Soo. Character-types

[Oink]

Just to clarify.

Are we restricted to making sleek special forces kind of guys? (Splintercell, starcraft ghost, snipers, scouts etc with "tight rubber suits") or are we allowed to do huge big ass soldiers like gears of war aswell?

Reason im asking is because I would like to know what the limitations are. Of course I will probably do something sleek... but dangit!, I want my options!

I already have some kind of idea of what to have though so...

[FredH]

Big Bads are just as in as skinny bads. Hope this answers your question:p

Meaning, yes, you can make a big beefed up armor plated character on steroids. For instance, a character from Gears of War is perfectly acceptable.

[Oink]

Glorious. Thanks for the quick answer. Now over to ref-hunting.

[MM]

hi, i have a question about the Ancients.
are they technologically as advanced as the rest of the races. for example the ancients in stargate are a very old race but very very advanced in technology. or are they like for example elfs with ornamental armors type?

[FredH]

as ancients, it would be best to have tech that does more than look pretty:p Perhaps your tech should almost look magical? But, it's up to you how you would like to portray this. Good luck!

If you have anymore questions, let me know.

Cheers

[Revliss]

will a demon fit in as an Ancients ?? with hight tec weapon .

[FredH]

Yup. He would:)

[MM]

hey, thanks for the quick response and very nice work on the site and forum, i like.

[Brokbrok]

I'm having some confusion over what it means to be an alien. You talk about flesh vs mechanics, but what if your alien happens to be a gigantic molten rock creature? Could you clarify what "flesh" means? Is it constrained to simply fat and meat?

[FredH]

rock is not robotics, so yup, it's allowed:thumb:

[fogmann]

I'd just like to have something clarified before I get too deep into my idea... I'd like to go with spy, but then perhaps a kind of person that publicly belongs to some other society (not necessarily other team, but some imaginary neutrals that are getting along with everyone) and secretly spies for my team. This character wouldn't be militaristic in any way, and wouldn't engage in battle, so was wondering if maybe that would be taking it too far from the idea of war and what's acceptable? It's just that perhaps since I'm a woman, I don't see much appeal in creating brutes, soldiers, monsters, cyborgs and such, and would rather focus on, say, some crazy fashion possibilities in a year of 3106.

BTW, thanks Fred for organizing this and answering our questions, you're the greatest.

[FredH]

I can understand your dislike for creating brutes, but there are other possibilities as well. As an example, you can make a sleek man that looks almost medieval in fashion, but he has a futuristic weapon and it's only in his expression, that you can see he is truly evil. Think of horror movies. Usually the characters are mostly handsome men, but the way they act and through their expressions, they radiate pure evil. If you can come up with something like this, this might be better than the spy working with neutral races because in this war, there is really no in between races. It's just kill or be killed. But, if you are still inclined to make a spy with a neutral working with a neutral race, as long as he doesn't have more than 20% cybernetics, you will be fine:)

[fogmann]

Thanks for quick response :) The main thing I was concerned is if picking a spy is having to make it look like it is not a spy, or else the cover is blown. If I were to make stealth type spy then it should be unnoticeable, and in this war the character that is unnoticeable... well, gets unnoticed :) Hence, I thought if it was an extravagant person that goes from place to place and is well received everywhere, has a good chance of gathering some juicy info by means of handy well hidden gadgets, and nobody would ever suspect. But you gave me some ideas, I'll go think some more. Thanks again.

[FredH]

No problem. Now get working!:thumb:

[mim]

Hi fred, first of all tnx for all these greate works you did here n there n goodluck btw man!:thumb:
---
Question: as machines:lucky: , they have some guns n vehicle-like-parts atached on them (built in!), so what's on? I mean about polycount, are there totaly 7000 tris for builtin guns + machine itself or what?!:think:

also about vehicle parts, vehicles are machines infact themselves! but also I mean as some movement systems on robots, is it aceptable?! :think:
tnx, mim :D

[FredH]

Vehicles are considered separate objects, so if your machine character has wheels, your good to go.

For your attached weapons, the reason the separate polycount is given for weapons is because weapons usually change during a game. If you don't have detachable weapons, they you would loose the bonus 1000 polygons. Still, 6000 on it's own should be more then enough to get something good done:) Hint, use the 1000 for gear and detachable ammunition if you can't use it for the guns.

Good Luck

[Spaz8]

I think i know the answer to this, but ill ask. Does hair for your character have to be a realtime solution? (cards, polys).. or is a rendering solution allowed?

[FredH]

yup, you guessed right... realtime:)

[Kerepres]

Hello, I wanted to ask, if the human is heavily armored showing no flesh at all not even the face but has a human/alien figure, is this okay?

[Airflow]

Hi, my character has an attached weapon on her arm (a stabbing spike and a energy blade/sheild emmitor), it fires plasma energy created from a energy flare on her back, Id like to model the beam and the plasma as my 1000 poly weapon. Would it be wiser to make the attached weapon seperate, or do I get to keep the extra 1k for weapon fx?

[FredH]

Kerepres --> I am not sure why you would want to make a near rule breaking model? No, I don't think this would be a good idea. I would suggest for you to come up with a new concept that shows there is actually something living inside. There are unlimited possibilities...

Airflow --> Weapon fx would count as the background. You would have unlimited polygons to create it. But, if you create a weapon that is attached to your character, then you would loose the 1000 poly budget for the weapon. So yup it would be a good idea to find a way to keep the weapon detached:)

[Masakari]

Thanks for the great support so far, Fred! Couple more questions for you:

1) If i want to give my robot (i'm with 3DTotal) a protective forcefield, does that count as weapon fx, thus unlimited polys? If yes, does that mean i can only use it in the beauty shot, or can i also use it (and do weapon fx) on the winning pose?

2) Pets and Steeds and allowed, and we have 1000 tris external for weapons - i want to give my hunter-killer robot two Drones, which float around him, and provide firepower, sensors, generate the forcefield, etc (fluff text stuff).
First off, can i do this? i'm guessing yes, because drones are to robots what pets and steeds are to humanoids, but no harm in clarifying.
And secondly, it means i would use the 1000 tris for the Drones, since they will count as external weapons, am i correct?

Thanks in advance!

[FredH]

1. Yup, you are correct, you would have unlimited polygons for the force field.

2. If you give your robot two drones, it's up to you whether you want to take it out of your character budget or weapons budget... but not both. It's either/or here.

Always happy to help. Good Luck:)

_FreD_

[Masakari]

Thanks Fred! :)

[Kerepres]

Ahahaha... I guess I need to change then. Thank you, Fred.

[Revliss]

ok what count as weapon FX ??? so do the energy emited from a blade count as weapon fx ?? is it for the beauty shot only ?? or can be on the winning pose???

[FredH]

Yes, this can be done on the winning pose shot too.

Also, yes, glows on weapons of any type don't count toward its poly budget.

Good Luck!

[mim]

Hi fred, one more question! :think:

Is it a must to do that whole of model was a unique mesh, or it can constructed from several elements(?!) rigged to each other like gears?! I mean about joints!

tnx :thumb: , mim




PS:sorry if it isn't clear my question! thought my EN isn't good enough!:brick:
if it wasn't clear just look at my robot:
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/showthread.php?t=49284&page=4
tnx again, mim :cool:

[FredH]

Mim, I think I understand. Feel free to make your model into as many pieces as you would like:)