I'm not so sure on the drop kick. It's not that it can't be done, as witnessed in the vids, but I feel that the THMPR is a piece of heavy machinery and probably needs to fight like one. Perhaps that move should be an anim for a mid to lite omni-frame, possibly one that's a melee build?
Love the vids either way!
Love the vids either way!
Likes:
Pandagnome
Heh... I didn't post it because it was too silly but I did sorta do that with a previous one after I got too tired on the first night to work properly.
Could also have it dive out of the top of the pod rather than have it burst open. Or have it jump and sort of do a one handed flip over the edge to get out. With the whole idea of it bounding and leaping across the map as Grummz put it I'm guessing it's not just strong but also somewhat agile for it's size (exactly what that will be I still have no idea).
Another idea I had was to stick a series of engines on the top so when it hits the ground they poke out and it hinges up the side sections to expose the THMPR before just lifting off and returning to the dropship/base/drunk person controlling it.
I could also make one where it smashes out of the pod, like you just see the pod jerk with a large dent form, then the drill smashes out between two plates, then the hand creeps into view and it pries them open. Could be used as a special rare animation or something to show that pods don't always work 100% of the time (or for a mission/tutorial/introduction, or to be used in areas where you spawn them under AA fire).
Also here's another video of me screwing around with the spawn button in response to someone in the discord. It is in no way serious or constructive...
Could also have it dive out of the top of the pod rather than have it burst open. Or have it jump and sort of do a one handed flip over the edge to get out. With the whole idea of it bounding and leaping across the map as Grummz put it I'm guessing it's not just strong but also somewhat agile for it's size (exactly what that will be I still have no idea).
Another idea I had was to stick a series of engines on the top so when it hits the ground they poke out and it hinges up the side sections to expose the THMPR before just lifting off and returning to the dropship/base/drunk person controlling it.
I could also make one where it smashes out of the pod, like you just see the pod jerk with a large dent form, then the drill smashes out between two plates, then the hand creeps into view and it pries them open. Could be used as a special rare animation or something to show that pods don't always work 100% of the time (or for a mission/tutorial/introduction, or to be used in areas where you spawn them under AA fire).
Also here's another video of me screwing around with the spawn button in response to someone in the discord. It is in no way serious or constructive...
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Likes:
Wyntyr and Pandagnome
i think you should overwork the walking animation, it's rather like a carefully advancing by a soldier with an assault rifle than a huge MEK-A trying to walk forward.
The dive-kick looks cool, but we gotta see what kind of hardware the MEK-A posses to execute such move (if he has weaker hardware/lower movement rate it would be kinda nonsense)
The dive-kick looks cool, but we gotta see what kind of hardware the MEK-A posses to execute such move (if he has weaker hardware/lower movement rate it would be kinda nonsense)
Likes:
Pandagnome
That little dance after the spartan kick was wonderful A bit of silly animations can be a choice to choose which they would prefer out of a selection of animation options.
What about having the trigger to open the drop-pod in mid-air and the pod outer shell blasts out in its radius as usual then the mech lands in style
For some nice effects if the pod lands first you can see some form of energy light between the gaps of the shell then the rays are lit up even more seeping through almost like its charged up to unleash followed by the pod shell fired out in its radius.
I like the idea to see if it was possible an m bision move like this where he launches himself forward with the drill? (at 0.42)
the idea with where you mentioned it prices the pod shell open as a special rare animation would be very cool.
This might sound daft but what about a hamster ball but in that pod style and it lands then can roll a bit before breaking up apart. So for example you see some sphere shaped pod it lands but continues to move instead of staying stationary. Rolls a bit then pod shell breaks apart with the mech running out or leaping like a smooth transition just a thought
A bit of silly animations can be a choice to choose which they would prefer out of a selection of animation options.What about having the trigger to open the drop-pod in mid-air and the pod outer shell blasts out in its radius as usual then the mech lands in style
For some nice effects if the pod lands first you can see some form of energy light between the gaps of the shell then the rays are lit up even more seeping through almost like its charged up to unleash followed by the pod shell fired out in its radius.
I like the idea to see if it was possible an m bision move like this where he launches himself forward with the drill? (at 0.42)
the idea with where you mentioned it prices the pod shell open as a special rare animation would be very cool.
