Spoiler Warning: Custom ships ahoy. If you don't want to see some of the new ships to Discovery, look away now!
Ok, the idea was spawned in the "Ship Status" thread in the main Mod Discussion forum to make the new ships to Discovery look a little more at home... Just as Discovery strives to be the most balanced and true expansion to the Freelancer universe as possible, I thought some of the new additions could use a little make-up.
The basic premise is that pretty much all of the community created ships are skinned to either look exactly like from their original game, or just skinned too "cleanly" to fit in with the original crowd, sometimes both. So here starts my skinning mission: to muddify (see what I did there? :0P) the new ships to look more comfortable in the Freelancer universe.
I present exhibit A: The Taiidan Bomber
Original: Muddified:
As you can see, I've left as much of the original design intact as possible, but removed aspects that looked out-of-place alongside the original Freelancer ships, such as decals. Unfortunately the Taiidan Bomber isn't textured perfectly, so some faces will still look distorted, but I did what I could with what was there. The whole "muddifying" process was fairly easy and not time-consuming and I think the effects, even though slight, are still pretty good.
Excellent, much better fit, I agree. A lot of ships could use that.
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor
(If you find any mistake in my English, please let me know via a PM)
(Really, I speak terrible English, so please, tell me if I make mistakes. I'd like to improve it a bit )
I would actually like to see, not different skins for 'em, but higher reselution. So you can actually see more of the decals, not just have them be slightly colored blurs.
At maybe keep a few of the decals. It does look just a tad dull without 'em.
This is the real true story of rock and roll; it was not about anything more then, how to live your life, as a gangster, in sartorial splendor, and turning the world into a place where normality would never return again...- Malcolm McLaren
Thanks for the critiques, good and bad as long as it's constructive they're all welcome.
I haven't touched the resolution, it's exactly as it was before, though I agree this model could use a better one. That's quite a bit more work than just making it look grungey but I may consider doing it later. As for decals, I removed them all as the decals on the original ships are usually limited to a stripe or two, and a logo. This ship as you can see was totally plastered with them, and all low-res... I didn't think it fit the Freelancer look at all, though perhaps I could leave a few in or design some new ones. Any suggestions?
Hoodlum: Your wish is my command. The Viper is a worthy adversary in skinning terms, the modeller did an outstanding job and texture stretching is minimal. Though I can't see it in HardCMP for some reason, so having to go by how it looks in-game directly. I didn't want to completely remove the decals on this as they give the ship most of it's character, but I will change them a bit. Battlestar Galactica purists, I'm afraid the bright red stripes and green/blue components are going to have to go :0)