Goonhub
04-11-2017, 03:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-11-2017, 06:50 PM by Mageziya. Edited 1 time in total.)
I don't know how, but ZeWaka somehow talked me into making a cruiser sprite for the long unfinished cruiser project. In a nutshell, cruisers are GIGANTIC pods that can crew multiple people at once. A syndicate cruiser is already in the game, though more as a test sprite.
For reference, the syndicate test sprite:
I was tasked with creating a cruiser for NT. I didn't have many references, so it was sort of a crapshoot on my part to keep making something until I got something that worked. It also didn't help that the syndicate cruiser is better than anything that I can make, and that the cruiser sprites are absolutely massive. (160x160, or 5 times the standard sprite size.)
Good news is that I was able to use themes to overcome my personal shortcomings. The syndicate cruiser is very pointy and angled, almost organic. As such, I created a contrasting design by making the NT cruiser boxy and almost boring. After which, it was basically a trial by fire set revision after revision via lots of help from the IRC to sculpt the cruiser sprite I had made from a piece of trash into something presentable.
One problem that arose, though, was deciding on the color palette to use. In the end, I decided to just make several and let coders decide what to use.
![[Image: k6Mr0IO.png]](http://i.imgur.com/k6Mr0IO.png)
Top Left: Nanotrasen Blue: This seemed to be the most popular color palette. It uses the standard shade of NT blue found on several pieces of NT gear throughout the game.
Middle Top: Escape Shuttle White: This was the color scheme that I started with. It was white to match the white used for most vehicles and future tech seen in the game, with blue stripes indicating the NT nature of the ship.
Top Right: Experimental: This is based off an experimental NT pod that can apparently be found in the game.
Bottom Left: Green: Wonk wanted a green version. Why not.
Bottom Middle and Right: FTL Alliance and Rebel Colors: Since the ships were looking like a sprite you would find in FTL, and seeing as the concept for the cruisers is basically multiplayer FTL, I decided to include these two palettes, since they seem like they could be fun during admin events.
Problems with my cruiser sprites:
-Perspective is broken with them. The original syndicate one at least had some perspective to it.
-Shading, lighting, and texturing just all feel off to me, no matter what I tried to do with it. It feels like FTL's flat style more than SS13's more modern shaded style. The engine's were stolen from a sprite by Gannets, and you can see the contrast in shading and coloring styles.
-The NT's on all of the cruisers are mirrored wrong. This is a result of how I often only make half of a sprite, then mirror it if the sprites are symmetrical, to save time. I just noticed this, and they'd be an absolute pain to fix, so they're stuck there, forever. Whoops.
The DMI to these monster sprites should be attached.
Edit: QuiltyQuilty has created a DMI with the fixed NT symbols.
For reference, the syndicate test sprite:
![[Image: 59b0ffa191f6871d0c31b619c8cfd063.png]](https://i.gyazo.com/59b0ffa191f6871d0c31b619c8cfd063.png)
I was tasked with creating a cruiser for NT. I didn't have many references, so it was sort of a crapshoot on my part to keep making something until I got something that worked. It also didn't help that the syndicate cruiser is better than anything that I can make, and that the cruiser sprites are absolutely massive. (160x160, or 5 times the standard sprite size.)
Good news is that I was able to use themes to overcome my personal shortcomings. The syndicate cruiser is very pointy and angled, almost organic. As such, I created a contrasting design by making the NT cruiser boxy and almost boring. After which, it was basically a trial by fire set revision after revision via lots of help from the IRC to sculpt the cruiser sprite I had made from a piece of trash into something presentable.
One problem that arose, though, was deciding on the color palette to use. In the end, I decided to just make several and let coders decide what to use.
Top Left: Nanotrasen Blue: This seemed to be the most popular color palette. It uses the standard shade of NT blue found on several pieces of NT gear throughout the game.
Middle Top: Escape Shuttle White: This was the color scheme that I started with. It was white to match the white used for most vehicles and future tech seen in the game, with blue stripes indicating the NT nature of the ship.
Top Right: Experimental: This is based off an experimental NT pod that can apparently be found in the game.
Bottom Left: Green: Wonk wanted a green version. Why not.
Bottom Middle and Right: FTL Alliance and Rebel Colors: Since the ships were looking like a sprite you would find in FTL, and seeing as the concept for the cruisers is basically multiplayer FTL, I decided to include these two palettes, since they seem like they could be fun during admin events.
Problems with my cruiser sprites:
-Perspective is broken with them. The original syndicate one at least had some perspective to it.
-Shading, lighting, and texturing just all feel off to me, no matter what I tried to do with it. It feels like FTL's flat style more than SS13's more modern shaded style. The engine's were stolen from a sprite by Gannets, and you can see the contrast in shading and coloring styles.
-The NT's on all of the cruisers are mirrored wrong. This is a result of how I often only make half of a sprite, then mirror it if the sprites are symmetrical, to save time. I just noticed this, and they'd be an absolute pain to fix, so they're stuck there, forever. Whoops.
The DMI to these monster sprites should be attached.
Edit: QuiltyQuilty has created a DMI with the fixed NT symbols.