UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.

[Thrashard96]

you're free to contribute your work.

[H-Hour]

Ok, I am not a programmer of any sort, however I have done some writing at an amateur level.  I've done a lot of writing for my own personal RPG gaming, as well as contributed to some fan fiction sites for MMORPGs (links provided upon request).

I am currently playing 2.3, and have noticed there are some missing descriptions for some of the later aircraft.  Is this something you are looking for contributions for, or is the focus now on the 2.4 version?

As a huge fan of the X-Coms, and put a good part of my free time in playing those, I'd be willing to help out with this project, if my limited skillsets should allow.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the writing. I believe Winter has done most of it so that there is strong consistency of style and content. If you can match this then your contributions would be welcome.

Writing contributions are some of the hardest to integrate simply because of the need for more consistency than we might need in other areas. It might be best if you first prepared a post with a list of the articles you think are missing and a sample of one or two. I only say this so that you don't go diving in with lots of time. At this point you might not find many people following this up simply because no devs have a very complete sense of what's still missing or needed, and I haven't heard much from Winter (who was following this side of things) in a long time.

[DerTee]

Hi!

I'm a game artist and I'd like to contribute, if there is a need for what I can do. My main focus is on character animation, but that said I'm pretty much an allrounder, I can model, texture (a bit slow, to be honest) and rig. I also know a tiny bit of python scripting, if needed (I made some small changes to the blender fbx-exporter for exports to xna and I made a small tool in Maya for copying tangent alignments to different frames).
Some stuff I made:

high poly head
sci-fi-bunker

I'd be very happy to join this project because the original x-com was one of the first games I ever played, so I really like the idea of working on this modern adaption of the classic

[bayo]

Hello and welcome.
Maybe http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=5278.0 can interested you. Origin is working on model and animation, but i understand he dont especially like the animation part.

[H-Hour]

DerTree, your work is fantastic and we'd love to have you.

So far I think Origin has been handling the soldier animations and hasn't had any problems with it. You can definitely send him a PM and see if he wants help, but I suspect it will be his game unless he asks for any help.

We probably need models as much as we need animations (ie - what we have is already animated). Have a look at our general TODO and the TODO for 2.4 under the Artwork section. There's a list of 3D models we need there. The 2.4 list is stuff we need most urgently, and it's got one entry for models: crashed versions of two interceptors. You can see examples of other crashed models at /base/models/objects/aircraft/crash_*.

And I will also make a plug for mapping. The mapping interface is not as easy to use or as advanced as Blender or Maya, of course, but we do need more mappers especially because it doesn't always attract modelers experienced with Blender/3DSM, etc.

Let us know if you have any questions and feel free to make a new thread if you're considering anything specific.

[DerTee]

Thanks! I'm glad you like my stuff 

I sent a pm to Origin, so if he wants me to, I'll work with him on the soldier animations.
For now, I'll look into the crash models of stiletto and stingray.
To be perfectly honest I'm not too keen on mapping, but I'll probably give it a try anyway.

Btw, I had a talk with mattn on IRC the other day and he was nice enough to answer all the questions I had for the time being.

[Origin]

@DerTee

I replied to your personal message, kick ass stuff you have there

It would definately be a huge help to have another person working on models and animation, so whatever amount you want to contribute is greatly welcomed.
Feel kinda bad that i only managed to reply this late

[DerTee]

No problem, I was quite sick for most of last week, so I didn't do much anyway 
And thanks for the compliment!

Collaboration on the same character will probably be quite tricky, because I don't have 3ds max.
But fbx does some good things maybe it'll work that way.

[Adjuchas]

I've been following this project for a good while now and feel it's time I chip in too.
My only real talent is with map editing, I've made maps for pretty much all ID games up to and including Q2.
If you need more map contributors I'll familiarise myself with UFORadient and see if I can come up with something interesting.

[Mattn]

I've been following this project for a good while now and feel it's time I chip in too.
My only real talent is with map editing, I've made maps for pretty much all ID games up to and including Q2.
If you need more map contributors I'll familiarise myself with UFORadient and see if I can come up with something interesting.

YES...!! we need you - we need a lot more maps. see here for a lot of suggestions. i would really like to see more city maps. i also really like the oil platform theme. but it's up to you as long as it fits into the style and looks good we will integrate it

[H-Hour]

Hi Adjuchas! Yes, we definitely need more mappers, especially people who are familiar with id mapping platforms. Most artists these days are familiar with Blender/3DSM/Maya and it's rare for someone to know how to use a radiant-based program.

Mattn gave you a link to suggested maps, but please feel free to do want you want, or make new proposals, or jump on our IRC and ask questions.

Here is the general introduction to mapping in our wiki. You'll find the wiki a useful source for learning things that you may not have experience with from id games, such as levelflags, the material system, our Random Map Assembly (RMA) system. And our mapping category has a list of all the pages as well.

Please post in the mapping forums with any questions or get on IRC.

[Adjuchas]

Thanks for all the info, I've been having a play around with the editor and think I can come up with something
I have a few ideas for suburban, inner city and industrial areas. I'll have more time to play around on the weekend!

[Jack Grey]

Greetings chaps.

I'm a 3D modeler, working mostly in technical applications in AutoCAD (because I can't afford SolidWorks.)

I've got a huge portfolio of models, and I'm adept at converting sketches into 3D models.  I don't animate. 

HOW CAN I HELP?

[Mattn]

hi and welcome

we always need map models like trees, cars, trucks, waste containers - things that add variation to our existing maps

can you show us your portfolio?

[H-Hour]

Hi Jack, yes we could always use more modellers. You can see the main post about needed artwork here (it just links to two to-do lists).

If you have a link to your portfolio or can attach images of stuff you've done, we'll have a better idea of where your skills can be best used.

Feel free to ask any questions in the Artwork forum as well.