[WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

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a Sir
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby a Sir » Sun May 11, 2014 5:37 pm

Russian Rockman wrote:You seem to be making some great progress on the ships. I am impressed especially since you said you've never done anything like this before. I would never be able to design something like that from scratch, not even on paper.


Thanks! Actually, there's this one ship that I made before starting everything... I didn't really like how it turned out... I think it could be added in the game as an easter egg or something.
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Russian Rockman wrote:Anyway, I hope that you can update the images using techniques like this in the future, if there is anyone out there that actually knows how to do stuff art related and Gimp or Photoshop related I'm sure they could help you make something awesome by just adding some effects to the designs you've already done. ;)

I really like how they turned out, but as Gencool said, the filters kinda distance the artstyle between LTA and FTL a bit more. I'm not sure how you added the lighting effects though... maybe there's an option that i missed. That didn't stop me from testing stuff out! This is what i came up with:
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Using the warp thingy in filters, I was able to make the weave effect move along the balloon, for a more three dimensional effect. I applied a motion blur to the wooden part of the ship because I thought usually the wood planks are horizontal. I also tried to add more shadowing and applied a enhance color thing after everything was done.

Here's another one with only the balloons that are filtered:
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And here's the original for comparison:

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Tell me which version you guys prefer and if I should apply more filters or something!

Russian Rockman wrote:There is also THIS MOD: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24541 That adds more detailed crew portraits. :) It looks like I was wrong to think that the portraits use the first frame of the walk animation, so we might be able to have crew portraits for the different automatons and people which will add even more detail to the mod.

I saw that mod! I think it opens up a lot of options for the crew... We might be able to get those goggles and monocles after all!

Russian Rockman wrote:Honestly, all this graphical stuff is way harder than the .xml stuff I'm used to. :lol: :lol: Luckily everyone is excited about this mod concept, otherwise I don't think it would ever get finished.

Yeah, without all the excitement I don't think the mod development would've lasted very long. :)

Gencool wrote:The smaller ships, I forgot to say, are gorgeous.
Love the pirate re-colourings too!

Thanks a lot! I wasn't sure if the pirate marking's color should be the same as FTL though... but I think it turned out rather nicely.

Gencool wrote:I hadn't thought of automatons, honestly, but I /had/ thought of the rock/heavy/gaurd dude, who I imagined rolling up and down them like a vertical train...
Another alternative would be to have the repair drone move along rails similar to portal 2's Wheatly...

Wheatly!!! I'm not sure how the animations would look though... would the railings work the same way as the ladders, appearing when the drone is there?

Gencool wrote:Also, with the portrait thing, I had thoughs on making them as 'downtime' sprites, so helmets removed etc.
They don't animate in the hanger, but I admit I never tried to see if they did in the crew slot of Ship...

If they animate in the crew slot, it could make for interesting idle animations...

R4V3-0N wrote:rock should be some guy who's heavily armored. like very heavily armored.

It will make it look more sense. Not just because of his extra health, but a bit into it's slow speed and fire proof.


And it would be able to climb ladders!
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Gencool
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby Gencool » Sun May 11, 2014 9:53 pm

Hmm, an idle animation should, really, be playing on the character whilst they are doing nothing. An animation on the character select screen is kind of pointless (short of adding blinks or visual effects)

I was thinking that they would just cruise along the top of the rooms they are in, and have a cool alternate animation when 'climbing' (maybe using the ladders or the edge of the walls as rails)

Anyways

More concept sprites ('cause they're very fun to do)

SteampunkClassSpriteConcepts.png

Worker Male, Repair, Combat, 'Rock', 'Mantis' with bug wings, 'Mantis' rest, Worker Female

