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[3D Fan Movie] Armored Core: Limit Release


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Hey all,

 

Think I had better introduce myself and this project. I am Dave I go commonly by the name Moodydata online, Im a graduate from Uni, my field was video games design. Now seeing as I can hardly find any jobs going anywhere, I work on various 3d game projects and just recently I started up one, based on an old model i made a while back, anyways I have been adding to it constantly, and making new parts from what reference I can gather so I figured I would find an AC community to give me feed back and well .... here I am.

 

This is some of the progress so far.

 

Limit Release Design Doc

 

One Sentence Description

Armored Core, old style with high detail

 

Short Summary

The demo I want to create will basically handle like the old series of Armored Core games 1-Last Raven, but will be more detailed and built from the ground up on a more up todate game engine than what the original producers used.

 

Target Audience

Armored Core fans,Mecha fans and generally anyone thats interested in giant robots blowing stuff up.

 

Platform

Windows

 

Unique Selling Points

 

- High Detail

- Customizability

- Free

- Multiplayer

- Co-op

 

 

Game Mechanics

 

Controls

 

- Mouse to look around , left mouse is primary fire , right is alt fire , scroll wheel scrolled is sniper zoom.

- Tab is scroll through weapons.

- A,W,S,D are normal move functions for moving fowards , backwards and strafing, jump is spacebar , boost is double spacebar(in mid air), crouch is C, floor boosting is spacebar and fowards when on floor.

- F is Melee , used for lazer blades.

- E is use , mainly for opening doors and activating things.

- Q is Extension , used on extension parts if any are equipped.

- V is Night Vision/Flash light depending on the mission

- M is Map view, showing the entire map.

 

 

Score System

After each mission , your score is based on how many enemys you killed , how much damage you took , and how much ammo you spent afterwards its all totalled up and your given your score based on the average of all the various factors above.

 

Win and Lose conditions

During each mission or multiplayer match , you can win and loose in a number of ways , you Win if you ..

 

- Complete the mission

- Destroy the enemy unit (multiplayer)

 

To loose you ...

 

- Go out of the designated area of operations

- Get Destroyed by loosing all your Health

 

 

Visual Style

The visual style is reminicent of the old armored core, just with higher detail on an upgraded engine.

 

Assets Needed

 

High Detail Meshes

 

AC Related

 

: 2 Extra Choices of Head

: 1 Extra set of light arms

: 4 Extra sets of legs 1 of each type (light,Heavy,Quad,Reverse Joint)

: 2 Extra core choices 1 light 1 heavy

: 2 Extra choice of booster 1 light 1 heavy

: 2 Extra Extension Parts 1 shield , 1 mobility

: 3 Energy weapons , Karasawa , Lazer Rifle , and Pulse gun

: 1 Flame Thrower

: 1 Sniper Rifle

: 4 Extra smaller weapons , 2 blades 2 shields

 

MT Related

 

: 1 Walker type MT

: 1 Crawler type MT

: 2 Flying type MT

 

 

Other Assets

 

: 3 types of turret , 1 long range , 1 SAM , 1 short range

 

(All assets need to be high detailed then reduced via normal mapping methods to low poly)

 

 

Audio Style

 

I plan on borrowing Audio from the older Armored Core games to complete the Audio Section , that includes music , voice overs and SFX.

 

Dev Work

 

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8803/ac1lb.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7708/ac2d.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6056/lulwut.jpg

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5356/karasawa.jpg

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/7160/machinegunarms.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6152/lazerrifle3.jpg

 

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8233/hangerf.jpg

 

 

Project Details

 

What I aim to do is create a short 2 level demo for the game featuring some random parts that can be put together to form various varitys of ACs, similar to AC1s demo on the original Playstation , all hopefully made in Unreal Development Kit, the high detailed stuff you see at the moment is going to be normal mapped onto lower detailed meshes to keep the detail but provide smoother frame rates.

 

I would like to note that you DO NOT actually need UT3 for this modification , even though its under the UT3 section in moddb, its actually being made on Unreal Development Kit , which is a free standalone version and thus meaning you dont need to purchase anything.

 

All that is required as a computer with the right specs to run the final version, and then the download will be placed online for the installer, thats the beauty of doing this project in UDK its all free and great technology wise.

