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Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sat Jan 24, 2015 11:37 pm
    • #1 by notami
    What I have seen so far is not that bad, even in the older video updates.
    Some of these ships really look good, nevertheless they are all variations
    of the same, put together from sticks and cubicles in kebab style by the
    ship generator.This is like playing EVE only with Caldari-Ships
    or Egosofts X 3 only with the Teladi race.
    Would be nice if I explore a "far from home" system, find an "alien"
    faction and not having only a speadsheet or a fancy menu telling me
    that these are supposed to be strangers.
    Hope the creator of this game will overcome this weakness of procedual ship-design.
    Post

    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:35 am
    • #2 by BFett
    If the algorithms from each monthly update were kept we'd have a dozen or so unique looking factions. I have a feeling that diverse faction ships and stations are going to be implemented sometime between beta and release. Josh has a lot of stuff finished and a good portion of other things to do before (I think) he would work on this.

    Welcome to the LT forum, I hope you enjoy your time here! 8-)
    Image
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    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:33 am
    • #3 by Victor Tombs
    Welcome to the "home" of Josh Parnell and Limit Theory, notami. :wave:

    I'm still not convinced about this algorithm stuff for giving us great looking ships and stations. I haven't seen anything yet that comes close to the ships of other games where the work is done from design concepts and human modellers. Certainly nothing that has made me very excited. More a case of "that looks better". If I compare what I'm seeing in the latest updates with the work being shown earlier in development there is an improvement but nothing jaw dropping.

    I've heard on several occasions that Josh has a new and improved, all singing and all dancing, super editor in development/developed/on the back burner but I'm not sure where it fits into the new era of RTB.

    I'm certain that ships and stations will be better and more varied in the released game but I also recognize the limitations of procedural design as it now stands so I'm preparing myself for some disappointment knowing that LT has other strengths that may far outweigh my disappointment.

    Who knows, I may be very pleasantly surprised. :P

    My favourite space game was/is Freelancer, and to be honest, the ship designs were not very impressive. ;) :angel:
    Post

    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:29 am
    • #5 by notami
    As BFett suggested keep all existing designs even the older ones available.
    Plus:
    Various surface textures
    Various surface color schemes
    Use Spheres and rounded shapes as building blocks.
    change the axis of symmetry.
    Use asymmetrical designs.

    The more diversity, the better.

    Started gaming years ago with "Tachyon-The Fringe".
    Favourite game would be EVE-offline- single player - no pvp- if such a
    game existed.
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    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:49 am
    • #6 by Etsu
    This is my personal opinion. (I rent opinions too. :lol:)

    What a care most about ships and statiosn is the basic forms. Only then the details matter to me. (Details can make a huge difference, but it is the shape what matter most to me, what you see first.) After that, textures/materials can make everything look more complex too.

    Some of the Josh's ships are gorgeous, but Josh tastes differ from mine on a few things. He like "wings" for example, and I don't. But you have to remember that ships' look and feel will be very customizable through to LTSL, so variety will probably be the least of the problems of this game. Besides it will have and editor so I will be able to traslate my rocket designs to LT! :P

    Now I will comment on some of the specific designs I like the most:
    Spoiler:      SHOW
    Image

    This is one of my favorites with a big difference.
    In my mind is a big machinery full of moving parts,
    too complex for human understanding.


    Image

    This ship is so beautiful that I can not describe it.
    It's not small as a fighter, but it's also no particularly big.
    It's like the Millennium Falcon of the LT spaceships. :mrgreen:


    Image

    The ship is pretty nice but the space station is gorgeous.
    Posterior space stations were not as good as this one.
    I also like the space station from update #10.


    Image

    I don't know anything about the space station,
    but this spacecraft looks good to me.
    Look at those thruster tails! :D


    Image

    Josh made this one in update #19. It looks like a sharp or something.
    Unfortunately he didn't like it and changed it for something else,
    but it shows us that this shapes are also possible.


