Video Update 8 - Choose the THMPR Laugh

[Thorn Brier]

None of them. 1 is closest but needs to be deeper, 3 is a distant second closely followed by Sinister. 2 is totally off base, really does not feel right.

I read someone suggesting comparison to the new Lost In Space robot. Looking it up I have to agree, the tones of that robot fit the feel of Ember better than what has been presented.

Now, since there are larger omniframes as well, I can understand if maybe you want to reserve the lower register for them and this smaller one is more high pitched. If so, that needs to be made clear. But we also need to keep in mind which frame we are expected to be in most of the time.

If the primary frame is that high pitched it will get very annoying fast.

 

[Biz]

Aaah, that laugh, please don't make thumper sound like a squeaker, it is a hangar-sized piece of industrial/military machinery it needs a deep, heavy "voice" to reflect that. Original heavy-laugh from Vid7 was far superior, laugh #3 a distant second. Also - good idea to have all 4 alternatives side by side in the same video for a fair comparison.

 

[LorNaDoS]

I like bothe the old one and the new#1. I can't decide so I went with the old one because it's a bit more ''robot''. But I hope that the other will be in the game too.

 

[Naku]

From the one presented.. I think either orginal one, or #1. But I personally would prefer something deeper.

 

[Ouka]

I feel the laugh should be something we can choose in-game. Heck, even if it's something we buy from cash shop it wouldn't be a bad idea IMO, as it would be a purely cosmetic item anyway. If I had my way, I'd make it so that you have maybe 3 or so different choices in the base game, then a few more that come out every now and then as customization options we can get later on one way or another.

For things that are supposed to be personal that every player is supposed to have but is huge and obvious and stuff, such as the THMPR, options for customization are always a welcome thing.

 

[WatsonDynamite]

I like the original sinister one, but it's a bit too scary for such a cute giant robot. I wouldn't mind if you guys made something like laugh 1 but deeper. To me, I think such a massive piece of machinery can't sound so much like a regular human.

 

[Aphaz]

Since Tsi-Hu should sound japanese-ish, it should most aptly be read like a transliteration from japanese and those are usually more german than english and the only way to pronounce Tsi-Hu in german is TSee-who / TSee-Hoo :Ü™

...or maybe for the extra germanysh feal TZI - HOE (said viv ze german akcent, off khors!)

that said, i'd like my pet's voice to be more Darth Vader-y as i think that's the perfect human/robo combo for asuch a voice type. but aside from voice pitch, i'd like to be able to "buy personalities" like in FF for my character (even if bought as customization option) for my pet so i can hear some jokes before the laugh...LOL

...i guess it's smt thats gonna be done since it wasn't in the gunz part of the update (btw m8, awesome work on the wpns! ), but i'm guessing some kind of HUD animation will tell you which enemies you're targeting with ur missile swarm....?

the part about destructible surroundings is also of great interest to me. as some players mentioned b4, it can be a double edged sword so i'd love to hear more about before i can make a proper opinion about it in order to give you some more quality feedback.
often the feedback part of our "relationship" (ember and us) "underperforms" because we get the idea, but lack some shall we say "crucial info" so we can better understand your visiou (which often spawns the "forum slugfests" )...
...in this particular case...if destructible stuff is/will be a feature...
will it be limited to buildings/nature? buildings as in just the base or does it apply to stuff like giant boulders some tsi-hu might be hiding behind and stuff, while nature means more along the line of destroying trees and "stuff that can re grow", is what i ment
will some parts that are destroyed re spawn back and if so which 1s?
how much force or what type of damage will have such an effect? to destroy a mountain, so to speak, a machinegun, even a mech MG would take like a month, while a mortar would take a minute or less...lol
will the destruction be usable/abuseable by the players? being able to "shoot a stone bridge over lava" and so destroy an enemy you lured there would be fun,but if incorrectly balanced it could be (and prolly would be) abused by players. in this case, the chain wielding tsi-hu could either "grappling hook itself" out of the predicament or could even try to use the grappling hook to "take the player down with it". this could somewhat teach players to not be a "one trick pnoy", imo.
there's prolly more things i could ask you about it, but i just woke up 20 min ago and still in my 1st coffee cup and this is all i can think of...cheeers

 

[Grummz]

Glad to see everything is taking shape! - just a question, and forgive my ignorance, what's a vertical slice demo? (how is different from a normal demo?)

Keep up the awesome work guys!

It means different things. In our case, its the THMPR encounter we are putting together for the Kickstarter.

