Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: jacobgr43 on May 21, 2012, 01:44:55 AM

Title: Painting
Post by: jacobgr43 on May 21, 2012, 01:44:55 AM
Anyone else think it would be cool if we could paint our ships and add decals?
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: BillyRueben on May 21, 2012, 07:44:01 AM
Yeah, evidently:

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1116.0
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=2191.0

So, yeah, I think plenty of people would like to be able to customize colors. I'm sure it's been talked about by the devs, it is probably just low on the priority list (if it is on the list to begin with).
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: jacobgr43 on May 21, 2012, 10:59:12 AM
i'd love to be able to add a personal touch to my favorite ships
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: NikolaiLev on May 21, 2012, 02:54:13 PM
I hate to be the odd one out, but honestly I wouldn't gain much from it.  But if it was in I'd probably make use of it, though I'd prefer to put some preset decals on it since I'm not much of an artist.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Wyvern on May 21, 2012, 02:57:41 PM
Huh.  And here I was looking forward to a suggestion about specialized beam weapons that would make your missiles track better.  Oh, well.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Archduke Astro on May 21, 2012, 03:29:35 PM
The perils of ambiguity, eh? ;)
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: hadesian on May 24, 2012, 12:28:15 PM
I would like to paint ship names on...

And why do stealth ships have their names painted onto their exteriors? Like the SSV Normandy?
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: WKOB on May 24, 2012, 12:42:47 PM
Because if you can read the name on the damned hull I'd imagine you're past the the point of espionage.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Upgradecap on May 24, 2012, 01:44:16 PM
Because if you can read the name on the damned hull I'd imagine you're past the the point of espionage.

If color emits radiation which would screw enemy sensors off.......

I'd say it's a win! :D
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: David on May 26, 2012, 10:28:21 PM
We investigated an approach to this very early in development that involved drawing a hull paint layer which could be coloured by code. I imagine the player would get a slider to change the hue, basically.

It was ... it was okay. To make it really work I'd have to take some personality out of the hulls, and doing an additional sprite layer for every single ship would be a bit of a pain. We handle friend vs foe identification through symbolic overlays now, as y'all of course know.

I did find the test shot I sent Alex - check this out (from July of 2010!).

(http://i.imgur.com/ync5Q.jpg)
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Upgradecap on May 27, 2012, 01:15:12 AM
Isn't it easier to just have an customly made badge on the ships? That seems a lot easier to me than making a completely new paint layer.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: WKOB on May 27, 2012, 01:34:34 AM
That looks very neat, in my opinion.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Mattk50 on May 27, 2012, 09:21:52 AM
i can see why you chose not to take that route, the ships aren't really made for it except for stuff like the gemeni and the apogee with their blue/orange lines.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: 2_Wycked on May 27, 2012, 09:35:44 AM
Looks great to me. But from what little I understand of spriting, I can totally understand you not wanting to do more of it.

For the record, though, I thought those color lines looked pretty sweet.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Sunfire on May 27, 2012, 10:57:49 AM
I think decals on larger ships would be cool
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Psiyon on May 27, 2012, 11:07:57 AM
...and doing an additional sprite layer for every single ship would be a bit of a pain. We handle friend vs foe identification through symbolic overlays now, as y'all of course know.
I don't really see why it would be that much of a pain. Sure, it would take a little time to paint up the alpha channels on the sprites, but assuming you leave out fighters (where color changes wouldn't be very noticeable), you'd only have about 35 ships to edit. And as for friend vs foe identification, I figure that this customization option would really only be used by the player, and maybe minor factions. It would be purely visual fluff, not something used to determine who your enemy is.

Not saying you should spend time on it though--honestly I really don't care either way. But this would probably be the easiest to implement of all ship customization suggestions I've seen so far, as badges/flags/decals would require you to make room for them on each sprite, as well as ship names.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: hadesian on May 27, 2012, 11:33:18 AM
...and doing an additional sprite layer for every single ship would be a bit of a pain. We handle friend vs foe identification through symbolic overlays now, as y'all of course know.
Surely the ships have IFF transponders...
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: mostmodest on January 20, 2013, 07:46:20 AM
Isn't it easier to just have an customly made badge on the ships? That seems a lot easier to me than making a completely new paint layer.

I agree with that suggestion. Maybe some sort of badge designer when you create a character (choose from presets, make your own pattern, choose a color, etc.) the Pirates, Hegemony and Tri-Tach only have simple ones, to save some time on the Dev's part.
Title: Re: Painting
Post by: Gothars on January 20, 2013, 08:06:37 AM
Isn't it easier to just have an customly made badge on the ships? That seems a lot easier to me than making a completely new paint layer.

I agree with that suggestion. Maybe some sort of badge designer when you create a character (choose from presets, make your own pattern, choose a color, etc.) the Pirates, Hegemony and Tri-Tach only have simple ones, to save some time on the Dev's part.

Please do not respond to very old threads unless you have something very substantial to add. This topic was brought up just three days ago here (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=5422.0) (I assume that's where you found the link), that is a perfectly fine place to discuss this. 

Locked.