Task List
- Thread starter Maniac
- Start date
self biased
Apolyton Refugee
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2002
- Messages
- 30
games workshop. the people who own that particular space marine design. right now it's pretty easily recognizable. maybe tweak the backpack so it's less like a heavy bolter backpack... more bulbous looking and organic. remove the aquilla? that i think may be the biggest identifier.
WarKirby
Arty person
FFH uses the Bloodthirster and some minor demon from Dawn of War, several units from Sid Meier's Pirates!, a treant from Warcraft III, several buildings from Kohan II. you get the idea. Corporations generally don't care much about non-profit fan mods, and it's not worth their time to do anything about it in any case.
If you really want to pursue this line of thinking, consider that the ENTIRE planetfall mod is a trademark and copyright violation to begin with, since it's openly and explicitly based on a commercial game - alpha centaurii - and reuses characters, concepts, unit types, images, names, etc from that.
Also the entire dune wars mod is a violation similarly. Oh, and then there's the star wars mod, of course. And while FFH is kael's original work, many elements within it are not. The Radiant Guard and Sphener units for example, are 3D interpretations of 2D art owned by artists unrelated to the project. Every single leaderhead is copyrighted artwork taken from the internet, sometimes with permission, sometimes not. Likewise with images for scenarios. And then there's all the mp3 music from Arcana in it. And isn't the entire sword and sorcery genre just a big infringement on JRR tolkien anyway ?
Also bear in mind that it's outside of modding plenty, too. Feel free to chase down all the people who cosplay as space marines, or sephiroth, or whatever, for copyright infringement. And go after people who write fanfiction, or create fanart. And it's not even just fans that do it. Corporations rip each other off all the time. Did anyone notice there was a Power fist in Fallout 3? And how many non-starwars games have had lightsabers or some slightly renamed knock off.
Copyright infringement is so ridiculously abundant in every facet of everything, everywhere, that it's generally ignored unless it actually does someone harm, or one company just feels like being a complete prick and alienating their userbase. Distributing free copies of a commercial game for example, can be argued to harm the developer. Distributing one heavily optimised and modded unit from one game, in one specific format for one specific purpose, causes harm to nobody. It doesn't even cause lost sales from people who might have bought dawn of war JUST to rip a space marine model from it, because the unit I've uploaded here is so heavily optimised that a great deal of the original detail is gone. It's polycount is less than a third of what it originally was, the flamethrower is mangled to suit my purposes, and all the other weapons, the helmet, and the original backpack aren't included in the nif..
If you really want to pursue this line of thinking, consider that the ENTIRE planetfall mod is a trademark and copyright violation to begin with, since it's openly and explicitly based on a commercial game - alpha centaurii - and reuses characters, concepts, unit types, images, names, etc from that.
Also the entire dune wars mod is a violation similarly. Oh, and then there's the star wars mod, of course. And while FFH is kael's original work, many elements within it are not. The Radiant Guard and Sphener units for example, are 3D interpretations of 2D art owned by artists unrelated to the project. Every single leaderhead is copyrighted artwork taken from the internet, sometimes with permission, sometimes not. Likewise with images for scenarios. And then there's all the mp3 music from Arcana in it. And isn't the entire sword and sorcery genre just a big infringement on JRR tolkien anyway ?
Also bear in mind that it's outside of modding plenty, too. Feel free to chase down all the people who cosplay as space marines, or sephiroth, or whatever, for copyright infringement. And go after people who write fanfiction, or create fanart. And it's not even just fans that do it. Corporations rip each other off all the time. Did anyone notice there was a Power fist in Fallout 3? And how many non-starwars games have had lightsabers or some slightly renamed knock off.
