Stationcrab's Custom Borg Sprites

[StationCrab]

Byond key: Stationcrab

Discord key: Ian#8480

Character Name: F.R.E.N.

Item name: F.R.E.N. - Friendly Robot Engagement Network - Crew Interaction Chassis

Item function(s): 
     

I have designed these sprites as an upgraded version of the default basic robot sprite. The lighting and liquid-crystal display are adjusted to play a custom animation for each department, and the chassis' have been colored accordingly. These sprites account for all departments with the exception of security, as it has been removed, but if it is ever returned in some form I have ideas for that as well. It is essentially a basic robot that has been around for awhile, and has been heavily modified and upgraded over time either due to damage or tinkering by the crew. I wanted to keep with the spirit of the basic borg sprite, while creating something that feels 'lived in' and is recognizable.

Item description: 

Medical/Rescue:

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a wide variety of facial expressions with a pleasing bright green hue. When it is with a patient, the display swaps to the patient's basic vital signs to allow those around it to easily monitor their condition.

Engineering/Construction:

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a wide variety of facial expressions with an intense orange hue. In structurally unsafe areas, it displays a highly visible warning message, accompanied by an attention grabbing alarm.

Custodial: 

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a wide variety of facial expressions with a pleasing purple hue. The readout will occasionally display air sample data, as well as information on any foreign contaminants in the area.

Service:

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a wide variety of facial expressions with a pleasing green hue. If the robot is working in the kitchen, it will display an up to date menu along with any relevant caloric information. It will also display all known food allergies of any crew it is serving. When serving drinks, the display will monitor customer blood alcohol levels, to insure they do not overindulge. In a hydroponics capacity, current data on the environment, lighting levels, and soil quality can be displayed.

Standard: 

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. Its prominent liquid crystal display is offline.

Clerical: 

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a wide variety of facial expressions in a bland white light. The readout notifies nearby crew members of incoming messages, Newscaster updates, as well as any changes to the station's alert level. When assisting the cargo department it displays a pleasing animation whenever the credit account is boosted, or a bounty is filled by the actions of the station's employees.

Science: 

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a wide variety of facial expressions with a pleasing purple hue. The display will show any relevant experimental data, as well as in-depth damage reports of mechanical entities visiting the robotics bay for repairs. It plays a pleasing tone when new research levels are achieved.

Combat: 

An upgraded version of the standard station bound robot. When activated its liquid-crystal display shows a hostile expression in a threatening red hue. The display will occasionally show any relevant emergency data, including evacuation routes, known hostiles, wanted criminals, and the current alert level.

Item appearance:

This gallery contains each sprite in action running on a local version of the station (BIG THANKS to ferner and wezzy for helping me get this working). Simply click the link to see them all. One thing to note, due to the nature of the program I used to capture these gifs, they do not show the entire loop. The face animations last for around twenty seconds before looping the name/intro scroll. These gifs do not reflect the full duration.

Edit: Slight update here. The colors for medical and mining for the basic default borg sprite are changing soon courtesy of Chada, I will need to update mine to match. I will try and get those upcoming colors and add the variants to the gallery once I can get a hold of Chada  - Essentially mining will likely be a tan color instead of poop brown.

Update: New blue medical colors added to the bottom of the gallery.

Update: New Tan Mining Colors added, with yellow caution light. Compression seems to obscure the yellow light, it is much brighter and pleasing on the eyes in the actual game.
 

F.R.E.N. Custom Sprite Gallery

Why is your character bringing this item to work?

    Using the standard multi-role assistance platform as a base, the F.R.E.N. unit is designed to incorporate crew morale and emotional interaction into their program. The chassis has been upgraded with an interactive liquid-crystal display, that projects all manner of imagery and information to the crew members this unit is tasked to assist. This, in theory, will enable an unprecedented level of emotional connection to the units, leading to greater cohesion in the work place with their organic counterparts. While the display allows the station bound to simulate emotional responses via assorted images and facial expressions, it also can be used to monitor life signs, system alarms, and even display Nanotrasen affiliated advertisements to encourage employees funnel their hard earned credits back into the corporation coffers. A power pack has been added to compensate for the additional system loads.

     The design is not without its flaws however. While F.R.E.N. was designed to facilitate smoother bound to organic interaction, its designer is hardly an expert on such social matters. The project lead has a fascination with synthetics bordering on obsession, much to the detriment of her ability to properly socialize with her fellow crew members. As a result, the emotional simulation aspect of F.R.E.N.' display programming is often unpredictable. The liquid-crystal display may occasionally show an emotion that is wildly inappropriate for the situation, such as smiling cheerfully during open heart surgery, or displaying a smile when a crew member falls into disposals or slips on a cleaning grenade. The vocalizer subroutines remain largely unaffected by these modifications, acting in a very similar fashion to the standard station bound, this leads to a disconnect between the emotional data on the display, and the mannerisms of the station bounds verbal output. While some crew members may view these largely harmless disconnects as unsettling, some may see it as the unit having a unique charm and personality, despite the reality of it being a cold unfeeling machine driven by its law set. 

How will you use this to better interact with crew and/or stimulate RP?

     One of the reasons I largely used the baseline IPC is the existence of the monitor. Having a component like that on a synthetic opens up many unique ways to emote, and interact with the crew. When I currently play FREN without these sprites I still try to have it interact with its environment as much as possible through emotes. I can think of so many situations where a liquid-crystal display could be used to facilitate RP for serious and comedic situations. 

