SA Beta Sign-ups!

[Gravedust]

Okay! I think Steam Armada is ready enough for some testing!

If you're interested in playing, just let me know here. I have a short preliminary scenario planned that will be a bit different than the proper game.

Everyone will start with a Vagabond class ship, and $200,000 to hire and equip a crew.

Turns will take place every other day, to give people plenty of time to give orders.

Check out the rules as well, or at least the Introductory section, if you are already familiar with the airship combat rules.

Not too much has really changed, but a few things have been simplified.

So, if interested, sign up here. Game will start once we have some players and I have time to set up.

[jazzs3quence]

I'm in. Gimme a ship!

[Gravedust]

*Hands you a Vagabond*

Take it! Take it!!! IT'S HEEEAAAVVYYY!!!!

Hehe.. As soon as you sign up you can go ahead and name your ship, choose colors, crew, crew names, nose art, etc. Check the introduction for more details.

For this mod you won't have to worry about upkeep costs or buying new ships, so feel free to spend all the cash you've got.

[jazzs3quence]

Cordelia
Colors: [Main: Black][Detail: Darker Black]
(( or, in other words: Main: #444444/Detail: #111111 ))

Crew
Captain - Veteran
Pilot - Elite (Elite Skill: Extra Evasive)
Cannoneer - Veteran
Cannoneer - Regular
Cannoneer - Regular
Musketeer - Regular
Musketeer - Regular
Engineer - Regular
Engineer - Elite (Elite Skill: Reinforce)
Medic - Regular
Swashbuckler - Regular
Roustabout - Regular

Jetpack x3
Grenade x5
Sapper Bombs x2
Cutting Torch x1
Parachute x12



(( if I have times, I'll come up with names, otherwise, I'm fine with whatever you come up with. I think my math is right... ))

[Gravedust]

Mokay, all looks good so far. I'll generate some names but you can change them to whatever, whenever.

( www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickname)

Ooh.. Please choose an elite skill for your Pilot and Engineer.

[jazzs3quence]

done. random generated names are fine.

[Gravedust]

Well then, here's your ship and intrepid crew:

==================================================
::::SHIPS::::
CORDELIA [Vagabond]

:::CREW:::
[Daryl Whitney][Veteran Captain][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1-none][Item2-None]
-
[Elias Graves][Elite Pilot][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Extra Evasive][Item1][Item2]
-
[Terrence Hopper][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Rosalie Pratt][Regular Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Jake Glenn][Regular Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Eugene Wells][Regular Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Thaddeus Gillian][Regular Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Lucio Glass][Regular Engineer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Lionel Potts][Elite Engineer][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Reinforce][Item1][Item2]
-
[Adela Glass][Regular Medic][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Beth Knox][Regular Swashbuckler][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Adam Bowyer][Regular Roustabout][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]

:::INVENTORY::::
Jetpack x3
Grenade x5
Sapper Bombs x2
Cutting Torch x1
Parachute x12

:::BANK::::
$2,000
===================================================

Funny thing about the name generator: I've seen the same last names come up fairly frequently compared to first names, so there's a chance you can get people who are 'related' like Adela and Lucio Glass. Kind of fun. I do cherry pick names though to weed out the ones that are really long or sound dumb. Also there's a 25% chance that crew will be female when they're made.

I'm virtually certain that nobody cares about this, but *The More You Know*

[Gravedust]

Sneek peek.


Prince Camris. A man beset by fate and strange facial hair.


I think this is the art style I'll be using for SA, since it matches pretty well with the compartment stuff I've done.. But more importantly it doesn't require inking, and can be done pretty damned fast. Ironically this was also the first drawing I've actually inked in almost a year. Think it turned out pretty well.. Not that you can see it since I didn't #$%^&* use it. Heheh...

[brendur]

..... I demand that some time during the campaign he call someone "detective".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xK4IixBTZA

Oh and you can sign me up ;D I'll just need a bit to churn out my crew stats.

[Gravedust]

Hahaha.. Holy crap! Okay if it isn't already, that hairstyle shall henceforth be known as the Al Ghul.
...and I'll see what I can do about 'Detective'...

[jazzs3quence]

Okay, so my next ship will be named "....Orpheus"

Also, I just wanted to say that we should, at some point, run a game -- either SA or SP -- in which there is invented a new ship class, the Firefly, and the crew consists of:

Elite Captain
Elite Pilot
Veteran Musketeer (this could be promoted to an Elite)
Regular Musketeer (could be promoted to a Veteran)
Elite Medic
Veteran Roustabout
Regular Roustabout
Elite Mechanic

(( I couldn't help but think of that when I was assembling my crew... ))

[Gravedust]

Hehehe. I'm sure I can whip up some sort of firefly analogue as a ship...

Oh and in orther news, while I was doing Camris Al Ghul's portrait last night it dawned on me that if I use that style I can rig up a system by which I can generate unique(ish) bust portraits for all the crew relatively easily, so when they talk you'll know who's saying what.

