Two knew feet.(I mean fleets. also I say Hi.)

[Hawkeye66]

(Whispers to self- "Good as place as any to say hi...")

Hi.

This is my very first post in these forums, obviously I'm new. I figured the best way to start out was to make some custom ships so I did. (duh). They really sucked though,(The stock section sprites are so bland, their like wheaty cerial.) So I downloaded all 50,000(It's probably closer to 200) of Keal, Kael (however the heck you spell it(really really sorry 'bout that.)) anyway, that guys sprites. (by the way, they rock!) and started making some ships. In the end I have the beginnings of a fleet (well two fleets. one for each faction. I mean humans have two feet right? so so should ships.) Currently there are six ships, three for each faction, and they are in the following classes. Fighter Bomber, Gunship, Heavy Cruiser.

Each faction is visually and technically different from the other. The aliens use projectile only weopons like cannons and rockets, while the advanced humans use beam weopons. Did I mention their ships are visually different.(I need to stop repeating myself.)( I also need to stop doing this: (Yak yak yak yak yak)

If you slogged your way through the above I'm proud of you, if you didn't I'm happy for you. anyway below are the download links for the ships(I also included a simple encounter for you enjoyment that showcases all the ship types in glorious combat!(Damnit I did the parentheses again!)) I'll put up some screenshots as soon as possible, or yeah there's screenshots in the .zip as well.








The ships are all fairly well balanced If I do say so myself. the heavy cruisers make it to wave 8 using the grinder method. gunships make it to wave 3, and fighters don't even make it past wave 1.

so enjoy and please let me know what you think.



for those of you who don't already know, they use custom sprites so here are some instructions on how to use those.
there is a folder called 'custom sprites' in the file. simply extract that to your main BSF directory and confirm a merging with a folder of the same name(If you already have custom sprites) If you don't then there shouldn't be any problems just move it there.

finally move the ship files and the encounter file to the same directory, and voila! you have them!.

(I seriously hope I gave those instructions right.)

Hawk's Fleet.zip

Here is the file! here it is! download this! yarr!

(1.75 MiB) Downloaded 631 times

[Corporal Jomn]

I believe everyone here (well, at least most of us) knows how custom sprites work.
Now, on to destroying your first post enthusiasm. To put it bluntly, 1: your ships are an eyeburn (the colors clash and they are too saturated), 2: they look like they've been slapped together randomly, 3: SWA sections and stock sprites never go together, 4: recolored weapons look ugly, and 5: you do know Shipmaker has a built-in screenshot function? F9?
Now, to give you tips so I don't get a warning.
1: To start as a beginner, try to use shades of gray to represent "depth," white on the top and dark grey on the bottom.
2: Try to use "flow." Think about how each section flows together so it looks like a ship, not some floating junkyard.
3: For starters, use Sev7n's SWA weapon sprites. To use a weapon sprite, choose your desired weapon, select it, go to the ED2 tab, click on "Change Custom Sprite," and the rest you can probably figure out.
4: Keep the weapon sprite's color as white, possibly only change to shades of grey.
5: Lurk moar! There are awesome shipbuilders like STARSTRUCK, Anna, Arcalane, ArcaneDude, TheShipWrightArms etc. (these guys are off the top of my head, there's others too but I'm too lazy to name 'em) who have made beautiful ships. Just look around the forums and you'll find masterpieces.
Oh, yeah, and welcome to the forums.

[Hawkeye66]

Thanks for the constructive critiscm!(I seriously doubt I spelt that right.)
The only stock sprites I used were the weopon and module sprites, but I think those are what you meant. I'll see if I can find those weopon sprites you suggested I did infact spend some time looking for good weopon sprites(obviously not enough though.)
They were quite randomly thrown together, the coherant thoughts I had while making them was that these ones should be sqaure and those ones should look like bugs. yep.... I'm not kidding.

So besides the randomness and bad colering were the designs and shapes themelves not good?

Also, I did use the biult in screenshot button. idk why you would assume otherwise.

I think I adressed everything in your post, I will attempt to fix what I can. but again, these are my first fleets, so I don't expect marvels out of them, but I'm glad you strive to guide me there. (no sarcasm)

I look forward to what other people think!

edit: I knew I forgot something! I just included those custom sprite instructions to prevent possible problems. I've been to many forums and those kind of questions are always getting asked. so yah.. better safe than sorry.

edit edit: Well I checked all the pages of the ship biulding and resources thread, and all the pages of the custom content thread. I must be the blindest bat ever to fly in this cave, could someone possibly supply me a link to the custom weopon sprites he was talking about? Appreciate it much I do. (Don't ask me why the Frel I just typed like Yoda.)

edit edit edit: Nvm, I went back over the forums and found them.. on the first page. (Facepalm!) thanks anyway! so far they look great, one question though, how do you get a custom sprite for the deflectors and such, they don't have a Ed2 tab, and the regular edit tab doesn't have an option as far as I can see, but hey, I couldn't find the sprites in the first place so what do I know?

