this literally makes no sense. I give criticism as I see fit, and nowhere have I mentioned my own custom work or bragged about things I made/did. you just seem to think that I like to yell at people, but you've yet to procure any reason to listen to your abhorrent ranting on what you believe is right and wrong. from what I see you seem to take pride in white-knighting on subjects you rarely show any understanding of. lastly, it is not in my interests to bring someone else down when they take an active interest in 3d design. if I can help someone improve then I will, which does not mean I have to give out compliments like candy and you should not speak for others when you dictate what I should and should not do when it is not detrimental to the topic at hand.

Edited by master noob on Sep 10, 2013 at 07:33 PM

your inability to give any form of refute against my comment astounds me, almost as much as the fact that you used yourself as a reason to backpedal.

evidently, yes. Master Noob is actually giving helpful advice, and if you notice, SOI is simply taking advice on his own accord. He's not simply catering to everyone's needs, but he's looking at the advice given to him by every user and then taking the peices which he seems to like more

For example; the brute plasma rifle.
I told him to make it more angular, sharpen the bottom, add a blade, and make it grey-ish with gold highlights
He made it more angular and added a blade. He didnt do the other two things for whatever reason, but that was his choice to do so.

Master Noob is pointing out smaller mistakes that are more noticable to him because he's been modeling for quite some time and can spot these things faster, and is letting SOI know so that he can make the adjustments to make his work better.

That being said, Master Noob, though I agree with you, i think your method of conveying your advice came out to be a bit more agressive than initially planned. That's on you.

Also SOI, How'd you get that shifting purple/blue gradient on the back of the gun? is that something with cubemaps or is that part of the texture?

I'd like to express my point of view about this discussion.

When I started this topic, I was conscious that not all the members of the forum would have liked my works, and someone would have given suggestions in order to help. This gave me the idea of starting a discussion about a custom set of weapons, collecting suggestions from the users and taking the bests in order to obtain something unique. Before going on and start the next weapon, I always ask the confirm of the community, because I don't want to release broken/unfinished/imperfect tags. This is why I listen to the members. I won't have the presumption to say that I'm a great creator, but a good creator must have the strength to fix his errors. And notice that I'm talking about the errors, not the design ideas.

As R93_Sniper said, I didn't listen to all of his suggestions, but it happened not because I didn't want to listen him. The point is that he's not the only one here that suggests ideas, and I can guarantee that trying to please everyone is almost impossible. I always feel bad when I have to take a suggestion instead of another, but I can't put all the ideas in the same weapon, expecially because most of the time these ideas are in contrast. It's a really hard work, trust me. For the Brute Plasma Rifle, in particular, the users posted almost 5 different ideas for the design, the blade, the color and the lights. What else could I have done?

Master Noob pointed a lot of problems, maybe he has been too rude, but I didn't forbid him to post other suggestions. What made me angry was the fact that he said I ignored his suggestion, but, as I wrote above, he can always post some tuts here in order to help me fix those visual problems that still persist, despite my efforts to solve them (By the way, if the tutorials list is too long and you don't want to write a massive dump here, you can always send them to me via PM).

Ranger is right, though, when he said that most of the times the final product wasn't what I liked, but what the community wanted; anyhow, I think most of the times a modder likes his own works just because he made it, and not because they are actually good. A good modder, on the other hand, must use a bit of humility and admit that his works could be better, and try to fix them. That's my point of view.

In conclusion, I'm not "kissing rum", but trying to get the best results, and trying to get a product that can please as many people as possible. I'll never brush off criticism like Killer does (no offense indeed), but I hope you'll understand that I can't please everyone and, on the other hand, I can't have the presumption to say that my tags are perfect.

Said that, let's return back on topic.
@R93_Sniper: that purple-ish tint is generated by the cubemap. The original diffuse map (both the H3 one and my modified version) uses a blue tint:

Original:


Mine:


The cubemap, on the other hand, uses a magenta color that creates a neat gradient. I preferred that tint instead of the monochromatic blue metal of the H2/H4 Beam Rifle.

