New unit: Death Machine Mecha from FF VII (30Aug04)

Well, I've got my first mobile land unit done. This is one of the mecha type badguys you could encounter in Junon on disc 2&3 of FF VII. The reason I did this guy was because it is one of the more interesting looking enemies in the series, and for the challenge of animating this bad boy, especially the multi-missile attacks and needlegun attack, as well as for practicing walking animations.

Besides, this unit could be used in almost any near-future/sci-fi mods where mecha could be used. I'll be starting on a Sweeper color variant (Sweepers and Custom Sweepers were weaker versions of the Death Machines that also used a slightly different weaponry (they used a chemical fog instead of a needle gauss gun), that looked the same, but with different coloration. The reason I'm doing the sweeper instead of the custom sweeper is because the dark blue-green color of the custom sweeper is way too close to civ colors, and creating/editing a pallete so that colors that aren't supposed to be civ colors don't get converted into civ colors. The sweeper, on the other hand is kind of an orange color, which is much easier to do.

In related news, the cover finally fell off my well-worn Final Fantasy VII strategy guide (one of the sources for the reference pictures I used when creating this sucker), and I had to duct tape it back on.

Files now uploaded to the server, courtesey of Muffins, sound files still attached:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Death_Machine.zip
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Sweeper.zip

Death Machine:


Sweeper:

Here's the preview. Order of animations is default, run, fidget/fortify, Matra Magic (attack a), W-Machine Gun (attack b), 100 Needles (attack c), victory, and death.

Sweeper's files here. Again, they're RAR files, so delete the "not.zip" part of the filename. It uses all the same files as the Death Machine, except fo rthe attack C, which is included with these graphics files. Simply unzip the Death Machine sounds into the folder, and delete the "100Needles.wav" file, since this unit does not use it.

Sweeper's preview is below. Order of animations in the preview is: Idle (x2), run, fidget/fortify, Matra Magic (attack A), W-Machinegun (attack B), Smoke Shot (attack C), Victory, and Death

Excellent Hikaro! I love the attack

It looks like the front of an old car with a barrell on the back
(EDIT: and legs )

#1. Whoever designed the original sure made it ugly. Then again most of the things I've seen from FF should stay in a cartoon. That is just opinion.
#2. I'm sure you quickly discovered how hard it is to make anything walk realistically in Bryce, didnt you?
#3. Good job on the subject matter nonetheless.

It look like a cross between a Glaug battlepod from Macross, and a Model T ford.

Cool Fantasy land Unit Hikaro Takayama Great Job on the animations...I like it

Nice one. Wasn't there some mechs in FFVI too? Magitek?

Glad you all, um, like it.

It looks like the front of an old car with a barrell on the back

Click to expand...

Dease, I take that as a compliment, since that's exactly the same impression I got when I first saw one in the game.

#1. Whoever designed the original sure made it ugly. Then again most of the things I've seen from FF should stay in a cartoon. That is just opinion.

Click to expand...

Well, I happen to be attracted to more unusual looking types of things, as opposed to the standard Gundam/Robotech ripoff type mechs, although I very much enjoyed playing the Robotech RPG (see http://www.palladiumbooks.com for more details), the standard humanoid mechs get old after a while (I love the Mac II and III Monsters and Spartan mechs, though ).

#2. I'm sure you quickly discovered how hard it is to make anything walk realistically in Bryce, didnt you?
#3. Good job on the subject matter nonetheless.

Click to expand...

Thanks, and although it was somewhat difficult, it turns out I managed to link all the main moving parts correctly. Since you're the resident Bryce expert, you can probably also tell that I modeled the whole thing in Bryce from scratch. Basically, I linked the spheres that represent the hip joints to the main body group, the cylinders making up the upper legs to the hips, the knee spheres to the upper legs (but I made sure the "rotate" option in the linking menu was deselected), I linked the two cylinders making up the lower legs to the knees, etc. Basically all I had to do is move the hips to get the leg motion down, and manipulate the ankles so that the "toe" of the foot was the last part to leave the ground, and the "heel" was the first part to touch down on the forward part of the motion. I also had a hidden sphere located between the hips at the same height that the main body was linked to, and I rotated it so that the main body was facing 5 deg to the left and 3 deg down when the right leg was forward, and vice versa when the left leg was forward, and when the legs were in mid stride (paralell to each other), the body was straight. I could try to zip and upload (or if that fails, email you) my Bryce 5 file, if you want to see how I did it.

Vuldacon, thanks for the compliments. This unit, for the most part, has more frames per animation than any of my previous units (20 each for the walk and all attack animations, 10 each for the death, fidget and victory animations, and 6 for the default animation).

