Allow one to tweak the color/texture of the Hacknet environment?

[LeFae]

I've been wondering, may we please get access to the files and the permission to tweak hacknet? That being said, I honestly enjoy hacknet but not a huge fan of the green color scheme (I know it's a homage to Shadowrun, and the game's overall scheme (see our forum background!) but I'd like to honestly have the ability to tweak the textures, and appearance a bit more to get a purple color scheme.

That being said, at least from what I've been able to ascertain it wouldn't take heavy modification to do this... more textures than anything else. And it really wouldn't pose any sort of advantage in PVP given that it already is kind of easy to see mobs, and I assume people in game.

Furthermore, I was wondering... might there be any way to implement the avatar's seen here? http://www.techhaven.org/resources/neocron-info/hacking-guide.html It appears from what I can tell something that might've been intended and it would add some added immersion.

That being said, some might argue that allowing one to change the color may allow for some sort of advantage. But I really don't see how given that the levels are transparent and the mobs etc are bright white haha. See this picture for reference.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67869723/NC%20Stuff/Hacknet.jpg

*edit* I'd like to mention that it was brought up that different areas of hacknet are different colors. That being said though, I would like the ability to tweak this and change the colors if possible so that one could change it to suit one's taste. I don't see how this could cause someone any issues unless they used someone else's mod for this because they'd simply just have to document it or let them find out what different colors imply at that point.

Thank you for your consideration, and for taking the time to read this!

[Agent L]

No.
This is not user-related thing, this is world-related thing.
It is important for green hacknet to be green, orange to be orange and blue to be blue.

Imagine ppl being able to "tweak" Plaza to look like Pepper Park and ViaRosso to look like DoY. What's the point of having a common world if everyone sees it differently?

[LeFae]

Why exactly is it so important that it be a certain color? Maybe my perspective is skewed on this but that's like saying no... it is important that you keep your UI the default green color. As for tweaking it... is it bad that some people tweaked their UI so that it looks like the one from NC 1, while the rest of the people use one from NC 2.2 or something different?

And it is a common world, even when people tweak it since they fight the same mobs, follow the same paths with only a difference in color. Again much like the UI. Some people's UIs look much different in shape, and color yet they are experiencing the same thing otherwise.

Furthermore, even if you think about it LORE wise you are transmitting yourself digitally into a world where things are just data. Who is to say that the makeup of your mind/digital self doesn't interpret it differently (different GUI?) . As for people getting confused on the colors... again, that is something that people wouldn't do if they were the ones doing it or read some decent documentation, took time to explore etc.

[Drachenpaladin]

Maybe my perspective is skewed on this [..]

It is. Which makes any discussion about this pointless.

Whats the point of a consistent world if its inconsistent?

And i never really understood why there is ANY need to alter the skin of the UI apart of the color.

[LeFae]

People alter elements to suit their tastes and make things easier on their eyes. For example, I tend to use a softer purple color than what I feel to be a gaudier green color because A) It's easier on the eyes B) it's more visually appealing.

And the only reason my perspective would be skewed is because I favor the ability to customize something. I don't know how this would make a discussion pointless. That being said, I'm not sure about you but I enjoy elements of hacknet and I play with i. However I do not enjoy the fact that some areas are just harder on my vision and bother my eyes more. I could tweak my gamma and brightness every time I play an area, but that honestly just seems like a dumb thing to do and even then I'd technically not be experiencing the same things other's do because I've changed how the world is displayed on my screen.

That being said, at the end of the day the ONLY thing I really want to change is the color. The idea of changing the appearance/data stream bits you walk on etc was an after thought. And honestly? I'd be just as happy without the ability to tweak the other aspects of it.

Furthermore... another easy, but stupid answer that seems like one would give is, "Don't go there then." Well I could perfectly avoid that, but honestly this also seems kind of stupid if I have to avoid an area of the game simply because people are against the idea of changing something that may change the way one "experiences" the world, which in MMOs is an arguably subjective thing to begin with. :x

[Xortag]

You don't want to change it :)

Edit: Models where from 1.1 i guess

[LeFae]

Why not?

