OK Guys, heres a little (little? HAH! 8 hours over 2 days so far!) project I would appreciate feedback on...

Inspired by the NPC cards, I decided to revisit my vehicle cards that I never really bothered carrying on with.

This time I realised a minimalist approach would be the best, much like the NPC cards... since any ship you need MORE details on you would do a ship sheet for.

Now.. I am no graphic designer, so really I would appreciate any suggestions on the look, layout, colours, etc.. (Although I am limited in my tools, as I dont have photoshop, and anything complicated with images is beyond me).

Would anyone like to see more of these? or am i chasing womp rats?

Please keep in mind, this is a working document, its not meant to have a black border... and they are designed to be the same size as FFGs NPC cards... (Standard playing card size).

Currently its just a TIE/LN (finding pictures for most of the ships is gonna be the hardest part... any help there would be appreciated!)

(Edit: Im aware the file at the moment is very rough, when i scaled it down it lost some details... ive hopefully fixed that but not uploaded a new version yet)

OK, here we go.. this is possibly a 'finished product' with the exception of some guides I need to take out.

File comes in about 1.4mb... not sure if thats alot for this kind of file or not?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-cK7UE7hkkcdE80SnNNb19venc/view?usp=sharing

RD

So, one thing I would recommend is to avoid using a dark background. I know GM Hooly used one for his prototype NPC cards, but it chews up a crapload of ink if people try to print these at home, and it’s hard to get good multi-layer registration on CMYK layers if you’re getting them printed professionally.

You are more than welcome to use the stat blocks vector graphics I created for Rancor Publishing Group to be used in “Spark of Rebellion” and their other publications, the only thing I ask is that you give credit to RPG.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good!

BTW: If you’re trolling for graphics in Wookieepedia, I have found that many of the images from “New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology” usually come on white backgrounds, which makes them easy to turn the background transparent.

But I frequently start with Google Images as my search engine for ship/vehicle graphics.

So, one thing I would recommend is to avoid using a dark background. I know GM Hooly used one for his prototype NPC cards, but it chews up a crapload of ink if people try to print these at home, and it’s hard to get good multi-layer registration on CMYK layers if you’re getting them printed professionally.

You are more than welcome to use the stat blocks vector graphics I created for Rancor Publishing Group to be used in “Spark of Rebellion” and their other publications, the only thing I ask is that you give credit to RPG.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good!

BTW: If you’re trolling for graphics in Wookieepedia, I have found that many of the images from “New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology” usually come on white backgrounds, which makes them easy to turn the background transparent.

But I frequently start with Google Images as my search engine for ship/vehicle graphics.

I just grabbed the first TIE image I could find... I know using black backgrounds would eat ink, but somehow having a starship against anything else just feels wrong.

I think im ok on the stat blocks... as I say, im working in publisher and anything I import would be as an image, while i cna 'build' them within publish with plenty of swearing. But if your stuff would work in publisher ill take a look... id only be able to give credit in the title page of the file, not on every card.

Really good idea, could be a great resource.

I will probably limit myself to the 'disposable' level of crafts.. clearly Capitol ships will have far too many weapons to fit on a small card... so i might do some double sized cards for those if I ever get that far.

I just feel, while you have NPC cards from FFG so stats are to hand, having a TIE pilot card is no use without their TIE fighter.

I just need input as to what colours/layouts etc to go with.

OP updated with a new file with a fancier alternate design.

Thoughts and feedback please?

UPDATE: Printing this on a home inkjet printer, results in the title text on all the stat boxes to be virtually unreadable... I dont know if its something im doing, the program, or the size of text... any bigger and the boxes need to be bigger as well.

I will attempt to print them at work tomorrow on a commercial laser machine and see if that helps

Advice is very welcome here

Update

They print fine on a commercial Xerox machine (via staples if anyone is interested) and are readable

I may tweak them slight to adjust colours and text size alittle and I'm moving the weapons stats to the back of the card (as the box ones are)

However since this thread seems to not be gaining any traction it seems like something people don't really want?

I really like the second version. It'd be very useful for dogfights and shipyards/ship shopping... Would there be any way to add Encumbrance somewhere on the front of the card? That's a core feature of ships and it'd be nice to be able to see it alongside the rest of the durability stats...

I really like the second version. It'd be very useful for dogfights and shipyards/ship shopping... Would there be any way to add Encumbrance somewhere on the front of the card? That's a core feature of ships and it'd be nice to be able to see it alongside the rest of the durability stats...

Actually I had to swap the weapons and other stats around because alotnof ships had too many weapons to fit in the front of the card. The only issue come when a ship has a large crew capacity that bumps it to two lines. Something else might need to move to the back as well

I'll have a newer version up in a couple hours when I get home from work

Ideally what info would you want in the front in descending order of importance?

OK, updated the link again... this one has both versions with the weapons on the front of the card (not going that way for reasons stated above). And one with weapons listed on the back.

As I said before... which details in priority order, would you want on the front of the card?

