FYI, we're still tinkering with other types of markings for ships, including "military" markings, you can see an example in this newspost. Or.. I can also embed more directly below (Note that this "blue" color is random and not indicative of Itani or any other faction, this is just a shot from one of our internal asset tools. The patterns is the point of the shot, the colors are variable as ever).



We also have some "war-paint" style that I think might be cool for NPC pirate clans and the like, etc. They're all real-time overlays on top of existing assets, thanks to the recent engine and shader work.

Idk why you picked the other angle to show the Type-S before, this angle is badass and this makes the ship look awesome.

Very cool.

Most of these are from random shots that Curt sends me as "proofs" for approval of some content or other. So, I'm not really "posing" them, and neither is he. If they're not entirely awful, I'll sometimes re-use them as prototype shots for you guys.

Since the assets are pre-production, it would be pretty time consuming for me to put things together just to shoot a screenshot.

So these skins, they're going in as micro transactions or something? what's the implementation plan here now that you can create these?

These first rollouts will be fixed, associated with specific variants or roles in the universe. So, for instance, the default Type S will have a non-standard overlay. Then I'm hoping we'll see a lot more variability in the NPC ships.. military convoys, factional convoys, guards, etc. It may also be back-propagated to existing player variants as well, like "mixing up" the graphics a little on existing ship configs, so they don't all look the same (Superlight, Greyhound, whatever. I know at least one person who REALLY REALLY wants a pirate-themed greyhound ;).

Once we get that all working well, yes, I'd like to see it as optional skins available to subscribers, and as potential micro-transactional options for non-subscribers; people might even configure the "look" at purchase time. But we have some ground to cover first.

I know at least one person who REALLY REALLY wants a pirate-themed greyhound ;)

Hey 10k is 10k, but a skull & crossbones Hound is forever*

*Until you guys get bored and go do something else.

So in other words, this is a big teaser, I won't be able to get this awesome skin on a Type-S until soon(TM).

Evil.

I guess. I mean, I did explicitly say it was for Military ships (ie, a Military variant affiliated with a faction, under orders of that faction). If one advanced in rank in a military structure, one could theoretically command national military vessels. But I was not expecting this to be a player-usage overlay anytime soon.

Most of the other overlays are actually intended for player usage, but I'd like to differentiate other ship types as well, so all our convoys don't look alike; and so when you get into a Deneb battle, or see a Blockade, it's obviously a bit different. I was inspired by some of the old "Dazzle" ship-camo jobs of WWI (see example here)

This was just the latest image Curt had sent me, because I had already signed off on the other ones, and this last one had required another round of tweaking. I thought this last version (which I approved) was pretty cool, so.. if that's teasing, so be it :).

Well as Nationalists we append SMV or IDV respectively to our capital ships. We roleplay military wings of the Serco and Itani military. It would be good to have this kind of stuff to support nationalism. One of the off-putting factors about nationalism to players is there is no direct game support yet until the military rank system comes out. This would be a nice touch.

I always thought you would abandon the corvus capital manufacturing thing and put player capital ship manufacture in the hands of the main factions. The current implementation seems a little odd.

That WWII ship pattern is awesome.

I second the request for the ability to paint player capships with military markings. ITAN cruises around in the "IDV Retribution" all the time. :P

Awesome. Loving these updates

That's a pretty cool idea, the "Dazzle," thing. Why don't ships have that nowadays?

Because it was only really useful against visual detection. Ships have radar now and use different techniques to avoid detection.

It's like Vajazzle, but for our dents!

Sweet.

The destroyer in Inc's pic looks like a Fletcher class btw. (from WWII)

It would make them look less ugly. A grey ship is not a creative ship.

I don't think they're concerned so much about being creative rather than being harder to hit with cannons and missiles.

Different Camos per system (like maybe unlockable through local mission chains) would be dope as SHIT.

Why does everything have to be a mission?

Note that this "blue" color is random and not indicative of Itani or any other faction

It is actually a Serco stealth trident, camouflaged to be invisible in the blue-themed nebulae and HUD skins of VO

Further proof Inc's favorite color is blue.

Or maybe Curt's.