Mech Prototypes WIP

[elio]

[new paradigm leader]

they block this website it's a shame
just because it's about a game

yeah i know how ya feel web censorship is something we all have although mayhaps try DNS converting to protocol address?
anyway youll be laughing when you earn more than the principal/Head of school on computer games

[Buginator]

Heavy mechs with weapons

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs26/i/2009/249/5/e/Heavy_Mech_with_new_weapons_by_XANAPRIME.png
^^^^^click for full view^^^^^

download
http://www.deviantart.com/download/135767886/Heavy_Mech_with_new_weapons_by_XANAPRIME.zip




light mech

download
http://www.deviantart.com/download/136105406/Light_Mech_by_XANAPRIME.zip

Just have to say, this is just awesome stuff!

Nice job!

[wari]

Will there be a mod available soon putting these in game?

[whippersnapper]

Will there be a mod available soon putting these in game?

XANAX has provided all the source files here for download so anyone can make a mod of them however they choose.

A straight mod assembly of the files literally takes less than 5 minutes, no exaggeration .... don't even have to deal with .wrfs.

Couldn't be simpler, XANAX did all the hard work already creating the art and modified ani file.

Regards, whip

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[Tenoh]

its all good other then the ugly legs,make them like mechs in earth 2150.

[whippersnapper]

its all good other then the ugly legs,make them like mechs in earth 2150.

An engine of war with purty legs - I can dig it.

But seriously - let's remember that these are prototype-WIPS even though they work perfectly.

However, I do have a concern myself.

As is the Mechs serve fine the ends I'm using them for in "War School" but for general game play there is something I wouldn't be surprised if XANAX is already addressing with his keen eye.

Here's the concern...

XANAX has made fantastic details in geometry and textures that are almost completely lost when you scroll the camera out for a maximum strategic over view.

This is not only a shame aesthetically to lose those details but it is also a very practical issue - you cannot tell at a glance your Mech weapon platforms apart fully zoomed-out and for general game play that's an issue. Mechs without weapons also suffer the same fate - Mechanics and Engineers, I'm referring to.

This can be addressed in different ways without changing the base model geometry and I have no doubt XANAX can ably create the various texture change solution-techniques..

One way would be to apply color contrasts in the textures along the defining geometry edges as well the details achieved on the poly faces through pure texture pattern.

There is one Mech's weapon platform that points the way already to this solution and i featured screen caps of it in the War School thread the other day.

Another parallel technique can be seen in how Grim did the Wall Textures in the Grim Mod I recently made compatible with the current game binary-data set. No matter maximum zoom-out, those wall details hold their visual definition.

XANAX will likely come up with other ways of his own devising.

But again.... the purpose of a Prototype release is to catch these practical issues so that they can be successfully tackled in the next WIP iteration which will likely amount to modified texture pages.

Regards, whip
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[astorian]

I see quality work here.
Astorian

[whippersnapper]

I see quality work here.
Astorian

Absolutely. Very high quality and quite rare at this level of quality, start to finished creation, over the entire 10 year history of the game.

Maybe a handful are in that rarefied club of both excellence and accomplishment artistically in this decade. I can, but won't, name the other artists here because this thread should remain all about XANAX's creations.

The only real thing I miss about the NEWST web site is that it maintained an honor roll of true accomplishment and substantive contributions by members in the community both active and no longer. Unlike the current READ ME which lists some of the biggest poseurs I've ever encountered in WZ or any other game community and excludes ALL the majority of real contributors that made even posting this right now a reality long ago by their many efforts and real accomplishments not just some IRC BS of self-promotion.. Oh well, I've come to accept that crap reality grudgingly in favor of focusing on positive acts and true contributors and contributions in this current era.


Regards, whip

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[Zarel]

The only real thing I miss about the NEWST web site is that it maintained an honor roll of true accomplishment and substantive contributions by members in the community both active and no longer. Unlike the current READ ME which lists some of the biggest poseurs I've ever encountered in WZ or any other game community and excludes ALL the majority of real contributors that made even posting this right now a reality long ago by their many efforts and real accomplishments not just some IRC BS of self-promotion.. Oh well, I've come to accept that crap reality grudgingly in favor of focusing on positive acts and true contributors and contributions in this current era.

The current readme doesn't even list anything at all...

Do you mean the AUTHORS file?

[whippersnapper]

The current readme doesn't even list anything at all...

Do you mean the AUTHORS file?

It was a .txt file from a recent distro I read for the first time a couple months ago and it just about floored me with convulsions mingling an urge to deep belly laughter and being utterly aghast. I've known all these peeps up close and personal for years - know whose stand-up and solid and who is mostly full of chit. (Generally I don't read the .txt files unless they are change logs & why I did this time i can't really say but for simple curiosity. Subconsciously, I think it's also one of the reasons I've deliberately avoided the IRC channel over the years. From looking at the logs these poseurs hang there like barnacles and, frankly, I don't trust myself to engage in civil discourse listening to their tired blather in real time.)

Anyway... this is all a done deal. It's out there and been out there for years now, looks like. Nothing practically can be done to change the entrenched bull chit having achieved such lofty status and the truly accomplished and deserving tossed to the proverbial dung heap of anonymity. Such is life sometimes and you'd best let those instances roll off your back like a duck water and get on with it.

This is also one of those situations where the truth matters but fighting for it would be like Don Quixote jousting with windmills taking them for fierce fire-breathing dragons - a metaphor that was brought to my attention in private, amiable, good-willed correspondence by one of the devs a couple weeks back and in this instance he would be absolutely right.,

Facility with my stream of consciousness faculty serves me well in all my creative work and in most RL social intercourse where it is often perceived as a distinct and amusing charm - or so I have been told enough to lend some credence to it. Raising this subject here is one of the few instances were this stream of consciousness expressive facility does NOT serve anyone well and is a clear mistake on my part for which I humbly apologize and ask that we not get into it any further - certainly there will be no names or any other details forthcoming on my end.

K, folks... let's get back to XANAX's Mechs in all their glorious potential for truly fresh fun, WZ gaming.

Regards, whip
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[crockerjc82]

i found a cool pic, not sure who made it but it gives an awesome idea, found in on flicker or whatever its called

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpl3k/2175731879/

hope the link works.

[Tenoh]

I still say legs are way too complicated when there is no need for them to be so.

they should be something like this.

[Thyranim]

I still say legs are way too complicated when there is no need for them to be so.

they should be something like this.

That's what i think of, when taking about Mechs

[whippersnapper]

I still say legs are way too complicated when there is no need for them to be so.

they should be something like this.

I see what you mean now. These Mech legs look more formidable, more sturdy. They also illustrate the solution I suggested to my main concern which is seeing the mech details with the camera fully scrolled-out for strategic overview and being able to tell at a glance your different Mech platforms.

XANAX has limited web access these days but I know he has continued to work on the Mechs and that he is also a very informed student of Mech designs in games over the last 12 years. He's also an artist in the sense that slavishly IMITATING and copying others work is not the goal of an artist - folks that do that are NOT artists, they're illustrators and occasionally, in the art world, infamous art forgers. .

So I'm sure XANAX will be open to these suggestions but ultimately he is indeed the artist and will put his own unique spin and signature stamp to his Mech Designs because that is what artists do and why, across all world cultures, the work of genuine artists is valued over those who merely copy extant works.

Great artist create brand new and enduring mind-sets, visions, and follow their muse, are true to it. Mediocre artists perpetuate the same old, same old and always cave into consensus, the board-room edicts of those with no talent.

Regards, whip
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