Em8er Bases/buildings

[Terricon4]

Started working on some ideas for how the buildings might look for player bases. I tended more towards the mindset of them being something that could be dropped in onto any terrain before being removed at a later date given the mobile nature of the player faction. I wrote a longer rant on my ideas here and went into some more depth as well.

Either way, here were a couple of the ideas I blocked out. Found it to be ideal since unlike animation or more detailed rigging or stuff I could just sit down and make a quick addition here and there in a couple minutes when I had a little to spare. So, here's the ideas for main central hubs/styles I did so far.

Triangular, it's rough and durable looking. Entrance on the bottom and top to get in, with two levels inside. Upper level has quarters and living stuff, bottom one has supplies and basic frame/equipment stuff, as well as three doors (one on each side) to be connected to secondary buildings.

Boxy, so far the least happy with this one, though it's probably the most practical of them all realistically. A simple mostly rectangular building that has a giant door on one side for vehicles/frames/whatever to enter (a ramp would drop down on spawn). Inside the far back from the entrance has a the main rooms, with two floors and some gantries going around the hangar area on the second ones level. Also has three connection points for other buildings, one on each side of the hangar, and one on a rear right pathway on the far side going out the back. Also a place to jet out on the top from the second levels gantries.

Techy, largley going by the omniframe concept and the THMPR as all I have to go on for their visual style I noticed for many areas they use longer pointy or curved parts with a few smooth areas (like the ankles and thighs on the omniframe) so I made a building with that in mind. Still using the whole dominant idea of hexagons and stuff as well.
Has a lift on the bottom center module for getting in and out. From there you can go to the first floor of each of the modules, each of those then going to the second or out a door on the far side to another building. On one hand it's got the cool hanging from the giant legs look that with some more refinement will remind me a lot of the massive drill in Thump Dump, but on the other hand it's legs are just so large that it starts to look a bit less practical/excessive for a building.

Oh well... thoughts? Ideas on what you like, what to do with them, or other things to try?

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

The bases are probably going to need have a refining portion which the THMPR docks into, while everything else branches off it.
Grummz made it sound like refining the ore that your THMPR gets is a major component to the game that helps players upgrade themselves and others. So I figure that part of the building would stand out more than the rest of it. I dunno. Perhaps a landing pad on the top of the building with some smoke stacks next to it?

I like your third image. Cool work. What did you use to create it?

 

[Terricon4]

Was doing these more as player central with the garage/refinery/etc being secondary buildings attached to these, but could make an HQ design that is a refinery itself also.

Actually dug up and old model I made for a unity game that never came to fruition of the main base that dropped into the map at the start of a round and then unfolded into a fortress. The base itself was just a giant automated mining facility with walls and guns on it. Could use that as a base since the general concept is the same.

 

[JimmyRussel]

I like how the third one has legs, suggesting it's the first to show up from off-planet. The other two look more like they're constructed and deployed on-site. I could see each general shape being useful when making a base.

Keeping their overall dimensions "standard" would result in neat, tidy base layouts. Prefabs shaped like hexagons, (equilateral) triangles, and squares would work very well to promote that. Depending on how each building role plays out, you could have a dense nest of pure hexagons or something more spread out with squares and triangles radiating from a hexagonal hub.

The starter building, whatever it turns out to be, needs a place to drop off resources so they can start doing things with those resources as soon as possible. I would expect it to be a jack of all trades, master of none, thereby encouraging base expansion with specialized modules.

If base expansion is allowed to go vertical, perhaps stacking modules on top of each other should be considered.

 

[Dreamin]

Great work all around. The first are third structures appear sound and the triangular shapes work together.

Seemingly the first building could still be the core of the structure from image three at an upgraded state. The six sided segments being upgrade additions (the large square could be the ramp to an entry) and the support stations, roof coverings, extra structure above core being all portions of and/or support for the refining of resources.

 

[Terricon4]

UPDATE TIME! And then... SLEEPY TIME!

