Dr Chris's Astounding Modular Barracks!

Discussion in 'Art' started by Chris0132', Sep 22, 2009.

  1. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    The likes of which has never before been witnessed!

    (best accompanied with this in the background: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-0pC8U9JBk )
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    This theme has the rather interesting benefit, as empty helpfully pointed out, of allowing structures to be interconnected, the standardised doors would allow, for example, an armory module to be connected to the rear of the building, all I have to do is remove the rear door.

    It is square I know, but I can't make it less square without making it bigger, I can add some angled buttresses to the side but that's about it. If you don't mind it being bigger (I can remake the BE rax to be bigger also) then I'll add some antennae to the roof.

    The design is based around modular habitats, space stations bascially, however its simplicity and blockiness keeps it within the NF style, and makes it a bit more like a construction site office or a mobile.

    I also plan for BE to recieve a similar rework, however as BE is more technologically advanced, their structures would be less cube-based and would instead be based on hexagons and pentagons, representing their more advanced tech allowing them to put together more unusual shapes with ease.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2009
  2. Empty

    Empty Member

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    I am both astounded and modulated simultaneously!
    Good show!
     
  3. Empty

    Empty Member

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    *empty gets to work on EmParticlesMod*
     
  4. LordDz

    LordDz Capitan Rainbow Flowers

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    He can model and not only complain! :eek:
    Nice work.
     
  5. RoboTek

    RoboTek Member

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    I must say, I am a fan of the concept of modular buildings, but I feel that if it was done with a 'snap to' command it might cause some problems. Gameplay aside, this looks amazing. I am not entirely sure it fits with the current theme, but I think I would rather the game fit with this than the other way around.
     
  6. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    I was more thinking you would select the attachment point (the big doors on the front and back) and you'd get a menu which lets you pick buildings to attach, you would be limited by space and flat ground (maps would probably need flattening a bit more to allow really big building chains, but this would work fine for most small buildings like armories, raxes, and radars) and if you have the money and space you can build that building and it would be positioned to link with the existing one, the existing building would be respawned with the door removed (either I can make the doors separate models to begin with, or I can just make many instances of the rax with different door configurations) and you could walk from one building into the other.

    I also think combined buildings should get a health buff to all buildings in the complex, individual buildings can still be destroyed, but perhaps damage could be shared among them, as could healing, looking at a building in a complex would show many health bars with symbols next to each to indicate which building it is, and the health of the building you're currently looking at would be highlighted.
     
  7. zenarion

    zenarion Member

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    I like this.
    A lot.
    Tell Megel to have a look at it.
     
  8. SirSnipes

    SirSnipes Member

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    i love it
     
  9. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    I should also point out that when I change the theme, I would be redoing every building in that theme, I'm not quite brain dead enough to have buildings be completely different from each other, this indicates a theme as much as it does a building.
     
  10. Jessiah

    Jessiah Member

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    Only problem I see: Wider doors. All it takes is one person AFK or timing out and a side is blocked.
     
  11. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Then use the other one, they're right next to each other.

    The same issue is possible with the VF, and the doors are much further apart on that so it's a much greater potential issue, but it doesn't cause many problems.

    The devs can fix it with TF2 blocking, and should, because it's impractical to make all openings huge on all maps for that purpose alone.
     
  12. Dubee

    Dubee Grapehead

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    I like
     
  13. RoboTek

    RoboTek Member

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    I had meant the art style doesn't necessarily fit with the style of empires in general. I haven't seen the images placed on an area, but they seem a bit unlike the style of the tanks and soldiers. Not in a major way, but the difference exists.
     
  14. Demented

    Demented Member

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    1) Unless you're desperately in need of 8-bit alpha, use 100-quality JPEGs, not PNGs. 500KB > 4MB.

    2) I love it. Low polygon (at least, it would like you to believe), but elegantly simple.

    3) The doorways look like they might be difficult to get through, at least more so than the doors we have currently, which are generally larger. Some angled collision models to 'slide' the player towards the opening would compensate well for that. The doors themselves should be very out of the way, of course, since they have no real functionality.

    4) Modular is excellent as a theme, but I don't think it would work as a gameplay element. Empires cannot flatten terrain, and giving the commander freedom to make mazes out of a barracks is going to confuse players more than necessary.

    5) I do hope it's roomier than it looks. =P

    How's the polygon budget?
     
  15. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    About 7000 polygons I think, can't remember, I can probably cut it down to 7000 if I remove unneccesary things, although if I add more detail it will go up a bit.
     
  16. blizzerd

    blizzerd Member

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    chris, i dont know if i told you yet but... ich liebe dich... <3

    as i see it now you place a central building (barracks or something like that?) and the other buildings are "expanded" from the passages as you would build a space station (with tubes connecting)

    if we would change the base building of for example NF to this, and BE to "airdropped" like structures i would fall in love with the commander system again for sure!
     
  17. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    It wouldn't be mandatory, just a possibility, VFs could have raxes joined to them, if you can place a VF chances are you could connect a rax to it. Obviously it wouldn't always be appropriate, but sometimes it would and in which case it might be pretty useful.

    Also I was planning for BE to recieve the same system, certainly the same visual style although more brenodified.
     
  18. Demented

    Demented Member

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    Hm. That might as well be the target polygon budget, then.

    Thing is, the camo net needs more polygons, desperately.
    Not sure where you could get them, maybe from the unnecessary doors and foundation.
    That generator also looks to be both intricate and extraneous....
     
  19. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    The target is as low as I can get it without it being crap looking, which is the target for all models. I'm not going to make it crap looking to spare someone's comptuer, it's a building, it's big and therefore it needs lots of polies to look good, because polies = coverage, the more coverage you have, the more polygons you need. The VF will probably be 15000 for example, I can make LODs which you can clamp so people with crap computers won't render the high poly versions, but I'm not cutting them completely.

    I know what needs work and I will work on it or remove it.
     
  20. Roflcopter Rego

    Roflcopter Rego Member

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    One way you could do the BE theme would to have it as a more 3D structure, so armouries and the like would have a little raised walk up to them sort of thing.
     

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