[C.Weapon Designs/Ideas] Rod's Heap of Weapon Designs

[rodprior700]

Reminder: Read this entire introduction first before using any of the resources!
Okay, so here's the thing. I'm (really) bad at coding and doing programmy stuff and creating cool ships with gimmicks, so that concept altogether is out of the question (for now.). However, in some instances I try and create custom weapon sprites, which is a good way of passing the time doing something relatively productive. Sadly, every time I make one, it gets lost in the depths of my random folders in a laptop, which doesn't pay off much. So I'm simply going to periodically post them here. I've decided to make them pretty much free to use as well, mostly because 1. they aren't that good but steadily improving and 2. it has a chance of helping people who actually need a weapon to base it on. All that's required is a short phrase with credit if they are to be used and please post here first indicating your usage of what weapon.
Also, do feel free to critique this in anyway and bash it's horrible small detail mistakes, you help me improve so your eyes don't vaporize.

Requests are OPEN
Creations in RED are not properly outfitted for FTL's code, and it may prove difficult to properly create a weapon from it.

A_pretty_deadly_lazer_by_Rod_version2.png (19/07/2017)
FTL USABLE
FTL USABLE CHARGE-UP
NON-FTL USABLE 2x ZOOM IN
Concept: Most recent weapon concept I've created. Concept of a cell-charged powerful beam weapon with a long charge time created with crew damage in mind.

Precision_Cutter_By_Rod.png (19/07/2017)
FTL USABLE
FTL USABLE CHARGE-UP
NON-FTL USABLE 2x ZOOM IN
Concept: Created with the thought of a long-range low damage weapon, as in a more common but weaker Pike beam of sorts.

Siege_missile_tube_by_Rod.png (19/07/2017)
FTL USABLE
Concept: Charges up incredibly fast and spends no missiles, but is very unreliable and hits about once every full moon. Should likely hit 1/6 times.

Destroyer_battery_by_Rod.png (19/07/2017)
FTL USABLE
FTL USABLE CHARGE-UP
NON-FTL USABLE 2x ZOOM IN
FTL USABLE FIRING SEQUENCE
Concept: Fires very quickly but is very innacurate. Fires 16 times, about 8 per second. Should likely only do up to 6 damage.

Mag_fed_lasergun_by_Rod.png (20/07/2017)
Full charge-up, idle and firing in one sheet.
Concept: Four shots, similarities to a Burst Laser, but.. It's got a mag, dude, it's so **************************************** cool!!!!!!

Aftermarket Burst Laser Mk1

Concept: Burst Laser 1 modified with Aftermarket pieces.

Aftermarket Basic Laser

Concept: Basic Laser modified with Aftermarket pieces.

Aftermarket Burst Laser mk2

Concept: Basic Laser modified with Aftermarket pieces.

Aftermarket Burst Laser Mk3

Concept: Burst Laser Mk3 modified with incredibly unique Aftermarket pieces, which give it a vintage light machine gun look. The creator cleverly diguised the plasma cells as old brass casings.

Rebel Prototype Burst Laser Mk2

Concept: Burst Laser Mk2 of Rebel fabrication.

Rebel Prototype Heavy Laser

Concept: New compact Heavy Laser MK2 of Rebel fabrication.

Rebel Pulsar Catalyser

Concept: Powerful Ion weapon that forms a disruption field around it's projectiles, penetrating 5 layers of shield. Fires three Ion projectiles.

Rebel Nova Catalyser


Concept: Powerful Beam weapon whose disruption field is of similar design to it's cousin the Pulsar. Nova is a halberd beam with extended shield penetration, at the cost of less points of damage.

MLS (Missile Lock-on System)-02 'Artemis', Rebel Prototype

Concept: Artemis missile system with a shorter barrel and sleeker look. More non-gun space allows it's CPU to fire more precisely and outclass many of it's kind. A slit on the top of the barrel also allows for stock missiles to be used if desired.

Militia Grade Burst Laser Mk3

Concept: Burst Laser Mk3 modified by Militants.

Militia Grade Burst Laser Mk1

Concept: Burst Laser Mk1 modified by Militants.

