Artouris - Mapper/Spriter Application

[Artouris]

Byond ID:
Artouris

Age:
20

Gender:
Male

How would you define yourself? (Coder, Mapper, Spriter):
Mapper or Spriter.
I can code a little, but I wouldn't bank on it mainly because I'm not a coder nor did i ever learn it in a proper setting I suppose. So basically I don't know alot.

If Coder, what languages?
Just dream maker code, a bit of other languages but nothing I would write home about or on here.

Any previous experience developing with SS13?
Initially nothing public, originally hoped to work on CM back in the transition from pre-alpha to alpha, I lost the original pictures of some of the mock ups i made. I do still have the sprites, they're mostly bad. My first work that got made public was with CM:OSE. Unfortunately it wasn't what I hoped it to be. Then I went back to working on stuff for myself mostly, had a small fling with one of the original Fallout 13 servers. Otherwise not much public-wise.

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Proof of any previous or current work:
Alright time to put in a few pictures of my sprites, since that's the easiest to show, But also a map (please don't kill me apop, if its something that you don't want on here, then by all means remove it), well I have a second map too that went with that map originally. Also I didn't make them appear as images due to either size and because I have quite a few to show. Also I'm going to be posting the oldest first as I fish through my puush archives.

Sprites:
http://i.imgur.com/PaQpLTU.jpg (Actually I found a mock up of my old stuff that I originally worked on in the time before CM:Alpha)
https://puu.sh/qOM5F/e68746aba8.jpg
https://puu.sh/qR2vX/15dc135c05.png
https://puu.sh/qR2x5/92b726b2fb.jpg
https://puu.sh/qWQvp/e672154533.png
https://puu.sh/qUqCi/835cb83e52.png
https://puu.sh/qXxVm/0a4bdeae7a.jpg
https://puu.sh/sBfvw/ab7c6eb7fe.png
https://puu.sh/sF85g/1ae7b1c907.png
https://puu.sh/sm1hB/9c63ceed6c.png (<-- This one is old too but apparently later on my puush archive)
https://puu.sh/syZ7B/7b2432ddfc.png (Beds where from goon but was using it to test if it was going to fit the perspective proper)

Map:
http://i.imgur.com/XCHktkD.jpg (this is a bit of a compressed version)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... detail.png (somehow discord allows a higher quality version)
https://puu.sh/qGBC3/0a93082e8b.jpg (This was the Nostromo remade on Stolen CM Code[For CM:OSE])
https://puu.sh/qHpCP/7a68d61b64.png (This is probably the only picture that shows some of the clutter since i didn't make a high detail image for it.)
https://puu.sh/qHpGe/1091f3ad51.png (Another like the one above)

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How well do you know Git?
Fairly well, Been using Github for a while, not a master but know most of the basics, unless I've sidestepped something big somehow.

Your primary job is server development, not policing the server. You may be given Moderator-level of access but you should *not* be invoking any administrative actions unless there are no moderators or Admins online. Do you understand? (Yes/No)
Crystal Clear (yes).

Anything else you'd like to add?
To give a minor backstory of why I'm doing this. Unfortunately the personal project I'm working on doesn't seem like its going to pan out. Mainly due to lack of support. Not to mention that jumping on reddit won't help it much either since all there is coders from 10 other servers (which might do great amazing work) but they'll be split between 10 servers. Aliens is one of my favorite movies, the server i greatly enjoy. I mean the map probably will show you. So yeah instead of laboring away by myself for a eternity with 20 other SS13 servers popping up and ending up along with those 20 mostly dead servers I decided to post a app on here. Not to mention I'm always eager to learn more.

Now I also do understand there will be questions about my past with projects like CM:OSE and one of the original Fallout 13 servers and I'll be happy to answer them. I do regret working on those projects on some ways. However I think it'd be unwise to not show my work. Not exactly proud of it, but it is what it is.

Thanks for the opportunity if anything.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but why did you join OSE?

[Artouris]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but why did you join OSE?

