Better Times

[0ldSkull]

Well, it seems there is always room to improve on it and learn. Thanks for your kind thoughts.

 

[NeonSturm]

I'm pretty excited. It's really something special that you are still making this so many years later.

Agree

Even more amazing is that I think you're the only dedicated and talented Starmaker Schine hasn't hired.

Actually, we all develope.
The only difference is that the development of our brains is not shared as Java / C++ code.​

 

[0ldSkull]

If you can forgive the quality of my screenshotting, I've taken a few to illustrate some of the differences since some interest was expressed. There's no way to show everything, but I've selected a few parts of scenes to highlight the changes in hull quality, system block materials, and the girder makeover (which ties into the theme consistency, if you happen to examine some other blocks).

I'm not sure that the new armor surfaces really "show" well via these static images. I think you really get the effect better when moving around in-game.

Spoiler: 3.7 black standard with grey advanced armor

Spoiler: 4.0 black standard with grey advanced armor

Spoiler: 3.7 black/grey armor close-up

Spoiler: 4.0 black/grey armor close-up

Spoiler: 3.7 shield/storage/computer

Spoiler: 4.0 shield/storage/computer

Spoiler: 3.7 blue/grey standard armor

Spoiler: 4.0 blue/grey standard armor

Spoiler: 3.7 girder/shipyard

Spoiler: 4.0 girder/shipyard

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

Huh, wish I'd been poking around here in this thread when you first posted that update.
Sorry in advance for how harsh this may sound, I'm quite bad at being "nice" with criticism.

I like just about everything that was done, save one single change.
What you did to the Standard armor bsically screws over it's entire "riveted" look.

Do you know how far out most rivets poked from whatever they were in? Literal. Inches. The "flattest" rivet I ever saw (from I-beams being removed from a building being demolished) were poking out a half-inch.
(I'm aware that you can't really have the rivets cast shadows like you'd need them to, given how the game's lighting engine works)

The 3.7 version of that block was the better one, the rivets were clearly rivets.
The 4.0 version? They may as well be dust bunnies, given how easily they dissapear.

I quite like the change to the ADV armor, nearly all of the "diamond plate" I see out in the real world had the top of the diamond flattened like in 4.0.


So, with that criticism tossed out, is there anything new going on, or is everything basically done barring some new blocks getting dumped into the game?

 

[0ldSkull]

Thanks for the feedback! If I remember correctly, during that update the game was going through some lighting changes and I subdued the rivets to prevent them dominating the image. I agree with you and will increase them in the next update, as it appears that will look OK in the current game.

I do have a compatibility update coming for the new game version. Following that I will likely work on another quality update to look at things like improving specular surface effects for some non-hull blocks, make some adjustments to weapon modules, and maybe add some more emissive lights in keeping with the new Default texture direction.

 

[Saxopi]

Super cute! o3o

 

[NeonSturm]

I am not sure wether I like the 3.7 to 4.0 girder update.
It looks more realistic now, but not as pretty. Perhaps the big scale is different but it's hard to try out everything new asap.

0ldSkull : you could make GIFs, I am just waiting for schema-creeps

 

[Markus_McCloud]

Let me try to expand the story on the download page...

Spoiler: Here goes nothing...

There was a time. A time when innovation and production triumphed and peaked, when things were built and used for a purpose. A time when every scrap of technology wasn't precious. A time when we didn't have to fight and scrape for everything we needed. It was a glorious era. Everyone was happy. It seemed like the good times would never end...

Then came The Collapse.

We're not sure how it happened, or why no one saw it coming; perhaps we were just blinded by our own ignorance. The whole Senate building was left in ruin. Not a soul escaped the inferno. In a single instant, the entire galaxy was plunged into chaos.

Businesses collapsed... Governments dissolved into anarchy... Families turned on each other... Pirates roamed free once again...

There was a time, but things happened. And happened, and happened again. Some would say there were many times... different times... better times.

Nothing remains of society except the occasional lone starship, drifting aimlessly from planet to planet, hoping desperately that someday they'll find something.

What they are looking for, even they don't know.

I'm not the best writer, but I thought I'd try my hand at enlarging the story.

 

[0ldSkull]

'Tis the season! Share a touch of creepiness with a modified theme (ready for game version 0.201.200)...
Better Times Horror