I love the look of the harvester and I like the death animation where you can see the sucker come off. I dont think exploding would work - what if the marine shot the base not the bulbous bit? I agree that there should be some way for teh gorges to hide behind them though. That was pretty important
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited February 2010
Hmm no water on first release huh? that is kind of annoying due to a part of my maps design has water that forces marines to swim/bob in the water to be able to shoot. While the welding of a drainage system that was covered by bacteria drained the water away... Ah well, it had more things that weren't supported by official gameguidelines (2button door, Khaara only lockable resnodes and a marine only weldable resnode and such :P) I guess if I could LUA that stuff in, I could ditch the water for now...
"we spent 100% of our time this week making the game <b>better</b>"
I noticed you said not that you're making the game, but that you're making the game better.
SO, I'm assuming this means that you have all the animations, a couple maps, and all the other framework down, and that you're refining the in-game code and doing some rough playtesting.
slayer20Killed a man once.Join Date: 2007-12-13Member: 63157Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--quoteo(post=1752848:date=Feb 13 2010, 04:55 AM:name=FTNPhoenix)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (FTNPhoenix @ Feb 13 2010, 04:55 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752848"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->"we spent 100% of our time this week making the game <b>better</b>"
I noticed you said not that you're making the game, but that you're making the game better.
SO, I'm assuming this means that you have all the animations, a couple maps, and all the other framework down, and that you're refining the in-game code and doing some rough playtesting.
Enjoy! Hopefully we'll get to do the same soon!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think there's only going to be one map release by them when the game comes out. Everything else will be made by the community.
The only other map I can think of that they will be working on is the Biodome map.
I'd like for the Harvester to have more mottled grey parts (like the Skulk and Onos head bone plates). Currently it looks like a uniform dark brown tube thing. Some bone plates (like in the concept art) would liven it up and make it a bit more hardy looking. I really dug the dying animation; twas very cute.
I don't like the spikey tendril things which encapsulate the gold globe at the top of the Harvester. They seem too uniform; like a cage of metal spokes. Make them more random/organic looking (perhaps add some green/gold infestation), add some bulbs, split tendrils, that sort of thing. Or perhaps make them tremble and wave like NS1 Sensory Chamber's spikes.
Also, I think there are too many bottom attaching tendrils. I'd like just bigger "roots" (with diameter 1/3 of the Harvester's base's diameter) or perhaps a combination of large and small tendrils. The base seems too unstable right now. Also, larger attaching tendrils would make the Harvester look like it was "reaching out" furthering the infestation theme of the Aliens.
Over all, much more interesting than the NS1 Alien RT. Which is good when you have to run by them all the time or ax them to death.
I think the new harvester looks ~ well ~ new. :) I like it and i appreciate the efford to make it more lively.
However I have a few recommendations:
For me the posture of the harvester just fells unnatural because the center of mass is not centered above the ressource node. It feels as if it was falling over and has to put a lot of energy into holding this posture. I think if the node would bend a little bit more forward it would seem more natural.
If it is supposed to sit its tube behind the ressource node it also needs to bend a little bit more forward to make it look more natural. I somehow compare the posture with a person squating, maybe I have the wrong association. :D
it looks "more scary" then the old one, i like it but now you can´t hide behind it anymore :( The dying animaions is good but can you not let the yellow "pumping" thing be explode?
Cool will this cinematic skybox mean we could have more than one of these running at different vantage points granted the cameras. I remember asking something in one of my threads. That would be super awsome.
Also loving the harvester, but like has been mentioned the roots might need to be extended somewhat, I realize going outside the resource node might cause some clipping with architecture depending on how people design their maps.
Another addition that might benefit it's design is adding more of those spiky legs down the side of the tube to indicate the chamber might have been derived from some sort of centipede like creature. With the "legs" flinching and constantly moving while the harvester is harvesting. Might even form a protective barrier with the legs for the gorge or skulks if it detects one near itself.