 

[Grummz]

Where is the original laugh? Cant find anywhere

1:41 mark:

is the original sinister laugh

 

[Grummz]

These videos are always good news, happy to see things are moving forward!

That said i can't help but notice the plasma cannon has no projectile drop. Learning where the plasma balls would hit at different ranges was a big part of the skill-based gameplay behind the original FF version.

Yep Yep. These are prototypes and you are RIGHT! It needs to come back. Projectile drop will be coming to this main weapon. Which still needs it's own "Em-8ER" name btw!.

 

[Grummz]

New Laugh Number 1 is the best in my opinion (2 and 3 are horrible), but I chose "None of the above, make a new laugh!" in the poll as I think it need's to be deeper, the original laugh is deep but not enough and it has too much of that robot noise. I think it should be something like the new robot in the Netflix Lost in Space series - deep with a little robot vibe to it.

I agree. I think we might need a heaver sound to all three laughs.

 

[Grummz]

so.. how do you say Tsi-Hu? mark said it like 3 different ways in the video: Tee Hu, TSee Hu, See Hu... i mean, when i read it i think Ti-Sigh Hu, Psi-Hu, or See Hu so its just confusing me a bit...

that aside i like my giant fucking robot voices to be extra deep please.

Did I? It *IS* hard to pronounce. Might need to revisit the alien language with Nojah soon. Meanwhile, call them "shifters." That's what the community voted for their nick-name in our naming contest.

 

[Uthus]

New Laugh Number 1 is the best in my opinion (2 and 3 are horrible), but I chose "None of the above, make a new laugh!" in the poll as I think it need's to be deeper, the original laugh is deep but not enough and it has too much of that robot noise. I think it should be something like the new robot in the Netflix Lost in Space series - deep with a little robot vibe to it.

I like that! I'd also vote for an Iron Giant style voice. Deep and metal-grinding.

 

[Grummz]

Requested Comments:

=====
Tsi-Hu Form

Looks good, with some caveats.

If he has pointy sharp spikes on his elbows which look like stabbing weapons, why are the things on his knees blunt? It seems to me that he should have some kind of kicking, kneeing, elbowing weapons all sharp if the elbow ones are sharp to begin to start. I know he is not the melee character, but since he has the chains he clearly is intending to pull things into him close.

If he has chains, why would he not then have sharp points on the knee things and feet to knee and stab his pulled in victims?

General question which this brings up: As he is not the melee form, what is going to happen in game when he pulls us into him with the chains and grapple? Will he shift to melee form before we reach him? If not, then what will happen?

=====

The arm blades were just for looks, but could be use for a short jab melee attack. But as you noted, this is their ranged form. The chain Tsi-Hu are not all Tsi-Hu. This is a variant (we recently decided), that will grab jetpacking/gliding Omniframes. But instead of reeling them in, they will smash them to the crowd with a yank and stun you. So they don't use this to close to melee.

Plasma Cannon / Missile Swarm

Looking good with the two fire modes for Plasma Cannon.

I wonder how the missile swarm is going to to "feel" when used. The timing of the launch with the guidance as well as moving/running? Will we be stationary only when we use it? Etc. I can see it being hard to get it to feel right... but I have confidence it will be OK.

For sure we need to add the drop back into the plasma cannon. These were quick drafts.

The missiles need a lot of tuning. Acceleration, corkscrew and also, prob a break on any locks if you turn away. Right now they fire backwards too which doesn't always feel right even if its more realistic to maintain the lock.

=====
Male Human

The start trun, run and stop run look really good to me. They capture the real world changing of inertia to get running, stay running, and then coming to a stop.

The Idle animation in my mind needs to have something more than just the guy looking like some kelp in a kelp forest moving with the waves. Can they guy move his hand periodically? Shuffle his feet? Shift his stance? No real human just stands with their feet planted and slithers like that... Our arms don't pulse up and down as we breath... etc..

The run with the start, run, stop is excellent - please make the idle as good!

=====

The idle is what we call a "base" idle. We will randomly weave in variations to get the feel to be organic.

Thumper Sounds

Laugh 0 (sinister) of the 4 is my preferred laugh, but I vote for more to choose from as my vote.

Laugh 1 sounds the best of these three, but I am not too happy with it because it sounds too human and "small"

Laugh 2 sounds like it comes from an ant not a giant thumper!

Laugh 3 sounds like it comes from a pixie not a giant thumper!

I think everyone is feeling like ALL laughs need to be deeper/heaver, even if cute, to reflect his size better.

=====
Lore Drop

I am not sure how to comment. It seems that we have multiple styles of art all mixed together visually which does not make sense. The lore story sounds good, however.

