Squid Empire
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Posts posted by Squid Empire
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RIP Ensemble studios
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Do you intend on doing something like a compilation picture where we can see most, if not all of these character designs in one place... like a not-so-angry mob? You could just paste them all in if they're already on single layers and make a wallpaper or something out of it. Just a thought.
Also, I like the miner's heavier equpiment setup. That would look pretty decent as a steampunk thing if you combined that with say the oil driller outfits.
Sure, why not
Thanks for the feedback on the miners gear! I want the tone of this game to be leaning or edging towards heavy industrial. It's going to be mainly light industry (like the lumberjacks or fishermen) but there should be hints everywhere that it could tip at any moment - like the heavy miners. That said, I also want a sort of frontier look to it as well, so I worked a bit to make the uniforms a little 'unpolished' so that they haven't been streamlined - again, hence the miner's cumbersome equipment, or the courier's accoutrements.
As for the info I wanted to post yesterday, here's a dump of my thoughts.
I've been thinking about narrowing down the environmental scope of the game. Perhaps setting it in a specific region. My ideas lean towards a Scandinavian/Bavarian style with mountains, snow, and autumn forests, vast grasslands and windy plains. Most of the terrain styles I listed in my main post would be kept, with only ones like the desert cut. A bonus of this is that Scandinavian people are stereotyped as very quiet and stoic, so it'd be within limits (and fun!) to have the NPC's stand in dramatic places and silently look out over the landscapes at sunset. Plus, it might freak out the player!
Another idea I had was to have the citizens have pre-selected random ethnic backgrounds. Depending on their background they might speak a different language in their interactions. I'd imagine that would cause players to interact more with npc's that speak their language, which might be fun for forming 'favourite citizens'.
In the building blocks Vs pre-made buildings debate, I pretty sure I'm going to end up going with pre-made, with some simple building blocks that can be added on (like balconies, stairs, empty rooms, and the like). This should maintain the advantages of both systems.
In terms of town customisation, I was thinking more about having various little touches for the player to control. Things like a town colour or a coat-of-arms (they can make one from pre-chosen elements). If your people are happy, they'll display the colours proudly from their homes, if they're sad, you might see graffiti covering up your coat-of-arms.
Speaking of customisation, I have a final dilemma with the soldier npcs. I haven't yet determined whether their role will be chiefly as a guard or police for the city, a soldier who fights wars, or an adventurer who explores with the player. They're hopefully going to do all three of these things, but all three call for very different uniform designs (or do they?). Should I:
- Create one soldier npc that has a combination of design features from the three types
- Create three different types of soldier, with the player choosing 1 type as their town's version (either as only an aesthetic change or involving their effectiveness at their roles)
- Create three different types of soldier, each being able to be trained and deployed separately
- Have all soldiers equal in stats, but have player customisation on what their soldiers look like (helmet, armour, colour etc)
- Something else?
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It's been a while now since you showed it, but I see some Valkyria Chronicles HMG infulences in that assault rifle, haha.
I've never played that game, but I suppose it's a good sign to have my work compared to it!
Here's the oil driller.
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It's been a while!
I did this but had so much fun on the background I was sad to cover it up
So here's the background only version!
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Here's the courier
I spent a bit longer on this one, it's fun to start to add in the really obvious dieselpunk elements
edit:
And here's the miner!
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I have a few large decisions still floating around my head.
Firstly, alarmingly I still haven't sorted out the actual game goal. It's simple enough to say it's a city-building survival game, but by combining those two we'd have to cut the goals for either back massively. While a city-building or RTS game can have hundreds of units and buildings all buzzing around - they're very basic when looks at up close. In a first person game, the characters will all need animations, high resolutions textures, complex AI - and the buildings will need interiors, detailing, effects and so on. From a performance standpoint, a first-person city builder must be scaled back dramatically. I would imagine a limit of a hundred or so citizens on a powerful computers, probably with an ideal number around the 50s. To this end, the 'goal' of city building games - to build the largest, most efficient city, doesn't really apply to this one.
In a survival game the goal depends on how the game is played. In a single-player Minecraft game an end game could either be after the player has constructed whatever it was they wanted to build, or has 'won' by stockpiling massive supplies of the best equipment, with automated farms and fortifications. On an on-line survival game, like rust, the goal is often to have the best possible gear and base in order to defeat all other players. My game concept doesn't really have any need to build enormous bases or stockpile weapons to fight.So it seems I need to work on the goal of the game. I've had some ideas.
- Focus on running a settlement - make building it harder, make the citizens require more resources, have upgrades, hard to build things, difficult goals to work towards essentially.
