QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Aug 23 2010, 12:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The Alexander looks like it could eat that planet for breakfast. Seriously. Delphi, that is of epic win, though I wouldn't mind seeing it bigger. 
I'm kidding--I'm pretty sure you'll leave it as is.
Would that I could, but Nova would never forgive me. I already had to put the Alexander's graphics in a separate plug as it is. Any bigger and just the graphics for that one ship would be more than 14 MB.
I'm pretty sure the maximum resource capacity is 16 MB and even anything above 15 isn't safe. So yeah, I take it that increasing the ship's size by 5 more pixels width- and length-wise would probably make the file exceed 15 MB.
Just wondering, are you planning to use the Alexander as your përs ship?
QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Aug 23 2010, 03:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm pretty sure the maximum resource capacity is 16 MB and even anything above 15 isn't safe. So yeah, I take it that increasing the ship's size by 5 more pixels width- and length-wise would probably make the file exceed 15 MB.
Just wondering, are you planning to use the Alexander as your përs ship?
I've certainly been considering it. Then again, it may be more fun to create a custom-colored sprite for my own vessel. A red-armored Cyphus could look very cool.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 23 2010, 04:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
A red-armored Cyphus could look very cool.
Make it pink. Hot pink. Just for laughs. 
QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 23 2010, 06:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Make it pink. Hot pink. Just for laughs.
Player: "AAAAAAAAAGGHGHGHGH MY EYEEEEEES"
is owned by a random Alexander on Strict Play
Delphi strikes again
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 10:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yeah... I mean, I like the color, but perhaps no.
Once again, Photoshop proves that just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Uhhh, yep. Bad idea. Ugh-leee.
AGHAGHAGHHHHHHH I'M BLIIIIIIIIND
Ow. That... just... no. Don't even think about putting that in the TC. You'll kill everyone's eyesight.
This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 24 August 2010 - 11:26 PM
QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Aug 24 2010, 10:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
AGHAGHAGHHHHHHH I'M BLIIIIIIIIND
And that's the part whereupon I would one-shot kill you during strict play.
See how beautifully this works?
Don't worry about the color. If anything, I'd show up in a vehicle with green paint. It's my favorite color, and it doesn't show up on any of the other factions in the game.
Also, I was working a little bit on the Journeyman today, adding hull details using the parts collection. What I have looks really quite good.
Before I acquired Bryce 7, I was constrained by the fact that every ship was bound to endure the same wraparound texture over its entire body. Now that the new version allows me to go down to the individual group level, ships like the Journeyman can finally come to be, with fully detailed, beautiful hulls.
Should I paint it in standard NDC colors (it is an NDC ship...) or perhaps a pleasant silvery white?
Oh, and those large protuberances off the engine pods are sensors. I figured that the Journeyman would make a great long-range scout ship or courier, with excellent interference-cutting upgrades pre-installed.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 09:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
And that's the part whereupon I would one-shot kill you during strict play.
See how beautifully this works?
Heheh. Yes, that's a very excellent war-plan--blind the enemy and own them. Works. Every. Freaking. Time.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 09:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Don't worry about the color. If anything, I'd show up in a vehicle with green paint. It's my favorite color, and it doesn't show up on any of the other factions in the game.
It's quite hard to imagine most any ship in green, so I'm guessing that you have an insane plan in mind.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 09:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Also, I was working a little bit on the Journeyman today, adding hull details using the parts collection. What I have looks really quite good.
Should I paint it in standard NDC colors (it is an NDC ship...) or perhaps a pleasant silvery white?
Oh, and those large protuberances off the engine pods are sensors. I figured that the Journeyman would make a great long-range scout ship or courier, with excellent interference-cutting upgrades pre-installed.
That looks like an insane rendition of the Lightning. That is really cool. I'd do a side-by-side comparison regarding the paint scheme, but I think the NDC colors would look cool.
I'm guessing you'll have a firefight version that replaces the sensors with 2 Thunderhead Lance-like beams and a railgun. That would be amazingly cool.
This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 25 August 2010 - 12:56 AM
A lot to reply to here. Bear with me, this will be a long post.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 07:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I included the image just to blind everyone again.