Kyborgi: Yes there was, and If I can get a hold of some decent models or pictures I could use to build models from, I'd make some for use as UU's for FF VI civs in my mod. Sword of Geddon, however indicated that he already has plans to do them, and since I've been extremely busy with work lately, I'd be more than happy to let him take a crack at them.

BTW, I've attached a screenshot of an actual Death Machine from FF VII that I used as one of the references for building the model so you can see for yourself what they actually looked like. I go the pic from ffonline's FF VII online beastiary (the other reference pic, which was taken from the side, appears in the Brady Games Official FF VII strategy guide.)

Excelent work on the unit! What other units does the Shinra get in your mod..?

It will be awile until I get the neccesary programs to make the units I want to make, but make them I will...

He turned out well HT.

Hikaro Takayama, here is a CIV Specific units_32.pcx I made for your Death Machine. The CIV Specific Color is on the Leg as you have it placed for this unit. The Reds are limited in the units_32.pcx sheet because most are CIV Specific colors that change with the Civ. This pcx is clear color with no "purples" and is adapted best to the units_32.pcx sheet. Your Large and Small pcx files are excellent.

here is the small zip:

The Sweeper is now finished and uploaded. I've also added it to the game as the advanced barbarian unit. All ncessary files are included.

Reno: The Death Machine is not a Shinra UU in this mod. Basically, all Civs will be able to "build" them in the modern age. Basically the way it'll work is I'll be giving the Advance Airship and Heavy Tank (and all their UU counterparts) the enslave flag, which will allow these units to "salvage" (enslave) defeated enemy mechanical units as a Death Machine. As for Shinra UU's, I'll be doing one of them as my next unit project: The GrossPanzer, which you can encounter during the Makou cannon assault at the end of Disc 2, as well as in the "Special Battle" in the Gold Saucer battle arena. The Sweepers are the advanced barbarian units (to kind of give the feel that you're rebuilding from some calamity, as most FF are set in the aftermath of some ancient disaster). The other two Shinra UU's will be the SOLDIER and the Attack Squad (uses Balou's Armored Shock Infantry graphics), unless I can get hold of a decent Highwind or Shinra Submarine model, in which case that will be the third Shinra UU, and the Armored Shock Infantry will be used as Balou originally intended: to represent the Deep Eyes from FF: Spirits Within, but I don't think anyone really wants to see me add stuff from that atrocity of a movie to my mod

Sword of Geddon: Thanks, and no rush, there. I'll probably still be working on this mod for at least the next six months.

Vuldacon: Good looking out, there. I was kinda tired and got a little lazy with creating the units_32 file. You can be assured the Sweeper's Units_32 icon is all good, though.

Well, I'll be taking a break from unit creation the next couple of days, so I can update the mod and add units I've downloaded but not put in the game, so far. I'll also be catching up on my sleep, since I've been losing way too much to these units lately.

BTW, I've attached an in-game SS of one of the Sweepers, right before it blasted my Fighter (1,1,1: the most basic unit you can build) into oblivion

great work!
how much longer till your FF Mod is done?

Looks Great Hikaro Takayama, Your MOD sounds like it will be a Fun one.

Mr. Will: Not for quite a while yet. I've only got the ancient era tech tree, units, wonders, and civilopedia mor or less finished. The Middle ages units and such are, for the most part, complete, but I need to organize the tech tree. The Industrial and Modern ages are a shambles, right now, but I'll be getting to them, eventually. As a matter of fact, the three main things I'm going to be doing over the next three days or so that I'm taking off from unit creation are adding UU's and such that I've downloaded or made recently to the mod, organizing the Middle ages tech tree the way I want it, and adding and updating the leaderheads of the 4 civs that I have all the major info for, but haven't had time to add yet (they are: Ivalice & Ordallia from FFT and Estar & Galbadia from FF VIII). I'll post a full update (with a graphical chart consisting of large civilopedia Icons of the different units, as well as indicators of what I still need, yet and also a view of custom leaderheads that have been added thus far, as well as what civs they represent).

Vuldacon: It is fun, especially since I'm thinking about making it so you can't set the barbarian level below "raging" (keeps rampant early AI expansion down a bit, not to mention rampant early human player expansion as well ) The "basic" barbarian is the Bandersnatch (Embryodead's Dire Wolves), since such bad guys appeared in almost every FF game there is (I have played VII-X, and own the strategy guide for XI, and of all of those games, only VIII doesn't have a wolf-type monster called a Bandersnatch), and its stats are 3,3,2. The advanced barbarian is the Sweeper, and its stats are 5,4,2, with a bombardment of 8. Once you get Iron Working, and can build Knights (3,2,1), Dwarven Knights (3,2,1 +1 HP), you can fairly consistently defeat them, though. Ghost ships on the ocean are another mater entirely, though...... I've lost galleassis (caravel replacements with a stronger attack than a standard caravel and +1 transport capacity that can be built by everybody) to ghost ships before.