The Chrome filter used is in the Sketch filter tab

well i took a few screen shots of some of Photoshops options to get this, and i didn't down the size so I'm not putting the pic here so go here and figger out what filter you want me to try next. I probably wont get around to it to quick so I'll wait for a general agreement on the top 3-5 i should try. if you want to see what's behind the other filters just ask ill post them if your that curious

here are some more pics though with some of the distortion filters

The first one is a Diffused glow: Graininess 7, Glow Amount 17, Clear Amount 7.
The other one is Glass "Frosted": Distortion 12, Smoothness 5.
yes those are the actual options i get to mess with. and yes i know you can still see the Zolazin Jammer.


and if anyone else wants to have a go at it with the Space Background here's the Chunk Of Space i took.

also here is a link to my currant gallery for this stuff Meh


Other Filters:_

Here are the ones Im interested in: Ripple, Ocean Ripple, Wave
And I would like to see options that are not distortion: Pixelation and Blur
EDIT: Is there any other options for glass other than "Frosted"?P.S. Great Pics

Look Here this should answer all of your requests and more

Also update on the Chrome Cloak: Opacity of ship has been set to 25% with space BG


perhaps the ship is de-cloaking or bumped into a dense particle field or your just that good at detecting a cloaked ship.

For those of you with only the basic picture editor that comes with your computer such as Paint for the PC there is a trick you can do to "layer" images make sure the canvas is extremely large drop your first image down, move it, then drop the next one down. move the image you want on top over the image you want on bottom get it where you want it before deselecting it. select the new image block you made move it to the top left corner then go down to the canvas corner(bottom right) and pull the canvas up to the exact size of your image. this method will not get you Vectors(see though areas/ blank space).

if you want an editor that's decent try GIMP its free and allows vectors and i Does layers and filters... it takes a while to load though.

I like the new cloak, also, the shield, that would be a good one for a lot of the shield types(You could just change the color), but one that I think will be a problem is Lattice Shield. Any way to make a colored, glowing grid over the ship? And also, would you be able to make any modules that are marked as "unkown" 0% opacity?

yes opacity is easy, i tied to duplicate the shield and that was hard.
This is how i can add and delete modules from ships it's the .PSD version of the ship, notice the layers in the bottom right corner i can add, delete and work on which ever layer i want without messing up the other layers.

new pic otw, I'm gonna try and make the ship have a partial chrome look to it this time , i most likely wont succeed,mostly Cloaked jammer, partial cloak on weapon , adding new item(scanner). pick will be up when i can get it done.

Edit its done and i did succeed where i wanted too and more:

Opacity Levels

• ship at 75%
• Weapon at 25%
• Zolizen Jammer 5%

just a few pointers the "partial" chrome look on the ship it looks like a sheild of sorts and can also be changed colors, its much easier to do compared to the Neon glow shield, and the masking can always be changed to another type or another can be added, the ship can have another pattern on it to show it has hull plating and the chrome can always be there but will be a different color for different shields.

the partial crome looks like a true, rugged ship; like what you would expect of a well-traveled freighter. I think the distortion and opacity fit well with cloaking, how about your next test-image you show a fully loaded cruiser (very little cloak but with lots of guns) or a near-invisible ship (like when you scan a ship in the battle tab and all that comes up in modules are 'unkown')?

Ive been reading bout that Cosmic Supremacy game and it looks interesting. What is your opinion on it Chalit?(Dont worry Dan, Im still gonna play GL)

Wall of Text Warning


I've played it, it's fun and the graphics are simple, but the complexity of the game is what gets me and makes it surpass this... i just don't have the time to play it, because i play WoW, for the time it takes to really play a game other than a sandbox.... heck i played it in beta back when it was called Space Civilizations... got an email when it went live and went oh i remember this. Though this game does remind me of CS a lot this game still plays more like castle age or mobsters than CS.



The way i figgered the partial chrome lends itself better to a sort of enveloping shield sort of fits around and in every nook and cranny of the whole outer hull. its easier to see with a different color I figger Ice Blue would be Default shields, and each shield after would change the color each set would be a certain shade so your first set of 3 shields might be varying shades of blue: Ultramarine Blue, Enchanted Blue, Midnight Blue; the next 3 would be Golden Yellow , Sunburst Yellow , Badmoon Yellow ; etc etc and possibly the best shield is red perhaps Blood Red.
All "Special" Colors mentioned above are property of Games Workshop/Citadel Paints
Images

• Shield
• Cloak

Things to do in the future

• last on my list of things to do, and the lowest priority for now, i will see if i can get Hypercam to work for at least 10 min so i can make a youtube video of a single edit of the base. I'll show the making of the battleship.

I found a new way to "cloak" the ship ill post a pic of it up when i can get around to it ill put it in link above EDIT: Done

Dan i would love to have a link to the images folder of the game or a Gallery so I or anyone else could get the images out to test out multiple configurations of ship modules and ship types. You might even get more motivated people than me posting images, the community is here to help.

Also I'm going to reiterate GIMP on every post now since its FREE and does everything Photoshop does.

I like it too, downloaded it.(I LOVE complicated games )
On topic now, I like the new cloaking but I think there should at least be an outline of the base ship. And the sheilding is good too. MY IDEA OF THE COLORS
Magnetic deflectors: Mk III(I know Im doing this backwards but I feel like its easier to come up with the next one like that), Mk II, Mk I
Hull Polarizers: Mk III, Mk II, Mk I
Inverse Graviton Fields: Mk III, Mk II, Mk I
Force Shield: Mk III, Mk II, Mk I
Lattice sheilds(youll have to do something different to make this, Im giving color of the lines): Mk III, Mk II, Mk I
Phase shields: Mk III, Mk II, Mk I
Disruption sheilds: Mk III, Mk II, Mk I

Ok a few of you want to see a different shield with the Lattice shield so here is what i did i shut off the other shield made a new layer and Filtered the layer with the CROSSHATCHING filter

IMG: 25% opacity on shield, NO CLOAK.



