QUOTE (Templar98921 @ Aug 9 2010, 07:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's interesting, because I found them vastly more interesting without sound, and I have a tendancy to mute all the sounds effects in Shattered Horizon and other games taking place in space, including EV Nova.

I don't. I have physical difficulty processing multiple inputs if they all use the same of my five senses, which is one of the reasons I don't drive a car. Instead, I use a motorcycle, wherein I can hear and feel in addition to using my eyes. (Funny thing: my motorcycle is actually older than I am.) In gaming, I once badly lost a round of StarCraft because there weren't speakers on the computer I was using; for the next round I put on a pair of headphones and did much better.

As far as in-game music is concerned, the only way that I know of with the Nova architecture is to use a Pxxx expression to play an SND resource, as Pace did in Arpia II.

However, DarthKev's suggestion (play iTunes or Windows Media Player or whatever in the background) would work just fine on Windows.

This post has been edited by StarSword : 11 August 2010 - 11:41 AM

Yes and no. My old laptop used to get royally screwed up trying to run Nova and iTunes at the same time. The sound resources would get scratchy and once, even got corrupted. My new computer doesn't seem to have that problem. It's not just hardware, though. My best friend, who has a very zippy quad-core PC and 16 gigs of memory, can't run iTunes or WMP in the background without having sound issues.

And I just wouldn't worry about it. The entire EV series never had background music, and you really don't need it - other ships are always going around blowing each other up and other sounds are happening. I usually turn down/off background music on games anyway- the only one that I've played that had worthwhile music was Warcraft II.

Maybe we just need a new EV engine, so that we can have all these features without the headache.

I'd personally enjoy an Ares style zoom function.

I was doing some more work on audio, cleaning up (or dirtying) the Electromag sound, and decided I should create some sort of an outfit model to match it.

This is by no means final, but it does match the approximate style I intend to use for the outfitter pictures.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 11 2010, 08:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was doing some more work on audio, cleaning up (or dirtying) the Electromag sound, and decided I should create some sort of an outfit model to match it.

This is by no means final, but it does match the approximate style I intend to use for the outfitter pictures.

Oooh pretty, and you know, it also looks like it could be a ship itself. Delphi all your things are super awesome!

QUOTE (StarSword @ Aug 12 2010, 12:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

However, DarthKev's suggestion (play iTunes or Windows Media Player or whatever in the background) would work just fine on Windows.

Works fine on my old TiBook, too.

Also, that outfit style looks awesome. Use it.

That rendering style is pretty slick, is it straight sketchup output?

And if you're looking for some friendly criticism/suggestion, I'd say you could make it better by changing the background from black to either dark or light blue (think steel blue) with blueprints on it. Not necessarily blueprints of this weapon, maybe just a generic background for everything - like a grid or something. All faded out appropriately of course.

QUOTE (Meaker VI @ Aug 12 2010, 08:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That rendering style is pretty slick, is it straight sketchup output?

And if you're looking for some friendly criticism/suggestion, I'd say you could make it better by changing the background from black to either dark or light blue (think steel blue) with blueprints on it. Not necessarily blueprints of this weapon, maybe just a generic background for everything - like a grid or something. All faded out appropriately of course.

That's actually the ultimate goal of the entire thing. It's like you can read minds, or something. I just haven't yet created a suitable outfit background. I was considering a sort of circuitry background.

Each outfit will actually have specialized icons that denote its function when in thumbnail view in the outfitter. General ship systems (communications, sensor improvements, etc.) will have a small "SYS" marker in the thumbnail corner, while weapons will be denoted by "WPN". The color of the outfit image will denote the nationality of its origin. NDC items will be steel blue, Enclave equipment will be purple, and independent outfits will be a strong cyan.

For instance, this is another mock-up of an outfit concept image, though I think it's just a little too saturated right now. This would be an independent/universal upgrade available to all governments, probably a sensor device of some sort. I still haven't decided particularly what it is.

Though it's really bright right now, I think that the high contrast really gives it a holographic sort of feeling. I'll of course clean it up further and decide on a final process which will be applied to every single outfit image, but for now this is where it's at.

Oh, and yes, that's just a shot straight from SketchUp. Granted, its been put through photoshop, inverted, bloomed, contrasted, and filtered; but yes, the original was just a SketchUp 2D image.

Delphi, you do know EVN only allows one outfit image per outfit, right? EVN uses the same image for the large Outfitter image and the thumbnail image. If you put the little 'SYS' or 'WPN' markers as you say, but large enough to be read in the thumbnail, they will be in the large image and unusually large themselves. I'd suggest putting the markers on a second line in the outfit's name, surrounded by dashes like so: - SYS -

The dashes will give the markers the dimmer text color as selected by you in the cölr resource while the outfits name on the first line will have the brighter color. Same as the 'used' ships in stock EVN.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 12 August 2010 - 03:27 PM

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 12 2010, 02:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Delphi, you do know EVN only allows one outfit image per outfit, right? EVN uses the same image for the large Outfitter image and the thumbnail image. If you put the little 'SYS' or 'WPN' markers as you say, but large enough to be read in the thumbnail, they will be in the large image and unusually large themselves. I'd suggest putting the markers on a second line in the outfit's name, surrounded by dashes like so: - SYS -

The dashes will give the markers the dimmer text color as selected by you in the cölr resource while the outfits name on the first line will have the brighter color. Same as the 'used' ships in stock EVN.

