Tiberian Dawn: Ground Zero Update #7

[Killing_You]

[blurb][/blurb]

Hello, and welcome to this long overdue Tiberian Dawn: Ground Zero update! Wheels may have been turning a little slowly due to exterior factors, but they have been turning! It's about time we show off some of the fruits of these endeavors!

REFINERY

We finally have the last of ACK's original structures set up and ingame! Thanks to @ TeamWolf , the Refinery is on the battlefield at long last! It should be noted that the interior is due for a rework, but this will give an idea of what to expect from a broad perspective. Plus, it is nice to see this structure properly ingame and not just in renders!

FLAME TANK

Now we come to a two-parter of this blog that I like to designate as the " @ Romanov is amazing" segment! He has generously modeled out for us a new Flame Tank!

In-game, this vehicle will act as a "battering ram" of sorts. While it sports relatively low range, it more than makes up for it with frightening damage output and the strongest armor in the entire Nod arsenal. When escorted by units able to handle ranged threats, a Flame Tank will make short work of structures and infantry battalions alike, while also packing a serious punch against any vehicle that dares to get too close.

STEALTH TANK

Part 2 of the "@ Romanov is amazing" segment! The two vehicles I anticipated having the most difficulty getting models for just happened to be the two he decided to whip up for us! Everybody stroke his ego and give Krystal a sandwich!

In-game, the Ezekiel's Wheel Stealth Tank will be the ultimate vehicle hunter. While it won't have the armor to survive a direct encounter, it does sport the Lazarus Shield cloaking technology, giving the vehicle the ability to seemingly vanish into thin air. While cloaked, it maneuvers into position to ambush GDI armor, ripping them to pieces with powerful missiles, before disappearing into the ether once again.

VEHICLE SCOPES

This is a feature that AR players may already be familiar with thanks to the Sniper IFV, but in case you aren't familiar, we now have the ability to give sniper scopes to vehicles. This is a feature we'll be making extensive use of in GZ given how much it will come in handy for the long range combat you can expect.

Here's an early example of what this will look like on the Apache. In addition to the scope, though, eagle eyed viewers might spot something else hidden in plain sight...

CONCLUSION

And that's that for now! It might be a moment before we return as I assist APB on the Naval side and BfD with audio for their vehicle release, but our wheels will still be turning! Ta~ta for now!

[Chad1233]

Very nice! The Refinery is one of my favorite structures in Tiberian Dawn but are the exterior textures temporary here? I quite like how it looks in the original CGI renders that used the polygon triangles as its texture.

Also the flame tank looks a bit tall and derpy looking, the original render model might of been a little lower since the top portion of the tracks were inside the hull and was protected, unless your design was intentional. The stealth tank though looks the best. 

Edited 57 minutes ago by Chad1233

[Killing_You]

1 minute ago, Chad1233 said:

Very nice! The Refinery is one of my favorite structures in Tiberian Dawn but are the exterior textures temporary here? I quite like how it looks in the original CGI renders that used the polygon triangles as its texture.

I appreciate your kind words!

The image is unfortunately not loading for me, but not to worry, the exterior textures are temporary. This is pretty much just how ACK made it back in 2004, and thus will serve mainly as a placeholder so we can iron out the layout before finalizing the visuals.

1 minute ago, Chad1233 said:

Also the flame tank looks a bit tall and derpy looking, the original render model might of been a little lower since the top portion of the tracks were inside the hull and was protected, unless your design was intentional. The stealth tank though looks the best. 

This was likely a consequence of the design initially retaining a turret function to make aiming easier, though with the new barrel yaw tech we might be able to get away with merging the two like in the render. There's also the fact that with GZ on the slight backburner, I haven't dialed in the track suspension settings just yet, so it sits a tad higher than it should.

[Chad1233]

By the way, I've found out from a user Allen_508 that the Viewpoint Model Collection I posted here has the original M1A1 model Westwood used for Tiberian Dawn named MM1A1H.3DS. It's the same one with the strange slanted rear turret. From what it looks like Westwood might of modified it overtime during TD's development since the final render had larger track covers, headlights, larger fume extractor and a gunner sight modeled in to look more like an Abrams. I also learned the turret from the model was reused for Red Alert 1's Light Tank in cutscenes.

Anyway I was just mentioning if you were interested in using it as sort of a homage to the original game.

I fixed the refinery image.

Preview of the model in spoiler.

Spoiler

 

Edited 50 minutes ago by Chad1233

[Killing_You]

9 minutes ago, Chad1233 said:

I fixed the refinery image.

Thanks! Yeah, we're absolutely going to add that detail when the time comes to give the main structures a visual pass; it's too iconic and nice looking to leave out.

9 minutes ago, Chad1233 said:

By the way, I've found out from a user Allen_508 that the Viewpoint Model Collection I posted here has the original M1A1 model Westwood used for Tiberian Dawn named MM1A1H.3DS. It's the same one with the strange slanted rear turret. From what it looks like Westwood might of modified it overtime during TD's development since the final render had larger track covers, headlights, larger fume extractor and a gunner sight modeled in to look more like an Abrams. I also learned the turret from the model was reused for Red Alert 1's Light Tank in cutscenes.

Anyway I was just mentioning if you were interested in using it as sort of a homage to the original game. .

Preview of the model in spoiler.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I REMEMBER THIS! Ahh, this was so cool when you first posted this! I definitely remember nicking them to see what we could use, and the Bradley is definitely in the cards! Everything else, I can't say for certain, but will probably be useful in some form or another!