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Application for Haereticus

Haereticus

Midshipman
Creative Support
3D Artist
2D Artist
Hello all.

Some of you will know me from the new User Interface Design Ideas thread where I have been submitting some concepts I've put together for the GUI, specifically menus for managing your ship's affairs and controlling your ship. Links are here and here. I decided it was time to submit a formal application to see if I could help.

I have no experience actually making working GUIs and much to my regret the concepts I have made so far are nonfunctional. That may mean I'm better suited to a creative support/brainstorming role than a GUI developer role, but I'd be happy to try to learn the relevant skills to construct the end-product menus for Hearts of Oak. I'd like to submit myself for either of these depending on which is thought more appropriate.

I also have modest 3D modelling skills, self-taught in Wings3D. My experience is primarily modelling vehicles, and I'm happy to try odd jobs in vehicles, environment, items/weapons, etc., if I'm needed. I'm rubbish at texturing things. An example of my work is this C-21 Dragon Assault Ship from the 2009 movie Avatar.

I possess an English more-or-less RP accent that may be appropriate for use as British officers. I can probably do a reasonable attempt at regional British accents too. I'd be happy to help with either of those if you can't find anyone better.

Anyway, I think those are all my relevant skills. I don't have much in the way of relevant expertise, although if the contemporary history of science or medicine is ever relevant I'd be happy to help with the research for that. I'm a full-time student so the level of commitment I can give varies wildly.

Please let me know what you think and whether I can be of any help to the team - I'd be honoured to be given a place on board.
 
Glad to see this Haereticus! Technical experience has never really been a major factor for us, a willingness to contribute and learn is far more important, and you have certainly shown both since your first post on these forums. I don't know much about the UDK myself, but there are several resources available and I have learned a little bit about it the past few months.

Your interface designs are fantastic! They are clean, simple and professional looking and I think they fit the game perfectly. For now, I have added you as a 2D artist and Creative support. Again, welcome aboard mate! :dance
 
Thanks Thagarr! I feel very honoured to be on the team. I've been looking at some tutorials for GUI creation in the UDK and it doesn't look beyond my skills. I'd start experimenting now but I filled up the Windows partition on my laptop with the PotC Build Mod, but hopefully I'll get a reasonably powerful desktop PC soon.

Do I get those little banners saying what I am?
 
You have two banners now mate, are they not showing up for you? Try refreshing your browser cache, I am seeing them just fine. :shrug
 
Oh, thanks. I can see them if I log out but not while logged in. It'll probably change in a bit. Thanks for your help!
 
Anytime mate, let me know if you have any other problems.

Btw, awesome avatar! :thumbs1
 
Haereticus, which forum style are you using? The ribbons are currently only set up for the Aurora Blue and Aurora Pirate styles (and their 'fluid' variants), but not for the default Aurora style.
 
I'm using Aurora Blue Fluid, and I can see the ribbons on everyone else except myself, except when I log out, when I can see them on myself too. It's not a big deal.
 
That's quite weird. More importantly than the ribbons, are you able to access the "Work in progress" sub-forum? I just made a slight change to your profile to hopefully make sure that works properly.
 
I can access the WIP subforum, thanks! I might try making some 3D stuff for the game, if I may. Do you know if we have a late 18th to early 19th century 64-gun ship-of-the-line that I could modify? I fancy trying a prison hulk.
 
You would be most welcome to contribute to the modelling effort! Unfortunately, I don't think we have any 64-gun vessels of that era; the nearest matches are probably the 74-gun Téméraire class and Bellona class ships Le Superbe and HMS Bellona respectively. See this thread for a list of vessels we need (mostly applies to the Napoleonic era, though initially we'll need ships from the entire eighteenth century).
 
I can access the WIP subforum, thanks! I might try making some 3D stuff for the game, if I may. Do you know if we have a late 18th to early 19th century 64-gun ship-of-the-line that I could modify? I fancy trying a prison hulk.
the closest thing i can think of is Kriswood's HMS Centurion (1732) http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/centurion.18568/ she would be old even for a prison hulk, but there were older hulks during the Napoleonic wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Prince_(1670)
If you were thinking of building a 64 from scratch, I could give you some recommendations and links to plans. I think i could even get you a few plans of prison hulks in a few weeks.
 
So is there only a demand for ship models at the moment? I think a full ship model is probably beyond my skills and expertise at the moment. If stuff like prison hulks isn't needed, I'll probably have a look at modelling a few buildings.

Edit: looks like we posted at the same time. I'll see if I can download the model you linked above and get it to open - I only know how to work in Wings3D so it might not be possible to import and export it with all the textures and materials intact, in which case it's probably easier for everyone if I don't bother.
 
There is a demand for every type of model :p while a prison hulk isn't a top priority at the moment, we will certainly need them for European ports! and it would still be very welcome if you wanted to make one. the problem is more that we don't have an appropriate 64 or 50 to build one off of yet. though conceivably a 74 could be used, that happened to some prizes that were too battle damaged to be worth a full repair. But buildings would be very useful, probably more useful for early game development.
 
Ok, it was only a passing whim. I'll look at making some star forts, dry docks, that kind of thing. It'd be cool if we could get a library of pieces (i.e. architectural elements) that could be put together easily and quickly to make diverse period buildings.
 
Sounds great to me! star forts and dry docks should be common things too, great place to start. and i agree, an element if architectural elements would be an excellent idea. Something similar will likely be done with ships.
 
A library of different parts for modelling purposes is certainly something we need to look into. I've already spoken to Wedori about components for ships, and have been building up a collection of parts myself for quite a while, so hopefully we can have something set up pretty soon. We just need to sort out LODs for every part first.
Architectural elements are something we're lacking at the moment (except for stuff from the Storm games), so that will probably be even more important.
 
If your thinking of working on buildings mate, you might have a look through this :
Architectural Heritage of the Caribbean: An A-Z of History Buildings

I am not sure how useful it is, but I found it a while back and thought it might come in handy. We also have the option of using some of the open source 3D models that are out there on sites such as Blend Swap and WorldForge, but we may stand more of a chance of running in to licensing issues with the UDK. :shrug
 
Oh, thanks - that looks like a really good resource. It'd be good at some point to compile a reading list of books and web resources that covers diverse topics like contemporary architecture, geopolitics, mercantilism, seamanship, that kind of thing. At the moment I'm working on a few star forts mainly based on the Castello de San Marco and Fort Amsterdam in NYC.

Do any of you know if there's an easy way that I can take a map or building or something in .obj format and quickly and simply port it to a FPS-like engine so I can see if it 'feels right'? Something like the Source Engine or something?
 
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