 

The whole aim of the project is to push my own limits of what I can do in 3d anyway,but also to get all those old style AC`s everyones already seen in a more up todate engine with higher resolution textures, and more upclose detail so that people can enjoy them more.The textures themselfs will be done eventually the plan is to do the low detail meshes after all the high detail ones you see now are done, then bake the detail onto the lower detail meshes so that it runs alot smoother frame rate wise. Its a smart trick and if I get it right will bring out all the detail in those old style ACs.

 

As for the Vanguard Unit , that was a last min thing, I have been playing AC4A for ages now , and uptil this point had never thought of it, until I decided lets give modeling one ago.I completed it in high detail and then decided I could use it instead of the carriers you see in the normal AC games, as I didnt have any good reference of those unfortunately, so I thought it would be a good way of bridging the gap between Sega and Ubisofts versions and Software and Agetechs versions.

 

As for implementing Cannons, I could possibly do it the same way that one of the vehicles does in Unreal 3, its a siege tank style unit which has to deploy to fire, I would just need to see if I could get it working for bipeds (<- Fancy talk for characters), As I am not doing any coding or scripting in Unreal as of the moment, just purely working on the models and concepts so when I finally get round to it we`ll see what can be done. The basic controls where partly borrowed from Halo for the PC as I used to play it alot anyway, so I thought about what was most comfortable from that game , and easy to get to when key binded and then went from there when thinking about all the things an AC has to do ingame.

 

 

I have been trying to learn how to use normal maps, since after I left university cause they didnt teach it there for some stupid reason. But today I finally made a break through..

 

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8044/wowqk.jpg

 

This is a very low detailed version of the Karasawa, the trick to it is that for those who dont know , Normal maps take all the detail off my high poly stuff and put it onto the low poly stuff to make the frame rate more stable and smooth, the only problem so far is that i am rendering these at 2048-2048 and ingame they are not coming out that size due to compression so I am trying to find a way around that at the moment , because I am sure it will make it tons better looking ingame.

 

As for more updates , I have the entire normal map pipe line on the blog , and for those who dont want to visit there , I made a video on youtube , so take your pick.

 

http://limitrelease.blogspot.com/

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=MiLcBS955mM

 

-Dave

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Oh no you didn't! Oh no you didn't! Is that really a VOB strapped to an LR Generation AC?! Hahaha, Epic. VOB GL rounds, werd. Now that's about as hardcore as a pre-AC4 AC can get. Oh man. That had me laughing so hard.

 

I am most definitely looking forward to this game!

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I almost made a topic about this yesterday; now I'm glad you saved me the trouble.

 

How far do you think you'll end up going with this? Making a game seems like a daunting task for just one person considering that it sometimes takes years for teams to make retail ready games. Getting the game to feel the same gameplay-wise as the PS2 AC games is pretty hard too, unless you know exactly how it works. There's a lot of stuff like stability, precision, energy, velocity/accel, and little quirks like boost hopping and sliding that seems hard to replicate. From looking at the controls it seems that you're deviating quite a bit from it, not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

This absolutely needs to have gamepad/joystick support so that we can use our PS3 controllers.

 

The models look very good. Keep up the good work, FRIEND.

Edited by LCC
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Hey everyone ;),

 

Thanks for the replys, its great to see feedback. I just wanted to address some concerns and answer some questions, that way things will be more clear for everyone ;).

 

Everything at the moment is a test base , I am merely experimenting to see what works the best and what does not , for instance I just learned normal mapping which is why the models are so detailed and yet can still keep that detail ingame.

 

As for making a game , it is indeed a very difficult feat, but I do have prior modding experiance myself from other games that comes in handy, and I have yet to ask for help with the code from Unreals forums, as I am going to actually look into the coding abit more , there are obvious little bits that can be tweaked to get the desired effect i want already , but for other things i am going to have to go abit further with the coding.

 

As for the controls, they are just a place holder version really lol.

 

I am working to get a small test ver of the Last Raven Garage ingame just to see how the normal maps work , and if they work how I want then everythings gonna be sweet ;).

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My goodness it's about time somebody got to work on an AC game with an Unreal based engine. If you can manage to have the controls mapped to gamepads (PS3 controller via USB or what have you) THEN we can get to work when the beta is out(or is it already out?).

 

 

Will gladly download and help you out broski. Thanks for bringing this to us.

