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Post by herby on Apr 23, 2017 18:28:00 GMT
I've never built a MW mech from scratch. I'm documenting my progress. Freako wanted a 'Spartan' mech to ride around in so we're building him one. Since he decided on a 'human' model it's prudent to keep the human form as much as possible. I was thinking it would be a fast 'heavy'. Somewhere around 70 tons with JJs. Any thoughts? The shield is at a slight angle for rotation behind the back clearance purposes but works very well. Arms are Asymmetrical to accommodate it. Left arm should get 50% more armour than the right arm. The armour should reflect the shield location. When someone shoots at you, you rotate the shield forward and it takes the blast. The slit in the shield will come in handy for glancing to the left but should be opaque to weapon fire. The sword is inverse because the mech can't lunge with the right arm. A swinging motion from the shoulder will see the blade forward and up; an underhanded stabbing motion. Question: AC2's or M guns in the arms? 4 ACs or 6 M guns? I can probably change the mesh to accommodate something else. Any thoughts? Question: What to put in the eyes? Any thoughts? I was thinking 2 large lasers. There's room for them, I checked. Great vantage point way up on top. The weapons will go in the head area but will be designated to the center torso. LRM20s (maybe 15's if not enough room) in the chest. One per side. I worked out 2 spots for R/L torso missiles. Making the hip/torso joint different, closing the gap and forcing the mech to bend at the leg/hip joint instead of the waist. Make a cleaner, more interference free movement. Cockpit can't go in the usual place where the eyes are. The head plume is in the way. 'Neck' area is a perfect spot. The face count is just under 2000. It's almost 4X more than anything in MW3. The pics are big so that everything is visible and I can get some good feedback and suggestions. 
Don't laugh at the loafers. Mech feet are not supposed to be pretty. They're supposed to be functional  Model is done except for setup. Now for the fun part. The tedious and time consuming texture creation and model mapping.
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Post by infinitefire on Apr 24, 2017 16:51:40 GMT
Awesome! I feel like it would be good to throw in some thoughts about It to help, but I don't want to be too intrusive  Im giving information based on the gameplay and balancing standpoint. From my experience with MW3's weapons (and some recent testing), well assuming that the Autocannons would serve as one of the main battle weapons, 4 AC2s would eat 4 tons of ammo too quickly to last long. The LRM20s are pretty good 4x Medium Pulse lasers overheat even with 16 heatsinks, making them somewhat unfit for main weapons. The Mech's configurations depend on its weight class, Technology type and many other factors. And a good mech generally should have weaponry adequate for most situations. And im wondering, are you going to replace a mech from the game? Or add it as a new one? |
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Post by herby on Apr 24, 2017 23:22:45 GMT
Loadout depends on consensus. Since I'm a laser buff I'll leave the weapon type to the people with knowledge of the different weapon types. I can change anything to accommodate different weapons. It's turning into a modular design very quickly. I've already got 3 versions of the arm magazines. The ones in the pics are not my favorite. Weight class will ultimately determine how much firepower it'll have. Following the theme of a 'Spartan warrior' I presumed it would be a quick mech with stamina. It should be a heavy because it seems to fit the persona. A light would not normally have the stamina and an assault would be too slow. Another consideration would be the cockpit. It's too small to be a light or a medium and changing the config would ruin the concept. I need to get Freako in here to give me some input. The 'Spartan' mech was his idea. WOW! I just figured out that I don't have to upload pics to photobucket to link to here. I can throw a pic right up here in stead. Shesh, that would have saved a lot of hassle. Anyway. Here's a medly of pics showing the movement of the joints. Look closely at the middle pic and you can see the cockpit through the slit in the shield I also had to add a dummy pivot to get the hip to move with the torso for bending over without flailing the legs up in the air. It was pretty hilarious. ![]() Attachments:
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Post by AncientxFreako on Apr 26, 2017 17:46:43 GMT
Ok, so this is my mech? lol I was thinking 85 tons, 64.8 kph...that's quick for an assault mech. Shoulders should be wider. Lower legs a little beefier. Sword longer. Cockpit...could do it in the left eye like the Atlas...that would make the shield that much more useful in the left arm.OR you could make the two eyes meet at the center...that center thing could be cut away just enough to see past? I did look up shields and swords rules for tonnage and crits on saran.net and wrote them down somewhere. This 'Mech idea was to basically represent the "Ancients"...my merc group that I started back in the 'Mech3 multiplayer days. They're like a ghost merc group that have existed since ancient times that everyone knows about but no one talks about  Sort of like the "Hand" from marvel comics, but they're on the side of good. They faught in all the wars and naturally they're not in Battletech Canon because THEY DON'T EXIST! lol (how convenient) I haven't done the math but I'm thinking it's got endosteel, ferro-fibrous 16 tons, and can accommodate twin Large Lasers (arms), twin LBXAC10's(L,R torsos,) maybe some machine guns as well as the sword and shield as a primary variant. |
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Post by AncientxFreako on Apr 26, 2017 17:53:46 GMT
BTW..I thought mechs that carry swords and shields are supposed to have fully articulating hands that carry them?
