Tolwyn said:
oh, btw, Bob, THIS texures are being used in the FL mod
They're better than the ones in place now, so I don't have much of an objection
FS textures have more hull lines, and those lines are emphasized more. In addition, they focus on rectangular and boxy forms, eschewing use of diagonals or other elements to break it up. They rely on dark greys and browns heavily. It gives FS its distinctive hard, realistic look, but I'm worried it might be too somber for the mod. I haven't seen Psych's writing, though, so I probably can't pass judgement. If it's similar to the self-consciously "epic" scope of most FS plots, it should be no problem. The other concern is the nebulas - "color balance" arguably isn't as firm in FS as in, say, Freelancer, since this was in the bold, experimental phase of things.
Regarding FL, the visual style is much the same for the Liberty ships, at least for the Star Blazers-ish capships - although they definetely have something of a 20s New York skyscraper Art Deco inspiration for their fighters, with their obsession over wedge elements, and all. The Rhino is probably the most Freespace-ish of the bunch. Bretonian ships are built to be utilitarian, but they have an element of whimsy underlining them - the manta-ray Crusader fighter, and all. Kusari ships are the most far-out - they have some of the most effective use of purple on a fighter, ever, and they seem to see their far-out paint and designs as a manifestation of their cultural personality - that a fighter can be artistic as well as effective (though their ships are probably the most ridiculous of the bunch if you really take time out to think about it). Rheinland is the gas guzzling, hard-hammering Germanic craftsmen - they build their ships hard, sledgehammer-y, but even they enjoy punctuating their designs with dramatic diagonal elements - look at the Rheinland gunship. Frost-Works is probably the most effective FL modeling studio - they generally extend the artistic style with extraordinary results - check out
http://www.frost-works.com/ if you don't believe me.
This of course has little to do with my feelings on this mod's work in general. I think Lynx's work is effective, and that it is distinctive enough to set the mod apart - but only just. And this is the problem - the distinction between the great and the really great. I'm not dissing Lynx's designs, they're certainly a helluva lot better than anything I or most anyone else in WC could probably do - but they seem to lack a certain character to them. This is appropriate for military ships of course, but it just seems like they don't live up to their potential.
Look at the Ferret at the beginning of the thread, for example. This is one of the few exceptions - the stripes on the front of the nose help set it apart from the crowd - not a whole lot, but enough. And it works. To me, maybe the biggest complaint with the newer ships is that the textures are too boring and plain - which works for Freespace and Freelancer, but independently? I don't know. It seems paradoxical. because the newer ships have 180% more color than the Ferret - but maybe they simply highlight the difference? I have no problem with this muted, monocromatic ship (
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~hamano/FS/herc301.htm) - so why the jump? Maybe the hull is too busy, or the contrast too great?
This is just my opinion, and a rambling one at that, but I thought I should make my points clear(er). I'm not a big fan of the Freespace-ey textures in general, and I realize that's what you're going for here - but I felt I needed to say something.
