Polycount - Generals - [KDR_11k] Psycruiser
polycounter lvl 18
Already at 3.5k, Yikes! I'm going to attach a girl to that forward ring (shackled to it), she'll be the psionic that controls the whole thing. Decided to do the ship first because it's faster to do and I couldn't draw a concept of that thing that makes sense. I'm not happy with the three outer shell thingies, either I'll give them an inwards bend at the front or make them larger to form more of a cylinder.
Description:
Lt Col* Eris Reinhard
Cmdr 17.Btl "Mindseers", Polycount Legions
Before the collapse of the mighty federation there was a psionics research lab on Aquaeos VII where children with psionic abilities were brought for research to study the way psionics work, find ways to assist psionics with technology and ultimately integrate psi abilities into the gensoldier projects. As the federation crumbled, budgets were cut and security staff reduced to the point where they couldn't stop the psionics from escaping.
The freed psionics took over the minds of their former torturers and, after having them build machines that would allow the psionics to destroy any federation army leftovers, used them as mind controlled pawns in a deathmatch game until all of the former staff was dead. This would later become the Mindseers' traditional victory ritual, to gather up the survivors, control their minds and have them fight brutal matches to the death. The winner of this first tournament and strongest psionic of the bunch, Eris Reinhard was declared the leader of the newfounded 17. Battallion.
In revenge for the experiments done to them, the Mindseers joined the hordes of chaos to destroy the leftovers of a society that rejected them as mutants. Although most Mindseers are still children they absorbed enough knowledge and can control themselves through their abilities to be effective soldiers. Their minds are always connected, orders are relayed instanteously and without any noise and everyone supports everyone. Mindseer troops are absolutely loyal and know no fear (they do but whenever one of them feels fear the rest of them removes that emotion from his mind). Although they cannot control machines through their abilities, an attack with purely automatic units is futile as the psionics can unleash psi blasts that may not be strong but suffice to fry the electronics of any machine nearby. The best strategy to defeat Mindseers is an attack with overwhelming numbers of weak troops as they can only control a limited number of enemies at once. Because large numbers of cannonfodder are easily defeated by other Horde troops the 17. Battallion mostly fulfills support roles to avoid facing their own weakness.
Mindseers aren't exactly popular among Horde troopers. While the prospect of having that big tank of your enemy's turn around and blow up his allies is tempting, nothing is as awful an experience as having to interact with a psionic that knows your every thought or memory and could turn you into a mindless puppet at any time.
The psionic amplifiers used by the Mindseers allow them to take control of or otherwise influence weak minded enemy troops at great distances, many an army was defeated before it even knew the Mindseers were nearby. Eris, in the tradition outlined by her namesake goddess, loves to make enemy troops hallucinate and shoot chaotically at everything that moves, especially their allies. She can influsence hundreds of minds in this way at the same time and the vessel she is piloting gives her a range of multiple kilometers for that effect. She can also deflect any projectiles fired at her and even throw them back at the attacker as long as the enemy is not too close (a strong mind weakens the effect of psionics nearby). The amplifier allows her to feel the presence of other minds and their intentions over hundreds of kilometers, acting as a very long range radar. Although the Chaosbringer could fly at any altitude it's not geared for spaceflight and since psionics need no line of sight and don't have ballistic weapons that would gain range from higher ground Eris keeps it at a low altitude to play out the benefits of her abilities.
*= If we aren't allowed to make anything below brigadier general that'll get a change but I figured a general is a bit too high a rank to command a single battallion.
Replies
Working on the hipoly model for the pilot, can't seem to make it look not like a man...
I think she'd look more attractive if you moved the eyes down a little, and made them horizontally wider.
Interesting write-up too... sounds like a cool idea, keep workin' on it
Okay, looks like a woman to me now. I guess I just read bald = male. The head seems a bit big but I don't like scaling multi-object parts so I'll fix that later. I hate working with highpoly (next up: Hands. Urk. I'd like to just take a set of hands I've made before but the rules don't seem to allow that...) but since I can't put that much detail into the pilot mesh I'll have to use normalmaps. The knee could use more detail but that means even more loops and I'm not even sure yet whether it'll be exposed at all.
