Artstyle Guide Needs Information

Need help testing contributed art or code or having trouble getting your newest additions into game compatible format? Confused by changes to data formats? Reading through source and wondering what the developers were thinking when they wrote something? Need "how-to" style guidance for messing with VS internals? This is probably the right forum.
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Deus Siddis
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Artstyle Guide Needs Information

Post by Deus Siddis »

The Artstyle Guide on the wiki has been around since '05, but there still is almost no information on it. This kind of direction is really needed to work off of in the effort to create canonical content for VS.

Could the general artstyles for factions at least be filled out in the near future? Even without specific per-ship/station descriptions, this would allow for the creation of a model that fit a particular faction so that it could (perhaps with some further modification) be used for whichever canon vessel it most closely resembled within that faction.
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Post by bgaskey »

I agree. I was looking through the guide for info about modeling, although I'm not really an artist. I noted the rather lack of any guidance as to artstyle in several of the guides :? . I guess its really up to the artists to create some of the remaining faction color schemes etc.
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Post by Deus Siddis »

bgaskey wrote:I agree. I was looking through the guide for info about modeling, although I'm not really an artist. I noted the rather lack of any guidance as to artstyle in several of the guides :? . I guess its really up to the artists to create some of the remaining faction color schemes etc.
Actually, I seem to recall that JackS had posted the color schemes for each faction on the forum a long while back. And I'm sure he and others he's talked to have got more information on faction graphics styles (and the biological appearances of the different species themselves) either mentally or written down. Its just a matter of that information being added to the public wiki or posted in one thread/post on the public forums so that the community can add the information to the relevant sections of the wiki.
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Post by jackS »

The color schemes I can dig up -- they've been posted before, as have some degree of biological descriptions for most of the ship-building/operating species.

As for the guides themselves, if those who will be producing the art can come up with a consensus template of (fairly direct) questions that will be relevant to you and put said questions into the artstyle wiki pages, I'll happily knock out answers to them. Lacking that, I can attempt to just write what comes to mind as interesting/useful from my perspective, but I've found that many of my descriptions don't tend to translate (sometimes literally, for non-english speaking artists) very well, be it due to frequently difficult to parse sentence constructions, insufficiently common basis for metaphor, lack of practical artistic background/tool familiarity (ease of implementation) on my part, or any number or combination of these and of other shortcomings.
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Post by Deus Siddis »

jackS wrote:The color schemes I can dig up -- they've been posted before, as have some degree of biological descriptions for most of the ship-building/operating species.
Cool, this information could be very useful.
As for the guides themselves, if those who will be producing the art can come up with a consensus template of (fairly direct) questions that will be relevant to you and put said questions into the artstyle wiki pages, I'll happily knock out answers to them.
Sounds great. Here is a fairly extensive list of questions for each species or faction that should provide a good idea of how each faction and species works and how to present them. Let me know if you (and any other artists reading this) think these would be satisfactory or if they are too many/vague/specific or would like to add to them--




Origin:

Under what planetary classification was their home world when they first evolved?
How much gravity was there on this world?
What element(s) made up its atmosphere and in what concentrations?
What element(s) made up its liquid bodies and in what concentrations?
What kind of temperature range was there at the equator?
What kind of temperature range was there at the poles?
What kind and color of sun(s) did this world have?
What were the biggest challenges to survival on this world? (Examples- Starvation, Weather, Competition)

Physical:

What element(s) are they based on? (Examples- Carbon, Boron, Silicon, Nitrogen/Phosphorus, Hydrogen [Ionized])
What is the average mass of one?
What is the average length, width and height of one?
What skeletal system if any do they use? (Examples- no skeleton, exoskeleton, endoskeleton with invertebrate, vertebrate, multi-vertebrate)
What are their major core body segments if any?
What senses do they have and at what ranges do they work in relative to Humans and what are the rough numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these sensory organs?
What form(s) of locomotion are they capable of and at what speed(s) and how are the appendages that they use for this structured and what are the rough numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these appendages?
What forms(s) of object manipulation do they have and how are the appendages that they use for this structured and what are the numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these appendages?
What organs do they use for taking in air, liquid and food and what are the numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these organs?
What kind of colors and textures cover their body surfaces? (Examples- slime, scales, hair, feathers, boney plates)