Say like:
5 head shapes
8 uniform styles (to denote Class)
10 hairstyles
10 eye variations
10 eyebrow variations
10 mouth variations
10 nose variations
10 'accessories' (scars, earrings, eyepatches etc)

Gives you a couple million possible combinations. :3

Hair can be recolored at will, and uniform colors will follow the main/detail colors of their faction. I can even pass out the photoshop file so you can make your own combinations.

Neat, I think!

I'll start working on it today if I get the time.
Goliath vanity picture be damned!

[jazzs3quence]

I'd be interested in poking at the psd...

[Gravedust]

Whew, so okay, Got a basic version of the character portrait maker thing going, witness the results here:



It shoudl be noted that the only changes I made were activating different layers and changing colors occasionally, mostly on hair.

Head shape, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, and uniform are all separate and can be swapped around. Colors can be changed by either Adjust Hue or just Filling (all color fields are completely flat and non anti-aliased, so you can zero-tolerance Select and zero tolerance fill without damaging or leaving artifacts on the fields. They -look- smooth anti-aliased because of the way photoshop outputs. In some spots you can tell.

Anyway. There is also some facial hair I put in that I mostly forgot to use. >.>
Only 2nd Row Guy #1 is using some sideburns with guy #3's (Vegeta. -_-) hairstyle.

I also haven't done any accessories or misc. feaures, like facial scars, goggles, bandanas, monocles, etc.

Everything would look a lot better with more shading, too, but that increases the time by a lot and makes compositing more complicated, and I didn't/don't want to go to that extent till I know it's worth doing.

So I think it works okay as proof of concept at least. If I had done these by hand I would be pretty unsatisfied because there's an artist's touch that's needed to make things really gel together. If you were willing to spend more time on them you could get more cohesive results. As it was I was using a little bit of judiciousness when choosing what goes with that. If you use a truly random selection you get some fugly results at times.

As it is, I can see doing 12-16 crew like this in a sitting, but if we're talking like huge numbers of them... I dunno if it's worth the trouble, not to mention all the files you'd need.

Hurrr.

[jazzs3quence]

that's when you'd employ your developer friend to write an app that could generate portraits. you have a developer friend right? no? hm, neither do i...

[Gravedust]

Ehehe.. Yeah, that'd be nice. -_-

Wellll. As of literally just now I am ready to begin the SA demo. Really all I'm waiting for is Bren's crew picks. After I get those I just need an hour or two to parse his ship and crew and we'll be good to go. (^.^)b

That being said, Bren, if you are hellishly busy or whatnot, don't sweat it. I have plleennntttyy to do so if you have a choice between rushing and getting it done now or waiting and having the necessary time to think and not feel flustered, take the long road.

The actual pace of the game will be 1 round every 2 days.
I.E. I post the turn on Monday morning, you have until 5pm Tuesday to submit orders before the round closes. After the round closes on Tuesday I do all the calculations and produce the next turn, posting it Weds Morning. (Really Tues night, but whatever.)

This is both to give me time to do calculations, and also to make sure there's plenty of time to think about what you want to do, since there's a lot of little variables. Also the intent is for me to have more time to produce art and think of semi-interesting things to add to the game.

It can (and may) go a little faster, but for now that is the plan.

[jazzs3quence]

Hey, slow works for me. It's actually somewhat relieving to only have to worry about one game right now.

[Gravedust]

Eh I'm just happy I go the chance to work on the Goliath vanity pic today. It's been holding up production. Got two more ships to build, and in between I need to do some drawing for other stuff.

..Though I seem to have run out of work I can do at home for the time being, so I may actually get to play a game or two...

[brendur]

yes, sorry, I have been very busy. We had (and are still having) a resonance cascade of fuck ups over here, which have resulted in about 3 nights of overtime already, with more yet to come for those of us who want to keep our jobs. Just do not have the time to build at the moment >.< though I'm dying to blow something up. I should have my head on straight by sunday though, so I'll try to get you something then.

[Gravedust]

No worries. Hope you manage to get everything under control. : /

Sunday would be rad if you can manage it, I can probably have everything ready to go by Monday if things don't show up too late.

Don't mean to be pushy but I'm sort of stuck in 'child on Xmas morning' mode waiting for things to start.

But of course your personal business is more important, get that taken care of first.. The extra wait just means things get slightly prettier.

In other news I will be starting to scout around for more players, at least for SA. I'm out of friends I havent asked, so I'm going to be going on forums, most likely.

The beta can/will probably run with just the two of you, (It's pretty short so far, just 3 missions planned, but it's sort of the prequel to the bigger 1st campaign.) But after that I'd like 4-6 players for a wider scope as I'm planning a wider range of tactical diversity between missions. Escorts, chases, escapes, looting, boarding, besieging, defense, ground attack, the works. So we're going to need some peeps.