The art is a mish mash. A lot is from Crixa, the tabletop game I was working on before Em-8ER. Bear with us for now as we're not going to be making many new art pieces instead focusing on Em8ER game art. It will get more unified over time (in the direction of Em-8ER's style).

Do you guys like my narration?

 

[Grummz]

All laughs will get a deeper base to reflect THMPRs size. Good point by the community here, no matter which one we pick. Sinister was already heavy.

Destructables. Well, with Kaiju stomping around, we need to be able to clear a path for them. Working with AMD and nVidia to see if lots of destructables is something we can support as Kaijus stomp around. Any destructable will have to regen over time, probably simply fading back in after some time. Exception is bases. If we get destructible to be performant enough, bases will show damage that won't repair until players repair them.

...or maybe for the extra germanysh feal TZI - HOE (said viv ze german akcent, off khors!)

that said, i'd like my pet's voice to be more Darth Vader-y as i think that's the perfect human/robo combo for asuch a voice type. but aside from voice pitch, i'd like to be able to "buy personalities" like in FF for my character (even if bought as customization option) for my pet so i can hear some jokes before the laugh...LOL

...i guess it's smt thats gonna be done since it wasn't in the gunz part of the update (btw m8, awesome work on the wpns! ), but i'm guessing some kind of HUD animation will tell you which enemies you're targeting with ur missile swarm....?

the part about destructible surroundings is also of great interest to me. as some players mentioned b4, it can be a double edged sword so i'd love to hear more about before i can make a proper opinion about it in order to give you some more quality feedback.
often the feedback part of our "relationship" (ember and us) "underperforms" because we get the idea, but lack some shall we say "crucial info" so we can better understand your visiou (which often spawns the "forum slugfests" )...
...in this particular case...if destructible stuff is/will be a feature...
will it be limited to buildings/nature? buildings as in just the base or does it apply to stuff like giant boulders some tsi-hu might be hiding behind and stuff, while nature means more along the line of destroying trees and "stuff that can re grow", is what i ment
will some parts that are destroyed re spawn back and if so which 1s?
how much force or what type of damage will have such an effect? to destroy a mountain, so to speak, a machinegun, even a mech MG would take like a month, while a mortar would take a minute or less...lol
will the destruction be usable/abuseable by the players? being able to "shoot a stone bridge over lava" and so destroy an enemy you lured there would be fun,but if incorrectly balanced it could be (and prolly would be) abused by players. in this case, the chain wielding tsi-hu could either "grappling hook itself" out of the predicament or could even try to use the grappling hook to "take the player down with it". this could somewhat teach players to not be a "one trick pnoy", imo.
there's prolly more things i could ask you about it, but i just woke up 20 min ago and still in my 1st coffee cup and this is all i can think of...cheeers

 

[Grummz]

Hey i like the idea of some personality to the mech but what about different personalities.
If we were presented the "sinister" one, can we have the overly serious, logical and a bit intimidating one?
I bet some people would prefere it.
The best example i can think of if me3 geth juggernaut voices, i will present some here.

Great ideas!

 

[Terib.Shadow]

Well that's good to see, don't really know what i think of the THMPR laughs, i'll let the community decide for me, i'll be fine with whatever is chosen.

And that lore drop, I didn't learn anything new, i already knew all the stuff you said, i guess i spent a good bit of time reading the lore already.

Great update!

 

[Wrexan]

Voice #0, but Geth's voice is better.

Spoiler

Somewhere:
- Sir, we found a lot of resources! According to intelligence the area is full of players with their iron pets.
- Send all available units. Gain control on this area, then start mining.
- What do we do with the players?
- Get rid of these mutants, so tired of anatomical ugliness of these upstarts. Thumpers are smart enough and universal, so they can fight and dig on their own. Just send those laughing ironpieces.
No seriously. A large independent pet with a funny drill that run and laughing around?

 

[Dubbelklik]

I liked the third one, but I can see I'm in the minority there.

 

[Pandagnome]

* Mark & T-shirt is back
* Tsi hu has a small butt! could it have armor i guess shooting tranquilizers at that spot could be effective hmm
* Hello Ricardo good work
* I like the run animation looks great, would there be more run animations for say light class as to me this seems like a heavy class run
the way he swings his arms and upper back curved at 3.58
* laught 1 seemed like a robo butler laugh, laugh 2 sounds very digital, laugh 3 is a trickster/goofy laugh
I like a subtle laugh and the old one sounded abit like the darlek's all depends on the personality too.
* Neat lore this has a nice stargate feel
* Mark almost did a smile at the end!!!!