Upgradecap wrote:
Oh yeah, gotta ask, would more people be interested in joining if i posted some more info?

I guess you would have to see Artists you won't find many here. Because there are none except the lucky few. (as far as i know)

Thanks! We're still cracking at the lore, though, but we've got a pirate faction set up (Called The Black Hole syndicate) and a Megacorp named the Animus Corp.



Cool, eh?

K-64 wrote:
Thanks for the compliments, Pleasure. Currently my priority is to get the factions' fluff and basic info nailed down, with their psychologies, technologies and motivations sorted out before seeing about how their aesthetics are done. After all, isn't it best that their engineering reflects on their personalities and the hardships they overcome? Well, I'm getting a bit poetic here, that's a good sign to stop



For now, it's the artwork that's going to be the tricky part, I'll admit. Currently we don't have much trouble with coming up with the concepts for the factions, I blame myself for being a massive sci-fi nerd for having tons of ideas like this... though I shouldn't complain about it really, it's a good thing. Having an artist would allow us to show the shinies, as well as the pretty words.

Nice lore ^.^ Good luck to you all!

Pleasure wrote:
The Lore is good i like it. Now you should get some basics in written form. and Artwork for the Ships, heroes etc.



Since the Story and Design of your Mod is unique and not based on another Game or Television Show, this will be the hardest part but also the part where you will get interest from the Comunity. Get yourself a nice Artwork Designer and lure the People to the Thread here so they get an interest!



I really hope you will get this going, so far only Endless Dream, Endless Dynasty and Babylon 5 Project (I don't know how far WH40k is active) are the Big Projects. It is nice to see some more emerging.



Wish you really all the luck.



Greets



Pleasure

Thanks for the compliments, Pleasure. Currently my priority is to get the factions' fluff and basic info nailed down, with their psychologies, technologies and motivations sorted out before seeing about how their aesthetics are done. After all, isn't it best that their engineering reflects on their personalities and the hardships they overcome? Well, I'm getting a bit poetic here, that's a good sign to stop



For now, it's the artwork that's going to be the tricky part, I'll admit. Currently we don't have much trouble with coming up with the concepts for the factions, I blame myself for being a massive sci-fi nerd for having tons of ideas like this... though I shouldn't complain about it really, it's a good thing. Having an artist would allow us to show the shinies, as well as the pretty words.

Pleasure wrote:
The Lore is good i like it. Now you should get some basics in written form. and Artwork for the Ships, heroes etc.



Since the Story and Design of your Mod is unique and not based on another Game or Television Show, this will be the hardest part but also the part where you will get interest from the Comunity. Get yourself a nice Artwork Designer and lure the People to the Thread here so they get an interest!



I really hope you will get this going, so far only Endless Dream, Endless Dynasty and Babylon 5 Project (I don't know how far WH40k is active) are the Big Projects. It is nice to see some more emerging.



Wish you really all the luck.



Greets



Pleasure

*Bows*



I wish to thank you, sir!



But in all honesty, getting an lead art designer is going to be though and hard. Really tough and hard.





@Igncom1

Yeah, but we have grand plans! 7 major factions and 8 minor factions each with their own unique artwork and design is going to be in this mod! Expect greatness from us!

A suggestion if I may, keep the faction number down so you can make each one diverse in both their game play and story.

The Lore is good i like it. Now you should get some basics in written form. and Artwork for the Ships, heroes etc.



Since the Story and Design of your Mod is unique and not based on another Game or Television Show, this will be the hardest part but also the part where you will get interest from the Comunity. Get yourself a nice Artwork Designer and lure the People to the Thread here so they get an interest!



I really hope you will get this going, so far only Endless Dream, Endless Dynasty and Babylon 5 Project (I don't know how far WH40k is active) are the Big Projects. It is nice to see some more emerging.



Wish you really all the luck.



Greets



Pleasure

And there we go. Another piece of lore for faction 2 (Sons of Lazarus) is out!

Updated and refurbished the lore: Tell me if you like it!





(Thanks to K-64 for that!)

Great, even though I really didn't see any



But thanks for the spellproofing.

Upgradecap wrote:


Faction 1. (yet unnamed):



Basically augmented humans, these hail from a harsh lava planet. Living under hostile conditions, their ancestors barely survived if it wasn't for the small fertile marshes protected by tremendous trees. You could really call those "Gardens of Eden". But then, some period not long ago, they where invaded by another race. They had a small, but for the time, sufficient military, but that was no match for these new ships. Fortunately, the invaders only lasted a mere 5 years on the planet, however, those 5 years were of heavy oppression and slavery, and those who did not follow, would be shot, Or worse. But after the revolution, they swore to be never enslaved again. But for this to be true, they needed to extend their military. And for that to happen, they had to expand their cities beyond the fertile marshes, so they eventually built floating cities. But living on these was not a simple task, since the dangerous gasses from the lava made it dangerous for anyone without a breathing mask impossible to live beyond the age of 20. And considering this was before radiation and lava shielding technology, they did the smartest thing that could be done by then: They augmented themselves with breathing and movement implants, essentially becoming synthetics. Part human, part machine, they kept this idea even when it came to spaceships. And once the technology of applying machines to large animals became a reality, they where really lucky to find that their planet had an abundance of really large animals, which also had a very thick skin, to survive the harsh environment. Utilizing these as spaceships, they eventually came to size their own system, and began advancing forward.