I'm thinking about attaching half a skeleton to her that holds her like a loved one and seems to whisper into her ear... Skeletons are many separate parts so I won't have to continue loops very far but I'm worried about the final polycount. Guess I should see how much I can trim out of the chaosbringer first before allocating even more triangles to things.
Another idea on my mind is to put a cybernetic hole into her torso (I'd put it through her heart but the breasts are in the way and would have to be removed completely, I don't want her to look very disfigured, we're not monsters, we just fight for other ideals) that lines up with the cruiser's engine and have a ray of energy go through her into the engine.
If I could draw I'd make a sketch of what I'm going for.
Her hip/butt area in that shot seems to be sticking out a little too far at the top, it's looking rather sharp in the silhouette. Her clavicle bones also appear to be very small.
also did you try moving her eyes down and scaling them up a little? I think that'd help a lot ... also when you're making eyeballs out of spheres, a good rule that's worked for me in the past is that the eyeball spheres should have approximately 1 eyeball sphere width between them.
keep it up
Normalmapped her body and found out that I'll need an external renderer for showing the result. Grrr. Yafray apparently doesn't support normalmaps at all. So I guess my only option is to put the result into Doom 3 and make a screenshot. Great. Screenshot vs. Mentalray. Yeah, that's going to work.
Considering that other people got more replies just by announcing they're going to enter I guess I should just give up, noone cares about me and I can't even render the model properly.
I guess I should just give up, noone cares about me and I can't even render the model properly.
[/ QUOTE ]
Call yourself a fucking general? Get your ass back to work, we need all the fighters we can get! /me cracks a large whip
Besides, we need more barely-dressed chicks fighting for the cause.
Oh, and yafray does actually render NMs. I'm using Wings, and it took a bit of fiddling, but it does work. What're you modelling in?
i'd recommend lengthening her arms a little, the hand should usually fall mid-way down the thigh, hers is currently barely past the hip. also it looks like she might appear to be falling forward a little in the side view... not a huge problem since you'd be rigging and posing her anyway, i guess, but i usually like to model in as balanced a pose as possible, just makes it easier to judge masses, i think.
Hmm don't want her disfigured, eh? The exoskeleton sounds like a good idea then. No matter what you choose to do, make sure that you make it very clear that she is controlling the ship, else it will seem like she is meerly a passive rider or a hostage to the machine.
You should be happy you can model humans even close to properly. Whine anymore, and i'll call the whaaaambulance.
Just kidding, don't take offense, alright?
try doing something that isn't a naked amputee chick in a star wars mobile. maybe it'll come easier. either do what you're great at, or challenge yourself at something you're not.
That should make clearer what I'm going for. The big ring will be replaced with one that's designed for being this large.
Mop: Yeah, you're right, I seem to use a wrong pivot point mentally when trying to see where the hands would end up.
Cubik: I'm not sure how to make that clear, I want her to be unconscious while using the chaosbringer since her mind is somewhere else.
Ely: I've tried to put a chick in there because that keeps me motivated. I have a hard time finishing things that don't involve girls so I decided that since I want to complete this thing I should choose asubject that keeps me interested
This is what i immediately think of, making her look like she's suffering and being controlled by the machine instead of controlling it.
But i like your idea, i just think she can be posed better than that.
Oh, and speaking of tits, hers are a little lumpy with the NM. But me likes the overall thing.
Had another possibly silly idea. Have her hair splayed out somewhat, floating. Might push the idea of her exuding one massive amount of psychic energy.
I like the idea of having her suffer more than having her seem in control but I'm not sure whether to attribute that to the machine using her as a tool or saying that pain amplifies her abilities.
Overall the thought of a flying altar for sacrifice seems appealing as a goal to aim for. Perhaps a bit more arcane look would help. Hm, perhaps replacing the outer shell parts with megaliths inscribed with runes chained to the ring that's holding her?
With your last post I see the kick-ass potential.
Edit: Kind of like this.
-LD