The Alpha Commander

Have you been reading what I've been saying? The Model itself is not a quick 'test' model, it's a fully detailed model on par wit the Delta, Uber wouldn't pay someone to Do it to that quality for a test.

The Whole premise Uber is working under is that having a limited Number of Rigs(Last mentioned number was 4) cuts down on the work involved from the Animation side of things. This isn't a "Re-skin" of the Delta, this is the Alpha design Using the same RIG as the Delta(which is entirely the point) which cause changes to its design from the Concept such that many of use are dissatisfied with the result. Not to mention things like the reuse of the Gun/Lathe and how things are being homogenized with the Arm Shields and such.

Mike

Mike is pretty right on. Obviously, we haven't made any final decisions on this, but the Alpha model was conformed to fit the rig, so it could use the animation sets that already existed.

Steve is still spending most of his time determining how he wants to make the various commanders work, look and feel, and while it won't necessarily be a limit for the long term game (if people want to rig and animate their own commanders in the mod marketplace, there are no technical reasons it won't be possible), but near term, we're trying to best get our heads around building ~100 commanders for launch. A number you can extrapolate if you look at our Kickstarter backer numbers. That's a lot of commanders to make, so determining some constraints up front will make sure they get made and get the appropriate amount of love and attention needed to make each one awesome.

Oh... Okay, that puts everything in a bit more perspective. 100 Commanders...

That's a bit...

Ridiculous...

****.

Criticism rescinded. He looks awesome. Carry on.

Reserving judgement. Criticism stands, but I can better appreciate the pressure you're under to get one hundred Commanders done (though four rigs is no where near enough for so many Commanders)

The "No Final Decision" part is what I'm most glad to see.

Thank you Garat!

I get the intent behind the system, I'm well aware of the challenges of doing 100 custom commanders(minus mine) but the thing is, the Alpha isn't one of those 100 thought, so I'm not sure why the Alpha in particular was chosen especially given the result. Why not the Imperial? You have the Mesh already, it just needs to be conformed to the Rig.

I guess the biggest sticking point is why does the Rig need to be exact, why does it break if the shoulders are farther apart or the Gun/Lathe arms are a different design?

I can understand cutting down on the animation work needed, and I could understand something like "These are the proportions for the legs" and needing to stick to them, because Good Walking anims take work, but things like the Gun/Lathe Anims are a lot easier to do so why take away that individuality? Especially for one of you "CORE" commander designs.

Glad to hear back, and I'll wait to see what comes down the pipe yet, but let it be known I'm seeing lots of potential for troublesome things with future Commander designs.

Also I know Neutrino has mentioned a couple of times for the 1k backers that if they can provide the artwork it might be an option, is that still an option and if so, does that extend to Rigs and Animation?

Mike

Double post I know, but I just wanted to show something I worked on today;



Note that this is staying Within the bounds of the current Rig, definitely still far from perfect but I feel it's a good representation of the Concept all things considered.

And because Posing can help;



even with a stance similar to that of the concept, I feel it's clear that the lack of width in the Hips and Shoulders really hurts the silhouette. The smallish Gun/Lathe arms aren't really helping either.

I think tomorrow's project will be to expand beyond the Rig and see what I can come up with for a 'direct' translation.....with a couple of extra goodies of course.

Edit: 3500th post woo!

Mike

Awesome work!

The pose is extremely important. The commander should keep his arms down when he does not use them - like in the concept trailer.

I have made a comparison for the delta commander (unit viewer/presentation/ingame). The unit viewer shows very raw data - you can't use it for comparing. But when comparing between the presentation and ingame, the Delta commander comes extremly close. The only differences are the shoulders, the lack of animation of the cannons and shoulders and the fact, that the commander don't keep his arms down - which I think is the most important thing. Is there something else I have forgotten?

Uber has to create 100 different commanders, which is a lot. But I would hope that these things will be added to the game in any case, now or after the release.

Well done Mike, well done.

@Devs: Maybe it is a dumb suggestion, but... maybe the community can help out creating some of the 100 commanders. Here are some very talented people with a lot of experience - like Mike.
Not everybody can help, for sure. But maybe you can pick up some of your favorites.
I cant speak for the community, but I think most of us are willing to help.

Im glad to hear that you guys don't stick your head in the sand and shove it out just "to get it finished". i don't think it's ugly, but it can do with some extra love.

Oh oh, are we *eventually* gonna see like a huge 100-commander gallery?

The issue is that they plan on having all of the Pimp my Commanders done by the time retail is launched, which means their artists are going to be under twice the pressure they would normally be making a game like this.

I'm surprised they would promise all custom commanders done by retail though... That's something I would ask the $1000 backers if they could wait a bit for their Commander.

I agree. In my opinion I think it's more important to get the core game done first.
To make sure the game has all of its features and is more or less bug free.
Focus everything on finishing the game now and the custom commanders after release.

Well don't get too excited, if Uber allows it as I asked here, but I'll be pretty busy with my Commander, depending on when Uber starts working with the 1K+ Backers for the Commanders there might not be enough time to work on multiple Commanders, and to be frank, there are going to be ideas that I would not be able to execute effectively because I just wouldn't like them! xD

I made a suggestion to Neutrino ages ago that he seemed to like about putting the 1K Commanders(and 5K units, maybe 10K what evers?) as part of the credit roll. But having a Big unit/commander Encyclopedia/statsheet/gallery would be good too.

That is what makes the Custom Commander reward so damn brilliant, Once we get a bit into Beta most of the features should be implemented, Art assets locked in....and aside from little art tweaks and Artists(or pure artists at least) have next to nothing to do, so they can work on the Custom Commanders.

Mike

I'll gladly help make 5 or so Commanders, maybe 10. I can cook up a custom rig and geometry in 1 hour flat, with UV maps and Animations in another hour, my issue is getting concept art for the geometry. If I actually have concept art or a description to go off of I might be able to do 3 Commanders in a full day, with some time for PA in the afternoon.

I'm having difficulty coming up with any examples of games where the official release directly used (with permission) community-made assets. The only one I can think of is Kerbal Space Program, but that was because the modders in question actually got hired as part-time devs because of their stellar modding work. And maybe Dwarf Fortress, which used a community-built list of the physical properties of rocks, but that's more like community-driven data-entry than actual modding. Ain't nobody got time to look up 60 different rocks.

It's probably a nightmare to agree on licensing/royalties, idk.

I figure there is some sort of form for the artists to let a certain company or individual use their artwork. Consent to Inclusion or some legal bullshit. I hate civil law sometimes, when it causes more trouble than it prevents it needs to be reformatted.

I imagine that is the case, but considering Uber's other plans(primarily those dealing with Mods) I feel like they've already looked into this kind of stuff or plan to in the near future regardless.

Mike

I guess what disappoints me is that they have the exact same cannon and build arms as the Delta. Something that gave the Alpha commander a lot of character was the unique design tool arms, and having them be cookie cutter like that saps some personality.

IIRC, the design of the alpha was made before the Delta commander had it's arms changed (they used to be identical).