[hatmankh]

[ edited ]

[Agent L]

Becasue RPOS is smth only you can see, that's why it's appearance is not relevant.
But "let's meet in the blue hacknet" doesn't make as much sense anymore, isn't it?

Lighting plays important part on identification and feeling of the area. That's why plaza is lit in green, via in yellow and pp in red.
Don't like the red? It's intentional to make you don't like pp.

If you're color-oversensitive, then you're unfit for hacker.

[Drachenpaladin]

via in yellow

Dawut?! O_o

[LeFae]

Agent L, I discussed that already. If you tweaked it... you should obviously know what color it was beforehand. Either by doing so via a GUI as simple as it is with NC Settings, or by taking note of the color code before, one could know what was what.

That being said, it is certain colors that bother me and I play through it but the strain eventually make me ill.

Honestly to say this crap.... "Oh the visuals hurt you? Then your not going to be able to do anything about it" is non-sense... and quite centric since what others see does not affect you in any way shape or form.... unless should they may mention to you, "Oh yes, I tweaked the color some."

Now yes, I do agree that in other areas of the game this might pose a problem... changing the textures, models, etc would be a problem. (after some reading I'd learned that textures have nothing to do with the color) However just changing the glow of the area (in hacknet) seems to me at least to be a different thing altogether.

[Trivaldi]

Hacknet is coloured the way it is for a reason. Green sectors are supposed to be Neocron influenced, while Orange ones are the domain of the old Dome of York network. Neutral space, such as TechHaven, is blue to show the neutrality.

This all made a fair bit of sense when Neocron 2 was released and all the anti factions were moved to the Dome. Not only were the factions occupying the physical space of DoY but they also took up the decaying infrastructure too. Once they were moved out again, Hacknet stopped making quite as much sense. It was designed for NC2's RvB faction layout.

The entire thing needs work though, at the moment I don't think anyone on the team is happy with Hacknet's current state. It's something we want to fix but other things are higher up the list.

EDIT: Regarding the character skins. They were available at the launch of Neocron 2, Anti-CA people were Orange, Pro-CA Green and City Mercs chaps were blue. They were removed a long time ago due to issues with the way they worked. Putting them back is something we'd like to see one day.

[LeFae]

Oh wow, I see well. Thank you very much for the information regarding this. That being said, I'd love to see this type of thing revisited. Because hacknet is pretty darn fun even in it's state.

I suppose then the only thing I might ask. Is there some way to potentially allow the option to dull the glow in some areas so that it doesn't shine as brightly on the person's computer? I do realize it isn't on the top of your to do list... but maybe it is something that might be doable in the future.


Thank you again for taking the time to explain this. :)

[SilentEye]

Fae, like I have previously suggested on IRC, why don't you create a colour profile on your monitor to quickly switch to when required?

Let's face it, this would do everything you want and would even need some physical interaction with hardware, consider it a win-win :)

You could alternatively look for a Direct X DLL plugin module mod thing that alters the visual look of things, I believe there are these kinda things that let you adjust the glow/bloom/etc. No idea how that works though :)

[Drachenpaladin]

You could alternatively look for a Direct X DLL plugin module mod thing that alters the visual look of things, I believe there are these kinda things that let you adjust the glow/bloom/etc. No idea how that works though :)

The Bloom Filter adds Bloom, which isn't there by default. So that would hardly improve the situation. Judging by the screen shot in the OP i still can't see where the HN should be too bright and stuff. Only thing you could try there is the color desaturation effect but that is applied to the entire game then. Not much of a win either.

Is your monitor gamma, color temp, brightness and stuff just setup badly?

[LeFae]

Don't think so since it's pretty much about the same with both of my monitors and the green is not so much the problem. As I'd mentioned with that one... I was just wanting to change that one due to personal tastes. The one which kind of bugged me though was the orange one as I'd specified.

Either way though I suppose it's a moot point. Nothing's going to be done by the looks of people's responses. :)