ALSO

an FTl to test with (the Zoltan sheet from a few posts ago, with ladders)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xakzb8e5xe5ko ... kWalks.ftl
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- Gencool (aka Puppetsquid) -- I make weird stuff
Russian Rockman
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby Russian Rockman » Mon May 12, 2014 2:47 am

a Sir wrote:I really like how they turned out, but as Gencool said, the filters kinda distance the artstyle between LTA and FTL a bit more. I'm not sure how you added the lighting effects though... maybe there's an option that i missed. That didn't stop me from testing stuff out! This is what i came up with:


I love the ship's you've done already and they were fine as is. But I do think those effects look really cool and add some added details to the ships. :) The first one looks great if you want more detailed ships and your own style. The second one is good if you want to add some details to the balloon only but leave the rest the same to match the vanilla style more. Also, FTL does use very subtle shading effects so it's not too much different.

I didn't do any lighting effects. :P It just turned out that way when I did the weave overlay. Yours look much better than mine. I don't think there are any more filters which you need to add really. The way you made the weave match the curve of the ballon is great also.

That first ship you made isn't too bad either. If you just added a few more details it could be a big fat battleship.

a Sir wrote:Thanks a lot! I wasn't sure if the pirate marking's color should be the same as FTL though... but I think it turned out rather nicely.


I think using the same pirate markings is a nice touch. Just like the Rebel eagle it's like a sort of "Easter Egg" from vanilla.

a Sir wrote:
Gencool wrote:I hadn't thought of automatons, honestly, but I /had/ thought of the rock/heavy/gaurd dude, who I imagined rolling up and down them like a vertical train...
Another alternative would be to have the repair drone move along rails similar to portal 2's Wheatly...

Wheatly!!! I'm not sure how the animations would look though... would the railings work the same way as the ladders, appearing when the drone is there?


I think that is a cool idea. The rails appearing only when the drone is moving just like the ladders is fine. I actually like that, it's kind of unique. The Idea of having the repair drone move around like Wheatley is truly a genius idea.

Gencool wrote:Anyways

More concept sprites ('cause they're very fun to do)


Those concepts look great. Based on the way you've drawn that "Rock" I was thinking maybe they could be part of a diesel faction? It would kind of go with their ruff and tumble nature. I wonder how the Tesla people should look?
hilariouslijah
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby hilariouslijah » Mon May 12, 2014 7:42 am

Heavens this mod is very cool... Like Russian Rockman I find graphical things much harder than xml stuff, so I deeply congratulate you sir. Never had I realized how well air balloons would fit into a Sci-Fi game... By far the most original mod idea yet, keep up the great work!
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a Sir
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby a Sir » Tue May 13, 2014 11:39 pm

Gencool wrote:Anyways

More concept sprites ('cause they're very fun to do)
ALSO

an FTl to test with (the Zoltan sheet from a few posts ago, with ladders)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xakzb8e5xe5ko ... kWalks.ftl

Those look awesome! I like them a lot!

Russian Rockman wrote:I love the ship's you've done already and they were fine as is. But I do think those effects look really cool and add some added details to the ships. :) The first one looks great if you want more detailed ships and your own style. The second one is good if you want to add some details to the balloon only but leave the rest the same to match the vanilla style more. Also, FTL does use very subtle shading effects so it's not too much different.

I decided to go ahead and add the weave effect to the balloons of a couple other player ships and try to add more shading:

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It really improves the details a lot..

Russian Rockman wrote:Those concepts look great. Based on the way you've drawn that "Rock" I was thinking maybe they could be part of a diesel faction? It would kind of go with their ruff and tumble nature. I wonder how the Tesla people should look?

Just as a reminder, Tesla people are actually zoltan, and humans in the mod replace the zoltans... There isn't exactly faction-specific looks.

hilariouslijah wrote:Heavens this mod is very cool... Like Russian Rockman I find graphical things much harder than xml stuff, so I deeply congratulate you sir. Never had I realized how well air balloons would fit into a Sci-Fi game... By far the most original mod idea yet, keep up the great work!


Thanks a lot! Best of luck for your overhaul too!