Copyright infringement is so ridiculously abundant in every facet of everything, everywhere, that it's generally ignored unless it actually does someone harm, or one company just feels like being a complete prick and alienating their userbase. Distributing free copies of a commercial game for example, can be argued to harm the developer. Distributing one heavily optimised and modded unit from one game, in one specific format for one specific purpose, causes harm to nobody. It doesn't even cause lost sales from people who might have bought dawn of war JUST to rip a space marine model from it, because the unit I've uploaded here is so heavily optimised that a great deal of the original detail is gone. It's polycount is less than a third of what it originally was, the flamethrower is mangled to suit my purposes, and all the other weapons, the helmet, and the original backpack aren't included in the nif..
Quibblesome
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2009
- Messages
- 231
I'd figure with IP infractions its a case of getting noticed. Right now this is easily niche enough for no-one to care. If this became immensely popular then I could see GW getting tetchy. They are WELL over the top when it comes to IP. They even pursued fan-made drama using the Dawn of War 1 game.
WarKirby
Arty person
the thunderbolt needs a pedia entry and icon.
Lord Tirian
Erratic Poster
Do you prefer the CivIV-style decal flags (Planetfall uses them right now, i.e. civ-colour + secondary colour) or do you want full-colour flags, like some mods do (I'm mainly asking, because the pirates and the aliens have flags that look more suited to full-colour flags than decals)?
Cheers, LT.
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
Rubin chose to have the current two-colour flags. I don't remember what was the reason. Perhaps it was because the two-colour flags are more clear at the small size of unit flags. Sounds like a good reason. Plus I like the current original-7 flags, so for consistency I'd say the SMAX flags should also be. If you don't have inspiration how they could look, perhaps look at the faction2.pcx and faction3.pcx files. There there are one-colour versions of the faction logos to appear on the monument screen.
Lord Tirian
Erratic Poster
Ah, ok. I was asking because the original seven logos look a bit distorted right now - and the hive black is hard to see on the blue background. I explored the possibilities a bit (see screenshot) and found that I can produce flags with much less distortion (by modifying the flag model itself). I think I'll stick to the two-tone flags, as you pointed out (the PK logo shows why a full-colour flag might be problematic), but use the new model to make them less pixellated (see the spartan logo now).
Cheers, LT.
Attachments
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
If distortion can be fixed, I'm all for it of course. 
That screenshot indeed reinforces my opinion though that full-colour flags are not preferable. To me they somehow look out of place on that screenshot.
That screenshot indeed reinforces my opinion though that full-colour flags are not preferable. To me they somehow look out of place on that screenshot.
Pfeffersack
Deity
If distortion can be fixed, I'm all for it of course.
I somehow agree - the flags are beautiful and very detailed, but they somehow stick out too much and may distract from the rest of the unit.
WarKirby
Arty person
Full color flags are fine. I think they're just a little bright.
maybe tone down the brightness and saturation a little.
maybe tone down the brightness and saturation a little.
Lord Tirian
Erratic Poster
I took a stab at the map... it's standard sized (84x52) and should load fine as scenario in Planetfall. It's only the land/water divide so far, as requested in the task list. Take a look and see how it looks.
Cheers, LT.
Cheers, LT.
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
Awesome! I'll make a rough draft of highlands and ridges, and report back.
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
Bleh. I got bored after ten minutes. I'm no good map creator. If anyone wants to have a go at the slightly edited map attached below by placing highlands, ridges and trenches, go ahead!
These are my thoughts on elevation and trenches:
In SMAC terrain can only increase at most 1000m per plot. Planetfall does not have this restriction with Lowlands/Highlands/Ridges. Furthermore, elevation serves a different gameplay purpose in Planetfall. Its main effect is on the spread of fungus. Fungus can never grow on Ridges, and only on Highlands at high Flowering Counter levels. In addition, you cannot move directly from a lowland plot to a ridge plot, or vice versa. This turns long ridges of Ridge into a defensive barrier. These two effects together can create easily defendable fungus-free zones, which makes running a Terraformed strategy easier. Without large stretches of highlands+ridges, such a strategy would be very impractical. Therefore it's not advisable to try to copy the elevation encountered in the SMAC Map of Planet, where all the coast is lowland, and the more inland, the higher the elevation generally speaking. There should be several plateaus of highland bordered by ridges. And a considerable percentage of the coastline should be Highlands.