Also the spikes around the globe might need some more random idle animations, like at different times 1 or 2 of the spikes flexes out from the globe to give it slightly more of an organic feel.
I realise swimable water is off the table for now but surely a quick mockup could be made by a transparent texture with a constantly shifting normalmap could be made with an overlaying ripple effect normal map is triggered everytime someone disturbs the surface. Still I don't have the slightest idea of the difficulty of this in coding.
The Harvester looks very lively, good work. Though it looks a bit unstable like you could push it down easily. And as said, there is no way to cover behind that thing which was a really cool and stressing part of defending a RT when you circled it two times to kill the damn rine.
Another point is that it looks very sterile at the node, I hope there will be some Bacteria to make the connection more naturally. Cinematic Skybox sounds revolutionary. Very nice ideas.
And I bet in that Cinematic Editor screenshot you're just building the Lerk reveal.
pSyk0mAnNerdish by NatureGermanyJoin Date: 2003-08-07Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
edited February 2010
I love it, the harvester and the music.
I also don't agree with people saying that it looks kinda unstable or whatever. You can get that impression from the short clip, but in the concept art picture you clearly see the strong, armored back of the harvester. And after all it's organic with muscles, etc.
I hope though, the harvester kinda entrenches itself, when attacked, to make more use of its armored parts. Considering that both teams evolved since the "first war" , it doesn't make much sense to develope armor only on one side, so proper <i>idle</i> and <i>under attack</i> animations should make up for that.
Hmm, I like the Harvester... but I was hoping for something more along the lines of a honey ant. Possibly digging its head onto the RT and raising it out causing a viscous liquid to come out of it's mouth when an alien gets near it.
However, if we are going to keep this leech type, I would suggest the entire thing bulging with "resources", make it like a full caterpillar, and let it coil around itself.
Saw a post about dropships and distant battles.... cool idea. One thing that NS lacks is a sense of "grand battles", you know the immersive feeling sometimes conveyed by some of the newer war movies. I realize that it might not be "right" for the feel of NS but this is more of a side note and what would be possible with the new engine. So to build upon the idea above (with reservation for any similar ideas already posted) this would make it possible to have some support units. For instance, dropships could fly by to land on a roof (unseen) and an elevator deliveres new marines (late join, player first spawn or something) or equipment or maybe even bombing runs. It would mean that new units could be used to move the story forward, like some kind of squidlike spacefaring monster for spreading the Karhaa? For example, if the aliens have three hives for 10 minutes they can spawn a new "squid" which means that the next map in rotation is played on the surface trying to kill it before it flees. If the squid is not spawned the next map will instead be a level further down to the aliens last stronghold. OK maybe not interesting for casual players, but if maps are smaller or faster I for one would enjoy a short story to play through in say an hour. In the same manner, the cinematic skybox could relay the progress on the map with swarms of lerks attacking dropships. Ah, have to leave. C U all!
BadMouthIt ceases to be exclusive when you can have a custom member titlJoin Date: 2004-05-21Member: 28815Members
By all means, the new model isn't bad, but I prefer the older one. This one looks a bit too plain to me. I like the fact that it has a death animation but I hope that the death animation doesn't get too "extravagant". It wouldn't look too nice when a bunch of marines surround the harvester and knife it, it dies, and clips through one of the marines as it falls.
A bit disappointed on the glass and water. Those add a lot of atmosphere to the game. Hopefully the devs would go about it soon. Heck, I'd wait an extra month, or two, if you could put in water.
The cinematic editor looks funs. It reminds me of the Dragon Age one - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQJ2heQto4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQJ2heQto4</a>
Will we be able to manipulate the camera with WASD to create keyframes etc?
<!--quoteo(post=1752817:date=Feb 13 2010, 01:28 AM:name=glimmerman)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (glimmerman @ Feb 13 2010, 01:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752817"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I like the new one, but i think I'm going to miss our old RT :(
I see a potential issue here:
What will will call this for sure? RT was perfect, what do we say here "can someone drop an H"???