This might sound daft but what about a hamster ball but in that pod style and it lands then can roll a bit before breaking up apart. So for example you see some sphere shaped pod it lands but continues to move instead of staying stationary. Rolls a bit then pod shell breaks apart with the mech running out or leaping like a smooth transition just a thought
Good idea, I can try and make it do a hero landing.
Would have to tweak it a fair bit so it curves more with gravity to match for a 3d game (or need to add some creative rocket/thruster effects to make it look balanced but I don't know if/think the THMPR will have it's own jets).[/QUOTE]
No, that sounds absolutely hilarious. If you dropped one into an area expecting combat it could use it like that and then be shielded against enemy attacks or if they do hit it with something big the shell just breaks off and it bursts through the flaming wreckage into the enemy.
For general mining though there's not much reason to do that at first. And for just walking around a bit to get to a specific spot it's legs would probably be/look better for moving over various types of terrain. Maybe have it land and then roll downhill using physics before having it get out once it comes to a rest.... but then you can't easily mine on top of a mountain area or your called in thumper might spend half an hour running back up. Something to think about though.
Would have to tweak it a fair bit so it curves more with gravity to match for a 3d game (or need to add some creative rocket/thruster effects to make it look balanced but I don't know if/think the THMPR will have it's own jets).[/QUOTE]
This might sound daft but what about a hamster ball but in that pod style and it lands then can roll a bit before breaking up apart. So for example you see some sphere shaped pod it lands but continues to move instead of staying stationary. Rolls a bit then pod shell breaks apart with the mech running out or leaping like a smooth transition just a thought
For general mining though there's not much reason to do that at first. And for just walking around a bit to get to a specific spot it's legs would probably be/look better for moving over various types of terrain. Maybe have it land and then roll downhill using physics before having it get out once it comes to a rest.... but then you can't easily mine on top of a mountain area or your called in thumper might spend half an hour running back up. Something to think about though.
Likes:
Pandagnome
And had a bit of time this evening to try some of the quadruped kaiju animations. Next will be making some dual animations for this guy and the THMPR to duke it out. Didn't like the static location random punch/attacks approach so wanted to try some more "interactive" ideas for fighting animations, so I needed to get this guy ready for that first. The skinning and model are both temp and rather rough in areas.
Likes:
Wyntyr and Pandagnome
Okay, bit of a right up here for an idea on how the thumper vs kaiju fights could work.
My initial problem was when I made some animations I started with the idea of a more conventional case of two enemies standing in front of each other each one just playing an attack animation from their current location one after the other. Lots of games have these giant things fighting but it just looks like two statically placed enemies wildly launching attacks that don't really seem meaningful or connected to health bars (visual and nothing else). So I figured that if you had more dynamic fighting animations that match up between the participants you could make things far more visually interesting, and also informative for the player of how the fight is going. But then you can't just have then stand around launching preset orders of attacks at each other so I came up with the following idea.
---------------------
Each unit has a total health pool and damage (some other things, but aren't included in this right up). For this example say we have Kaiju and THMPR who each have 5000 HP and an attack of 250. So in other words they are the same stat wise.
Combat works by having a series of short engagements (lasting about 5 seconds or so each, but varied by animation chosen) and sometimes a short period in between for them to move around/stare down the other/taunt.
Both units look at their current health, if one is missing 10% of their total health (500) since they last lost an engagement or spawned then they'll lose in the next engagement. This plays out like follows.
1. If one of them is set to lose and the other not, then that first one will lose the next engagement and receive damage equal to the winners damage (250 in this case).
2. If neither are set to lose (two fresh spawned units) they will grapple. In this case each unit takes half of the others damage (125 in this case).
3. Should both of them be set to lose the engagement then they will both take full the full damage of the other unit (250 in this case)
The idea here is that when they first fight at near parity they will start by grappling and neither will have the clear upper hand. As players/other enemies attack one of these units they will reach the 10% health threshold first and then in the next engagement they will lose and take a full hit. That previous damage counts to the current 10% so they are already at 250 dmg now. They will then return to grappling before the next winner is decided, or both end up losing.
Overall this system favors the side that gets the edge up near the beginning, but with sufficient support the other side can still make a comeback. Of coarse if say one unit starts off simply better than the other, like say our THMR has 8000hp and 350 attack instead, then the fight will start off with one side having a clear lead that will after a short while result in the THMPR rarely taking any dmg (losing maybe one in four/five bouts) or having losses from the enemy kaiju without outside assistance. Similarly if the players want to protect their THMPR from an extra large/tough kaiju then they'll need to constantly poor on the fire to keep the kaiju to overwhelmed to really tear into the THMPR. With this, the players can have a very meaningfull impact on the direction of the fight as with enough constant support the enemy may never get in a single actual attack on the THMPR.
