Female Avatar: Stephanie (the counterpart to Steve)

[Asvarduil]

While Steve is an awesome character, who should be totally iconic, I can't help but think the game forces the player into a box.

I think it would be a pleasant cosmetic choice, to be able to choose either Steve, our current male pilot...or Stephanie, his female counterpart. It wouldn't change anything, it'd just be for looks, and because in online games, we need to support our G.I.R.L. population. Female players might just enjoy the choice, as well!

Thoughts, on providing a female mesh & skin to players?

 

[therimmer96]

the feminists found us!

(not really)

I sort of agree. Its such a small thing that does it really matter? You're never going to see yourself, and if you care that mcuh, make a skin, or find one here, I believe kupu or Omni made a female dave once.

 

[Asvarduil]

the feminists found us!

What!? Crap. Everyone hide.

(not really)

Oh, thank God.

I sort of agree. Its such a small thing that does it really matter? You're never going to see yourself, and if you care that mcuh, make a skin, or find one here, I believe kupu or Omni made a female dave once.

It's a small thing, it just occurred to me out of the blue. A female Steve/Dave/whatever the protagonist's canon name is (is that really important?) is just another nice choice to further define your avatar, in addition to what ship you're running around the galaxies in. I agree it's definently a post-alpha nice-to-have, though.

 

[aceface]

AnnaShade017 is someone who's very talented at making skins, especially female ones.

I think this is a good idea. Just have an option in the launcher to switch between dave and daisy. I can't imagine this being too hard.

 

[Master1398]

Steve? Who is Steve?
The current astronaut is Dave...

 

[Asvarduil]

Steve? Who is Steve?
The current astronaut is Dave...

Fine. Delphine. I always thought she was a total badass in Skyrim anyways.

 

[Master1398]

Fine. Delphine. I always thought she was a total badass in Skyrim anyways.

Actualy i think Omni once said that Daves female counterpart, if made, will be named Daisy after the song that HAL 9000 sings in the movie '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

 

[NuclearFun]

AnnaShade017 is someone who's very talented at making skins, especially female ones.

I think this is a good idea. Just have an option in the launcher to switch between dave and daisy. I can't imagine this being too hard.

absolutely agree! i recommend http://starmadedock.net/content/engineer-girl.821/

 

[Valiant70]

Dave is a placeholder texture. His sole purpose is to make you look like a human instead of a textureless form floating around until you upload your own skin. Do we need more than one texture? Not really, unless we get a female character mesh.

 

[Auriga_Nexus]

Speaking as someone who role-plays Starmade as a space-faring magical girl who has no qualms about "befriending" an entire planet if they get in her way (1), this and more texture options needs to happen.

Spoiler: Works Cited

(1) Simbo, A. (Director), & Tsuzuki, M. (Writer) (2004). Tanaka, Y. (Executive Producer), Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Tokyo: Seven Arcs, Naonha Project.


And yes I did just post that in APA format :p

PS: Though if we do allow female characters how are we going to handle the... you know, chest? I mean it'd look kind of awkward just having two blocks there. And as far as rendering curves on the space-suit texture or else foregoing them entirely, while I'm never one to say no to a little flat justice it still seems to be unrealistic...

 

[Valiant70]

I have no problem with adding a female texture, but I think there should be a female mesh too if anyone's going to add a female default.

 

[jayman38]

...PS: Though if we do allow female characters how are we going to handle the... you know, chest? I mean it'd look kind of awkward just having two blocks there. And as far as rendering curves on the space-suit texture or else foregoing them entirely, while I'm never one to say no to a little flat justice it still seems to be unrealistic...

I believe a shallow wedge or pair of mirrored wedges going all the way across the chest would be more in keeping with the simple-figure aesthetic and would better reflect smooth-line female sci-fi uniforms of years past. Generally, each individual breast is not highlighted unless the uniform is (imho) overly sexualized. More natural uniforms will generally have almost a straight-line from nipple to nipple.

Double-wedge body cross-section:
|--\
| /
| |
+-+

Straight-line uniform/suit examples:

 

[Asvarduil]

I believe a shallow wedge or pair of mirrored wedges going all the way across the chest would be more in keeping with the simple-figure aesthetic and would better reflect smooth-line female sci-fi uniforms of years past. Generally, each individual breast is not highlighted unless the uniform is (imho) overly sexualized. More natural uniforms will generally have almost a straight-line from nipple to nipple.

Double-wedge body cross-section:
|--\
| /
| |
+-+

Straight-line uniform/suit examples:

I can't help but adore that officer image...that would be a great female skin...

