[MOD] Crew Diversity

[Sleeper Service]

Just a small pic that Nider posted as a bug report:


These don't work so bad, but they appear very big on the the side panel where the crew is listed.

[Flypaste]

On the slugs, what about doing something with their "cheeks"? Maybe have length and/or colour variations.

[Russian Rockman]

Unfortunatly, the lack of an 'idle' animation has kinda screwed me over on what I really wanted, so I'm not posting the sheet just yet.
nb: I don't know if anyone has any sway with the devs, but if we could change the default pose (which is currently frame 1 of the downward walk cycle) to the '_portrait' animation (which dosn't actually animate in the hanger) then I would /very/ much appreciate it.

You know I haven't gotten a chance to test this, but I'm pretty sure that is actually possible. Take a look at the animations.xml and you will find one for standing. The x= and y= I'm pretty sure designates where on the sprite sheet the animation is located for walking or fighting etc... The one for standing is only 1 frame and it's x and y are 0. So it is the top left frame of the sprite and the beginning of what I believe is the walking cycle. Try extending this animation to more than 1 farm and the timing of the animation and I am pretty certain that will achieve what you want.

If you want to put a whole separate animations sequence showing the crew doing different things or in different positions you could just add in a whole new row on the sprite sheet.

Hope I'm right.

Just a small pic that Nider posted as a bug report:


These don't work so bad, but they appear very big on the the side panel where the crew is listed.

Another wacky idea. I'm pretty sure that when you select crew their health bar uses a border image from the people file so it maybe possible to add some other indicator to that image like the crosshairs type thing you were using. If that image sheet can be extended that is. It would only appear when the crew is selected though of course and I'm guessing that the issue here is that they need to be distinguished between human and enemy all the time...

Alternatively the disk thing underneath the units doesn't look too bad, but it's a little too red on the enemy. Not sure how you did those, guess you just modified the coloring layer. But they are acceptable, maybe actually better than the glows probably, if you got used to them.

I would like to see a beefier Rock so I would advocate a subtle combination of maybe the underneath "shadow" and what I just proposed, based on Sleeper's idea.

And Sleeper, I now have some more requests for you CEPM skins... A veiny rock layer that can be used to creat vines or lava or make them darker. And SLUG WHISKERS/ antennae, they look so... "Cute" I love slugs. , look at Filip on the OP image and you'll see he kind of looks like he has a cape I think that would be pretty cool for a few mantises to have, and finally I request a pink Engi screen image so we can have female Engi's. If you ever get around to any of this I'll be a happy humanoid.

And just for some inspiration maybe Sleeper, a link to some skins from the Mass Effect total conversion. I though the Mass Effect Space suits actually looked pretty cool.
http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8936&start=90



Lastly, I have figured out a way to add some animations to the customization hangar where you could essentially put more alien species actively doing things to prepare your ships and other ships in the Federation hangar. It always bothered me that the hangar had only 2 women repairing some massive ships, a Rock carrying a box discretely on the right of the screen, and a hard to see black dude on the upper left terminal... Now we could actually have apropos busy lookingFederation hangar!!! I told Sleeper about this idea and he was eager to put in in the Captain's Edition.

Seeing this new topic here and interest in sprinting new crew I thought I would post a request for someone to help sprite new crew animations since I really suck at that and so am pretty limited with what I can accomplish. Please PM me if you think you could help in that respect and I could give you some more information.

Note: there is one limitation with adding new animations sadly. They can only be "terminal" animations, meaning they won't be in a specific sequence, they will be randomly chosen in a random order from the animation sheet. Meaning to Rock man type animations where they are walking down the side of the scree. But certain animations where the crew is standing in one place seem to work fine, like repairing animations, terminal animations (duh) and maybe even combat animations or "other such things". And that is basically what I need help with. Maybe creating some new still animations to work with. Again, if you think you could help with that please PM me.

[Gencool]

Did you mean Species_Portrait?

Code: Select all

<anim name="human_portrait">
   <sheet>human</sheet>
   <desc length="1" x="0" y="0"/>
   <time>1</time>
</anim>

Because I tried that before, and it's purely there for the hanger screen.
What's worse, if you add frames to it, it doesn't even seem to acknowledge them :\



Like I said, I'm having to take it slow on these atm due to moving flat, but I currently have 3 new sheets for Slugs, and 4 new sheets for Mantis (Filip's single shoulder pad being one of them, for example).
Check out my beefier rock image on post 3(I've finished that sheet)
Female Engies are definitely on the list (i'm trying to do two 'bodytypes' per race)
I think the disks are still the way I'm going to go with this mod, but I need to re-do them anyway, and I'l have a reticule or something as an optional alternative.


