R&D XCOM Map Alterations

[Zyxpsilon]

Don't know how you "pick" the colors exactly (and what matches them with any given Objects relative to their multiple components) but this morning (coincidence), i was thinking of Palette inherent structures.

 

Each of these colors are indexed and if you look closely at the Hexact image, you'll notice some "Patterns" and various "Gradient" tricks (via columns & rows -- per Hues).

 

The coding logic might then be exploitable in a sense that "grouped" variety (such as the Secondaries block(s) that have six) should provide a vast amount of variations for whatever combination of elements (previously mentionned Cars & their doors for example).

 

So you'd somehow define a parameter that calls "packages" from an embedded Array that already has a few custom lists of indexes. Say -- the last Hexact column offers a cool scale of six that goes from Yellow to Magenta and so on.

Anyway, you get the idea... what you truly want is to mix-match some combo-sets (trust your instinct) for testing. Shuffle with the color-wheels theory so to speak.

 

SweetFX results can be "mimicked" just as much straight from your code (maybe that's what you already did), btw. Throwing an Alpha Channel feature within the formulas could expand any of these effects even further -- in fact.

 

RNG might be an ugly monster with gameplay events but when used on colors it can really create stupendous magic. :wink:

 

PS; Can you have an influence on other things like; Barrels strapped on palettes, Wooden Boxes, Traffic Cones, etc???

Edited May 22, 2015 by Zyxpsilon

[Zyxpsilon]

Something else entirely off-topic but nonetheless interesting i'd like to share with everyone here.

 

This may be old news for some people but i just came across Piero Macgowan's blog (an artist that worked at Firaxis for XCom-EW and Civilization).

 

Take a break from our local LW-Map fixes & other tasks and have a quick look at his fantastic concept art!!

 

http://pieroartist.blogspot.ca/2014/06/i-am-finally-able-to-post-some-of-work.html

[Krazyguy75]

I'd like to just state that we probably should dull some of the colors for some things. Neon works on things that glow, but it looks ridiculous on those trucks.

[XMarksTheSpot]

Yeah, car paint colors are usually more subdued, e.g. check here or here for references, you won't see pure colors like [0, 255, 0] in there. I think darker, less saturated shades work best in-game as glowy, rainbow-y colors are rather distracting and unrealistic, in my opinion.

[Krazyguy75]

Even if they were that bright, these aren't new cars, so the paint would likely have faded.

[LiQuiD911]

I was thinking of creating separate color pools for the trucks ,cars , police and taxis. It's quite easy to implement.

All delivery vans on the map should have the same color for consistency. We could add redundant white colors in the INI to make them more frequent.

US police can get only black and white.

What about taxicabs? I've seen white ones, what should they color pool contain?

 

@zyx, thanks for the link, I already found that a while ago, great stuff :) Crates, barrels and non prop containers don't get colored with the method I'm using, I think it's related to a component in the Materials. But building doors, lights do.

 

About secondary colors, I select a random one from the pool and get it's RGB components, I can use a function that outputs the secondary color based on the input components.

Edited May 25, 2015 by LiQuiD911

[Zyxpsilon]

Taxis? The famous NY-City Yellows have got to get in there somewhere!! ;)

 

Various Props & their material methods? If there *IS* a way, i'll certainly have to wish you best of luck finding it.

 

Of course -- secondary or terciary "Color pools" can (or should) be dynamically invoqued by some code magic... i trust you, blindfolded and my hands tied in the back! :)

[Krazyguy75]

I think that Taxi's can be any color (I once rode in a pink Prius taxi), but should lean yellow, as that is the famous color.

[DevonValroth]

I can't wait to get the random mission where the aliens sent the pink drop pods to cover the humans in cotton candy pre-kidnapping.

Killer Klowns mod? ;)

 

 

US police cars are not universally black and white. LAPD cars are. "To Protect And Serve" is also specifically their motto, not a national one. Hollywood just tends to depict all police forces as the LAPD. Around here the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office drive brown and tan cars. Taxis also come in many colors, but the New York City cabs are famous for their bright yellow paint.

[LiQuiD911]

The recolor patch is in an usable state, normal cars get retinted, trucks too, the police do not because it's not straightforward to implement.

The truck color ini needs configuration. The patch pack contains a DefaultMaps.ini (derived from the last LW test version) and DefaultTints.ini to extract in the config folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7rqew7o9d6glbj9/xcom_map_patches.rar?dl=0