Forums » General

Fedirocs Image posting and discussion thread

Jun 18, 2008 Fediroc link
So I can imagine the only people more irritated by the multiple active threads than me are you guys. So here is my attempt to rectify this: An image dump thread! Let the other threads die.

First Centurion remodel:
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn163/Fediroc/Alpha4D.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn163/Fediroc/Alpha4C.jpg

Second Centurion remodel:
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn163/Fediroc/altcent3.jpg

Warthog remodel:
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn163/Fediroc/Hog2.jpg

Pirate Station:
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn163/Fediroc/rat1.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn163/Fediroc/rat2.jpg

Yes, something not inspired by something not already in the game. Original content, if you will. The idea started as me thinking about how bad a collision with a station would be on docking approach. One thing led to another, and here we are. It's going to keep expanding, but I'm intentionally doing it in stages. Hopefully that'll give it the "haphazardly increased" look, with different styles for each stage.
Jun 18, 2008 upper case link
first, you have to understand the futility of proposing any ships or whatnot as the devs never had the time/energy/balls to introduce anything player-suggested, in that area.

not their fault, really. and players did have nice suggestions in the past too. but there are imperatives keeping the devs from doing so at the moment.

as for your models, they're nice. in fact, your cent suggestion is rather cool given it's been surface-painted as well. kudos for the optimism and good job.

now, here's where i get ugly.

your first cent remodel, while cool, is a bit too alien to the original model. rather than pitch this a s a remodel of the cent, i'd propose that as a new craft. much like the replacement for the wrath was.

the second remodel is rather cool and fits more the dick-from-hell that the cent can actually be in the right hands. but it seriously lacks a canopy. perhaps as a drone ship of some kind, or perhaps as-is for a teradon-sized ship (and a tiny canopy in the surface paint), then it it would be nice. very. i'd call it the forcep. in a creepy kind of way.

the warthog remodel is ok. though as other mentioned, you'd have to remove the turret out of the mesh.

the pirate station doesn't strike me as a pirate outlet. too clean and "modern" to fit the bill. perhaps as a uit conglomerate station, yeah, but not pirate. and i'd remove the sunshade at the entrance. i mean, i knew pirates are all about summer vacationing but it doesn't have to be that obvious.
Jun 18, 2008 moldyman link
You might be better off working for another project not already in production. Get in as a 3d artist, see your stuff come to life.

Just my 2 cents.
Jun 18, 2008 Fediroc link
Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts.

I probably should have included a re-cap of the ideas thrown around in the other threads, since they answer some(most?) of your concerns. Better late than never.

1: This with all likelyhood will not be in the game.
Quotes from other threads:
"Not only is there a LONG way to go before it can be considered "game-ready", I'm not saying if I'm going to be willing to do that. On their side of the fence, there is absolutely no reason they would want to work with me. So, there's very little chance of this mesh being introduced into the game without a lot of work by all parties involved."

"Very very small chance of actually seeing this in the game. Many prerequisites need to be made, and most of them have low likelyhoods of happening."

Okay, so why should I even bother re-modeling ships, or do any modeling whatsoever? And why do I personally encourage opinions and suggestions about them?
Quotes!:

"I do this because it's -fun- to create ship meshes. And it's -fun- to create ship meshes based upon a polycount that a a certain game needs. And it's -fun- to re-create ships from a game that I enjoy.

The best I can reasonably ask for is that I can re-model all the ships, get a ton of ideas and opinions from the playerbase, and WHEN they get around to re-modeling their own ships, they'll look at these threads and take inspiration from my art molded by your opinions.

I also reasonably demand a cookie."

"Some may ask, why do it? Real, honest discussion about what the player want and a visualization of it -may- help the next artist working for guild, or at least give them a few ideas."

"Why do I model this way, with the interfacing with THIS playerbase? To give YOU guys the opportunity to show the devs what style of art you'd like to see in this game once they decide to revamp the graphics."


Now that that's out of the way, your other very valid points.

The first Centurion is better suited for... something else. That's a horse beat to death, and I've come to agree. I only call it the first Centurion remodel since I've got a ton of files with that naming convention, and people who've been following this understand the reference.

