Necris Supervehicle concepting

[Shadow Dancer]

Had an idea:
Wanted a design that was truly different from any previous UT vehicles, and any FPS vehicle prior.

Name: The Plague.

Either a high-hover or a low-cleiling flying vehicle, comparable to the Leviathan in size.

Deploy to extend a Nanoblack tentacle into the ground from the center of the vehicle. The tentacle injects a highly rich mixture of Nanoblack into the ground, making surfaces within a certain radius damaging to the enemy team as long as the vehicle is deployed, making any ground assault very dangerous, and making Manta runs slightly more hazardous, as impacts with walls and floors will deal extra damage.

4 turrets seats provide offensive support.*fixed The turrets control a swarm of small flying attack drones that, unless controlled by a turret seat, swarm closely around the vehicle, freelance attacking anything that comes near. When a turret is occupied, 1/4 of the available drones is assigned to that turret.
Turret primary "fire" directs the drones to a target. The drones then quickly zip over and swarm the target, firing small Nanoblack beams until the target is destroyed. The drones deal heavy damage to light targets, but heavier vehicles will be able to withstand them for a little while.
The drones are as long as a human male character's shoulders are wide, half that width, and about half that again in depth. drones can be destroyed by light weapons fire, but move quickly and swarm close to their target, making splash wepons hazardous.
Secondary on the turrets is a zoom function.

The Plague must un-deploy to create more drones, which takes some time and may require the vehicle to retreat to cover. The Plague loses its offensive capabilities without them.

Like the Levi, the turrets can be destroyed eventually. Operators are exposed, but not as much as the Leviathan. The flight offers higher maneuverability, but also makes the large vehicle more widely visible from around the map.

....

Hit and run tactics would be advisable, taking advantage of the drones' travel time, and taking advantage of the Plague's higher visibility. Players would be wise to cover each other and travel in pairs to fire splash weapons into drone swarms attacking other team-mates to attempt to remove the drones swiftly and force the Plague to un-deploy.

[Malachor]

****, that is an epic idea.
Can it do anything undeployed besides produce drones(bots may get a bit confusing)?
Although I'm not sure it would need to depending on how quick they get produced.
Does it really need the other 4 seats? I don't think so, unless they do something else.

[Xyx]

I once entertained the thought of having that thing from Avalanche as a controllable vehicle, able do deploy its tentacles and all:

[shot]http://www.beyondunreal.com/staff/hal/ut2007/screen08.jpg[/shot]

It would have many technical problems, though, not the least being that it would require an open sky.

[Shadow Dancer]

****, that is an epic idea.
Can it do anything undeployed besides produce drones(bots may get a bit confusing)?
Although I'm not sure it would need to depending on how quick they get produced.
Does it really need the other 4 seats? I don't think so, unless they do something else.

The general idea was to force it to undeploy in order to attack it in force, so making it vulnerable during that time is key, I think.

I might think of something wierd to have it do. Was entertaining the idea of a gaseous Nanoblack "ink spray" that would cause light damage and obscure a clear view of the vehicle, but it's so large I don't know that it would obscure very effectively (ie: shooting into the ink cloud, you'd still hit the vehicle, unless the pilot planned something nearby to quickly hide behind. I suppose that would play into the tactics invoved in using it properly.) It could help protect turret operators under sniper fire, but would also eliminate their view. But maybe that's the balance for it...

Each turret controlls a quarter of the available bots, and may have a limited rotational range, allowing faster vehicles to escape the swarm (unless the turret op was fast on the switch seats button, or the turret ops were coordinating.) I suppose it could be narrowed down to one turret with a 360 range, but the ability of the vehilce to target up to 4 (maybe 5 if we let the Plague itself target something) enemies at once is part of what makes the drones so deadly.

I also wanted the basic formula to be similar to the Leviathan, (deploys to use its main weapon, has four side seats) to make it more easily accessible, to provide a platform for players to start using the otherwise rather different gameplay mechanics. (language adjusted in the first post for better clarity.)
.....
Xyx

Like the Leviathan, it would need maps designed for it, but even something like torlan might work.