I don't want to be THAT guy...But I fixed some of the spelling/grammar issues I noticed ;p(Might have missed some though or wrongly corrected cuz I am not English but just trying to help ;p)

Heh, AFAIK, with my numerous modding attempts (not for this game, though) is finding an artists. Usually also the most rewarding one, but the most hardest by far too.



people only focus on code! Show some love to the art!

No information of the mod as of yet, but it'll come in once we have assembled the team.



It is going to be rather epic and grand, though



The people we're currently looking for are:



3D artist: Modeler(s) (until we gain further information about possibility to add new shipsets, the coding part is put on hold, although not the modeling part) (info about the looks of the models will be received once your application has been submitted)



2D artists: Texture artist(s) UI artist(s)



Art: Artist(s), 2D art. (small misc stuff, like technology tree icons)



Sounds: Musical artist(s)(main menu music, battle music, universe music), sound artist (shots, misc sounds)









PM me, or add me on steam for contact:



Upgradecap.



The way the recruiting works is that works is that we'd have a sample of your work(s) along with a few lines of words to let us know why you'd be interesting in joining this epic project. You'll either receive a message on steam or a PM if/when you're accepted.



Good luck to you all!





Some info:



Faction 1. (yet unnamed):



For all intents and purposes, mechanically augmented humans, they draw their origins from a virtually inhospitable lava world. In such a merciless environment, their anscestors would've perished quickly if it weren't for small areas dotting the planets, areas that could only be described as “Gardens of Eden” among a molten hellscape.

For a while they survived undisturbed until an alien menace descended upon them. At the time, [FactionName] had only a small military, sufficient for only domestic issues. This military had no chance of victory against these new high-tech ships, and fell quickly. The invaders, fortunately for [FactionName] didn't last long on their world. Their reign of horrific oppression blighted the world for only 5 years, after the people managed to lead a bloody revolution against them, and vowed never to let themselves be anyone's slave as long as one of them still draws breath.

While free, they still were defenceless. They needed a strong military, which in turn meant that more of the planet needed exploiting in order to construct larger and deadlier machines of war. The result was the construction of impressive floating cities above the molten expanses, however these cities weren't as simple a solution as first thought. Thanks to various chemicals in gases rising from the scorching surface causing degradation and disintegration of the lungs and respiratory system, residents of these cities didn't last beyond 20 years of living in these aerial metropolises. After the gases, there was still the issue of radiation and extreme temperature to worry about.

It was more efficient and beneficial in the long term to just augment their own bodies to adapt. Enhancing their lungs and motor controls, they started to become part machine in order to combat the harsh climate they have struggled against for countless generations. It was only natural that they extended this philosophy when it came to walking the stars. Their planet was host to a variety of rather large beasts which could be adapted for space travel, like they adapted themselves for venturing the boiling seas. Being creatures on a planet of immense temperatures, the animals they used had naturally thick skin, which would suffice against the basic cosmic hazards and rudimentary spacecraft weapons.

With an unwavering desire to be free from the bonds of their world, and a natural skill of bending nature to their will, they take the system as their own, becoming a true power among the stars, ever expanding their influence.



That's the lore, and i don't really have the faction traits set up yet.





Screw this, faction 2 lore right here



Living in a system with a star nearing its end isn't a pleasant prospect to think of. It's even worse to be in that situation, as the Sons of Lazarus learned. Achieving spaceflight relatively early in their history. Energy shielding was also another point of pride in their development, less out of curiosity and more out of necessity as their dying star bombarded the planet with more and more dangerous radiation.

It came to a point where the planet caught itself in a permanent wildfire in the equatorial region. This disaster didn't just destroy large forests, it also obliterated a number of large cities, and gave a wake up call to the Sons that they needed to leave their ancestral home, if they were to survive the next decade. In a monumental effort that pulled every person on the planet together, they set about designing a gargantuan starship, dwarfing any other that would ever grace the stars. Naturally such a project completely devoured the planet's resources, however there was no concern about what happened to it, it was destined to die anyway.

Once the ship was completed, the entire population was housed within its capacious hull, and set off for a nearby star that had a habitable world. However the star had begun to implode upon itself, and even though the ship had managed to outrun the blast, it still got hit by a shock-wave, and the navigation systems were heavily damaged. To make matters worse, they were knocked off course. After 3 generations of shipborne life, they managed to correct course to another habitable world, and proceeded to make measures to decelerate and seed the planet.

