Sensor

Concept artwork for models and maps.
User avatar
Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Sensor

Post by Viech »

So, the Sensor is something that was always in the back of my head and I'm sure I would have assigned it eventually.

Gameplay theory wise, the rough idea is that aliens have great mobility that allows them to maintain map control by patrole and reconnaissance and potentially spamming lots of small forward bases for short pathes back to battle in case they get defeated. Humans are much slower and most of the time the effort of maintaining more than a single (strong) forward base won't be worthwhile to them. (Ishq just pointed out that we shouldn't force them to do so either.) In order to balance map control given the human's general disadvantage in map coverage, there are mainly two things we can do: Allow humans to disrupt alien movement with area denial weapons and give them means of map awareness that doesn't require patrole. The sensor would do the latter.

Gameplay praxis wise, we didn't yet talk about a specific implementation but I'm certain that we'll find one, given the possible attributes (small/big range, detailed/rough intel, an actual buildable or a deployed item, per-player or per-team). Currently I image it to have a very small range, covering approximately the width of a standard corridor. When an alien passes, it would issue some kind of warning. Ideally we will at some point be able to display blips on the minimap instead (and pointers at its edge, given the target is outside the current excerpt). In thise case we can increase the range and make it like a watchtower in a standard RTS (except it doesn't shoot).

Getting to the appearance, the Sensor should be a rather small buildable that you can hide in corners. It has a spherical area of detection around its center, so it should reasonably look like it senses in all directions at once. The feet shouldn't extend too far (as opposed to many real world sensors) so that the bounding box can be a tall cuboid. Speaking of real world sensors, it seems they are called Unattended Ground Sensors in military jargon. This is potentially a good source of inspiration. Another thing that our sensor should have and that you wouldn't find on a realistic one is a small control lamp, visible from any angle, that will glow up whenever it detects something. This will tell alien players when they've been spotted (in case they see the sensor at all) and tell close humans that they should have a look at their minimap (or message list) to learn about the enemy that is very close to them.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

User avatar
Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Re: Sensor

Post by Viech »

I opened a gameplay design thread for the Sensor here and moved Anomalous' response there. The following part is relevant for the concept:

Anomalous wrote:

As for the design, I'm thinking along the lines of certain types of security camera – something like a black hemisphere on a disc (shape like that of a shallow, rounded dish). This thing needs to be small and simple in appearance.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

User avatar
alexbo
Concept Artist
Posts: 186
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 4:17 pm UTC
Location: Montréal
Contact:

Re: Sensor

Post by alexbo »

I'm on it. I was hoping for a little industrial design-project.

User avatar
alexbo
Concept Artist
Posts: 186
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 4:17 pm UTC
Location: Montréal
Contact:

Re: Sensor

Post by alexbo »

Sorry for the delay. I was busy with some other stuff. And being very occupied by ma laziness.

Here is a few first ideas. That sexy leg is for scale purposes.

Image

User avatar
Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Re: Sensor

Post by Viech »

So, let's go backwards this time!

Number three is quite an artifact, looks a bit more like something that humans dug out the ground of a distant planet than something they brought there. While the lower third of the body and the ball can still be considered sufficiently high tech for the Sensor, the feet and the upper third could very well resemble parts of a magic obelisk. With a round top and filigree feet it could work though.

The middle one again has quite a nice lower body (+1 for the wifi icon) but it has three issues: The Spikes, which look a bit like W40k defensive Orc technology, the again slightly magical middle part (Eldar!) and the feet (the usual bounding box issue, but also they look quite weak compared to the heavy base). I think this version's lower body could be combined with the third version's lower third as a hat to yield a more uniform look.

Shape wise, I like the first version most. Proportions (including the feet's spread and strength) look rather good. The part I'd change about it is the middle area. Instead of the framed ball, what do you think about a 360° surveillance camera behind (black) glass, similiar to what Anomalous proposed? (The big advantage of having an actual camera would be that we could let players see through the sensor's eye when something interesting is happening. The code to do so is mostly there, we'd just need to evaluate performance and decide on an interface.)

Another thing to keep in mind:

[the] sensor should have […] a small control lamp, visible from any angle, that will glow up whenever it detects something. This will tell alien players when they've been spotted

Feedback like this is important since otherwise you'd need to read documentation to learn about the Sensor's distance, which would be an unnecessary obstacle for newbes.

PS: The sexy leg could have any size! Where's the banana?

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

User avatar
alexbo
Concept Artist
Posts: 186
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 4:17 pm UTC
Location: Montréal
Contact:

Re: Sensor

Post by alexbo »

I feel a bit uninspired with the details on this one. I did a few iterations based on what you told. So feed me son more ideas and I'll get it done!

Image

User avatar
Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Re: Sensor

Post by Viech »

I think I never saw something as glorious as a vicious banana with a lucifer cannon. Have a cup of coffee you genious! :coffee:

Regarding the concepts, whose size is now totally clear to me, I prefer number three with the top of number one. Make the camera ball much bigger though, it should be an integral part of the structure that can credibly hold the top. Something like this, maybe. If you're feeling fancy, you could even make it translucent glass and sketch the inside. :grin:

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

User avatar
Anomalous
Programmer
Posts: 318
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:51 pm UTC

Re: Sensor

Post by Anomalous »

If these are meant to be deployed on walls etc. as well as floors, they're all too tall – target bound is a sphere, with some protrusions, e.g. feet, into the smallest containing cube. (I think that they're too tall anyway.)

Debian and Ubuntu packages (squeeze, wheezy, sid; 12.04, 12.10, 13.04) may work on derivatives

OFFEND! … no, that's not right… ATTACK!

User avatar
Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Re: Sensor

Post by Viech »

Anomalous wrote:

If these are meant to be deployed on walls etc. as well as floors, they're all too tall – target bound is a sphere, with some protrusions, e.g. feet, into the smallest containing cube. (I think that they're too tall anyway.)

I think they are for floor usage only. If we ever want them on walls, we could request a second model.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

User avatar
Ishq
Project Head
Posts: 1145
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:32 pm UTC

Re: Sensor

Post by Ishq »

Floor only makes it feel kinda useless and more difficult to hide.

Post Reply