Tiles - more variety?

Ahh, I see. I'll certainly expand this mod over time

just make enough variations and rng will do it's job.

Related point: you can 'cheat' if you want a few relatively rare prop spawns by creating clones of the other common ones. That way the ones you don't want to cluster will occur more rarely and therefore be less likely to spawn together. But you don't have to make a load of extra props just to fill it out.

Good point!

I could possibly add a limit, but I'd consider it to be a low priority, given that it'd be rather unlikely to get several of the same items. The random generator does have a wicked sense of humor, but even if that happened, several ambulances or police cars are not anything that unusual (especially if there are aliens running around).

BTW, I've fixed the mod loading, so you can use this [ATTACH]5601[/ATTACH] to create the new items directly in a mod instead of in the game's directories, that should make it easier to avoid mistakes (I've noticed some more, e.g. starlet_SE_dark_spectre.xml refers to starlet_blue_SE_destroyed.png - you should see the testing section in http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11433-Documentation-Modular-mods-system).

Xenonauts.exe.zip

Xenonauts.exe.zip

I see, thx for the exe, I'll try that next, though today anymore ...

Just the ref to starlet_blue_SE_destroyed.png should be ok, several vehicles even in vanilla refer to the same gfx for "destroyed" often (as they look the same for several variants). Unless there's something else wrong with this - will check later to make sure.

Specifc variants I had in mind would be like this:

I like the ambulance (even though the front text is usually mirrored, and the warning lights probably look too modern for 1979). But I think it would be a good idea to generally stay away from written text, especially if it is not international (sure, the game already does forrest fires in Iceland, but why add to it cars with 'Service call xyz' in terror missions in Berlin?). The text can often be omitted or replaced by a picture (pizza, wrench, whatever).

PS: Your mod should work with 0.30HF1.

I've chosen words that are kinda international, I mean "express", "service" or even "pizza" are widely known and used from my XP. You also have the use of english terms in a variety of coutries, even sometimes mixed in with domestic terms or even arabic or kyrillic or asiatic letters that look completely different.

"Ambulance" is mirrored in some cases, in some not, so I went with the normal style. That being said, If there's a general feeling that any form of text should stay out I have no prob with that, just think it would make things less interesting overall.

pls be sure it was totally uncommon to see "Pizza", "Service" and even "Express" words in the USSR at that time

Yeah, but even if so - don't we have the soviet town tiles extra anyway? I mean, I thought we just can leave those out for tilessets were they'd be totally unfitting.

They look nice and the texts don't bother me at all (though I'd mirror the ambulance text:)). This is just the the kind of visual flavor this game needs.

we just can leave those out for tilessets were they'd be totally unfitting.

good if it's possible. Putting aside the text problem, I really like the results so far and already using your mod, keep it up!

I've chosen words that are kinda international, I mean "express", "service" or even "pizza" are widely known and used from my XP. You also have the use of english terms in a variety of coutries, even sometimes mixed in with domestic terms or even arabic or kyrillic or asiatic letters that look completely different.

Maybe now, but keep in mind that the game starts in 1979. I don't think that was common back then. Also, if you look at the existing assets e.g. in terror sites, the game actually uses only few signs, and those that are there are not really clearly readable, so it'd IMO fit with the style.

But it's not that important of course, I just think it'd look better without obvious texts if they are not really necessary.

If there's a general feeling that any form of text should stay out I have no prob with that, just think it would make things less interesting overall.

IMO a car with a pizza picture looks better than a car with pizza written on it (although that too should be toned down to fit with the 1979 style).

I like the ambulance (even though the front text is usually mirrored, and the warning lights probably look too modern for 1979). But I think it would be a good idea to generally stay away from written text, especially if it is not international (sure, the game already does forrest fires in Iceland, but why add to it cars with 'Service call xyz' in terror missions in Berlin?). The text can often be omitted or replaced by a picture (pizza, wrench, whatever).

PS: Your mod should work with 0.30HF1.

Ilunak has something here.

Though, I like the text and the overall look of the vans (Ford Transit right?) a lot. But the warning lights are really too modern.

