Awesome!! I’d really love to see this to spice up and personalize the weapon looks!
4 Likes
this idea is awesome. also i like the absolver beam wave skin is cool 
2 Likes
Status Update:
In the interests of not accidentally making unnecessary changes, I will not be replacing any of these skins with alternatives (an idea which was voted on in the companion topic). I feel that the library is in a state where it is not lacking or missing any obvious content - all weapons now have three skins. I don’t want to mess with that just yet.
I would like to wait to see where CIU’s development goes in relation to reskins in general as well. As a proof-of-concept, this topic is currently more than sufficient, I believe, and any further changes would be somewhat nitpicky as long as it remains a proof-of-concept.
If reskinned weapons are indeed added to the game, and some of those skins are from this library, I would then consider creating new skins (perhaps a fourth wave?) as additional, separate suggestions. However, if weapon reskins are not added, or if they are implemented in a way where the specific designs from this topic are not relevant (
), I see little point to simply beef up the library for the sake of it.
The only potential exception to this is a change to some of the Boron skins, to reflect the new “heat progression” mechanic.
17 Likes
I had some thoughts on this, I’ll post it up later (possibly when v50 released.)
One purchasing a weapon skin using real money us still a microtransaction.
2 Likes
I’m sorry, I just can’t wait for v50, but here are my suggestion… for UI.
- Weapons will be customizable per item owned, similar to laser scope and ghost trail.
- A customizable icon will be added on weapons to indicate such feature.
- You’ll need to equip a weapon in your current ship for you to be able to customize it.
- Impractical if you own too many weapons unless you have ships as many as such.
- In this preview, your ship fires your weapon on an automatic rate so you can see your customized weapon in action. If your weapon is currently at 0⚡, then it’ll be shown at 0⚡ of course. Don’t mind the price though, these are copy-pasted on an existing screenshot.
- The first button on the left shows all the current skins available for that particular weapon.
- The other two is the applicable customization options for that applied weapon skin (other might be opacity, brightness, pattern, etc.) This changes depending on the skin you applied beforehand.
All these assume that weapons can be recolored the same as ships and hardpoints, but I believe the game can.
And to be honest, I can see most of the customization suggestions above as a recolor, not a whole reskin. A reskin has to be in a new sprite, imo.
28 Likes
A number of these do require that, actually - though not all. It depends a bit on how smart the recolouring engine is.
As for the actual solution you’ve proposed - I like it, but I don’t quite understand how it works for having more than one customization equipped at a time? You could only have one active at a time, from my understanding.
4 Likes
I misunderstood the topic, I guess my suggestion’s kind of pointless. Didn’t thought it’s about having all the customized weapon themes applied in a mission. Sorry about that.
I had another idea though:
Themes itself will be purchasable at the Heroware as a separate item. The symbol itself is a designated weapon with small paint palette. Use the image below as a reference but change “Laser Cannon” to “Weapon theme (Laser Cannon).” The price is definitely lower than the weapon itself.
Sample list item:
Weapon theme (Ion Blaster)
Weapon theme (Neutron Gun)
Weapon theme (Laser Cannon)
Weapon theme (Lightning Fryer)
etc.
These are purchasable having the current weapon’s default color, unless customized by the player afterwards. There will be shops that offer customized color themes as well with a designated rarity.
Next, as you said before, a dedicated submenu will be added in which the player can customize the weapon theme further. In case you bought multiple weapon themes for the same weapon, you’ll need to choose one to be used in-game (works as the “flagship” for ships). This allows the player to own multiple weapon themes not worrying about changing it everytime to match up the current spaceship they’re using or other applicable scenario.
17 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
Why was this opened?
1 Like
Maybe iA is planning to add something from here.
1 Like
I smell new feature 
3 Likes
Probably because Kylo-Hen wanted to add something here and you can’t even edit topics while they are locked.
7 Likes
Whatever it is, it’s going to be impressive.
1 Like
Kylo Hen is releasing something here, me and another guy have been helping him in making this project out, now we just have to wait for a bit.
1 Like
ah cool
2 Likes
Series 2 is here!
Three additional skins for every weapon! There’s now a total of eighty-four designs. Plus, they’re available as a functional mod.
See the title post for the designs and download link.
Ok, so I couldn’t help myself.
This second release started when people started asking me if they could use these files as in-game weapon skins, and then the Mod Tool got released which made that really viable. So I started porting them over, and I had a few more ideas, and… I got carried away, frankly. 
I created this second season to a different set of criteria than the first ones. While the originals focused on edits that were (mostly) designed to be achievable using in-game modulation and additive effects, this series was more liberal with that and instead tried to keep things that would function effectively as simple file swaps.
In other words, implementing Series 2 skins as official content would, on average, take more memory but less code than Series 1 skins. There are some exceptions, of course.
I did still want to remain true to the art style of the game and creatively limit myself, so believe it or not, all Series 2 skins are in fact created using edited Chicken Invaders sprites only. No stock photography or other sprites were used, just fancy effects. They’re also designed to look better in motion, generally - as I was able to actually test that, this time around.
And yes, I recognize that eighty-four skins is a ridiculous number and not at all a viable suggestion for EA content - but I figure that the more options I provide, the more likely it is that some of those will be viable additions to the actual game. As always, these reskins are a suggestion first and a mod second.
Huge thanks to @VerMishelb and @Francis for teaching me the ropes of modding - this wouldn’t have been possible without their help. And a massive thanks to everyone who has supported this idea - the first version of this library was just made in a single day as a kind of fun project and I wasn’t expecting people to love it as much as they did. (Admittedly, that did kind of make me go overboard - don’t worry, there won’t be another poll this time. )
All that said, this has ended up consuming way more of my personal time than I ever intended for it to - I set out to make a quick bit of concept art over a few hours, and have ended up spending days of my time to create eighty-four designs and seventy-three functional mods. I’ve enjoyed it a lot, but I’m well and truly tired of it now, lol. That’s not to say I won’t ever release compatibility updates or minor polish, but I’m not going to guarantee any support down the line if an update breaks these mods, either. And definitely don’t expect a Season 3, sorry. I’d like to be able to actually play Chicken Invaders next time I’m in a Chicken Invaders mood. 
All that being said, I hope everyone enjoys this update, and thank you all again for your encouragement and excitement toward this library! It’s very much appreciated.
14 Likes
You Definitely won my respects and you can’t lose them anymore.
1 Like
I’m not sure I understand, but ok. 