Quanto's First Attempt at Modelling

[Saktoth]

Animating a tank is dead easy, can always use any one of the numerous tank scripts out there, anyway.

Id be careful about doing the 'same chasis, different weapons' thing. One of the great things about Spring is that the chasis can vary so widely, things like their size, slope tolerance, speed, accel, decel, turnrate, turret positions, etc can make a really huge difference to what the unit is good at

Its so much easier from a modelling perspective though, i know.

[Quanto042]

Animating a tank is dead easy, can always use any one of the numerous tank scripts out there, anyway.

Id be careful about doing the 'same chasis, different weapons' thing. One of the great things about Spring is that the chasis can vary so widely, things like their size, slope tolerance, speed, accel, decel, turnrate, turret positions, etc can make a really huge difference to what the unit is good at

Its so much easier from a modelling perspective though, i know.

While I understand and sympathize with what you are saying about same chassis, you need to understand that, that is simply how starsiege works. (if you've ever played it you would understand better) where a single chassis plays many rolls depending on the weapons.

For example, the myrmidon with dual plasma cannons will be a short range killer, while the one armed with ballistic cannons would be a medium range artillery vehicle. Some Chassis will actually have only one loadout however, the scout mech "Emancipator" will probably be only equipped with an Alien-Tech blaster and heavy machine gun.

But other units will have more that two hardpoints, the Apocalypse (a classic mech in the ES/SS universe) will have 7 and play many rolls. When the mod is complete(or at least mostly complete) and I release a beta, you will understand better where i am coming from. Trust me, it isn't out of laziness, far from it, do you understand that I will have to model every type of weapon individually and copy it on to mutliple units? Not to mention I will have to make Cybrid versions of the same weapons.

Aircraft will be in the game, though with very limited rolls (scout/transport/fighter-bomber)

There will be several support vehicles
(construction, radar, mobile shield generators[cybrid only], and a human only vehicle called a "thumper")

There will be no ships.

And three units total will be hover capable, One is the classic humanside "predator" class anti-grav tank, a new cybrid one (that was being designed for SS:2845 before the project was canceled), and a T3 "Juggernaught" unit that is basically an upgraded Predator.

for now i will be focusing on the infrastructure units (energy generators, mexes, factories) once those are done, i will resume making combat units.

[SpikedHelmet]

Sounds interesting, and its a very cool model, though iirc Spring isn't going to like that 12-verticed face there (iirc it'll auto-triangulate it). Doesn't matter tho. 888 is good for a tank.

[Saktoth]

Oh, more mods based on someone elses IP eh?

Oh well, good luck with the project. Going to be using lua to facilitate the customization?

[Pressure Line]

Oh, more mods based on someone elses IP eh?

dont start that shit in here too.

[Saktoth]

It bears mentioning, its not much harder to come up with an origional concept than to re-produce some other IP (in fact its easier due to the fact you can fudge things and focus on gameplay over faithful recreation).

I know mods will almost always be 'fan projects', but its a bit sad we cant get some original content.

Best to mention it near the start of the project than when its further down the production line.

[Pressure Line]

indeed. and dont mind me, im in a particularly foul mood.

[Quanto042]

Sigh, here we go again with the IP debate : P
And yes, its a fan project. I could just as easily make up a story line and a whole new "Original" game, however, I want to see a StarSiege RTS more than anything, and since no one else is making it, I will. Simple as that. Sierra Studios are generally very generous with their IP anyways. (more generous than other companies) and should they send me a cease and desist order, then so be it. But if they don't, far better for me and other StarSiege fans.

[rattle]

Didn't SS primarily focus on mechs too?

I've played Earth Siege II many years ago... oh wait, do these games have anythin in common at all?

[SpikedHelmet]

It bears mentioning, its not much harder to come up with an origional concept than to re-produce some other IP (in fact its easier due to the fact you can fudge things and focus on gameplay over faithful recreation).

I know mods will almost always be 'fan projects', but its a bit sad we cant get some original content.

Best to mention it near the start of the project than when its further down the production line.

Do everyone a favour and - no.

[LathanStanley]

Sry for the double post but i believe it is relevant.

I figured out how to optimize and remove unwanted polys and cap them where open spaces were left.
BUT, with all of those useless polys removed, i was still only able to reduce the model's facecount down to 832 instead of 888.

So meh.

right click -> convert to editable mesh
(it'll re-calc the surface properties to match the verticies used... there are alot more polies on that side STILL than needed.)

consider merging verticies rather than deleting/creating faces... that just generates abnormalaties in the surface of the model, holes etc.

run a STL Check modifier, and near the bottom of the modifier, click the "check" checkbox, it will update in realtime the number of errors on the mesh. (It also highlights them in red) wether they be holes (to prevent solid modeling form) isolated verticies, or "twists" where faces are backwards and generate "loops" of exterior faces...

its a good tool to use alot until you become very famaliar with modeling.

[KDR_11k]

Isn't Edit Mesh deprecated?

[LathanStanley]

I do everything in meshedit... literally everything.

I've used all the other modifiers, but they work better for cinemagraphic stuff, as soon as you are poly limited, they are pretty ... overkill, for sloppy verticies, and massive amounts of subdivided polys to get the looks you want.

Mesh Edit though, if you are limited, is a lifesaver...

[Quanto042]

I do everything in meshedit... literally everything.

I've used all the other modifiers, but they work better for cinemagraphic stuff, as soon as you are poly limited, they are pretty ... overkill, for sloppy verticies, and massive amounts of subdivided polys to get the looks you want.

Mesh Edit though, if you are limited, is a lifesaver...

Dude, thanks for the tip man, this is exactly the sort of thing i wanted to know :D