I have also a little update: some posts ago, I said that after finishing Echo77's weapons list I would have worked on the Halo Wars Grunt, but, since I have been busy during these days, I preferred working on the Portable Gravity Lift:





I couldn't find any decent model, so I had to make it from scratch. Shaders need some work, but at least the tag works, and yes, it disappears after a certain amount of time.

This is it, and sorry for the text wall.
Edited by SOI_7 on Sep 11, 2013 at 10:51 AM

So, how does it work?

The Gravity Lift works like a flag, and must placed with the firing button. Then, with the help of a projectile continously spawned, you are lifted (although you'd need to decrease or even remove the falling damage). For the self destruction, you need to attach an explosion effect to the lift (that is an equipment tag) with a delay bound of some seconds (I set it to 15 seconds, but you can use any value) and a damage_effect that hits just the Gravity Lift collision materialal.
Edited by SOI_7 on Sep 11, 2013 at 11:13 AM

did you overlay the normal mapping to the diffuse map or something? it looks way more detailed than it should

It seems like he did.

Yes, I did it, but I had to make the new bumps by hand

Is this from halo wars?

UPDATE:

I have worked on two important things. First of all, I have finally finished the Halo Wars Grunt:





Reference pic: http://images.wikia.com/halo/de/images/archive/9/9b/20100430185530!Grunt_left.jpg

The model came out pretty well, what doesn't satisfy me is the low resolution of some parts (like the shoulders) due to the little space on the original texture. I'm going to rescale some parts in the bitmap in order to fix them, but at least now I have a base material to work on. And, especially, the backpack is destructable:



I'm going to apply the same method to the Hunter's back.

Second thing: maybe you won't believe me (lol), but I have figured out a way to make AIs throw a different kind of grenades without OS. It is a mix of script and effects madness xD
I didn't record any video because someone would have thought that I have just changed the grenade type in the globals, but I'll explain what I did: firstly, I have added a marker to my biped (in this case, a Brute) and made an effect tag that creates a projectile (the grenade) at the desired marker. The marker must have a precise rotation and translation in order to stay perfectly in front of the left hand during the grenade throw animation (you can import the animation and move the marker at the desired frame while you are NOT in animation mode, and link it to the head bone). Then you have to make a continous script that plays the animation and creates the effect at the desired marker after a certain amount of seconds.

ADVANTAGES: With this method, you can use whatever type of grenades. You can even make the AI throw an equipment or another object, and if you want to make him leave his grenade after dying, you can put it as an equipment in the actor_variant tag.

DISADVANTAGES: Even if the AI can use that grenade, this doesn't allow you make the same thing. You'd need to make the grenade a usable item, like a weapon. Moreover, it is desirable to make the AI throw the grenade while it looks at you, or it will just throw the grenade in front of him without distinguishing between enemies, allies and void. Nothing to say if the AI is moving...

Now, as I posted some pages ago, I'll write a full description of the changes that the Covenant will have in my mod:

GRUNT

Different model

Added the Suicide actor_variant (not the Halo Wars variant, but a H3ish variant that runs at you holding two active grenades and that doesn't disappear after dying)

Added the Ultra and Gunner ranks

Destructable Backpack

ELITE

Different model

Added the Ultra and Ranger ranks

Added a custom dialogue set (It is made of the original dialogues reversed. Simple and effective)

JACKAL

Different model

Added the Ranger and Sniper ranks

Probably I'll use the H3 dialogues, but I have still to decide

HUNTER

Different model

Added the Major rank

Minor Hunters use the H3 assault cannon (thanks to Bourrin), Major the regular Fuel Rod Gun

Destructable back armor

H2/H3 dialogues

BRUTE

Custom Plasma Shield shader

Added the Stalker and War Chieftain ranks

Ranks will respect the H3 ranking system

Bodyguard Brutes and (maybe?) Stalker Brutes will use Firebomb Grenades

Chieftain Brutes use properly the Gravity Hammer

DRONES

Fixed the collision, the exception and reticle bugs

Added the Major rank (red armor, Needler)