Above you will see what is a clearly incomplete building, the central area is a large mining system with a bit that extends down bellow. It's got three legs that I styled after the visual look of the terraformers from the lore release, and three main player occupying sections. This one is supposed to be a garage (ramp needed), the others are just empty symmetrical copies from this side that I'll redo after finishing up a bit more elsewhere, but one will have a landing pad on top with supplies/resources stored bellow probably. The top of it will have a series of larger vents, piping, and the more industrial parts coming out of it.
Also the three areas are connected by a little walkway that is suspended through the middle section between some of the moving drill/mining parts where you can see ore/rock being brought up on conveyor belts (or at least animated textures of such happening) if I ever try to complete it that far.

And here we have a base turret, minigun variant. It opens the shell like a flower blooming, then the little gun area raises up when somethings nearby and the top folds up to let the gun shoot at elevated targets when needed. Got all these turrets working in Unreal so with the press of a button I can have one (or if I spam (and yes, I do) dozens) rain down on my position before slamming into the ground and unfolding. No actual shooting/AI aiming, just some basic test animations for how they look.

Rifle/autocanon variant. No ammo belts or stuff coming up to it from the base, since I was rigging/animating them to see how they'd look unfolding/moving and didn't get around to that part (focused on the unfolding of this one) they are still hidden/not properly connected.

Bonus pic of the rifle version unfolding, no I didn't want it to do that stupid thing where the barrel slides back into the gun and extends ala magic like so many movies or games do when they want to fit a gun in a smaller area, I had the whole thing get stowed inside the body of the turret and just fold out instead. Inside obviously needs more detail later, but I got it working without clipping for the most part (need to shorten the rod that holds the optics a bit before I can say it truly doesn't clip).

Also plan on doing a flamethrower version, maybe some others after that like missiles, laser turret, who knows. All of these are meant to fit in with the whole portable air/space dropped bases idea I was going with but the guns themselves can be mounted on the larger bases or fixed positions instead and still work okay (especially the MG).

 

[Silv3r Shadow]

Nice work again.
reminds me of the spawn turret from UT2004 they mess everyone up

 

[Terricon4]

Some footage of my base stuff in unreal, didn't feel like the larger buildings could do an orbital drop without large chutes and retro thruster that I wouldn't be able to easily put in any quick proxies for that would look right so I just grabbed the Argentavis, a super massive aircraft I'd designed previously (though not supposed to be quite this large). Never planned to put it in a game engine so between that and using the low poly version while having some of the belly doors open it's a bit borked looking but still works to get the idea/feel across.

Currently starting to do more interior work on this HQ version with some final touches on the outside.

 

[Pandagnome]

Some footage of my base stuff in unreal, didn't feel like the larger buildings could do an orbital drop without large chutes and retro thruster that I wouldn't be able to easily put in any quick proxies for that would look right so I just grabbed the Argentavis, a super massive aircraft I'd designed previously (though not supposed to be quite this large). Never planned to put it in a game engine so between that and using the low poly version while having some of the belly doors open it's a bit borked looking but still works to get the idea/feel across.

Currently starting to do more interior work on this HQ version with some final touches on the outside.

That aircraft is neat though would of preferred a spaceship but very cool, the orbital drop could it have some unique airbag
before impact and then going down then set in place?

 

[Terricon4]

That aircraft is neat though would of preferred a spaceship but very cool, the orbital drop could it have some unique airbag
before impact and then going down then set in place?

I think the whole slow down before final drop with the direct legs approach looks best. Either more hard hitting like this, or maybe like Curiosity and it's little hanging hove maneuver. Though in all honesty I would like something more like the drop pods from Expelled from paradise, drop in fast and hot before opening shoots that break away finished by rockets to drop the supply pods and for the mech... well it just dropped on it's own the final distance and landed on it's legs and using it's own thrusters.

A massive airbag would be.... meh, I'm not really a fan of those. And realistically, they don't work well with big things.

