Exterior effects of vehicle parts + Sounds/Sprites

The vehicle building and the process on equipping different engines, weapons etc. is pretty cool, but no matter how beast your arsenal is, the vehicle itself doesn't really look as formidable as it's arsenal implies.

So I thought that each part (except maybe armor layers) would have an exterior effect on what the vehicle chassis will look like, Ie. cannon shells -> barrel, missiles -> rocket pod(?), engine -> engine sound and so on.

This doesn't really affect on the gameplay itself, and actually it shouldn't really, but I've always thought that something like this would be rad, and it may also spawn some unique looking chassis's + you could tell which tank is the cheaply constructed and which one is properly just by looking at it, instead of going inside the cockpit and instantly claiming its ownership...

Oh yeah and also, I know this has been brought up before, but it would be nice to have different sounds for different engines/weapons, and some different sprites for the weapons perhaps.


Discuss on how to improve this system, and suggestions on how each part should affect on the appearance of the chassis's.

 

There should be a heavily armoured engine port on the back where the engine is put in when built, then you can see some engines effects engine effects. E.g. a fission reactor glows green, 3phase makes sparks, coolant has tubes with coolant fluid, bio-diseal has a big exhaust pipe that belches smog.

 

I vote that it would be cool to do the only thing is I think it shouldnt be that high of a priority. And the codeing would be a nightmare not to mention long to model and textrue....

 

Well as the topics section implies, it's just a suggestion.

Besides, since Krenzo and the others are so determined, skilled and experienced, that shouldn't be really our concern, amirite?

 

This would make a nice visual effect. I think the engine sounds would be the easiest to implement. And it is already there to a lesser degree, with some cannons making different noises.

 

Sound should be changed on the rail gun. The round is launched by magnets, so it never touches anything, yet it sounds the same as every other cannon I know of.

 

+

= irony.

The railgun does make a different sound.

And yeah it would be nice and all.
I think we need different tracers for the bio and plasma and all the other mgs.

 

Arklansman: not saying your wrong, but all cannons sound the same to me.

 

Sound or not, I'ma cast my vote as a big negative. That's not because the idea is bad, mind you, it's just that i imagine it's VERY low on the priority list. It's like the time I suggested the monkey gun (either a gun for shooting at monkeys or a gun that shoots monkeys out of it, your choice) -- brilliant idea, but low priority. (and the monkeys threw their poo which in turn did damage.)

 

I'm sure that if you guys made things, they would be put in without a second thought Don't take that as true though.

 

So, if I made everything for monkey poo grenades, t may be implemented?

*searches for Source how to guides*

PS, monkey poo grenades: you throw a monkey which throws poo which explodes into a grenade which goes flying and kills someone.

 

Reply to someone's post:
Personally i find adding more sounds almost as important as having smoke coming of a building when it's damaged. A year ago when i saw the empires trailer for the first time, the explosion sound was the only reason i didn't install empires immediately. While this has improved, i still think more sounds would be a good thing. Maybe it's not that urgent for weapons (now that the rail gun has his own sound), but i'd really like to have more explosion sounds.

More on topic:
I voted to do it, as long as the differences aren't too huge. I think having a different sound for the engines is a start. It would be very nice though if a tank had different weapon turrets (someone of the dev team must remember warzone 2100). It's probably not that easy, but it would be pretty cool !

 

I imagine it's not so much a case of how easy it is but rather how much work would have to be put in for a frivilous gain that would be the door stopper.

 

YAY some one else rembers Warzone 2100!!! Great game WAYYYYYY ahead of its time. Had a 3D engion when Westwood was still desining Tiberium sun. Wish they had sone some expansions. Way cool story.

But it would be cool to have it like that. But something as simple as differnt sounds or flashes to see what weapon there shooting, engion there using or armor would be fine.

If any one is intersted I can try to find the link to download the game its free now as they released the source code.

 

It's actually pretty high on the priority list, and has already been started on to a point. Amnesiac (the person who makes the sounds for Empires) has already started on new weapon/explosion sounds to get rid of the boring old ones, Hellion had begun to replace the cannon and missile models and sprites with newer and cooler ones, (dunno what happened to them, but the cannon shells he created have already replaced the old ones) and I don't know whether Krenzo is planning on making different models or versions of the chassis dependant on what you load it up with, but I doubt he is going to go that far.

 

Oh, well, in that case, nevermind. Then again, I'm of the school of thought that we don't need no damn graphics or sound--if the gameplay was good, I'd play it if it looked like a turd on toast. The same goes for the sound.

But now that I think about it, and I've said it before, everyone else in the world wants fancy graphics and stuff.... meh.

 

Actually, the system could be altered to the effect of what you guys are describing, the only problem is creating the actual art of it and tieing it all in nicely with the vehicle customization screen. I think me and Hellion were talking about it a while ago.

Right now all the tanks are built up out of parts: the chassis, the turret and the barrel. So theoretically you can tell the game which model/texture to apply and perhaps any effects that can accompany it.

I'm not quite sure how it works right now code wise, it probably points to the package of the three and spawns it regardless of the decisions made in the customization screen (basicly all they change are stats) but when I've looked at the scripts, the foundation is there especially for things like alternate sounds and research.

 

i wanna change my vote. i WANNA CHANGE MY VOTE.

I only picked the bottom one because the phrase "gay them up" made me giggle like a little girl for about 5 minutes

 

the vehicle customization screen should be changed to match the vehicle models.

for example, on the BE heavy, where each weapon bank is, there should be a empty slot. depending on your weapons, you see different ones on the tank.

e.g. put a rail gun in one of the 3 cannon slots, a long rail gun is added. have a number of cannons, they get arranged into a triangle.

e.g. put a nuke on the tank, have a long launch tube and see missile exhaust when its launched. packing a salvo launcher? see a salvo launcher with its 4 tubes sitting on your tank.

for the automatic weapons, maybe have them mount in the middle on the turret, under the cannon barrels. Its not a big thing, but it would be nice to be able to look at a tank and instead of thinking "oh, its a heavy tank," "oh, its a heavy tank, and it looks like its packing a nuke."

 

I detect lots of lag if that is implemented.