Blue wings, like in H3, that now move

They now ping instead of fighting like bullet sponges

ENGINEER

Custom texture

They give overshields to units (via script)

They explode after dying

Custom dialogues

DRINOL

Added as a mini-boss for a single mission

And @RangerDanger... If the HW structure you mean is that size, I guess it is better to make it as part of the BSP, but unluckily I still don't know how to make BSPs (or, to be more precise, I have never did a BSP before), so that tag is -at least for the moment- not doable :[

This is it. I'll continue working on the HW Grunt in order to fix those texture problems. Meanwhile, you can already discuss on the remaining weapons. You can follow the example of the previous weapons and/or use Echo77's list as reference. I remind you that the remaining weapons are:

-Spartan Laser
-Plasma Pistol
-Brute Shot
-Mauler
-Needler (maybe a recreation of this model? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTDuMglz8ME)
-Fuel Rod Gun
-Gravity Hammer
-Sentinel Gun
Edited by SOI_7 on Oct 18, 2013 at 04:28 PM

That map/ model was made by Joshflighter, i am pretty sure that i still have it and can give it out.
Sorry for the threadjack Soi.

No problem, Maniac.

I take this opportunity to say that I have worked on the Grunt shoulders. Now they look significantly better:

A goggle-less version would look cool too.

The Grunt has goggles, does it not?

It resembles a Grunt from Halo Wars, but it is not itself a Grunt from Halo Wars, as it is not a direct port from that game.

Ranger, calm down... don't get this topic locked...

@Dumb_AI Here you are, I'm going to use the goggle variant for the major, the ultra and the spec ops ranks:

I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for these, but a few thoughts have come to mind.

•Brute Shot: Perhaps something similar to one of these concepts from the cancelled Halo MMORPG. The green "pistol" variant looks rather nice.
•Mauler: The Mauler could be modified into more of a general purpose sidearm, as opposed to a handheld shotgun. The weapon in the bottom-right on this page of concepts by ninboy01 could be something to look into.
•Needler: I like the version you found in the video. A recreation of that would be cool, methinks. In terms of performance, you could give it a higher ammunition capacity, but take away the supercombine and homing abilities. Individual rounds could create a small detonation on impact. If you wanted to give it a secondary fire ability, maybe you could give it a shotgun-like effect that would utilize half of the ammo in the weapon's magazine in a single shot (I don't know if this would be overpowered, though).
•Fuel Rod Gun: Perhaps you could turn the Fuel Rod Gun into a needle-based weapon, with a similar color scheme to the standard Needler, and large shards of crystalline ammunition jutting up from the top cowling instead of a rack of fuel rods.
•Gravity Hammer: Maybe the head of the hammer could be removed and replaced by a mirrored version of the axe blade, turning the weapon into a double-sided war axe. Alternatively, you could try using the handle of the Gravity Hammer as the basis of some sort of spear.
Edited by Echo77 on Sep 18, 2013 at 05:11 PM

These ideas look really interesting. I'm expecially interested in the Needler concept and the Fuel Rod Gun. About the Needler, you gave me an idea for the secondary mode: I don't know if you have played Ifaudafi's ASCM, but that shotgun effect reminded me of the Eviscerator. What if I could implement that functionality? For the primary mode, the one you described is similiar to the Needle Rifle one, so it is pretty doable (perhaps I could implement the detonation just for non-shielded units instead of removing it completely, since non-homing bullets should be harder to combine).
For the Fuel Rod Gun, I remembered that it was speculated (before the release of Halo 4) a possible hybrid between the Rocket Launcher and the Needler created by 343i. Obviously, that weapon has never been done, but I like that idea. Maybe the needles/crystals could explode with a broken-glass particle effect after the impact, but I guess I should make something for the bouncing ability that the fuel rods have in H3/HR/H4. The color scheme of the needle is interesting (certainly better that the overused green), but what if the crystals are... azure? This could differentiate the material of the crystals, and most of all... come on, azure looks beautiful: http://halo4nation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/fuel.jpg

I guess I need to get something for the Spartan Laser, the Plasma Pistol and the Sentinel Gun (at least in terms of design), though... About the Gravity Hammer, should I remove the gravity effect and turn it just in a melee weapon?