Totally valid question. Originally I hopped on to watch them if it was going to be something sorta interesting. I made a title screen for them to at least give them a chance instead of being shut down instantly. Got sorta dragged in because he offered to host my code (this was before I learned how to host ss13 code on a server myself) when I had finished it. So I totally offered to help. Also him being level6god, we all know how he turned out. Since I was the only person who knew what they were really doing and perhaps I could still get my stuff done, I said i'd continue the project but quickly found out it might not have exactly been what I wanted not to mention it wasn't my server that I had wanted to make.

[Feweh]

Youve been around for awhile and you seem to have great talent.

[slc97]

I'm not dev team, so I can't vote, but I'd like to throw something in here. I would normally be incredibly wary of giving the code to someone who worked on a server that used our previously stolen code.
However, Artouris has been around for awhile like Feweh said, and I have in that time never seen anything from him that would make me dislike him or distrust him. In fact, his work looks fantastic, and I find myself actually liking Artouris a lot. I hope to see him on the team and see what he could do for us.

[Artouris]

Also I'm going to toss this in here mainly I was able to do some digging and found this.


(If you do view image it'll allow you to zoom in to see everything)

That was the remade nostromo map I made for CM:OSE which only was played for like 5 rounds. Never quite finished but I did finish the lore for it. Also you can see some of the sprite work that i was rushing to do to replace most of the sprites so we weren't using CM sprites (but i mainly var-edited most of them back to keep consistent for anyone looking at it).

Otherwise the lore goes as this; Sevastopol Station, an old station orbiting a gas giant that eventually busted. Economically unfeasible as time went on, thus has been slated for decommission. Nothing but Seegson robots laboring away to disassemble it (didn't have them coded in at the time of testing) and a skeleton crew. Overtime a Weyland Yutani Rep appeared on station offering the man in charge of the skeleton crew some cash if they could temporarily work on something of interest. The man, who felt shunted by Seegson took the money. Freighters with monkeys came by for experimentation and a small detachment of W-Y PMCs and Researchers sat down in the research labs and started their work.

Otherwise if you take a careful look at the map, there isn't a actually functioning Atmos loop, and all the pipes have multiple connection routes. This was done for the prevention of atmos grief for the most part. Marines had the ability to vend MK35 Compression suits for the map (which were two sprites mashed together for time saving purposes) so incase of a breach they could still continue on. There were air canisters as well incase there was a breach and it was repaired. The doubling of the pipes that connect the vents was done so marines couldn't instantly cut off half the station by unwrenching one pipe which i fondly remember was possible in Pre-Alpha. Otherwise it wasn't 100% complete when we tested it but it was fully functional and playable with all the stuff working. I also for image purposes cut down the map, bomb testing still existed. I also replaced the warp gate area with a back up generator area for purely gameplay reasons of incase xenos rushed to make a engineering hive.

[forwardslashN]

I remember encouraging you to apply for dev, when I wasn't a developer, and your response. That was probably sometime late spring, early summer. What has changed since then? I don't mean what is already listed regarding your work being wasted and such, I mean what has changed with CM that makes you want to help out now rather than prior? What would be something you'd want to work on immediately, or something you're really interested in doing? Marine and a xenomorph are fighting; xenomorph hugs the marine and infects them. A predator explodes nearby, unrelated to the fight, killing both. Who should be revived, if anyone, and why?

[Artouris]

I remember encouraging you to apply for dev, when I wasn't a developer, and your response. That was probably sometime late spring, early summer. What has changed since then? I don't mean what is already listed regarding your work being wasted and such, I mean what has changed with CM that makes you want to help out now rather than prior? What would be something you'd want to work on immediately, or something you're really interested in doing? Marine and a xenomorph are fighting; xenomorph hugs the marine and infects them. A predator explodes nearby, unrelated to the fight, killing both. Who should be revived, if anyone, and why?

