Ship Decal Design

I know that this is something that might not be planned at the moment, but it has been requested many times. So, I was thinking that we ought to have a submission process for clean insignias, so we can create a library of at least 50 or so insignias, hopefully many more for use on our ships. Obviously, some would be reserved for specific Guild use, like the Itani Alliance insignia would be exclusive to members of the IA. Also, specific fighter wings would be able to have their own dedicated insignia.

I’ve created some for this project. A few of them are blatant rip-offs of other things, like Star Wars and StarCraft, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling on creating a library of insignias. I’ve formatted mine all at 64*64 pixels, which is what I would expect would be the optimum size for this. These are all .gif files, except for one .jpg. However, for ingame use, I would expect that we would have to format them .tga with transparency in the alpha channel.

Also, this will allow those people who want to contribute, but lack the ability/training to create 3D models for ingame use. Insignias can be created using pretty much any image editing program out there. Here are a few links to free image editors:

GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP): http://www.gimp.org/
GIMP Shop (Photoshop-like interface version of GIMP): http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241
Graphic Converter: http://www.graphic-converter.net/

Anyways, here are my “random” insignias:

Rebel Insignia (Star wars) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Rebel.gif
Imperial Insignia (Star wars) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/imperial.gif
The Cheat (Homestar Runner) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/TheCheat.gif
USSR Insignia http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/sickelhammer.gif
My copy of the Sons Of Korhall, Starcraft http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Whip.gif
I uh, “borrowed” a few from Freespace 2:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Pirate.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/LuckySevens.gif

My own creations:
Suicide King (how cool would that be? :P ): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/KingofHearts.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/RAWR.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Chevrons.gif
Reserved for IA: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/IA.jpg

I’ll upload a .zip archive of all the .TGA files for these later.

Have fun. :)

I could go crazy designing multiple decals. But.

I talked with someone a while ago briefly about this (I forget who, probably the effects of the tequila), and as I recall it could easily be done BUT hadn't been done yet because all the "decals" in use would need to load in every sector. I guess that's not a HUGE deal, but imagine when things get going and Vendetta regularly has 50-100 ships in-sector at a time, each with a different decal? 50 X 5K per decal is 250KB, an extra 2 seconds to load every sector?

If everyone makes their own decal (and of COURSE everyone will want their own decal), then the game performance might suffer.

But if there is a gatekeeper-like person responsible for approving the decals, then I am all for it. It will probably have to be standardized to be 256 colors, under 5KB in size, etc. Then players could choose from a library of decals available for use.

I LOVE this idea, although I have a feeling that the devs will love it less.

Maybe if we limited it to guild decals.

I'd be all for Guild & Fighter wing decals. For instance, the IA might create a fighter wing and a bomber wing, and I'd love to be able to have decals based on this.

For instance:

Itani Alliance 77th Division Fighter Wing
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/LuckySevens.gif

Anyways, I think that this would allow us to be proud of our ships and accomplishments, particularly if you're part of an accomplished fighter/bomber wing. Perhaps a small number of insignias would be available for non-guild members to designate their mecenary, trader, miner status, etc. This would limit the different decals required to load.

Leber! Get workin' already! :P

In some IRC chats we've pretty much decided that decals would be useful for bigger ships, not fighters, as it would be more visible and you wouldn't have to go "Oh what's that blotch of pixels?"

What if Decals were an in-game reward similar to our medals (what if the medals were decal options?)

As you progress through the game you are given additional options for decals based on what you do, missions you complete, factions/guilds you join, etc etc.

A new player would only have a few decal options, one for his/her nation, maybe a few generic decals that everyone can use.

As missions are completed and badges are earned they become availible as decals. Joining NPC organizations would have the same effect.

Each guild could potentially have its own decals (maybe 2 to 5 per guild as a reasonable limit), created by the guild commander and submitted to the devs for inclusion in the client.

Since all the decals would be availible on every client the loading info would only need to include a reference number of some sort. a single variable appended to the ship info would suffice.

once every few weeks the devs could release a patch that updates the decal library, adding in the new guild decals and such.

I was thinking of something a little less intricate, such as our logo (w/o the words):

http://www.itanialliance.com/forums/templates/Aeolus/images/logo_phpBB.gif

nuthou5e: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/IA.jpg

Suicidal Lemming: I think it would still add to individuals pride in *their* ships. If a player has a cool logo on their ship, and assuming the player sees it every once in a while, they *will* like their ship more, in the same way as if we were able to name our ships. However, decals are much more easy to control the content than ship names. The other day, I saw on the "active players" list a character named "Sonovavich". If you don't get it, try saying it aloud. ¬_¬

I like Spellcast's ideas though. However, I think that the *guild members* should design the insignias, rather than the commader, particularly in IA. :P

I would rather have decals than medals painted to my ship thoug, Spellcast. Maybe medals would unlock decals, or something along those lines.

Like, for example, for every 25 serco killed, you get a broken cyborg skull painted on the side of your ship. (Like fighters downed in WW II, or bombing runs completed)
Or, for mining runs completed, or trade runs finished. Whatever.

Hell, I'd like to custom-wrap my Valkyrie Rune with a "LeberMac Special" paintjob, but I doubt that could be feasible.

I think that we could probably submit the graphics to smittens, Professor Seldon. In a month or two he might get around to doing something about submitting them... Hehe

/me runs and hides

For the bandwidth issue, if the decal library was included in the client, it wouldn't add much to the bandwidth requirement, just a byte or two per ship in the sector when the sector loads. But, any new decal submissions would need a client update before they would be available (not too bad a thing, IMO).

Well just give me a while Warthog or Atlas with either: a red blood splatter logo, or a red bullseye :P

Why not just come up with designs that can be used and let the player choose the color. For instance, if IA wanted to, they could have regular members with blue insignias, an elite squadron with black insignias, and so on. This would be similar to what they did in Myth: The Fallen Lords.

Of course, if there turns out to be an issue with graphical info load times, providing individuals with the capability to turn off the ability to see the decals would solve that lickity split. See Microsoft's Mechwarrior IV series for an example (yes, M$ actually did something right).

So uh, let's see some insignias people!

C'mon now....

http://homepage.mac.com/ctishman/sercologo.jpg <--Legion of Serco logo
http://homepage.mac.com/ctishman/sercologo_large.jpg <--Larger Version

Along Spellcast's idea, what if at like 500 kills or when someone does all the prospecting missions (ie something tough for a combat-er or something tough for a peaceful person) then they can submit a decal. Or, just do what Spellcast said. I think as long as the devs took imput in the decal library people would be okay without "[insert name here] RULZ" painted on all their ships.

However, I do think guilds should get AT LEAST 1 custom decal in any case, but the guild should have to have X members to keep someone from making a guild just to get a custom decal. I personally would be happy with 3 (for IA this is Hostile, Peaceful, and Leadership) decals.

And Seldon, I would of course take submissions from all IA. I might not be the best at creating images but I sure as hell can doctor a photo if you give me a copy of Photoshop 7 or up (I love CS)

I was messing with you. :P We all know that you're fair enough to take submissions, fearless leader.