Customize your Team! Lets see some Warpaint!

[A Dancin Dog]

Hey, first post. So Hello everyone!

OK, I think this is the kind of game where you become to feel quite attached to a Team you have made. Where you get to make it your own. And I think as the game progresses you will become more attached, because there will be more ways to customize them. And the more details in the game will change how much you’ll have to think about each team.

So If you have ever played Dawn of War then you would have seen the army painter. I think UFO: AI is the perfect game for a feature like this. I just love the idea of having a team where its Custom stats, names, setup, colour scheme and possibly markings and insignia.

Not sure if this idea has come about, but I looked and couldn’t find it. And i’m not sure how hard this would be to put in, but I think it would be awesome.

[Hertzila]

I haven't played Dawn of War and wiki didn't help so I'm a little confused about couple of those.

Custom stats?* You don't mean skills and attributes do you?
Name can already be changed IIRC. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Setup?*
Camouflages can be changed as I think you know. And if you want, you could make your own camo textures by modifying game files.
Insignia can also be modified through game files IIUC. (Is insignia even featured in the game?)

I'm not sure how much work would it take to include an in-game texture modifier for those, though I'm guessing fairly large amount.

*= Care to elaborate?


Welcome to the forums!

[vedrit]

Camouflages can be changed as I think you know. And if you want, you could make your own camo textures by modifying game files.

That is exactly what Dog was talking about.

Played DoW2 and Chaos Rising, so I know what your talking about. While Im not sure of the engines capabilities, I think the only way to create your own camo is by creating new textures and editing the camo selection menu to include the ones you (Or someone else) made

[A Dancin Dog]

Hey.

Well ok i'll just elaborate in order.

Custom stats, I mean like, yeah attributes. Like the stats for each team member, like how strong he is, how good they are with a sniper... etc...

Yes I know the name can be changed ... I was justing listing things that will be customized.

With the custom textures I think it would be better to have it this way for the people who are.... hmm, Well I guess lazy. Using the war-painter idea would be easier and faster.

And no I don’t think insignia is featured in the game, another added feature to go with the war-painter.

I don’t think you would need to modify textures that much. I think you would be able to do it by making textures that go under the normal ones, that change colours in certain spots on the model. So then you make parts of the normal texture partly transparent so then the colours change. I'm not sure if that will work, but it makes sense I think.

[vedrit]

Dog, I mean I dont think it is possible to make custom camo in-game like in DoW, no color wheel to select from. The current selections are pre-made textures.
You sort of have the right idea, but Im really sure it cant be done in-game. You have to edit/create textures in an external program, then edit the game to include the edited/created textures

[A Dancin Dog]

Hmmm, yeah, ok. Ah well.

Would be cool.

I'll have to look at editing some textures.

[Destructavator]

Hmmm, yeah, ok. Ah well.

Would be cool.

I'll have to look at editing some textures.

New soldier models (and textures, animations, etc.) are already in the works, with a lot more new camo patterns/uniform colors to choose from, so if you edit the existing textures and want to contribute them we likely would only be able to use them until the new models come along - although no one will stop you from playing around with existing textures.  (Or were you thinking of a mod of some kind?)  The new models will still take some time, though, just FYI.

On the other hand we could certainly use concept ideas for additional texture skins for the new models.

You'll have to excuse me as I'm not familiar with this other game you mentioned that has editing of textures in-game.

[A Dancin Dog]

My skills in texturing or doing really anything of the likes is terrible, i've never put the hours into have any skills worth using.

Anyway I had a look on youtube for a video to show what I was talking about.
This is a video of the Dawn of War Army Painter. I dont like the video but it shows quite well what the feature does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flFs0F6kJpI

Edit: Or this one. This is kind of better, its from Dawn of War 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKJM6qNIYp0

[bayo]

It is doable with some work. But it need to rendering one texture per customable zone.

For example, a camo with 3 colors can be done with 3 white+transparent textures, and then the engin can rendering each white+transparent textures with a custom color. Maybe we also can do it with less texture and with a fragment program. Sure nothing is done ATM, but it is possible.

For MP game it is a very interesting feature.

[A Dancin Dog]

Yeah that's why I think it would be awesome, for multiplayer. Just set the teams apart, and then for online play you would have more of an idendity. Clans will hopefully pop up and their teams will bare insignia and colours and it would be.... well awesome.

[MCR]

Hey, 'A Dancin Dog' !

Welcome to the forums  .

Although I do not like the videos of the warpainter you posted, because this just looks like boring micromanagement there, I very much like your idea to enhance customization of the team, I think we should combine your idea with this here:

http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4464.0

The different textures you can choose already for your soldiers are not only helpful in attaching the player to the soldiers, but you can use them also to help you identifying each member of your team from a great distance (for instance: all my snipers have arctic camouflage)

@bayo:

Maybe we could expand the code so that different layers of overlays (medals, insignia, ranks) would be applied on the base 2d texture chosen by the player (our premade different colors). So on the battlefield you could identify every member of your team not only by gender, base color of the camouflage texture, armor & head model, but also by their earned medals, rank & insignia (player-chosen) ?

I really think we should  'bout that one...

[A Dancin Dog]

You speak of already being able to choose dirferent textures? Is this on the 2.3 version?? Because I only have 2.1 since i'm on a power pc mac. And I have never compiled or done anything of the kind.

But yes I think the idea sounds good.

[MCR]

I do not exactly remember 2.2.1, but I am sure about 2.3. You can choose different camouflage (4 types @ the moment) 
But thinkin' about it  , I am quite sure this feature is very old & I also remember having used it playin' the latest stable build (2.2.1)...

[MCR]

Maybe you should take a look here:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4337.msg33063#msg33063

I have not tested this, but other mac users seem to be able to play a development version of v2.3. You should give it a try & report the success there...

Here is even a later version, done by Mattn, check this one out first  :
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4380.msg34386#msg34386

[TrashMan]

customizing soldiers? Hell yeah.

Like choosing their head and name...possibly even stats (to a point)...For example, you can re-allocate some points, but within limitations.