Planning on a major retexture project of XCOM operatives. Ideas welcom

[CaesarInvictus]

QUICK SHOW OF HANDS,

 

Who thinks it would be awesome for me to release optional face textures, one with a baclava and one with terminator esque cybernetics.

 

Because I totally can do that.

 

Really.

 

Forget shivs you can command cyberdyne systems top of the line to murder Aliens with reckless cold steel abandon.

 

Is that not the most awesome idea ever?

[johnnylump]

Really excellent work.

 

What's the verdict on being able to include this as an addon in a larger mod package, rather than overwriting existing textures?

 

With your permission, I'd be happy to include it in Long War once finished, if it can be made as an addon (otherwise I can include a plug to the mod page).

[Amineri]

Speaking of SHIVs, how about some re-skin love for the SHIVs?

 

I'm all for more face textures, as well. :)

 

-------------

 

Regarding making these "add-on" rather than "replacement", CI and I have been chatting a bit about how it might be possible, but really only for the armor kits, not for the base underlying armor models (armor kits can be added via DLC, but the underlying armor can't).

 

However, if it works it would require a particular type of installer that would copy and alter the existing DLC packages on the target computer. The "easy" way of distributing the altered upk files would basically constitute stealing the DLC, which wouldn't be a good thing.

 

I haven't gotten too much further along in testing this ... been wrapped up with a couple of other projects ;)

[CaesarInvictus]

Textures can't really be neatly packed away into an installer unfortunately. Since XCOM is already hard to mod and we have no way of injecting new textures into the game at this time, a program called "Texmod" has to be used instead, which is actually fairly simple to use and load up, but wouldnt really be condusive to what you would want. In particular it makes the installation of Long war take about three or four extra steps.

 

With this setup I feel it makes more sense to keep this work divorced from the larger XCOM projects. I feel like this is a gift to the whole community, and the fact that it is 100% mod compatible is something I would like to leave no confusion about.

 

In the future, I'd gladly do some work for Long War specifically, though I'm not sure what I could really do. Amineri has proposed some interesting things with aliens and custom tinting, to help distinguish the many new kinds of alien Long War uses. After pack one is released, I intend to help him with this. If we are successful, then by all means you could use those textures, since they would have to be long war exclusive by nature.

 

I'm not opposed to you linking or mirroring my work on Long War's modpage though! Just as long as credit is given where credit's due :D

 

EDIT: Assuming Amineri is onto something, if you could create a way to create new 'DLC' armor deco textures, I would definitely work with you to add texture content to them. On the drop of a hat, even. That kind of capability would open up a LOT of doors that are currently closed to me.

Edited August 1, 2013 by CaesarInvictus

[CaesarInvictus]

Amineri, I was planning on a shiv texture actually. I can do it, but not for this release. The shiv is actually like 4 or 5 textures, and that's just the tracked guy. Plus im not sure what direction to take it in. It looks really cool already.

 

Mostly right now what im going is looking at my options with the "hat" textures (berets, beret+sunglasses, hat + headphones and goggles are all one texture)

[Neonin]

Words cannot describe the giddy feeling in my stomach at the sight of screenshots in this thread using my flags mod :D

 

Also, great work! I look forward to testing the mods release when it comes up.

[CaesarInvictus]

Update: LMG sort-of 'done'

 

I really want feedback on it, I dont really feel confident its quite 'there' yet:

 

http://i.imgur.com/sd9tbw7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HziBRLQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Jfjy8tb.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bSrjtoN.jpg

 

"The Type 109 'Lancer' LMG first originated in China, thanks to comprehensive efforts by the Chinese to create an effective answer and improvement on American M249 squad support weapons. To that end the Lancer was created to have the utility of an assault rifle, built out of lighter materials than its American equivalent, and equipped with state of the line coolant systems. The result was a surprisingly mobile weapon, capable of being reliably fired 'from the hip' by skilled gunners.

 

The Council picked up the Type 109 for this very flexibility, as prolonged engagements with the alien menace would be too risky, despite some anger from the American camp over their guns being shunned for what amounted to a 'cheap knockoff' by their accounting.

