WIP: Combine Transhuman Overwatch forces (help needed)

[digitalcenturion 20]

Thanks all for your comments, I didn't expect so many would be into this. Also, as an OT side note the Synergy CO-op mod for HL2/EP1/EP2 is great fun to play.

Yeah McNools scars look spot-on, but the XM8 could also be possible, as well as various SMGs and maybe the M107 for the combine sniper. If someone could figure out to make a blue visible light laser for the M107, that would be great, even if slighlty retarded in a tactical sense :P (look, Im over here, run over here and grenade my ass out of hiding while i shoot barrels your hiding behind :) )

I'm starting to get there regarding the model, quick Q tho, should it be made as one object or can it be many? Which one is better. Gonna make some LODs now and tweak the normal map. Scary O2 and weighting will probably be tomorrow or day after that. If there are any complete make a character tutorials floating around a link would be great.

[bad benson 1733]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=114036

it's not a complete tutorial but it covers weighting i think. i think the model can be seperated into parts shouldn't be problem. best way to start putting things ingame imho is to use a sample model and paste/import your model into the first res lod. then put your model next to the BI one and start getting the named selections right.when done get your model in pose and delete the BI one.

[digitalcenturion 20]

@BB: Ok thanks for the tip, will see how that works out.

Regarding Alyx, I dont think that making a believable representation of her is within my skills, so the point of A2 being/not being the right game is moot :)

Also, since everybody likes teh pictars, the latest update on the base texture, darkened the helmet, dirtied the tex some and tweaked the boots + other stuff.

[pip12345 11]

Looks awesome!

When you release the unit I'm gonna make Zargabad be occupied by Combine soldiers.

[Cyteless 10]

Looking really good, matey. Best of luck on working on these.

[Spartan 163 0]

Soldiers are great but I am more on the hardware side of things. Any plans on vehicles? A tripod blasting holes in the ground would rock.

[digitalcenturion 20]

Well, a strider, as cool as they would be, would be very difficult to implement technically i think. Vehicles have little support for organic animations (i think), perhaps some of the animal animations could be modified, have it as a soldier type class (ie organic)...? I am not familiar enough with the technical inner workings of the engine. But as for hardware, Gunship would be easy enough to model and implement, helicopter as well if slightly more time consuming to model. Also, reskins of existing vehicles should do quite nicely, maybe changed slighlty to look futuristic... for example

MBT-> Leclerc (would look very sinister in dark grey)

APCs -> Stryker maybe?

et cetera. Suggestions and help welcome, as I have my hands full with the basic soldiers. Im trying to keep it simple, stupid. :) Dont want to overburden myself with ambition, baby-steps and all that.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Yeah, the tripod's attack animation where it gets down nice and low would be quite hard to implement.

[LiberNull777 10]

Impresiw Oo, can you do also combine soldiers with red eyes? :D

[digitalcenturion 20]

Yeah making the maroon shotgun soldier will not be a problem, not red eye versions or whatnot either. But speaking of SMGs and shotguns, i made some shotshells and smg pouches to be used in different loadouts, not necessarily as pictured but to show my point.

Why Valve decided to leave out mag pouches and stuff like that completely on their models is beyond me, probably to keep them sleek and mean looking.

[LiberNull777 10]

Good luck with this :)

[Kristian 47]

If you ask me, your combine soldiers are starting to look better than valve's...

Hell, yours allready looks better. Now all we need is to get this in-game, place takistani civies, give em' shitty weapons and play as resistance :p

[Dom8758 10]

any chance of a vehicle pack with the units Overwatch APC,Overwatch dropship,attack chopper?

[enad 11]

Just wondering why they are in that camo? Is it a placeholder. I'm pretty sure no Combine Forces in HL2 had that pattern.

[SigintArmA 10]

-Shrugs- All I can say on my opinion on the camo is :o This is ArmA2! Not HL2 so they'll be done the way they are done? Ah-hahaha XD

And on track! Nice models! Why didn't I see this thread earlier?! Haha XD

[digitalcenturion 20]

Now all we need is to get this in-game, place takistani civies, give em' shitty weapons and play as resistance

I actually always imagined the OpFor chedaki insurgents to be the perfect opposition, a bit more hard-core than the citizenry of HL2. Also, blue overall dressed civvies is a must, if not for anything else then because its an excellent homage to Orwell's 1984.

Just wondering why they are in that camo? Is it a placeholder. I'm pretty sure no Combine Forces in HL2 had that pattern.

Well, while it would be easy to shrug this off with a "this is my show" comment, I do intend to include as much as possible of valves original design features. They did a whole bunch of character studies before ending up with the final HL2 soldier, and i respect the work they did. So yeah, the camo is a placeholder but there will also more or less "non-canonical" variants. Since they are a global force of opression and domination we can assume they would have for example desert gear for arid enviroments and so on.

Well, back to the matter of getting these dudes ingame. I now have the basic modelling done, but I'm not really sure of what i should be doing next, im guession the named selections, then lods, then export from max to o2, then weighting and stuff like that ingame. I really wish there was a comprehensive tutorial somewhere, because I hate going blind on a trial and error basis trying to make stuff work as opposed to having a working pipeline. So if anyone can atleast give me a rough to-do list of what the steps are that would help. Alot.

[mcnools 62]

I must say I like your camo a lot, despite the fact that they didn't use it in HL2, like you said, they're a global force. :)

[Kristian 47]

I like this camo better than Valve one :)

You could also try experimenting with some sort of Digital camo :p

[Dom8758 10]

i agree camo is much better you could do some sort of ghille for the snipers and a bulkier rig on the machine gunners

[Dom8758 10]

any news for us?

[abs 2]

any news for us?

Wow...a guy can't even have a weekend off, eh?

Abs

[Dom8758 10]

lol it never hurts to ask

[R0adki11 3949]

lol it never hurts to ask

well im sure if he had any news he would have posted some, it always seems to be the none addon makers who pester for news.:rolleyes:

Awesome project by the way besides Combine, will you perhaps do some HL2 Resistance, and of course we need a Model of Mr Freeman :)

[mcnools 62]

lol it never hurts to ask

It does actually, it has something to do with this thing called "stress".

Enough about that though. One thing I've been thinking of, will the eyes glow a bit? Or isn't it possible to do this in ArmA? It would be a pretty nice thing for night operations, that you can see the eyes of the combine soldiers in the dark. Oh and also, another though, did the Combine in Half Life 2 have night-vision? I don't really remember.

[Cyteless 10]

I would imagine they should have nightvision, but they seem to rely on flares and spotlights a lot in the campaign.