Modding Discussion Large Colony Ship

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by Kinsem, Aug 27, 2016.

?

Are you interested in watching a stream of the project on Beam on Sundays?

  1. Yes

    33.3%
  2. No

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  3. Maybe

    16.7%
  4. Just finish the damn thing!

    50.0%
  1. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So I am in the process of creating a large scale up-gradable/tiered colony ship that starts with Tier 1-3 just being the command module. The command module will consist of an access shaft that will lead to the upper level of the module where the captains seat is located, and to the rest of the ship once the higher tiers are unlocked. It will also have a basic room with a teleporter, the tech station and the ship locker. For the captains seat I eventually would like to have something slightly interactive/animated like the navigation console in the SMEE mod I used to help with.

    Tier 4 will have the crew service module will have a central shaft connecting to the command module and to different rooms including an engineering section, a hanger-bay, a cargo-bay, medical facilities, an armory, a crew mess, and crew quarters, also in the service module there will be 5 large unassigned rooms for the player to use for what they desire. For each of the assigned rooms I would like to eventually have custom interactive ship objects but that comes much later as my coding skills are almost non existent, so anyone who has the time to assist with the coding aspect of my little project or willing to provide help and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

    Tier 5 will add in the first colony module to start with enough space to build several multi story buildings with a basement, and Tier 6 will add in a farming/agricultural module on top of the colony module with three decent sized rooms to raise crops or livestock in. Tiers 7 and 8 will add in a second colony module and agricultural module respectively.

    I may also add in a Tier 9 and 10 module to use with the Tier Nine ships mod.

    So far I have the basic rooms gridded out with a tentative door location marked out and I am in the process of working on the basic ship design for the command module, which is a very time consuming process when creating pixel assets from scratch. Once I have the command module fleshed out a bit more I will start posting images of my work.
     
    Voidnaut, Hekkaryk and SivCorp like this.
  2. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So here Is what I have so far for the colony ship.

    the first image is of the grid layout I did, each black and grey block is set up to be 5 Blocks high by 8 Blocks wide, each "Block" is 8px (Pixels) by 8px with the thinner grid blocks being 2x8 (horizontal) or 5x2 (vertical). The Purple areas are where doors will be located to connect the different rooms with the vertical doors being the standard 5x2 blocks or 40px by 16px. the horizontal doors are actually smaller by design at 2x4 and will require a custom sized hatch.
    the red area is to mark out where the command module will connect to the crew service module. the brown areas is where dirt will be placed inside the Habitat and Agriculture module and the blue shafts are tentative access shafts but I am currently thinking of moving them into their own rooms between the crew service module and the first habitat module along with between the first and second module as well with one at the very front of the ship on the second module.

    [​IMG]

    The second image that I have posted is the current work in progress for the command and control module. I have also included the human teleporter in the image as a both a place holder and also for a size reference to the rest of the ship. The black and grey boxes on the bottom of the image are from the top most rooms in the layout image to give you an idea of the scale of the ship. that said I plan on raising where the command module and the service module meet for esthetic reasons.

    command-module-wip-a.png
    With this current stopping point being at about 15 hour so far for total work on the ship layout and design.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Aug 28, 2016
  3. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So today I did a bit of detail work on the bridge portion of the command module. As you can see in the image I have added in the beginnings of two banks of monitors along with a lot of detail work for what will eventually be a holographic projector to display a hologram of the current level of the ship. With the monitors I hope to eventually add in a series of animations to be placed over them with different number of screens being animated depending on the level of ship. what you see in this image compared to the previous one took about 7 hours to do but considering I am creating everything from scratch and sometimes starting certain parts over to just not being happy with how they are turning out I say I am making steady progress. The hardest part to work on was the monitor banks alone as I had to redo them 3 times before I was happy with the basic shape alone.
    command-module-wip-b.png
    I think the next thing I am going to look at is redoing the engines that I have so far by salvaging the bits I am happy with and reworking the rest especially the perspective as I buggered that up big time. With all this said I would appreciate some suggestions, comments, or creative criticism on what I have so far so that I can look at improving on the over all design.
     
    The | Suit likes this.
  4. l4ng4m

    l4ng4m Orbital Explorer

    Hi can you make a super huge ship larger than the USSPOLARIS? gladly appreciate it if you could
     
  5. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    the ship is already larger than the Polaris, as for proof I combined both parts of the Polaris and overlapped the grid image I made for laying out the rooms.

    colonyship-vs-polaris.jpg
     
    The | Suit likes this.
  6. l4ng4m

    l4ng4m Orbital Explorer

    wow im so excited i wanted to use this asap. Thankyou papa
     
  7. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So today I redesigned the outside of the command module. I got rid of the big engines that I had on the side of the module and placed in smaller vent type engines that are also more inline with the perspective of most other ships. I also went ahead and did a rough mock-up of some turrets and also added in a space for what will eventually be the captains quarters. As always I am open to suggestions and comments as I work on this project of mine. The next update to this thread will probably show more details and I may even do some mock-ups of the captains chair.

    command-module-wip-c.png

    That said I do have a question for those who have been modding longer and know more about this than I. With the captains chair is it possible to have it as a multi part object where the player avatar is seated in one part with another part of the object covering up the lower half. An example of such an object would be beds or the bathroom stalls I have seen in game.
     
