Request partners; MARS mod

[Smoking mirror]

Here's a preview of the earth guard animation, I'm nearly finished with him and the cybernetic veteran will be next (along with a few others that I've missed, such as a second ROV and the riot guard and rocket launcher infantry).

The whole lot are coming on well, a year ago when I first envisioned this project I wouldn't have belived that progress at this speed was possible.

EDIT; I should point out that in the final animation the glow effect that comes from his active ECM attack is white rather than yellow and orange.

 

[vbraun]

Thats awesome!

I'll start modeling the Mars plane as soon as I finish the Gradius.

 

[fe3333au]

Hi Smoking mirror

I like the Active-ECM-Combat-Armour unit

I have a problem with the fins and spines ... IIRC their purpose is to create a 'stealth' unit (ala submarine?)

They look very ungainly and too fragile to be used in a terran combat scenario let alone a harsh martian environment ... maybe if you totally remove the arm spikes and/or shorten all the electro fins ... fantastic unit nevertheless ...

Just my 2 cents

Keep up the good work

 

[Smoking mirror]

Hi Smoking mirror

I like the Active-ECM-Combat-Armour unit

I have a problem with the fins and spines ... IIRC their purpose is to create a 'stealth' unit (ala submarine?)

They look very ungainly and too fragile to be used in a terran combat scenario let alone a harsh martian environment ... maybe if you totally remove the arm spikes and/or shorten all the electro fins ... fantastic unit nevertheless ...

Just my 2 cents

Keep up the good work

The active ECM system is actualy the opposite of stealth, rather than trying to hide from detection, you attempt to disable the enemies ability to detect.

The Active ECM trooper will be good on deffence (Active ECM make targeting difficult, and defeats enemy missile systems) but lower on attack (enemy troopers have plenty of warning of an impending attack and be able to set up ambushes). Regular stealth units will be good on attack (they have the element of supprise) but not as good on deffence as the passive systems can only be used on weaker unpowered armour.

I wanted to have an early unit that had obvious flaws, yes the active ECM system is fragile and easily damaged, but later units will have better systems. Perhaps the fins can be folded and hidden underneath a protective carapace, or later built in to the supersturcture of armour. The point is that later units will be an obvious improvement, and the player will not be confused as to which unit upgrades to which.

 

[Kinboat]

That's a cool animation... I guess I'll have to see it in white to judge but I think it looks awesome in color, why not leave it in color

 

[fe3333au]

@Smoking mirror - good reasoning ... keep it up ... it's developing into a great mod

 

[Kal-el]

why not leave the glow as yellow and red? he looks great.

 

[Smoking mirror]

The colour of the clow is caused by the floor used, an fact it is a function of the colour used, so that if you use red it comes out red/yellow, if you use green it comes out yellow and if you use pink it comes out white.

I'm realy not sure why.

Anyway, here is the finished flick in white, have a look & see what you think;

 

[Kal-el]

that's tight! definitely looks cool that way.

 

[black_rose]

The white one looks awesome, however in the coloured version the details are more distinct. Both are great.

 

[GRM7584]

I whipped up some scifi pedia icons and I plan on doing more.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=115346

Any requests for this mod? I'll be doing a couple more packs...

 

[fe3333au]

Hi Guyz

Found this when searching for info about an old SciFi series UFO ... made by Jerry Anderson of Thunderbirds ...

This is only a graphic of the 'Moon Base' ... I have also DL'ed some screenshots from the series and will e-mail or post if requested ... PM to advise.

Thought it may assist or inspire early settlement, colony graphics


Hope this can be of use

 

[fe3333au]

Actually I couldn't wait ... so I posted a top view graphic which does more justice ...

Regards and keep up good work

 

[Smoking mirror]

If anyone is looking for a source of tech icons, I would suggest having a look at NEW SCIENTIST

Not only should you be able to find some images, but it gives a good idea of some of the ideas in science at the moment. The first scenario of the mars mod will use many contemporay science ideas, rather than more advanced ideas such as nanotech machines and the like.

EDIT; Well after having a look myself at the new scientist site theres not much in the way of pictures, though there is a good article that is inspiring me to include India as a full civ in the first scenario.

I've been making one last extra infantry unit, its difficlut to do all the animations for each unit, and this is usualy what take the longest to do. However this guy is working quite well. He's a civil support trooper, with a rocket mortar. His usual job is the destruction of rock faces in the hunt for minerals, but he is well adapted to the destruction of enemy vehicles and aircraft. I'm tempted to do another version of him as a security guard, as the equipment he uses is an upgrade of the early space suits, but he is still a civil design, rather than the more militant paramilitary guard;

 

[Smoking mirror]

There aren't any leaderheads that would be particlaurly usefull for this mod so we need to make some. Or get tother people to help out.

Unfortunately my 3d program is not very optimal for doing traditional leaderheads, for that you need something like poser. Anyway, I had an idea to do whole body leaderheads for this mod, it would be different and would allow you to get more of an idea of the background (you can see the different uniforms and spacesuits more closely). There would be a bit of a problem in that you couldn't then use other leaderheads and we would have to make all our own ones for the later mods.

Heres a bit of a preview of what I've been thinking of, in the top row is India (I've tried to make this one a bit femal, not sure if it's worked), Russia and europe, second row is nation of Islam, USA and Republic of China. If people like the idea I will probably modify them somewhat to make them more individual, this is just a bit of an experiment;

 

[Kal-el]

I like the idea.

 

[Ozymandias]

Ditto. I think it lends the right touch of flavor to the mod. And you succeeded in visually suggesting that Ms. India is female

-Oz

 

[Smoking mirror]

I may experiment with other setups, perhaps with visible feet as well, and maybe some interior backdrops. At the moment I used a couple of pre-rendered from a martian surface object to save time on image rendering when they are fully rendered.
I will also be making some exra props, such as a radio or helmet mounted lights to pick out indivdual details. They will probably have more detailed hands and feet, and a custom chestplate with a flag or icon to show thier identity (at the moment it is made from two sides with a symetrical texture that meets in the middle to save render time when they are units, but won't be such a reduction when doing leaderheads). I may also experiment with illuminating thier faces a little, but this will mean producing more customised heads, which isn't such a bad idea especialy if some of them are going to be indoors and will carry their helmet under thier arms.

I'm hoping there is going to be someone who doesn't mind making some flicks from the raw renders for us, because I can only produce standard flic files with openFX, I can't edit the pallette.

EDIT; the other cool thing about this idea is that you can have a lot of expression that is not available in normal leaderheads. For instance say you have a the transnational corporate civ, Subarashii which is a very militant, traditionalist japanese organisation. You could realy add some character with either adding feudal japanese touches to the space suit, or have the leader dressed for indoors, with a kimono and samurai sword, with a large window showing the martian surface in the background. In the happy pose he could bow a bit, while in the angry pose he could start to draw his sword...

 

[Kal-el]

I'm sure you've seen these already, but just in case you haven't, here are some armors I designed for the Battletech mod that incorporate traditional Japanese and Chinese themes.
Hachiman Battle Armor

Wu Kong Sun Battle Armor:

 

[Smoking mirror]

Yeah I used to check out riptides battletech mod all the time, but I've not been able to get on to his new message baord much, it always seems to be down when I try.

Perhaps when we get to the later scenarios, with the full powerarmour type units we can ask if we can use his models (I know he did do a Hachiman Battle Armor model) to produce leaderheads, and use the actual units in the mod... Though for the second mod I will probably do something that is a cross between the above and what we already have for mars suits.