Trenches: the SMAC Map of Planet had trenches in the middle of the ocean, evenly placed between continents. Again a limitation of the SMAC elevation system. In reality it's the other way around. Ocean ridges (can be represented by Shelf) often occur in the middle between continental plates. And Trenches often occur right next to a coastal mountain ridge or an island chain. The mapscript represents this by only allowing a Trench to occur if at least one adjacent plot is a highland/ridge and at least on adjacent plot is Ocean terrain. Sea fungus cannot grow on Trenches. As a consequence, trenches serve the same function as Ridges on land: a barrier against fungus, giving easier sea access to those following a Terraformer strategy. While once again liberties could be taken with Trench placement on a premade maps, placing them on plots the mapscript would never do, I feel their main gameplay function should not be forgotten.
These are my thoughts on elevation and trenches:
In SMAC terrain can only increase at most 1000m per plot. Planetfall does not have this restriction with Lowlands/Highlands/Ridges. Furthermore, elevation serves a different gameplay purpose in Planetfall. Its main effect is on the spread of fungus. Fungus can never grow on Ridges, and only on Highlands at high Flowering Counter levels. In addition, you cannot move directly from a lowland plot to a ridge plot, or vice versa. This turns long ridges of Ridge into a defensive barrier. These two effects together can create easily defendable fungus-free zones, which makes running a Terraformed strategy easier. Without large stretches of highlands+ridges, such a strategy would be very impractical. Therefore it's not advisable to try to copy the elevation encountered in the SMAC Map of Planet, where all the coast is lowland, and the more inland, the higher the elevation generally speaking. There should be several plateaus of highland bordered by ridges. And a considerable percentage of the coastline should be Highlands.
Trenches: the SMAC Map of Planet had trenches in the middle of the ocean, evenly placed between continents. Again a limitation of the SMAC elevation system. In reality it's the other way around. Ocean ridges (can be represented by Shelf) often occur in the middle between continental plates. And Trenches often occur right next to a coastal mountain ridge or an island chain. The mapscript represents this by only allowing a Trench to occur if at least one adjacent plot is a highland/ridge and at least on adjacent plot is Ocean terrain. Sea fungus cannot grow on Trenches. As a consequence, trenches serve the same function as Ridges on land: a barrier against fungus, giving easier sea access to those following a Terraformer strategy. While once again liberties could be taken with Trench placement on a premade maps, placing them on plots the mapscript would never do, I feel their main gameplay function should not be forgotten.
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
* Leviathan unit model
* Refugee Ship unit model
Spoiler :
* Refugee Ship unit model
Spoiler :
Lord Tirian
Erratic Poster
I think it's a bit flat (almost the models are a bit too flat and long for land/sea units in my opinion) - but it's a nice base. How is the leviathan supposed to move? Wheels/treads? Hovercraft/antigrav-style?
As above... but probably okay, depending what sort of unit it's going to be - a ship as in literal ship or a space ship?
Cheers, LT.
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
Is the flatness a problem, considering units are viewed from a top view?
They're gravships.
They're gravships.
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
A request for a Consciousness and Pirate cityset has been added to the tasklist.
Monaldinio
Prince
What will be new at next patch?!?!?...hopfuly a lot of new stuff?!?
I have notice that min. 5 Wonders use the same Building....maybe "My Lord" can create some different buildindtypes for each Wonder?!?! That would be nice! And, i remember that some wonders of SMAC are missing...will they intigrated in the Future?!?
What about the Alienfraktion?!?! I have found a nice cityset for them...looks realy Alienlike...
I have notice that min. 5 Wonders use the same Building....maybe "My Lord" can create some different buildindtypes for each Wonder?!?! That would be nice! And, i remember that some wonders of SMAC are missing...will they intigrated in the Future?!?
What about the Alienfraktion?!?! I have found a nice cityset for them...looks realy Alienlike...
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
* Gamefont icons for bonus resources
Spoiler :
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