The giant blue ski lodge in the sky is far larger than what I'm thinking (would be dam*ed cool, though.)

I'm hopeful that this formula will be free of many of those potential problems.

.....
What if, while deployed, in addition to the tentacle, the main vehicle is able to launch pre-made "hives" of Nanoblack drones that act similar to spider mine traps. They wait for something to come near, then release a flurry of drones. The Hives themselves are destroyable, as are the drones they release, and are more noticeable than regular deployables. The main vehicle has a set number of Hives that must be specifically rebuilt while un-deployed. Regular drones are not added to the defenses when building Hives, so pilots would be wise to avoid overusing them.


Since the turrets are so central to the vehicle's operation, once destroyed they can be replaced, but only by bringing the vehicle back up to full "health." Turrets will return one at a time over a moderately short period after fully repairing the vehicle. This makes it important to stay focused on the vehicle and makes attacking it while it's undeployed that much more important, as it will most likely be then that major repairs are conducted.

[Malachor]

"Each turret controlls a quarter of the available bots, and may have a limited rotational range, allowing faster vehicles to escape the swarm (unless the turret op was fast on the switch seats button, or the turret ops were coordinating.) I suppose it could be narrowed down to one turret with a 360 range, but the ability of the vehilce to target up to 4 (maybe 5 if we let the Plague itself target something) enemies at once is part of what makes the drones so deadly."
I misunderstood what you'd typed, I thought there were 4 turrets and 4 seats(doing nothing?), not 4 seats/turrets in total. Now I understand, and I don't have a problem with the 4 turrets.

I'm just wondering, it seems that the drivers main task is to get the plague to the target area, then deploy as fast as possible?
So you have 4 turrets spawning drones that work sort of like the scavenger ball, and they are always active?
I'm not worried about what it does when deployed, in practice it coud be good, or bad, either way it's an interesting idea.

I am a bit concerned that there's nothing for the driver to do except fly it, well unti it's deployed, and I'm wondering if that would be popular.
I mean I like being able to respond when something's attacking me.

Ok here's an idea for the undeployed driver: (s)he operates a smaller tentacle and can use it to physically hit(punch/push) a flying target(maybe ground as well), it doesn't do that much damage, but applies a lot of force to the target, therefore pushing it away.

Or perhaps it could grab it, and then let a turret or 2 attack it more easily.

Or Fire grabs it, and AltFire(a charge fire) pushes it away, the more you charge the more force is applied.

On another note, have you thought of what it would look like?
I think hijacking Xyx's idea, but make a smaller version with much fewer tentacles, with the main one at the bottom, a slightly smaller one somewhere else(?), and the turrets sit on even smaller ones.
Maybe the driver's weapon could be the "mouth" and it breathes in for Fire, then out for AltFire.

[Superking17]

You could also give the pilot a turret like the leviathan's main turret for the pilot to use in the deployed mode. I can't wait for some screen shots of these things!

[Shadow Dancer]

@ Malachor

It's inspired by the Protoss carrier, so something similar to that, but black and Necris-y. I might do some concepts for it, work out a more thought-out visual design. I was thinking of a Scrab style head for it, though. ( http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...boy/scarab.jpg )

Keeping with the Starcraft theme, what if the tentacle could stomp the ground while undeplyed and send out effectively a 360 radius Lurker attack? The initial impact causes a shockwave that ragdolls infantry (jumping may avoid the shockwave,) then the Nanoblack surges quickly into the ground and solidifies into spikes that jut up from the ground in a wave away from the impact.

Smaller targets may be able to evade / be missed by the spikes if they get lucky, but larger vehicles would get hit pretty hard. Give it a delay between activation and actual deployment of the tentacle, and then a little time between shockwave and spikes.
Maybe altfire is a short-range laser the guides any non-turret-owned drones. Or, new idea, altfire controls the ink, which can either be sprayed out as cover if tapped, or targeted and released in hit-scan form to specific targets to blind them and deliver mild DOT.

But how to deal with that pesky Raptor out there pecking at you...
..........

