Plan for Justin Mette
by Justin Mette · 02/05/2002 (12:08 pm) · 1 comments
Admin
We are still looking for a texture artist to join the ranks of 21-6. Until then, we are going to be diverting some of Todd Sell's time from the Intro Movie to texture creation tasks for the Research Station interior and weapons. If you are interested in working with our team in this capacity or know someone who might be interested, please contact us at helpwanted@21-6.com for further information.
Artificial Intelligence
Two targeting modes (sensor sweep and line of sight) were added to the enemy AI this week. As well, the 4 behavior modes (Wander, Attack, Chase/Follow) for the enemy AI have had their infrastructure implemented. Work on the specific Terran and Bug attack behaviors are still to be developed.
Characters
Multiple heads and armor for the Myrmidon are required this phase and we finally decided on how to implement this feature during the week. The different heads and armors for the Myrmidon actually have different meshes as well as textures. To support this, we added some code to the engine that will allow certain named nodes to be hidden within the model. The Myrmidon model therefore has multiple head and armor meshes build right into it and the code hides them as appropriate. Finally, a "low health" warning SFX was implemented.
SFX for Bug footfall, "chatter", attack (both pincer and bite), taking damage, and death were developed this week and sound spectacular. Most have been incorporated into the game already. Also, transparency problems with bug textures led us to tweak the model in such a way that transparent textures were no longer needed. It is expected that the animations for the bug will be completed this week.
The Terran model went through two "scaling" iterations this week, but is now looking good and was approved. Therefore, the animations can now be restarted and will be hopefully completed within the next two weeks.
Inventory
The inventory system was enhanced this week to support "hotkeys" that can be assigned to a particular slot (or item) in the inventory allowing quick access to equip or use the item. As well, multi-use consumable items like ammo were implemented this week.
Intro Movie
The Space Battle scene was completed this week and looks amazing. As well, the intro Earth time-lapse sequence at the beginning of the movie was enhanced to include an atmosphere that looks really convincing. Work on the intro movie will slow down over the coming weeks because Todd is going to start helping with our texture art needs.
Mission Generator
A great deal of work on the mission generator occurred this week, including; circular scatter regions, dispersal patterns for objects in a scatter region, dead areas in a scatter region where objects will not be placed, and some minor tweaks to object placement algorithms so that objects aligned with the terrain can be rotated along their local Z-Axis.
Music
The main musical theme for Myrmidon was drafted this past week. Only a midi version of the song was created to make sure we were all on the same page. The song has 4 distinct sections and is arranged in such a way as to represent the story of Myrmidon. The main theme is definitely "catchy" and we are excited to move to the next phase of recording the song with real instruments.
Research Station
Only 3 pieces of the research station will be developed this Phase as that is enough to show the Mission Generator in action randomizing the level. In the next Phase we will be adding game content like crazy including more interiors. Blueprints for the three station pieces started development this week and shells for the station pieces are being created to test scale and shape in game.
Torque
After much deliberation, we decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to Torque 1.1.1. In the end, it wasn't as painful as anticipated and only took about 8 hours in total. We are still testing the merged code but all looks healthy. By upgrading to 1.1.1, we fixed a few crashes that were preventing parts of the team from making progress and have a new fancy (stable) terrain editor to work with! Actually, all the new editors are pretty cool.
Weapons
The weapon models were finalized this week. They are being used now in developing the different character model animations. This next week should see textures for the weapons under development. Concept art for the projectiles, trails, and explosions were created and approved this past week as well. Finally, weapon SFX for the "shark" (machine gun like weapon) were created in demo form this past week and sound awesome.
We are still looking for a texture artist to join the ranks of 21-6. Until then, we are going to be diverting some of Todd Sell's time from the Intro Movie to texture creation tasks for the Research Station interior and weapons. If you are interested in working with our team in this capacity or know someone who might be interested, please contact us at helpwanted@21-6.com for further information.
Artificial Intelligence
Two targeting modes (sensor sweep and line of sight) were added to the enemy AI this week. As well, the 4 behavior modes (Wander, Attack, Chase/Follow) for the enemy AI have had their infrastructure implemented. Work on the specific Terran and Bug attack behaviors are still to be developed.
Characters
Multiple heads and armor for the Myrmidon are required this phase and we finally decided on how to implement this feature during the week. The different heads and armors for the Myrmidon actually have different meshes as well as textures. To support this, we added some code to the engine that will allow certain named nodes to be hidden within the model. The Myrmidon model therefore has multiple head and armor meshes build right into it and the code hides them as appropriate. Finally, a "low health" warning SFX was implemented.
SFX for Bug footfall, "chatter", attack (both pincer and bite), taking damage, and death were developed this week and sound spectacular. Most have been incorporated into the game already. Also, transparency problems with bug textures led us to tweak the model in such a way that transparent textures were no longer needed. It is expected that the animations for the bug will be completed this week.
The Terran model went through two "scaling" iterations this week, but is now looking good and was approved. Therefore, the animations can now be restarted and will be hopefully completed within the next two weeks.
Inventory
The inventory system was enhanced this week to support "hotkeys" that can be assigned to a particular slot (or item) in the inventory allowing quick access to equip or use the item. As well, multi-use consumable items like ammo were implemented this week.
Intro Movie
The Space Battle scene was completed this week and looks amazing. As well, the intro Earth time-lapse sequence at the beginning of the movie was enhanced to include an atmosphere that looks really convincing. Work on the intro movie will slow down over the coming weeks because Todd is going to start helping with our texture art needs.
Mission Generator
A great deal of work on the mission generator occurred this week, including; circular scatter regions, dispersal patterns for objects in a scatter region, dead areas in a scatter region where objects will not be placed, and some minor tweaks to object placement algorithms so that objects aligned with the terrain can be rotated along their local Z-Axis.
Music
The main musical theme for Myrmidon was drafted this past week. Only a midi version of the song was created to make sure we were all on the same page. The song has 4 distinct sections and is arranged in such a way as to represent the story of Myrmidon. The main theme is definitely "catchy" and we are excited to move to the next phase of recording the song with real instruments.
Research Station
Only 3 pieces of the research station will be developed this Phase as that is enough to show the Mission Generator in action randomizing the level. In the next Phase we will be adding game content like crazy including more interiors. Blueprints for the three station pieces started development this week and shells for the station pieces are being created to test scale and shape in game.
Torque
After much deliberation, we decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to Torque 1.1.1. In the end, it wasn't as painful as anticipated and only took about 8 hours in total. We are still testing the merged code but all looks healthy. By upgrading to 1.1.1, we fixed a few crashes that were preventing parts of the team from making progress and have a new fancy (stable) terrain editor to work with! Actually, all the new editors are pretty cool.
Weapons
The weapon models were finalized this week. They are being used now in developing the different character model animations. This next week should see textures for the weapons under development. Concept art for the projectiles, trails, and explosions were created and approved this past week as well. Finally, weapon SFX for the "shark" (machine gun like weapon) were created in demo form this past week and sound awesome.
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Torque Owner Scott Schaefer
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