Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: 1 [2] 3

Author Topic: Biomechanoids (WIP)  (Read 17290 times)

King Alfonzo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • -- D O C T O R --
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2016, 05:37:01 PM »

Update!

Spoiler
[close]

I'm basically stealing color palette from Perihelion (http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/perihelion/screenshots). Strongly recommended, by the way. A somewhat obtuse and difficult, but quite short and incredibly atmospheric post-apocalyptic horror RPG.

VERY nice. Especially like the custom weapon mounts. The Narcissus and Baphomet are just about perfect - REALLY liking the metal 'bands' on the 'arms' of the Baph, but you could maybe break up the straight lines on the 'engine' mounts at the back of the Narcissus, to help it blend a little bit better with the 'wings'. Maybe just a bit of wirery greebling over the seem to break it up a little bit? Also, if you want more weapon mounts, you might be able to sneak some small cutsom mounts on the 'spine', but that's only when you get to playtesting it. The Cocytus is brilliant as well, however when I meant the edge of the greebling to make it more 3D, I kinda meant the edge of the ship, here in red...



At the moment it's a little too subtle - maybe a smidge more obvious? In a similar vein, the shading on the front edge of the bridge still annoys me a bit, and could be a bit darker to prevent it feeling flat. But otherwise, it's very nicely done. That new one on the far left is also pretty cool - very 'I have no mouth and I must scream'. The rear bridge feels like it's floating on the ship however, instead of being a part of the ship. Maybe a few tubes between the bridge and the interior life support system?

Overall a brilliant and amazing piece of work!


Twisted ships need twisted pilots:



Looks very old-school CGI / Spritish. The visors however are a bit too high - it looks like their eyes are somewhere on their foreheads. And the body-things at the bottom seem geometrically strange to me. Otherwise you've done some brilliant shading.

Kaucukovnik

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 39
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #16 on: November 30, 2016, 08:29:46 PM »

I get it with the edges & greebles now. Will look into it.

The eye height - I started with the open visors and didn't account for the closed pin obscuring vision. The lady is fine though, and the dude next to her got his shades just a bit lower.
The spacesuits are intended to look clunky and odd, or are they even spacesuits?
Still not sure about the colors. The simpler ones match the ships more and have some elegance to them, but the colors make them fit with vanilla faces better.

Logged

King Alfonzo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • -- D O C T O R --
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2016, 10:21:22 PM »

Still not sure about the colors. The simpler ones match the ships more and have some elegance to them, but the colors make them fit with vanilla faces better.

Spoiler
[close]

You don't have to make your stuff fit in with vanilla - the art style is already distinct enough. Honestly the colour is up to you - you can do just simple ambers, reds and yellows to fit in with your ships, or you can do the techpunk multicolour rainbow. Either way I personally have no issue - the colour glow in either case is pretty brilliant. I wouldn't mind seeing some very, VERY subtle backgrounds in the portraits, however - and I mean DAMN subtle, like the faint outline of a pipe or something - right now the flat black seems wrong, particularly when the guys are supposed to be hooked up to something. Also wouldn't mind seeing some greebling under the skin - right now the pipes go straight into the skin, and then kind of stop. This is really obvious on the two portraits on the right. Presumably you'd be able to see stuff branching out under the skin and bone, especially if it goes through the mouth and out the jaw.

Another thing I wouldn't mind seeing, if you're up to it - maybe something similar to Meso's 'Brain-in-a-jar' for his Exigency Corporation? As in, an organ sitting in a tube hooked up to a machine that then acts as a pilot? I imagine something in that vein (and indeed the vein of the new 'heart' ship you have) for a pilot portrait would be interesting to draw, while remaining 'in character' for the faction.

...also, I have only just NOW realized that I'm using the word 'vein' a lot with regards to your beautiful work. I honestly have not been making puns.

Kaucukovnik

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 39
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #18 on: March 29, 2017, 04:53:03 AM »

Hi everyone! I've been distracted lately, mainly by a new GPU making more demanding games playable. Still, advancements have been made.

Current pilot roster:


And the fleet:

The titty frigate still needs more detail and definition, especially the face. I'm quite happy with the skull frigate though.
The screaming plane is a bomber and the one with the tongue is a fighter. Some beam weapon is planned for the latter, preferably resembling the tongue extending further.
Every skull and face will be upside down in some situations, so I shouldn't overdo it with them.

Another idea is giving at least some of the ships hull/armor auto-regen that consumes crew. The next SS release won't have crew experience levels, so this should be manageable, both coding and gameplay wise. It should probably stop at skeleton crew or slightly above.

