Outsider in Stellaris.

Discussion regarding the Outsider webcomic, science, technology and science fiction.

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Mackus
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Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Mackus »

I am very excited about incoming grand strategy game in SF setting called Stellaris.
I cannot believe this question hadn't occur to me until now, but how, broadly speaking, one would implement space nations from Outsider in the game? There are plenty options for racial customisation, though unfortunately, there will be no psionics without researching proper technology first (at least until someone makes use of modders-friendly game engine). But, in-game customisation will allow pre-start scripting of non-player races, so if you are so inclined you can totally have AI Umiak vs player Loroi match (plus accompanying minor powers), or vice versa.
I guess Loroi Union would be Military Dictatorship, with their national ethics being Collectivist, Militarist, Spiritualist. Their racial bonuses would be longer lifespans than average races, requiring less food to represent their efficient metabolism, and get another bonus to reproduction. Sanzai would have to be implemented by outright modding (but would be represented by bonuses to internal stability, diplomacy, espionage, land combar).
Closest approximation, though "dictatorship" implies illegal seizure of power, while Loroi are Legalistic Semi-Aristocratic Stratocracy. But from mechanical perspective, MD government behaves like Loroi Union, led by single military leader elected for life by high command. Collectivist ethics will reflect their caste system, Spiritualist is related to psionics (makes researching psionics easier), while Militarist is obvious.

Any PDOX fans out here awaiting the release?
Last edited by Mackus on Tue May 03, 2016 11:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

I plan on getting it, and odd are I'll do something like this, but I haven't gone in depth in reading prerelease stuff enough to understand all these mechanics ahead of time. Hell, as a paradox game I'm assuming I won't understand most of the mechanics even when I'm playing it.
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discord
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by discord »

preordered at highest level, not because i want the extra stuffs, it's throwing money at devs for making things i like.

Mackus
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Mackus »

Siber wrote:I plan on getting it, and odd are I'll do something like this, but I haven't gone in depth in reading prerelease stuff enough to understand all these mechanics ahead of time. Hell, as a paradox game I'm assuming I won't understand most of the mechanics even when I'm playing it.
I've read all dev diaries and most wiki articles, so I'd say I am pretty hyped about it.

Continuing, I think Umiak Hierarchy would be Materialistic, Collectivist, Militaristic (or perhaps Fanatic Collectivist Materialist? They seem to treat war as mean to an end rather than martial ethos of some sort like Loroi do). I am not sure if anything had been said about their form of government. Their racial traits would be Communal (less likely to revolt), Conformist (their ethics do not diverge), Nomadic (faster migration to new worlds). We know that heavy/low gravity worlds are in the game, but it seems they'll be just flat bonuses/penalties rather than racial preference.

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Sorus
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Sorus »

Coming into this conversation way late, but I'd love a portrait, ship, name list and logo pack for the Loroi. I need my blue space elves.

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Sorus wrote:Coming into this conversation way late, but I'd love a portrait, ship, name list and logo pack for the Loroi. I need my blue space elves.
You may be in partial luck: I mentioned that very thing to someone who was doing a space elves edit of humans, linked Outsider. Apparently he binged Outsider in one go (no hard task, :P ) and decided that yeah, that was awesome. Of course, he'd still need someone with art skills to draw the Loroi clothes, and someone with modeling skills to make the ships, if you wanted a full pack, but...

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

I'm tinkering with a little namelist and possibly portraits(modified human portraits rather than lifted from the comic or new drawn.). Feeding portions of the lexicon into a combining script has given me enough names to cover every survivor of Kharak and then some(over 600,000). It remains to be seen how Stellaris will handle such a thing.
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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Image

Hacking existing texture portraits isn't impossible, but it's proving slightly non-trivial. Still, getting somewhere.

EDIT:

Image

Much better. Spicing up the hair colors should be possible too, but more work. Not sure I'm going to bother with that today.
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Hālian
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Hālian »

Image
Image
Don't delay, join today!

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Arioch
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Arioch »

If there's a template for the uniforms, I could probably knock something simple out for it.

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Arioch wrote:If there's a template for the uniforms, I could probably knock something simple out for it.
Your art would grossly mismatch the art style of Stellaris. I'm not saying your art is bad - it's not, and TBH I haven't crushed on an anime-style character as hard as I crush on Beryl since I was a teenager and Yufie Kisaragi stole all my @*)@^^#(^ing materia and I forgave her for it, but it would look out of place.