For the most part, some of the changes are perhaps the fact that I sort of got over some of the anger/angst. Honestly, I wasn't the happiest camper basically during the transition to Alpha and being basically told flat out no. I mean at the time I didn't know it was because of Abby. Which it was apparently, it makes a world of difference to know the actual reasons instead of having a flat out no. I've always enjoyed CM. I sort of always wanted to help out, while my stand was more of a lore focused one, which at times ran at odds to what was on the server, not to mention the sigma of that no when it happened just left sort of a mark. Now I mean most of that's changed after more than a few chats with Apop (over the time). Otherwise its mostly that my original project I wanted to work on is never going to happen because at this point approaching any work on it makes me unfortunately unhappy due to some other ss13 server's actions. Its a bit of a long story. But the next thing on the line is Aliens, which CM is based in. Not to mention its never a good idea to try to succeed in making a server when people are trying to force 20 other ones into existence.

Nothing in specific with CM has changed, more or less my perspective on it I would say so. Something I would like to work on is improving some of the maps honestly. Ranging from layout or just possibly making them function better(big red). I am honestly a hard sci fi person and some of the colony layouts annoy me to no end. If possible I'd be more than glad to work on a new map or colony.

If a marine and a xeno are fighting, xeno hugs the marine, then the predator explodes killing both. I'd probably go with that it just a fact of life. There's no particular reason to intervene. Sure the Predator might be at fault with killing innocents or basically young ones (larva in the chest), but if he wasn't specifically targeting to kill them for some reason I wouldn't see much of a reason to jump in and revive or punish anyone. That would be like complaining that Xur OB'd the dome while a marine got infected in it and it killed the marine and the xeno. Unless Xur was intentionally attempting to grief the marines in the dome, its just life on the battlefield. So Revive no one, shit happens in battle if it wasn't in some way intentional metatargeting or something like that.

Sorry if this is a bit rushed since I'm getting dressed for work and about to leave for work right now.

[forwardslashN]

Hey, thanks for the detailed response. Working on big red/solaris ridge is definitely something that needs some doing at the moment, along with other mapping work.

[Artouris]

Hey, thanks for the detailed response. Working on big red/solaris ridge is definitely something that needs some doing at the moment, along with other mapping work.

Yeah no problem. Since I'm on my lunch break for right now.

Big red I would probably fix the lag. I suggested a fix in the "state your opinion on big red" thread or a thread similar to it. Not to mention either shrink the map a bit since empty space is ok but there's identifiers. If those don't work i'd at least attempt to preserve some desert feel for it by making it have a sandstorm like Mars does for days on days. So there would be either a HUD overlay or just some effect on the tile that impedes vision.

Honestry I would honestly want to redesign LV-624. Mainly since it's been in the running for a while and it has some big problems that were never fixed or attempted to fix. The layout is horrible and was made mostly for cool appearances instead of gameplay or realistic design choice. Since who would connect the science lab to the fitness room and make the kitchen and hydroponics be basically on the opposite sides of the colony? Not to mention domes look cool but end up functioning in terrible ways (corner shooting, not have proper amount's of space for anything).

I would redesign it as something that's based nearby a cliff. So the entire west side would be a cliff drop darkness. The colony could be prefabed buildings but they'd be more cyndrical in nature and connected mostly to each other. There could be a river to the north, that comes down as a waterfall and then becomes another waterfall as it flows west. Mountain to the north and east. This gives xenos a better chance to flank and it's not always to the north of the colony to rush across. The colony would extend from the middle toward the south. There would be a small space traffic control tower to the south with a cargo yard. There the dropship would land. The cargo yard might make for a nice fob that isn't in the urban area. There might be a small generator for communications and power of the control tower in that cargo yard or something like that. The colony would be in the middle of the map and would have perhaps 2-3 districts each favoring a different side. I haven't worked out exactly how 100% this would look like but that's a general idea.

Also final part would be revamp the dropship aND remove the droppod. Make the dropship bigger. I'm pretty sure there does exist a heavy dropship in the technical manual and I would build it off that design. Mainly since I have a dislike for the droppod. If it was necessary for the dropod to exist in some fashion. I would make a one time use recon pod. Would be modeled after the reentry device for recon marines in the technical manual as well. But I think the pod is too cramp and could be better off giving the extra space to the heavy dropship.

Also finally sorry about any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes. My phone hates logical spelling.

[forwardslashN]

I'm surprised that you typed that on the phone. Check your PM.

