What did you do in Empyrion today?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Slam Jones, Oct 17, 2015.

  1. Siege Inc.

    Siege Inc. Rear Admiral

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    Easiest way is just to stand back and Alt-O to save the blueprint but that doesn't always take the best pic.

    The more involved way you take a pic and manually replace the default screenshot with the one you want to use.

    First take a good pic(F7 key for screenshots).

    Then open that pic with an editing program(I use IrfanView) and change the size to 800x450.

    Next save that pic in the blueprint folder of the item. The path will look something like:
    D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Saves\Blueprints\76561198064185582\Name of Your Item

    Make sure the file type is saving as a jpeg. The names must also be the same. With IrfanView it defaults to .png so I switch that to jpeg in the save window. Then I click on the jpeg file already in the folder(the one I'm about to replace). That changes the name of the file I'm saving to match what's in the folder.

    Now that everything is set correctly click save. It asks if I want to replace the current file. I double check everything is good and then click yes.

    Look at the blueprint in game and its pic will be updated with the new one. Publish it. Done.
     
    #14701
  2. Siege Inc.

    Siege Inc. Rear Admiral

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    Bricks are practical. They work! He just wanted something that didn't look like one. He had an idea in mind but was having trouble translating that into the game. Spheres and curves are a lot more difficult to work with. And I'm not knocking anyone's building skills! I was just a little dismayed because he said he needed help polishing off a ship and turns out he needed a whole ship built.

    When it comes to building stuff it helps me to have an idea in mind and a picture to work from. I look for inspiration online a lot. One of my recent builds I documented some of the build process. It started off as a series of connected boxes that I sculpted into the shape I wanted. The boxes are helpful for establishing the rough dimensions of the vehicle but it can change as I go along. It's a process and there's a lot of trial and error involved. I'll borrow good ideas from others all the time if I see something clever and I've come up with my own little tricks and ways of adding detail.

    This one was going to be a Y-Wing until I started playing around with the wing pieces. I liked how that looked so I kept them and finished off the ship using design elements from Klingon ships.

    Creative 8.x_2018-09-14_14-16-24.png
    Creative 8.x_2018-09-14_14-16-28.png
    Creative 8.x_2018-09-14_14-16-34.png
    Creative 8.x_2018-09-14_17-13-59.png
    Creative 8.x_2018-09-14_16-43-50.png

    And that's how you go from Brick™ to Not A Brick™. ;)

    Which I'm getting better at. Some of my early stuff is pretty cringe worthy but sometimes I manage to nail it. Getting better at doing that consistently. I'm a lot better at adapting existing designs(like the Y-wing conversion) than coming up with a completely original idea. The very first thing I ever made was an adaptation of the Eagle 5 from Spaceballs. It was better than what others had done at the time but eventually someone came along and blew my version away(so I updated mine using their ideas).

    The stuff you find on my workshop are the ones that got published(and like I said not all of those are that great). What you never see is the junkyard full of stuff that didn't make it.
     
    #14702
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2018
  3. Furious Hellfire

    Furious Hellfire Rear Admiral

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    We all start out with the brick :p I remember mine still haha, I also remember thinking how daunting a task it looked to try and build ships with angles and curves, it was actually the good old tier 1 sv which taught me a simple and easy method of making non blocky design, going through long corner A,B,C,D in sequence in any direction keeps them alligned without having to rotate the blocks, this pattern can then be repeated to ones hearts content in any direction then learning a few other helpful blocks that can be used in conjuction with the 4 corners pattern, once I discovered this I made the DSS an old sv of mine with a cv counterpart, looked awesome though with the corner block work.

    Basically I made a CV version of the tier 1 sv and that was how I realised the blocks were just placed in a row in order to make patterns.

    It was like unlocking the secrets of the EGS building universe haha, well at least some.

    Most of my current boat hulls use the 4 corner sequence to make the hull.
     
    #14703
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  4. dpburke2

    dpburke2 Captain

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    What? Removed? Is it something with my PC that the link isn't taking me to a beautiful new BP? I was so looking forward to checking it out.

    As for bricks, sure my first designs looked like they were out of Minecraft. But they weren't what I considered bricks even though they lacked angled and curved blocks. It would be nearly a year after starting the game that I would start building my first brick.

    The SV docked to the CV here, that is a brick. Very big SV brick. But, hey, it flies! Now I have a very long list of things I plan to build so it will be quite a while before you see this CV and SV on the workshop. My favorite part of the SV is the staircase I had to create, because SV don't have stairs or elevators. Oh, and I affectionately call it my "Flying Brick" but it's official name is Carri-On C (for cargo as I plan to have a passenger variant as well).

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Sephrajin

    Sephrajin Rear Admiral

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    @dpburke2 at least it has rounded corners and details.
    Mine's just a bulky 'arrow'...
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    #14705
  6. Siege Inc.