(The yellow lines will not be on the final versions, they are just there to help me see the edges of the cards, the final version will just have crop marks around the edge for cutting purposes, with sufficient background bleed for margin of error)

On FFG forums, I've openly advocated for use of Adversary Decks. I'm interested to see this idea develop. My players are expecting something like these cards. Yesterday, a player seemed happy about finding a folded Dart speeder bike intended as an escape option for our opponent. When I told him what he found, he paused and asked, "Is there a card for that speeder?"

Since my vacation ends tomorrow, I think I'm allowed: make sure you add the apostrophe to make a possessive, i.e., SHIP ' S COMPLEMENT .

@wilsch - Thou will shalt be done, Darth Grammer

@cimmeriantheif - if you have a particular desire for certain things, please say! I have no particular order in mind, except batches of 8 of similar vehicles.

(First Batch will be X/A/B/Y Wings and TIE Fighter/Interceptor/Bomber and probably advanced.

The real issue that could hold me up is finding suitable images for each ship, as I know many dont have ANY images associated with them at all.... ANY help there would be appreciated, and if you can provide a suitable image, ill bump that to the top of that batch.

Now... anything else people want me to tweak before i do another test run tonight?

I really like the second version. It'd be very useful for dogfights and shipyards/ship shopping... Would there be any way to add Encumbrance somewhere on the front of the card? That's a core feature of ships and it'd be nice to be able to see it alongside the rest of the durability stats...

Actually I had to swap the weapons and other stats around because alotnof ships had too many weapons to fit in the front of the card. The only issue come when a ship has a large crew capacity that bumps it to two lines. Something else might need to move to the back as well

I'll have a newer version up in a couple hours when I get home from work

Ideally what info would you want in the front in descending order of importance?

My suggestion is that the front of the card should include all information that would use up a predictable amount of space. Some ships have one crew member (the pilot), others can have 4 or more (Pilot, co-pilot, gunners, engineer, communications specialist, etc.). So I'd put weapons and crew on the back of the card. Things like hyperdrive, consumables, navicomputer, passengers, those will always take up one line so keep them to the front.

Also, I'd substitute "crew" instead of "ship's complement", since they mean the same thing and "crew" takes less space. Also, the books usually use the term "crew".

Overall the cards look great. Good job, I'm interested in seeing how they turn out.

On the Crew/Ships Compliment note, there is some inconsistency there... the Edge CRB uses both terms. Crew seems to appear in vehicles that are NOT starships, while Ships Complement comes up for all the starships... ive not checked any other books.

Also, where the CRB lists the vehicle weapons, it capitalises every word, while other books do not. Ive gone with the CRB currently for my formatting, but I might change that...

As for space issues... ive kept it as is, some ships have ALOT of weapons if you list all their qualities (verbatim from the book), the TIE bomber filled the card and almost didnt all fit, and the BWing got very close to doing that. The YWing will need tow cards (one for its variant) as I cannot get the whole title in for both types.

First batch of "finished" (for a given value of finished) will be up soon I hope.. need to get the motivation to edit some images... been at this for the last... 3-4 hours!

OP Updated with "Batch 1 Test"... its not quite finished, it needs some edit guides removing, but thats basically the kind of thing im proposing....

Let me know! (my eyes hurt!)

RD

I just grabbed the first TIE image I could find... I know using black backgrounds would eat ink, but somehow having a starship against anything else just feels wrong.

You could always put the starfield background in a box, and then have the rest of the card be white or a much lighter color. Kind of like what is done on the SWRPG Index at < http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/469/ >.

I think im ok on the stat blocks... as I say, im working in publisher and anything I import would be as an image, while i cna 'build' them within publish with plenty of swearing. But if your stuff would work in publisher ill take a look... id only be able to give credit in the title page of the file, not on every card.

When you say “publisher”, I’m not sure what piece of software you’re talking about. Could you clarify?

The stat blocks I produced are available in .SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) form, as well as the original OmniGraffle format. If need be, I can also make them available in other formats.

A single credit at the top of the file would be fine, it doesn’t have to be on every card.

OK, here we go.. this is possibly a 'finished product' with the exception of some guides I need to take out.

File comes in about 1.4mb... not sure if thats alot for this kind of file or not?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-cK7UE7hkkcdE80SnNNb19venc/view?usp=sharing

RD

Note that my “lineart” armor cards come out to ~6MB per page, for just one side of the page. And that’s for lineart, not photos.

So, your cards coming in at 1.5MB front-and-back for one page of cards, that’s doing pretty good. Especially since you’re using photos (or photo-realistic drawings), instead of lineart.

One thing I’d recommend is that if you’re going to stick with doing light text on a dark background, is to make the text itself bold-style. That will help it stand out better against the dark background, especially in the smaller font sizes.

Cheers Brad, helpful info....

Publisher is part of Microsofts suite of Office programs, its meant for doing layouts and such for Newspapers and Newsletters and the like... its similar (I think, never having used it), Powerpoint.

