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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Design and Modding >> Design Tool-Ship Maker

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Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 4:03:13 PM

lordxorn

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I just wanted to share this with my fellow modders. Doing research for some mod ideas I have, I happened upon a community that can work hand in hand with us DW modders.

Maybe some of you heard of it before, but it is a freeware tactical spaceship game called Battleships Forever!. IT is actually a decent game, that had HUGE potential. There was even talk of multiplayer, but the small dev team came to an impass. Once the coder stopped getting along with the graphics guy, the whole thing imploded and now the forums are kind of a barren wasteland. Sadly some of the original mod links have been broken as well.

The good thing for us is that the game itself comes with a modular type of Ship Maker program that works perfectly for us modders here in the DW forums because the perspective is top down as well.

Now don't be turned off by the line graphics of the original game, they were in the process of upgrading them to fully colored and partially shaded pieces.

So if you is so inclined to look into it, check out the forums and check the stuff made by Kaelin who was one of the original artist. His SW stuff is good and plentiful. It is kind of a pain to get to know how Ship Maker works and how to add the new sprites, so if you need help just reply here.

I put together the following ship in 10mins flat. So I will be messing around with it some more, and see what I can do.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 4:11:11 PM

J HG T

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Yep, played it for a while couple of years ago. Fun little game and ship-editor was easy to use and extremely fun to play with. I actually designed some ships for a race that I came up with while messing with the editor. Have to see if those would be any use now.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 4:12:33 PM

Igard

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Sounds really cool, lordxorn. Thanks.

Though I can't get the image to load just now. It loads the top fine, but then it's done. Perhaps the servers full. I'll try later.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 4:12:51 PM

WoodMan

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Nice find Xorn!

For some reason your picture isn't showing though

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 6:18:01 PM

lordxorn

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Thanks guys, yeah my upload failed when I went to the gym. Resizing and fixing now.

Yeah J HG T, I remember hearing about it a year ago but never went back. Now I am regretting not being involved, and too bad it wasn't developed further.

OFF SUBJECT WARNING!
OMG Minecraft had a new update, time for some Minecraft!! lol

< Message edited by lordxorn -- 1/13/2011 6:20:17 PM >

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 7:00:54 PM

J HG T

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OFF-TOPIC:
Shame on me. Haven't played Minecract for weeks. DW has taken all my PC-gaming time, be it a good or bad thing.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 9:42:48 PM

WoodMan

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This is the kind of thing some of you guys might be interested in, I don't have a link but there is a vid on youtube, this guy created a 1:1 scale of the Enterprise in Minecraft, its pretty amazing!

< Message edited by WoodMan -- 1/13/2011 9:43:15 PM >

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 9:48:16 PM

J HG T

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Kinda old in my books but still shows what Minecraft is capable of. Minecraft is Legos for gamers. So much fun and genius.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 10:23:52 PM

2guncohen

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I stumbled on Battleships Forever! some days ago when looking for new stuff for wing commander.
And then this caught my eye

Doest it not look marvelous ?

Iff someone can provide me a good free-wear soft to remove background.
Then I would realy love to try to get this art in distant worlds.

< Message edited by 2guncohen -- 1/13/2011 10:24:32 PM >

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 10:37:43 PM

lordxorn

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2guncohen,

Is that a shipset from Battleships Forever? If it is whose is it, and if not where is it from?

They look great, and looks like the originator put some nice after touch effects that Ship Maker does not provide.

Like the light effects coming out of the hangars, looks really cool.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 10:42:16 PM

lordxorn

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quote:

ORIGINAL: J HG T

Kinda old in my books but still shows what Minecraft is capable of. Minecraft is Legos for gamers. So much fun and genius.

Well Minecraft is not old, because is just entered Beta a couple weeks ago. I think it is more fair to say that the graphics are "Old School", but like you say about the gameplay "It is a Gamer's Lego Dream Come True", mixed in with very Light Role Playing elements without a story.

If you haven't played Minecraft since Infdev, or the Creative only it has come a LONGGG way. Not to mention many HD 128bit texture packs, and Mods that introduce more RPG play elements.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 11:00:05 PM

2guncohen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: lordxorn

2guncohen,

Is that a shipset from Battleships Forever? If it is whose is it, and if not where is it from?

They look great, and looks like the originator put some nice after touch effects that Ship Maker does not provide.

Like the light effects coming out of the hangars, looks really cool.

The artists name is IND1GOblue he has Battleships Forever stuff in the BF-Forum.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/13/2011 11:00:35 PM

lordxorn

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2Guncohen,

Ok friend your wish is my command, I have done the easy part, now you have to touch them up and make them DW ready.

IND1GOblue of Deviant Art is the artist.

