Add remodel of the Bactrian & Mule

[Saugia]

Content (Artwork)

Summary

This PR replaces the current Bactrian model and the current Mule model with newer up-to-date designs. The newer models are more fleshed out as a whole ship (more base to the shape, rather than only blocking it together), add a bit more bulkiness, and add more details to reflect ships such as the newer Mod Argosy, Dreadnought, and their details.

The models add window structures to more attribute to the City-Ship look (which, if you really want to get deep, represent the two humps of a camel as the Bactrian is named after.) The fins are decreased in size to visually take less space of the design itself, and that space is used for more bulkiness, and more fins are added for a better visual representation of scale.

Save File

This save file can be used to play through the new mission content:
Should be playable if you have the ships unlocked or captured.

PR Checklist

• I updated the copyright attributions, or decline to claim copyright of any assets produced or modified
• I uploaded the necessary image, blend, and texture assets here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E_p8CRpBGOEcjL9jQsD-efrMkjEeWyAT?usp=sharing
• I created a PR to the endless-sky-high-dpi repo with the @2x versions of these art assets: (Add remodel of the Bactrian & Mule endless-sky-high-dpi#204)

[GefullteTaubenbrust2]

@Amazinite may I ask why you downvoted? If you could at least give your reasons that would be appreciated, because I really don't think it's fair.

[Terin]

Yep, a thumbs up requires no action on the PR's author, while a thumbs down does. Leaving it with no feedback is actively unhelpful.

[Zitchas]

I must admit that this is probably one of the redesigns that I think has the most value. This doesn't just give it a bit more detail, it actually gives it weight and substance. This new sprite makes the city ship really feel like a true city, like the hefty ship that it is.

Likewise, moving the gun ports to the two angled batteries is probably one of the best uses of the angled guns that we could hope for: It makes those gunports both less useful for sticking guns in, and it makes them more useful for spreading out missile fire to take out fighters & light craft that might be harassing it. This is a clear win-win as far as I'm concerned.

I know I've argued that the Bactrian should have fewer guns in the past. Having the gun ports moved to these angled positions, I think, actually resolves my issues with the Bactrian, as this makes it clear that these are missile ports, which are highly suitable to the role, lore, and description of the ship; and not gun ports, which are ridiculous and unsuitable on a city.

Also, from an aesthetic view, having guided munitions launch out at an angle and arc around to hit things looks really cool.

edit: I've never really liked the "Heavy Warship" stats of the Bactrian, but this sprite actually makes it look like something that might actually deserve them. It certainly reduces my ongoing desire to nerf it more.

[Zitchas]

My only iffy point would be whether or not it should be two torpedoes together on one side, with two missiles on the other; or one of each on each side. The former makes more sense to me from a logistics perspective (keep the stores of each projectile together), but the second makes more sense from a "spread the fire" perspective to ensure that there's a missile being launched from each side for maximum anti-light-craft potential. But I'm 50/50 on which set up I prefer, so this is just a comment.

[vitalchip]

Definitely putting this in at 2x size.

[McloughlinGuy]

It looks so much better than the current bactrian, and it fits the art style of endless sky. I like it a lot.

[WarlordMike]

The Baccy always struck me as one of those ships that seemed like any attempt to revise the design would be a fruitless endeavor.

I've never been so happy to be so thoroughly proven wrong. She deserves this makeover, Saugia.

[LepRyot]

phattest ship ever seen !!
Looks like you accomplished a long standing goal for a lot of people

[Amazinite]

I'm not too sure on the bigger, bulkier look for the Bactrian. A ship's appearance should fit its stats, and the Bactrian is already the biggest ship in human space, and (ignoring the Kestrel, which is a bit of a special case) the second toughest ship in terms of HP, behind only the Carrier (26,100 vs 29,700). The Carrier being smaller but tougher could perhaps be chalked up to the Carrier using tougher materials, but this remodel makes the Bactrian even bigger, to the point where I'd argue that it doesn't really fit the stats anymore, at least in terms of HP.
Put another way, something that's been mentioned in the past is the "rule of cool," i.e. the cooler something looks the more powerful it should be. So in a way, this bigger, bulkier Bactrian, at least at its current size, is almost too cool for its own good. Zitchas says this image would make him stop wanting the Bactrian to be nerfed, but for me it's to the point where you'd actually make me want to buff the Bactrian, which I never thought would be the case.

I imagine if you downscale the ship a bit so that it at the very least isn't bigger length-wise than the existing Bactrian that that would help.

Aside from that, the post processing on the ship image leaves certain areas of the ship looking rather dark, but that same post processing isn't done on the thumbnail, making the thumbnail much brighter than the ship image. This same thing can actually be seen in the old images too to some extent, but it's not nearly as drastic. Not a massive issue and it might be fine to let it slide, but it is something that I noticed.

You could also trim the height on the thumbnail and width on the ship image.

[Zitchas]

Posting this in the main comment thread so it doesn't get lost if/when that sub-comment gets marked as resolved, which it probably can be at this point.