[STARSTRUCK]

Skittles

...ayup. Your advice is perfectly legible and not unduly overbearing in any fashion whatsoever.

So besides the randomness and bad colering were the designs and shapes themelves not good?

Don't feel discouraged. These ships are fairly solid on a basic level, and you've got the right idea when it comes to shapes. Just try and pick up a sense of which sections go well with each other. You'll improve in no time if you slow down and spend a little more time on your ships' sectionwork. Go with God, broseph.

Also, I did use the biult in screenshot button. idk why you would assume otherwise.

Shipbuilders here tend to only capture the relevant area of the screen with the screenshot button. You've captured the whole SM screen here. I'm sure that's why Jomm assumed otherwise.

[Hawkeye66]

Ok. thanks for the advice. I guess I should slow down.. I made all of those in like two days.

So should I scrap these and start fresh? Or should I lay them down on an operating table and cut them open?
(hopefully they won't bleed to much.)

[vidboi]

you look at your ships, see what you like and what you don't so you can improve, but really it's your decision whether you mke anything out of them or not. personally i tend to stop working on something if i don't like it unless its a ship i've planned out before

[Hawkeye66]

well I've decided to keep working at them since I already put so much effort into them. And their so bad things can only get better. (Hopefully) I did some recolering for the Vengeance Torpedo boat, and added the custom weopon sprites.

Hopefully the dulled out colors won't look so...(insert any word describing bad looking ships and it will fit)

what do you think? improvement? deprovement?

[Jokarun]

I like the colours better this way, but personally I don't like the aegis, its to bright...

[Hawkeye66]

How 'bout now? or should it be a different shade of green, or maby blue even?

[vidboi]

it's getting better, but for aesthetics aegis isn't doing you any favours...

you should first look to the structure of the ship before you colour it. first of all you've got a number of holes in the hull that make it look flimsy. the shape is quite nice, and the sections on the side at the front interestingly remind me of gills, but you should look more at how to fit the sections together coherently which improves the overall look of the ship. also have a go at depth shading your ships; it really helps make them look a lot better. start out using grey shades to try and make a 3d effect, then you can focus more on using different colours. anyway, you've made a decent start and you're already improving, so keep at it!

edit: also could you press F11 to go into preview mode before taking screenshots, it'll get rid of the parenting lines and make the ships much easier to see properly

[Hawkeye66]

the aegis aren't on their for looks much, just to protect the torpedo launchers, since it is a torpedo boat.

as for the gills I didn't really mean for them to come out like that but now that they are I really like them (the ship in general reminds me of some prehistoric frog or something.)

The holes I thought were interesting but if they make the ship look bad then I guess they have to go. I'll spend some time trying out different pieces so that the ship looks more idk.. glued or something, not so willy nilly.

I really appreciate the advice!

edit:Ok I scraped off all the paint, and added depth shading.

Then I swapped a few pieces around (I'll do more of this later I think if it still needs work. personally I think it looks pretty good. ofcourse.. I'm biased.)

Then I added the paint on using my new depth shades.

Finally I added the modules.


Any better?

[vidboi]

it's definately improving, although the engine does look spindly and disconnected from the ship, so i suggest that you bulk up the rear a bit, but the changes you made to the front are good. the depthings ok but it looks a bit odd in places such as the darker pieces in the middle that look like they should be on top (and therefore lightest). the colours aren't the best and they clash a bit due to the saturation. i prefer the turquoise to the green myself but colour schemes vary wildly; anything that's looks good is, well, good...

[Hawkeye66]

ok. yet some more work on it.

Did some more recoloring because now that you mention it those mid pieces do look higher up than the rear pieces. And I changed the green to a mix between green and blue. I also added some support for the engines. hopefully that helps.

I also added some doodads a few blinky lights here and there, and then some steam coming out of the 'gills'. Since this particular Alien race is almost backwards compared to the human faction I thought that would be a cool 'steampunkish' look.

heres a pic for the recoloring.

And here is the final result.


Any other ideas anybody? Once this ship is perfected as much as possible by a ametuer like me then I'll move on to the next one with the knowledge I learned from this one.

after previewing this post I noticed that I forgot to put the central cannon back on so pretend that it's there.
I removed it because it makes selecting pieces hard.

Speaking of Steampunkish.

Heh. I think it's cool.

[jwa8402]

Sure the photoshop effect is cool, but the ship itself isn't steampunkish at all. It actually looks downright organic.

[Hawkeye66]

In that case we can pretend it's breathing.

Anybody have anymore advice for this particular ship?

If not, I think I can start fixing the next one.

Edit: Well I went ahead and started on the others.I think I have the enforcer fighter done with,



I'm not quite sure about the depthing for the virtue cruiser, what do you guys think?