Sunset Sarsaparilla's Wild Wild West World

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Work work work.

Made a poor stab at the bell after finishing the lamp, also started the blob things for the pistons and made the cab better.

 

 

 

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That's a temporary "hole" I immediately undid to show where the window mesh on the outside lines up.

 

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/6282/roof.png

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I snuck in detail work on the lamp (and the cab) while shooting...

 

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8561/bellbump.png

Bell patch. Extruding cylinders from perpendicular cylinders is fiendishly tedious and messy...

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/693/hehdb.png

 

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/1533/lineageg.png

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4807/smoothgage.png

 

 

Probably won't get in as much tomorrow, but I'm hoping to have the engine itself done (sans bells and whistles and a "solid" piston/driving wheel system) and probably the tender by week's end. After that I'll scrounge up a passenger car or something and attempt to import the tender (as a test, given the "rough" outline re: the wheels & whistles) to NIFscope and thence to GECK.

 

Not sure about textures at this point: I have nil UV mapping work/experience, but then a few weeks ago I'd never even heard of Wings, and I've been using GIMP for a few casual years now; I'll give it a go.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Didn't get as much done today; a complete rebuild of the pistons and a crude arrow plow up front.

 

 

 

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/5974/whattodot.png

 

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http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/4589/cowcatcher.png

 

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/2271/bettervisuals.png

 

 

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Four in a row, where is everyone, eh?

 

I imported a boxcar and straight track piece for scale/reference; my mesh was embarrasingly small.

Oh yeah, the bogie's done (though a bit blocky) and the bell & piston thingies up front (steam cylinders?) are basically ok (though they're rather... blocky, and are missing some detail/bendy thingies) also I have no frikn clue how to paste the bell onto the engine's main body.

The cowcatcher is better, it looks like a snowplow instead of a cheese wedge. :P

 

 

 

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4964/lazyx.png

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/143/snowploughneedswork.png

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http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8928/roughoutline.png

 

 

 

[devinpatterson]

Four in a row,

 

Looking good :thumbsup:

 

I'll try and start some basic testing on the vehicle part of the mod this week. I figure we can use a combination of approaches. For instance near the train station we can use animations baked into the nif that just arrive and leave. Those are of course extremely limited. For more flexibility I'll start experimenting with rigging vehicle nif's to a critter skeleton that doesn't bob when it runs (probably eyebot's best) and tie that to a patrol package. In some cases using setpos in a script to move static nifs about. The last two methods will probably be used a lot for the train when it's outside moving along it's tracks.

 

And the rideable creatures script for driveable vehicles (which is essentially setpos tied into keystrokes). For Bills vault I would really like to make a classic fallout car, but replace the wheels with jets. Make a shiny new texture, pump up the gloss in nifskope and really make this thing look like it just rolled out of the dealership. You coldn't use it until after the end quest, but when that, starts I'm hoping people with a fast computer (and because of low LOD requirements in hte mod) will allow the player to drive it around the park in real style. But for game balance (and lack of an car sized exit) you probably won't be able to take it out of Sunset Vale.

 

where is everyone, eh?

 

Yeah sorry works been a PITA. Usually I have time to at least log into the board from there, but not lately.

 

Gonna try to write up a quick summary of chp 1 here soon. It will list what I'm trying to accomplish as a plot precursor, foreshadow enemies/products etc. Also thinking it might be a good idea to make a new thread that would be just chapter 1 and specific to just that mod. Since this main one has all of them mashed together it's become huge and unwieldy.....what do you think?

 

 

In the meantime I had a variation on one of the ideas for *after* the main park quest. If the chosen one merges with the parks cybernetic mainframe as part of the end, maybe it will be possible for you to go to Old World Blues and do something similar to the couriers 1st trip. Tesla coils replaced your brain and your body was essentially operated by remote control. Well maybe the chosen one could have the same done to her body, so that her brain (in the mainframe) could control her body....as long as she was just inside the park.

