View in browser

STELLAR JOCKEYS MARCH NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the Stellar Jockeys newsletter for March 2022. Let's talk about
Brigador Killers again.
Benjamin, Stellar Jockeys

Reimagining the Spacers

Back in September we revealed that we are increasing the sprite
resolution of the game engine for Brigador Killers. This increase in visualdelity means the player will get a closer look at exported models. It alsomeans that what was done for older designs may not y for BK's engine.
In that spirit, our artist Jack has been working on an all new spacer
powersuit. Let's run you through the process from concept to nal sprite
render (click to enlarge images).

The rst step on the left is what's called the mood board. This is theconceptual framework where the artist references the mood, texture anddetailing that we want to evoke with the spacer power suit.
Step two on the right is the adapt or "kitbash" stage. Having previously
developed a power suit for Clade Vocc, in 3DSMax we extrapolate a suitdesign to help suggest how mainline spacers are still related, thoughconsiderably drifted away from in both culture and military doctrine.

Step three on the left is the paintover in photoshop. With the basic suitlayout in hand, we think about how we are going to change and treat thedesign. Returning brie y to the mood board's astronaut references we
decide on a cloth-covered suit. At this point the helmet is unsatisfactory,
but that will get revised later.
Once we have arrived at a satisfactory model of the suit, the nisheddesign is then broken down into components for baking down and thentexturing in Substance Painter, while the nal sprite render (bottom right)
for the game is done in Blender.
As a bonus, Jack composed a scene, part of which was used as the header
image for this section (the full version can be seen by clicking here) withdeference to American digital painter Craig Mullins for this piece.

BK Development: Weapon Stability
We've talked about changes to existing features, but it's high time weturned our attention to things that are "new". Keep in mind, what we write
here may not be re ected exactly in the nal product, but we have at least
reached a point where we're comfortable enough to discuss one of thethings we've been working on, and because it's an interesting example of
how we put several layers of math together to create what we hope is aninteresting system.
In Brigador Killers, players will be able to nd new weapons within a level
and add them to their permanent loadout options, provided they canleave the level with it in hand. This kind of gameplay mechanic has been
seen before in many titles as far back as 1993's Syndicate, but we'retaking direct inspiration from 2004's Hitman: Contracts and making it
our own.
Let's imagine the player in Brigador Killers is on foot early on andstumbles across something like an M60 Machine Gun within a level - it'spowerful, it's quite large... and completely unwieldy as a result. When were it, bullets spray everywhere. As a lone infantry, we cannot reasonably
use it, but we really want it so we manage to ex ltrate anyway. Fantastic now we have an oversized MG, but it's meant to be mounted on vehicles?
How can we use it e ectively?
Instead of attempting to use it on foot, we could mount the M60 onto asmall vehicle like a buggy and re it as intended. The reason the weapon's
behavior changes is because of what we are calling weapon stability.
Weapon stability is a combination of two new things: a unit's "stability"
and what we currently call a weapon's "chaos". As the names imply, units
like infantry, vehicles, or tanks will have di erent stability values, while
weapons like shotguns, ri es, or heavy machine guns will di er in how"chaotic" they are to re.
In development terms, "stability" and "chaos" both have a rating between+5 and -5. Depending on the di erence between the two values on those"stability" and "chaos" ranges, the game engine modi es the weapon's
accuracy bloom. "Bloom" here is the rate at which bullets red start tospread outwards from the intended point of impact.
In simple terms, if the stability rating is the same as chaos, then theweapon's accuracy bloom will act as it does in Brigador. If stability isgreater than chaos, then the bloom cone will be narrower and stayaccurate for longer. And if stability is less than chaos, then the bloom willgrow quickly, start at a higher spread, and generally result in our earlier
example of an infantry man attempting to re a heavy machine gun withlittle success.

This is only one example of the weapon stability interaction - other factors
are intended to come into play, such as whether the vehicle they are using
is in motion, and your selected pilot's weapon pro ciencies.
Finally, you might be asking, why make this change at all?. In short wewanted to make more space for player expression. A frequent critique ofBrigador referred to the "lack of things to do", a lack of customization,and the tedium of purchasing Freelance items. So, one way to take that on
board is to let the player take an active hand in the acquisition andbehavior of weapon and vehicles in Brigador Killers, rather simply
purchasing items from a menu.

New Merch Store Prices Now In E ect

In the previous newsletter we warned that we'd be raising prices on someof our items as well as the shipping fees. To take the sting out of this newsand as a sincere thank you to all our newsletter readers for sticking withus, enter the promocode PREMIUM at checkout (or click the buttonbelow) to get 15% o all products from our merch store - minimum ordervalue of 8 USD required, promotional code active from the moment you
read this until 23:59 CST, April 30th 2022.
Get 15% O

Community Spotlight
It's a return of repeat o enders this month. First up is Juntti with aspacer spin on the famous image of Spanish comedian Juan Joya Borja(AKA "El Risitas")...

...Lowkek Ops was kind enough to show o their pixel art skills and giveus a rendition of Modesto Pires...

...and Flyingdebris concepted a spacer tac rig, stating "the existence of Zed
Prime implies the existence of lesser Zeds. Pictured, Zed Aux":

Want more of these? Head on over to the #becks_best channel on ourDiscord server.
Join Our Discord Server

Next Month

We'll be deep into our next milestone over the next month, so April's
newsletter may end up being a little light.

Stellar Jockeys

2711 N Albany Ave #1
Chicago, IL 60647
United States
Newsletter Archive

Privacy PolicyYou received this email because you signed up on ourwebsite or made a purchase from us.
Unsubscribe