...Updated the main post with a more friendly UI
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Russian Rockman
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby Russian Rockman » Wed May 14, 2014 1:58 am

Those look awesome too!!! It looks like you made the steam a bit darker, which looks cool. I guess you're going to add the weave and a few other effects to the ships then? I like how you've found a balance by adding a few details like the weave on the balloon and shading, but not made them too detailed that they don't look like FTL anymore. :D Again, fantastic job!!!

I like the green sails with weave, they seem more alive. I wish we could add propellers and animated steam... :| Anyway, I can't believe how much progress you've made!!! :shock: I thought it would take like a year to get that many ships done. :lol:

Also, I like the background on your signature and the OP. ;)

P.S. Superluminal 2 will be out soon so maybe you can start designing the interior of some of these ships!!! It'll be interesting to see how that looks. You may not want to even have a floor image, but I think with the side view we could do some interesting things with that. Also, if you have some rooms "above deck", like piloting for example you could actually have some room images that match the background and it might make it sort of look like there is no wall... Maybe.
a Sir
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby a Sir » Wed May 14, 2014 2:24 am

Russian Rockman wrote:Those look awesome too!!! It looks like you made the steam a bit darker, which looks cool. I guess you're going to add the weave and a few other effects to the ships then? I like how you've found a balance by adding a few details like the weave on the balloon and shading, but not made them too detailed that they don't look like FTL anymore. :D Again, fantastic job!!!

Thanks! I'll update the rest of ships and add improvements if I can.

Russian Rockman wrote: Anyway, I can't believe how much progress you've made!!! :shock: I thought it would take like a year to get that many ships done. :lol:

Thanks you :P There is still a lot left to do... when summer comes I should be able to speed up the progress a lot. Hopefully it takes less than a year to finish the rest of the ships!

Russian Rockman wrote:P.S. Superluminal 2 will be out soon so maybe you can start designing the interior of some of these ships!!! It'll be interesting to see how that looks. You may not want to even have a floor image, but I think with the side view we could do some interesting things with that. Also, if you have some rooms "above deck", like piloting for example you could actually have some room images that match the background and it might make it sort of look like there is no wall... Maybe.

I've been waiting patiently for Superluminal 2... for the "above deck" parts, what would happen is the sensors are out and no one is in the room? If there aren't any big graphical problems it could be really cool!
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Russian Rockman
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby Russian Rockman » Wed May 14, 2014 7:36 am

a Sir wrote:
Russian Rockman wrote:P.S. Superluminal 2 will be out soon so maybe you can start designing the interior of some of these ships!!! It'll be interesting to see how that looks. You may not want to even have a floor image, but I think with the side view we could do some interesting things with that. Also, if you have some rooms "above deck", like piloting for example you could actually have some room images that match the background and it might make it sort of look like there is no wall... Maybe.

I've been waiting patiently for Superluminal 2... for the "above deck" parts, what would happen is the sensors are out and no one is in the room? If there aren't any big graphical problems it could be really cool!


Damn sensors!!!! You're right, it would turn into a big gray box when sensors were out. It would also still be outlined, but I thought that was acceptable just because it's basically showing you that there is a "room" there. It would also possibly be weird for the repair drones, but maybe that's what they grey outline is. ;) A rail. I don't know... Maybe having a grey square there when sensors go out would be acceptable if it looks cool enough otherwise.

Also, I like the how the ladders just "appear" on Gencool's walking up animations, but I just realized that you could just have all of the connections to other floors be on the right side and have people climb up the right walls like the ladder is on that wall. Just another thought about ladders. And of course, not everyone needs to use the ladders. Some people can just steam pack up!

Finally, when you do get all the ships done you should upload a version that just replaces all of the vanilla ships and people and backgrounds with yours. All events and other things will remain the same, but at least people will be able to play as the ships. Then we can start redoing all the events and functionality of things.