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Post by subject9x on Apr 26, 2017 19:27:33 GMT
BTW..I thought mechs that carry swords and shields are supposed to have fully articulating hands that carry them? Sarna to the rescue! www.sarna.net/wiki/Shield(thank Blake for rivet counters) |
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Post by herby on Apr 29, 2017 5:18:40 GMT
I made the dang thing too human. It's all your fault Freako. You wanted a Spartan warrior and I made one. That's my story and I'm stickin to it. I'll see what I can do with making it more "un" human... Oh... By the way... Your welcome |
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Post by AncientxFreako on Apr 29, 2017 12:19:04 GMT
What, I don't thank you enough? sheesh!
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Post by herby on Apr 29, 2017 15:00:42 GMT
You can thank me by putting the previous modded mechs in game to see what happens. I'd like to know if the import routine will weld the verts back together on the Firefly. If it doesn't then we have a new cool detail we can add to mechs. If it does then we'll need to rethink future upgrades. It's obvious the game can't use smooth groups so the only way around this is to separate each group by unwelding it from its neighbors. Your mech detail upgrade idea will only work if the details are not welded to the mesh. Easy. Just add details on top of what's already there. If it's not part of the mesh then the game will render it as a separate part BUT, if all verts get welded back together the new detail will be in the same smooth group, so a box will still render as a sphere.... so put the Fly in game and let's see what happens. While your at it, put the Champion and Annihilator in also. I know the points aren't going to line up perfectly on the fly. We can deal with that later. When I get this mech done it'll be a test subject to see if the game can handle 2000 faces per model. We'll also have to figure out how to alter the weapon point and pivot point locations. If this can't be done then this mech won't go into MW3 but will have to wait for the new project. Meanwhile this is a good subject for me to cut my teeth on. I've never designed a mech from scratch. My Stuff |
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Post by herby on Apr 30, 2017 4:42:22 GMT
Toning down the rhetoric... 2,000 faces. Will it work in MW3? Have no clue, but it would be 'freakin' awesome if it did! Sword will follow the hand gesture (there are no hands in MW3). Head will follow the arm position (this is doable). This thing is freakin ready to rumble. This is not a MW LL mech. I could make it good in LL but I'd also have many more faces and assets to devote to the mesh. I want this to work in MW3... and it will. the sword won't deploy though (unless we figure out the hard points). I know you want this but it's not possible in MW3 right now. The mech: It's wider in the chest, has more beef throughout. Legs are shorter. Redid the ankle joints. Plume is redone, neck is redone, cockpit is incorporated into the eyes  Attachments:
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Post by infinitefire on Apr 30, 2017 13:38:48 GMT
Nice!
The legs seem to be a little short though. You could make them digitigrade if you plan on diverging from the humanoid shape.
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Post by subject9x on Apr 30, 2017 14:09:28 GMT
looks like a kickass, customized, Black Knight for the Solaris arenas!
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Post by herby on Apr 30, 2017 15:47:40 GMT
Nice! The legs seem to be a little short though. You could make them digitigrade if you plan on diverging from the humanoid shape. Yup. I knew that would happen. I tried reversing the leg joints but It looked too bizarre. Well... Freako said the chest wasn't wide enough and the legs were too long. The legs weren't shortened. It's an illusion. It's all simply bulking up the mech. Notice the legs look shorter from the back than from the front? [edit] I went back and looked at what Freako said about the legs and I was wrong. He didn't say they were too short [edit] I made everything wider and thicker except the hip. The hip is basically the same. The torso was spread in 2 dimensions. The head was redone and made smaller to add to the illusion of mass. The arms were completely scaled up 50% and shortened to give them more mass. The legs were scaled 50% wider and thicker. The joints were redone and the ankles were redesigned. The sword was lengthened and the shield was made smaller in width and squared up. [edit] I made the thighs a little longer. Future pics will show that [edit] |
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Post by herby on May 2, 2017 0:34:44 GMT
Started skinning. Working on the torso. I threw in some bumps, spec, and glow maps for shits and giggles. MW3 doesn't use them but the new project will. Don't let the missiles and lasers fool you. I can make these points anything. I 'did' have the R/L torso with missiles in mind though. The more I work with this, the more I'm thinking it's an omni mech because it's very modular, with the exception of the C LRM 15's in the chest. They do fit real good there. We have a new insignia. Freako wanted me to copy it for a mech design. I thought it fitting to make it into a patch. A new way to incorporate color into mechs. Something different. There willl be a lot more places to color when I get all the level 2 panels in place. ... the legs are longer now |
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Post by herby on May 2, 2017 4:31:25 GMT
More choices. There are 4 schemes available so far. Camo, Ice, Red, and Gun Metal ...still working on the torso...   |
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Sort of like the "Hand" from marvel comics, but they're on the side of good. They faught in all the wars and naturally they're not in Battletech Canon because THEY DON'T EXIST! lol (how convenient)
