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Help Color A Faction

If the 'uniform' is just going to be a mantle, it's fine if it's just one colour. Mantles don't usually come in two tones, and when they have trim it tends to be made of fur rather than just being decorative. Sometimes they have one colour on the inside and another on the outside, though. Bram Stoker's Dracula--black mantle, bright red on the inside--is the most classic example.
 
It might make more sense to have different uniform designs for each body type.

Even the Star Army has a sleeveless version for certain furred/feathered species.
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Part of the idea is that to an extent, we do want what's beneath the mantle to be somewhat customizable based on the preference of the ship or battalion captain and to allow for 'indeterminacy of artists' and to let people play with it a little.

That is to say, there's a huge style guide for the Yamataian uniforms, too, but we're going to provide a style guide that's a little bit more loose so that the species involved can simply adapt it themselves. Otherwise, we're going to be commissioning a fair amount of artwork at once.

As far as rank goes, essentially the higher ranking you are, the more elaborate this mantle is supposed to be - gold piping, or heraldry. We're looking at a sunburst for the central theme, with gradually increasing complexity and braiding around it. The goal here is to let people have a little bit of flexibility while still keeping a concise and recognizable uniform. Since it's a mantle, you can put it on armored troops additionally, or drape the facsimile over ships or equipment, so that even if we end up using generic ships (we're working on one right now that's anything BUT generic) they can still, in swift manner, be made easily recognizable.

Our current projection also has us using 'droid' infantry in certain instances, and you can toss a short mantle like that over a robot, too.

Basically, it's a flexible uniform that we can work, for now, while increasing its complexity later if that proves to be necessary in later stages of nation development.

Wes said:
Pictured: a black and gold Cosplay outfit

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Also, for some reason I was thinking of this exact outfit when people mentioned black and gold, but I couldn't place it to save my life.
 
I'd like to point out that a mix of black (primary), red (secondary) and gold (secondary) colors are Kuro no Kishi colors - the color of Kotori's honor guard. I have art being made that is already using those. The black is because it's the "Black Knights", the red due to them being under the umbrella of the Imperial Guard, and the gold inspired from Kotori's eyes.

I have no problem seeing those colors re-used elsewhere as long as I'm not eventually told: "Fred, you shouldn't be using those colors, another faction is using them."
 
I look forward to seeing the artwork and it's nice to hear someone else also has such simple justifications.

We're putting the final touches on our uniform example, and it should be postable in a bit. Edto's wife is the one working on it presently.

It's a merger of the UOC uniform (most of Bhelith's soldiers come from two UOC families, the Mitsuya and the Cho) and the coloration and general scale appearance of the vekimen, with the aforementioned mantle. It's the mantle we're sort of going over just now. The actual bodysuit itself is for the humanoids who end up joining and is meant to represent the merger of the two entities and to promote a similarity in appearance somewhat in spite of the anatomical differences.

It's looking like the color scheme will be mixed white with black, and gold trim. We're playing with green for the mantle but finding it doesn't look quite how we'd imagined it might.
 
Is the mantle something like this?

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Why not post the WIPs in this thread?
 
Ask, and you shall receive @Wes

These are various WIP's. The over all uniform has bee decided, just the mantle is in its own stages

ai.imgur.com_hurD9PI.webp ai.imgur.com_jXYJFeM.webp ai.imgur.com_UswEP9F.webp

The pictures have not been touched up, shaded, or corrected yet. Muttface is still working on all that. She just wanted to get the uniform concept down once she realised she was making the uniform.

Admittedly, me and her have been getting into tiffs about if the scales on the front should go down to the belt, or if it should remain cut off like that right before the belt. Suggestions?

I also only just now realized the gold chest trim seems to extend over the scales. I'll have to mention that as it would be better as a border. Mutt is sleeping though so that will have to wait.

Oh, and as a further note, these pictures are flipped. We are both aware the gun is on the left hand side and the character is right handed. Cleo just never reflipped the image before the export.
 

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Looks like the UOC Peacekeeper uniform with colors that make the wearer resemble a Vekimen.

Not going to have something original?
 
raz said:
Looks like the UOC Peacekeeper uniform with colors that make the wearer resemble a Vekimen.

Not going to have something original?
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It was actually completely intentional to use the UOC uniform. A vast majority of the Morioka Clan are former UOC. Using the old uniform is actually meant to be a throwback to them. Actually, right before Wes asked for the WIP's to be posted, Gallant said exactly that. The Uniforms are to be a merger between the UOC Uniforms, and the colouration and general scaled pattern of the Vekimen, to indicate a merger of the two species under this banner. This, given the Vekimens general hatred for clothing, could give the over all military the look of over all uniform, without making the Vekimen actually wear a uniform. The scales also provide protection.

See, total originality isn't what we are going for. There is a whole story behind much of what we are doing, and it would be remiss not to use some of it. Symbolism. Throwback to stuff that is important to aspects of this faction we are making, that is entwined in our backstory is part of what we want to do. We did the imitation of the UOC uniform as a show of respect to Kim and Andrew. After all, imitation is the highest form of flattery.
 
I like the red and black idea as well as the black and gold. The scales should go down to the belt, imo. It looks a little strange like that. Have you thought about putting color on the pads too?
 
In any case, the criticism is still valid regardless of the explanation.
 
raz said:
In any case, the criticism is still valid regardless of the explanation.
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No, it isn't. We explained it. Unless you can explain why your "Criticism" is valid, we have validly explained why your comment is null and void. I will reiterate.