Also, I'd love to help with spriting, as it's what I do for a day job, but that's why I'm heading up this mod. Maybe when it's done?

[MightyKebab]

Female Engies are definitely on the list

Uh... Don't want to be a smartass but, why would a race, partially organic by nature, would have two opposite genders? If there are genders there's the concept of mating and you wouldn't want to see engis mating in their natural habitat...



I'm just suggesting you take that off the list

[Russian Rockman]

Did you mean Species_Portrait?

Code: Select all

<anim name="human_portrait">
   <sheet>human</sheet>
   <desc length="1" x="0" y="0"/>
   <time>1</time>
</anim>

Because I tried that before, and it's purely there for the hanger screen.
What's worse, if you add frames to it, it doesn't even seem to acknowledge them :\

Hmm... That is weird. So you increased the amount of frames and it didn't work? Are you saying that it worked for the hangar screen though Cuz that's good enough for me.

Thanks for your offer to help with sprinting. I would need moly some pretty simple things for you to do. Don't really want any animations too different for the original ones. So I PM guessing what I'll do is do what I can and finally upload a "proof of concept" for people to check out and maybe improve on.

Female Engies are definitely on the list

Uh... Don't want to be a smartass but, why would a race, partially organic by nature, would have two opposite genders? If there are genders there's the concept of mating and you wouldn't want to see engis mating in their natural habitat...

I'm just suggesting you take that off the list

Well yeah, but why couldn't an Engi have a female personality? All the cool robots in movies or video games gave female voices so why shouldn't some Engi's take on a female persona? They take on whatever forms that they think will help in their interactions with other species.

AND!!! Smartness there is a new event in the Advanced Edition main game that involves two Engi "ships" ... "Mating" so hah!

[Gencool]

Don't worry, I meant female as in 'alternate body structure', not 'blonde wig and eyelashes'
Also, if it looks weird, i'l skip it. Engies are the only race I might not do any new sheets for. But I kinda want to anyway...

Increasing the frame number doesn't work on the hanger screens. Still only uses the first frame.
So you could change the 'portrait' to match the fighting cycle, but it'd just stick with your character about to throw a punch.

[MightyKebab]

Did you mean Species_Portrait?

Code: Select all

<anim name="human_portrait">
   <sheet>human</sheet>
   <desc length="1" x="0" y="0"/>
   <time>1</time>
</anim>

Because I tried that before, and it's purely there for the hanger screen.
What's worse, if you add frames to it, it doesn't even seem to acknowledge them :\

Hmm... That is weird. So you increased the amount of frames and it didn't work? Are you saying that it worked for the hangar screen though Cuz that's good enough for me.

Thanks for your offer to help with sprinting. I would need moly some pretty simple things for you to do. Don't really want any animations too different for the original ones. So I PM guessing what I'll do is do what I can and finally upload a "proof of concept" for people to check out and maybe improve on.

Female Engies are definitely on the list

Uh... Don't want to be a smartass but, why would a race, partially organic by nature, would have two opposite genders? If there are genders there's the concept of mating and you wouldn't want to see engis mating in their natural habitat...

I'm just suggesting you take that off the list

Well yeah, but why couldn't an Engi have a female personality? All the cool robots in movies or video games gave female voices so why shouldn't some Engi's take on a female persona? They take on whatever forms that they think will help in their interactions with other species.

Holy shit this is geniune, someone really has to make an Engi overhaul that adds engis with non-humanoid poses, maybe a dog'ish design or something like a floating ball?

[Russian Rockman]

[quote=MightyKebab]Holy shit this is geniune, someone really has to make an Engi overhaul that adds engis with non-humanoid poses, maybe a dog'ish design or something like a floating ball?[/quote]

SSSPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCEEE!!!!!!!!!!

[Flypaste]

Is there a planned release date? Because I'm anxiously anticipating it.
Will you also have an add-on that makes Captain's Edition's Ai avatar crew members diverse?