 and human_layer4), they appear on random on NPCs, whereas they didn't previously. For instance I was able to get enemy crews with various uniforms.
That's better than my previous solution, since it doesn't require modifying the base sheet, and enable custom content for NPCs as well.