Post
Wed May 21, 2014 8:47 am
#30
by Hyperion
Well I am thrilled that the idea has so much support.
I fully agree that this could fit well with the nodal theme, and now that anything in LT can access a wide range of information about anything else, I think individual Pareidolic icons could express a very substantial amount of information in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Certainly the lines, if composed of nodal strings could not only vary in color, thickness, length, brightness , angular harshness, density, etc. but they could be rendered in 3 dimensions and have animations and even pcg sounds to give them life. You may be able to tell not only their personalities, but their attitudes towards various proposals, their distance from you, their health, wealth, plans, loyalty, honesty, confidence, hostility, etc. with varying degrees of pokerface.
By animating the lines (mouthes that curve upwards when happy, down when sad, eyebrows that shift to harsh angles when angry or devious, eyes that narrow when suspicious, etc.) or by colors flourishing at the tips of strings, lines growing or shrinking in length and thickness and brightness, you could graphically display a significant amount of data.
Pseudo spaces could be created in strings by giving a node null thickness or null brightness, this null state could be used for animating strings with pulses of light and color, or could be always present and only activated by experiences (scars, wrinkles)
As to factions, I agree that maybe symmetry is not always desirable for symbols. I am playing with some ideas on procedural strings of light and color and will upload the images when I am not on a mobile network. my thoughts are though that factions would get 2 symbols: a 3D volumetric hologram, composed of shapes like shown in the ship editor from long ago, arranged in radial, angular, fernlike or other nodal styles that were presented in the data editor videos... these symbols could even be actual dynamic representations of the factions assets, attitudes and specialty. The second symbol would be an orthographic, more conventional thing which Could be stamped onto various assets...
actually now that I think about it, that first idea sounds like it would be too complicated for a symbol, but would be a fantastic visual way to see your factional assets and visually manage your empire...
@cha0zz I do, but I would be happy to make you one, send me a PM with a rough idea of what you want and I'll see what I can do.
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