Hull ID, Decals, Paint, and Customization
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:20 am
I realize that this idea (and the one I had earlier about how carried ships should be deployed and recovered) are not particularly useful at this time. My ideas will be much more useful after Vega Strike has gone under some further polishing and bug-squashing, but I still want to throw my ideas out there early just in case they are more complex then I believe them to be and require a large amount of work on some sort of supporting system that can only be added now during the early stages.
I noticed something while I was flying around today in my Sickle fighter: most of the ships I encountered were all the same appearance-wise. I think that maybe somebody would at least give their ship a new paint job in order to make it unique. That got me thinking about how all ships could be customized in some way and have different levels of customization. I believe that this would lead to a more realistic and immersive single player experience, and for multi player, could allow a player to show off his/her creative skills to his/her fellow players.
1. No Customization: At purchase, a player has the option to give his or her ship a name. This name, along with a ship ID number, are painted in grey on the tail section of fighters and either on the middle or front section of larger ships. If no name is chosen, only an ID number is given.
2. Emblem: The pilot can choose an emblem, either a government/faction logo or a neutral design, that serves as the background for the name of the ship. The name is printed in a matching color and font. The emblem can be placed on any flat, visible surface of the ship. The ship ID is either part of the emblem or printed directly below it. Human players can choose an emblem of their own design by creating one in Photoshop or GIMP and saving it as a .png file and opening it in VS.
3. Full Paint Job: VS will present the pilot with a number of different paint job patterns (at least 5 for each ship model). The player then selects what color goes into what field. Prepackaged color combinations will be included so the player or computer pilot can deck out their ship in their favorite government's/faction's colors.
4. Full Paint Job Super Custom: The player can obtain a skin pattern for their ship from a folder that comes with VS, create their own skin in Photoshop or GIMP, and then upload it into the game.
I noticed something while I was flying around today in my Sickle fighter: most of the ships I encountered were all the same appearance-wise. I think that maybe somebody would at least give their ship a new paint job in order to make it unique. That got me thinking about how all ships could be customized in some way and have different levels of customization. I believe that this would lead to a more realistic and immersive single player experience, and for multi player, could allow a player to show off his/her creative skills to his/her fellow players.
1. No Customization: At purchase, a player has the option to give his or her ship a name. This name, along with a ship ID number, are painted in grey on the tail section of fighters and either on the middle or front section of larger ships. If no name is chosen, only an ID number is given.
2. Emblem: The pilot can choose an emblem, either a government/faction logo or a neutral design, that serves as the background for the name of the ship. The name is printed in a matching color and font. The emblem can be placed on any flat, visible surface of the ship. The ship ID is either part of the emblem or printed directly below it. Human players can choose an emblem of their own design by creating one in Photoshop or GIMP and saving it as a .png file and opening it in VS.
3. Full Paint Job: VS will present the pilot with a number of different paint job patterns (at least 5 for each ship model). The player then selects what color goes into what field. Prepackaged color combinations will be included so the player or computer pilot can deck out their ship in their favorite government's/faction's colors.
4. Full Paint Job Super Custom: The player can obtain a skin pattern for their ship from a folder that comes with VS, create their own skin in Photoshop or GIMP, and then upload it into the game.