Mental:

How much faster or slower is their thought speed relative to normal Humans?
Which areas of mental aptitudes and abilities are they more capable in than normal Humans and by how much?
Which areas of mental aptitudes and abilities are they less capable in than normal Humans and by how much?
Which emotions and instincts are stronger in them than in normal Humans and by how much?
Which emotions and instincts are weaker in them than in normal Humans and by how much?
How is their society organized?
What are their primary goals or ambitions as a faction?
How are their overall political and military strategies and tactics different from the other factions?
How do they see themselves as a species or faction?
How do they see the other species and factions?

Technological:

Which technological fields do they excel at relative to the other factions and how does this translate into game-play?
Which technological fields have they fallen behind in relative to the other factions and how does this translate into game-play?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their weapons versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their interceptors versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their fighters versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their assault craft versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their bombers versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their light capital ships versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their medium capital ships versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their heavy capital ships versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of their stations and infrastructure versus those of the other factions and how do their uses for these differ?

Technological Appearance:

What are all the paint colors of this faction?
What are all the colors of their external hull materials, lights, engine thrust, shields responses, weapons’ fire or anything else?
Which kinds of geometric shapes and surfaces are often visible in the ships of this faction? (Examples, angular edges, curves, cylinders, spheres, boxes, etc.)
Which kinds of geometric shapes and surfaces are rarely or never visible in the ships of this faction?
What structures or hull sections are visible on the outside of their light craft and what kinds of shapes are these and what sizes are they proportionate to the rest?
What structures or hull sections are visible on the outside of their capital ships and what kinds of shapes are these and what sizes are they proportionate to the rest?
Are there any animated moving parts or organs besides turrets visible on the outside of any of their ships?
What kinds of things would you see on the inside of one of this faction’s ships or stations that you wouldn’t see on its exterior?
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Post by bgaskey »

Keep in mind most of the factions are in fact human. Just rlaan, aera, uln, shmrn, and maybe the kl'kk are aliens, so alot of your questions would only pertain to those couple races.
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Post by Deus Siddis »

bgaskey wrote:Keep in mind most of the factions are in fact human. Just rlaan, aera, uln, shmrn, and maybe the kl'kk are aliens, so alot of your questions would only pertain to those couple races.
Yea, the first two and a half sections don't really need to be filled out for humans or even the pseudo-human shapers and mechanists.

You left out a few aliens though, remember the Rlaan and Aera have uplifts of their own and then there are those human uplifted trilaterally/bilaterally symmetrical cargo lifters. You also have the non-human terrans, super simians and . . . was it super cets or super cephs? Cephalopods would make more sense to me, manipulators (tentacles) for working with technology and no living species that is smart enough right off the bat (hence the need to make them "super" with genetic engineering). Whereas some Cetaceans might be smarter than us humans, so it is unclear why you'd need to modify them, for them to have an intelligent role in a future science fiction universe, plus they only have fins which would limit the roles they could fill.
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Post by Turbo »

That is quite a comprehensive list. I believe the team is looking for someone to help get the VS canon (years' worth of forum posts) into an organized wiki that makes it easy for players and devs to find stuff. It is not glamorous, but your list-making suggests that you might have the right talents for it.

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Post by bgaskey »

That is quite a comprehensive list. I believe the team is looking for someone to help get the VS canon (years' worth of forum posts) into an organized wiki that makes it easy for players and devs to find stuff. It is not glamorous, but your list-making suggests that you might have the right talents for it.

Turbo
In other words, you're nominated to write the wiki :wink: Have a blast :wink:
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Post by Deus Siddis »

I'll look into more thoroughly, but it appears like alot of the information missing from the wiki is either completely non-existant on the forums or is in need of official approval/commentary, like the concepts in the Alien Artwork Thread.
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