Development update:
Here's an example of Markara ships. These are done as if they were drawn by a young child.
Markara use a similar power source as the Grapen, though their tech went in a different direction. They have good shield technology, but their ships are vulnerable to Ionization, and are slightly less maneuverable than average. They have well developed energy weapons and turret technology, though they tend to be slow firing weapons.
Strict social class structure dictates what ships and weapons you can buy. Outsiders can earn ranks, but they'll have to pick a social order to join...

Starscream.jpg (19.1K)
Number of downloads: 0 Zodiac.jpg (24.1K)
Number of downloads: 0 Nova.jpg (27.51K)
Number of downloads: 19
The civilian Starstreak, freighter Zodiac, and military Nova.

EDIT: Oh, you guys have only seen one Grapen ship so far, so here's a bonus:
Enforcer.jpg (25.96K)
Number of downloads: 36
A striped down Grapen Enforcer. Notice the gaps on either side. These are fitted with various outfits, and the graphic changes based on what you buy.

This post has been edited by Desprez : 15 March 2008 - 02:58 AM

I am in love with the steam-punk guys....

But the Grapen are also so cool.

And the Wa'eks.

And the Markara.

I really looking forward to this.

I still don't have a good name for the steam-punk people.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, there is a theme behind all the names so far...

Wa'eks - Sounds kinda like wax, and they are drawn in crayons, which are waxy.
Grapen - Combination of Graph and Pen, drawn with pen on graph paper.
Markara - From Markar, which is close to marker, and they are drawn with markers.

So by that logic, I'm drawing (pun intended) a blank with the steam-punk guys drawn with thin markers on parchment.

Tharkunk? Steamen? Steamkers? Bah. They don't really work.
They all sound like something you might do in a bathroom. Ick.

This post has been edited by Desprez : 16 March 2008 - 05:46 AM

With Steamen being the least appropriate by far...

Kerpar?
Klunk?
Takatta?

Steamers use steam, water, heat and iron. They're being drawn on parchment, so... Ironment? Paron? Pyron? Iroparch?

Bleh...

I'll try to go for something with a Victorian feel....

As an informal name by which the "Steamers" (itself a derogatory term) are known by others: Put "-ists" at the end of the name of the brand of marker you used: Fisherist, Sharpists, Rotringists, Pentelists, etc.

As the formal name of their group/government: The League of Affiliated Transstellar Mechanists. The Fulton Mutual Protected Conveyance Service (Superatmospheric Branch). Somesuch.

Perhaps they're related to the Grapen.... Perhaps they're relatives who have just now struggled their way to the stars, or even time travelers who have come forward in time to foil the imperialist excesses of their own descendants?

Homeworld (where they are perhaps a minor faction, with all other governments and organizations being planet-bound): Parchia

EDIT: "Mutual," not "Mutural." :rolleyes:

This post has been edited by Dr. Trowel : 18 March 2008 - 04:07 PM

You've got some interesting ideas there Dr.
I'm probably going to end going to end up with a formal and informal name as you suggest.

Anyway, I've come up with a unique concept for the Markara weapons.
There are only a couple of basic weapons:
Fighter sized gun
Ship sized gun
Ship sized turret
PD turret
Ionization gun
and a couple of missiles

The twist is that they have a number of power-up outfits that increase the power of all the guns/turrets, and these stack on top of one another.
There are a few (I'm not telling exactly how many) and some are harder to get or find.
The Power-ups add about 25% to the current damage each time, and take up different amounts of space. Some less, some more, than a gun itself. So, the challenge becomes whether to add another gun, or a multiplier for your existing guns. This depends on how many guns you have and how much space the next power-up takes, if you want to maximize your damage-per-second-per-space.
I've laid out some spread sheets to find the transitional points, but I'm going to let the players discover them for themselves.
I'll say this though, if you max your gun slots and don't have to worry about space, you might be able to get better DPS with a different factions weapons. Whereas Markara weapons can (with the right power-ups) can get better DPS/S, leaving more room for other stuff.

On top of that, more power ups cause the guns to use more energy per shot, so that's a consideration as well.

The Nemosi? Brownie points if anyone can spot that steam-punk reference. Alternately, you could go with the Wellsi, or the Herbertians, or something a little more subtle like Jamesray. And if anyone gets THAT reference, I'll be quite impressed.

On a side note, do those propellers spin?

@belthazar, on Mar 17 2008, 08:40 AM, said in Paper TC - New Idea:

On a side note, do those propellers spin?

The samples are animated GIFs. They don't spin for you??

Question:
Can a weap use ammo AND fuel when it shoots?

@desprez, on Mar 18 2008, 08:21 AM, said in Paper TC - New Idea:

The samples are animated GIFs. They don't spin for you??

Heh, not in the thumbnail - I hadn't actually looked at the full-size image, because it wasn't much larger than the thumbnails. Gets mesmerised by the pretty spining propellors

Quote

Question:
Can a weap use ammo AND fuel when it shoots?

No. Not easily, anyway, since the field that is used to designate which resource to use as ammo is also used to designate how much fuel to use for fuel-draining weapons. That said, I'm willing to bet that someone will come along shortly with a sneaky workaround. Something involving secondary ModTypes or the ammunition. Unfortunately, nothing on that line is occurring to me at the moment.

Tin'mar. If we must use apostrophes. I think Tin¨mar would be cool, although I have no idea what "¨" when it's not on top of something.

Belthazar: I think I got everything but Jamesray. If I got Herbertian (which I first read as Herbertarian) right, it inspired me to think of the Ornithers, or something along those lines.

You don't have to use apostrophes, that was just the Wa'eks who are decidedly alien. Everybody knows you throw in random apostrophes to make a language look alien. Sci-fi 101, hehe :rolleyes:

I guess for an apostrophe you would separate the word a bit, kind of like a quick glottal stop. Not sure how I'd pronounce a naked umlaut.

Tin!Mar
Tin#Mar
Tin, Mar!
Tin(Mar)

Everything looks cool.

"Tin, Mar!" Said the Ticktockman.

Mar'Tin!