[Artouris]

Alright I had a second test which was to redesign medbay. With the requirements being: "Minimum is 2 ORs, Chemistry room, lobby, storage/locker room, and general treatment"

Here are the two images, one of the areas to show its properly zoned and the second is without the area overlay.




Alright to elaborate this now. Its wired, piped, and has disposals. The thing is with baycode in dreammaker puts the disposal pipes below the floor tiles even on the map screen. I made use of the space which currently is mostly walls in the western part of the Sulaco. I also cut down on maintenance there because for the most part its only used for marine engis who want to skip briefing and by people who break into the medical store rooms there.

Anyway the idea behind the design is to reduce the lobby, which is for most parts underused and ignored (especially later in the round during high casualty situations) first of all. The doors to the east in the lobby have a button below it that would allow marines to walk into the general treatment area. Its been given alot of space so doctors and marines can walk around freely. I also included the medical color system which could be useful for organizing wounded (if doctors end up using it). It also has a prosthetic repair area in the north next to the sleepers. Marines would then move west and exit out of the northern lobby doors, or would go to surgery and then exit out of the northern surgery doors. This basically allows the areas where treatment happens is different than the doctor's storage and personal areas. Instead of placing both in the same place often cluttering everything up.

There are three ORs incase there is that much of a need for surgery, the rooms look small but are made to have all for surgery to be at reach when operating. The initial steps and final steps of the surgery, are a bit more away from the actual table since they are usually not the bulk the surgery.

Going further west in that medical hallway, which most marines won't end up going in because they won't have ever have a need to, would be the CMO's office, the ladder down, the locker room for doctors and the medical storage area. I didn't fill up the medical storage area will tons of stuff due to the fact most of the medication comes from the vendors or from chemistry. I did add biohazard suits however for more of a RP perspective. The locker room is fairly small but mostly wouldn't get used other than for new doctors coming in. Also added some medical textbooks there for any new (to SS13) doctors that join.

Only one thing is actually missing which is defibs which don't exist in baycode. The main goal of this medbay was to separate the actual treatment vs backend stuff for medbay instead of cluttering all of it together and to achieve some circular motion, since it helps with the follow of medbay. This is in comparison to the current medbay which for the most part doesn't use some of its space wisely or has some weird choices (maintenance leading to medical stores that means people could steal medical supplies without anyone noticing from there), to even just having everything connected to one sort of squished area which doctors are expected to wade through injuried to get to the medical supplies they need to (since outside surgery gets cramped with wounded, so does the outside of the locker room there). This way there's no real incentive for marines to gather up where most of the medical stores are or right outside surgery, since cyro is away from the surgery rooms and the surgery rooms are along the path to the exit so marines don't have to dance around with the wounded on their way out.

(sorry if these descriptive paragraphs are a bit wordy or rambly since I keep adding and somewhat changing it as i reread them.)

[Feweh]

Id love to have this ported over now for current sulaco fuck

What was your reasoning for having the ladder there btw?
Not against it, just curious.

[Artouris]

Id love to have this ported over now for current sulaco fuck

What was your reasoning for having the ladder there btw?
Not against it, just curious.

What do you mean by having the ladder there?

If you mean by having a ladder at all, its because its going down to cloning.

If you mean the location. I wanted to keep it in about the same place it was currently. Otherwise I wanted it to not be cluttered by marines, so having it a bit down the hallway which usually only doctors will inhabit makes it a bit better on the foot traffic. The little room its in is mainly because research is still below there and I didn't want rando marines walking down there so it ended up being a tiny room, I was considering putting something else in there but decided not to. Let some doctors decide what to do with it as they need I suppose.

[apophis775]

It looks pretty good, waiting to hear mapper feedback

[Bmc777]

I like the three surgery rooms, and I really like the thought put in behind organizing the wounded. It's a good design overall, looks very sleek.

My biggest critisisms, in my opinion, are an overuse of windows in the southern area, and underuse in the northern. Also, while the rightmost room is efficient, it's a bit boring to look at. I'd try to find a way to break up the space a bit more.

[Artouris]

I like the three surgery rooms, and I really like the thought put in behind organizing the wounded. It's a good design overall, looks very sleek.