Regarding the colors, I'll most likely go for 2 options. I think it's totally worth the time swapping the sprites.
Logged

BuckCake

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 32
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2017, 09:15:54 AM »

Another idea is giving at least some of the ships hull/armor auto-regen that consumes crew.
I like this part a lot.
Logged

AxleMC131

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1722
  • Amateur World-Builder
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #20 on: March 29, 2017, 02:22:35 PM »

Man, these are freaky but hella-cool. They remind me of that weird derelict horseshoe-esk ship from Prometheus (from the Alien franchise).
Logged

King Alfonzo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • -- D O C T O R --
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #21 on: March 29, 2017, 05:40:47 PM »

Hi everyone! I've been distracted lately, mainly by a new GPU making more demanding games playable. Still, advancements have been made.

YISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Really digging the portraits now that you've gotten that bloated, pipes-running-through-flesh feeling. Really digging the far left ones. Also - just noticed the visors were safety pins - now the geometry of the spikes makes more sense to me. The lighting colours seem to be a bit at odds with the feel of the faction though. I can dig far left, middle and second from the right, but the bluegreen and staight purple/pink doesn't really work for me.

I like the edges of the carrier now that you've defined the bulgy veins on it. Looks much meatier.

I'm digging the skull frigate, but the teeth are bothering me a little bit. If the outline were instead a dark grey instead of black, it'd make the top part of the skull look more connected to the bottom. Also the shading just above the eye sockets could be a little brighter, unless the sockets are supposed to be poking out like goggles. Also that platform sticking out of the right feels a bit too flimsy; if there was circuitry or veins running beneath the bars, or the bars were thicker, I think it'd look less flimsy.

I can't really weigh in on the feminine one; the mouth is really sticking out to me, but as you've said your working on it. It's shaping up to be a very nice little frigate though. Just needs those railings to be a bit meatier. On refection, it reminds me of a certain, strange japanese PlayStation game, where you're a flying naked man shooting strange biomechanical photoshops. Might be worth checking out for more oh god what inspiration.

In both of the frigates, they could use a bit of softening on the lines; they seem a bit too crisp, especially on the highlights. Maybe a bit of bluring on them could soften them a touch.

Really digging trhe skull fighters / bombers. Why on earth no one thought to do this before is a mystery.

Overall, I am really enjoying watching this become reality. Top marks!

Toxcity

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 561
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #22 on: April 03, 2017, 07:12:24 PM »

The regen that consumes crew sounds pretty thematically cool. Hope to see them in game soon (hopefully before 0.8)?
Logged

Mr. Nobody

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 236
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #23 on: April 04, 2017, 08:17:32 AM »

Not bad but there is one thing that's bugging me and it's the safety pin visor.
Logged
On the left half of the Bell curve

Mesnomer

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 11
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #24 on: April 21, 2017, 07:48:24 AM »

Not bad but there is one thing that's bugging me and it's the safety pin visor.

Google "Giger safety pin" and it'll make more sense.
Logged

Takion Kasukedo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 504
  • No longer drinking (Alcohol that is)
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #25 on: April 21, 2017, 12:33:08 PM »

neat, so a reference to H.R Giger then?

That's pretty cool.
Logged
Is now able to cook a decent Creamy Salmon Pasta, amok other things.

Still loves purple. Still not skilled enough to make a mod that doesn't get that one damn error.

Kaucukovnik

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 39
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #26 on: May 05, 2017, 10:29:39 AM »

All right, since 0.8 is out, my biggest excuse for not putting the ships in game is gone. :) Trylobot's editor is excellent, so no problems there so far. But could someone code a ship system and a hullmod for me?
I have the following in mind:
Spoiler
Hullmod: Regrowth - the ship can slowly repair an amount of its hull at the cost of Crew.
System: Core Radiator - prevents flux from rising and doubles ballistics rate of fire for a short duration, accompanied by sprite animation
[close]

That's it, at least for now. I will list you as a full-fledged co-creator for those two things alone, because otherwise I'm stumped.
Logged

King Alfonzo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • -- D O C T O R --
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #27 on: May 05, 2017, 07:05:44 PM »

All right, since 0.8 is out, my biggest excuse for not putting the ships in game is gone. :) Trylobot's editor is excellent, so no problems there so far. But could someone code a ship system and a hullmod for me?
I have the following in mind:
Spoiler
Hullmod: Regrowth - the ship can slowly repair an amount of its hull at the cost of Crew.
System: Core Radiator - prevents flux from rising and doubles ballistics rate of fire for a short duration, accompanied by sprite animation
[close]

That's it, at least for now. I will list you as a full-fledged co-creator for those two things alone, because otherwise I'm stumped.


I could have a stab, but I'm working off 0.7.2 'copy-paste-despair' level of coding, so I might make a really shoddy job of it.

Hullmod: Regrowth - the ship can slowly repair an amount of its hull at the cost of Crew.

-I'll be at a loss how to do it without using Nexerellin-Levels of coding. At that point I think you'd need to make the ship be 'cheap' supplies-wise, and use console commands to remove crew as upkeep if that ship is in your fleet, but I'm not sure it's a wise thing to do - how would you account for multiple ships? That's at a level that is beyond me. An alternative would be to make the hullmod a reverse of the blast doors hullmod - instead of reducing crew deaths, it increases it, thus simulating 'spending' crew on repairs. That's significantly easier to do, but doesn't have the same impact as watching your crew numbers slowly drop over time.

