Paper TC - New Idea

New Faction Graphics!

Ok, so I wanted to see how my roomates would draw little kid space ships.
The next thing I see is a dildo shaped thing with a propeller.
I didn't feel like making dildos, but a propeller?... that's.... that's a fantastic idea!

So now I've got some steam-punky ships.
Yeah, yeah, propellers don't work in space... SAYS WHO!?

Cruiser1.gif (11.93K)
Number of downloads: 8
CapA.gif (22.61K)
Number of downloads: 92
Click to see animation - (why is this reduced in size? It's already small.)

Those are kickin'.

- Yeah, yeah, propellers don't work in space... SAYS WHO!? -

Only fools...

This post has been edited by Sp3cies : 09 March 2008 - 07:21 PM

Wow... I think I love you.

If you need an alpha or beta tester, then I might be able to pull time from Ashen Galaxy and the behind schedule CTC for a bit to test this Paper TC.

This post has been edited by JacaByte : 09 March 2008 - 07:46 PM

Perhaps they only look like propellers... perhaps they are actually flywheels seen edge-on.

That sounds cool! Well, if you need a beta tester, PM me...

Ohh,Ohh!

Pick me! I'll Beta-test!

All right, settle down, settle down.
I'm not at the beta stage just yet. I'll be sure to put out a post notifying y'all when I get there.

I got 6 different ships and 90% of the weapons done for the steam-punky guys now.

This post has been edited by Desprez : 10 March 2008 - 06:40 AM

I can help you make it if you need any help.

@desprez, on Mar 10 2008, 06:38 AM, said in Paper TC - New Idea:

steam-punky guys

I (heart) Space: 1889.

Just thought I'd share that.

Huh, interesting read, Space 1889 was...

9 steampunk ships now.
Also, all the weapons are based off of ship-sized revolver and musket ideas. They have large culverin style deck guns, primitive rockets, and a flak cannon for point defense. The flack cannon shoots a PD rocket (unguided projectile) that splits into fragments. Hopefully the fragments hit the incoming missiles and fighters. It's fairly effective, unless the targets get too close...

Comparatively, these guns do very good armor damage, except everything uses ammo, many weapons share this ammo.
Revolvers - 6 shots before a brief reload. Light and heavy varieties.
Muskets - 3 shots all at once in a spread pattern. More DPS than revolvers, but at the expense of using 2x as much ammo. Light and heavy varieties.
Gattling Guns - Better rates of fire, but less accuracy and the weapons are bulky.
Culverin Deck Guns - Large, slow firing cannons, massive damage.
Big Bertha Deck Gun - Like a ginormous musket.

- Incidentally, I discovered that while the reload rate decreases with multiple weapons, the burst reload rate stays constant.

A couple unguided rockets, fighter and ship varieties
There are some bombs too. Still working on how the bombs are to be launched.

Conceptually, they are supposed to be unguided powerful explosives.
I tried as a free fall bomb, and that's so unwieldy. But target ships don't fire PD on them, and that's just unrealistic.
So I may make them a turret weapon that subs into a slow moving, 0 turn homing weap.
The omni-directional nature gives them some more utility to make up for their inability to home in on a target, while still allowing them to be shot down.
And they get some tough armor, to help survive despite the slow speed.
Trying to strike some balance between them and guided missiles, while giving them their own flavor. Otherwise, no one will buy them over the missiles.

Steampunk ships have weak shields, and tough armor.
They have impressive turn rates, but less usable mass and cargo space compared to their mass. Both properties come as a result of the large spinning fans.
Most ships get 70% usable space from their total mass. These guys are looking at 50%, but this may get adjusted after balancing.
Story-wise, they guys rely on a lot of mining and scavenging parts. (have a special asteroid bomb) (is there a way to make asteroid bits grant ammo?)

Also, I'm seriously thinking adding an additional requirement for using non-faction items.
Yes, the player can get the best stuff by buying from multiple factions, but is there any reason to NOT do this?
As of now, no. And it makes for some strange combinations.