@SOI 7: I don't remember exactly how the Eviscerator functioned. It's been a while since I've played.

Personally, I'd disable the supercombine of the modified Needler, just to further differentiate it from the standard version, but it's ultimately up to you.

I was thinking that the needle-based Fuel Rod Gun (Heavy Needler? Needle Launcher?) could function almost like an autocannon: semi- or fully-automatic, relatively slow rate of fire, with projectiles that have high impact damage and some splash damage. Akin to the main guns utilized by the Brute Chopper, but needle-based. Alternatively, you could take inspiration from the books and Halo Wars, and turn it into an anti-aircraft weapon. Projectiles could have a moderate homing ability and individual shards could detonate in a manner similar to the supercombine from a standard Needler. Blue crystals could work; CMT used them in SPV2.

I think the modified Gravity Hammer should have its gravity effect disabled, should you choose to turn it into a sort of axe or spear, and relegated to a melee role.

i like echo's leedle launcher concept, i think it'd be a more believable replacement than the FRG, that way the projectile could be slower and have a smaller radius, effectively balancing the fact that it bounces and has a high mag and max ammo capacity.

also since the needler could be have two loading ports (top and bottom halves), maybe it could empty an entire half for the shotgun effect.

*sighs...*

@MEGAVKING: I have used the base H3 eyes texture, it should be ok, since Ensemble Studios didn't make a goggle-less variant of the Halo Wars Grunts:


@Echo77: You have convinced me. The Needler won't have the detonation, and the "Fuel Rod Gun" (I guess I need to give it a new name now) will use the characteristic you explained. I just don't know if I should make the bullets affected by gravity (like in Halo 1) or not...
Major Hunters will use the regular Fuel Rod bullets, though.
I have still some doubts for the Gravity Hammer, though... the spear/axe idea is very original, but the gravity effect is its symbol, more than the main difference between the Gravity Hammer and a regular melee weapon like the Energy Sword, the Honorguard Pike and the Flag (and I'd like to keep it also because Chieftain Brutes now work properly). I had an idea, but it is still an hypothesis: why not both? Via animations, I could leave the regular firing effect and make the player use the back blade of the Hammer for the melee animation, or put a spear-like blade on the bottom part of the handle and keep the regular melee animation... it could be a good compromise.
And about the Eviscerator, here you can see it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1Kq4pTeos

@Greg079 Good idea, maybe if I give to the Needler a 30 needles magazine instead of 20, the secondary firing mode could waste 15 needles, and via animation I could make the bottom needles disappear

In regards to whether or not the Needler's shotgun function should be similar to the Eviscerator's, I think it should be a more traditional scatter effect, as opposed to firing a wide cone that homes in on the target.

Possible new names for the Fuel Rod Gun: Needle Cannon, Heavy Needler, AA Needler, Needle Launcher? If you intend to give it autocannon functionality, you could make the projectiles slightly affected by gravity at longer ranges. If you intend to make it anti-aircraft weapon, I don't think they should be affected by gravity.

The hammer compromise sounds good.
Edited by Echo77 on Sep 19, 2013 at 12:01 PM

UPDATE

I decided to work directly on the Mauler:







HOW IT IS MADE:

I tried my best to get a result as close as possible to Ninboy01's concept, though I had to be more creative for the texture. I decided to keep the Reach design in terms of Brute weapons, so I added orange/red lights, red symbols, scratches and blood splats on the blade and so on.
In terms of functionality, the weapon keeps its characteristics, although the melee damage has been increased due to the new blade position. I have also recreated that orange light that the mauler has in third person after firing:



I kept the H3 sounds. They are good enough IMO.

And here is the final version of the Grunt eyes:



I have some troubles for the Needler firing modes, though:
the two firing modes that Echo77 suggested are definitely doable, but there are two possible methods, and each one has a disadvantage.