QUOTE (StarSword @ Aug 24 2010, 08:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Uhhh, yep. Bad idea. Ugh-leee.
Agreed. Ugh -leee.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 09:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Also, I was working a little bit on the Journeyman today, adding hull details using the parts collection. What I have looks really quite good.
Yes! Finally, another glimpse of one of my favorite designs! Looks great, Delphi!
QUOTE
Should I paint it in standard NDC colors (it is an NDC ship...) or perhaps a pleasant silvery white?
I agree with manticore, we need a side-by-side comparison.
QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Aug 24 2010, 09:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
It's quite hard to imagine most any ship in green, so I'm guessing that you have an insane plan in mind.
Now you don't need to imagine it. 
QUOTE
I'm guessing you'll have a firefight version that replaces the sensors with 2 Thunderhead Lances and a railgun. That would be amazingly cool.
Uh, this is the Delphi TC , not the Delphi Add-On. It doesn't have Thunderhead Lances. Railguns are probably there (big honking artillery weapons FTW) but T-Head Lances I believe are replaced by something else.
That said, I would like to see an upgrade for the Journeyman making it somewhat combat capable. Say to the level of a gunship, maybe a light corvette depending on how you set up ship classes.
The Journeyman comes in two different flavors (variants), one fitted with ship-specific equipment for cutting through sensor interference and even scanning up to one system away, while the military transport version is outfitted with stronger guns, a light missile system, and tougher armor and shields. In that sense, I suppose you
could call it a gunship. However, there are several other NDC ships that are actually gunships by design, and perform far better. Of course, the Journeyman has a larger cargo bay than most military ships of its size, so that could always be a determining factor. That, and both the military and civilian versions unlock specific "Transport Dignitary/VIP" missions, like the passenger missions for the Starliner of Nova. These can pay either moderately, or exorbitantly. Like I said a long time ago about missions, some will be disguised as regular ones and end up putting you in all kinds of peril.
It's a hard concept to explain, so I suppose this hypothetical example describes it best:
Mission ID 1 - "Deliver Sealed Containers to <DSN>"
Player picks up cargo at start system.
Player travels to target system.
Player delivers cargo and receives pay.
Mission ID 2 - "Deliver Sealed Containers to <DSN>"
Player picks up cargo at start system.
Player travels to target system.
Player is given a notice about enemy ships jumping into the system, tracking a transponder hidden in the cargo.
Player must defeat enemies.
Player is asked by local authorities to change heading and deliver the goods to a different location for investigation.
Player travels to new destination.
Player is compensated by the authorities for delivering the goods.
While both missions are labeled the same and start the same way, you never know if you're going to choose one that takes a turn for the worse, or one that leads you off into an entire side story.
Journeyman is just nifty, Perhaps paint it both colors? White for the sensor variant and the typical NDC for the military.
as for the others, rather than the blinding Pink, perhaps try a deep Maroon or Burgandy?
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 11:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Snip
While both missions are labeled the same and start the same way, you never know if you're going to choose one that takes a turn for the worse, or one that leads you off into an entire side story.
You might want to add a "B8888" qualifier-type bit to those, unless you're planning on starting the player out in a fairly capable ship. It's be pretty lame to start out the game in an unarmed shuttle, only to take a fairly standard mission and end up dead because a whole mess of pirates jumped in to vaporize you. Maybe have missions for unarmed/lesser ships, where you end up running around quite a bit more than expected, and one for armed vessels/vessels further into the game which involves combat. And I'm hoping that these surprise missions will be relatively rare, compared to standard missions.
QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 24 2010, 10:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Uh, this is the Delphi TC , not the Delphi Add-On. It doesn't have Thunderhead Lances. Railguns are probably there (big honking artillery weapons FTW) but T-Head Lances I believe are replaced by something else.
Well, I did edit my post for correctness, but my post ended up revised later than your post.
You freaking ninja.
QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 24 2010, 11:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Also, I wouldn't say that green is such a ridiculous color. I wasn't exactly thinking of making it as strong as the pink monstrosity up there.