Maybe it should have been called a resource harvester or something so we can use something other than "harvester" all the time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->+1.
Please consider how people are going to abbreviate the new names for NS2. The species work because they're all one-sylabble and not very long words, but certainly structures need to have easily-abbreviated names. RT is just so much faster to type than harv. It's not a biggie, but it's something to consider. RH would work well.
--- I like the death animation and the general life of the Harvester, but I did think it didn't seem to show any sort of self-support or suitable anchoring in its physical design. The tentacles seemed too wimpy to hold tight/give support and the u-bend makes it look like you could push the thing over from the side. In short, it doesn't look like something that has evolved to stand up, it looks really maladapted to the environment on that respect. The old RT looked a lot more solid because of its buttresses, although I don't necessarily think that would be the way to go with the new one.
Visually it has a shape and colours than make it instantly recognisable, so that's great. Maybe it would look better if it had a snail-like 'foot' on the u-bend to steady it, and if it tapered out more towards the base to keep it upright.
<!--quoteo(post=1752873:date=Feb 13 2010, 07:02 AM:name=pSyk0mAn)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pSyk0mAn @ Feb 13 2010, 07:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752873"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I love it, the harvester and the music.
I also don't agree with people saying that it looks kinda unstable or whatever. You can get that impression from the short clip, but in the concept art picture you clearly see the strong, armored back of the harvester. And after all it's organic with muscles, etc.
I hope though, the harvester kinda entrenches itself, when attacked, to make more use of its armored parts. Considering that both teams evolved since the "first war" , it doesn't make much sense to develope armor only on one side, so proper <i>idle</i> and <i>under attack</i> animations should make up for that.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->That would be really cool. If the structure got damaged to X% it would go into a defensive pose, still producing energy but at half the rate, taking half damage and regenerating up to Y% health at a slightly accelerated rate. So you could effectively 'disable' RTs, instead of fully destroying them and they'd be at half rate for ~30s while they self-healed back up to above the 'defensive' HP threshold. Or a Gorge could come along to heal them back to be fully operational.
This would also mean you wouldn't have to spend so long taking down an RT unless you wanted to build there. You could just cripple it for a while and move on.
hmm I like the fakt that the resource tower looks more alive/feeling, like a own life. But I dont like the desing, wouldn`t it look better if the ball that it holding, would be more free, and the little arms on the ball would hold it closer. now it looks like a Astronaut helmet. <img src="http://midcentury.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Astronautenhelm.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> and the fakt that he /it is siting on the ground Oo isnt he that strong that he can stand alone? I miss the arms that he holding on the ground. it looks so naked, ok it is naked :D
sry I just want to say what I think about it, I am a big NS fan and just want the best way for NS2, maybe not so far away from ns1 desinge. : /
I like the new RT design but I think it should hover sligthly to the sides when harvesting - this design looks kind of unstable... so the worm will have to stabilize itself every now and then ;)
No glass it fine.
But no water is not... - just think about how many ns1 maps used water, at least on the floor, that increased the athmosphere a lot. This way we wont have "wet" hive areas, broken pipes with water dripping from them into a small puddle etc...
Infestation should feel wet since its organic... but if there's no water where should it get its life source from? I imagine tentarcles of the Infestation to go into water areas and feed the rest of it - just like every other plant/oganic thingy - the Infestation is really strong close to alien structures and water areas and much less strong in dry, marine parts of the map.
Just imagine the sewer hive of ns_bast or ns_mineshaft to be completly covered in 'strong' infestation and a slight fog all over the place... really scary!
I know this is really hard to implement and I'm kind of sure you didnt really start with infestation yet because it needs the rest of the game to be pretty much finished.. - but I hope you somehow implement water and an interaction between water and the infestation (and fog of course but that should be the least problem) into the release version of ns2 - otherwise a good part of ns1's athmosphere will be lost.