     FREN's creator is socially awkward, so there is some RP to be had there seeing FREN's in character design improve over time. Maybe the displays will be modified to fit the situation better, maybe it will degrade or get worse over time. I purposely made sure this was set up as an experimental premise for the modifications, so it can grow and change over time, something that isn't very easy to do within the strict law sets of a station bound. I am looking forward to finding interesting ways to role play the disconnect between the LCD, the verbal, and physical actions of the station bound. I would also like to see the crew discover who FREN's creator is through play. 

     As a small aside, I think some of the LCD animations are going to look quite unsettling in the context of antaggery. A malfunctioning FREN unit smiling away as it causes trouble is amusing to me.

Sprites: (Will add file links when I can figure out a way to host them all)

Additional Comments: I would like to thank Shestrying for giving me feedback on the design and helping me conceptualize how the LCD screen would be animated. This is my first spriting project or attempt at animation, so I welcome all critiques and feedback.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on F.R.E.N. and its custom sprites.

Edited November 26, 2019 by StationCrab

[SleepyWolf]

very good! i'm glad you got all the stuff together well enough, these all look great and quality. def  1+

[Chada1]

I love this sprite and I'd love to see it rolling around the Station!

[Forktress]

These sprites look good, suit FREN and will be a blessing to the crew. I especially enjoy the little janitor screen animation. +1. I do have a question just out of curiosity as well; did you play around with speeding up/slowing down the screen animations, I'm curious what they would look like then. 

[StationCrab]

6 minutes ago, Forktress said:

These sprites look good, suit FREN and will be a blessing to the crew. I especially enjoy the little janitor screen animation. +1. I do have a question just out of curiosity as well; did you play around with speeding up/slowing down the screen animations, I'm curious what they would look like then. 

 

So the animation is 190 frames (with the exception of the combat display) for the LCD screens, with a delay of 0.7 - I could speed them up but I wanted the face details to linger for a certain amount of time, so it wasn't spamming the intro sequence and name as much. I did tinker with the speed a few times, it was much choppier at one point, but I think I've gotten them pretty smooth now! 

The faster you go the more details are lost as well, so I think I am pretty happy with them at their current speed!

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by StationCrab

[Aticius]

These sprites are so lovingly animated, that must have been hard.

 

Fren is a good fren. Trust fren.

 

My biggest feedback, is that there's a lack of shading on the bits you added off the base you used-- But it might just be the compression going on.

 

EDIT: oh my god the janitor animation fucking kills me

Edited November 22, 2019 by Aticius

[Kintsugi]

I like Fren a lot. Fren is very nice. In any other situation I would think the sprite is ill-fitting, just as I initially felt about Fren's name- But because it is Fren, I think an exception can be made in my mind. In fact, I think these sprites are perfect for Fren, and I really like the amount of animation going on here.

 

My sole complaint is that the edges/shading could be a little bit better. Soften the outline a bit, perhaps. 

+1

Edited November 22, 2019 by DanseMacabre

[StationCrab]

11 minutes ago, Aticius said:

These sprites are so lovingly animated, that must have been hard.

 

Fren is a good fren. Trust fren.

 

My biggest feedback, is that there's a lack of shading on the bits you added off the base you used-- But it might just be the compression going on.

 

EDIT: oh my god the janitor animation fucking kills me

@Aticius Thank you for the feedback! I used Gyazo to capture these so there is a little compression happening here. That being said would it be possible to elaborate on the specific area of shading that concerns you? Maybe through an image? The base sprites are only four frames of animation so they are really easy to modify, and as this is my first project I am interested in insuring the shading looks good!

[Forktress]

6 hours ago, StationCrab said:

 

So the animation is 190 frames (with the exception of the combat display) for the LCD screens, with a delay of 0.7 - I could speed them up but I wanted the face details to linger for a certain amount of time, so it wasn't spamming the intro sequence and name as much. I did tinker with the speed a few times, it was much choppier at one point, but I think I've gotten them pretty smooth now! 

The faster you go the more details are lost as well, so I think I am pretty happy with them at their current speed!

 

Yeah I assumed that might be the case, I'm glad you've managed to find a happy middle ground that makes them looks so good and smooth!

[KingOfThePing]

Impressive animations, a very good sprite in general. I am very skeptical with these things but it looks like this one is both well done, well thought out and well deserved to get implemented. Good luck, big boi.

[Capesh]

Spritework is seriously 10/10. They compliment the namesake and actions of the stationbound who would be using them (FREN), and the reasoning for and why of it is solid enough. 

(I like the malf reasoning!) 

+1 from That ORB Who Nearly Won The Waifu Contest One Time.

[ShesTrying]

I love Fren, and I love these sprites! I may be bias but I helped create the sprites, but it's a great concept for a great roleplayer.

 

+1 +1 +1

[NewOriginalSchwann]

FREN is a good stationbound and I like the sprites, and the reasoning for the sprites. I'm here to add in my +1, and really have nothing else to add beyond that.

[Brutishcrab51]

I just took the time to review the sprites and movement gifs, and I've seen you play 'FREN' a few times on the server. Honestly, this seems harmless. It gives just a little bit of customization and differentiation between FREN and other stationbounds without outright changing what people might think when they look at it. It's obviously a medical 'bound, or a mining 'bound.

The sprites are good, the background is good, the player is good. +1.

[Seeli]

I like the added character these sprites could give FREN, a fun and interesting stationbound, and the animations are adorable! Got my +1!

[Lady Fowl]

Accepted

[StationCrab]

1 hour ago, DRagO said:

Accepted

Thank you!