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As you see Moody, I haven't suggested you coming here for nothing. XD

 

I am eager to see though, how many parts do you plan on including? Cause it'll be somewhat hard if you're planning to do everything, and on TOP of that:

 

- Will you change the stats? Or will they be kept like they are in game (you know, we could use some re-balancing. Niji and LCC could provide some useful help, and most AC players here as well)

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Major props for recommending this place Terminator , its great for feedback , which is just what I need. ;)

 

As for the ammount of parts and specs , I hope to include all the ones I listed on another forum , I think totally so far I have like 26 or something in high detail , and I still need to to ...

 

1 or 2 more heads

2 more cores

3-4 more sets of legs

 

and then i think i am done with the demo content , then i can work on getting the low poly stuff done , via experimentation with normal maps , then its pure code all the way baby lol

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Gonna get to work soon on the Hanger/garage properly , just wanted to know what you guys think of trying to mix and match between the styles of the LR Garage and the Chrome Hounds hanger?

 

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9945/breeztu1.jpg

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5893/1144364124.jpg

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Gonna get to work soon on the Hanger/garage properly , just wanted to know what you guys think of trying to mix and match between the styles of the LR Garage and the Chrome Hounds hanger?

 

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9945/breeztu1.jpg

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5893/1144364124.jpg

 

 

It would be pretty cool if you did mix them up as this hasn't been done before, but have you tried making an enitrely different hangar area for the ACs?

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depends what people want really , if anyone has any suggestions I can take em and encorperate them into the build before I start doing the 3d work that way it will be easier.

 

 

i think I can cook something up. Just give me til tomorrow and I'll have a design sketched out.

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Haha. I'm not sure exactly how accurate your current part listing is, but I'll give you some advice on what players tend to actually use when playing the game. There are always a few players who dig through and try to use every part, but the vast majority don't. The main ACO website that had a large amount of designs from older games went down a long time ago, came back up and started to get refilled, and then went back down. So I can't absolutely PROVE my point, until we start to get posts on here anyway.

 

What you'll notice about players who tend to play story mode is stuff like Cougar2 on every design. The bulkier looking heads with lots of built in options like Queen, and lots of Macaque, GL's on H+ bots at every corner, Karasawa, Moonlight, etc. These things are on the vast majority of bots. Part of the reason is just looks, but the other part is the stats, too. There's still some variety in the story players bots, though. When you get to the competitive players the variety dies much more. Most will only use 1 Generator, 1 Radiator, 1 Booster, 1 FCS, 1 Head, 2 Cores, 1 Arm, 1-3 Legs, etc. Although AC has been famous for providing parts in the games, players consistently go for whatever is most powerful or prettiest, especially both, and you end up seeing a LOT of similar bots.

 

Anyway, AC players have a tendency to only use a few parts really. When given the option between two parts that are very similar in a category they'll typically just pick the part that's more easily streamlined. Also, if one part has just a slight advantage over another one, expect that part to be picked 80% of the time. What I'm trying to say, I think, is to be careful of overexerting yourself to reach a large part base.

 

In lieu of this, I'll give you what I think would be a great part total for the game when it's done or near done, though you're obviously always free to add more, haha. Not everyone on the site will agree, but I think you'd get the most bang for your buck (effort) if you stick to this list. Extra parts tend to be used as a way to mock the uncompetitive or they get ignored by the prettier/higher stat parts by casual players.

 

Head
: 3 -
(Light, Mid, Heavy)

Core
: 3 -
(Light, Mid, Heavy) [6 if EO]

Arms
: 3 -
(Light, Mid, Heavy)

Legs
: 7 -
(Light BP, Mid BP, Heavy BP, Mid RJ, Mid Quad, Heavy Tank, Light Hover)

 

Booster
: 2 -
(High Power/Low Efficiency, High Efficiency/Low Power)

FCS
: 2 -
(Short Range/VeryWide/6 Missile Lock, Long Range/Standard/1 Missile Lock)

Generator
: 3 -
(Light/Mid Output/MidCap, Mid/High Output/Mid Cap, Heavy/High Output/High Cap)

Radiator
: 2 -
(Light/Mid Cooling/Mid Forced, Mid/High Cooling/Mid Forced)

 

Inside
: 2 -
(Decoys, ECM)

Extension
: 3 -
(Quick Turn, Light/Missile Support, Heavy/Missile Support, Battery Pack)

 

R Back
: 6 -
(Small Missile, Big Missile, Chaingun, GL, Energy Cannon, Radar)

L Back
: 6 -
(Small Missile, Big Missile, Chaingun, GL, Energy Cannon, Radar)

 

R Arm
: 9 -
(Rifle, Energy Rifle, Sniper Rifle, MG, Handgun, Pulse Gun, Shotgun, GL, Plasma Rifle)

L Arm
: 6 -
(Laser Blade, Rifle, Energy Rifle, MG, Handgun, Pulse Gun)

I'm not 100% sure which parts you're looking for or which part categories you're even going to use. Anyway, don't add tunes or optionals in unless you're absolutely sure you want to bother with them. Tunes and optionals are so used so generically by the populace that they're almost worthless to have as an option unless you really make it a difficult choice.