Going by the second half of the post, I have to say they're going to do some cool ###### with the next lifeform reveal, the lerk. It looks like they're going to show us his new guerrilla warfare style or something.
The new RT looks neat, but the only problem is that it is smaller compared to the NS1 Tower, so you can not hide in it and I'm not sure if I like this :(
<!--quoteo(post=1752832:date=Feb 12 2010, 09:22 PM:name=Norton)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Norton @ Feb 12 2010, 09:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752832"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The harvester looks odd to me because I can't figure how the resources are getting to the aliens. Will infestation sprout out from the tower and give it to the aliens through their feet? I just see it pumping stuff out of the hole in the ground into a ball...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> The Harvester looks odd? What about the old Alien RT and both new and old Marine RT's. The issue you present has some validity but it also has been ever present in NS and for both teams. The classic answer would be "Nanites!" but for me it not really and issue in the game.
In NS2 its probably going to be even less of an issue since the alien occupied territories are going to be infested and thus interconnected so that you can picture the res going from the RH's to the Hives.
************** EDIT1p1: Like the New RH, btw. Although it really reminds me of the eye of Sauron (with the ring being destroyed at the end of the video *cue epic music!*)
EDIT1p2: What's this about no glass? You mean like no destructible glass material? No glass in between room? Seem to me like glass has already been seen in some of your videos. What about all this work on skyboxes? Would it be hard to show them of with out glass windows or walls? I'm confused. Not complaining... just confused.
EDIT2: <!--quoteo(post=1752817:date=Feb 12 2010, 08:28 PM:name=glimmerman)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (glimmerman @ Feb 12 2010, 08:28 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752817"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I like the new one, but i think I'm going to miss our old RT :(
I see a potential issue here:
What will will call this for sure? RT was perfect, what do we say here "can someone drop an H"???
Maybe it should have been called a resource harvester or something so we can use something other than "harvester" all the time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was thinking RH would be the natural selection, because they called it a Resource Collecting Harvester. So it would easily shorten to Resource Harvester.
I like the harvester! Although I'd like the idle animation to sway a bit as well as pump, but very nice. If it moved when marines touched it as someone suggested earlier that would be awesome!.
at other forum goers: my understanding of the post was, they've not done glass yet but they are planning to, and they're not going to do water pre-release... if you really want water you maybe you could fake it with a semi see-through texture (you know the glass type stuff I think they are planning to do) as long as it was shallow enough. (... can you make something noclip in spark? I've not played enough to know.)
I certainly don't agree about it looking unstable, come on it's sitting on it's 60 cms (or 2 feet for the metrically handicapped :D) wide fat ass of pure muscles.
To me sizing it up compared to placing a Marine on top of a resouce nozzle in editor it looks like it's body diameter range in the 50-60 cms.
That combined with it looking like it doesn't have an ounce of fat and is pure muscle you'd have a hard time pushing it over, period.
If you'd try and take on a Anaconda or Boa Constrictor it's size, you'd lose. Wouldn't be able to budge that thing if it didn't want you to.
With that said I still think it could use additional legs down it's side nearly all the way to the suction cup end, all of them moving in a waving pattern like millipedes do when they walk that would make for a kick ass idle animation, And like I mentioned the legs could form a protective barrier for any nearby alien if the chamber detects that one is near and being fired upon. If the harvester becomes to damaged itself these legs could perhps be used in some manor to shield itself.
Here's an example of the millipede walking: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Ey_tAqAwQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Ey_tAqAwQ</a>
*Edit* Perhaps these additional "legs" could be research/upgraded further when more hives are unlocked to be defensive, meaning they'd strike after marines and be poisonous for a short time after draining life if a marine got to close to it. Kind of like the electric discharge upgrade for the RT's in NS1.
Comments
I agree that there should be some way for teh gorges to hide behind them though. That was pretty important
I noticed you said not that you're making the game, but that you're making the game better.
