Neo Standard for SE V?

[Fyron]

Atrocities said:
And there is nothing saying that they would have to make all of the ships.

That should be what the neostandard++ is for, extra hulls that don't necessarily add new, distinctive model types. To really make the neostandard a useful basis for mods, we want any author that makes a neostandard ship set to make everything in the neostandard. Picking and choosing a few models to do seems to defeat the purpose, to me. A narrower, more focused list eases the burden of implementation and is more likely to get full implementation than something which requires 20+ extra models to be made.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Suicide Junkie said:
Fyron's point is that these things are much harder to do than in SE4. And the return on investment is quite small, since you can just rescale the models in game to get the extra sizes.

Resizing is a modding issue, our realm of expertise. New models are a Shipset creation issue which is Atrocities realm of expertise. I understand it is harder but he has generated more shipsets in both SE4 and SE5 then either of us. So if he says it is worth the effort than I as a modder must differ to him and say go ahead. Either way you make the models and I will use them.

While I agree that distinct models are needed expansion on the limited hulls we have now would be useful. Also I strongly feel the desire to generate a complete set of Neo++ will be based more on a desire to meet expectations of the players. Isn't that why we are here having this discussion. To bring the players new eye candy?

[Fyron]

A lot of SE4 ship set authors never bothered with neostandard images, due to the extra work involved.

[Shadowstar]

I think I will just have to require everyone to find a hosting site for their shipsets. I have a limit of 50MB of space on my website, and I have the feeling I'm going to use most of that just with the mod alone. Large shipsets shouldn't be a problem since I won't be sending them out with the pre-game patch, I'll just give everyone the links to where they can download them. This was something I couldn't do in SE4 because several players who made thier own sets had to email them to me. That's kind of an old and inefficient method and hosting is cheap and easy these days. I don't think anyone will have any trouble finding a site to put thier shipsets on, especially if they are good. Hey maybe I can even use my mod to pimp some of those sites. Could be good cross-publicity...

[President_Elect_Shang]

Imperator Fyron said:
A lot of SE4 ship set authors never bothered with neostandard images, due to the extra work involved.

Ah crap I never finished my thought. I wanted to say "So either they will go the whole distance or stick to doing the Stock set requirements." I had to wrap it up and get the kids.

[Fyron]

Wouldn't it be better if it was less of a gorge to cross for full implementation?

[President_Elect_Shang]

Can't argue with that one. But is that really a reason to short stick ourselves and the players?

[Fyron]

Short stock how? An author that wants to go all out could do both the neostandard and the neostandard++. We just want to provide a tight set of distinctly new hulls that would be the most useful to general modding. All the extra stuff (like war cruiser) could go into the neostandard++. We aren't suggesting that noone should make such images, just that we should provide a core set of the most important ones.

[Ed Kolis]

I would recommend the addition of at least the following to the stock requirements:

Scout - we need something that suggests a small ship sacrificing firepower for speed and/or range
Baseship - OK, it's already referred to in the data files, but no stock shipsets actually have any.
Worldship - for the doom stars, deeath stars, terror stars, battlemoons of our evil overlords
Resource Ship - for robo-miners and such (don't really need a resource base as the base hulls are general purpose - only the Battle Station has a military connotation)
Infantry - for non-mechanized troops

Additional ideas:
Space Monster - for monster races and perhaps monster tamers / magic races / robots gone amuck in various mods
Monster Troop - monsters for invading planets! (If your race is able to tame monsters or build maniacal death robots, it is reasonable to expect that it could use both its own people and the monsters/robots as troops, and should have different models for the monsters/robots than for the regular troops!

[President_Elect_Shang]

Short stick in the sense that we set the Neo++ to low. Shorting ourselves out of those models the few would have created had it been higher. Set the Neo (NEO+ or whatever) to a more reasonable level. Set the NEO++ as the "Cream of the Crop" and let everyone know from the start that it is a point to aspire. Not something they must do. Set up the NEO+ and NEO++ that way and everyone wins! If all else fails a shipset maker can still fall back on Stock standards.