It lets you create master pages that sit "behind" the page you are working on, so you can have a unified background without having to duplicated it..... im not sure its "intended" for what im using it for, but ive used it for almost everything for years.

These days alot of the functionality is duplicated in word and powerpoint... I know Hooly can get the same results in Word as I get in Publisher.

I dont know if any of the programs I use would support the files you are suggesting....

As for the bold text.. while it looks abit iffy on the screen, it seems to print fine (I think they are bold anyway) when I get them printed at work (on a commercial xerox machine).. certainly the tests I did today came out alright.. ill have a test of the latest file in the next couple of days I hope.

I considered using like a "view screen" image to minimise the image amount.. but I couldnt face creating one in publisher, and wanted to emulate the office FFG NPC Card style... which is what you see in the file now... and im quite pleased with them

But thanks for all the advice, ill read it again when my eyes have recovered tomorrow!

RD

Publisher is part of Microsofts suite of Office programs, its meant for doing layouts and such for Newspapers and Newsletters and the like... its similar (I think, never having used it), Powerpoint.

Ahh, Microsoft Publisher. Yeah, that should be capable of doing at least EPS format files, if not also SVG. EPS is an older Adobe-based spec, while SVG is newer and more Internet-oriented. But if you’ve got a copy of a modern Microsoft program, then it should be able to handle at least one of them.

As for the bold text.. while it looks abit iffy on the screen, it seems to print fine (I think they are bold anyway) when I get them printed at work (on a commercial xerox machine).. certainly the tests I did today came out alright.. ill have a test of the latest file in the next couple of days I hope.

I’d encourage you to try to consider how they will look when printed on a home inkjet printer as well as a commercial laser printer. Some people might not have access to the more expensive equipment, and I think you want your work to look at least decent for them. You might still optimize somewhat for one type of equipment over the other, but to the degree you can arrange it, it should look at least decent on either.

I considered using like a "view screen" image to minimise the image amount.. but I couldnt face creating one in publisher, and wanted to emulate the office FFG NPC Card style... which is what you see in the file now... and im quite pleased with them

Indeed, they do look pretty good! Thanks!

Ive tried printing them on my own inkjet printer, but the title text on the stat boxes is not all that clear... and I really dont know why, or how to fix it.... im not a graphic designer, and I dont understand all the technical side of things... so im at a loss there... granted, ive not tried to print the latest file becuase I didnt want to use up my ink (Since I work at a print shop)....

But maybe ill give it a go and see what happens... but i wouldnt know how to fix it if it doesnt come out well. Maybe your stat boxes will help... where can I get them to try?

And thanks for the compliment,

Ive tried printing them on my own inkjet printer, but the title text on the stat boxes is not all that clear... and I really dont know why, or how to fix it.... im not a graphic designer, and I dont understand all the technical side of things... so im at a loss there... granted, ive not tried to print the latest file becuase I didnt want to use up my ink (Since I work at a print shop)….

The problem is that the resolution on your inkjet printer is not that high, and it’s probably making multiple passes to print all the various different colors. So, registration of one color layer to the next is probably not that good.

That’s one reason why it’s easier to do white cards with dark text/graphics on them, instead of white text on a dark background.

Since you work at a print shop, I’m sure you can find some co-workers who understand color management systems and color separation much better than I do. I’d suggest talking to them about this subject, and maybe they can show you some examples that may help make it a lot more clear.

But maybe ill give it a go and see what happens... but i wouldnt know how to fix it if it doesnt come out well. Maybe your stat boxes will help... where can I get them to try?

I don’t think that my stat blocks are going to help make things look clearer with regards to white text on a dark background.

But if you want to try them out, the link to the folder is at < https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kkuannhcmn7b2h0/AACjXPh0Kkp-asb4gyXSpQAVa?dl=0 >.

And thanks for the compliment,

I always try to encourage and compliment good work when I see it.

Thank you for sharing these cards with us!

Would anyone like to see more of these? or am i chasing womp rats?

Ok so I think I've solved the major printing issue by changing the colours of the stat blocks and the titles of the other boxes to match what you see on the FFG NPC cards.

(Thanks bradknowles you were right)

I've fixed a few errors and they print almost perfectly lined up (at least on the machines I've tried them on) Just a small tweak to make

I'll upload what may well be a final version of wave 1 (the 8 I've done so far) later tonight. (Much later) or tomorrow night

Due to limitations on available artwork, and in some cases large weapon load outs, some ships or vehicles may not get a card. But I do know an artist who might be able to fill some gaps

I do plan on doing speeders and walkers too. If anyone has any requests let me know. And if you have suitable artwork please point me at it

RD

Due to limitations on available artwork, and in some cases large weapon load outs, some ships or vehicles may not get a card. But I do know an artist who might be able to fill some gaps

Ever consider making some cards double-sized to be able to fit the extras? As in once you get to a certain silhouette you increase to a larger card?