Well, let's look at controls.

Standard non-fixed-turret controls for movement, with the added ability of crouch/jump for up and down.

M1 for main tentacle control. Hold M1 to deisgnate a DZ for the tentacle, release to deploy the vehicle into siege mode.
Tap M1 to drop the tentacle while undeployed as a Lurker attack.
(Maybe tap while deployed to release a similar but weaker version of the same attack w/o the shockwave to finish off ground/near-ground attacks.)

M2 for ink control. Tap to spray a defensive cloud. Hold to initiate the targeting scanner, which can target up to 6 enemies, regardless of distance, and hit them (once M2 is released) with a hitscan pellet of ink that deals light damage, covers windshields, and corrupts optics, lightly damaging and confusing enemies that get too bold. (Reminiscent of the Panzer Dragoon lazers, and the Shark from U2)

While undeployed, the Plague continually generates drones (which are always active and patrolling near the vehicle unless otherwise controlled) until its reserves are full.
Hoverboard/Translock key switches between building drones and building drone Hives.

While deployed, Holding M3 engages an SPMA-style camera in the form of a smaller tentacle out the top (like the lure on an angler fish, appropriate since it will likely betray your position and call the attention of anyone nearby) that allows the driver to send out Hives, like artillery shells, accross the map. They do no damage on landing (other than a kill on a very lucky direct hit) but can be great for disrupting enemy behavior. Tap M3 to launch Hives, Hold again to retract. M1 can still control the tentacle, and M2 the defensive ink spray (ink pellets are disabled while deployed, as the rapid injector systems are busy infecting the ground) at the same time. Camera will retract if the vehicle undeploys.

Turrets:
Hold M1 to engage/maintain targeting laser and guide the drones.

M2 engages a standard zoom function.

.......

A recharging Nanoblack fill meter on the side (like the SPMA shell timer) will determine how frequently attacks can be made. Too many in a row and the meter will deplete, rendering the pilot unable to attack until it recharges sufficiently. Tentacle stomp attacks will use a large amount of the meter, and have a slower attack rate, ink spray will use a moderate amount and pellets will use small to moderate depending on how many targets are selected.

While deployed, the meter recharges much faster as Nanoblack production is in overdrive.

[Xyx]

The initial impact causes a shockwave that ragdolls infantry (jumping may avoid the shockwave,)

That's a very good mechanic. Interactive, non-cheesy.

Tap M2 to [...], Hold again to [...]

Sounds like a very complex driver seat. You can layer in several features that way, but it'll utterly confuse anyone who hasn't read the readme. Which probably means most people.

I'd just split that into driver and passenger. Put the driver in command of deployment and the passenger in command of hives and/or drones. That way you get a vehicle where it's actually useful to take passengers on board. Otherwise the passengers would better spend their defending the vehicle on foot with AVRiLs instead of "stealing" away drones from the driver's "control".

[Shadow Dancer]

So, somthing like: each turret gets 2 Hives it can create and can choose to build Drones or Hives for themselves via hoverboard or scroll wheel (wep select) while undeployed. While deployed, each turret can elect to extend and operate the artillery cam via the same button, though only one can man the artillery at any given time. Cam autoamtically retracts once a turret is out of Hives.

That still leaves the tentacle and ink for the driver, which should be sufficient.

[Malachor]

I like the picture. I had wondered what your inspirstion for this was.
I wonder, with the added driver weapon functionality, do you need the hives(and artillery camera) as well?

Perhaps you could split the hives and drones between the passenger turrets?
Edit: And I just noticed that Xyx had said similar.

[Gunwing]

Well that would be vary sweet! How about this for an idea:

It would be a massive vehicle thats for sure. So after reading this I think it should have at least 4 guns that are not controlled by the driver. (this way it takes a team of people to get it to be the most effective just like the Goliath)

On top of that the Hive would need some way for the other side to take it down from the inside as well (ala the space station map in UT2004) It might be hard to do with good FPS rates, and it would push the current engine to it's limits.

But eh if we have learned anything from epic's UT3 engine it's that it can do almost anything.