SO, I'm assuming this means that you have all the animations, a couple maps, and all the other framework down, and that you're refining the in-game code and doing some rough playtesting.
Enjoy! Hopefully we'll get to do the same soon!
I noticed you said not that you're making the game, but that you're making the game better.
SO, I'm assuming this means that you have all the animations, a couple maps, and all the other framework down, and that you're refining the in-game code and doing some rough playtesting.
Enjoy! Hopefully we'll get to do the same soon!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think there's only going to be one map release by them when the game comes out. Everything else will be made by the community.
The only other map I can think of that they will be working on is the Biodome map.
I don't like the spikey tendril things which encapsulate the gold globe at the top of the Harvester. They seem too uniform; like a cage of metal spokes. Make them more random/organic looking (perhaps add some green/gold infestation), add some bulbs, split tendrils, that sort of thing. Or perhaps make them tremble and wave like NS1 Sensory Chamber's spikes.
Also, I think there are too many bottom attaching tendrils. I'd like just bigger "roots" (with diameter 1/3 of the Harvester's base's diameter) or perhaps a combination of large and small tendrils. The base seems too unstable right now. Also, larger attaching tendrils would make the Harvester look like it was "reaching out" furthering the infestation theme of the Aliens.
Over all, much more interesting than the NS1 Alien RT. Which is good when you have to run by them all the time or ax them to death.
Good job, +heart.
Music is great as always too!
UH? Happy Birthday!
I like it and i appreciate the efford to make it more lively.
However I have a few recommendations:
For me the posture of the harvester just fells unnatural because the center of mass is not centered above the ressource node.
It feels as if it was falling over and has to put a lot of energy into holding this posture.
I think if the node would bend a little bit more forward it would seem more natural.
If it is supposed to sit its tube behind the ressource node it also needs to bend a little bit more forward to make it look more natural.
I somehow compare the posture with a person squating, maybe I have the wrong association. :D
PS: Yay Lerk reveal incoming. ;)
The dying animaions is good but can you not let the yellow "pumping" thing be explode?
<!--quoteo(post=1752821:date=Feb 13 2010, 02:37 AM:name=Crispix)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Crispix @ Feb 13 2010, 02:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752821"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Edit1: Happy Birthday Charlie!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Huh?
Oh happy birthday charlie cleveland
Also loving the harvester, but like has been mentioned the roots might need to be extended somewhat, I realize going outside the resource node might cause some clipping with architecture depending on how people design their maps.
Another addition that might benefit it's design is adding more of those spiky legs down the side of the tube to indicate the chamber might have been derived from some sort of centipede like creature. With the "legs" flinching and constantly moving while the harvester is harvesting. Might even form a protective barrier with the legs for the gorge or skulks if it detects one near itself.
Also the spikes around the globe might need some more random idle animations, like at different times 1 or 2 of the spikes flexes out from the globe to give it slightly more of an organic feel.
I realise swimable water is off the table for now but surely a quick mockup could be made by a transparent texture with a constantly shifting normalmap could be made with an overlaying ripple effect normal map is triggered everytime someone disturbs the surface. Still I don't have the slightest idea of the difficulty of this in coding.
Another point is that it looks very sterile at the node, I hope there will be some Bacteria to make the connection more naturally.
Cinematic Skybox sounds revolutionary. Very nice ideas.
And I bet in that Cinematic Editor screenshot you're just building the Lerk reveal.
Nice work UWE.
i love it!
it looks so much more organic and creepy
(death animation is killer!)
I also don't agree with people saying that it looks kinda unstable or whatever.
You can get that impression from the short clip, but in the concept art picture you clearly see the strong, armored back of the harvester. And after all it's organic with muscles, etc.
I hope though, the harvester kinda entrenches itself, when attacked, to make more use of its armored parts.
Considering that both teams evolved since the "first war" , it doesn't make much sense to develope armor only on one side, so proper <i>idle</i> and <i>under attack</i> animations should make up for that.