- Focus on the roleplaying - have citizens give random quests, have a storyline or series of large quests, put effort into the players items and gear so they can work to get better stuff
- Focus on the survival - have the environment be hostile, make it a real challenge to build even a small town, making it a goal to have a big town full of healthy people
- Focus on the citizens - give the player more control over their population, the citizens can be trained, taught or talked to, make it a bit like the sims
- Focus on combat - add some really tough enemies, enemy bases, invasions and the like
On top of that I've been working on a list of citizen names, just for fun.
Male first names
AlanAndrewBudDeanDonEdwardErikFrankGeorgeGiacomoGunterHansHenrikHerculeImmanuelJeanJoelJörn
KlausLiefMarcoMarkNathanPetriPierreRichardRolandTeroThomasTimothyTitusWilhelmWillemFemale first names
AbigaleAiikiAlexaAnnabelleAnnabethBethanyBiancaBridgetCaarmelaElizabethEricaEvitaHelgaIsabellaJoanJulietLailaMaryNatalieNataschaNicoleSarahTeriSurnames
AdamsBakerBrookcaneBrunelByronCaineDeWittEriksonFontaineGaribaldiGiambaIsambardMcKentMcTrentNorthboroughO'LearyO'NeilsonOlafsonPaxtanRoukariRyanSmithStensonStentTensonTennantVanMarkWearworthWentworth0 -
The women's anatomy is getting better with each drawing. Well at least the legs as that's what I didn't like first, as they were the same as males'.
Haha thanks - I don't think I get enough practise normally so this has been good for me! So far they've all ended up looking pretty similar because I've been pretty much drawing them all off the same base, but I'll try to inject more difference henceforth.
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Fishermen
Also shovelmen (and shovelwomen)
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Sure, all programming languages are instead replaced with Malbolge, swiftly leading to the collapse of humanity.
I wish less money was spent on defence and more on space in all countries
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Lumberjacks:
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Okay, it's 70" wide and 1" tall.
I wish the Fallout 4 pip-boy edition hadn't immediately sold out
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All right I have an important decision. There's a scale when it comes from buildings that goes from Lego (or Minecraft) style building blocks on one end to Age of Empires style buildings on the other. In my concept so far I've tried to stick to the centre leaning towards the Lego side (with building blocks that can be added together to make special buildings), but I've been increasingly thinking that it might make more sense to go with the city-building style of placing down entire buildings in one go.
I've put work on city concepts on hold until I can get this sorted out.
Here's a quick comparison:
Building blocks:
- Allows customisation of how the settlement looks
- Lets the player create unorthodox buildings
- Matches well with survival aspects
- Increases NPC coding workload to deal with weird buildings
- Decreases detail in the buildings (unless there's hundreds of blocks to choose from - which won't be happening)
- Could become tedious when building many of the same sort of building
Buildings:
- Gives detailed, pre-designed buildings
- Allows settlements to be built faster
- Greatly simplifies NPC AI- the doors and other objects will always be in certain areas
- Matches well with city-building aspects
- Greatly decreases the players ability to customise their town (maybe compensate with different styles of buildings? Colours? Upgrades? Decals? Gardens?)
- Reduces the skill involved in creating an efficient town
- I'll say it again because it's the main issue; greatly reduces the players creative ability in game
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Okay, your office is now the vast expanse of space, and your stapler is in the Andromeda Galaxy.
I wish I had a pet Giant Squid
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Wow, you're really into all of this Squid. I love your enthusiasm and sense of conviction around getting an idea out of your head and into a visual form. Keep up with exploring your ideas, it's starting to shape up nicely.
Thanks! That's the plan, I often work in bursts and if I can get all the planning done in the next few weeks I'll be good footing from then.
That's not a concept, that's a complete model. You actually seem to be good at modeling, I don't know why you badged yourself as concept artist and never tried to fully walk the modeler's path.
I'm sure our modellers could point out myriad problems with my model. I'm decent at working in 3D - putting shapes together and the like, but have no idea about things like materials or optimising. And besides sketchup is easy! Anyone can be great at making things in it. However I do eventually plan on learning how to make real models at some point - especially If I'm going to be working on my game alone most of the time.
I need to make a large 'gameplay' concept showing what a town might look like, but other then that are there any requests for which parts I should focus on? More civilian concepts? Landspaces? GUI? Anything else?
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Looks awesome
Keep them coming!
Thanks Dave
Here's the last weapon concept (besides knife) to be done, the automatic rifle.
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I've done concept arts for all natural resources as they'd appear when placed in world (excluding minerals)
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Concept art for citizens:
I've recently heard that Source 2 is coming out soon and that it'll be free to use for creating new content. Maybe that would be an option to consider for this? Has anyone got any experience on Source engine / anything they know about it they'd want to share?
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I nominated him for most anti-climatic boss ever, but I don't dislike him for that really. It was a fun ending to just convince him to step down but you have to admit it was anti-climactic!
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Here it is
I attempted a render:
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I'd like to pose the question of music. I have some ideas but some input would be cool.