So if YOU happen to know anyone who might be interested, (Remember it's a strategy game, so Warhammer geeks, etc. are welcome) please shunt them this way. ;D

[jazzs3quence]

having memories of 3-way Starcraft LAN games....

[jazzs3quence]

I still have fond memories of the Normandy map.

[Gravedust]

Ehehehehe.. Yeah.

Remember all those Blood maps we did? -_-

Actually Kate and I are looking forward to playing some co-op Left 4 Dead, (the first one, though we'll prolly get 2) if either of the two of you are even vaguely interested, that could be fun...

[jazzs3quence]

just about any time I listen to that Rasputina album (or anything off of it) I think about those Blood maps. I remember, too, the Antigrav one you did that exploited a bug in the game...that was frickin' awesome...

Would love to say yes re: Left 4 Dead, but we honestly don't have time to play anything these days :/

[Gravedust]

Okay. Here's what I'm going to do.

I really would like a closed beta, but since Bren's time seems to be at a premium at this exact instant I'm going to begin preparing to make some public announcements of the game and look for players that way.

This will take some time as I have to write a polished introductory post and come up with some decent-looking art to help drum up some interest. But I expect to be done by weds. or so.

Bren, if you get your time sorted and are ready to go by Weds (or sooner, preferably) then I'll go ahead w/ the closed beta with you and Jazz. (again, I'd much rather do it this way to start with) If not then I'll post my public LFM unless I decide I want to get more work done first, or whatever.

The other option being I give Jazz another ship and more moolah for a crew and roll with just him till Bren has a chance to get his feet under him. I figure I'll leave it up to him whether he wants to do it that way or not, but in either case I wouldn't want to start till Weds to give Bren a chance.

Either way if a game does start then of course Bren you'll be totally welcome to join in later, it's pretty easy to adjust enemy forces to account for more or less players.

[jazzs3quence]

If you wanted me to run with 2 ships, I could probably swing that. I invited Motts via his Facebook wall but I dunno what his availability is actually like or how often he checks that. I figured he'd be into it if he had the time.

[Gravedust]

Meh. I haven't got it together enough to go public, really, so let's cut to de chaze.

*Poof!*

Behold! Jazz you are granted another Vagabond and $200k for more crew and such. If you're happy with your original purchase I can do the 2nd up the same as the 1st.


Bren whenever you recover enough to join you are, as before, double super welcome to do so.

[jazzs3quence]

gimme a few, I'll try to whip up a new crew. I may go low on this one for the sake of speed, but I figure 2nd time around'll probably be quicker. I just think it'd be more interesting to not have identical crews...

[jazzs3quence]

And here she is:

Veteran Captain
Veteran Pilot
Veteran Musketeer
Veteran Musketeer
Veteran Swashbuckler
Veteran Engineer
Elite Medic (IV Drip)
Elite Roustabout (Second Strike)
Veteran Cannoneer
Veteran Cannoneer
Veteran Cannoneer

Parachute x11

...and since it's sort of the crew of Serenity (plus 3 cannoneers), we'll call her Ariel.

(my idea is to see what difference experience actually makes on gameplay.)

[Gravedust]

-Erpdated-

Goddamn that's a lot of vets. >.>

For convenience I've kept the two crews separate in ye list.


=========
CREW ONE ( Team Cordelia)

[Daryl Whitney][Veteran Captain][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1-none][Item2-None]
-
[Elias Graves][Elite Pilot][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Extra Evasive][Item1][Item2]
-
[Terrence Hopper][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Rosalie Pratt][Regular Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Jake Glenn][Regular Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Eugene Wells][Regular Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Thaddeus Gillian][Regular Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Lucio Glass][Regular Engineer][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Lionel Potts][Elite Engineer][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - Reinforce][Item1][Item2]
-
[Adela Glass][Regular Medic][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Beth Knox][Regular Swashbuckler][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Adam Bowyer][Regular Roustabout][10/10 Health][0/3 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]


==================
CREW TWO (Team Ariel)

[Dallas West][Veteran Captain][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Eli Marsh][Veteran Pilot][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Andy Fuller][Veteran Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Kay Hanson][Veteran Musketeer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Tanya Morse][Veteran Swashbuckler][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Cheri Richmond][Veteran Engineer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
-
[Rosalind Clements][Elite Medic][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill-IV Drip][Item1][Item2]
-
[Oliver Kirkland][Elite Roustabout][10/10 Health][-/- xp][Skill - 2nd Strike][Item1][Item2]
-
[Gary Kline][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Dwane GrayVeteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]
[Lillie Ellisson][Veteran Cannoneer][10/10 Health][0/5 xp][Skill-None][Item1][Item2]


=====================================
:::INVENTORY::::
Jetpack x3
Grenade x5
Sapper Bombs x2
Cutting Torch x1
Parachute x12


=====================================
::BANK::
$5,000