That having been said, let me find the files. They'll be in .dds format. Would you like them emailed somewhere?

Also, would you like the hair files too?

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/896 ... images.zip all the human female portrait images pre-converted to png. I'm willing to handle conversion and insertion of new images into the game, but I can't promise speed for it.

Arioch, do you have objection to me making what I have in it's current state publicly available on steam, with Trade names and all? Prominent credit would be given, of course.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Siber wrote:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/896 ... images.zip all the human female portrait images pre-converted to png. I'm willing to handle conversion and insertion of new images into the game, but I can't promise speed for it.
Um, be mindful: Stellaris does not seem to like files that have been converted to PNG and back to DDS. I went through some trouble with that trying to help a friend make a private modification of the fox portraits dimorphism mod. She was using photoshop and had converted filetypes, and it went all manky. I mean, I can't say why it happened, but I'd say it would be better to keep the files in .dds and work with them as such.

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dragoongfa
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by dragoongfa »

Man, I really need to upgrade my rig in order to be able to run new games. Stellaris is at the top of my list and you guys try to put it even higher :P

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Arioch
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Arioch »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Your art would grossly mismatch the art style of Stellaris.
Obviously it would need to be done in a style appropriate to the game.
Siber wrote:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/896 ... images.zip all the human female portrait images pre-converted to png. I'm willing to handle conversion and insertion of new images into the game, but I can't promise speed for it.

Arioch, do you have objection to me making what I have in it's current state publicly available on steam, with Trade names and all? Prominent credit would be given, of course.
You can post whatever you like, but in that case there's no need for me to do any assets.

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Arioch wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Your art would grossly mismatch the art style of Stellaris.
Obviously it would need to be done in a style appropriate to the game.
Sorry, I apologize. It was not my intention to be insulting, it's just that from what I understand, artists who draw primarily in a bright, colorful, animesque style the way you do often have trouble getting near to highly-realistic art, and vice-versa.
Arioch wrote:You can post whatever you like, but in that case there's no need for me to do any assets.
I believe he proposed to release what he has now (name lists, blue elf faces with human uniforms,) as a beta version of the mod, and update it with your uniforms when they became available.

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Um, be mindful: Stellaris does not seem to like files that have been converted to PNG and back to DDS. I went through some trouble with that trying to help a friend make a private modification of the fox portraits dimorphism mod. She was using photoshop and had converted filetypes, and it went all manky. I mean, I can't say why it happened, but I'd say it would be better to keep the files in .dds and work with them as such.
The portraits in the second screenshot have made that round trip, the pipeline I'm using seems to work. Given that Arioch has plenty of experience with doing 3d stuff I'm sure there's good odds he knows how to handle .dds, but png is a heck of a lot more convent in my experience.
You can post whatever you like, but in that case there's no need for me to do any assets.
I believe he proposed to release what he has now (name lists, blue elf faces with human uniforms,) as a beta version of the mod, and update it with your uniforms when they became available.
Shadowdragon is correct. My own limited artistic output is spoken for by other projects, the most more I'm going to do visually myself is hue-shifts of the existing hair sprites.
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ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Siber wrote:The portraits in the second screenshot have made that round trip, the pipeline I'm using seems to work. Given that Arioch has plenty of experience with doing 3d stuff I'm sure there's good odds he knows how to handle .dds, but png is a heck of a lot more convent in my experience.
Really? Huh...
Maybe there was just something weird with the way my friend converted, then, because when she gave me the image files back, it was all manky and full of gray streakies in vast segments of where there should have been alpha channel.
(Of course, I was able to nip that in the bud by just using a clean portrait file as a "stamp" to copy-and-paste the empty alpha channel around the otherwise greatwork she'd done.)

Welp, being wrong is always an option, and with me, it's often the case, so feel free to ignore me being a derp, then. :)

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Admittedly the first screenshot was also the result of a similar round trip, just with a different tool doing the conversion. So it's not without peril.
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ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Has there been any motion on this? Currently I'm playing a race of Fanatic Xenophile Militant space elves that make me think of the Loroi.

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