Militia Grade AP Heavy Laser

Concept: Heavy Laser MK2 modified by Militants with use of Hull Laser parts.

Militia Grade 72mm Missile Launcher

Concept: Artemis Missile Launcher painted in Militant colours, with a large 72mm missile mount replacing the standard barrel.

Old 108mm Anti-Everything Cannon


Concept: A very old weapon that utilizes good old toxic Mk.1 plasma cells. Hard to handle and even harder to charge, these shells were quite unreliable and disintegrated upon use. However, it was possible to make them so compact you could make a space tank gun. With this train of thought - This monstrosity was made.

Militia Bomber


Militia Scout


Militia Techship


CREDITING:
AquaRegisteel for tips regarding image files. http://subsetgames.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=43131
Sleeper Service for help with mod compatibility. http://subsetgames.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=22468
mr_easy_money for tips regarding image files/directories. http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=39212&sid=e543bc532a95430651c5bdace26688af

[rodprior700]

Update 19/07/2017
Added new image: Precision_cutter_by_Rod.jpg

[AquaRegisteel]

Okay, I like the look of these so far, excellent work!

However there are a couple of things about the images I wanted to point out:

Saving them as .jpg is a problem because FTL weapons are all saved as .png files, because it allows for transparency. Without transparency, the weapons show up in FTL with big white boxes around them. You don't want ugly white boxes To solve this, you should make sure that you click Save As and change the file extension to .PNG. Also if you use Windows Paint, it doesn't support transparency in my experience. You'd be better off using Photoshop or GIMP (GIMP is free to use!) to save them as .PNG.

A second problem I noticed is that you have only one image per weapon. In truth, FTL needs you to have several variants of that image to make the charging/firing animations. If you look at FTL's files (this can be done by using Slipstream Mod Manager, clicking File -> Extract dats and then finding "data.dat" in FTL's folder), you'll see that for example, the Burst Laser 2 has twelve "frames" lined up that when animated, create the whole charging and firing animation.

Granted, one could take your weapon image and make their own animations from it, but it's just a thing that would make life easier for custom weapon makers like us

With all that said, your designs are actually quite good and I fancy making my weapons from some of these sprites. Keep them coming! I hope all of those pointers helped.

[rodprior700]

I am aware of the problem with the firing animations and the charging. Thankfully, beam weapons require no firing animation. I didn't actually think they'd turn out that well, and never planned making charging animations for them. The JPEG tip was something I didn't know, and I thank you for that. I will do my best to fix these issues today, but I'm having an issue with my edits, as it apparently 'requires a moderator' to approve the edit. Thanks again.

[rodprior700]

Update 19/07/2017 #2
Remade 'A_pretty_deadly_lazer' and renamed to 'A_pretty_deadly_lazer_version2.'
Added Charging animation for 'A_pretty_deadly_lazer_version2'.
Added Charging animation for 'Precision_cutter'.
Credited AquaRegisteel at the bottom for support.

[AquaRegisteel]

No problem! I might just get to work tonight and see what I can come up with using your weapon sprites. I'll feedback with results if I create them successfully.

[rodprior700]

Update 19/07/2017 #3
Added siege_missile_tube_by_Rod.png
Added 2x version of Siege Missile Tube
Added charge-up of Siege Missile Tube

[rodprior700]

Update 19/07/2017 #4 Final for the day
Added Destroyer Battery
Added Destroyer Battery Charge-up
Added Destroyer Battery 2x Zoom
Added Destroyer Battery Firing Sequence

[Lamina]

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[Sleeper Service]

Nicely done art! If you want to make these even more usable to other modders I'd suggest taking a close look at how FTL vanilla weapon sprites. Some adjustments would be helpful, mainly FTL needs all sprites to be in one image, your idle, charge up and fire sequence should be one anim sheet. Also FTL generally arranged weapon sprites top to bottom, not left to right. That doesn't matter much, FTLs anim system can deal with both but I find top to bottom easier to comprehend. And lastly some weapons like missiles use and additional glow image to visualize how the weapon is charging, not mandatory but would be nice to have. You can look at the vanilla weapon image folder for examples. Keep up the great work!