Spring RTS Engine

This is the start on what I have for the CopperHead LvL-2 mobile flak truck so far.

Still working out some wheel placement, but its mostly done.

Inspired by the Highpoly cavedog render of the Cobra stationary flak unit, I built my model based on its main turret.

So far its at 1150 triangles, a bit high, but at LvL-2 you won't be seeing these nearly as often as you would the LvL-1 vehicles, or the main combat LVL-2 vehicles so the polycount I don't feel is excessive.

*BA/ota? Copperhead*

*my remodel*

Looks rather flimsy and easily breakable (the neck specifically). I'd suggest lowering the turret and elongating the tracks.

While the tracks'n'stuff are fine imo I dislike the turret. It's just too smooth and has no interesting details mesh wise...

I think that it needs more bulk in the neck bit, and possibly a blockier and wider turret to give it a more Core feel to it. Especially in the middle of the turret, the guns don't look too bad.
A good start anyways, I'd like to see this model be as awesome as the Reaper was!

Definately looks more like an arm unit

Concider the Cavedog highpoly first though.

In appearance even for CORE, the COBRA-flak gun unit is not a blocky looking unit in any regard..

btw this model is 4600 triangles.

I like your version, it simply looks like an improved one over the original, which is perfect.

Mr. D wrote:Concider the Cavedog highpoly first though.

Well that needn't to be the ultimate reference. What I don't like about it is that it's pretty much made of some ellipses i.e. spheres where you have some boolean cuts done on and with that said some slightly modified primitives merged together don't really look that good...

That cockpit pretty much is just a quarter of a sphere with a smaller one glued to the front and the two gun barrels consist of an ellipsis where the front upper quarter misses and there is another sphere put in just as an ellipsis / cylinder sort of thing for the barrel. While the basic appearance i.e. design is ok I think you shouldn't keep your version so close to the Cavedog model but just keep the rough shape and add some details which make it more interesting and break this "it's made of spheres"...

[Krogoth86] wrote:

Mr. D wrote:Concider the Cavedog highpoly first though.

Well that needn't to be the ultimate reference.

There is no reference higher than the original Cavedog cinema models

I'll fiddle around with it tho and see what I can come up with, the basic outline will likely be very much intact though.

Well I just wanted to say that those Cavedog High-Res models shouldn't be the ultimate rule you have to obey. Their models aren't perfect and if there is space for improvements it should be improved. Imo that totally smoothed out and 0 detail turret part isn't something that should be copied 1:1. I mean have a look at the Cobra: The turret itself has some nice mesh details, the end of the barrels have some nice details but the cockpit and guns have a huge lack of details and look bad in contrast to the rest...

I don't want you to reinvent it but just get rid of those 6 (!) spheres the entire upper part consists of and make something better looking with more details which roughly keeps the original shape of course...

Yeah, personally I always thought the copperhead was extremely lacking in originality, and just plain ugly. All it is 2 treads and a copy of the flak turret on it, personally I would rather you completely redesign it into something more unique. Even the arm flak avoids this.

Looks fine to me...

Yep, 2 threads and a flak turrent on it are all that's needed for an AA... this isn't a t3 beast here

looks fine to me, the neck is a wee bit slim and feels structurally weak. I am interested in what details you going to place on that nice clean space.

smoth wrote:I am interested in what details you going to place on that nice clean space.

A BIG fat CORE logo of course

I would try something fancy and split it up into external shell like armor plates with "stuff" inside of it, kind of like:

I think it would be suiting of the core style and pretty cool to have the upper body of the flakker and its weapons look like the artillery cannons from BSG at 1:36-1:40 in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APNRdANiZEQ&fmt=18

Looks mean, heavily mechanical, bulky, powerful etc.

I can't do much more without adding more triangles, I've optimized the existing parts as much as I can while holding the rounded shapes.

1303 triangles
I'll try playing around with the barrels and see what I can do to add some details in.

I could shave down the wheel caps back to using Planes to save about 120 triangles if I need them, but then shadows end up a little odd.

looks good to me
you know while you're at it, you should cut of the head and make static flak.

That looks really nice now.

Haven't ever seen a massive amount (more than say 25) in a game at a time.