-----------
So what really is a segment? Pretty much it's a case of both units getting into a nearby location and preparing to fight. When they start a segment they will have moved to one of the areas needed to start it (right next to each other, short distance from each other, possibly two kaiju one each side of the thumper if you scale this up, etc...). Upon that combat segment starting it will first know the result based on current health/% levels, and then pick the animations accordingly from a pool of possible ones at random.
Say Kaiju lost 500 health since spawning and will lose the next engagement. The game will pick from one of the animations where the THMPR wins. This could mean the THMPR charges in and slams the Kiaju with his drill in the side sending it flying like a ball hit by a bat, or it could also mean the Kaiju actually takes the initiative, but still loses. For example the Kaiju could use a jump at starter animation, and the thumper uses it's react to kaiju jump animation, however in this case since the THMPR will be the winner the Kaiju will end up being blocked by the THMPR raising it's drill, spun over the top of the mech, and slammed into the ground before trying to fend off an attack or two from the drill and then getting free from the pin. Making sure that you have lots of these little plug and pay animations that can be brought together can keep it visually interesting and take longer to get repetitive.
Of coarse this doesn't mean the players will always be ignored, while many attacks will naturally be dangerous to any players too close to the brawl (from both sides) and Kaiju might also make a quick attack against players before transitioning into the series of engagement animations (flicking it's tail and sending spikes fanning towards players in a large cone, turns head to breath fire, slams the tail down behind it, etc).
------------------------------
Currently animating the leap attacks and response of the Kaiju, will try to make a couple and upload a video when that's done but these will take a bit longer and I've got a bit less spare time now so figured I'd upload this post showing my general idea for how THMPR combat could work in game and how different animations could play into it.
Ideas for attacks:
Leap attacks
Charge attacks
Stab attacks
Throws
Grapples
Pins
-Against ground, and against steap walls/terrain
Ranged
-laser/breath/fire/spikes/rocket arm or drill
Tail whip
Drill smash
Divekick
Rock throw
-POCKET SAND!
Punch
Body slam
Trip then mount/punish
Finishers
-Tear jaw in half, core target with drill, slice THMPR in half, knock legs out from under Kaiju then slam drill down crushing it to a pulp/giblet fest, THMPR gets limb after limb cut off in brutal combo, suicide dive off of massive cliff/ravine with THMPR, throws Kaiju off cliff/ravine but gets yanked off to after ankle gets grabbed by Kaijus tail.
The textures should be able to be changed to reflect how beat up looking they are as they get lower on health to make it not seem as odd when the Kaiju finally gets it's blade to stab through part of the THMPR when they've bounced off in some previous cases. Having parts of the models deform would also be nice to show holes or major dents. Similarly spawning effects of blood or fires/sparks would also be nice.
My initial problem was when I made some animations I started with the idea of a more conventional case of two enemies standing in front of each other each one just playing an attack animation from their current location one after the other. Lots of games have these giant things fighting but it just looks like two statically placed enemies wildly launching attacks that don't really seem meaningful or connected to health bars (visual and nothing else). So I figured that if you had more dynamic fighting animations that match up between the participants you could make things far more visually interesting, and also informative for the player of how the fight is going. But then you can't just have then stand around launching preset orders of attacks at each other so I came up with the following idea.
---------------------
Each unit has a total health pool and damage (some other things, but aren't included in this right up). For this example say we have Kaiju and THMPR who each have 5000 HP and an attack of 250. So in other words they are the same stat wise.
Combat works by having a series of short engagements (lasting about 5 seconds or so each, but varied by animation chosen) and sometimes a short period in between for them to move around/stare down the other/taunt.
Both units look at their current health, if one is missing 10% of their total health (500) since they last lost an engagement or spawned then they'll lose in the next engagement. This plays out like follows.
1. If one of them is set to lose and the other not, then that first one will lose the next engagement and receive damage equal to the winners damage (250 in this case).
2. If neither are set to lose (two fresh spawned units) they will grapple. In this case each unit takes half of the others damage (125 in this case).