My biggest critisisms, in my opinion, are an overuse of windows in the southern area, and underuse in the northern. Also, while the rightmost room is efficient, it's a bit boring to look at. I'd try to find a way to break up the space a bit more.

For me, I thought allowing the CMO to have visual on everything going on in the doctor's hallway was sort of a key thing if they end up sitting in their office for whatever reason. I didn't add windows to the northern storeroom mainly because its a storeroom with one way in (so you don't need constant visual on it). However that could be remodeled to be a bit less focused on windows.

I also decided to sort of make the general treatment area a bit bland mainly to reduce visual clutter. Which could be important for doctors/medics when visually scanning the medbay. However I do agree it could perhaps get some more floor detail but I held off on it for those reasons. I mean the only time its really ever going to be clean and bland is early parts of the round (unless medbay is literally cranking out people being healed near instantly) because later on you're just going to have marines all over the place. Not to mention if I add clutter in the way of objects it wouldn't work out as well since I want this to be the congested area when mass casualty situations occur instead of being congested all the time with objects.

(Sorry if it doesn't make sense 100% since im writing this while on lunch break again. When I get home and its not clear I'll clear it up more then).

[Bmc777]

I'm still sticking to my guns about the rightmost room. It is true that by late game it'll be filled with Marines but from a roleplay perspective the medbay, as it currently stands, isn't really meant for the mass casualties that are experienced due to the Aliens.

I would personally try to either split it into two rooms or maybe use tables to break up the space a bit. Regarding the CMO office, where it currently is located he really only has view of storage rooms, it might be nice to find some way to swap the location with one of the surgery rooms to give him a better view of all of medbay.

[Artouris]

I'm still sticking to my guns about the rightmost room. It is true that by late game it'll be filled with Marines but from a roleplay perspective the medbay, as it currently stands, isn't really meant for the mass casualties that are experienced due to the Aliens.

I would personally try to either split it into two rooms or maybe use tables to break up the space a bit. Regarding the CMO office, where it currently is located he really only has view of storage rooms, it might be nice to find some way to swap the location with one of the surgery rooms to give him a better view of all of medbay.

Right but a mass casualty situation can happen from many different types of things, not only Aliens(and the differences would be in the details not in the general idea). So it still fits in a roleplay perspective, USCM isn't the Space Army, they're Space Marines. Which means they're ready to go where ever they can go. Which means sometimes humanitarian missions as well after a disaster strikes a colony. They'd have to be prepared for not only their own people injured, so for my it still makes roleplay and thematic sense at least from my point of view.

The only problem was I was attempting to constrain the medbay to the current size of the medbay and its placement. Originally I did want the CMO office to border the surgery rooms and even include a MP post to ensure that later on when things get chaotic that there would be some law and order. If anything I'll have a proper redesign done tomorrow, since I'll just cannibalize the empty space east of medbay which isn't used and has those really, really, terrible windows that keep getting breached so there would be more space to fit all this stuff into the layout. Not to mention then it would make more sense to split the place into two rooms.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback, I'll see what i can do for a updated version of this medbay.

[Artouris]

Anyway for christmas today, before me redesigning the redesigned medbay today, i decided to make you guys at least what in my mind would be that heavy dropship which I described earlier in the thread. As a disclaimer I didn't attempt to make it in Joshuu's spriting style for the sake of time but I did want to give it a new look (nor was the sprite work done 100%,alot of details are missing, not to mention the logo/nose art). As such I present you with;
UD-24B 'Sioux' Dropship With the advent of USCM gaining access to heavier armor, the need for a larger and heavier dropship was in order. The UD-24 originally had a lift capacity of 70,000 kg, which has been improved upon in the 'B' version of the craft to 75,000 kg. Which has allowed it not only for the nose cannon and the ability to transport heavily armored vehicles into the battle field to have a limited air support role. Now capable of carrying unguided missiles on pylons on the outside engines allows it to provide some fire support when landing at a LZ. It still is however un-recommended for the aircraft to take on a close air support role due to its lack of maneuverability in most cases. It's larger lift capacity offsets its downsides along with the additional armor makes it a hardy vehicle which has landed itself a place so far with the hearts of USCM grunts. It's deployment is currently limited but it is expected for the USCM to order more of the craft as it revises its armored doctrine with the addition of M40 Ridgeway tanks to the arsenal.

