Concept unit for Omicron Hive: "Telephatic attractor"

[Horse]

TELEPHATIC ATTRACTOR v.0.5

On the left: subsurfed lvl 1 smooth mesh, subsurfed lvl 1 mesh, subsurfed lvl 1 smooth mesh
In the centre: subsurfed lvl 2 mesh
On the right: raw mesh (low poly), smoothed raw mesh

Description: Used by Omicron Hive, this device modulates brainwaves to tranquil approaching enemy pilots. Very useful against direct HTTing. It can be damaged by conventional weapons but it's shields and heavy skin make it a difficult task, and also dizzied pilots will hate targetting this unit
Unit type: Base or heavy drone
Size: of a ship
Effect: Slows ships in 1k radius, excl. Technoflux which in my opinion are robotic and shouldn't be affected by mental attacks
Cost to build: 5000c

These are only my suggestions. I've rendered those smoothed meshes with Blender's "set smooth" feature (which means that poly count is the same for both raw and smooth mesh). The next step will probably be to detail the top and reduce the amount of faces on the tentacles and the bottom side but I need some key information. Then I can proceed to UV mapping because this texture is not UV mapped yet. I need to know some things before I can proceed, though. So please, help me and I promise to pay back Here are the questions:

1. Does Allegiance engine use any feature similiar to Blender's "set smooth"? I see that Omicrons are very "round shaped" How can I make such oval surfaces without loading it with vertices? ( I know I can use texture) I can also see that Bios have some artificial shades when they turn around, they are different than the "raw" UV belter models.

2. Shall I use only triangular faces or can I use squares?

3. What's the preferred poly count for an unit like interceptor? How many for a base?

4. Can you give me some tips on what material that I should use for UV texfaces and light? Because I think this one in the render is too shiny. I'd like to render Blender models the way they would look like in the game engine without the need to mess up with installers. Unless you show me how to easily check those models ingame.

5. What format should I export my meshes to?

Please, tell me what do you think of my model and the tech. Maybe you have some other suggestions for the model? MB this should be a flagship or a base? Shall I add or remove something?

[NightRychune]

Please don't try and add or develop crowd control for Allegiance. This is a space combat simulator - an action game - not an RPG.

[Horse]

QUOTE (NightRychune @ Apr 16 2010, 05:21 AM) Please don't try and add or develop crowd control for Allegiance. This is a space combat simulator - an action game - not an RPG.

Ok. So what about making it a probe? Or a ship?

[Psychosis]

sounds like code change to me

[juckto]

QUOTE (Horse @ Apr 16 2010, 02:54 PM) Effect: Slows ships in 1k radius

BAM - CODE CHANGE.

[Adaven]

1) Yes, I'm pretty sure Alleg interpolates the Vertex normals across the faces. It would be really noticeable in-game if they didn't.

2) Years ago I remember KGJV saying you can technically use both, but the standard method of importing models into the game (AMT plugin for Milkshape) converts everything to tri's anyway. I'd stick with triangles, or at least triangulate the finished model when you are done. Sometimes automatic tools for doing that pick weird triangles, so it's good to look things over yourself and tweak if necessary.

3) Typical alleg ships are usually ~400-500. Bases are generally the same, but there's a wide variation (200-1000). Star Wars core averages more like 2000-4000 poly's each and doesn't seem to cause problems for most people, so feel free to experiment. When in doubt, go on the high side: It's usually easier to scale back later if needed than it is to add more detail in.

4) Yeah, I'm not sure if Alleg uses specular lighting. Even if it did, the levels wouldn't be nearly as high as the Blender defaults. Try darkening the specular color of your materials, maybe to 50% grey or darker.

5) Milkshape will input just about anything, unless you want to get them in game on your own using the free MS dev tools. In which case I think you'll need .X format, but that's about all I know on doing that.

[Orion]

What wouldnt require a code change is making them a very wide-spread mine pack which would force ships in a 1k range to slow down or die

(You can do that, right?)

[lexaal]

Paint this on the front of the ship


Give it a very high roll-rate.

--> hypnotic but no code change.