3. Should both of them be set to lose the engagement then they will both take full the full damage of the other unit (250 in this case)
The idea here is that when they first fight at near parity they will start by grappling and neither will have the clear upper hand. As players/other enemies attack one of these units they will reach the 10% health threshold first and then in the next engagement they will lose and take a full hit. That previous damage counts to the current 10% so they are already at 250 dmg now. They will then return to grappling before the next winner is decided, or both end up losing.
Overall this system favors the side that gets the edge up near the beginning, but with sufficient support the other side can still make a comeback. Of coarse if say one unit starts off simply better than the other, like say our THMR has 8000hp and 350 attack instead, then the fight will start off with one side having a clear lead that will after a short while result in the THMPR rarely taking any dmg (losing maybe one in four/five bouts) or having losses from the enemy kaiju without outside assistance. Similarly if the players want to protect their THMPR from an extra large/tough kaiju then they'll need to constantly poor on the fire to keep the kaiju to overwhelmed to really tear into the THMPR. With this, the players can have a very meaningfull impact on the direction of the fight as with enough constant support the enemy may never get in a single actual attack on the THMPR.
-----------
So what really is a segment? Pretty much it's a case of both units getting into a nearby location and preparing to fight. When they start a segment they will have moved to one of the areas needed to start it (right next to each other, short distance from each other, possibly two kaiju one each side of the thumper if you scale this up, etc...). Upon that combat segment starting it will first know the result based on current health/% levels, and then pick the animations accordingly from a pool of possible ones at random.
Say Kaiju lost 500 health since spawning and will lose the next engagement. The game will pick from one of the animations where the THMPR wins. This could mean the THMPR charges in and slams the Kiaju with his drill in the side sending it flying like a ball hit by a bat, or it could also mean the Kaiju actually takes the initiative, but still loses. For example the Kaiju could use a jump at starter animation, and the thumper uses it's react to kaiju jump animation, however in this case since the THMPR will be the winner the Kaiju will end up being blocked by the THMPR raising it's drill, spun over the top of the mech, and slammed into the ground before trying to fend off an attack or two from the drill and then getting free from the pin. Making sure that you have lots of these little plug and pay animations that can be brought together can keep it visually interesting and take longer to get repetitive.
Of coarse this doesn't mean the players will always be ignored, while many attacks will naturally be dangerous to any players too close to the brawl (from both sides) and Kaiju might also make a quick attack against players before transitioning into the series of engagement animations (flicking it's tail and sending spikes fanning towards players in a large cone, turns head to breath fire, slams the tail down behind it, etc).
------------------------------
Currently animating the leap attacks and response of the Kaiju, will try to make a couple and upload a video when that's done but these will take a bit longer and I've got a bit less spare time now so figured I'd upload this post showing my general idea for how THMPR combat could work in game and how different animations could play into it.
Ideas for attacks:
Leap attacks
Charge attacks
Stab attacks
Throws
Grapples
Pins
-Against ground, and against steap walls/terrain
Ranged
-laser/breath/fire/spikes/rocket arm or drill
Tail whip
Drill smash
Divekick
Rock throw
-POCKET SAND!
Punch
Body slam
Trip then mount/punish
Finishers
-Tear jaw in half, core target with drill, slice THMPR in half, knock legs out from under Kaiju then slam drill down crushing it to a pulp/giblet fest, THMPR gets limb after limb cut off in brutal combo, suicide dive off of massive cliff/ravine with THMPR, throws Kaiju off cliff/ravine but gets yanked off to after ankle gets grabbed by Kaijus tail.
The textures should be able to be changed to reflect how beat up looking they are as they get lower on health to make it not seem as odd when the Kaiju finally gets it's blade to stab through part of the THMPR when they've bounced off in some previous cases. Having parts of the models deform would also be nice to show holes or major dents. Similarly spawning effects of blood or fires/sparks would also be nice.
Likes:
Pandagnome and Wyntyr
Welp, if it's a core gameplay mechanic (especially in the early builds) you might as well make it fun and involving with the players. And this is what I came up with on semi short notice. Not every attack has to be a huge animated divekick or excessive move, some basic ones like just having the one guy punch the other in the face (but animated so you can clearly see the target reeling from the blow) can be added. At the end this means you need to create a custom on hit animation for most of the attack animations you make, so it does increase the workload but I think it'd be worth it in the longer run.
Oh well, back to work!
Oh well, back to work!
