Well, just a small preview.


These aren't screenshots from the shows or the movies, but they are pictures of models used in Star Trek.

Cool, I have same image but I didn't intend to cut it in pieces, I would waste few good sdreenies, we will use it.

No Alex, I meant I updated the list of images that we need/need to replace. We're still aiming for the next release to be August, although whether that will tie in with Vegas anymore i'm not sure.

Hopefully Vjeko's preview will be enough to satiate your hunger for the game for the time being.

You posted Vulcan propulsion laboratory as low quality image, but Zeleni aquired this one months ago.



Do you think it's low quality, or you didn't know we had it?

I've not seen that one before mate, and it's not on my hard drive.

Oh well, one more to remove from the list.

Well today I watched the episode of ENT "First Flight" and got a great idea for an early fed building

"NX Test Facility"

Bonus:
+5% Propulsion research

Requirements:
One Per Empire, dilithium, home system

ASDB Complex could be an upgrade to it


Picture:




EDIT: Renamed and uploaded to sharepoint

Ooh i'll add this to my to-do list. I don't want to add buildings to the files without the editor. I'm not confident enough to do that, and you know all the mistakes i've been encountering over the last few days, V.

For reference, the file name will need to be changed to fed_nx_project.png to maintain the naming convention (Add the fed_ prefix to the start of the filename)

Great idea, great image. Bashir

Cool

Ok, I have been learning how to render models in Blender for some time so that I can do more ship and structure images.

Here are my versions of Romulan Orbital Batteries and Shipyards.

Orbital batteries have only one version:



The shipyards have three versions - transparent, with background and with additional objects (ships). The background planet (Romulus) is textured with our Romulus texture and it could be a good ingame eye candy. Every model is consistent with the models we have.

V1:






V2:






V3:







It's now your call if and which you want to use. If you choose to use them, tell me what version you prefer and i can make similar pictures for all major races.

I'd prefer them without ships. The reason being that the small shipyards are available throughout all eras, and if we put old ships in the images, the images will look dated by the end of the game. But if we put in ships that are beyond the players current abilities, that's also going to look strange.

As for whether we use images with or without planets, there are positives for both.

The shipyards will be combat-present structures, so we should give them the same visual image styling as the ships. If the ships lack a background, so should the shipyards.

The backgrounds are cool though, and a planet is the obvious choice because you can only build them in systems with planets.

It's a tough call.

And orbital batteries?

Should I make similar images of orbital batteries for other major races?

Same problems apply. They're eye candy with planets, but they're also physical objects so should follow the style of the ships. I think we're gonna have to put it to the vote, but as loathe as I am to say it, for consistency reasons I vote without background for the OB's.

Or how about a planet more out of the picture so that the orbital battery is more clearly seen against a dark universe?
Lovely Work Vjeko. Bashman

Your blender renders look great. I hope we can use those images.

Mike has set it up so that the in game png images of our models have the background transparent. When the png is taken into the UI we will see it with a background he provides. That would make your planet backgrounds problematic for the ingame png of models. (We could ask him about those background images after the next update is released.)

We also have to make sure that no part of the model reaches to the edge of the 270x225 frame. That is because his background is actually bigger than 270x225 and the model will appear cut off.

See here

We also need an ingame 2D.png image of the ship.
Shared Documents / In Game PNG Images (see subfolders):

Ships, station, structures and emblems: 270 x 225 png file with transparent background. People seam to like all ships to point nose left and down in the image but I will be artistic when the need calls for it. The png images used in the game will be taken from this folder on Sharepoint. The "image library" png images on Sharepoint will not end up in the game so you can add in a black background layer to make it appear as it will in game. The transparent background should be all that reaches the edge of the image. Keep portions of the visible image from reaching the boarder as in game as there will be extra space beyond the 270 x 255 area added onto the image ingame.

Well, I thought that adding background to orbitals and and shipyards is a good idea because they are built from the same place as our structures and all structure images that will not be replaced have backgrounds.

Plus, will you have to build individual Orbital Battery or like now you build them as a group all at once? In that case the structure you build (group of orbital batteries) and the combat engine individual battery in the group are different objects so my picture is ideal as a structure image while the picture of single orbital with transparent background should be used by the combat engine when you select individual battery.

You build one OB at a time. That's how the game works currently. Don't know of any plans to change that, and it wouldn't make any sense to build groups of them anyway.

Currently there are two structures called "Orbital Batteries" one is some old leftover and needs to be removed and the other one can be built only once and it need 50 power to activate. If you don't believe me try running the game.

Anyway, here are the images. It's up to you now.

I've run the game multiple times as you might imagine

The 2 structures, one is the universal OB (for all races - including *minors*), and the other(s) is/are empire specific ones (one for each empire). They're both exactly the same (same stats) - the empire ones are there for flexibility mostly - namely they'll be handy for modding - and for fluff. There's a problem currently (obsoletion related) in that both show up for all the empires, but that is to be fixed in the future.

Yeah, but they are buildable only once.

Actually, there are SIX Orbital Batteries in the game.

Each Empire gets an OB, (They have to have separate ones so that the game will later on be able to assign the models in combat, and so that each Empire can have Empire-specific OB images) plus there is one for the minor races. There are two problems in the way the game works that affects the OB's though:

1) The "old" OB is the minor races one. It is supposed to be available for every minor race but not the Empires. It is currently set up as "available for all" though because there is no "available for minors" option. If I manually edit the files and give the OB individually to each of the minors, it's going to be a lot of work and will increase the size of the files, potentially slowing down the game slightly.

2) Special structures can ONLY be built once. The OB's are currently set as special structures, so they can only be built once. Mike knows of this problem, and has said is planning to add some new structure classes to get around the problem. This will be part of a future update, but I don't know when it will be.

Actually, that's how it should be done, mainly because not all minors should have access to these; the pacifists, the pre-warp civs, etc. A dozen or so minor-specific defense structures have been added (the usefulness still to be seen), with those restrictions, so one more is not that much of a big deal.

The problem is that the OB's are meant to be the basic defence structure. Without them, the minors have no real defences.

Perhaps we need a lower-tech, low bonus, planet-based defence structure for some of the minors that would be left undefended?

Even more defense structures for minors?! Jeezzz..
Which minors have no defense? The stone age ones. Those should not have any defense against warp age civs. I don't see what the problem is. Besides, if you conquer them, you're denied the advantages they bring you, right? It's just another system - depending on how conquered pop is handled, but that's an issue I raised already.
Still to be seen is how minors will handle the energy consumption from the OBs. Energy, another issue I raised.
(speaking of which, how do stone age minors get to build warp age labs and industry and whatnot?!?!...)

Who says they are all stone age? What about the Xenophobes? Just because they haven't got space tech doesn't mean they're not advanced.

Well if we aren't going to use the planet models in orbital batteries pictures, I will try to make some other pictures with them like these:







These are just some examples, stay tuned for more.

Hey you are correct vjeko1701. I forgot about how you build the OB in at least the original BOTF. In that case we would need your images. I was thinking in terms of ship png images and forgot about that with OB. We will have to see what Mike is doing in the next release though.


More great art from you

Thanks.

I specifically mentioned the stone age ones. You really do have to reply with tangents I guess. Anyways, it was just rethorical, not really a question. Just to clarify.