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Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:15 am
by Killox3
I've just started modding, and after seeing the red mantis, I decided that I'll try my hand at recolouring some (maybe all in time) of the races and ships in the game. I have a few of these I would love feedback on, and if anyone has suggestions/requests I'm happy to see what I can do.

Blue Mantis:http://www.mediafire.com/download/41p46g1ccrgsnb7/Blue_Mantis.ftl
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Pink Mantis:http://www.mediafire.com/download/9yzu2luvle2gkja/Pink_Mantis.ftl
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Red Zoltans:http://www.mediafire.com/download/szv7xbf51kz0pap/Red_Zoltans.ftl
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Brown Rockmen:http://www.mediafire.com/download/mopffy6sdf6mgfm/Brown_Rockmen.ftl
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Rainbow Laser Shot:http://www.mediafire.com/download/jjj7yag645r26r4/Rainbow_Laser.ftl
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Pink Mantis Ships:http://www.mediafire.com/download/7y2kq1hll1btvw4/Pink_Mantis_Ships.ftl
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Green Boss Ship:http://www.mediafire.com/download/vbeu928cpnjp9h9/Green_Boss_Ship.ftl
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Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 3:34 pm
by Sleeper Service
The CE People Modified Addon does a similar thing. Nice that you thought about the colour blind variant as well, I actually completely missed that till now. :(


Some suggestions if you want to do more complex recolours:

1. You can rework some sections of the sprite selectively to achieve more distinct looks. Colour select tool (in Gimp, exists in Photoshop as well for sure) is very helpful for this. You can edit the blades of the mantis or the uniforms of humans separately for example.

2. The crew combat projectile in the lower right corner can also be changed freely. You can modify its shape, add glow and stuff... A lot can be done with that, the vanilla projectiles are some of the least detailed assets in entire FTL.

3. Adding glow is another thing that can make the skins more distinct. Makes sense specially for Zoltans or the light sheets of the battle drones. In Gimp you can use filter/drop shadow with x=0/y=0 to produce nice even glows around things.

4. You can change certain frames separately to create interesting effects. My first try on that was a skin that makes the Slug cloak as long as it walks or fights... Much more could be done with this I guess. Crew could activate personal shields in fights, Zoltans could glow more during certain activities. This would be purely visual effects of course, could not have any influence on actual gameplay.

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:29 pm
by Killox3
Thank you very much for your feedback. As a matter of fact it was your recolouring mini-guide in the Shipyard post from which I was inspired.

That colours pack puts my own pitiful work to shame, haha, even if it doesn't have the colour blind versions.

Those are all some very cool suggestions, and I see now how simple my work is, I think I shall indeed have to look some more into this. If I come up with anything particularly good, I may even see if I can contribute to the Captain's Edition.

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:04 pm
by Sleeper Service
Killox3 wrote:Those are all some very cool suggestions, and I see now how simple my work is, I think I shall indeed have to look some more into this. If I come up with anything particularly good, I may even see if I can contribute to the Captain's Edition.


You are most welcome! I'm currently reworking the pack to make it a little easier to use. There will be some visual updates as well. Some crew will activate personal shields during combat, the high tech repair drone will shield itself while taking out fires. I still look for more things to change in specific animations...

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 12:21 am
by Killox3
Sounds very good, I look forward to seeing it. I did notice that it didn't contain anything for the crystals, and so myself made a set in red. Seeing these in game, I realised they looked rather silly with the original coloured crystal ship and weapons, so I recoloured those in the same way. I decided the Carnelian looked close enough in colour and left that unchanged, though I now realise I left and enemy crystal ships unchanged, if one was to find their way back to the crystal sector.

The Crystal: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7sf2ifjwvwf6x00/Red_Crystal.ftl
Their ship: http://www.mediafire.com/download/vr38ycbfv0gfc0c/Red_Crystal_Ships.ftl

Do you think I should combine these into a single mod file?
If I did, I think I would go back and add the enemy crystal ships as well.

Edit: Changed ship upload, I had forgotten to change the shield image
Edit2: Got bored, so I ended up recolouring the enemy ships as well, which are now in the ship file

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 12:45 am
by Sleeper Service
Actually, the last release contained three Crystal skins, one was red (located in the ??? folder).

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:13 am
by Killox3
You are right, I stand corrected. The crystal skins can only be found in the pre-made mod-packs, and not in the DIY part of the download, and in that I failed to find them.

Ah well, I've made it now, haha

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:41 am
by Sleeper Service
The Crystal enemy ships are nicely done. They could be used in CE at some point.

Re: Ship And Crew Recolours [WIP]

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:48 am
by Killox3
I'm very flattered, thank you. That would be an honour.