The Ripper

dfacto

Since we now have an unacceptable two consecutive UT releases without the Ripper, I want to concept one out and either model it myself, or better yet, coerce someone else into doing it for me. Anyways, here's a wip of my current idea, which will probably get dropped.



The idea is that the disc levitates on the rail and is accelerated out. The arm on the left moves in along a rail, deposits the next disk, moves back out, bends down and picks a new disc from a carriage underneath. Then it goes back to default. The cycle repeats every turn.

Ideas and input much appreciated.

konstruct

pretty cool concept- first thought that came to mind however was JUKE BOX OF DEATH!!!

Ferg

nice start, hope you find a solid candidate to model it (I might be down for it, actually)

input/ideas: Make the machinery that goes over the top of the spinning blade a bit more open, maybe some struts and frame showing, to give the player a bit more information about the interior mechanism that spins and fires the blade.

Really like the reloading arm part of the concept.

Good idea to keep the internal workings kind of ambiguous though, leave something to the imagination... might be nice to have a hint or indication of a "charge up" component that creates/stores/transfers the energy used to spin and fire the blade, and have a nice animation of it charging back up after every shot.

Anyway, just some ideas. Can't wait to see this evolve!

Ryan Smith

Rofl... i think that since this is a new concept for ut3, you need to make it a bit differet... when looking at the way your gun loads, it would feel like the gun would have a firing rate of around .75 shots a second, which would mean the gun would fire only 4 times every 3 seconds...

When looking at it this way, a design method you need to think about is balance... guns that take longer to fire do much more damage i.e. the rocket launcher and a full charged bio shot. Unless the arm loaded the gun super fast, you need to think about how much damage the disks would do and how large the disks themselves would be.

If the gun fired only 4 times every 3 seconds, i would make the disks about 3 feet in diameter and have them do about 40 damage, however they would have to move pretty slow and only bounce a couple of times... The ripper was always one of my favorite guns... so i would like to see your concepts further develop. Just keep balance in mind when designing your gun.

HonkyPunch

I was very unhappy with the lack of ripper as well.
As a solution to the "slow load time"
Perhaps just make a large cylinder of ammo that protrudes from the top, and feeds ammo into the loading chamber?

dfacto

Covered the rail with a housing, some more details, and did Ferg's strut idea.


Konstruct: thanks. :P

Ferg: Excellent call on the struts. Didn't add machinery inside, but I might do that if I go with this concept.

Virtuosic: It would require a fast animation, but as I recall the ripper only fired around 2 rounds a second or so anyways. It would be choppy and mechanical, but it might work. Or not. Definitely something to think about though.

Jimmies: I was going to do that for the top and bottom, but I think I'll just save that for a different concept and let this one stay with the arm for the moment.

Ghostscape

With the original concept the way I was reading it is that there are multiple arms in sort of a gatling configuration (with the visible arm being one of 6, in the 8 o clock position), and they'd pull discs from an ammo spindle when they're in the bottom position, and they spin the disk over the rail when they're in the top position and then the rail shoots it out.

Something like that would make it a bit awkward around the bottom, but might be interesting to consider.

Vailias

.. I don;t know it feels TOO clean for the weapon type.

And the reload mechanism, while cool looking, is horridly impractical and looks dangerous to the user, and prone to malfunction or damage.
but I like ghostscapes idea, perhaps have it so the blade is fired from the arm, it acts as a spin and hold mechanism not just reloading.

dfacto

Just another variant. Loads from the barrel thing on the right, not sure what the arm does at all... I'll need to rethink this, but I'm mostly playing with forms right now, so I can get away with it.


Ghostscape: I was thinking of that, but then realized it look too much like the mine-layer from 2k4, and I hated that thing. :P

Vailias: Personal preference I guess. I'm a sucker for the massive industrial looking weapons like the UT3 Flak Cannon, as well as the sexy clean UT3 Link Gun. It would get grunge thrown in for a final version though, of course.

As for a danger to the user, I really don't think any UT weapon can be considered safe. :P

EDIT:

Slimmed it down a bit and made the left side thing extend into the center of the gun. It aids in loading now.

bounchfx

this thing is freaking awesome dude.

kinda curious to how the arm helps with loading in conjunction with the right side loader - can you explain a little how it will work? maybe i'm just blind

also, I'd like to see a full view, I'm curious how it will be held and look overall

Steve Schulze

It'd be nice to incorporate some elements from the original Razorjack, which is the -real- one as far as I'm concerned.

Vailias

ok that latest version I like a lot more.

Davision3D

Cool!
Looks very high tech, i think it looks too clean, a more raw brutal look would fit more to the projectiles. More stuff that is coming out of the main shape, more looking inside it and sharp and flat shapes would help for that.

A side view sketch would help a lot to get a better feel of the look.

Here is a concept from Hawk Prey for the ripper:

It looks very unreal istic because where should all the big ammo come from, but maybe its better to do not too much and make it not that realistic

Cant wait to rip my enemys in ut3 to pieces!

Frank

[ QUOTE ]
.. I don;t know it feels TOO clean for the weapon type.

[/ QUOTE ]
Loud agreement, it looks more like a weapon from Mass Effect instead of UT. Too clean!

Frank the Avenger

Kristian

I understand that some think it might look too clean, but personally, I think this style is perfect for the weapon. Take the Flak Cannon, blasting glowing shrapnel out in an industrial explosion of death. Its grotesquely mechanical look is perfect for that function. This Ripper concept is almost surgical in nature, evoking a sense of modern construction robots and whirring doctors' tools. With a shiny, densely serrated disc and that almost ipodesque blue glow it's certainly a different creature than the original ripper, but I think it is all the better for it.

Great work, and some excellent fast iterating on your concept. Making the buzzsaw-spewing dismemberer of the Unreal series into the most surgical looking one and actually pulling it off is really impressive.

DrakeAndrews

Heh, I haven't touched UT since 99. It's the only copy I have and played. I think with all the "too clean" comments, I think all dfacto needs to do is just add a few paint chips and dirt smudges here and there on the gun. Maybe add some rust to the blades. Because otherwise I think the style of it is really cool.

Are you also making a mod dfacto?

Joao Sapiro

agreed, this weapon style is cleaner than what we are used too , but it doesnt clutter up its space by putting uneeded gears and stuff to look "pretty" i think it looks really functional yet has character. hoping to see a final concept soon and a side view dfactoman


EDIT : what i ment is that im really liking how it is going, and adding paint chips etc could be done in texture easily.

EarthQuake

Too clean my ass, dont gay it up with random over-detail shit thats just there to be there and serves no real purpose. You've got a real nice style going here.