Gencool wrote:
SteampunkClassSpriteConcepts.png



Also, I was looking at Gencool's sprites again and here is how I think they should replace the vanilla factions.
From left to right: Zoltan, Engi, Lanius, Rock, Mantis,
Still need "Slug" skins, and "Crystal" skins, and "human" skins. Crystal will probably be some kind of combat automaton. Slugs can be "humans" with special abilities or some kind of automaton also. Humans will be "civilians" or will they have their own special skins and be the "Tesla" faction/Zoltans in spirit?

Also, I realized how "squishy" humans will be since they will have 70 health replacing Zoltans, this will make boarding more dangerous. The boarding animations could be cool though, you will have people instead of fading out like they are teleporting, descending with steampacks. :D And when Gencool has some time I think he should do some fighting animations, from the side view they could be really cool actually. :)

We also still need to figure out how the exploding on death will work too... I think you could replace the explosion effect with nothing. The damage will have to be explained some other way. I'm still an advocate of the whole crew micromanaging thing though.

I like the combat robot, but I thought maybe it shouldn't replace the Mantis people. I think of the Mantis people as a very aggressive faction the uses the same tactics as the ""Mantis" from FTL. They board other ships with their steampacks and the wings are just sort of an intimidation thing. Their ships are designed like bugs just because they are meant to be intimidating.

Course, the robot could actually be a potential alternate skin for the Mantis people. (And I like the Combat drone look, but I was wondering what it would look like as a spider type drone, climbing up walls like the repair drone)
Also, it could actually be pretty interesting to have a faction consisting of automatons that went sentient kind of like CE's AI. Is that possible? Can automatons think like robots? Maybe the "Clone Bay" system will be unique to only them and be basically an automaton constructor.

Also, I'm imagining that you will be able to fight different factions and maybe some people you fight will have special abilities, but humans will be the most common. It might be rare to come across a "Rock" or "Mantis" person because you will need humans/Zoltan to man system.

Is this all in line with what you are thinking a Sir???


So these are all potential factions so far, as I'm seeing it? Is this correct? I'm actually really in favor of merging several different "punks" with a steampunk focus if you're OK with that.
Humans: (Zoltan) Can man systems for increased power, confederacy (federation) and insurgents (rebels)
*Engi so far just seem like repair bots, but they could be made into something more?
"Mantis": (Mantis) Humans that are very aggressive, ships are shaped like insects, militaristic despotic government
Tesla Punk: (Humans) No special abilities, slightly increased health (100) their ships deploy backup energy (some weird thing called "electricity" ;) ), I'm seeing them as a faction that is a Scientocracy, their ships use proper propellers it seems like(which by the way you could probably use a cool filter on to make them look like they are spinning)

Diesel Punk??: (Rock??) Humans who wear mech-suits that give them increased strength (150), strong industrial economy, probably some strife between social classes, maybe a caste system of sorts (Think Bioshock Infinite)
"Slugs"??: (Slugs??) So far they seem like Bioshock, (not in the extreme sense... you get what I mean hopefully) I don't know, they could also be another automaton. If you want to keep mind control you'll probably need something like this though...
Automatons??: (Lanius??) A faction consisting of only automatons that developed thoughts and feelings, they are peaceful but defend themselves aggressively from humans, perhaps they use "drone" tactics like the Engi
"Crystal"??: (Crystal??) Based on your flying whale ;) I am thinking of some sort of sea-faring faction, perhaps they use water (ion) weapons that cool steam and lock them up. Whale oil locking down rooms?? Dishonored style?? I don't know I'm spit balling here... :lol:
a Sir
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby a Sir » Thu May 15, 2014 3:23 am

Russian Rockman wrote:
Finally, when you do get all the ships done you should upload a version that just replaces all of the vanilla ships and people and backgrounds with yours. All events and other things will remain the same, but at least people will be able to play as the ships. Then we can start redoing all the events and functionality of things.