System: Core Radiator - prevents flux from rising and doubles ballistics rate of fire for a short duration, accompanied by sprite animation.

-This is a lot simpler, and yet challenging. The no flux cost and double rate of fire is easily doable (although - when you mean flux from rising, do you mean from all sources, or just shooting?). The sprite animation is a bit more difficult to implement, largely because I'm a bit weak on how to control animations properly. What you have to do is make the part that animates a 'decorative' weapon, and have it built-in on your ship (Doable in Trylobot's editor). This decorative 'weapon' sprite is what you want to animate on your ship - if you want to animate the entire ship, then you are an absolute madman but assuming you don't change the size of the ship, make a turret sprite the size of your ship. For an example, look at Blackrock Drive Yard's Imaginos. The full-ship 'glow' is a single decorative waepon that covers the ship, and is set to oscillate between being there, and not being there.

This weapon will need to have multiple frames in a folder - not an animated png, but a series of frames that would make up an animated png. You need a frame (frame_0) that is visible in the campaign layer and when the ship system is inactive. Then, when the system activates, you switch the animation from frame_0 to frame_1 - > frame_x in a loop. When the system is done, you code it to go back to frame_0 and fixing it there again. I suggest that the animation sync up with the length of time that the system is active, although that can be carried out on the coding end. Alternatively the animation could continuously run, except slow when the ship system is inactive, quicker if the ship system is active, and stopping when the ship dies.

Having the actual ship sprite itself animate...I'm not sure it's possible to do. Heck, that's why Diable's transforming ships are not the actual ship sprite shifting - it's a bunch of decorative weapons animating around it / using coding wizardry to change turret offests and facings and oh god why did I even look into this holy crap Tarteflette you absolute MADMAN. SERIOUSLY. How on EARTH did you figure this out!?

An alternative is to try out coding yourself, poking through other people's mods, seeing how they did it, getting IntelliJ and using Kazi's tutorial here.

Kaucukovnik

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 39
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #28 on: May 06, 2017, 04:31:38 AM »

Thanks for your response. It would be great to get at least one of these two working.

At that point I think you'd need to make the ship be 'cheap' supplies-wise, and use console commands to remove crew as upkeep if that ship is in your fleet
I had repairs during combat in mind, I didn't make that clear enough. Could be extended outside combat too, as I think of it.

Quote
when you mean flux from rising, do you mean from all sources, or just shooting?
I suppose flux-free shooting would be fine. All sources would be nice, but a lot more difficult, I suppose.
I intend the ships to punch above their weight, similar to Templars.

I should have made the animation part clearer too. It's exactly what you described that I need to plop my animation in. Nothing as fancy as Tartiflette does, just a bunch of frames at static coordinates. Ping-pong functionality would be handy to save on identical turning on/turning off frames.
Logged

King Alfonzo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • -- D O C T O R --
    • View Profile
Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« Reply #29 on: May 06, 2017, 04:53:37 AM »

I had repairs during combat in mind, I didn't make that clear enough. Could be extended outside combat too, as I think of it.

For hull regen - that's doable. Exig had a script that did it, there was a skill that used to do it, and Silent Armada does something similar, so it's possible. I reckon a hullmod that causes constant regen, but increases crew loss due to hull damage might be a good direction to take...but I'll have to ask a question on the megathread to check whether this is a direction to go in. Regenerating armour, though, is an absolute bastard - just one glance at the Regen armour on the Imaginos was enough to make me break out in sweat.

I suppose flux-free shooting would be fine. All sources would be nice, but a lot more difficult, I suppose.
I intend the ships to punch above their weight, similar to Templars.

Flux free shooting - done. Pretty easy actually, there's (for some reason) a hullmod in the starsector code that literally does this. By simply plugging that into the Ammo Feeder ship system, you have a shipsystem wherer no flux is created from firing weapons, and firing rate of ballistics is doubled. When the system turns off, everything returns to normal. Do you need energy weapons to also shoot faster as well? Wasn't quite sure on that, but I believe that, too, is possible. All I'd need is to know how the animation sequence is set out, and I could probably send something in your general direction to use. As for flux-raised on shielded hits...I'm not sure I would even WANT to touch that. The easy solution is to drop any sort of damage to shields to 0, thus preventing flux raising but...a fluxless shield is completely broken, no which ways around it, especially if you're shooting flux-free through it.

I should have made the animation part clearer too. It's exactly what you described that I need to plop my animation in. Nothing as fancy as Tartiflette does, just a bunch of frames at static coordinates. Ping-pong functionality would be handy to save on identical turning on/turning off frames.

Kind of like the Morpheus in Black Rock Drive Yards, I imagine? That oscilates between the imaginos glow and a black sprite, giving it that pulsing glow effect. What exactly did you have in mind for the animation?
Pages: 1 [2] 3