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Topic: UQM Recreation (Read 86530 times)
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guesst
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Ancient Shofixti Warrior
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Have you played rival schools? Maybe I have mentioned this (I always bring up Rival Schools in this context), but RS has this neat system with character that comes sliding in against a background. They're sort of like pinups (knees and up), and there's a couple for every basic mood (angry, happy, neutral, crying, etc). This makes the characters feel quite alive, despite being still images. Many other Japanese RPG's uses this system. It helps to create a wider range of emotions than what SC is doing now with some 'jittering' images.
RS is not the first, or last, game to do this sort of thing. It's very popular in Japanese games. Let's see if I can name a few... Final Fantisy Tactics Advanced, Fire Emblem (GBA), Advance Wars... hmm, a couple of GBAs is all I can think about, but I've seen it before.
It's a good effect, but I'm not sure it's StarControl-ish enough. Again, this supports the idea of ...
...change the designs and just makes it an SC-ish game :/
Plus side, original games allow wider release.
Minus side, creativity is difficult, time consuming, and runs the risk of sucking.
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Arne
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RS is not the first, or last, game to do this sort of thing.
I know, If you read my post you will see that I mentioned other japanese games having it. I mentioned RS cuz it made quite an impression on me. It was many years since I played it though, so maybe things have evolved a bit.
It's a good effect, but I'm not sure it's StarControl-ish enough.
Maybe not, but I don't think it's a huge step away from the "SC-feeling". Sort of depends how well it's styled into the SC look. I do feel the current animated stills doesn't give enough range of emotion. The Utwig is a good example of this, but most species seem to have different emotional states.
I was thinking of taking the current communication images and making them 32 bit color and a higher resolution. And make it so the image looks better (less pixilated and higher detail) not just blown up. How much effort would this take?
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I like the idea but how much effort on your part would this take?
Well, I don't know which would take longer. Enlarging and cleaning up someone elses work is not that fun anyways. I think though... that the original artist dude has some of the pics up on the net. I recall seeing a chmrr pic and a Talana in hospital pic.
Here's a rough. Of course now he's posing silly, I suppose stuff has to be posed so it fits the character in question, SC is not a beat-ém-up game of course. Some characters might be tricky to pose, like Spathi or ZFP, cuz I wouldn't know where to crop them (upper legs). Some character might be sitting very obscured, it would be strange if they got up and posed in front of the viewscreen... although StarTrek captains tend to do that I think.
The backgrounds could be made to fit the different settings (homeworld, ship, spathi moon, whatever).
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JonoPorter
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I like it!
The only thing I would change would be to give him pants!
And where is his cigar?
So are you thinking about doing multiple images for facial expressions?
I’m now thinking on how I will redesign the communications part of the game in order to be dynamic enough to handle both the original images and whatever you produce.
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Arne
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haha yeah I drew the cigar on a pose doodle that failed then I forgot it when I redrew it. I didn't have patience to come up with clothing so I gave him speedos cuz I was tired and in a silly mood.
It wouldn't just be faces, but shots of the upper body. I suppose each species have a few different emotions, and not always the same ones. example image. Possibly the backgrounds could be a bit detached from the character, mostly serving and a suitable atmospheric backdrop.
I'm not sure how they would 'wipe' when the emotions changed during the conversation. I haven't played RS or a japanese RPG in quite a while, so I'm not quite sure how it works. Maybe I should take the Playstation out of my closet and see... I think in RS there were several characters interacting against the same background and that might not work here.
Edit: Just played some RS. The technique used for transition between the different emotion pics depends on all character being against the same background and stuff. Since SC conversations concentrates on the enemy viewscreen and Zelnick/Captain is never showed, the transitions between any emotion pics will be more difficult to pull off. Sliding it in and out of the picture might look akward, and fading/wiping might too.
It could of course be possible to flip back and forth between the Captain + vindy BG and the Alien + its BG, and give the captain enough emotion pics to link to the conversation options so it doesn't get boring... but it might get redundant with the player picking the conversation option and the captain saying it, unless the conversation option is an abstract of what the captain will really say, which comes as an exciting surprise as the captain tend to be rather witty.
Maybe each some backgrounds could have monitors visible, and various images can be textured/morphed onto those surfaces, like Zelnik making a threatening pose if he say something mean, or the vindy with data.
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« Last Edit: February 21, 2006, 03:42:25 pm by Arne »
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JonoPorter
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Arne I have a question. Are you willing to do all of the communications? I think there are like 26 of them. Also do you want me to list you as a developer for the project?
helleck has done a good job with the web site you should check it out.
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« Last Edit: February 22, 2006, 05:39:47 am by BioSlayer »
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Arne
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Arne I have a question. Are you willing to do all of the communications? I think there are like 26 of them. Also do you want me to list you as a developer for the project?
Well, I have to warn you, I have... focus problems. I tend to abandon and resume a lot. I'm very laggy and unreliable. I need to make an assessment of how much work I'd need to do.
Very aproximated:
The number of background images is number_of_homeworlds + number_of_ships = 45ish?
The number of character images is ((number_of_homeworlds + number_of_ships)*0.66) * number_of_emotions_average = 150ish?
So it's maybe some 200 images.
Some homeworlds could have special characters (like the safe ones), whilst other have a generic character for both the ship and homeworld. Wormies probably only hav one emotion pic, and I can imagine Melnorme keeping a pokerface too. I'll try to figure out more accurately what images are needed and then post something in your forum.
Edit: Added something on the Wiki : talk page. Feel free to move to where it belongs. I used the wiki cuz maybe some other person could finish what I started and add their expertice.
Edit again: I don't know how realistic 200 images is, some are very easy, like the Melnorme, Slylandro, UrQ backgrounds, and others are more complicated, like the ones with lots of perspective. The characters vary in difficulty too. It would take me 3 months to do all images if working fulltime, and more realistically 2 years if just noodling with it every now and then.
Maybe the lander crew could use some backgrounds and characters? It would be cool to see how it looks where they are.
Edit: I like Meep's idea with static.
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« Last Edit: February 22, 2006, 02:39:37 pm by Arne »
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Also, showing a range of emotions on certain aliens may be problematic. Would an Ur Quan look any different when angry, really angry, afraid, or speaking of the Words? How about the Chmmr or Mycon, who don't even have recognizable faces at all?