I just came to that realization, when I cracked open the Nova files and discovered there aren't specifically any thumbnails. Your idea is better, and ultimately easier, too.

You could probably work it into the background somehow, but he's right, the "\n" and "/n" trick works just as well. I don't remember which is which, but one just splits the line and the other splits and dims it.

If you were to keep that outfit, I would think it would be either (as suggested) a sensor device, or even a space mine. Just a thought...

This is getting more toward the realm of general acceptance and quality. Still not perfect, but it's a decent start toward something interesting.

The escape pod.

Unlike the single-person pods in EV Nova, the lifeboats in the Delphi universe are designed to carry larger numbers of people, up to twenty per pod on larger vehicles. Occupants are seated around the periphery of the unit in locking restraint harnesses, a fair bit like the pods seen in Alien: Resurrection. However, while those pods were designed for extraordinarily short anticipated operational periods, the Delphi standard escape pod carries most of the basic systems required for long-term maintenance of human life. However, they are by no means comfortable. There is only enough room for a person to remain seated, with no standing space save it be in the primary entry tunnel/hatch. The vast majority of the pod's structure is filled with atmosphere processors and IV-administerable nutrient/calorie fluid suspensions, capable of keeping its crew alive for approximately three or four weeks. The atmosphere within the pod cannot be maintained at completely breathable levels for extended periods of time, and if the pod is not collected within about three days time the crew must put on respiration masks, connect themselves to the life support system, and enter an artificial coma while the pod's limited systems keep them barely alive and breathing. Reawakening of an occupant is not recommended during this time, as the respirator is only capable of maintaining low levels of oxygen flow, and removal of the mask would result in the inhalation of a near-toxic carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Yeah, life in en escape pod pretty much royally sucks. It's in your best interests to get rescued in a timely manner. At the start of the Delphi story line, suffice it to say that you weren't, and you rotted as a slowly dying coma patient for the better part of five months, while your pod's failing power systems tried their hardest to scrub the carbon dust from your lungs and keep your blood at least moving throughout your body, even though your heart stopped pumping only a few months into your trip through hell.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 12 2010, 11:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you rotted as a slowly dying coma patient for the better part of five months, while your pod's failing power systems tried their hardest to scrub the carbon dust from your lungs and keep your blood at least moving throughout your body, even though your heart stopped pumping only a few months into your trip through hell.

Or you could build in safety protocol that only saved a select fraction of the crew if there was any question of reaching port safely, that would save you and maybe your favorite buddy too.

QUOTE (oryhara @ Aug 12 2010, 09:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or you could build in safety protocol that only saved a select fraction of the crew if there was any question of reaching port safely, that would save you and maybe your favorite buddy too.

But who decides who's more important? And if the pod itself decides (say by rank) then what if the other passengers decide to kill the ones selected to be saved so they can survive? Forget 'trip through hell', your idea would introduce escape pod occupants to hell's mother.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 12 2010, 11:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But who decides who's more important? And if the pod itself decides (say by rank) then what if the other passengers decide to kill the ones selected to be saved so they can survive? Forget 'trip through hell', your idea would introduce escape pod occupants to hell's mother.

It does make for a wonderfully dystopian escape pod history, though. Perhaps mention can be given of previous prototypes that followed a selective method, and resulted both in occupant deaths as well as pre-launch mutinies.

Heh, that escape pod idea sounds wonderfully twisted.

Those outfit pictures look tight, they remind me a little of the rEV outfit pictures.

Also have you thought about what your going to do with the target pictures?

QUOTE (Sp3cies @ Aug 14 2010, 05:44 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh, that escape pod idea sounds wonderfully twisted.

Those outfit pictures look tight, they remind me a little of the rEV outfit pictures.

Also have you thought about what your going to do with the target pictures?

I noticed that the majority of Nova's target pictures were pretty because of their little isometric icons, but ultimately it seemed to defeat the desired idea behind bringing a vessel's stats up on your viewer, so the Delphi target pictures will likely more closely resemble the technical readouts from EVC and EVO. I won't have all the little annotations, but I will probably provide a sort of traced wireframe much like the outfit pictures. Also, a lot of the ships are very easily identifiable by their profile, whereas a scan-lined isometric target picture may make some ships difficult to single out with just the image alone. When you change targets from a freighter to one of those upright Enclave cruisers, it should hopefully be very distinct and recognizable.