FYI the GW/citadel colors i used can be found here the file is a pdf so make sure you have a reader of some sort or just download it to your computer like i did. The PDF comes with the HEX(#81D3EB = Ice Blue) code an RGB(129:211:235 = Ice blue) code of each color.


Also I'm going to reiterate GIMP on every post now since its FREE and does everything Photoshop does.

Shields aren't all tight to the ship. Judging by discription and what I know:

Magnetic Deflectors warp attacks away from the ship but break down easily (by low shield bonus). They opperate in the area around the ship.
Hull Polarizers defuse incoming attacks as they impact the ship but can't diffuse too much energy at a time (like the phase armor of Gundams). They opperate within a hair's width of the ship.
Inverse Graviton Fields work just like magnetic deflectors but with considerably more force and capacity (because gravitons are more powerful than magnets). They opperate in the area around the ship.
Force Projection Fields are a step higher, as attacks loose momentum against the field just as much as they are deflected. They opperate in the area around the ship.
Lattice Fields layer a shifting cross-hatch of phased energy over a Force Projection Field, looking like a cage made of an electrically-charged fishing net. (I've seen one so I know this is how it looks)

And that's as far as I have researched.

Ill explain the real science behind it
Magnetic Deflectors: Uses a magnetic feild to deflect charged particles from a ship, magnetic feilds are large, many times larger than the ship. Effects: Deflects objects through electromagnetism

Hull Polarizers: This makes the ENTIRE SHIP EXTERIOR a sheild, it is not :a hairs width", these turn the ENTIRE SHIP into a sheild. Effects: Creates an electromagnetic charge in the ships hull that dampens impact

Inverse Graviton Fields: Inverse Gravity is what has been proposed to make UFO's float, it deflects the UFO from the ground, so it would be good for a sheild because it deflects object from the ship. This is MUCH larger than magnetic deflectors, because gravity extends TO THE END OF SPACE, this sheidl is of infinete size, but its effective range would depend on the size of the device. Effects: The opposite of gravity(this would also work on energy)

Force Projection Feilds: This normally consists of a feild of charged particles around a ship. in real life, plasma controlled by magnetism is used to create experimental force feilds. Effects: Slows down incoming projectiles immensly. From my knowledge I do not think energy weapons would be stopped

Lattice Fields: Yes, you are correct. Lattice shields consist of lasers or phased energy crossing each other very tightly to vaporize any incoming SOLID object, but it would not work against lasers or phased energy because a laser passes thru a laser Effects: vaporizes incoming projectiles, lasers and phased energy pass through

I'm Done for now ill let you guys mess with this stuff now... trying to get the shields right for you is almost impossible and i understand why Dan used the shield he did.

list of things you'll need to edit and show off your ship images.
-Photobucket is a great place to store images and its free up to a point. Any similar page will do.
-Like i said before GIMP is free and does the same things as photoshop. any similar program will do.

I'll leave at that, but i will check this thread now and then.

I was just thinking we did not have to go through all that and instead could add on more things to the ship as it grows and just start out with the basic chasis and engines command center thing. Or we could just change the color scheme or shield colors. Or we could make your ship customizable by choosing your own color and shield schemes, which also would not be to hard. Coloring can be done by many basic newbie artists easily and shields would only be slightly harder. I could even do ship colors if I had the time and I could do them in paint. But unfortunately I have not a whole lot of time on my hands due to family, friends, and beta testing.

This is more of what I was thinking. They're not great - but they get my point across.

Start (almost like a shuttle):


Light Cruiser:


Battleship (current):

What I think would be really cool, is if you start with a basic image of the ship, and see the modifications as you upgrade.

I've seen this in other games, and and it was one of my favorite aspects. I am sure that I am not alone in this. It would also provide a greater integration of the racial and profession aspects in the game, thus improving playablility.

It is a matter of setting up an array of images. Any ship image therefore, is not a single image, but a composite. The composite would be based on race, profession, ship class, range of decks, and items installed. Functionally, it would still be a single image displayed. The image would be selected based on the location in the array of the ships complement. Speed wise, nothing should change, because only a single image is being retrieved. The image selected would only change when modifcations to the ship is made. This would be only a matter of changing the array pointer location.

A graphic artist would be needed of course, but the basic images are there, and hundreds of images would be required. Start with a racial design image, add a profession alteration image, add a class alteration image, add a deck size alteration image, add an item or artifact image alteration, etc....

Its the old addage... an image is worth a thousand words....

The only problem I could see with that is having to code it just right and coding things like that can some times take from less then a day but also up to as much as a month depending on the number things needed to be linked together. Also I would something like this taking even some of the best "hobbiest" graphics designer a good one to two months. The coloring I could see being done much easier since you could simply start with a few colors or designs and then branch them out over time. But you would have to make this feature available to everyone and free or I could foresee a lot of complaining. Of course this is all up to what dan thinks would be best.

I might also mention that you could make a few pay only designs like flames added to the ship or something. It may surprise you how many people would pay for something that would make their ship unique. In example the Dark Orbit developers have one design on their best ship that they sell for $30 dollars, and a lot of people have bought it.

I am not opposed to paying for design (decals if you will). That is the whole concept behind paying for skins for phones or even web browsers, etc. Dan needs to have a revenue source, and I support that. But I think that skins are a different concept to what I was proposing.

I do realize that it is a major project. Something to aspire to. Perhaps a longer term project.

Well as soon as dan comfirms one of these ideas he could contact the people over at Pirates of the World and see who did their designs and parts.