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  • 📅 October and November 2024 are YE 46.8 in the RP.

Uniform Updates for the Star Army of Yamatai

Star Army Sweater Type 44.webp

Concept for a Star Army Sweater, Type 44. It's an indigo-dyed wool pullover with the familiar qipao-style collar shape and has shoulder straps and pockets on the chest and arms. It's warm and comfy. Possibly especially useful for Senti and species that get chilly. Can be worn with a matching wool knit cap. What are your thoughts?
 
SAoY could certainly something better than the Type 37 jacket that is used for cold weather.
 
Wes said:
View attachment 18950

Concept for a Star Army Sweater, Type 44. It's an indigo-dyed wool pullover with the familiar qipao-style collar shape and has shoulder straps and pockets on the chest and arms. It's warm and comfy. Possibly especially useful for Senti and species that get chilly. Can be worn with a matching wool knit cap. What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Authorized for daily duty wear or would it need to be ranked and MOS color panelled?
 
Wes said:
I'm thinking yes for duty wear and it would be worn win the classic pin ranks and we'd use boy-scout-style color loops on the epaulets for occupation color on the shoulder straps if needed.
Click to expand...
I think you might have a winner with Senti and Separa on that one. Wool is one of the few materials that will keep you warm even when wet, and it naturally fire retardant.

You see why Senti prefer organic fibers.
 
Miyako said:
Obviously we need something tight, with internal heating filaments of some kind. For combat! Yes, combat. 💦

Actually... 🤔

I need to add something to my to do list!
Click to expand...
We also need some cooling options for all the Norians joining the SAoY.
 
The Star Army of Yamatai has decided, based on user feedback, to continue use of the Type 35 Duty Uniform until at least YE 50, with the following upgrades, backported from the Type 42 Duty Uniform:
  • Dataweave
  • Omnihue or Varihue
  • Add Volumetric projector/communicator (the small glowing teal triangle seen on the Type 41), positioned as shown:
2018_hanako_salute_by_hyeoii_edited_by_Wes with triangle.webp
 
IC Thread:

stararmy.com

SACN - Star Army Uniform Updates for YE 45

HEADQUARTERS, STAR ARMY COMMAND MILITARY DISTRICT OF KYOTO, YAMATAI YE 45.1 MEMORANDUM 1 1. Uniform updates: The Star Army of Yamatai will continue use of the Type 35 Duty Uniform until at least YE 50, with the following upgrades, backported from the Type 42 Duty Uniform: Dataweave Omnihue...
stararmy.com stararmy.com
 
This is kind of potentially controversial but would people like to see the Star Army of Yamatai have a policy where starships can have their own uniforms while operating outside of the Kikyo Sector, provided they have the right symbols (e.g. the hinomaru and/or a Kikyo flower) and basic colors (Star Army blue)? Or should we try to maintain the Star Army's look? The OOC reason is maybe people would like the increased individuality and also it would make it easier to use AI art. Not promising anything, just seeking opinions.
 
That's an interesting idea Wes. I honestly don't have a preference. And it's not like there are that many people trying to spread outside the Kikyo sector right now. But it's something to think about in the future of more people do start expanding.
 
Well I mean we could just be lenient on character art not being strictly adherent to the uniforms without needing any new ones. It doesnt break immersion to see differences on the character art imo or even something entirely different.

As for if its a good idea? I dont have much skin in the game but I posted once like 20-pages ago it feels like once so I get a notification for this thread; I dont see the SA doing much individual uniforms for ships. Give them ship jackets or hats or something but the utilities/daily uniforms are something I dont think should really deviate or would be done much unless its on a fleet by fleet basis and even then it should prob be something like dress uniforms.
 
I make a lot of art with alternate uniforms and love them, especially since AI has been able to come up with some interesting ones for me to reference.

But I don't feel they should be canon. Here's why—Having random additions be canon would negate a lot of the hard work put in to the SAoY uniforms. You even said here that the pointed hemlines of Star Army and Nepleslian uniform are an important visual feature, but didn't include it as something that would be necessitated going forward. It's not a stickling point, it's an example how features that are key to the recognizability of the faction can so easily be washed out when generalizing the uniform.
 
We talked about this a few months ago in discord, Wes, and I liked the idea you mentioned back then. Something limited to experimental light armor suits that ships produce on their own that might come out of fabrication differently based on the ship's computer or engineering inputs. Stuff like the below edit that you've seen already seems cool because they're limited to a specific use case that doesn't impact the Star Army's broadly coherent military uniformity:

aiko_diffusion_armor.webp

Beyond that, while I do enjoy some of the stuff Stable Diffusion gives me, I think it'd get really confusing really fast to say they're all authorized uniforms. The next below pictures, for example, look really close to a SAoY uniform to me (I've used the first as a pic for advertising the Kaiyo to potential readers) but ultimately would lead to an image of the Star Army that isn't consistent. So I think of them more as a "military fashion" custom uniform — or "Honorary Uesureyan" 😆 in the case of the second — than something my character would wear on-duty:

aiko_diffusion_uniform.webp aiko_diffusion_uesureyan.webp

I don't think there's any harm in people having Stable Diffusion uniform stuff on their wiki pages. More outlets for people to have visual representations of their characters is very cool even if the AI art isn't a perfect replication of canonical Star Army uniforms. But, ya know, if it's just outside of the Kikyo Sector then maybe it doesn't matter and just allow plots to go wild.

Sorry for all the pics. But I thought it might be worthwhile to have actual examples of what people might do with the proposed idea, and these are some of my faves.
 
I mean, it makes sense. In the modern US Army, unit shirts and minor modifications to the uniform unit by unit are already a thing. Combine that with other franchises like Star Trek or Babylon 5 and you see a wide variety of uniforms based on ship, unit, and role. Moreover, some species specific uniform variations exist across most franchises, partially due to cultural or even species based necessities, such as enlarged or extra sleeves for avianoids, heated uniforms for endotherms, etc.

Even different manufacturers would make minor changes based on their own capability and material availability. I see no reason the Star Army doesn't have some "varient" uniforms.
 
I was thinking at some point we also may want to formalize the recent practice of putting the Kikyo on the collar area of Yamataian soldiers. I have been doing this with the recent character images where they're in scifi armor.

2023 Aed MacGregor by Wes.webp
 
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