And ya, the Argentavis is just a temp I tossed in.

 

[Silv3r Shadow]

That aircraft is awesome! i can just imagine the final product, calling it down at night when it is true night and see the beautiful night sky and see that bird soar and rumble the area. or however it will be, im sure it will be as majestic as it looks, really love the large scale of everything

 

[Terricon4]

And did some more work on the room compartments. Thinking only one will have a physical airlock proper, the third one being the residential/info/etc area. First is garage for frames and ammo and equipment and such, and the second I'm now working on is the airpad and storage area. This is where the THMPR would drop resources off just like the bases own refinery, where they can be moved up for air/space transit.

Here's some pics looking at the second (storage) with the first (garage) also visible on the right.

And here in this second picture you can see the main lift on the storage area rotates to a horizontal position and stops pretending to be a door. For the record, the other large door for the level bellow it currently (with the window) can slide up to be the door for the top area, and the lift folds in to either one also. I could make that be two doors one just behind the other so they can slide to cover both at once, but as it is the only time it'd be open now is if the lifts in use and that means it's moving something in/out of the storage areas anyway. Up and to the right you'll also notice the crane extended, it's got two main rotational hubs, one on the other with a short extension arm that lets the whole assembly get clear of the roofs main clutter, then the main parts extend and the result is it can reach from the garages roof to the airpad, or the ground nearby either one. And while not very well, it can also sort of reach around to the third area (living quarters/etc), though if I modify it a little I can make that far more practical if I deem it needed.

Either way, that's my work for the night.
For those wondering what green things are, they are dummys, simple spatial/orientation references with no real form that can be convenient for some things. In this case as controls and for the rigging so with just rotating one that controls the lift (or the base of a leg) the pistons and all other parts adjust themselves accordingly. And Unreal will also happily recognize them as bones so they work fine there.

EDIT: Bonus lower angle pic. Insides still not done.

 

[Pandagnome]

Everytime i see this it reminds me of this

 

[Terricon4]

Yay for Tachikomas and Logicomas!

Forget how to spell those...

 

[Pandagnome]

Yay for Tachikomas and Logicomas!

Forget how to spell those...

Its cool they talk ....would these structures your creating talk with letting you know when things are complete and the usual
even a few odd jokes. Able to change the voice pack like in one of the mech games i forget the name of that hmm

A.I that talk for those who like that & can have an option to turn it off for those that don't like.
To me it gives them a feel they are smart A.I with personality that you connect with!

 

[Terricon4]

Soon can start testing out the insides of these buildings to see how they look/feel/fit with this guy.

Will probably get it's own thread once it's rigged, animated, and given a gun in UDK. Just made a test mortar launcher that I think I'll make a model for after this guy. Left click fires a mortar with an ark, alt fire detonates mortars mid air to discharge a burst of flechets down onto the ground bellow it's current position. Need to figure out some of the stuff like overlaying a target/impact area texture onto the terrain bellow it and all but should be some good fun.

Overall just having an omniframe on hand will make modeling/scaling the inside of the buildings a lot easier to know if they can even fit in my current doorways/stairs.

 

[Terricon4]

After doing some more universal parts (floors, walls, rooms, doorways, etc...) in the building I figured I'd just make some filler assets and plug them in inside the engine. But making a garage and other things that I have no idea just what to make look like may take awhile so... eh.

Also did some rigging on the omniframe and got it in engine and walking/idling... but it had been awhile since I'd used some of those tools while rigging it and I didn't do the best job/created some issues that I missed till it was kind of late in the process so I'm going to just redo it tomorrow or something (much faster the second time around at least) so I don't waste a ton of time later on trying to get it to work every time I do something with it.

In the more proper update part, have a perdition turret. Because who doesn't love a flamethrower?