 

Also should the kid's brain inside the park mainfram be a boy or a girl. Boy might fit better loving all the cowboy & amusement theme. But a girl will garner more sympathy and make killing the mainframe at the end even more difficult. I'm making up new posters, so it's time to decide. ATM I'm inclined to go with a girl, since I believe she would have more sway over Bill. I thought some of the advertising could be like Dave did for Wendy's. Using a lot of his niece in his promotional/advertising etc.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Heh, no problem (well,, figuratively) RE the silence. I was secretly wondering if Id finish the blasted thing before you all came back, the reactions would have been priceless.

Anyhoo, right now I'm on the driving wheels; once that's done the engine itself is literally down to bells and whistles, and detail work on the chassis & cab etc. so I'd knock out a quick tender (empty one would be insalnely easy compared to the monster boiler, just a slab with wheels basically) and stuff like that.

Is there a suitable "water tower" in GECK somewhere? I could *probab;y* make a quick and dirty one but an in-game variant would probably be of better quality.

Let me know how the animation turns out, is there anything special I should do with the wheels? My WAG is that the bogie would be one block (the wheels "turning" via the texture) to allow for curves and then the rear driving wheels (the rearmost pair-left and right- 4-4-0 in steam means four leading, four main, 0 behind, and it counts both sides) and pistons would be another set of animations, with the middle wheels being a third.

 

So basically should I keep the pistons, back wheels and bogie separate from the main body, or should I just send the whole thing to you?

 

Yeah, I see what you mean about the "kid" being a niece, but I think a father/son dynamic (perhaps a teenage/adult son, whom he "groomed" for command) could show up somewhere else. IE th MF is his niece/grandaughter/daughter, but his son and "heir" is a disgruntled/highly bitter (rightfully so) major NPC, perhaps even one of the Posse? It would be interesting, the niece ordering the son (who's in a better body, eg. could easily kill bill if he wanted to/was allowed to) to obey his pathetically weak and spiritually crushed father's every whim, being as much- if not more of- a servant Post-War as Pre-War "everything's a shell of its former self, but nothing's changed" and making one big screwed up family.

[devinpatterson]

Is there a suitable "water tower" in GECK somewhere? I could *probab;y* make a quick and dirty one but an in-game variant would probably be of better quality.

 

Oh yeah I think we have a bunch. Reskin them in a wood texture and they'll probably be just fine.

 

Let me know how the animation turns out, is there anything special I should do with the wheels? So basically should I keep the pistons, back wheels and bogie separate from the main body, or should I just send the whole thing to you?

 

Well I can tell you how the should work. You'd want to make any moving part it's own vertices group. So when your doing an key frame (kf) animation you move each part that is animated in along a time line of seconds. So for instance on your train for example, I'd rotate each wheel 1 revolution (or whatever) and move the train forward, that would be a frame (just example values). By making each moving part separate vertices it makes it easy to select that whole part (ctrl L). Unfortunately for each animation there can be a ton of frames, 100's. So as you can guess it's a ton of work, without even throwing in the pistons etc. So since I'v never done a KF we shouldn't consider animating anything other than the forward movement and the wheels.

 

Then when the animation is baked into the nif a playgroup forward command (or playgroup backward) will make it do it's thing.

 

But I think a father/son dynamic (perhaps a teenage/adult son, whom he "groomed" for command) could show up somewhere else.....disgruntled/highly bitter (rightfully so) major NPC, perhaps even one of the Posse?

 

Sure, sounds good.

 

It would be interesting, the niece ordering the son (who's in a better body, eg. could easily kill bill if he wanted to/was allowed to) to obey his pathetically weak and spiritually crushed father's every whim, being as much- if not more of- a servant Post-War as Pre-War "everything's a shell of its former self, but nothing's changed" and making one big screwed up family.

 

Sure I think that's all workable except for the power balance. I'd want him to be weaker than Bill because the responsibility of all that has happened lies mostly on Bills shoulders. If his son could have killed him and in effect the mainframe, I think he would have (he doesn't have the same emotional restrictions Bill has to his daughter).