 

Anyway, I don't mean to be a spoilsport or anything, but I promise you that you'll go farther with this game in the eyes of the entire AC community on the web with fewer parts than you will with more parts. The biggest reason for that is balance. By having just one main archetype part per category, you can accurately balance the category against others. The lesser reason is plain time you can spend on other parts of the game. Once you get the demo or full game working and finished I'd suggest considering going back and adding new parts while keeping old parts the same. You can use the archetype parts to really keep a clean balance and make each part usable.

 

Especially if players can PvP.

 

Also, feel free to ask for opinions on how parts should be balanced around here. We have some of the only remaining veteran players from pre-AC4 on the site here. They can give you some valuable feedback if you plan on keeping the mechanics like they are in Last Raven. You'd be surprised how much people here will want to know more about the mechanics than the part lists and level design, haha. Sad, but true.

 

Anyway, I hope that helps a bit.

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Niji makes a very good point here. However, I'd suggest that you add more light/heavy variations to the legs as well, not just focus on Bipeds... They're over used.

 

Based on Niji's advice, you could slowly, after the weapons she mentioned are put in, add other type of guns that, based on those archetypes, could varry a bit.

 

Take for example the Silky EN Machinegun. It was sucky in Last Raven. What you could do to balance it, is make it more accurate, have a reload time and lessen it's damage a bit.

 

Well, just an idea that you could add later, and apply this on other guns as well...

 

But for now, stick to Niji's idea. It seems very good.

 

Maybe we should put a pole to see what head and parts we would prefer seeing in?

Edited by Terminator98
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Thanks for the replys everyone, my plan all along was to give a varity of things to choose from , a wide assortment of parts ,and with the current rate I am gathering reference (decent images to model from) I will most likely release DLC thats if all goes well, that said this project is still in its infancy but I have delt with alot of projects in my time , mostly team based so theres always been someone there when I need them, but this time its different , its just me for learning purposes, it might take abit longer , or in the end I may end up requiring assistance (most likely with coding) but until that time I will try my hardest to get this done, it means alot to me and I want to use it as a portfolio piece for the industry.

 

All things out of the way , I had someone on another forum suggest less parts for the demo to make it easiler to work with, so I decided to go with that , I am now going to list my plan and see if you guys agree.

 

My Planned parts , which are done , and which are still planned, im in abit of a rush to nip out for the day with my fiancee so ima just type these down now and put the actual part names down later and also i`ll get the feedback later ;).

 

Parts

 

- Head Units

 

2 Heads done Already, 1 More planned

 

- Core Unit

 

1 Done Already , 2 more planned

 

- Arm Units

 

3 Done , no more planned

 

- Leg Units

 

1 Done , 3 more planned one of each type , 1 light , 1 quad & 1 tank

 

 

Thats all for now , I dont have plans for any other more parts after those until I can be sure all this will work , so for now , no more extensions optionals or anything , after those planned body parts are done then i can get round to doing the low res versions then seeing if they will work ingame when i get round to coding.

 

If anyone wishes to add suggestions of which parts they think I should doI am open to them , providing someone can get me the reference, as thats all i really need , enough decent pictures of the part in question and I will make it in 3d.

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http://www.moddb.com/mods/armored-core-limit-release/images

 

Done the final concept for the HUD , just need to get it working now ^^;;

 

as for the parts and stuff like I said if people can get good enough decent shots of the parts I will make them , I do need shots of the reverse and Tank legs so if anyone can help out that will be great.

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Actually Niji I do to be completely honest with you , I dont have a job , I keep trying to get one anywhere I can here in the UK , but I can never seem to get one , the last one I had let me go because I have certain medical conditions which stop me from running around all over the place for long periods of time unfortunately because my feet blister easy, and well .... I was working as a supervisor in a Lazer tag arena so.... yea... I was doing running around all over the place... so in no time they found a way to get rid of me.

 

Anyway thanks for the compliment , just hope I can get the HUD ingame soon ;)

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