Here in Germany you see lots of english expressions everywhere, even mixed with German text. It's called "d-english", a term for germanized english, a lot of such expressions creep in to spoken language too. Kind of stupid really, because english expressions are meant to give an aura of "modern", "fresh" and "young". Yeah and this for a couple of years now...sigh; how young and fresh can something be if the same expression is used for 10+ years.

Also, 1979 I guess there weren't many delivery services of "pizza" or other around here, be it with text or an image, however that is not a big issue. Not many know that anymore

Ambulances also look different in other nations and have - at least here - changed a lot since 1979, but again not a big issue, change "ambulance" against a "red cross" sign and everybody new what it is, regardless of general van colour.

Old Ford Transit German Ambulance Yeah they were ugly! "DRK" means Deutsches Rotes Kreuz = German Red Cross

Old Ford Transit German Fire Department That are the warning lights of that area, at least here.

Re Warning lights, those blocky types on top were around from the mid 70ies from what I saw, surely not everywhere, but they were in use:

http://www.purplewave.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?071009/1300 (albeit in red here, but that's rather minor as I don't depict that particular vehicle)

That's from '79 exactly, but there are pics around from earlier.

I've begun to work on new car additions:

Stilll need some time to complete all needed states though.

Eit: oh the car is based on a free (for non-commercial use) 3d model from DMI

Thats crazy good stuff, really similar look to vanilla props! If you take requests, I'd love to have road work props like traffic cones, caution signs, different tools and machinery etc. You could also give more variation to farm props like tractor and irrigator. Thanks for doing this.

last car is a good fit

Thx guys

Skitso: the road signs are a good idea, and should be easy to do. I can add some when I'm through with the first new cars.

I plan to release the first new car additions next weekend. To this point I'm going for 4 new types of cars for town/industrial, and another 2 types for the soviet tileset, incl. damaged/destroyed states and in two versions each (color, and/or direction change).

En detail these are the Renault 4 from the last preview (prod. 1961-1992), Fiat "Nuova" 500 (1957-1975), Mini (1959-2000) and VW Golf I Cabrio (sold from spring 1979).

Soviet types are an UAZ van/transporter (various versions in civilian/military use, started as UAZ 452 in the mid-1960ies) and Lada Niva (Golf-sized off-road car introduced 1977).

(wikipedia based data)

Small preview - Fiat and Mini in a town map next to the Mazda pickup rework:

All new vehicle gfx based on free 3d models from DMI

I plan to release the first new car additions next weekend.

...

Looks great already and I can only applaude your work.

However I think something is wrong with the cars.

I can't actually make out what it is, maybe it is only me, but I think they look too "shiny" or the contrast level is not correct when comparing with other stuff in the picture. It is only a bit, but they would stick out in a map, at least for me.

But maybe it is only because they are new or have curved sides.

they loooks pretty good...i almost feel sorry to explode them for killing aliens aside them .

Very nice indeen

Looks great already and I can only applaude your work.

However I think something is wrong with the cars.

I can't actually make out what it is, maybe it is only me, but I think they look too "shiny" or the contrast level is not correct when comparing with other stuff in the picture. It is only a bit, but they would stick out in a map, at least for me.

But maybe it is only because they are new or have curved sides.

immediately I looked at the picture I knew someone will write smth like this. And I have to agree

Well, there's some difference surely, but overall it's no prob for me personally.

There are a number of factors that influence the "shinyness" in 3d renders, from lighting to material definitions to object shapes etc. etc. (just watch vanilla's Chinook dropship in the top level view for example - quite shiny on certain parts)

I render all cars in the same setup for lighting, but for example some of those cars have clearly more "chrome" parts that come out "shiny", so rather bright naturally vs. for example the vanilla Mazda's black plastic parts. Other things are car finish - there's a huge variety from rather muted to very saturated colors, glossy or even metallic looks on cars, so IMO it's no prob to have some of this coming through in the game.

At the end of the day, if you look closer you can also spot some inconsistency in vanilla gfx (solid car windows vs. transparent on bus or "shiny" bus wheels vs. "flat" car wheels etc).