 

And if he (son) is more powerful and didn't end all of this, then the bad karma falls on him (son) because he had hte power, and we don't want that. Bill is the lychpin of the story ahd it's his greatest virtue (the love for his daughter) that has become his greatest failing......leading to his private hell.

 

So you mentioned him in the posse? Implying he'd be a protectron brainbot then? We'll have to do that or a ghoul or some explanation for his extended life. Is he mostly background story re: the family or a potential player in the plot (ie can he be turned by the player, would he betray Bill etc.).

Edited August 15, 2012 by devinpatterson

[devinpatterson]

Also I think we can get a lot of mileage out the family dynamics in another way. Say Bill has a few sons all young adults (say 18-26 for example). All serving/served in the military carrying on proudly their fathers tradition etc etc. But when his daughter was born, something of a surprise at his late age, it completely changed him. Everyone noticed something was fundamentally different about him, tempering his gung-ho patriotic fallout bloodlust and making him essentially a better person. Some would even say his daughter was the only person besides his wife he truly loved in the real sense of the word.

 

Which also brings up his wife. Killed in an accident maybe? Shortly before Bill gets news of his daughters incurable diagnosis? Maybe it's a big part of the reason this all happened. After just loosing the love of his life he can't even contemplate loosing his dauther too, thus the route taken?

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Well, the fact that a daughter could never be a Bill Jr might have something to do with it, too.

"Daddy, I want another pony." "Cool, let's play cowboys and indians!" "You always end up killing them" "But sweetie, that's the best part!" :teehee:

Anyway the wheel base/undercarriage is really annoying me. Pertially because of the relative difficulty level (having to scale/rescale the bogie and wheels, and align the back wheels to the base) and partially because it's sooooo close to completion that I just want to be done with it and move on to another part of the train.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Oh yeah as an aside, what are we going to name this bad boy? All/a lot of the engines had names and BIll wouldn't pass up a golden opportunity for "historically accurate" ostentation/showmanship.

 

here's a vid of the Leviathan, a replica completed back in 2009.

 

Gah, the whole undergarriage (the gap between the pistons in particular but also the area right behind the cab) looks nothing like what I've made, it's bothering me to no end. The cowcatcher is also a problem on the sides, it has "horns" sticking out and it's one big blob in the general shape of the proper pronged plow.

 

Added a whistle, redid the bell (not attached, but if/when it is, it could actually move(!) if somone's willing to animate it)

speaking of which for the purpose of animation divide the piston into two parts: the bar connecting the driving wheels (would be animated as part of the wheels, and if we're mirroring both sides- and why not- then that's one big animated object right there) and the actual lever/back forth bit connecting the bar/wheel ensemble to the steam compressors (I believe that's what they are/are called) which seems to be the harder part from my limited experience point.

 

On the bright side, if we want an "oil fired replica" like the Leviathan, then the tender can be completely empty, which greatly simplifies an already "simple sideshow" to the current engine setup; another vid of the Lev. had people sitting in there, and it would certainly make a good place for fighting off bandits from. :thumbsup:

I'm thinking of taking a little "break" to cool my head... perhaps adding the tender or the pistons as a lighter sideshow. The feverish fine tuning and tedious detail work is driving me nuts. :psyduck:

 

 

 

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http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1658/soclosen.png

 

 

 

[devinpatterson]

Well, the fact that a daughter could never be a Bill Jr might have something to do with it, too....."Daddy, I want another pony."

 

Exactly, I can see Bill being very hard on his boys. Not because he doesn't love them, but because he has a very specific idea of what a man is and what he wants his boys to become. And a big part of that means toughening them up, making sure they're very capable like him, so he'd never go easy on them. In fact probably be harder on them then anyone else.

 

But his daughter would be treated completely differently, protected, coddled etc as you allude to above. Pluse she'd be the last part of his wife he had left, plus he'd have a completely different view of raising her.

 

 

Anyway the wheel base/undercarriage is really annoying me.

 

when I get stuck I like to jump or things are going slowly, I like to jump to a new project (or different part), when I come back to it I usually end up doing a better job.