Emblems/Badges/Banners customization?

Now now settle down ayceeem. We aren't whinging without qualification and we have provided the development of the idea and how it could be implemented (wolfdogg in particular).

I like the idea of having the emblems, which is why I wanted to discuss how it might work. It is a large part of this forum to expand upon the pros and potential cons of a concept as we see it in order to develop it. If I came off as a wet blanket then I am sorry, to the OP and the people in this thread. Although I would say that making assertions about forum members isn't really helping the thread either. Discuss the ideas, not the person.

Back on topic; I am not personally bothered by NSFW imagery, at least not for the reason you are suggesting. The concern I wanted to voice was finding ways to have this system, without compromising the visual aesthetic. I dont want the game cluttered with junk, I liked the look of the gameplay visualisation and would like to see it realised in that style and I am sure that many people would rather that, then badly implemented emblems and decals.

Most people probably wouldn't abuse NSFW images you are right there. It doesn't mean that I shouldn't talk about the possibility. If the emblems weren't implemented then I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, but I think it could be a really nice addition if done well.

if only because we're not 12 anymore and the sight of a trout on the end of a cock "tagged" on a wall in TF is no longer as amusing to us as it was 14 years ago

that issue aside i really like the idea of a customizable banner type emblem (something similar to D3 banner creation, without the unlocks) and perhaps the inclusion of a simplistic secondary colour patterning, simple off-set vertical stripe, cammo pattern, etc.. you know the usual stuff, you've gotta remember the scale that your going to see the units on aswell, you're not going to see the kind of individual unit detail that would enable a custom paint job of your units to be really appreciated, your units are going to have to read easily from a standard play view point. no zooming in to see if they're black with white stripes or white with black stripes, just at a glance identification and an awesome "Bow Down to MY Awesomeness" Flag Outside Your Capital!

@ consili:
The idea and the person can't be seperated in this case because the whole argument against it you see people making revolves around 'because my/people's sensibilities will be hurt!', so they've decided to make the discussion about them, which is deserving of my ridicule. Nobody is asking 'does this fit with the asthetic of the game?', 'how useful would this really be?', 'do we really want insignia making to be an element to this game?'.

I disagree with people thinking such 'problem' is a problem at all; it's another contrived controversy you see other adults psyching themselves into mewling over while the rest of us are happy to enjoy things in quietness.

Like I said, I don't particularely care about this feature being implemented one way or another. Although, I suppose a good way to go about it would be for people to have to manually choose to download insignias from individual users. Those who practice discretion would only do so from friends and anyone they trust.

I'm just stating I have no sympathy towards this new generation that has swarmed the internet over the past decade and made it fashionable to be offended again while wishing to outmode 'lewd' online banter.

I am. I think that it would be a element worth having in the game provided that it is able to fit the aesthetic of the game. Anything else I have mentioned in this thread serves that question.

I really think you are getting wound up over nothing. I see no controversy here, and I honestly dont know what you are talking about with this "fashionable to be offended" generation. Perhaps I frequent different areas of the net. Certainly dont see it IRL, but maybe it is different in the UK.

That could work. Although It'd be a shame to miss out on an awesome emblems other players have made. I would probably favour a blacklist rather than a whitelist. That way if someone really has a problem with one they can chose to not see it.

I like this idea better than having it mounted on the units, it would be clearer and provide less visual clutter. I really like the idea of the off-set stripe in addition to the primary/secondary colour for customising army appearance.

I liked the army painter in dawn of war. I even up loaded my own badge to put on the units.
So +1 from me but i'm looking at it as icing on a cake.

As for people abusing it and puting up offending pictures well you just need a button turn the offending badge in to an unused default one.

Firstly, no one said that having emblems or banners would be a pivotal part of the game.

Secondly, it was merely suggested by the OP that there would always be the chance, depending on how the idea was implemented, that the system would be open to abuse.

I believe that this is true. It's the internet after all and Ayceeem's first post in the topic proves the point that people just can't help but take the opportunity to insult or offend people when it arises.