  8. ZimaZang

    ZimaZang Cosmic Narwhal

    Sounds possible if you have the seat as one layer and the lower part as a separate layer. You could draw the seat normally, then the lower half separately (kind of like how the game handles fullbright on objects by drawing a fullbright layer and a normal layer) and then make the lower half of the seat have a zLevel higher than the player.

    Edit: Also, loving the ship design so far. :)
     
  9. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So I made a quick (as in took about an hour to hour and a half of fiddling with it) mock-up of the captains chair to get an idea its size and general idea of how to proceed with the bridge design going going forward.

    captains-chair-mockup.png

    What I have here is by no means the final product but I am happy with the result and have an idea going forward on how I want to make the captains chair by using this basic design. If I am able to do it I will set this up like the beds or hover bikes where the player is sitting on one image with a second overlaying the first and player. I would also like to have it where if the player is sitting in the captains chair the little screens and the like that I plan on adding will light up and be animated.

    Edit: By looking over the code for the lunar base bunk I think I found what I am looking for code wise.

    "sitOrientation" : "lay",
    "sitAngle" : 90,
    "sitCoverImage" : "/objects/mission/lunarbasebunk/lunarbasebunkcover.png",
    "sitEmote" : "sleep",​

    With a bit of editing that block of code should allow me to have a secondary image placed over the captains chair when someone is sitting in it.

    As always suggestions and comments are appreciated.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2016
  10. Hekkaryk

    Hekkaryk Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I like your idea of colony ship - keep up your good work! ^^
     
  11. l4ng4m

    l4ng4m Orbital Explorer

    i want to use this i want to use thise ehehehe
     
  12. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Sorry about not posting anything as of late, I work 10+ hours a day 5 days, sometimes 6 days a week so my free time is kinda limited, that said I did pull a bunch of the old files from when I was working on the SMEE project and have been looking it over and I must say, it has given me some great ideas for the bridge. That said I would also like to try and add in some custom vehicles/vendors/items and the like that are unlocked as more of the ship is upgraded/missions are completed, and I was wondering if anyone in the community would like to team up on this project after I get more of the assets for the ship made.

    I will be working on the ship tonight and tomorrow due to the long weekend so stay tuned for more updates.
     
    l4ng4m likes this.
  13. l4ng4m

    l4ng4m Orbital Explorer

    YASSSSSSSSSSSSSs plsssssssss
     
  14. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So as a real quick update I have added in some more details to the inner part of the ship, This time I have added a few stations that will be animated and if I am able to do it have them provide a small bit of light. I have also added in a so called navigator that when when clicked on will say a few random things kind of like how the info booth in the intro mission did.

    Now I have a question, can there be more than one tech console/fuel hatch or are ships limited to only one each. Either way I plan on having the tech console/station by the navigator station similar to how EDI was one the Normandy SR2. One reason why I am doing this is as a test due to wanting to rework SMEE once I finish this ship, and if I am able to pull this off it will make working on that project easier.

    command-module-wip-d.png
     
    l4ng4m and Mirau like this.
  15. Mirau

    Mirau Pangalactic Porcupine

    This has been really fun watching your mod grow. Keep up the great work, Kinsem.
     
  16. l4ng4m

    l4ng4m Orbital Explorer

    ya 1 only but i saw some mod maks two each but it will ruin your game a bit ehheeheheh jus make 1 okies?
     
  17. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So I started to work on the crew service module so I can get a feel for the rest of the ship and so I can start figuring out what I am going to place in the background of the ship. I have a rough idea on what I want to add to the background based on what each of the rooms are going to be with the unmarked rooms being generic rooms for the player to use for what every they wish.
    That said I am thinking of moving the armory/security room to right below the engineering bay, putting medical where the armory is and adding in a second set of crew quarters where medical currently is.

    command-module-wip-e.png

    I plan on laying out the rest of the ship and putting in the bare basics so I can start at least play testing the design and after I know that everything meshes correctly I will start adding in all the fine details and extra objects I want to eventually make.
    As Always suggestions and comments are welcome.

    Edit: On a side note I am thinking of calling the ship the DSCS (Deep Space Colony Ship) Vesta

    In Roman mythology, Vesta is a Goddess of fire as a life-giving element, associated with the hearth and the altar. The eternal fire in her temple was guarded by holy virgins.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2016
  18. Mirau

    Mirau Pangalactic Porcupine

    Question: Do you plan on making custom objects for this ship? For example, a custom captain's seat (actually loungable), custom medical beds, custom fridges, etc.

    If not I highly implore you to do so. If for whatever reason you've never done so I will gladly help you. This is a super fun mod.
     
    Kinsem likes this.
  19. Kinsem

    Kinsem Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I am planning on having a lot of custom objects and containers on the ship and I even plan on adding in a few custom merchants and the like that are unlocked as the ship progresses in tiers, that said I have no idea how to code any of that, I just have the artistic ability but I am willing to learn even though I work way to much in real life, so any help that you can provide would be welcomed.

    One thing I defiantly want to add in is some kind of elevator system due to how large the ship is vertically, also I want to have the horizontal hatches also act as platforms when they are open much like the platform hatches mod on steam.
     
  20. l4ng4m

    l4ng4m Orbital Explorer

    ditch the custom npcs its hell of a hell coding. just finished the ship and make a custom containers and captain seat its much better.
     

Share This Page