Oolite Bulletins

I thought I might gather some opinions on this set of OXP’s before I unleash them on the world, but first let me set the stage.

I love Griff’s ship models. They have a fantastic industrial look to them that I never tire of seeing. But, if I was to pick a flaw with them, it’s that the grungy weathered look to all the surfaces on every ship doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sure, having some ships with a well-used patina to their surfaces makes sense. But not every. Single. Ship. Surely there would be some brand new ships that would have a crisp, factory finish, in a few different colours, floating around somewhere.

Then there’s the issue of player variety. If you’re flying a standard Cobbie Mk III, you’ve got a few options to reskin your ship and give it a fresh look. On my setup I’ve got at least 40 options available. If you’re in a Cobra Mk I you’ve got about 20. But after that the options start getting rather thin on the ground. Less than 10 for a Ferdie or an Adder. About the same for a Python. But if you’re flying a Boa, an Anaconda or a Moray, the choices are very limited.

So that’s the premise I’m working from. What I’ve started is creating a set custom paint jobs for some of these under-represented ships, to (a) add some colour to the space lanes, and (b) give the player some more choices for the look of their ship. But no micro transactions!

The thing is, I’m no artist. My designs are no patch on Gsagostinho’s excellent work on the Cobra Mk III, Ferdelance, Adder, Asp Mark II and Python. I’d call my results more in line with a “basic factory colour option”, rather than something artistic. Here’s a sample of what I have at the moment, using the Boa Mk II as an example.



There are a variety of base colours, with a few different designs for each. Currently my Boa Mk II set has about 36 different skins, which makes for a large pack (I have no skill with shaders, thus I’m using a different texture for each colour/design).

So, is there much interest in this sort of thing? Do you want more colour variation in your space-lanes, even if the designs are of a more pedestrian style? Do you want some standard factory colours available for your newly minted Moray? Let me know what you think, or if you’d like to see more samples.

Love it!

Suggestion: keep them relatively rare and then they don't get old. Perhaps have them appear much more in the shipyard than in the spacelanes (if they really are factory fresh). Another idea that might make sense is to have them appear more often in the safer systems where they're likely to have seen less action.

Griff's textures suit his models really well and that there should be a typical, worn looking texture style makes sense. Good as Griff's textures are it's the models that are the stars and I think that's the best way round. One identifies a ship predominantly by its model. Having the a different texture show up rarely keeps it fresh but if it shows up all the the then we're almost back to square one.

Some ships are rarer than others anyway, so you might wish to adjust for that.

Currently I'm setting the role percentages to be around a tenth of what the equivalent is in Griff's packs - this is mostly because I'm defining 30+ copies of each ship, but even with that reduction I still think they might end up being common. I might have to reduce them further with more play-testing.

phkb wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:25 am

I’d call my results more in line with a “basic factory colour option”

You are Henry Ford and I claim my $5! But seriously, it's definitely a good idea!

phkb wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:48 am

Currently I'm setting the role percentages to be around a tenth of what the equivalent is in Griff's packs - this is mostly because I'm defining 30+ copies of each ship, but even with that reduction I still think they might end up being common. I might have to reduce them further with more play-testing.

Nothing wrong with some of them being relatively common as long as there are a selection that are quite rare.

If... it were me, given sufficient time and inclination, I'd consider making them sequentially rarer.

e.g.
That one's this year's standard boa paint job, still plenty of those left around.
That one over there's a year older, not so many of those left sadly. A new pilot's career is often all too short these days.

I know your envisioning factory fresh paint jobs but there'a a civilain as well as a commercial market to consider.

Anyway, food for thought I hope.

Looks like you found a skinniche

Certainly look forward to these factory new ships ! especially for lesser 'painted' ships

Perhaps a small teaser/test oxp with some of the textures combined...

Everyone likes screenshots, right? Here are some samples from each of the packs I've created so far (other than the Boa Mk2, which has a sample set in the first post).

Anaconda

Boa

Cobra Mk1

Gecko

Krait

Mamba

Moray

I'm not adding these to the manager just yet, so for now you'll need to manually download them individually and add them to your install.

Anaconda pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Anaconda.oxz (size: 27mb, 36 paint jobs)
Boa pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Boa.oxz (size: 26mb 36 paint jobs)
Boa Mk2 pack: FactoryPaintJobs_BoaMk2.oxz (size 22mb 36 paint jobs)
Cobra Mk1 pack: FactoryPaintJobs_CobraMk1.oxz (size 23mb, 27 paint jobs)
Gecko pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Gecko.oxz (size: 44mb, 27 paint jobs)
Krait pack: /FactoryPaintJobs_Krait.oxz (size: 35mb, 27 paint jobs)
Mamba pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Mamba.oxz (size: 33mb, 27 paint jobs for Mamba, 14 for Mamba Escort)
Moray pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Moray.oxz (size: 30mb, 27 paint jobs for Moray, 14 for Moray Med)

[Edit]
Adder pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Adder.oxz (size: 24mb, 27 paint jobs)
Asp Mk2 pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Asp.oxz (size: 23mb, 27 paint jobs)
Fer-de-lance pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Ferdelance.oxz (size: 17mb, 27 paint jobs)
Python pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Python.oxz (size: 17mb, 27 paint jobs)
Sidewinder pack: FactoryPaintJobs_Sidewinder.oxz (size: 40mb, 27 paint jobs for standard Sidewinder, 18 for Sidewinder Escort)

We'll see how my Box account copes with the file sizes!

Comments and suggestions welcome.

So do we now just have a choice between a shabby Griff and a spanking-new phkb painted ship?

Or are there shabby factory paintjobs too? And nice new Griffs as well?

You can add these to the game along with Griffs ships. There’s no conflict. But I can’t give you a shiny Griffs, or a shabby factory paint job. Sorry - above my pay grade!

phkb wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:05 am

We'll see how my Box account copes with the file sizes!

Over 200MB for the set - what's your monthly bandwidth?

No idea! We’ll find out! I may well end up having to go for a paid option, rather than the freebie.

(And I’ve started work on the Adder, Asp and Python as well…)

phkb wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:34 am

No idea! We’ll find out! I may well end up having to go for a paid option, rather than the freebie.

Your account settings should tell you. I get 10GB on my free account (max file size 250MB).

I think that’s right. So, in that case, it can probably handle up to about 50 full set downloads before everything locks up.

Get ‘em while they’re hot, people!

Minor suggestion - take it or leave it as this is your work and so your decisions. The role frequencies you have assigned are very low meaning that these fine paint jobs will be extremely rare and hardly ever seen. Role frequencies of around 0.10 to 0.15 (10% to 15%) would allow these new paint jobs to remain rare but still have them pop up on more occasions then say 0.02 (2%). Granted that no one expects a Pirate to have a new factory fresh paint job on their ship but, perhaps, they recently raided a Shipyard. The point being that if these paint jobs are to show up in all their glory with any sort of frequency then something above a 1% or 2% chance of having them do so would be nice.