To paraphrase; @Acyeeem, you could have made your point quite clearly without getting personal. However, I believe that was exactly your intention and a way of demonstrating your point. It was unnecessary and it doesn't help. It's just another example of how someone grabs a hold of something small and takes over the thread with it. If you hadn't done so we would likely be talking about something else. Which is exactly what I am going to do now.

My thoughts on emblems and banners is that as far as the development of the game is concerned it is an easy way for the developer to allow the player the ability to personalise his units and create his own 'faction'.

As we all know, factions will be absent in the game. So being able to change the way your army appears is a small concession that is cheap to implement and allows the player a way to express himself when he cannot choose a faction. I don't believe that complicated colour schemes would work in the game. Two-colour schemes would be more than adequate. As per the kickstarter video, we could be talking up to 40 players in a match. There needs to be a way to identify the other players in the game. A small palette of colours alone will not be sufficient.

I believe a 'custom' emblem would be perfect for this. It could be displayed over the commander on the strategic view, it could be shown next to a planet to show the players who currently have units on the planet. It could of course just be as simple as an emblem shown on a key next to a colour to allow quick cross reference to colour shown on the map. There are many options on how to put this in the game. This is just one of those options.

Skin patterning would be great. I can't imagine how it would work out if people could upload entire skin patterns, though.

I'm more concerned about the possibility of two teams giving themselves the same (or similar) colours and being indistinguishable.
I find the NSFW tags some what amusing but mostly pathetic. But I don't really see how you could make a banner of something like that recognisable in a game of this scale. I like the pre-canned art as I'm lazy and it's made to be recognisable in this scale.

You quoted the wrong guy, credit for that idea is alcheon's. The way I understood it he meant choosing combinations of colours for stripe/primary/secondary/cammo rather than uploading custom made skin patterns.

Maybe people could have a few fall back colour patterns for that situation, kind of like how sports teams have alternate uniforms.

There is the possibility that in large scale conflicts more than one of your combinations could be in use (and some will be more popular than others). However with 2 colour patterning (and even an offset stripe like alcheon suggested) implemented; I reckon the odds of seeing exactly the same patterning within a game would be quite small. I don't think most games would likely have more than 10 players; people have mentioned 40 player games but I am unsure if that is going to be within a real time match or just in Galactic Wars.

In any case, if a player joins a lobby where all of their colour combinations have already been picked by other players, then I guess they would be unable to use them and pick another colour combination for that game.

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/37559396-3.jpg

This is pretty much how DOW1 army painter works. You got all the color selections for the different patterns. You can select default colors or make your own. You also select your badge and banner. You can select from the default ones already given or you can make your own as a png file which you then copy and past to the banners and badges folders.

Most people just downloaded and rezised already-made png pictures that they liked and used it as a badge or banner or both.

Yeah I think the emblem/badge part is maybe the important aspect of this.

Most people are talking about how colours and such can be similar or duplicated. This is likely in a large game. Emblems would see that this wouldn't be so much of an issue.

Determining if a unit is friend or foe would likely be easier using the mini-map anyway. Where units are displayed as either blue, green or red (player, allied or enemy). This was a mini-map display option in SC.

The issue is quick identification on the battlefield in the heat of battle. That's where colours and such like really come into their own.

How visible will emblems be seeing as these are machines

It wasn't even that visible in TA once in game.

Good question. I'm not really sure of the answer. Certainly when the units are small it will be impossible to determine if there's even an emblem on them at all.

I for one always played SupCom with the health bars turned on. Maybe an emblem above or next to the health bar of a unit might be nice as a toggle option, like the health bar was. It would be tough to get that to the point where it wasn't intrusive though. A screen full of green bars is bad enough, let alone a screen full of green bars and emblems. Either way I'm open to suggestion how any of the things discussed here would be implemented.

It would be on buildings but also next to the name of important units, such as in my original post where I posted a poorly photoshopped example.

I think next to the health bar of every unit would get a bit much. I don't want to overwhelm the screen with little emblems, but I do want to be able to pick out important units and structures and know who they belong to.