However, if we are going to keep this leech type, I would suggest the entire thing bulging with "resources", make it like a full caterpillar, and let it coil around itself.
Saw a post about dropships and distant battles.... cool idea. One thing that NS lacks is a sense of "grand battles", you know the immersive feeling sometimes
conveyed by some of the newer war movies. I realize that it might not be "right" for the feel of NS but this is more of a side note and what would be possible
with the new engine. So to build upon the idea above (with reservation for any similar ideas already posted) this would make it possible to have some support units.
For instance, dropships could fly by to land on a roof (unseen) and an elevator deliveres new marines (late join, player first spawn or something) or equipment
or maybe even bombing runs. It would mean that new units could be used to move the story forward, like some kind of squidlike spacefaring monster for spreading the Karhaa?
For example, if the aliens have three hives for 10 minutes they can spawn a new "squid" which means that the next map in rotation is played on the surface trying to kill it before it flees. If the squid is not spawned the next map will instead be a level further down to the aliens last stronghold. OK maybe not interesting for casual players, but if maps are smaller or faster I for one would enjoy a short story to play through in say an hour. In the same manner, the cinematic skybox could relay the progress on the map with swarms of lerks attacking dropships. Ah, have to leave. C U all!
A bit disappointed on the glass and water. Those add a lot of atmosphere to the game. Hopefully the devs would go about it soon. Heck, I'd wait an extra month, or two, if you could put in water.
Will we be able to manipulate the camera with WASD to create keyframes etc?
I see a potential issue here:
What will will call this for sure? RT was perfect, what do we say here "can someone drop an H"???
Maybe it should have been called a resource harvester or something so we can use something other than "harvester" all the time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->+1.
Please consider how people are going to abbreviate the new names for NS2. The species work because they're all one-sylabble and not very long words, but certainly structures need to have easily-abbreviated names. RT is just so much faster to type than harv. It's not a biggie, but it's something to consider. RH would work well.
---
I like the death animation and the general life of the Harvester, but I did think it didn't seem to show any sort of self-support or suitable anchoring in its physical design. The tentacles seemed too wimpy to hold tight/give support and the u-bend makes it look like you could push the thing over from the side. In short, it doesn't look like something that has evolved to stand up, it looks really maladapted to the environment on that respect. The old RT looked a lot more solid because of its buttresses, although I don't necessarily think that would be the way to go with the new one.
Visually it has a shape and colours than make it instantly recognisable, so that's great. Maybe it would look better if it had a snail-like 'foot' on the u-bend to steady it, and if it tapered out more towards the base to keep it upright.
I also don't agree with people saying that it looks kinda unstable or whatever.
You can get that impression from the short clip, but in the concept art picture you clearly see the strong, armored back of the harvester. And after all it's organic with muscles, etc.
I hope though, the harvester kinda entrenches itself, when attacked, to make more use of its armored parts.
Considering that both teams evolved since the "first war" , it doesn't make much sense to develope armor only on one side, so proper <i>idle</i> and <i>under attack</i> animations should make up for that.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->That would be really cool. If the structure got damaged to X% it would go into a defensive pose, still producing energy but at half the rate, taking half damage and regenerating up to Y% health at a slightly accelerated rate. So you could effectively 'disable' RTs, instead of fully destroying them and they'd be at half rate for ~30s while they self-healed back up to above the 'defensive' HP threshold. Or a Gorge could come along to heal them back to be fully operational.
This would also mean you wouldn't have to spend so long taking down an RT unless you wanted to build there. You could just cripple it for a while and move on.
now it looks like a Astronaut helmet. <img src="http://midcentury.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Astronautenhelm.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
and the fakt that he /it is siting on the ground Oo isnt he that strong that he can stand alone?
I miss the arms that he holding on the ground. it looks so naked, ok it is naked :D
sry I just want to say what I think about it, I am a big NS fan and just want the best way for NS2, maybe not so far away from ns1 desinge. : /
No glass it fine.
