Uniforms

[hachiryoku]

Optional uniforms? I noticed the Army guy and a few other things like cops. Would it be hard to add those to options of player uniforms? Maybe even come out with some others as well. Desert cammies, black SWAT, etc.

I'm sure you have a million other things to do. This is just a thought for the future.

Wouldn't mind being able to select the faces as well.

Love what you've done so far. Closest thing to the original X-Com, but yet it has it's own feel.

[erutan]

Given most of the game you're in armor, I'd say no to the clothes switch. Might be kinda confusing to see your units look the same as NPCs as well.

Chris wants the soldiers to feel like existing real soldiers, so I don't think we'll get a face selector... you could enter the codes for kickstarter portraits if there are some you'd like to start with though.

[hachiryoku]

Only played through a few hours. Shot down about thirty UFOs. Still using first line equipment. Can't wait to get farther and see what's available. Not messing with spoilers right now.

The idea came from my thoughts on the OG X-Com. One thing I loved about the game was that I could name them... and Xeno does that as well, which is awesome.

The thought of naming the characters was great because you feel more invested in that character. Without straying too much from what Chris is doing, the idea would be to capatilize on the personalization of the soldiers. JA2 had that with the self made merc. Some mods even included adding more of them and more faces and voices and etc. to add more options. This idea of personalization is just a thought and could easily not be utilized if the gamer doesn't want it. I know a guy that never renamed any of his x-com soldiers.

Chris has made a masterpiece. I definately don't want to be the guy that says, "well I would do xyz". That's gotta be annoying to someone who has spent an enormous amount of time developing this from scratch. Kudos to all who helped too. I am just one of the players and do not know everyone by name.

Thanks for the tip on the kickstarter thing.

Anyhoo, just thoughts.

[erutan]

The face chooser would be good just because sometimes you get duplicate faces in a squad. I just don't see it being put in - I loved customizing my soldiers in EU12 and enjoyed the IMP in JA2, but I'd say it'd probably not go in... who knows, he's changed his mind on renaming already though.

There's a lot of little suggestions that get put into the game even at this stage - he can't think of everything himself.

[crusherven]

Wouldn't different uniforms mean new sprites for every animation?

[erutan]

Not if you reuse local forces sprites.

[Gauddlike]

Local forces don't have sprites for every weapon type as far as I can see.

Most of those would still need to be added.

The up side would be that local forces could then be upgraded with higher tier weapons, although having them blend in with your own troops could get confusing.

[Cold]

+1 erutan

The option customize your soldiers whenever you want (face, gender, name) would be very welcome to me as i care a lot for customization and immersion either.

Regarding the topic: The uniforms don't look like a "cool special unit" at all but realistic. As you won't stick with them forever, i'm fine with that.

[Gauddlike]

At the start of the game Xenonauts are an underfunded organisation that has been slowly running into the ground for years as the alien menace it was set up to combat after the Iceland Incident has failed to materialise.

Given that feeling I think the drab uniforms fit really well.

Once the invasion begins and you start getting access to higher tech gear then you don't really see the uniforms any more but I like to think they stick with them as they are a little too busy to get a fashion designer in to come up with a new look.

Plus it puts the rookies in their place to get them to wear the old style overalls while the veterans stroll past them in their Predator powered armour.

Just a pity the shirts aren't red.

[Oggy]

Chris wants the soldiers to feel like existing real soldiers

That must be why they wear bright blue. Cuz you know, real soldiers don't need camouflage.

Wouldn't different uniforms mean new sprites for every animation?

Changing the color should be rather simple, the whole process can be recoded and automated throughout as many sprites animation as you want.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/digitalphotography/l/blps_batch.htm

[Commissar Pancakes]

That must be why they wear bright blue. Cuz you know, real soldiers don't need camouflage.

They're trying to prevent a repeat of the "Star Trek Issue".

Thus, all standard BDUs are now blue. Because it is obviously the opposite of red.

[Sathra]

Also for being able to see your troops regardless of the terrain. That's an important point, since I remember losing track of my soldiers in XCOM 1 & 2 due to them blending into the ground a few times (especially alien bases).

[Gauddlike]

Changing the color should be rather simple, the whole process can be recoded and automated throughout as many sprites animation as you want.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/digitalphotography/l/blps_batch.htm

For a basic recolour that works well, I made a desert version as a test run a few versions back.

Not much use at generating sensible camo patterns or adding any other touches to make uniforms look unique.

If you only want to recolour specific areas it doesn't work well either.

For example I wanted to change the colour of the sleeves of my Jackal armour but as they are never in the same place twice and share a colour with the trousers (which I did not want to change) I had to do them manually.

Took me most of a day to do one weapon type.

I never did work out if there was an easier way.

Incidentally last week I found a picture of what I was doing with the Jackal armour, lost all of the files I altered though when Desura updated one time.

[Chris]

Recolouring the units is a no-no. Even if you were able to do it (and it's not easy), the increase in file number and the size of the files would be problematic. It was bad initial design from our side unfortunately, but what is done is done.

[Gauddlike]

Yeah each colour variation of the Jackal armour would add a good 4,000 files.

Most of those files have multiple individual frames which need editing by hand, some as many as 50.

Easy but time consuming for a simple batch tint to the whole file.

Time consuming, difficult, and boring as hell for a proper reskin of even a single armour type.

Plus as Chris says the number of files Xenoanuts uses is already quite significant.

A varied appearance on the uniforms is not a great reason to double it again, at least from an official standpoint.

If you mod them for a different look though I am sure there are people who would be interested in them.