[REL] Phisari's Human Character Mod (2400 unique names, 38 portraits)

[phi6]

Greetings Distant Worlds players!

Today I thought I'd participate on the forum properly and contribute a little character mod I've been working on.

I'm sick and tired of seeing every character use the same race image, so I went on the hunt for a character portrait replacement mod. Those I've seen posted on this forum actually work great, but for me I'm not a huge fan of realistic art styles and would prefer a more handpainted look and feel. I didn't really find anything that really suited this.

At the same time I discovered some Elite: Dangerous fan artwork by Kevin Massey. His CMDR portraits in particular I thought were fantastic, and felt would suit Distant Worlds characters perfectly. So I went ahead and painstakingly edited and cropped out his entire collection and slapped them into the game. I personally think they look great, and really adds a lot to my sense of immersion and feel.

In addition to this, I also created a Human.txt character file, containing 2400 unique randomly generated character names, each linking to a character portrait suitable for their role.

I hope you guys find as much joy with these new characters as I do.

[ Mod Features ]

- 2400 randomly generated character names, male and female
- 100% guaranteed unique names (all characters have been parsed and any duplicates removed)
- Random character order, random skills, random traits
- 300 leader names
- 300 ambassador names
- 300 fleet admiral names
- 300 troop general names
- 300 colony governor names
- 300 ship captain names
- 300 scientist names
- 300 intelligence agent names
- 38 unique character portraits spread across the 8 different roles

NOTES

- Humans only, for obvious reasons!
- No pirate leaders yet
- Some character portraits do overlap across several roles. For example, there is a Colony Governor image which I'm also using for a Scientist. This is because the person portrayed on the artwork I felt would fit in either role, and also there would not be enough diversity in portraits otherwise.

[ Credits ]

- All artwork credited to Kevin Massey, as part of his Elite: Dangerous fan artwork collection
http://kevinmassey.deviantart.com/

- Random character names generated using Ergie's Character Randomizer Tool v0.3
tm.asp?m=3653852&mpage=1&key=Designing% ... ool�

- Mod packaged, images edited/cropped and some light scripting to remove duplicate names by myself, Phi Dinh.

[ Download and Installation Instructions ]

Download:
http://phidinh.com/dw/char/phisari_char ... od_2_0.zip

Installation:
Simply extract all files to your Distant Worlds installation folder.
New character images will be added and your Human.txt character file will be replaced.

[ Screenshots ]







All 38 Character Portraits



Leaders



Ambassadors



Fleet Admirals



Troop Generals



Colony Governors



Ship Captains



Scientists



Intelligence Agents

[mordachai]

Woot! Nice!

Thank you!

[phi6]

Thanks, hope people find value in these kind of visual mods

[salemonz]

Wow, thank you so much for this! I do really love these visual mods!

[Hattori Hanzo]

I like this portrait style [X(]

[Emperor0Akim]

This is absolutely awesome and totally what I was looking for since I opened google to search for DW:U Mods

[patdoomdoom]

Niceeeeee [&o]

[Serenitis]

Some leaders seem to spawn without any skills at all.

[DawnPatrol]

I'd probably do the smart thing and take this down as soon as your little fingers can hit delete. As for the rest of you who downloaded it, I suggest the same. These are copyrighted images.

[Hattori Hanzo]

I freely dowloaded this mod some weeks ago.
do you really suggest me to delete it ? [&:]

[zgrillo2004]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

I freely dowloaded this mod some weeks ago.
do you really suggest me to delete it ? [&:]

Ignore him. he knows nothing about the law

ORIGINAL: DawnPatrol

I'd probably do the smart thing and take this down as soon as your little fingers can hit delete. As for the rest of you who downloaded it, I suggest the same. These are copyrighted images.

You do know that he isnt selling it or claiming it as his. he is protected by the 1976 Fair Use Act Section 107 which states

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Read your laws nexttime.

[DawnPatrol]

"You do know that he isnt selling it or claiming it as his. he is protected by the 1976 Fair Use Act Section 107 which states

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Read your laws nexttime."

He never asked permission to use the works in the first place. I know the author, and he isn't happy about this at all. Almost all of these portraits were commissioned pieces, paid for by those who wanted their portraits made in the style of the game. Maybe you should know the law a little better. When this website and the original poster receives the cease and desist letters, don't say that you were not warned. These pieces are all copyrighted.

[Hattori Hanzo]

He never asked permission to use the works in the first place. I know the author, and he isn't happy about this at all. Almost all of these portraits were commissioned pieces, paid for by those who wanted their portraits made in the style of the game. Maybe you should know the law a little better. When this website and the original poster receives the cease and desist letters, don't say that you were not warned. These pieces are all copyrighted.

I'm very curious, can you please let me know for which game this wonderful portraits have been done by your friend ?
I would be interested to commission one for myself.
thank you

[Retreat1970]

These pieces are all copyrighted.

I don't know law, but if the artist doesn't want them used so be it. Not like I couldn't find thousands of similar pictures anyways.

[Sabranan]

I suspect fair use wouldn't cover a game mod, even if it is free. It's designed to cover reporting, academic and research use, not entertainment. All images are copyrighted upon creation and unless the author releases them under a licence allowing for this kind of use it would definitely be better to acquire permission first.

In any event the artist needs to get in touch with phi6 directly, he hasn't logged in since before your first post DawnPatrol, so he probably has no idea this is going on.

[zgrillo2004]

ORIGINAL: DawnPatrol
He never asked permission to use the works in the first place. I know the author, and he isn't happy about this at all. Almost all of these portraits were commissioned pieces, paid for by those who wanted their portraits made in the style of the game. Maybe you should know the law a little better. When this website and the original poster receives the cease and desist letters, don't say that you were not warned. These pieces are all copyrighted.

Prove to me that you know him in person. I dont take the net seriously. and FYI the DMCA is the most abusive copyright system I have seen. anyone can copyright anything and as such just want to sue if they deem they want more money. its just a cash grab for the lawyers. Im sorry about this but I have never liked the DMCA since its creation and there should be limitations on what is defined as copyright and what is not. But you are right about one thing, Phi6 should have asked before making the mod.

[Nightskies]

"The purpose of the Fair Use Doctrine is to allow for limited and reasonable uses as long as the use does not interfere with owners’ rights or impede their right to do with the work as they wish." - Sara Hawkins, lawyer

"...the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
Source: 17 USC Section 107.

Commissioned fan art. Will Mr. Massey be selling these images to anyone else? If not, please drop it, because even if he uses a lawyer, he's not getting anything but a loss of exposure for future commissions. phi6 isn't getting anything out of this, and Mr. Massey isn't losing anything. Nobody is getting commissioned to do artwork for fan-made modifications of games, and nor should they, because there is no money made in these mods- unlike Elite: Dangerous' fan commissions. Actually, you can't make money making artwork for game mods, because that money should go to the game publisher unless they give you rights to the game (*in most cases). I also agree phi6 should have asked first, but saying no to the unasked question is far more questionable. If you happen to see this, Kevin, please consider what could be accomplished by trying to remove your works here. Disappointment and a perhaps wizened phi6.

Unless it's your objective to force all mods to be made official using only material authorized by the game publishers, in which case we are enemies. The sort of enemies who want to see the other living in a homeless shelter. But hey, that's not how it works right now, so let's just be friendly! This is great artwork, and I'm adding the DeviantArt page to my bookmarks.

[Twigster]

Um...wow!

[Hattori Hanzo]

any news from DawnPatrol.. ????? [&:]

[zgrillo2004]

I think nightskies and I just screwed him over with our logic. He was nothing more than a copyright troll.