Ok should probably check back in before this thread gets out of hand. Originally these were simply done as practice so I could try out different lighting techniques and improve my spriting. Some of the vanilla sprites (the Condor and Apogee) do appear very flat, which is why I chose them first. I just kind of figured, "hey someone else might be interested in these," and decided to post them here. Perhaps the original language may have been a bit blunt, but I think there is always room for improvement and it really helps to have other people go through one's work and fix the things they have issues with. I, for one, generally learn a lot by watching what other people do to my sprites.
Although the vanilla sprites do have a distinctive style, some look much better than others. If we are being honest, the Heron and many of the high tech ships blow others like the Condor straight out of the water. Additionally, many of the mods here use much more lighting and look "better" than the original sprites (yes, I said it.). Not to put Cycerin on the spot here, but his mod is an example of what I wished the vanilla sprites looked like (keptin's new iFed ships are quite beautiful as well). In fact, I would even go as far as saying that the vanilla weapons and effects make many vanilla ship sprites look out of place (the weapons and effects look almost 3D, whereas some of the ships are undeniably flat). That said, I'm constantly editing my stuff and trying to learn how to put in the level of detail that David does for each of his sprites. The engines/wiring/greebly bits look absolutely amazing on the vanilla ships.
Rather than simply whine on the forums about how I thought the devs "had to do _____ and ______ or this game will suck" (this seems to be a common theme on these forums, people giving nothing but negative feedback and/or demanding features), I just went through and made the changes I wanted myself. These sprites were made to better fit in with modded factions, which are much more colorful and have a different style of lighting for the most part.
Here's a comparison of several long skinny cruisers (in no particular order). You are free to come to whatever conclusions you want to.
On the actual sprites themselves, I simply added a bit of general highlighting and shading, and traced along the edges of panels/details, etc. with more pronounced lighting effects to get them to look more 3D. The Venture and Mule admittedly need a bit of tweaking, added saturation seems to be a major side effect of my shading methods on colored sprites. I can always go back through and improve things to suit people's tastes.
Again, if you don't like them, don't use them. Let's all try and remember that this is a videogame.
Especially this guy. He takes himself a little too seriously.
I find calling this "fix" incredible rude...
Don´t worry, it is not on your behalf, this is completly from my own initiative. I completly understand how is "outer eye" opinion beneficial. But taking properly done sprites, calling them washed down, then "fixing them" by someone who said he doesn´t belive he is good at painting/spriting (in that case what that would mean about author of "washed down" versions) is simply painful to watch.
But well, I will let it be.
Do you always flame modders who try to make graphics mods? Like do you ever see people on the Steam forums bashing people who make new ENB series or improved models for Skyrim? Just becomes it ships with the game doesn't mean it's necessarily the be-all-end-all best graphics ever. In a similar fashion, I would say that there are probably many improvements I could make to my "improvements." In fact, why don't you take a stab at making a graphics mod? You seem to be quite the expert in that regard.
If you have any criticisms (yes, I'll fix the saturation), let's hear them! I'll try and fix them as best I can at some point.
