Races- Using factionwide custom texture packs

[Calbiri]

Using factionwide custom texture packs, you could upload a texture pack and assign it as your factions official textrue, so that when anyone else sees you, they see your faction claimed entitys as that custom texture pack. and each faction could have its own unique look in the game
im not sure how doable this might or might not be, but it sounds cool, so here it is :D

 

[Nitris]

Yes, I like this, allow me to make more of my things different shades of grey/black and green. =D

Ohh, how about faction wide player skins? Optional per player of course.

 

[MrFURB]

That\'s an awesome idea... But some people could take advantage of that by making something with no texture or just a plain black texture. If this is implemented it\'d need to be quite limited.

 

[schema]

Custom textures per faction are theoretically possible, but there are up/download problems (since every player would have to have every sheet), as well as performance problems (changing of texture sheets mid draw), as well as gameplay problems like MrFurb pointed out.

 

[MichaelSeph]

Blocks texture changes should not be needed for factions, what can work out is player skins per faction :D It\'s what the thread\'s title would really mean \"Races\", the Calbiri swarm could have the player skin of a different race than human, like, Zergs. Galaxy Rangers could have our badge on the chest, and some cool white + blue space suit, and so on. This would work on players uploading their own skins on the server, and use them in a similar way how players can buy and use ships from the server\'s database.
The game/server could provide a limited serie of block texture packs for factions to pick, so they would already be part of the game itself (no issues with uploading and less issues with loading), and there would be no abuse problems like MrFurb said. The texture packs should just be different at hull blocks, lights, factory and ship parts blocks. Except more hi-res textures for natural blocks, I really see no reason to have them look in a different way.
Texture packs for natural blocks make no sense, rock is rock no matter you are human, zerg, protoss, martian or a damn worm. And it still looks like rock. Same for trees, grass, dirt, etc.

 

[Calbiri]

alright, likely my idea will never see the light of day, but thanks for the input (i do like michaels idea for faction wide skins)
the abuse could be fixed in 2 ways,
1st, dont allow transparency on spaceship blocks (and i did only suggest custom ship textures, not natural/sprite blocks) and the \"black\" suggestion wouldnt work, black hull for example shows up quite well, particularly with lots of stars and background images behind it.
2nd, simply give the admin control of uploading or assigning the texture to the faction, this would screen the texture packs to avoid exploits, and limit the packs uploaded to the most active factions (not have tons of packs for 1man factions who are not active) (this is precisely what michael suggested with the limited pre-loaded set of packs to pick from)
that would solve all but the performance issues schema mentioned, which on there own might be enough to kill my idea, unless someone figures out a possible way around it.

 

[MichaelSeph]

Yes, if the game itself accepts some textures players make, and put it in the build, it would already have and offer a dozen of blocks texture pickable for factions on every server. Then, the server admin (of each server) could accept more blocks textures from players after \"checking\" them and make sure they are \"ok\", to be used on that certain server.
So Factions like Calbiri swarm could use ship parts where the hull blocks look like being alive/organic/out of meat, where each color is just another meat/flesh/organic texture ment to be combined with other \"colors\" to make complex live organic spaceships. Some \"legal\" and \"diplomatic\" factions would make several types of white /light colored hull blocks to make nice shiny ships. And such stuff, imagine the possibilitiies. It would bring a nice diversity to Starmade, but I feel like mentioning again that the natural blocks should not have different versions, at least not in the official build. If server admins wanna add such stuff, up to them. If a dog see everything in black and white, that does not change how the world/blocks really look like, so different races is not a reason for changing how natural blocks look like. There can be higher res or nicer texture pack for natural blocks, but keeping that texture as common for all the rest texture packs :D
At players skin, there is no abusable detail, if he wants to make himself invisible, that\'s ok, he\'s still in middle of a big rhomb/diamond shape to select him and it\'s not fun, not nice, not a big deal, so later he will use some nicer player skin. So each faction could use any player skin they want to represent their faction, or even race as there are more than just humans in space.

As some know, beetlebear did a great job making the current texture pack, maybe he has more ideas for ship parts that never got the chance to exist :D And other people with imagination and time.

This would first need schema to make the idea possible within the game engine itself, to have like a catalog of block skins you can pick. So that\'s why it\'s eventually up to him ^^

 

[Legolas170]

Seeing as the texture catalog is being added...

 

[Comr4de]

The topic is dead, leave it be. I can\'t believe you kids, thread timelock WHEN

 

[Legolas170]

Simply because the thread has not been active does not mean that it is no longer a valid idea. I\'d prefer to necropost on a valid topic rather than further clutter the forums.

 

[NeonSturm]

But we already got (or will get) modern, comic, classic now

I think the bigger problem is if somebody makes a new block, make a custom one for each faction-texture-pack. Not only if somebody makes a new block - think of server-custom-blocks?

A few examples: Extra Hard Armour in every color with wedges and corners, Gogo-Girl/Vote-Blocks or the 12 arrow blocks (green/red/blue up/down/left/right) on sunworld.

 

[BeefBacon]

I\'ve seen this idea brought up a couple of times, and I like it. Allows players to put more of their style into their ship designs. Of course it is exploitable, but I\'m sure there are ways around any foreseeable exploits. Include a number of caveats for people uploading their own texture packs, for example;

-Pixels must have a minimum brightness. Pixels that are particularly dark could be forced to be dark grey rather than pitch black.

-Give glass and other textures that require alpha their own texture sheet that cannot be uploaded. Perhaps do the same with animated blocks. Or put hull and decorative block textures into their own sheet, since they will be the textures that will be edited the most.

-Limit texture resolution to 32x32 so as to not clog servers up with HD texture packs

-Add a system where a texture pack is only updated for a client when that client logs in. They download any missing textures when they join the game. Perhaps they could be notified when a new texture pack has been uploaded so they can choose to relog if they so desire.

 

[NeonSturm]

But we could include a paint gun vs super-black hull :D

The pain gun will color every hull it hits to something bright (except you use it to color your own ship in black out of combat).

It uses low energy as it actually does no real damage and penetrates shields (no antimatter, uncharged, kinetic force behind the shield does not matter).