 

[GaeasSon]

It wouldn't take much, heck I say use the same skin for both Dave and Dani (well that's what I'd call her. or maybe Dana?) _Slightly_ narrow the shoulders and waist relative to the hips. _Slightly_ expand the pectoral areas of the mesh, preferably without cleavage. I like the idea, but she needs to be a vehicle for players to feel comfortable in. Dani should be a pressure-suited astronaut who just happens to be female... or at least slightly more femininely proportioned than Dave.

 

[NeonSturm]

I can't help but adore that officer image...that would be a great female skin...

I think it doesn't fit too well.

The purple is ugly.
The shoes are perhaps better in low-gravity environments, but do you really want a military officer in such shoes where they should represent strength rather than domination by gaining devotion?

And it has too many corners for a truly female skin.
Even male bodies are round, just with more small curves than big dominating ones.

The male "corners and edges" are not real corners and edges, but highlights for certain parts or an aspect of the body.​

And now you throw in this picture of very real corners and edges on a female body!

Dave "would be a woman" compared to that​

EDIT: Perhaps this is some person, but should not be default for female skins.

This fits much better.​

We also need a child-skin BTW :D

 

[Malacodor]

While Steve is an awesome character, who should be totally iconic, I can't help but think the game forces the player into a box.

I think it would be a pleasant cosmetic choice, to be able to choose either Steve, our current male pilot...or Stephanie, his female counterpart. It wouldn't change anything, it'd just be for looks, and because in online games, we need to support our G.I.R.L. population. Female players might just enjoy the choice, as well!

Thoughts, on providing a female mesh & skin to players?

Are you trying to implicate that female players are too stupid to use custom skins?

 

[AnnaShade017]

I would really like to see a more feminine mesh to make more appropriate-looking female skins. I agree with the OP that having a cosmetic choice in the future would be nice. Though once taking it to that level, I wouldn't mind seeing other models (like aliens) or support for people to put in their own meshes/models.

Proportionally, for a female version. I'd like to see one that was very similar to Dave except for the upper chest extending outwards a bit, and the waist to go in a bit. (To give a more feminine curve, making the hips seem slightly larger without actually changing them to be any wider than the shoulders) In this way, I'd hope a female version that became more widely used would fit in with the style of the game already put forth by the current models, while also looking feminine from the front/side/back. (And yet nothing so ridiculous as giant breasts, a tiny waist, and heels.)
Besides wanting to see other models, and variety, I feel a female model (along with other varieties of humanoids) would be especially nice to see. Dave is simple enough that you can make a great variety of skins, I think, BUT he also has far more detail than any Minecraft skin, and with that I feel it is more difficult to try to make a skin deviate greatly from Dave's model without looking silly and out of place.

Basically, I'd like to see more models, but I'd also sincerely hope for those models to flow with the current style in the game. But before that happens I'd hope all the bugs with the model/skins had been worked out to the dev's satisfaction before moving forward on that specific front.

Spoiler: Side-related-point: Female Shading Template

Until that time comes, I don't mind the current set up for making skins. I feel it was generally well thought-out giving plenty of room for players to customize.

I've been working on a female shading template, which seems to be the tricky part for those making female skins. I still feel like it could be better, so I'll likely still think of it as a WIP until otherwise stated. I haven't used it on any female skins at this point, but it should do what I'd usually do for shading a female skin. So if anyone wants to play around with this shading template, have a go!


Apply the same way as the regular shading layer for Dave, for best results in photoshop: Set to multiply and adjust opacity from there if needed.

TL;DR - I agree with most of the previous comments. Thumbs up on female model + skin as a default choice, BUT I'd also like to see more options when it gets to that point if possible.

 

[jayman38]

Are you trying to implicate that female players are too stupid to use custom skins?

I don't think that was the OP's implication. I think it's more of a case of female players not bothering to play with the game at all if they don't feel like they can find a decent starting representational avatar to use. After all, there are lots of games requesting your attention, so it's easy to pass over one.

The following is a quick article about the lack of female characters in the Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The bottom line? A game without a female avatar basically gives female players the message that "This is for boys". A real shame, and a real reason not to play the game in the first place.

http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/140610/ghostbusters-video-game-pc-version-needed-female-avatar/

 

[Snk]

Been suggested before: http://starmadedock.net/threads/def...-races-and-genders-for-players-and-npcs.3780/

 

[Asvarduil]

I don't think that was the OP's implication. I think it's more of a case of female players not bothering to play with the game at all if they don't feel like they can find a decent starting representational avatar to use. After all, there are lots of games requesting your attention, so it's easy to pass over one.

The following is a quick article about the lack of female characters in the Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The bottom line? A game without a female avatar basically gives female players the message that "This is for boys". A real shame, and a real reason not to play the game in the first place.

http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/140610/ghostbusters-video-game-pc-version-needed-female-avatar/

No. I had no social agenda with this suggestion. The fact that it might help with that would just be a fortunate side effect.