Firstly I expect there to be two separate musical types present; there'd be music for exploring or just being outside, and music for settlements. I'd imagine the music would be triggered occasionally, first-person style, rather then constantly playing in city-building style.
I'd hope it was handled like it was in Skyrim where the music is appropriate and enters subtly rather then in like in Minecraft where bizarre loud chords suddenly jar all over the place.
Here are my ideas:
Exterior music (natural landscapes):
- Strings (lots)
- General orchestra stuff with brass and strings
- Simple, quiet, abstract/atmospheric percussion (this might be confusing though... mix with strings?)
- Smooth lounge/big band music (period style)
- Male choir with soft backing (might be overly dramatic lol)
Settlement music:
- Upbeat orchestra
- Period music (jazz, big band, etc.)
- Strings and brass
Hopefully I can licence some period music, or find some royalty free. This would be useful for things like the television sets in citizen houses anyway.
Edit: another question
I've started on the pistol concept and I want to base it off the gun on the left. However I don't really like the wimpy grip so I've got some pictures merging it with something more appropriate. Which version do you like best?
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Here is the concept for the rifle. It's semi-auto and shoots very accurate over long range. I know the heat sink is silly but I like the way it looks... at least it won't ever get hot enough to burn your hands!
Sorry for lots of pictures, I'm pretty happy with it though
View in dodgy 3D:
More:
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Yet another reason for me to visit the Netherlands!
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Ha haha ha! Internet!
The Australian Government has a plan to replace old copper wires with fibre optics all over the country. When's it coming to where I live? "No current plans"
By the way, I'm currently on company level internet plan with the highest speeds Telstra offers
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Interesting Concept...
I am cautious with how much input I give to a game in drafting phase considering I am still grasping the concept.
Yet I was wondering about the NPC spawning dynamic.
Are the NPCs found around the map? (generated with map/spawn timer locations) Or are they in a town/ship/village structure? (spawn in single/multi structure location) Or are they summoned? (like bought for a price or crafted/machined or called in from off map)
Thanks for the interest! This is actually when I want the most feedback, as nothing is set in stone yet we can work out how everything fits together easiest at this stage.
As for NPC's I have this idea. Once a settlement is founded, and a house is built, an NPC will spawn somewhere out of line of sight around your town. They will walk to your town and stand around at the town hall building. You can then either accept them as a new citizen in Mayor mode or first person, or dismiss them. After another 5 minuets another citizen would turn up if you dismissed them.
Alternatively, there would be pre-made roads criss-crossing the map. Occasional NPC's would spawn on the road and travel around on it. You could then build your town near a road, or hook one of your roads up to one, and ask any NPC's you find on it to join you.
The pre-requisite for having a new citizen would be for your town to have a free home for them to move into. If they're get too unhappy (from lack of food, clothing etc.) they'll leave the town on their own accord.
Miner NPC concept image
I was thinking some more about actual gameplay and maybe I should change some things. In my plan I've mentioned having other AI settlements that exist around the world for the player to trade with or attack. This sounds pretty difficult to manage unless they're just pre-built and run according to simple scripts, but then there's hardly any point in them. So what do NPC settlements offer the game?
- A feeling of a populated world
- A place to gain rare resources (through trade)
- A challenge (to attack/invade or defend against)
While the first of these is a bit difficult to replace, the second and third elements could be replaced with dangerous animals. Perhaps oil or other resources can only be harvested from some sort of creature, that is very dangerous to take down. My immediate though was a sort of gigantic sky whale that floats above everything. They could be moderately rare creatures that float around the map, and hate smoke - so they attack player buildings. They'd take a lot of weapons to take down but might offer great rewards, like rare resources. Also, it'd be damn cool to be standing around in your draughty, creaking, 4 story high wooden apartment in the dead of night, only to hear the distant echoy bellow of a dreaded skywhale echo around the fjord.
I'd rather not entirely remove AI settlements, but they could be simplified to villages made of pre-built specific buildings that never expand.
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Make your own C&C faction!
in Off-Topic Discussion
Posted
Make your own C&C faction!
Hello!
Have you ever been playing a C&C game and thought "these teams are pretty good, but I've got this idea..."? Well now's the time to share your ideas! Post your own faction here to show off your own perfect (or maybe not) C&C team!
Nodlied and I were part of a similar thread back at BHP and we thought we'd do something similar here.
The rules are simple; simply follow the guidelines below, and try to keep your faction balanced. Also use spoiler if you're going to post a lot of text and images to make it easier to navigate the thread.
When you post a new faction make sure it has the following:
*Unit and building instructions:
When describing units include this info:
When describing buildings include this info:
You might also want to include:
Remember that the game your faction would fit into follows the standard C&C formula, so try to include things like engineers, power plants, harvesters and the like - though feel free to mix it up as much as you want.
There's no restriction on time period or technology level either, so go nuts!