With the new Constellation Andromeda model in game how long do you think it will take to remodel the Aquila, Phoenix, and Taurus? This question could also apply to any ship line such as the Freelancer that are getting reworks.asked by MetalDrumCore
TL;DRWithout giving a remodel time for the Aquila, Phoenix or Taurus, the speakers discuss how the Freelancer was reworked when cargo came online, saying later changes are sometimes cheaper than waiting and that lessons now improve consistency.
The reason we throws this one in there is that it is similar to the other but this talks a little bit about the Freelancer, that's what I wanted to talk about a little bit on this one. This ship has quite a past, right, we've learned a lot from that Freelancer from when it was here and then the UK was working on it. I wanted this one kind of for Forest because he has a lot of history with the Freelancer to talk about. So, how does that change now with what we've learned from the Constellation on something like the Freelancer.
Right.
It's one thing to say a variant of the same ship, it's another thing to say a completely different ship that's big. What are the things you know.
The Freelancer was interesting because it had a new set of design requirements which was specifically in cargo and so as we're building these ships, they started getting fleshed out and all of the sudden the cargo system comes online. It's like, 'wait, a minute how does this ship actually work with the cargo' and so there was a major overhaul that needed to be done with the Freelancer and not just from the visual side but from actually getting the gameplay mechanics and requirements down. So the UK took it over and I don't know if we showed it yet but they did an awesome job.
I believe we showed it on the livestream. It looks really cool.
It looks absolutely fantastic. So, now does it not only look a lot better but they made it actually work with our specifications on the design side....
Which is great...
As design improves their processes, art improves their processes..
Right.
Again they're hand in hand....they're all hand in hand but design has a pretty big laundry list of things they're working on so we're constantly on the production side slating it in, figuring out which one goes where. It's a never ending task of putting all those things together so as Forest mentioned that thought was really interesting he say that, as cargo came online, right? Cause it wasn't really established when they started making it but once it came online we had to go back and we had to change some things out. So, you would think, 'wait, let's do it in order, that's obviously not in order'. That's very true but there are certain situations where we just gotta start making these things....
Right.
It's cheaper to make the changes later than it is to wait to get things online sometimes.
Because we always gotta keep moving forward.
You got it. We definitely always try to do things in line, Forest and I were just talking about this a few days ago, it's very very important to do things in the right order and sometimes we forget and do it wrong, but we're learning and I think things like the freelancer are starting to benefit from things we learnedFS: Absolutely and it's great too because we start having more style guides come online and art direction starts factoring the way these ships work. When you create your ship the first time you're still trying to figure out what exactly is this going to look like and then when we revisit these ships it gives us a great opportunity to be like,"Okay, well this is the way the interior should fill, these are the way the beams should look, these are the way the screws should look, these are the way the floor panels look and so when you start getting into these ships it starts looking consistent and if it's a MISC, Freelancer or whatever. It is fun to go back and make sure that they're right because from the art side it also benefits because things start looking consistent and that's what you really want all around.
That's right. That's one of the things I'm excited about in this game you mentioned is bolts and panels and you know things that you would never be able to put that level of detail into a game and we're doing it, I'm super excited. Everytime I walk around a ship I see that stuff and it's just like, "I'm home baby".
It's great.