From my perspective, point 7 is the one that I'm most firm on: It is a city ship, that is the entirety of its reason for existing. Any well built ship will be designed to be successful. The description flat out states that there used to be many, but this was the one that had sufficient edge to keep on going when the rest were decommissioned. That, to me, suggests that it has every edge that its designers could wiggle out of its design.

That being said, yes, this reduces the flexibility of the Bactrian's outfitting a bit. That is, as far as I'm concerned, a good thing. If these ports aren't being optimized for ideal protection of its vulnerable flanks and rear, those ports have no business being on the ship at all. If we had missile hardpoints as something different from gun hardpoints, I'd be here insisting that the Bactrian should have zero gunports. It would actually make sense for it to have more hardpoints, actually - but only if they're all missile ports and angled off towards the flanks and rear.

Anyway, we have a plethora of warships in this game. One more warship does nothing for fun or interest. The Bactrian isn't just another warship in the lore, and it shouldn't be just another warship now. That's a useless, and pointless, thing to have in the game. Not to mention completely overshadowed by, as you point out, so many other dedicated warships. Which, again, shouldn't be surprising, because it's not a warship. It's a combo freighter/transport that just happens to have enough weaponry and protection to qualify as one. What the Bactrian is, however, is toughest and deadliest transport/freighter in all of human space. It's pretty much the one freighter that needs no escort. If anyone has a cargo that they want to get somewhere securely? Bactrian. You have a conference of VIPs or senators holding a space-based conference? Put them in a Bactrian. No other transport will keep them safer.

This is, quite literally, the idea of leaning into the ships's strengths instead of bemoaning the fact that it is leaning away from something it never really should have been that good at to begin with. There is a world of a difference between "enough of a warship to fend off pirates" and "ship built to go hunting down problems and ramming them in the face." The Bactrian is the freighter/transport that no pirate should ever want to see jumping in, because it'll annihilate them without even bothering to change course.

As for point 6 - This is basically a relic of the fact that the Bactrian (and most other giant ships) turn far too fast for their size. Assuming they actually had the mass they should have, them turning to bring forward guns to bear should be about as comical as watching a US Navy Carrier trying to fire unguided torpedoes at a high speed missile boat that is harassing it. This is basically reinforcing the fact that heavy warships are currently setup to act like really big fighters. We keep talking about fixing combat and making it more diversified. Well, part of the solution is to stop setting up heavy ships like fighters. The Bactrian shouldn't be spinning around. Against light warships, it should be expecting that 95% of the fight it will be pointed somewhere other than at the light things flitting around it. So having missiles set up to get that spread should be something that benefits it far more than the off chance that someone is dumb enough to fly in front of it. Think of it as future-proofing. As our AI improves, as big ships get slower, stuff will be staying out from in front of it more and more, and those forward guns will get more and more useless. And side-angled guns will become more and more valuable.

Anyway, I just want to re-iterate my thanks that you actually explained your position. Given the fact that we are continuing to try to encourage more people to do reviews, it is very helpful if you would actually make a practice of posting all your points. That helps people see what your thought processes are, and what sort of things to look for. It gives us all a chance to learn instead of just fuming at the fact that the black box spat out a pass/fail.

From a community standpoint, the less we rely on "what you feel is best" and the more we can understand your decisions, the better off we will all be.

While I continue to disagree with the guns going straight forward, I don't consider my opinion here to be a blocking issue. Please proceed with merging whichever version you feel is best. My "approve" that I put on here earlier stands, regardless of which version is merged.

[kestrel1110]

Just a thought after reading Zitchas' thing- if we're gonna make heavy warships really slow turners, we're gonna have to find some way to compensate, and the only logical solution would be to begin implementing a series of very large reverse thrusters, and start putting them on virtually every ship. However, reverse thrusters right now use weapon space, as they are mounted 'in the forward sections of the ship' and that would make it slightly broken, as you would have to increase the general weapons capacity of every ship in order to fit them. However, that creates the problem of some players removing all of their reverse thrusters in order to include ridiculously large weapons, for example, we'd start seeing weapon variant kestrels with a full suite of ion cannons, or other broken things like that. So in my opinion, the best solution would be to make reverse thrusters utilize something other than weapon space, perhaps 'forward engine space' or something of that sort, and have each ship have a varying amount, increasing for each ship of a higher mass. However, this would by no means be a simple solution, and would require lots of effort, and should probably be shelved for a much later version.

[vitalchip]

I'm wading in late here but I think the angled gun ports are the right way to go. In the absence of dedicated missile ports this is a really good idea. This ship is massive (or supposed to be) it's got no business having fixed guns which would require a change of course to utilise. The only reason fixed guns exist on ES "big" ships is because they aren't "big" statistically and can turn far too fast.

[Zitchas]

This PR originally had the Bactrian and Mule being given angled gun ports. The reasons this make sense are myriad, especially from a "spread out the missiles and give them a head start for turning around to hit fighters attacking from behind" perspective.

While the issue was basically vetoed, I just thought I'd tack this on after the fact: I just checked the discord poll room, and noticed that the angled gun ports on the Bactrian poll was still up. So, after about nine months of polling, the community vote totals stand at having the Bactrian have:

• Angled gun ports: 422
• Straight ahead gun ports: 44

So, 422 vs 44 in favor of the angled gun ports...