[WIP] Virus - Episode 1 "Shareware Release"

[Phobus]

It's called quoting images, and I suddenly find the emoticon to be incredibly fitting for you. Do you type with your forehead as well?

[Phobus]

Ok, now as some of you might have noticed, I've not been here for a while. Simply put, I was on holiday, and I decided I'd keep it secret so no trolls came out of the woodwork when one of the mods was missing. This means I'm still where I was on the 23rd of August in terms of progress. I will finish the monsters before I go to uni (I have nearly a month), and then there can be a Virus Zdoom Wars faction, as planned. Then I'll go back to mapping and that'll carry on as expected.

[Phobus]

Below is the theoretical sprite for LCARA1, which is the forward facing frame of the LandCarrier. Here's the basics:

It's a large (256x256x128) tracked vehicle with 12 basic blasters as weapons, two 34x34x82 boxes, each with 20 drones in (the smaller ones with the little pictures on the front) and a 98x64x192 box with two Aircarriers in (the picture is scaled down a little so that it would fit under the hinges at the top of the box). The idea is that it drives around keeping up a constant bombardment with the two sets of 5 basic blasters on each track to harry you, sending out pairs of drones to try and overwhelm you. Every now and then it will stop and face you, firing it's 4 forward facing guns at you on full auto, which will spray the shots around a fair bit. Whilst doing this it stands a small chance of stopping and letting out one of it's two AirCarriers (which themselves have 4 drones and a turret to attack you with, plus their own very weak weapon as a form of defense once thye've dropped their load). It will have the most health (I'm thinking 5000 - but don't worry, you'll have plenty of firepower by then) of anything in Virus and it's the boss for the second episode.

Now I'm wondering, does this sound any good, and more importantly, is this sprite any good at representing what I've described without looking too crappy?

EDIT: Removed, see below.

[BlackRabite]

Hey, that guy's tripleposting! He can't do that! Phobus, ban him!


In all seriousness, now. There's stuff that doesn't sit right with me about this thing. The... the groundholder or whatever it is.

0) The underside looks very flat. Give it some more bulk towards the middle, and put some sort of extravagant emblem or emblazoning on there too for flavouring.
1) The treads need darker colour towards the bottom to add perspective; right now it looks like they're some sort of rectangular, lightly-ridged block.
8) On each track the lighter colour needs to start higher, because right now the top sides of the tracks begin lower than they should, screwing up the perspective.
6) Maybe I just can't read, [ha] but, twelve guns? Two sets of five guns? Four forward-facing guns? That's not twelve. That's nine. But, there aren't nine. There aren't even twelve. I only count two sets of two guns and two forward-facing guns. That's six guns. And, on each track is what appears to be a spotlight and a pipe.
151) The summons come out of boxes on top of the vehicle? That's weird. Where do they all come from? Is there really enough room to hold so many summons? Are they boxes of holding? Teleporters will look better, try teleporters.

[Cutmanmike]

Looks a tad TOO square I dunno. I'll wait and see the angles first

[Phobus]

@BlackRabite:

0) Good thinking, and I agree whole-heartedly... needs something a little more interesting towards the middle. I'll see what I can do.
1) Also a good point, and I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself TBH, as the other tracked monster in this was small enough, with a small area of exposed track, to get away with that sort of laziness. I'll do that too.
8 ) Err... I'm not entirely sure what you mean here, but I'm assuming you mean the lighter blue and in which case I don't see it myself. The lighter blue is the shade used for things which are sloping (on this monster anyway) and that'd imply that there is a slope up the top, starting about a third of the way down it's height.
6) Yep, 12. The track mountings have 5 guns mounted on top, facing forwards, diagonally-forwards-outwards, outwards, diagonally-backwards-outwards and backwards. The latter are behind the former three, thus making them not viewable from this angle. The other two are on the front of the main body, which, when added to the forward facing guns on top of the track mountings makes 12.
151) The Drones are 16x16x16 and the AirCarriers are 94x94x64, which means 20 Drones in each 34x82x34 box is the same as 2x5x2 (with two pixels spare in each dimension for the box itself), which to me makes 20 and the AirCarrier hold is 98x192x64, which is 1x2x1 (once again with space for the box itself) which makes 2. Now this may seem highly confusing and very odd, but those measurements are intended and as the monster is a large tracked weapons platform designed to carry in the other monsters. (And yes, the box measurements would fit on the central platform... with minimal room to spare)

So odd numbering system aside, the first two points are quite handy - cheers.

@Cutty: It's quite angular by design, but not as square as it looks here. I'll get on with the other angels and see if I can make it come to fruition

[Phobus]

A double post as well? This is unacceptable!

Here's the result of me doing what I said I'd do and finishing the 'A' frame. It's got proper perspective and everything on A2A8 and A4A6, which I'm rather proud of It's veyr boxy by design as well, but I've made it interesting where I thought it should be.

What do you think?

EDIT: Monster finished - screenshot of it after a fight below.

[Captain Ventris]

Wow, that is redonkulusly large.

[Phobus]

It has to be to fit in two AirCarriers

[Unknown_Assassin]

Those extra touchups on the LandCarrier makes your sprite awesome compared to your old one.

[Phobus]

Sadly, animation wise, there's not a lot to speak of when it's moving or shooting... or indeed doing anything except spawning one of it's two AirCarrier (big door on the top opens up), spawning it's Drones (two little hatches and the two drones appearing) or dying (probably a nice set of explosions and the tracks rolling away in an odd direction on their own I imagine, before toppling).

Still, it's so big and does so much it doesn't need to look like it's doing a lot from the sprites. Unlike most Doom monsters, which really look like they're working, this actually just does do stuff.

[Phobus]

Another Double I'm afraid.

Here's a screenshot that has "lol pwned" all over it:

Screenshot_Doom_20080905_121901.png

The cyberdemon killed a fair few drones, and the LandCarrier accidently killed one of the AirCarrier's turrets (it's children and grandchildren infight a little, and it fights it's grandchildren). Thing is, the LandCarrier still may have had some Drones, and it had 2142/5000 health at the end of the fight, despite the fact it doesn't attack with anything more powerful than the basic blaster (unless you count the numerous, pretty explosions on death, or the AirCarrier engines blasting stuff).

It's various component pieces explode when it dies, eventually launching the base into the air and then landing, whilst the track parts run off on their own a little way (as projectiles), generally stopping on a wall.

EDIT: Actually, for the sake of balance I'll make it vulnerable to radius damage and try again.

[Phobus]

*Sigh*... Triple Post.

Ok, it's opinion time.

As I'm coming near to the end of making monsters for Virus (literally just the Episode 3 boss to go, complete with the main fight) I'll be turning my attention back to mapping. Now, as I'm sure I've said many times, I intend to release Episode 1 on it's own first, and then finish the rest of Virus and release the whole 3 episode thing in one go, complete with unique INTERPICs for each Episode and easter-egg styled secret maps for each as well.

I want to know if you think it needs a training map to explain the slight changes and odd colour schemes properly.

[Remmirath]

That could be a good idea, just to teach the player the basis of the movement in Virus...

[Dreadopp]

It doesn't at all hurt to have a sort of "tutorial" for some people. I say go for it.