But no water is not... - just think about how many ns1 maps used water, at least on the floor, that increased the athmosphere a lot. This way we wont have "wet" hive areas, broken pipes with water dripping from them into a small puddle etc...
Infestation should feel wet since its organic... but if there's no water where should it get its life source from?
I imagine tentarcles of the Infestation to go into water areas and feed the rest of it - just like every other plant/oganic thingy - the Infestation is really strong close to alien structures and water areas and much less strong in dry, marine parts of the map.
Just imagine the sewer hive of ns_bast or ns_mineshaft to be completly covered in 'strong' infestation and a slight fog all over the place... really scary!
I know this is really hard to implement and I'm kind of sure you didnt really start with infestation yet because it needs the rest of the game to be pretty much finished.. - but I hope you somehow implement water and an interaction between water and the infestation (and fog of course but that should be the least problem) into the release version of ns2 - otherwise a good part of ns1's athmosphere will be lost.
Tatatatatatatatatatablam!
Com, harvy dd, plz give twr.
Ah, maybe extractor, leach, sucker :), or gasbag, hehe. Time will tell.
The Harvester looks odd? What about the old Alien RT and both new and old Marine RT's. The issue you present has some validity but it also has been ever present in NS and for both teams. The classic answer would be "Nanites!" but for me it not really and issue in the game.
In NS2 its probably going to be even less of an issue since the alien occupied territories are going to be infested and thus interconnected so that you can picture the res going from the RH's to the Hives.
**************
EDIT1p1: Like the New RH, btw. Although it really reminds me of the eye of Sauron (with the ring being destroyed at the end of the video *cue epic music!*)
EDIT1p2: What's this about no glass? You mean like no destructible glass material? No glass in between room? Seem to me like glass has already been seen in some of your videos. What about all this work on skyboxes? Would it be hard to show them of with out glass windows or walls? I'm confused. Not complaining... just confused.
EDIT2:
<!--quoteo(post=1752817:date=Feb 12 2010, 08:28 PM:name=glimmerman)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (glimmerman @ Feb 12 2010, 08:28 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1752817"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I like the new one, but i think I'm going to miss our old RT :(
I see a potential issue here:
What will will call this for sure? RT was perfect, what do we say here "can someone drop an H"???
Maybe it should have been called a resource harvester or something so we can use something other than "harvester" all the time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was thinking RH would be the natural selection, because they called it a Resource Collecting Harvester. So it would easily shorten to Resource Harvester.
at other forum goers: my understanding of the post was, they've not done glass yet but they are planning to, and they're not going to do water pre-release... if you really want water you maybe you could fake it with a semi see-through texture (you know the glass type stuff I think they are planning to do) as long as it was shallow enough. (... can you make something noclip in spark? I've not played enough to know.)
To me sizing it up compared to placing a Marine on top of a resouce nozzle in editor it looks like it's body diameter range in the 50-60 cms.
That combined with it looking like it doesn't have an ounce of fat and is pure muscle you'd have a hard time pushing it over, period.
If you'd try and take on a Anaconda or Boa Constrictor it's size, you'd lose. Wouldn't be able to budge that thing if it didn't want you to.
With that said I still think it could use additional legs down it's side nearly all the way to the suction cup end, all of them moving in a waving pattern like millipedes do when they walk that would make for a kick ass idle animation, And like I mentioned the legs could form a protective barrier for any nearby alien if the chamber detects that one is near and being fired upon. If the harvester becomes to damaged itself these legs could perhps be used in some manor to shield itself.
Here's an example of the millipede walking: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Ey_tAqAwQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Ey_tAqAwQ</a>
*Edit* Perhaps these additional "legs" could be research/upgraded further when more hives are unlocked to be defensive, meaning they'd strike after marines and be poisonous for a short time after draining life if a marine got to close to it. Kind of like the electric discharge upgrade for the RT's in NS1.