Back to the 3D. "Who you callin' chicken?" Post #6

Zach spent this last week creating an alliance system for the game.  All RTSs need a way to deal with multi-person teams; how resources and units are shared among teammates.  We've been leaning towards less control of your team's resources and equipment for a more "free trade" kind of mechanic.  As in you can "pass" units and resources to people on your team but couldn't use their stuff unless/until they GAVE you control.  No take backs though, that's just too hard.

I have been working on getting some 3D models sketched out because my teammates like to watch me suffer (not that 3D isn't the best)... Hao ;P

So we are plowing ahead with 3D even if it kills us.
Below is a preview of the low-poly male and female we will be using for our default NPCs.

The male was the character I started with because I wanted him to be the "base" size.  I then "shaved down" the model to get the female to match the basic shape.
 

I also had to give the female some kind of distinguishing marker because there body types were so similar from far away.  Of course they need to be if we are going to use the same models for weapons and armor.  

I had some difficulty trying to model a female that was the same height and width as the male while still looking feminine.  I also didn't want the female to be super thin and weak looking on the other hand because the NPCs will be a 50-50 mix with NO difference in their "stats" (they have identical data members and functions).  I guess the clearest way to say this is the server logic doesn't know about gender.  It's just something we do on the client because I think it's cool to have randomly gendered units. 

   

Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off.  The proof will be in the pudding I guess.  

Anyway, I hope the ponytail isn't too silly but I couldn't think of anything else. 

Right now they aren't rigged and don't have any textures but I'm going to build some weapons, armor and a couple other assets before I get to that stage.  I think we will be able to use the "naked" models as place holders and ramp up the detail (animations and textures) as the game starts coming together.

This would be do to the "emptiness" of our framework.  Since we have to code all the functionality we want to have as a "mod" anyway, we can create a minimal movement/behavior model for our game and then add animation functionality etc... as needed.  The reason we designed it this way was to give us the ability to abandon graphics after the SAP stage in order to focus on NPC AI behavior.  Which is what we all think will be the fun part.

Thanks far reading,  more pics to come soon.

-Clay Francisco