Thinking it could just shoot jets of gas out to 50-100 meters, or that it could fire globs of napalm like stuff that bursts when it hits something splashing fiery goop everywhere. Could let it look/work more like the Firecats older gun did. Overall went for a far more crude/rough form with this one, both because it's expected to be up closer and so wants to be tougher, but also because it just seems to fit more with the idea of a flamethrower. On this one it rises up, but the roof folds off on a double hinge so that the gun on one side can freely aim upwards at targets. Once again not the most practical looking thing but it's unique from the others and is savable by the rule of cool.

 

[Terricon4]

Me testing out one of the turrets with actual functionality rather than just a preset animation. Didn't bother adding the ability for them to predict the targets location, but they do properly rotate to point on a target, and when aligned fire on a variable interval (.6 seconds atm) with a less than 2 degree margin of error. Turned physics on for the projectiles once.... it ended hilariously. Something even that small going that fast can really send you flying pretty damn far. Was thinking of giving them an airburst ability as well so they can detonate on proximity with the target, or just auto detonate at around the targets range to look like a flak barrage.

 

[Terricon4]

Another update on the buildings front. Showing the big city hub idea more properly that was in the last one with the turrets on its walls (glass roofered city so people inside can do whatever without concern of atmospheric issues and all). And then showing a bit of the update 3 legged mining base with some of the internals and stuff and roughly how I'm thinking it would function.

For the mining base. Frame garage and engineering is where you'd craft, modify the frames, and do all that stuff. Plan to put some supsended frame rigs for maintenance in the bottom level, the lift can raise them into the second level as well (and also goes to the roof). Third level will probably be the non frame crafting stuff room, research, whatever.

Then you have the central hub area with the giant drill bellow you.

Then the cargo/shuttle pad area, simple enough. Plan to have one little vertical lift on the side corner to go in that hole.

Then living quarters, some nice windows for good views, will have more smooth furnishings and beds/couches/pillows, maybe paintings or flowers on the walls or in vases. Overall meant to be a lighter and more comfortable feeling area that players can relax, afk, or meetup in. Gameplay wise it could be a medical or health/player buff deal can be gotten there. But really nothing solids coming to mind beyond just the feel/atmosphere. Frame visuals and all will already be in the garage, might as well leave player in that same UI so as to keep it from being more frustrating. So it's mostly for fun/aesthetic. Was thinking you could make it so you can customize the paintings or little statuets and stuff in there so you can highlight you armies past actions maybe. Also have a large holo projection that can be set to show stuff for group briefings maybe. Like how you can draw on the map in some games, but here make it so the leader can draw on a large holo map. Idk, any ideas for what might be done there would be welcome as it might give me something more specific to work on for that area then.

For now, probably going to do supply crates or stuff, some more walls, piping, lighting, panels, tables, computers, generic things to fill up the other two areas. Also probably try to make the lift systems into functional in game assets that you can control/move.

 

[Pandagnome]

Was thinking you could make it so you can customize the paintings or little statuets and stuff in there so you can highlight you armies past actions maybe. Also have a large holo projection that can be set to show stuff for group briefings maybe. Like how you can draw on the map in some games, but here make it so the leader can draw on a large holo map

That would be neat to look back at things and find out whats going on.
Info for others not in combat to see certain things and relay it to the mech pilot e.g screens of how much enemies are left, toxicity of the enviroment, etc etc like the way the character felicity smoak aka overwatch relays info to her team for strategic positioning and all that

Then living quarters, some nice windows for good views, will have more smooth furnishings and beds/couches/pillows, maybe paintings or flowers on the walls or in vases. Overall meant to be a lighter and more comfortable feeling area that players can relax, afk, or meetup in

This is good to get away from all the chaos a place to unwind and regroup.

I'd like to see a club area for those who want to dance and an area for rides/vehicles like this bike system even a hyper launch elevator to launch mechs to higher surface with the cockpit i am a sucker for all that futuristic interface blips and scans and crazy sound effects i can imagine that ^^ it just has a sense of urgency especially with a red warning of imminent attack and epic music kicking in!