  • It is a deliberate call back to UOC
  • Show of respect to Kim and Andrew
  • basically Bheliths entire clan right now is former UOC
  • We never once said it was a completely origonal design, and even flat out mentioned it was basically a merger of the UOC uniform and the Vekimen appearance. Wes still asked for WIP's
Why would we not use something familiar if we can? The UOC is a dead NPC faction that was basically destroyed as far as I am aware, which means no one is currently using that particular uniform design. Yeah, we use the same cut, but it is a rather different uniform, and it's a point of symbolism.

If we could find a stock pile of actual Peacekeeper uniforms ICly, I wouldn't be shocked if Bhelith kept them and issued them out as "Stealth" suits given white and black in most situations isn't the greatest for camouflage. We are trying to utilize more old school resources in the creation of this faction because they aren't being used anymore. Yeah, we plan to bring new things to the site in various ways, but there are a lot of unexplored stuff from the past that we could dig up and use. Just need to be willing to do it.
 
Edto Xar'Sivaree said:
No, it isn't. We explained it. Unless you can explain why your "Criticism" is valid, we have validly explained why your comment is null and void. I will reiterate.

  • It is a deliberate call back to UOC
  • Show of respect to Kim and Andrew
  • basically Bheliths entire clan right now is former UOC
  • We never once said it was a completely origonal design, and even flat out mentioned it was basically a merger of the UOC uniform and the Vekimen appearance. Wes still asked for WIP's
Why would we not use something familiar if we can? The UOC is a dead NPC faction that was basically destroyed as far as I am aware, which means no one is currently using that particular uniform design. Yeah, we use the same cut, but it is a rather different uniform, and it's a point of symbolism.

If we could find a stock pile of actual Peacekeeper uniforms ICly, I wouldn't be shocked if Bhelith kept them and issued them out as "Stealth" suits given white and black in most situations isn't the greatest for camouflage. We are trying to utilize more old school resources in the creation of this faction because they aren't being used anymore. Yeah, we plan to bring new things to the site in various ways, but there are a lot of unexplored stuff from the past that we could dig up and use. Just need to be willing to do it.
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Except the Peacekeeper Corps in Nepleslia.

Since people don't look around much, here: https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=nepleslia:jiyuuian_volunteers

These volunteers are allowed to wear their uniforms off-duty and can use some of their old equipment even while on special station. So... I mean... there is a pretty sizable group still fielding the uniform within Nepleslia.

I guess that doesn't count though because the group that was "basically destroyed" exists in Nepleslia. Despite many of them evacuating to both Nepleslia and Yamatai... but... uh... mmm. Going back to older things should mean you at least look into them. A running theme that worries me when you keep wanting to use old things but take no regard to even research them.
 
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Legix, you're talking about one group out of many out there. When a nation crumbles, not all of them flee as refugees to a single place. Because of that, their flag tends to start popping up everywhere they are present in number.
 
Having taken an evening to sleep on some of the feedback we're receiving, I want to point something out that people seem to be missing; just because we have some concept art, now, doesn't mean that it's the concept art we're going to go with. This is an ongoing project and a living activity, and so what you see in Edto's shares should be treated with some salt. They are not the final product and I was leery of having them posted up in this thread before we had, ourselves, quite figured out what they were to look like.

We're obviously aware that right now they look very close to the UOC uniforms. A previous iteration (the one prior to this) nearly looked exactly like a Vekimen; this time, we went closer to the UOC sliding scale, so to speak. We're still working on it, and still conceiving, and still blending and trying new ideas (the mantle used to be a shoulder cape, but that didn't look good, so now it's a mantle, etc.) In all actuality as the uniform is the mantle itself, we're just working on the Morioka Clan/Blackspear House bodysuits, and as has been mentioned earlier, many of them (I've always imagined there were around 100 or so) were prior UOC members wearing the uniform, much as groups wear the uniform elsewhere.

The uniform also saw storied and canonical use in the Task Force Lantern plot, where it was notated that under Taisho Morioka, the Leo Star Fortress members who had retained their UOC uniforms could wear them by choice and many did so by preference.

I personally know and am very well familiar with one of the creators of the UOC and I have been picking her brain for plot points, ideas, and unthreaded plot hooks that got lost wayback then. Some of them were meant to show up in the Task Force Lantern plot, but circumstances had myself and my other co-GMs dealing with life issues before we could get around to them, so actual UOC history isn't a problem, thank you.

It was and still is my understanding that the UOC was divvied up several ways. In 2012 when the article you linked was written, some of them also went to Nepleslia, to Yamatai, to the Lorath. It was notated like that, at that time, I think, because even back then people wanted to DO SOMETHING with the remnants of the UOC, and weren't quite sure what. Some of them were left on Asura (it's one of the planets that didn't get touched by the Mishhu, and there was some argumentation over it in Task Force Lantern). Others could have gone who knows where. The area of space I am pulling the UOC soldiers from is well storied. Particularly, it is well storied by Kim and I.

TLDR: we don't want your Jiyuuians, and the UOC uniform is defunct internationally. Nepleslia is not the sole steward of the United Outer Colonies. Take a deep breath. Exhale.

@Wes, what do you think?

Late Edit: As a good example of how much of a project this is, this sketch got proposed this morning:

View attachment 8022

So you can see we're still working on exact patterns and the like.
 
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