(Took some of the lore parts from the actual manual but the dropship didn't really exist outside of the designation, what it was sorta being made for and how much it could lift)

Now some improvements over the current dropship. It is capable of housing more troops and it has more room in the interior for them. Instead of seating 24 + 1(pilot) seats, it now houses 32+1 seats. It has space for a 3x3 tile vehicle, which i do know vehicles wont probably get added, is there for the roleplaying reason or to jam extra dudes there. There are also four slots for cargo to place in any supplies they wanted to for shipping down to the planet (one for each squad if we color code them). There are three ways to exit the craft now, two on the side and a three tile wide ramp in the bottom. Which removes the biggest pushing and shoving problem that currently the dropship hads. The four turrets have been replaced by one twin-minigun turret on the nose of the craft. This would be 270* coverage, the last 90 being directly south of it. It'd have the health of four turrets and probably fire bursts in succession like the regular dropship turrets would. however it'd be two bursts in succession and then a small pause. This actually gives the marines some additional firepower because of the added fragility of the windows. I'm considering for the airintake tiles to be meltable so xenos can get in from the north as well but it'd need strong boiler acid so you don't get drones rushing to the shuttle to poke more holes into it.

Anyway updated medbay in a few hours.

[Warnipple]

Unusable missile sprites and assault cannon? Get out.

Just kidding, please let us use those missiles and the assault cannon if its accepted.

[Artouris]

Unusable missile sprites and assault cannon? Get out.

Just kidding, please let us use those missiles and the assault cannon if its accepted.

Well the missiles probably won't. They're for show right now. Although a neat idea would be eventually to expand the cockpit to be two people, Pilot and Weapons officer, thus allowing the dropship to hover over the colony (just jump to a map that has the icons shrunk to make it look like its hovering over the battlefield) and have it fire the unguided rockets when SLs request it or something. Would be nice, wouldn't carry the firepower of a OB though also would be limited and make loading missiles be reliant on cargo/req using the power loader.

Although that twin minigun turret would be the replacement for the turrets. So that would be for sure in.

[MadSnailDisease]

Holy moley. I don't know shit about mapping but I've been loving all of these. +1 from.

[Bmc777]

I like the exterior of this ship a lot. The twin miniguns idea is well thought out. Room for cargo is nice, and the vehicle idea doesn't have much use with our current gameplay, as you mentioned, but is still cool.

I would add an extra set of doors in the front, and split the columns up once or twice. This ship is a bit too big for actual use in-game, but outside of the couple things I mentioned, is still a very good overall design.

[Artouris]

Anyway heres the redesigned medbay. I put in some of the stuff suggested.

First i do have to point out that this area is taken up by medbay now instead of being a empty space (which really gives medbay the breathing room it deserves)



Next up the redesign of the redesign.



I decided sort of to flip the whole hallway idea. By flip I mean just make it go onto the other side of medbay. CMO's office now overlooks the general treatment area. Along with the doctor's lockers existing next to it as well. There is a small MP office to the north-west corner of the medbay. Kept the three ORs. Made Chemistry a bit more user friendly. Placed a medical storeroom next to chemistry. Further down the hall you have specialized treatment, this has a area to repair prosthetic limbs and two sleepers. I removed two of the sleepers due to their lack of use, and their main use is dialysis which is a fairly uncommon thing so to speak. I put in the biohazard suits there for RP purposes as well. Beyond that is the "Freezer", where you have medical vendors with extra stock and blood packets for vending. Its sort of the area that is put on ice so they can keep stocks of medicine for longer or something along those lines. Lobby got a small redesign as well, but relatively minor. Ladder to research/cloning got a small improvement of putting two doors there for better flow of people since it gets cramp over there.

Overall I think its a improvement if anything considering the added space allows you to do a bit more and removes some of the breaching problems that the sulaco has for the top deck.