 

Be that as it may, XCOM tactical division made several changes to the weapons in order to maximize their usefulness. In place of its previously huge ammo reserve, the tactical team opted to rechamber their Type 109s with large, heavy hitting AP rounds capable of breaching tank armor. A number of other improvements followed: inspired by the relative success of the M.99 sniper rifle's deployment, holo-round technology was added to the gun. In theory it gave soldiers the incredible power to ostensibly never miss a shot again, even when firing the Type 109 from the hip. However, this 'Smart Gun' tech failed its trial runs: rounds could still miss as targetting triangulation was too much of a burden on the holo rounds to accurately analyze and relay during their short flight to the target.

 

They did, however, provide a unique side-effect: Saved holo-target information was stored aboard the Type 109's onboard computers. With a few tweaks, this information could be relayed to other weapon systems, giving them partial triangulation and guidance for aiming systems, even for the comparatively rudimentary shotgun and assault rifle models fielded by Xcom.

 

In time, HEAT rounds, built similarly to the tank shells of similar name, but miniaturized to fit the type 109, were developed and distributed among limited numbers of Gunners, so as to better ensure they would not be wasted.

 

The Type 109's legacy was well earned. It received universal acclaim as an excellent support weapon, and came to be a new model for modern machine guns to be built upon. In 2020 when several weapons corporations and contractors launched an official lawsuit against the design of the Type 109 (which they lost), it was a moot effort; the majority of council nations were equipped with lookalike Type 109's, and several Chinese weapons firms had become superpowers in the firearms industry.

 

 

Bonus:

The Great Invasion War left many scars and permanent changes to humankind. One of these was a growing addiction to technology as an enabler to strike back against the aggressors. The model IK-2000 insulated combat helmet is a symptom of this slow technocratic shift. Developed by US and Russian special operations units working in tandem to create a true all environment alien killing system, the IK-2000 emerged as the only permanent result of the joint project.

 

Little is known about how X-Com came into possession of these ultra high-tech devices, but they came to be renown for striking fear (allegedly) into the hearts of alien menace and civilian population alike. The operatives utilizing the system, 'Ghosts' as they came to be known, often came to be seen as impersonal loners: remaining detached from the environment and their own humanity, they nonetheless proved highly effective soldiers for humanity.

 

The US and Russian units (Third Echelon and Voron, respectively) which came to use this equipment reported that despite high success rates, user psychology gradually degraded at a faster rate than its plainclothes operatives.

 

Eventually, in 2045 when X-Com launched its first extra-terrestrial invasion of Alien holdings on mars, the heroic team which carried out the operation fitted themselves with these helmets. Rumor has it the skull-like appearance of the helmets looked suspiciously like they were smiling as they observed what we believe the first 'civilian' (or rather, noncombatant) aliens die in the fires of their mars base.

[CaesarInvictus]

Testing head textures. Its...really weird, but I think if I just added a hole around his mouth it'd be fine.

 

http://i.imgur.com/TpgqM7Z.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mLvzlMm.jpg

 

Also, sadly as there is only one eye texture per face I cannot make a one eyed cyborg with ocular implants. I know I know, greek tragedy level stuff right here.

 

Overall this is a great first step. This could lead to serious HD face retextures later if we got a good artist for it. Our jobs are made easier by virtue of each skin tone being a 'tint' ostensibly, rather than a complete separate texture. Not sure how skin tinting works with something like this, but I THINK that the tinting is just a light overlay on top of the texture, so it wouldnt have much effect on pitch black.

 

The fact that we can do this actually opens up some cool new options:

 

Face camo textures! :D

Cyborgs

Tactical gear like baclavas (what im doing now)

HD face retextures

[CaesarInvictus]

You guys can't even imagine how god awful the facemaps for textures are.

 

Just, you have no idea, alright? Its bad. Real bad.

 

http://i.imgur.com/XR7Ggch.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/OnIIrjO.jpg

 

Would anyone even want this crap? The balaclava is a bloody pain to try and map properly. Literally making a cyborg face would be easier.

[Neonin]

While you might be uncertain, I actually think the LMG is my favourite so far! Love the black and yellow stripes.

 

Not so keen on the balaclava myself, but then I tend to stick with full helmets except for the odd occasion. I personally wouldn't use cyborg/terminator face mods but I'm sure others would!