1st Method: making the secondary firing mode (the shotgun effect) a charge trigger, like the Plasma Pistol (but, of course, you won't be able to hold the trigger forever). This, however, will disable the automatic firing mode of the primary trigger, but it could be used to give to the Needler a pistol-like behaviour.

2nd Method: making the secondary firing mode a replacement of the grenades, like the BRG. This will keep the automatic firing mode of the primary trigger, but having a shotgun-like weapon instead of the grenades would create problems when you use the Needler against a large number of enemies. An automatic weapon combined with a shotgun would make you, on the other hand, definitely overpowered against regular enemies...

That is a very cool-looking Brute sidearm. A few suggestions:

As it is now, the top chamber of of the drum isn't actually lined up with anything. This sound be more in-line with the barrel, and the front of the top of the drum should not have empty space in front of it. Rather than have the bayonet attached to the weapon via a small metal connector, perhaps you could simply make the blade smoothly integrate into the weapon as a single-piece blade, if that makes any sense.

Since the longer barrel implies increased accuracy over its snub-nosed counterpart, You could turn it into more of a pistol than a shotgun, making it a heavy-hitting but slower-firing counterpart to things like the Plasma Pistol or M6 magnum. If you want to stay close to its Mauler roots, you could replace the buckshot with slugs.

The Needler's secondary function was merely a thought, and may not be entirely necessary. Due to its doubled capacity in comparison to the standard Needler, I feel that it should remain capable of fully-automatic fire; it's essentially the "support gunner/close combat" equivalent to the Needler. If you are fond of the idea of a Needler shotgun, though, then you could make this its primary function and do away with the full-auto capabilities, turning it into a two-shot scattergun. If you want both functions, I think the second method of operation would be the best; you would be unable to use grenades, but your close-quarters combat capabilities would be increased (at the cost of high ammo consumption and frequent reloading if you overuse the shotgun effect). And if you're fighting at shotgun ranges and suddenly have to throw a grenade, you can just switch to your other weapon and throw it.
Edited by Echo77 on Sep 24, 2013 at 02:16 PM

^ i agree with echo about the mauler, couldn't have said it better myself. also soi, i think the blade and the lower grip are a nice touch

I tried my best to get the result you desire:



Unluckily I can't get much more with the barrel, because if I move it to a lower position the back piston passes through the body of the weapon. For the drum, I filled that empty space, but I still don't get a good allignment with the barrel... I'm still here for more suggestions, though.

For the functionality, I think I got the same problem that CMT had when they created the Brute Plasma Pistol. For some strange reason, both CMT and me thought about a weapon that fires multiple bullets per shot, but it doesn't seem to be very effective. With a minor projectile error the Mauler could be more effective at a larger range, but it can't compete with a real "Pistol" like the Magnum. For some strange reason, there is something in the Boltok Pistol of Gears Of War that reminds me of the Brute tecnology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDHQYxuLsHY), maybe because it's a pistol, but powerful and with a small rate of fire. But, unlike the Brute weapons, it is accurate.
I should think about a good compromise between a pistol and a weapon that fires multiple bullets (like the Mauler was used to).

And about the Needler, I'll use the second method, like you guys wish.

But the next election isn't gonna happen in 2014...

2016.

But the 22nd Amendment...

however, he's doing his best to keep us in a state of war, which can, potentially, allow him to prolong his term.
and back on topic, SOI was master noob able to help you with the textures?

He said that he would have sent me a list of tutorials about how to improve textures, but he didn't send them yet. I'm currently using the method that I've used for the Beam Rifle and the PR/BPR (baking the normals on the diffuse, making the bottom parts darker and making the top parts brighter in order to simulate lighting and ambient occlusion)

Take a look at FDR.
Edited by Dumb AI on Sep 27, 2013 at 09:57 AM

Wasn't the 22nd amendment written because of FDR?

yes, it was. Check out your history ppl

The idea in the 22nd amendment has been around for a pretty long time and I was referring to the fact that FDR served more than the typical 2 terms.
Edited by Dumb AI on Sep 27, 2013 at 09:32 PM