Capital Ship

Carrier

Cruiser

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 12:53:27 AM

Igard

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quote:

ORIGINAL: 2guncohen

Iff someone can provide me a good free-wear soft to remove background.
Then I would realy love to try to get this art in distant worlds.

You can download either paint.NET or GIMP to get these images ready for DW. Both are free.

Add an Alpha channel to the image and then start removing the background. Just ask if you need any help.

This looks really cool.

< Message edited by Igard -- 1/14/2011 12:54:17 AM >

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 1:17:54 AM

WoodMan

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Attempted, seems I made the Cap image too small (althought it is 300x300)

Attachment (1)

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 1:20:26 AM

lordxorn

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The carrier looks great ingame.

What is the hull size? 1100?

If it is 1100, try just updating the cap to 500x and let's see if it retains more detail.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 1:32:04 AM

WoodMan

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I'm not sure, its at tech level 5, I think because the game renders slim ships longer, the Cap really probably does need a bigger image, usually 300 is okay for the stubby shaped ships I normally work on

I was able to bring it up to 370x370, any more and it would start to lose detail. To get it any bigger I'd have to start with the original and clean it up again. Added sharpening and noise reduction to compensate for enlarge. Testing now.

Attachment (1)

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 1:39:28 AM

WoodMan

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Still a bit blurry, even though as you can see the ingame image is smaller than the actual image, so I got a feeling its more to do with the shape

Attachment (1)

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 1:53:50 AM

WoodMan

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Okay, I got to go to bed, 2am

Here is a zip of the png files in their current state, I forgot to redo the engine trail and running lights after the resize on the Cap. If you can do that and repost them they should work okay.

Or have a go at making a 500x500 Cap, I'll test it tomorrow. night dude!

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by WoodMan -- 1/14/2011 1:54:52 AM >

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 2:19:37 AM

James009

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This is great! I'm going to test this out tomorrow. Thanks for posting it.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 3:31:13 AM

lordxorn

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Woodman I looked at the original image and it is like 300x1100 which is hard to resize the height 1100 to 300 without the width going to like 20 and keeping the correct aspect. lol!

So great work, I think it looks awesome in the game. I hope some more modders use the Ship Making tool, it really lends itself to creating ships like that capital, with minimal creative effort.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 3:47:27 AM

Igard

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quote:

ORIGINAL: lordxorn

Woodman I looked at the original image and it is like 300x1100 which is hard to resize the height 1100 to 300 without the width going to like 20 and keeping the correct aspect. lol!

So great work, I think it looks awesome in the game. I hope some more modders use the Ship Making tool, it really lends itself to creating ships like that capital, with minimal creative effort.

It could certainly solve alot of my problems finding Star Trek ships for the lesser known races. With this I could maybe attempt the Sona (ehsummrel1 will be pleased), the betelguesians, the tellarites. Wow, like I say, it could solve alot of my problems, so thanks lordxorn.

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 6:53:03 AM

Data

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you guys are getting more specialized and effective over time......in the game main menu, besides the change theme, we should also have a "game utilities" option for goodies like this one

nice work

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 8:38:29 AM

2guncohen

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Wow ... Guys you have been bussy bees when i was off sleeping�

I love the looks of the carrier.

@ Igard I installed Paint.net some days ago but I didn't had the time to install some Alpha channel plugin.

@ Lordxorn In the shipbuilder you can change the background to white or other color.
How to do it => simply save a empty *.bmp. and then load this bmp as the new default background.
This makes it easier to clean it upp afterwards.

=> What do you guys think about this picture ?
New spacebugs ?

< Message edited by 2guncohen -- 1/14/2011 9:59:57 AM >

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 10:44:48 AM

WoodMan

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Awesome, is that a DW screenshot?

Also, what are they, are they from Starcraft?

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 10:54:59 AM

EisenHammer

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OMG!!. its the... Zerg!

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 11:36:40 AM

2guncohen

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I found those on the BF forum.

Those are not yet dw

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 9:49:09 PM

James009

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Not cool, not cool.

Zerg = BAD.

You'll be the death of all of us!

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 10:01:23 PM

J HG T

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Those are some damn nasty looking bugs!

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RE: Design Tool-Ship Maker - 1/14/2011 10:35:57 PM

Igard

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quote:

ORIGINAL: 2guncohen

@ Igard I installed Paint.net some days ago but I didn't had the time to install some Alpha channel plugin.

I don't know about Paint.NET. I didn't realise it needed a plugin to use alpha channel. I only have it installed incase I need it for something.

GIMP is a little bit harder to get into if you're not familiar with photoshop. All you have to do with that is go to layer > transparency > Add Alpha Channel, and then start erasing/selecting the background and deleting it.

Awesome, scary looking bugs. Of course, the bugs need to have articulated limbs so that they can be animated in the game. It's not that hard to do, but time consuming.

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