The second remodel is nowhere near complete. It doesn't even have a skin yet. I estimate that I've spent - maybe - a total of three sit-down hours on the thing(which is a lot for a mesh and UV map), while the first Centurion(which is also unfinished, pending a decision on what it's going to be after all. call it 85% done) has taken about seven sit-down hours. That said, the canopy will be taken care of. That entire bit that hangs from the top structural bar? All cockpit. I've been thinking of a rutan-eque setup for the viewports, but I'll have to see. Part of the reason is because I started seeing the signs of burn-out dealing with the hellatious UV map.

But wait! Your opinion may still be very valid about the size issue. The current mesh is simply a re-imagined mesh of mine from about, what? six years ago? That first mesh was a corvette-sized ship, so I may have some lingering preconceptions about that shape. It'll be wait-and-see until at least the bumpmap is done.

Warthog, as mentioned before, will have multiple variants. The one you guys will mostly be interested in is the one that has generic gunports. But development of the two BFG versions will continue. Why? Because I like big guns on small ships. Sue me.

The pirate station is in a very, very early stage. About an hour in(very early for scale of project) including sketches. I fully intend to add about twice the amount(or more) of polys currently represented, and most of that will be in additional attached constructs of differing styles. In short, it'll look like a spaceborne shantytown by the time I'm done. Think spaceship skeletons and burnt-out hulls retrofitted as offices.

Moldyman: Thanks! I've already seen some of my stuff come to life, and it's amazing to watch. My work is all available for purchase by any studio that so wants it unless it gets submitted. Right now, the only places I can see this stuff going is either in a VegaStrike mod, or submitted to Infinity: Quest for Earth.
Jun 18, 2008 MSKanaka link
The other issue that some people haven't mentioned is the IP/copyright crap.

If you submit a design/model/whatever to Guild and they decide to put it in the game, they will not do so unless you forfeit all IP/copyrights to them (obviously you'd be mentioned in the Credits page on the login window) for various legal reasons.

It's outlined somewhere on the PCC agreement, I think. (I'll look after I grab lunch and paste whatever is relevant, if I find anything.)
Jun 18, 2008 Fediroc link
Yeah, I saw that. Part of the reason I say that there's many prerequisites that must be met by both sides. Just another reason not to expect to see my stuff flying around around Deneb.
Jun 18, 2008 genka link
Here's another question: why is this in general?
You should have put this in community projects, with the rest of the "OMG LOOKZ HOW AESUM I IS" threads.
Jun 18, 2008 Fediroc link
It was said that such posts usually go in general(contests being a strange exclusion), so I went with that.
Jun 18, 2008 moldyman link
Fediroc, curious, what's the IP/copyright policy of Infinity? Do people just submit stuff for free, expecting nothing in return? Personally, i can see a lot of angry burned people *if* it gets released as Pay to Play and they get no cut.

And if you want to contact me, my email is MonkofAkan (at) gmail (dot) com.
Jun 18, 2008 Sraer link
/me likes pirate station
Jun 18, 2008 LeberMac link
I like the pirate station, but I don't see what's so "Pirate" about it. Where's the massive external tequila storage tank, the pirate flag, the parrot, and the sharp pointy things that we can shoot at Vipers... I mean miscreants... that might stop by?

And yeah, Fediroc - nice exercises in rendering. But unless you've previously consulted with guild sw, these might not make it in-game. Don't get antsy to see their inclusion in the next update.
Jun 18, 2008 Whistler link
He's aware. I quoted Incarnate about the difficulties of incorporating player-made art into the game in another thread.
Jun 19, 2008 Fediroc link
Staer/LeberMac: Thanks! Trust me, it'll look a lot more pirate-y by the time I'm done. And leber: while I have a tequila tank planned, it's not nearly as large as the rum tank.

Whistler: Thanks. If anything, I think inc understated the difficulties of working with a playerbase for content.
Jun 19, 2008 Sraer link
*Sraer jumps in the rum tank, but gets sucked out by the vacuum of space...