Hello Nick, welcome!
Are you referring to (
DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Character_ideas ?
That page keeps some generic ideas for characters left by various people, not only real "requests" from the project leader... it's not said that if someone will made one of such characters, it will end up in some official release. Also, probably much of that list was written before the
DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/OA3]OA3 guidelines...
Of course, you can try to make your own character and, after it's fully completed and tested, ask for its inclusion through the
SVN commits thread... it will be Fromhell, the project leader, to decide.
If you wish to make a character for an official OA release, you should aim for OA3 standards (anime-ish style), as no more OA 0.x patches are scheduled.
About making additional skins for OA 0.x characters, of course you can do them and "publish" them on your own... but most OA 0.x characters will be reworked or replaced with someone else in OA3, so skins designed for OA 0.x will probably not fit OA3 models.
I hope Fromhell may give you better infos about what she needs...
Many thanks for the clarifications and suggestions Gig!
I kinda got stuck because prior to typing my questions and waay before choosing to sign up to the forums, i remembered somewhere on the wiki reading about OpenArena 3 and that is was still being put under development and all the nice improvements it was going to do, but at the same time my mind kinda wandered around if there were any 0.x releases coming out and if i do make any contributions should i make some sort of compromise and make a version of any designs for 0.x and one for OA3? Or only solely for one and not the other or only for the current released build? (I essentially overthought the entire situation) And then after your response and some digging into the forums and seeing points of views some devs had as to why, i understood that it's now full speed ahead to Open Arena 3! I guess I more or less have an idea now of where to start now and what steps to take for some things like fan skins for some existing characters like an addon file or something from ModDb where it's more or less an optional and unofficial thing, and that the list on the wiki was more or less suggestions instead of mandatory character designs that need implementing
Thanks again for the help
1) I consider the wiki unofficial and only useful for information/guide purposes only. Creative direction happens off-site (and usually in a private forum where it'll be ignored by those with access to it anyway).
Currently the OA3 cast is a bunch of my own designs (dark elves, lamias etc) plus select Arne's designs contributed
from this thread which helped my creative block massively. Then I model/texture them, and attempt to animate them (since animating a player model is a very lost art) in which no one helps at all and they rot on my hard drive until i'm ready. I also have to try and find the spare time and motivation for doing this.
2) Not always a guarantee. Many of the redesigns are hugely technical (i.e. one 24-bit texture surface) and conform to a new art direction which will need their proportions exaggerated and their skin detail somewhat simplified (no grainy bits etc) and conforming to the split model standard, so no more Angelyss entire-figure-is-a-lower-model-for-the-slingshot-bikini-to-not-be-broken-and-jiggle-physics trick etc.
3) It's usually just me filtering the designs out by laying concepts out on some grid and seeing if something sticks out. OA3's general inspiration is high fantasy / tech mix, akin to Phantasy Star, which I feel isn't done in FPSes much and would compliment the fast gameplay the most and brings the most varied of map themes (and sense).
Of course, you can try to make your own character and, after it's fully completed and tested, ask for its inclusion through the
SVN commits thread... it will be Fromhell, the project leader, to decide.
Don't mislead into futile development. I don't even have a SVN client installed for years anymore given how creatively dried up the scene is...
Greetings fromhell and many thanks for the detailed reply!
I remember the first time reading about Arne's post a month ago when i was still tinkering with the idea of contributing designs [ and after i have the proper gear and knowledge/experience, help out with 3D modeling and maybe even coding/technical part of things
] and it was that very post with all the redux character &weapon designs and the sight of seeing one of those designs come to life that inspired me to make my first step by signing up and getting familiar with the things here!
1) i did remember bumping into some links on both the wiki and somewhere here in the forums that say that they were private like some of the example concepts on the Wiki that shows what some people came up with so far for OA 3 (though i do understand that it defeats the purpose of surprising the community with the new content or keeping the forums from kinda overflowing with either an endless stream of suggestions or requests or dare i say it any hostilities if everyone immediately knew what was going on ^_^; )
2)I actually never considered the technical side of 3D modeling for game development before and how any choices in formats or actual model rendering and what not can adversely affect the game itself until i read your reply to my second question... I guess i have a great amount to study and brush up on with the engine and tools before i even consider making a design suggestion so it won't take up everyone else extra time if ever anything i work on does get approved
3) I was kinda confused without too much a reference on the wiki when it said OA3 was going to be anime-ish in design and needed a consistent art style because that could've meant or looked like anything... But now that you mention Phantasy Star (i have played a good amount of it while i was in high school) i now more or less have a solid example of what's being looked for ! (i'm still going to have to slowly work my way up from the beginning, for respect is not automatically or merely offered by everyone, but earned... That and in contributing, i must find a way to merge the themes you are looking for in such a way that it's pleasant and colorful and unique like Phantasy Star without unwittingly mimicking the designs too closely for things to accidentally get into copyrighted territory ^_^; )
Overall, thank you for the help and clarifications! I hope to one day be useful here one way or another or in the very least maybe look for others willing and ready to help with development? Either way, thanks