Right... the only way to really have a "beta" is if all the art is complete, since anything that remains FTL would looks really out-of-context (except the HUD)

Russian Rockman wrote:
Is this all in line with what you are thinking a Sir???

That's all basically what I had in mind! The explosions on death could be explained if everyone wore a "steampack".

Russian Rockman wrote:So these are all potential factions so far, as I'm seeing it? Is this correct? I'm actually really in favor of merging several different "punks" with a steampunk focus if you're OK with that.
Humans: (Zoltan) Can man systems for increased power, confederacy (federation) and insurgents (rebels)
*Engi so far just seem like repair bots, but they could be made into something more?
"Mantis": (Mantis) Humans that are very aggressive, ships are shaped like insects, militaristic despotic government
Tesla Punk: (Humans) No special abilities, slightly increased health (100) their ships deploy backup energy (some weird thing called "electricity" ;) ), I'm seeing them as a faction that is a Scientocracy, their ships use proper propellers it seems like(which by the way you could probably use a cool filter on to make them look like they are spinning)

Diesel Punk??: (Rock??) Humans who wear mech-suits that give them increased strength (150), strong industrial economy, probably some strife between social classes, maybe a caste system of sorts (Think Bioshock Infinite)
"Slugs"??: (Slugs??) So far they seem like Bioshock, (not in the extreme sense... you get what I mean hopefully) I don't know, they could also be another automaton. If you want to keep mind control you'll probably need something like this though...
Automatons??: (Lanius??) A faction consisting of only automatons that developed thoughts and feelings, they are peaceful but defend themselves aggressively from humans, perhaps they use "drone" tactics like the Engi
"Crystal"??: (Crystal??) Based on your flying whale ;) I am thinking of some sort of sea-faring faction, perhaps they use water (ion) weapons that cool steam and lock them up. Whale oil locking down rooms?? Dishonored style?? I don't know I'm spit balling here... :lol:


Actually, I'm not sure if I'm misreading you or if you don't understand (sorry if this comes out as rude)... Just to make sure everything is clear again (sorry), for the crew micromanagement to work, we need to make energy super rare and mostly coming from the crew. Since only Zoltans have this ability, most crew in the entire game will be reskinned Zoltans, even in different factions. The factions are really just different ships, but the crew should be relatively the same. The crew species will be replaced with different "class" of people that are used differently in the ships, but they do not really represent their own faction, since everyone will be mostly workers (humans (zoltans)). IE: Say we take the Wasp (Mantis equivalent faction) ship. The ship might start with 2 workers (human ( zoltan)), 1 Vanquisher/Knights (mantis) and 1 Sentry/Guardian ( Rock). The workers are indispensable in the ship since they are the primary source of energy, but the mantises and rock allow for a more board-style gameplay. another example: The rock-equivalent faction might start with only 3 workers and no rocks since the faction is based around a big hull and defenses.

Tesla race might be an exception to this rule. They might be actually all humans (human), but have a decent reactor or the backup battery at the start of the game, since they are energy-wise special.

That also means AI-faction wouldn't work since there is no energy coming from the workers ( human (zoltan))
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Gencool
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Re: [WIP] [Steampunk] Lighter than air

Postby Gencool » Thu May 15, 2014 8:23 am

As Sir said.
Crew/ discriptions would be like
'Workers- the core of the workforce, able to bring any machine up to its full potential'
'Guards- armour encased security for hire, they swear an oath to defend any ship they ride'
'Knights- assassins wearing personal flying machines, they are all but useless when not in combat'
'Precogs- born or embued with strange powers, these civilians have usually led very tough lives'

I think that Lanius and Crystal could be 'elite' versions of knights/gaurds.
E.g.
'DeathKnight- the flying machines these assassins wear create a deadly environment for all but the wearer'
'SupportGuard- whilst not as tough as a standard Guard, these suits allow areas of a ship to be locked-down'
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- Gencool (aka Puppetsquid) -- I make weird stuff