For Backers Only: Scale Tests - Renders

Indeed, by using "silo" I was thinking deposit (silo in french also means deposit)
I like the idea of energy-deposit extending when they are full of energy.

I did not play supcom so I was not used with the link purpose for slightly reducing energy consumption.

Of course, just trying to see what we can expect (without taking it as promises).

Thank for your answer.

I think it's not a storage but a generator, the left one is the upgraded version, I also noticed that they are connected to other buildings like in Supcom ^^

I'm really liking what I see in these shots. One of the goals I recall from SupCom was that zooming out from an assault mech to see an enormous battleship would convey the enormous scale. But this was kind of lost on the player when they spent a lot of their time zoomed out. I think this art style will go a long way in conveying that sense of scale in PA.

Now I know that these are all unfinished, and mainly for reference, but there is one thing I'd like to note. Colors play an important part in identifying certain units on the battlefield, especially in an RTS game where the player can zoom out enough that the unit profile may not be enough to immediately identify it. Accenting certain units with specific colors would definitely go a ways in helping with this identification. For example, the yellow backpacks on the commanders in TA were very distinct and allowed the player to quickly tell them apart from other units at a glance.

I think you've got the relative scales of unit-to-unit, building-to-building and building-to-unit, and environment-bit-to-unit absolutely spot on.

Unit-to-factory and everything-to-interplanetary-structure ratios bear special mention; the first one gets the feeling of a factory just right and the latter makes those structures feel like an important part of the map, beyond a simple construction.

Neutrino in another thread:

And thank Elune for that annoying bit of micro is out.

Commanders seem small compared to the Buildings, but I could get used to it.



Are Commanders people/aliens in mech suits or are they pure robots just like everything else?

In this setting, Robots.

Mike

I prefer my deathbots from the future to be 50-100m tall.

Everything does look very nice though.

My only question here is the scale of the trees vs the rest. Just as an example, Pine trees grow from 15-45m in height. In the interest of making forests and such impassable to larger units it may be worthwhile taking a look at how different size trees / foliage match up to the unit sizes.

Another point to consider is that if you're ripping resources out of the ground, a reasonable scale can only help your believability - it's hard to imagine extracting enough resources to make a 50m tall peewee type unit out of a 20x20 block of dirt, let alone a whole army of them

Let me add to the chorus of acclaim.

Relatively large buildings and terrain look great but any thoughts on how best to handle the "hidden units" unavoidably obscured by them.
i.e. Transparency, Strategic icons on sticks, just Zoom Out to a more top-down view, etc?

WOW! This is incredible! But I do have just one opinion, and this is just what I think, but to me the tanks are kinda small. I just think they would be a tad bit bigger, or maybe I am wrong. Anyways keep up the good work Uber, its looking amazing!

That's the first thing I noticed too.

But now that I think of it, if it's possible to rotate buildings when placing them. Then you could use limited firing arcs as a way to balance some of the super long range artillery.

One of the things people really didn't like about T3 artillery was how it made setting up secondary bases far to difficult, because any pile of mass extractors and other small buildings would die under a hailstorm of bullets.

But if you said "any long range artillery only has a firing arc of 30 degrees (or whatever) and can't be rotated after building" Then you could build plenty of artillery, aiming it at your enemy's main base and a few other places you want to cover. But if you opponent went far enough off to the side they could build in peace for a while, until you build more artillery.

Really enjoying this stuff, looks good over all, but is it a possibility those "new commanders" are default commanders for the different races? Hmmm hmmm?

No, they're just different commanders.

Mike

the second commander from the left is clearly the Core Commander ;p, others, don't know yet

OnTopic: love the scale concept, really spot on. Can't wait to see more.

Hawk

Why yes you could!

In fact it opens up a lot of interesting directional possibilities. I've wanted to try it forever...

What, you mean we could actually entertain the thought of a directional defensive line?

We might actually care about whether terrain blocks movement or creates holes in our defensive line?

INCONCEIVABLE!


PS. Please make a good range ring / arc of fire interface.

It's not a promise but I want to try it.

Ok here's a question - there's a raging topic going on about building facing, which neutrino just here basically said we'll be able to orient our buildings...

How do you guys want us to handle things *said* by you in the backer only forums? Can I thump the silly people with quotes or not?

I don't want to mess up the possibility of Uber opening up a bit more here in the backer forums.

Scale looks good to me. But I am failing to see much of a difference between it and TA/SupCom scale. The best part of this scale to me is the buildings to units, not the commanders to units. Can you elaborate on what you thought lacked work of the scale in the previous games neutrino? Or rather, anyone?