    Siege Inc. Rear Admiral

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    Honestly looking at a freshly dropped core still intimidates me sometimes. It's like looking at a blank canvas. Sometimes I don't know where to begin. In a way it's like drawing and one of the things you learn is that everything is just a series of simple shapes connected together: ovals, spheres, triangles, squares, and rectangles. You can reduce anything to these simple shapes. The Y-wing is just a series of rectangles placed next to each other. A little rounding turns a couple of those into engine nacelles. A few angled blocks and you have the nose and cockpit, etc. You refine the shape as you go like a sculptor working a block of stone. Spheres and curving shapes are tough. One thing that's helped me(in addition to modifying other people's designs) is looking at some of the imported models people have made to see how a computer algorithm translated a sphere into blocks. Can't say I've mastered it but it's given me ideas. :)
     
    #14706
  7. Robot Shark

    Robot Shark Rear Admiral

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    I have the Steam overlay enabled and take a screenshots using F12.
    Steam gives you a .JPG (not a .PNG) file.

    I then rename the .JPG file and copy it into the blueprints folder.
     
    #14707
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  8. Robot Shark

    Robot Shark Rear Admiral

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    Did someone say their go-to HV is a brick?

    [​IMG]
     
    #14708
  9. Kieve

    Kieve Rear Admiral

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    So after a few days of fiddling around, I managed to whip up a lvl 3 base I was reasonably happy with. Welcome, ladies & gents, to Sirocco:
    8.6Surv_2018-09-25_03-54-06.jpg 8.6Surv_2018-09-25_03-54-31.jpg 8.6Surv_2018-09-25_03-56-06.jpg 8.6Surv_2018-09-25_03-56-55.jpg 8.6Surv_2018-09-25_03-57-03.jpg 8.6Surv_2018-09-25_04-56-38.jpg
    I tested it out in my survival game, managed to squeeze it onto the highest peak on the map. Makes for an excellent vantage point, though there's a spaceport not too far away that I'll have to deal with eventually. Drones immediately took interest, but the sentry guns put them down with ease before they ever got near the place (with hanging positions from the landing pad, the guns had excellent firing position down the mountain, whereas drones apparently don't know how to shoot upward).

    All in all, I'm sure there's a few kinks to work out and I'd like to make it a bit cheaper, but it makes for a great little starter - will definitely be using this again in the future.
     
    #14709
  10. elmo

    elmo Captain

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    This is the brick I use. My wee bug (brick).
     

    Attached Files:

    #14710
  11. Sephrajin

    Sephrajin Rear Admiral

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    Well that cv i did in between the large cv... worked a Little bit more at it, and here it is…

    My first 'scientific' CV: Parallax
    [​IMG]


    20180928115817_1.jpg 20180928115844_1.jpg 20180928120808_1.jpg 20180928122825_1.jpg 20180928133003_1.jpg 20180928121656_1.jpg 20180928133128_1.jpg 20180928122013_1.jpg 20180928123750_1.jpg
     
    #14711
  12. LordMontecute

    LordMontecute Captain

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    Aaaarrrgghh, I didn't realise it did that. I updated the blueprint with a new picture (thanks everyone for the help) and it must have changed visibility to private.
    Should be OK now.
    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1524938421
     
    #14712
  13. Siege Inc.

    Siege Inc. Rear Admiral

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    Couple pics. It literally started life as a brick. He wanted guns all around the front. I was going to attach them but that was extra weight so I made them into 'drones'. Added some nacelles to the back. Mostly decorative but they do add some additional armor along the flanks.

    Creative 8.6.x_2018-09-29_19-06-22.png Creative 8.6.x_2018-09-29_19-06-29.png Creative 8.6.x_2018-09-29_19-06-35.png

    An older prototype. I was being silly.
    Creative 8.6.x_2018-09-29_20-07-31.png

    Now that his version is done I'm making a modified version that will be a little more pve friendly, ie adding a hangar, venting thrusters externally, little bit more of an interior instead of solid metal. Moving some of the generators/RCS/fuel/thrusters into the nacelles. Still has a nice solid chunk of armor up front with some decoy fuel/power gens and a couple layers of armor everywhere else.
     
    #14713
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2018
  14. Na_Palm

    Na_Palm Captain

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    #14714
  15. Fractalite

    Fractalite Rear Admiral

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    Stunning work! I think I might just use this today!

    Edit: Wait a sec, there is no linky link! Rawr!
     
    #14715
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  16. Booyaah

    Booyaah Captain

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    The problem I have is the picture for me is always taken before the the BP screen has been derendered. If they would add a .5 sec delay it would be better. Annoying to have to stash a bunch of separate beauty shots lol
     
    #14716
  17. Fractalite

    Fractalite Rear Admiral

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    Why... why the faces on my ships.


    20180930162737_1.jpg
     
    #14717
  18. Fractalite

    Fractalite Rear Admiral

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    #14718
  19. Dinkelsen

    Dinkelsen Captain

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    @Fractalite And I thought you were into Terrestrial Skulpting...
     
    #14719
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  20. Sephrajin

    Sephrajin Rear Admiral

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    This Looks very promising, cant wait to check out the adm version! :)

    The only way to 'publish' adm cored blueprints is to share the according epd file directly.
    <EGS Install Dir>/saves/blueprint/<steamid>/<Blueprintname>

    hth
     
    #14720

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