Agreed, that shade of green is excellent. Reminds me of EVN's Rebel ships. Come to think of it, you've never mentioned what all the different factions' paint-schemes are. You haven't even listed all the factions, period. Well, unless the NDC, Enclave, and religious zealots are the only factions in the entire game.
Who else travels the stars in the Delphi universe? What colors do they paint their ships in? What's their goal? While we all know so much about the NDC military now, we know very little about the rest of this universe you've crafted.
QUOTE (Dracheseele @ Aug 25 2010, 01:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Journeyman is just nifty, Perhaps paint it both colors? White for the sensor variant and the typical NDC for the military.
I like this idea. It makes perfect sense to me, too. Why would the NDC allow civilians to masquerade as the military by painting a civilian ship in their military colors? The military variant, however, I'm guessing would usually be flown by NDC military personnel, so the military paint-job there is a good thing.
QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Aug 25 2010, 09:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
You freaking ninja.
It's how I do.
QUOTE (Meaker VI @ Aug 25 2010, 09:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
You might want to add a "B8888" qualifier-type bit to those, unless you're planning on starting the player out in a fairly capable ship. It's be pretty lame to start out the game in an unarmed shuttle, only to take a fairly standard mission and end up dead because a whole mess of pirates jumped in to vaporize you. Maybe have missions for unarmed/lesser ships, where you end up running around quite a bit more than expected, and one for armed vessels/vessels further into the game which involves combat. And I'm hoping that these surprise missions will be relatively rare, compared to standard missions.
Yeah, don't worry about them being too frequent. They're supposed to be like a little random treat for the skilled player, or a bit of a scare for weaker ones. The payoff for a lot of them is usually going to be several times higher than the standard, routine versions of the missions, so they only come around every once in a while. I'd say perhaps once in every twenty or thirty missions. The bits will definitely be set to ensure that you're not getting wiped out right at the start of the game. The idea behind many of them is that the more of a name you slowly make for yourself, the more that several groups note you as a threat to their existence, so the missions only start showing up when you reach a certain combat rating or start flying ships large enough.
I'm hoping to write at least a good handful of specialized missions for each hull class, so that you really get a feel for what the ship was designed for. If the "Take a bag of potato chips to <DSN>" kind of light missions are being flown by both shuttles and million-ton warships all the time, it just gets boring and makes you wonder why you're flying whatever ship you have in the first place. However, if you get lots of missions specific to your hull class (alongside the usual generics, like passenger trips), my hope is that players who enjoy certain types of adventures will really learn how to use the ships that specialize in them. Some of these missions will overlap between classes, but for the most part the really rewarding/challenging ones will be specific to that ship type alone.
QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 25 2010, 10:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Agreed, that shade of green is excellent. Reminds me of EVN's Rebel ships. Come to think of it, you've never mentioned what all the different factions' paint-schemes are. You haven't even listed all the factions, period. Well, unless the NDC, Enclave, and religious zealots are the only factions in the entire game.
Who else travels the stars in the Delphi universe? What colors do they paint their ships in? What's their goal? While we all know so much about the NDC military now, we know very little about the rest of this universe you've crafted.
Ah yes, the factions of Delphi. I'll detail each side's motivations in a future post, but I can at least give you a short list of the groups and what colors they paint their ships. Colors are listed by frequency of use. The first one will be the faction's primary base color.
Nova Defense Coalition - Faded blue, grey, and black.
Enclave Colonies - White, black, and deep purple.
Pariah Combine - Grey, red, and black.
Voidspace Raiders - Assorted ships and colors.
Voidspace Mercenaries - White and navy blue.
Independent Worlds - White and grey.
Civilian Ships - Assorted ships and colors.
Shen'or - Black and electric purple/pink
True, there aren't so many completely different factions in Delphi as there are in Nova, but within each group there are countless political splinters you'll come across, and the different regions of the NDC empire are highly varied in culture and demographics.
I think the Journeyman looks great. However, if you cut off one arm, and straightened that arm out, and deleted the rest of the model, and rotated it so it was straight up and down, you could have yourself a new ship, doesn't matter what kind. Of course, it's just a suggestion.