    Image

    This is starting to look weird.
    It looks like an alien spaceship or something.
    Weird is good, so I like it. :thumbup:


    Image

    I don't know why I like this one but I do.
    It looks pretty interesting. That part in the nose could even be
    a big cannon or some sort of strange scanner device. :think:


    Image

    More alien technology, maybe.
    It actually looks like something from the movie Alien.
    It has this weird organic feeling on it.


    Image

    I really like this one, I really do.
    I can even imagine that thing in the back is a real thruster,
    with the form or a rocket nozzle.


    Image

    This one looks pretty cool, particularly for all that asteroid thing. It looks like a big,
    big ship, we a lot of workers on it, but it could actually be totally or partially automated.
    But, like in the ocean, LT space must be full of even bigger things out there.
    You can click or right click on the images for a better resolution.
    Image
    "Playing" is not simply a pastime, it is the primordial basis of imagination and creation. - Hideo Kojima
    Post

    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:55 am
    • #7 by mcsven
    I'm not worried about ships; I'm sure Josh will get them looking pretty good nearer release. That really is one area that I'm happy to see him delay until the end... and even then if he doesn't get them looking AAA I'm sure an enterprising modder will.

    I do still wonder about the ship editor however, about which we've heard nothing virtually since the KS. The question I have is still this one: how will it be integrated in the game?

    One of the things that lingers a little in the back of my mind is portability of designs from one universe to another. Will this be possible, or will minerals and materials be part of the procedural generation, such that individual ship designs are tied to a particular universe seed? To be honest I'm not sure I have an opinion on this, since I can see some benefits in having a ship editor from the main menu that you need to specify which universe you want it to appear in... but then it would also be nice to be able to share ships from different games. Or would it? :think: Too many unknowns!
    Post

    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 10:42 am
    • #8 by ForsakenCrown
    mcsven wrote:I'm not worried about ships; I'm sure Josh will get them looking pretty good nearer release. That really is one area that I'm happy to see him delay until the end... and even then if he doesn't get them looking AAA I'm sure an enterprising modder will.

    I do still wonder about the ship editor however, about which we've heard nothing virtually since the KS. The question I have is still this one: how will it be integrated in the game?

    One of the things that lingers a little in the back of my mind is portability of designs from one universe to another. Will this be possible, or will minerals and materials be part of the procedural generation, such that individual ship designs are tied to a particular universe seed? To be honest I'm not sure I have an opinion on this, since I can see some benefits in having a ship editor from the main menu that you need to specify which universe you want it to appear in... but then it would also be nice to be able to share ships from different games. Or would it? :think: Too many unknowns!
    Another thing I'd add to that: will we be able to share designs online? I'd love a Sporepedia style database ingame and on the site where we could upload ship designs directly from the game for anyone to see/download/modify. And I imagine the uploader will be able to specify permissions associated with a ship, i.e., can download but can't edit, can/can't rename, etc.
    You have disobeyed God. Now you must pay the consequence.
    [/i]
    Post

    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 2:46 pm
    • #11 by Kichae Chandramani
    The limitations, or lack thereof, of procedurally generated ships was a really heated topic on the Infinity forums some time before the LT Kickstarter. There were a lot of people (mostly 3d artists, IIRC) who had very strong opinions on whether procedural algorithms could make nice looking ships or not. I think Josh has shown that it works, at least to my satisfaction, though he could possibly add more base shapes to work from to increase the variety a bit.

    At the end of the day, it comes down to aesthetic. If NMS can get away with looking like Tron in space, I think LT can successfully use Lego space craft.
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    Re: Outer Appearances - Ships and Stations

  • Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:51 pm
    • #14 by Kichae Chandramani
    Victor Tombs wrote:
    Kichae Chandramani wrote: If NMS can get away with looking like Tron in space, I think LT can successfully use Lego space craft.
    :shock: Good grief, that's the last thing I/we want from Josh. We've already convinced him that Lego ships are not what we want and there you go telling him otherwise. :crazy:

    Stop it!

    Immediately! *chuckle*
    Image
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    Now check out our data mine!
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    Jafo Entertainment & News, Inc.
    Offices on major planets soon to be abandoned in favor of orbital facilities with better defenses.
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