Week 1 completed! This is what I did.
8 February: Storage Tank With And Without Scaffolding
Generic chemical storage tank for use in an industrial setting. When I worked at the foundry we had a bunch of these lined up along one wall for various chemicals used around the shop, especially lubricants. One of our common “waiting for a machine to be ready to use” tasks was going to these tanks, filling cans with lubricant, and topping up the machines’ supplies.
I made a basic version, then added some basic metal scaffolding to it. Depending on where these tanks are placed, some are freestanding, and some have that scaffolding to protect against being damaged by a wayward forklift or similar large heavy object. It’s armor, not a support structure, which is why it doesn’t actually touch the tank; touching the tank (or Elvis forbid being attached to it) would be counterproductive by allowing shocks to the scaffolding to be transmitted to the tank where there’s a contact point. The textures are different versions of rusty painted metal. I chose them because repainting things like that was always a low priority in most of the factories where I’ve worked.
If this tank’s proportions look familiar, it’s because it’s based on a pill bottle. When I was playing a lot of Necromunda back in the ‘90s we – like everyone else – used a lot of household junk for terrain pieces. Take something you were going to throw away anyway, maybe add some more assorted trash to it, slap on a coat of paint, and you’re good to go. My roommate and I worked a 12-hour overnight shift at a foundry at the time, so we went through a lot of painkillers. Those little bottles were great for making chemical storage tanks in that scale.
There isn’t much code that can be written for these on a generic level. Maybe some cosmetic stuff for a display, but that’s about it. Now, if I wanted them to be damageable or explode, I’d have to make another set of models to represent damaged and destroyed tanks (and maybe some shrapnel), then write code to handle damage and the ensuing explosion.
9 February: Scepter
A scepter. Also known as a really fancy mace you’d probably never actually bash someone over the head with. This model was very straightforward, with most of it being slightly tweaked primitives. The metal “fingers” on the setting were the complex part, requiring several loop cuts and moving, rotating, and scaling each individual segment to make it look like it was molded around the giant ruby on the head.
10 February: 2m Modular Mesh Walkway Sections
A basic industrial metal mesh walkway. I did pieces for the ends and middle of a long walkway and a big square section to make a corner or 2m platform. At some point I’ll tweak the end piece to form an octagonal ring section to fit around the tower I made last week so I can replace the existing walkway. I’m also planning sections with cutouts for ladders and damaged sections.
Obviously there isn’t any code necessary for these pieces except for some basic colliders so they can be walked on. If I wanted them to move, it would be a simple matter of adding RigidBodies and the necessary code to make them move – the square piece especially could benefit from this to be used as an elevator.
11 February: Mesh Walkway Observation Platform
This is an add-on to the mesh walkways I did yesterday. It’s a little 3m section intended to be attached to the side of a walkway so someone can walk out onto it for a better view of something next to the walkway. In a game they’ll probably end up being used as firing positions.
12 February: Support Columns
Basic metal pipe support columns. These are based on 4” square iron pipe sections with 1” angled brackets to spread the contact area with the underside of the platform they support. There are corner, side, and center versions to use in various places, as well as a basic 1-meter section of square pipe to work as an extender.
13 February:
It’s a box. It shoots electricity. This may have been “inspired” by Superman 3. Add some wires and it becomes part of a power distribution network. Leave the wires off and it can become an arc-throwing robot of doom. I put it on a metal floor for the picture because the box paint blended in with the background far too much.
This one needs a significant amount of code and other support to be useful as a combatant. It will need a very basic ranged attacker AI (simple close to standoff range, try to stay at standoff range, fire electricity at its victim) if we want it to move around, antenna rotation code if we want to use it as an arcthrower turret, damage handler, death handler, electro-zap weapon code, and the particle systems and lights to support the zap effects.
14 February: Laser Point-Defense Ball Turret
What do you do when you need to shoot someone with a laser but can’t be bothered to go after them with a laser rifle? You take the emitter, put it on a remote-operated ball turret, and either control it yourself or let an AI do the dirty work.
This design is based on the forward machine gun mounts on a Sherman tank. It’s a simple design, but the spherical shell allows for mobility and a nice smooth profile for even armor coverage. And if it was real it would only need one little hole at the back for the power and data links, giving it a really nice field of fire.
To make this work as intended, it needs a basic AI turret controller with clamped two-axis rotation, damage handler, death handler, laser weapon script, and particle system.