Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

Are you guys including various later paint/camo schemes and altered profiles for ships historically sunk? Like Wasp CV 7 wearing later war dazzle? What about a refitted Repulse...that kinda thing?

Oh yeah...USS Utah!!

Thanks for all your hard and amazing effort.[&o]

ORIGINAL: JWE

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

Are you guys including various later paint/camo schemes and altered profiles for ships historically sunk? Like Wasp CV 7 wearing later war dazzle? What about a refitted Repulse...that kinda thing?

Oh yeah...USS Utah!!

Thanks for all your hard and amazing effort.[&o]

Actually, we’re not really the anti-camo league. I think the confusion comes from the standard art sets we were asked to do for Stock/CHS; the customer did not want dazzle camo patterns, so … no dazzle camo patterns for Stock.

For AE, you will find ships presented in MS 11, 12, 14, 21, 22, 32, and others. TomLabel did the research on this, and his stuff is eye-poppin!

Where an upgrade or conversion results in a different profile, or a structural change, there is a new piece of art, for the class, for the upgrade/conversion. Some classes have their ‘opening day’ art and up to 5 panels of upgrade/conversion art. If a ship isn’t sunk, (West Virginia or Arizona, for example) she will have the same upgrade/conversion schedules/options, as the others of her class. There’s over 1000 pieces of new art.

I would not be at all surprised if the artists didn’t have another 1000 ready to show, after release. You want a modified MS 12, So.Dak? it’s probably around somewhere.

Repulse (since you ask), won’t upgrade/convert to a Renown replica. She wasn’t scheduled to, and even if she were, it would have taken a year & a half or more, required retirement to the UK, and used yard facilities that were just not available. So she won’t have the Renown style bridge/deck structure. Repulse does upgrade (refit) “rationally”; with increased AA suites a la Renown, radars, cut-down midship hangars a la Renown, etc. Other similarly situated ships are treated the same way.

Sorry, but not much for Utah - there was nowhere to go with her.

Ciao.

ORIGINAL: JWE

I would not be at all surprised if the artists didn’t have another 1000 ready to show, after release. You want a modified MS 12, So.Dak? it’s probably around somewhere.

ORIGINAL: JWE

He most definitely is!

Our instructions still keep us from giving looks under the hood just now, but I understand your request, and I have made a comprehensive bitmap list of every class in AE. I will publish it when I can, and I will certainly publish it on release day.

The list shows every class in the game, it’s “intro” bitmap, 1st upgrade bitmap, 2d upgrade bitmap, 3d upgrade bitmap … , 1st conversion bitmap, etc… This should be helpful to the modders, as well as the artists.

We have not defined any upgrades (or upgrade bitmaps) that are solely for the purpose of giving a class a new paint job. Upgrades/Conversions have shipyard size requirements, added damage requirements and upgrade/conversion time requirements. Thus, upgrades/conversions are “functional”. I don’t think players would like the idea of having to pull a capital warship offline, and put her into a yard, just to give her a paint job.

However – the degree of graininess we put into the upgrades/bitmaps, was partially devised to allow for the Cathartes approach to periodic paint jobs. After-market art sets can now be devised that show classes in ’42 colors, ’43 colors, ’44 colors, ’45 colors, and have those colors additionally tagged to individual ships, through their position in the upgrade/conversion process.

Wish I could make it more clear, but I have 4 iterative sets of alternative paint jobs (thanks to TomLabel) for US & Brit Aux vessels, that I can cycle thru by running a batch job. I will put all of this in the public domain when I can.

Ciao.

ORIGINAL: witpqs
Hey John - regarding upgrades. Given the new rules you folks have already outlined, such as shipyard size, will the player have to move the ship to a suitable shipyard (hopefully one without a waiting list!) and then select thee upgrade? Or, will that stuff be abstracted?

ORIGINAL: Norm3

Is the time that the conversions take place editable or is it based on the amount and types of the upgrades?