WIP: Spyder

[legacy-ghouck]

This is a Vec I made, it is fairly slow-moving, and not well armored. It have 4 variants, one with dual gatling guns, a plasma cutting beam, a guass gun, a large-caliber gatling gun. It also has a main beam that fires downward out the botton that kills enemy, and heals friendly nodes, personel, and vehicles. I am also looking for someone to help complete this project, mainly the texturing, as you can see from the screenies, it has none.

If anyone is interested in helping me finish this project, please let me know.
http://www.racingturtles.com/ghouck/SpyderBeta1.zip

[Xyx]

0wnage.

Do those wheels adjust to terrain?

What does that big beam underneath it do?

[legacy-ghouck]

Yes, the legs adjust for terrain, a bit differently that one would expect though. They kind of acr inward at the top.

The big beam damages enemy nodes, vecs, and players, and heals friendly vec and players, as well as build friendly nodes.

(I added a link to it in my origonal post)

[legacy-Fury.T32]

cool, my only niggle is can u put in a readme that tells you what files go there for the more nooblet among us?(me included )

[legacy-ghouck]

Sorry I missed that, I'll do it when I get home. . .
Thanks.

[Xyx]

Tried it out. Very cool concept.

Random observations and suggestions:

• It'd be nice if the "belly beam" switched on automatically when something friend or foe was underneath. That way, your teammates could come up to you and walk/drive/fly under to get healed.
• I didn't see the wheels adjust to terrain a lot until I set WheelPenScale to 1 or less using the console.
• You should get rid of the karma collision on the boxes in the wheels. Boxes with Karma collision enabled can't move (thanks to Epic "fixing" the flying Levi exploit). Just leave on the other two types of collision, and it might work.
• The turrets are all a bit "vanilla", especially compared to the otherwise great exotic theme.
• Hitscan weapons don't usually lead to great gameplay. Moving the mouse over some pixels at the edge of the distancefog is often about as exciting as it gets.

[legacy-Scot_G]

Hey dude, good to see you back in action with this and I think you had a new LRod or something? Xyx pointed out this vehicle to me just now, and I tried it out. Very nice concept on placing the legs' pivot points. Great effect. However, for such a big craft, it seems lacking something. I recommend adding some polygon detail on the steering joints. If you make a seperate bone for it, I can show you how to turn it with steering, without it rolling like a wheel. And maybe you should add a rear passenger weapon. Being such a big, slow, weak target, at least give it the ability to defend itself a little better.

One bug I noticed when I tried the first Spyder variant was that the guns do not gradually aim in 3rd person POV. Instead, they kind of jump left and right suddenly. In 1st POV, it is gradual. I didn't try any other variants yet.

I agree with Xyx' idea about making the secondary thingie automatic, but what if there are two objects under there, and what if they are one friendly and one enemy, or both same side? Just some things to think about.

[legacy-ghouck]

I'll check out making the big beam automatic, should be pretty simple. I know the turrets are kinda plain, the only one anywheres near complete is the green cutting beam. I've had this thing sitting around since Thanksgiving time, and have done virtually nothing with it.
I'm not sure if I understand what you meant about the wheelpenscale. Changing it to .9 just seemed to make it lower, which I believe can be done with the WheelSuspensionTravel and WheelSuspensionOffset settings.
I'll also look into those Karma collisionboxes.

The idea of adding detail to the steering joints sounds cool, , ,and I like the idea of the joints turning with the steering without rolling. .. I'd really like to know how to do that.. . is it done in code or in the rigging of the model? I'm guessing the code.

I'm not sure what I can do about the jumpy weapons in 3rd person, if you mean the dual gattling guns, then I'm sure it is because they are controlled by code, , that's something that I haven't gotten to work all that great. . . another thing I need to learn up on.

I'm suprized nobody mentioned the floating headlights, that I noticed immediately after posting the beta. .

As for the passenger weapons, I thought about it, but my idea was that with the power it has in it's node destroying and node building, I didn't want to make it overly powerful. What I pictured was it needing vehicle and personele support, which would work well since those vecs and people can be healed by it. Still, I'm undecided, and I might make a passenger turret and make it optional by a mut config page. Of course, I've already started my NEXT Vec (Much like the Warwing, but with 2 passengers, and the same big beam that the Spyder has). I'm hoping my kid gets a little interested in this stuff and starts helping me, , ,I always start losing interest at about the stage the Spyder is in, because I can't texture worth ****, and I hate looking at a model that it textured like the Spyder is. . ..

Thanks for the help everyone. .

[legacy-Scot_G]

...I always start losing interest at about the stage the Spyder is in, because I can't texture worth ****, and I hate looking at a model that it textured like the Spyder is. . ..

Thanks for the help everyone. .

I have the same problem. The best thing that I have found to do is just UVW map it, and then do some basic solid coloring. Don't try to add the texture detail or anything like that at first; just make sure each part is colored plainly. Later, you can add the terxture detail on maybe a multiple of your vehicles at a time, when you are in that "mode".

[legacy-ghouck]

I'll try that, , but I'm not that artistic ,, ,so the detail is hard to come by. Like I said, I need my kid to start getting in to this so he can do the texturing. . .

I'll work on the other issues when I can, probably this weekend. ..
L8r

[Xyx]

I'm not sure if I understand what you meant about the wheelpenscale. Changing it to .9 just seemed to make it lower, which I believe can be done with the WheelSuspensionTravel and WheelSuspensionOffset settings.

The Spyder reacts to terrain almost like the Hellbender would, which feels like a wasted opportunity since the cool workings of the legs are hardly apparent. That'd be a lot more visible if it had more flexible suspension.

Those three properties work together. They all seem to simply lower the vehicle on its wheels, but each has slightly different (and poorly documented) effects on handling. I find it very hard to predict, tweak or explain, but there are differences.

[Farseer]

I must say I'm rather disappointed with this vehicle... It's suspension almost doesn't work (and for some reason spyder always get stuck in the passage under the Torlan tower) and weapons don't feel like you are wielding this kind of firepower. Gatlings should have apropriative effects, for now they act like some star-wars laser - dust clouds and dirt eruptions upon bullet hits are definatelly needed here. And do they have any firing sounds? Because I didn't noticed them, maybe it's just me
But the idea is great, just needs something special - maybe wall-climbing function or just more flexible suspension to be able to pass over small obstacles?

[legacy-ghouck]

I'm just realizing how incomplete this project is. I haven't touched it since Thanksgiving or so, , ,I thought I had done more that I apparently have. I had started mixing the sounds, but not imported any of them, the weapon effects are on the list of yet-to-do items, and I haven't tweaked the chassis at all. , ,

And of course, , , the texture has not been touched. .

It'll be a while before there's an update. . .