I mean, if your space ship is powered by steam and ether propellers, how the heck can you power fusion cannons from the Grapen?
So I'm thinking of making a requirement to buy a special generator to use Grapen power weaps. If you have a Grapen ship, you have this built in - no need to buy it. And similar for the steampunk people, you'll need to get a steam engine to use their weapons. Maybe if you want to use long-range missiles you'll need a long range targeting system.

This way, you can still mix and match, but lose a bit of space efficiency for doing so. You'll probably want to stick to 2 or 3 factions for items.

What do you think?

sounds awesome!

++cool.

Do you need any extra paper? I've got a few college brochures I can recycle... :laugh:

@geek, on Mar 11 2008, 08:50 PM, said in Paper TC - New Idea:

Do you need any extra paper? I've got a few college brochures I can recycle... :laugh:

Actually, if you have some interesting textures you can send some images. I'm currently on the lookout for distinct items.
Different colors aren't quite as important as Photoshop can make adjustments, as long as I have a decent image to work from.

If anyone does send images, a clean 2" square at 300 dpi is plenty. If there's printing, it's kind of hit or miss at to what I can use it for.
I plan on making to stellars that are on various quality papers, sometimes drawn over existing printing - but that's going to be unique features to specific places.

Some things look great with folds and wrinkles. But stuff like that needs more imaged area, as distinctive features need to be unique.
If you go back and find the post I made with some screen shots, you'll notice different wrinkle patterns on the paper asteroids and a crease on the planet.
These imperfections look great, but I can't use the same ones over and over.

What I may do is make some scans of crinkled plain white paper. And uses the wrinkle pattern as a texture I can put of other papers using a multiply or luminosoty layer or something.

Related development plans:
For asteroids, I'm leaning towards the stray items and undrawn paper flying about.

1. Brown paper bits
2. Newspaper bits
3. Paper clips
4. ?? - ideas, anyone?
   Maybe sugar packets or something? interesting ways to blow those up. (What are the max particles on-screen?)
   Though I'm trying to stay away from blatantly 3-D objects. They are unconvincing when your ship flies over them.
   For asteroids however, there's a way to do this, if you want ships to be able to hit them. It involves a dude or planet firing a dispersal pattern of weapons that look like the asteroids. These explode when hit, then sub into smaller pieces, or themselves, or just die completely. The effect is nice.
   A paper clip might just bounce around. While a sugar cube would break apart. You get lots of white particles as it becomes 2 or 3 smaller chucks.

Not sure if I'm going to go through the trouble of making collisionable asteroids though. It takes about 6 weapons to do right.
There IS something cool about having to navigate a treacherous asteroid field though. Small maneuverable craft get an advantage here. (the AI won't do it though)

There's another way to make collisionable asteroids. I don't remember it, but I have the plugin in my plugins folder. It's called "Collision Damage" I think. It's awesome.

4. No idea. Maybe some sort of nutritive seed pod that the Wa'eks can mine and sell nutrients from?

@crusader-alpha, on Mar 11 2008, 11:25 PM, said in Paper TC - New Idea:

There's another way to make collisionable asteroids. I don't remember it, but I have the plugin in my plugins folder. It's called "Collision Damage" I think. It's awesome.

4. No idea. Maybe some sort of nutritive seed pod that the Wa'eks can mine and sell nutrients from?

Hmmm. Interesting idea.

The other way to make collidable asteroids involved PD weapons. Not going to work for this plug.

Piece of rug lint with craft glue and pieces of wood and foil, anyone?

Might make a good nebula for a map. The dreaded Lint field! :blink:

Attached File(s)

• Lint.jpg (31.49K)
  Number of downloads: 46

This post has been edited by Geek : 12 March 2008 - 01:35 AM

@geek, on Mar 12 2008, 06:33 AM, said in Paper TC - New Idea:

The dreaded Lint field! :blink:

LOL

This is absolutely awesome!