They found out once it was too late that the planet was scarce in usable ores for ship construction. To overcome this crippling problem, they had to disassemble and cannibalise the ship they had used for the exodus in order to build the cities and communities to house the people.

Now that the people had now settled back onto solid ground, they yearned for the stars, not as a retreat, but as an empire. Knowing that ships of metals and ceramics would be all but impossible to make a large fleet from, they went to what they knew best, energy shielding. Instead of making it just resist energy, they used fields that acted as solid light to comprise the hull, the ships themselves are relatively tiny things, being the projectors for the hard-light hulls.



All made by K-64.

Oh yeah, gotta ask, would more people be interested in joining if i posted some more info?

EvilFred wrote:
My thoughts also.

Yep, i did add some more info out there, and so far, we've only started to scratch the surface, in terms of coding. We'll get some more work done soon, but at the time, we're still looking for an artist and modeler, so that we can have that settled once ES allows for texture and art modification

davea wrote:
I have a suggestion, based on my experience of large scale total conversion mods. People who are already experienced in these areas have their own ideas to work on. If you want to attract people with experience, you have to show "something" to get them interested. For example, you might create a small, working mod, which needs art assets to become "better". Then an artist might get interested. Also, since Endless Space does not support modding of 3D models and textures, it isn't clear that any work could actually make it into the game.



I wish you the best of luck in recruiting for your mod, but you might get a better response by providing more information / examples.

My thoughts also.

Well, we're going to settle for nothing short of huge. Also, the info I have gathered that there might be am expansion coming might bring this mod to even higher levels

K-64 wrote:


As for the question about the models and such, that's quite an issue I agree. Is there any intention at all towards such things to be moddable for Endless Space? Because if there is, it may just be a case of stockpiling the models and such and get the coding hammered out until custom ship models can be used for a more expeditious release. This is entirely conjecture though

last i heard they a working on a set of tools wich allow us to change the models sometime in the future. When i do not know. But i am allready making lots and lots of models for our mod myself.



ps. It would be interessting to see where you are going with the Mod. I wish you best of luck and hopefully we see another big Mod emerging from your Ideas. (Since the really big mod lists in progress is kinda small as of now.)

Fine, fine. I was assuming you guys would be making requests for more information, but truth to be told, i wanted this to be kept a surprise to the public, as a way to gain the "Wow" factor. I suppose i could always let out bits and pieces of information, but most of the planning will be for the dev team, and did i ever tell you anyone on the dev team have to sign a NDA?



(For those of you who do not know what a NDA is, it is an No Disclosure Agreement; you bind yourself and promise not to tell anyone anything about updates, status, duration until next patch/update etc. but once you lave the dev team, it doesn't apply any longer. )



Anyways, i'll update the OP with some info now. Stay tuned!

I'm just going to pop my head in and say that I'm going to be assisting Upgradecap with the mod (Both of us are modders for Starfarer, different game, but still putting that out there for some idea of our history).

davea wrote:
I have a suggestion, based on my experience of large scale total conversion mods. People who are already experienced in these areas have their own ideas to work on. If you want to attract people with experience, you have to show "something" to get them interested. For example, you might create a small, working mod, which needs art assets to become "better". Then an artist might get interested. Also, since Endless Space does not support modding of 3D models and textures, it isn't clear that any work could actually make it into the game.

A good point there, although I'd have to say the idea of a total conversion is easier (specifically the idea of coming up with ideas, that is) to do than looking at what's needing tweaked or whatever in vanilla that hasn't already been done. And adding a new faction into things would more than likely look weird compared to the vanilla models and personalities of the factions. That's merely my opinion, I'm not saying in any form "You're wrong and stupid for thinking that". I just find it's easier to build a whole new world rather than attempt to seamlessly add on to the one already there.



As for the question about the models and such, that's quite an issue I agree. Is there any intention at all towards such things to be moddable for Endless Space? Because if there is, it may just be a case of stockpiling the models and such and get the coding hammered out until custom ship models can be used for a more expeditious release. This is entirely conjecture though

davea wrote:


I wish you the best of luck in recruiting for your mod, but you might get a better response by providing more information / examples.

I'm afraid that's probably up to Upgradecap here, I have no idea on how much he wants to remain a surprise about it.

Pleasure wrote:
Mostly People are looking for an Idea they can relay to, for example: a Star Trek fan would more likely help out in a Star Trek Mod.



People will need a Reason why to join your Team.

I can safely say this, the TC will be entirely original content and lore. That way we have ultimate flexibility in what we can play about with and also not come up with issues regarding permissions and copyright, etc. But most of all, because we want to build a whole new universe. Now before I start going into Sales Speech #75, I shall stop monologuing. However, while I'm still rambling, I shall say that both of us do appreciate the feedback already given (well, feedback may be the wrong word, but I hope you know what I mean).