[Request] Concept art for NF-buildings do we have someone with exceptional drawing skills? while playing since the update i once again realized how incedibly ugly NFs buildings are in comparison to BE*. so i decided i want to help the mod by making it look nicer and redo NFs buildings as a whole (except maybe for turrets they look well enough). i tried a few sketches on my own but i dont like any of them - also my drawing skills, though they dont suck completely, are nowhere close to being good. the goal should be to keep the overal style as basic as empires is and the buildings easily distinquishable from BE's - i personally would prefer a steampunkish style. please note that this is in now way arranged with devs, but im certain with our current ones, if its good enough it will be put into the game. also, not that you raise you hopes too high, if i start this it will still take a fair while. and ofc it will be CC by-nc-sa (by is open for discussion). *theres no interior in rax, theres no animations on ref or radar (or anywhere else), armory has only one exit and so on ...
Btw, I'm not sure if the old media pack killx assembled would help. It has some concept art though not much for buildings, but I just remembered it and figured: Empires_Media_Pack_3.zip
I'm a good planner (yey Dwaf Fort experience with megaprojects), but I haven't touched a pencil for 10 years after abandoning my juvenile comic(except for the aformentioned fort plans), so dont expect schematics. I also assume you want everything but the barracks? It's been done before and is only casually mentioned from time to time. Also, I think we should cut on the amount of boxes that are outside the buildings. EVERY SINGLE ONE HAS STOCKPILES. Nf buildings especially make dealing with scouts annoying.
no, either everything or nothing - the be heavy is out of place enough. id not be against redoing even turrets and infantry placeables if they dont fit the style anymore. it doesnt have to be photorealistic drawings, neither does it have to be perfect blueprints - its mainly about a consistent, distinquished and simple style. ideally wed play design ping-pong. you draw, i build it then render, you overpaint the renders, i add the new details, rinse repeat till all of us are either happy or too pissed to keep going
That fan art pic on glycencity actually gave me a nice idea on how to animate the 3rd person mortar models. And what ever actually happened to those retractable shields on the BE AFV? And why is that soldier with at least some hair not in the game anymore? >.< And I also feel that by now we pretty much drained all color out of BE. It's mostly white, gray or black. No hint of blue anymore as it used to be.
looking at the images its pretty obvious that BE got a whole lot more love design wise. though i admit i like megels take on ww1/warhammer tanks :D
The problem with redoing buildings is everyone submits a design to replace one building or something. As Flasche said, it's all or nothing. Either we get a do-over for every single building in one go, or we don't bother at all, otherwise they'll just end up looking out of place.
exactly - i also come here because i want this to happen as community project even if i do the modeling alone. ill keep the whole process as open as possible, post all renders publically and give .blend files to everyone wanting to contribute. unless i have a really strong reason to disagree i will try to only take the executing and moderating part (in the end its gonna be me who decides what im gonna model if theres more options, yet ill try to listen to all concerns). ofc ill voice my thoughts you cant deny me that
What exactly would you call a desing then? I get having to keep it consistent, but I think that diffrent concepts could work pretty well if just made more unison, as in currently nf is all concrete. If someone makes some more crude iron walls thing, it could still work if just changed to thicker walls. I did some scretches of a industry warehouse inspired VF with a shoddy pencil, so I wasnt really able to draw any detail besides main features such as iron doors or a smokestack. It looks shitty (as in artwork rather than the plan itself) but I dont really have acces to high end drawing software here. I just dont know how raw do you expect the input to be.
well i think nf is a lot of steel plating, trusses, this crossed steel things on bridges however its called in english (hell i dont even know how its called in german atm) then theres certainly some steampunk elements but at least at the moment its only rudimentary. also warhammer40k comes to mind the second you see the med. my issue is that i could probably do BE buildings but its NF that needs it a lot more. i didnt come here just with the thought, ofc i tried this and that before, it just never looked like NF.
So you want highly detailed stuff then? Can't help with that with my current tools im afraid. How annoying to model would that be for a radar anyway? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/SPS-49_Air_Search_Radar_antenna.jpg
no thats exactly the point - we cannot have highly detailed stuff as it would look out of place. as for the radar it depends on how detailed youd want it to be. modeling it roughly 1:1 would be a lot of work, capturing its essence and have it stylized yet recognizeable is a different thing. maybe not for this exact radar but thats my general issue. if i put images behind what i build i can reach a high amount of detail (in high amount of time but that will be getting better over time), but if i have to build stuff out of my head i get lost in detail and in the end it doesnt look fitting. for a consistent look over a couple of buildings you need at least rough concepts first and i totally fail any NF style. we can add detail later, you dont have to do it in the first phase. its rough shapes, where stuff is and such.
I like nf's vf though, all those chains hanging around make it felt like vehicles were actually built there. I also like nf's single exit armory better than be's 2 exits. Feel like it is easier to place in a way so your infantry don't get shot while they are in, getting in there. Smaller too, which is nice. Though I do understand 1 exit is a bit inconvenient for larger player bases.
Alright, my approach would be this: First I'd like some people that have some idea with the Empires lore to think of what general building designs of the Jekotian Empire could have looked like. Then I want people to think about what materials and fabrication methods are still available to the Northern Faction. That way we can iron out a material and shape guide, since certain fabrication methods result in certain shapes. (And I wouldn't have a problem with helping flasche along in that huge project, since I am already doing it for the vehicles.) My current impression of the design is just that nobody really seems to know where the exact goal was with the designs. So currently all we can do is work off of what we have. And to be frank, that's not enough.
I think before that, we need to settle on what exactly are those buildings supposed to be. Take nf barrakcs and the radar for example. They are sheets of metal, thin and not really shielded very well. Not really frontline stuff. VF on the other hand, is a behemoth that all made from reinforced concrete, with columuns and stuff. Are the buildings supposed to be represent buildings that would already be there, highly armored, or are they supposed to be somewhat more realistic and be made from dropped materials on the field, in which case we are looking at probably mostly metal structures. Nf stuff seems really scrappy (pun intended) so im thinking a vf would be more of a metal warehouse workshop/chopshop looking deal. I also though that a wrecked vehicle prop could be included with the model to represent nf scavenging wrecked machines or rebuilding them. Also, remember that exit placement is important. Be vf fails becuase it has the extremely unnecessary ramp that serves no purpose but act as a foe magnet.
yes, dont be affraid to post stuff that doesnt look like concept art from huge studios. its more about finding ideas, rough sketches, we can work on from those later - its way easier to overpaint detail then drawing it right away.
I also don't necessarily mean sketches or concept art. If you have any ideas on how Jekotia might have looked like and what methods exactly the Northern Faction should use today, just write it out.
On a side note, I only have mod powers in the Community Content forum anyway. And now please keep it on topic. I really want to get somewhere with this.
