Metal Mayhem

[shifty157]

Metal Mayhem

You may have thought this mod was dead or perhaps youve never even heard of it. Well we never died. We've done quite alot of work actually. More than youd think. The groundwork has been established and now we're looking to expand the team.

If youve never heard about this mod then let me give you the background. Metal Mayhem takes place far in the future on a distant planet. Mankind has sent a spaceshift filled with dozens of seperate AIs each with their own task to land on the planet and make it habitable for humans. During reentry into the planet's atmosphere the spacecraft's systems failed and it crashed onto the planet. The AIs were scattered over the planet to escape the crash and managed to survive mostly intact. Once the AIs powered up they immedialty began carrying out their tasks of terraforming the planet but they quickly came into contact with eachother. Having lost any prior knowledge of eachother in the landing the AIs now see eachother as threats to be removed if they are to complete their task and make the planet habitable. You take the role of one of the more powerful AIs with the job of ridding the planet of any obstructions including all other AIs.

This mod is shaping up to be one of the most revolutionary mods in the entire community. The entire standard style of tech tree has been completely scrapped in favor of several tech trees based around researching technologies. This allows every single faction to be compeltely customizable as the technologies you choose to research at the beginning of the game will affect which technologies you can research later on. You could play the same faction ten times and every time your faction can be completely different! Dozens of compeltely new animations have been made using the stock skeletons in ways you wouldnt believe!

Imagine robots with lasers, plasma cannons, rockets, flamethrowers, spinning blades, and more battling it out on alien landscapes. Think its impossible? Think again. We already have it working in game.

You wont see anything like this from any other mod.

If youd like to be a part of the most revolutionary mod in the RTW community then reply here or (preferably) email me at "shifty(at)verizon.net". We're looking for people from all areas of expertise. Most especially we need quality skinners and text file editors. Its only recommended that you bring a spare pair of underwear as youll most likely crap your pants when you see everything we're capable of doing.

Heres a quick little thing Bwian made not long ago to give a tiny sense of what we're working on. The rotor fans spin as does the circular blade underneith. Disregard the rider on top. He obviously wont be there. This is very much a WIP but even at this extremely early stage this is clearly going to be a pretty awesome looking unit and this is only mildly cool compared to many of the other units we already have made or are quickly on their way.




Bwian is currently working on a website as a better way to showcase what we're accomplishing. Ill post the link here as soon as its ready.

Again post here or email me (shifty(at)verizon.net) if you want to join up and be a part of the most revolutionary mod in the entire RTW community.

Many thanks.


Shifty

[shifty157]

To dispel any misconceptions that you might have that this a simple Fad Mod that will die out in a week i will tell you that Bwian and i have been working daily on this mod for several months now. We are prepared to make the entire mod on our own if we have to but we need other people to help pick up in areas that we lack as well as just help get the mod out sooner.

This doesnt have to be a huge commitment. While the mod does change alot and breaks alot of new ground it really isnt that big in scope.

Like i said. Bwian and i are fully prepared and fully capable to complete this mod on our own. We just want to make it the best we can and get it out as soon as we can.


shifty

[Zenith Darksea]

So it's a bit like Total Annihilation or some such then? Well, it's innovative, I'll give you that.

[shifty157]

So it's a bit like Total Annihilation or some such then? Well, it's innovative, I'll give you that.

Not really annihilation total war. More like Robot: Total War if you want to stereotype it.

You say its innovative but you dont know the half of it.

To describe the tech tree better (as its rather difficult to describe quickly). It is alot like Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri. If youve ever played this game you will know what i mean. At the start of the game you can research from one of a selection of several "movement" technology trees and from one of a selection of several "weapon" technology trees. This creates tons of different customizations as each weapon technology tree can be combined with each movement technology tree. This doesnt take into consideration the dozens of other minor buildings and trees that can be built.

By arranging the technology tree in this way the player can completely decide what course his faction will take. What this means is that every faction is completely customizable by the player. Not only this but you could play the same faction over ten times and never have even remotely the same units as youve had in other games. I cant tell you how thrilled i am about this project (or how you will be once you see just how everything works out).

Like i said before Bwian and i have already established the groundwork over the past few months so we know that absolutely everything works in game. We have lasers and energy blasts and spinning blades and rockets and napalm bombs and flame throwers and tons of other awesome stuff already working in game (And it looks pretty awesome too). We just need some people to help us put everything together and bring it to the community faster.

Believe me when i say that this mod is in no danger of dying out. When i say that this is without doubt the most innovative and revolutionary mod in the entire community. Im sure some of you could spare some time for us.

[Shogo]

We have lasers and energy blasts and spinning blades and rockets and napalm bombs and flame throwers and tons of other awesome stuff already working in game (And it looks pretty awesome too). We just need some people to help us put everything together and bring it to the community faster.

Some screenshots would be nice!

[shifty157]

Some screenshots would be nice!

And so would be two or three people joining the team.

If i grant your wish maybe you could grant mine?

anyway. Bwian and i never really took screenshots so the majority of what we've done i cant show you off hand. Here are all the screens i could muster. All of these arent at all up to date and have been improved upon.

Heres the initial version of the flame thrower effect. Again an old screenshot. Its been improved.



Heres a simple tracked base. Again disregard the rider. The tracks do turn. Bwian has seriously pulled off things with his animation brilliance that i didnt even think were possible. This mod features a completely new set of animations and skeletons all made Bwian and hes almost entirely done with them. Amazing stuff.



A rather large unit. Very old screenshot.



A simple blade unit. He has completely new animations so that he walks correctly (with inverse knee joints). The circular blade in front does spin.



And new town models too.




Bwian has also made a new map although i dont have screens of that.


As im sure you noticed many of the units are not skinned or not skinned very well. We are in essential need of a quality skinner. I know some of you 2D artists cant resist having complete freedom to skin some of these metallic monsters.

Those are all the screenies i have for now. Maybe ill get some more. I know if we had 2 or 3 more peopel join the team we could throw so many more of these out on a regular basis. And quality screens not just WIPs. As it is now we can make they units and make them work perfectly in game. They just dont look very good. It takes us a while too since two of us are trying to do everything. Im working on modeling new units, creating the tech tree, creating new weapon effects, and scripting all at the same time. Bwian is just as swamped. Progress is slowed down incredibly. If we got people to join the team we could probably have a beta release in 4 or 5 months.


And by the way. Bwian has just started creating a website to help advertise. You can check it out although it isnt totally up yet. Sorry about the ads but we dont have the cash to pay for hosting.
http://metalmayhem.741.com/mm/index.html


Shifty

[Shogo]

Looks Cool. I didn't know you could create entirely new skeletons.
It would be pretty awesome to have huge walkers roaming around the battlefield like in Half Life 2 or the movie War of the Worlds!

[battlerex99]

A rather large unit. Very old screenshot.

Hey! Thats a warhammer 40k dreadnought! To quote xplay: You stole that ****!

[Bwian]

Just to fill in the gaps ( not that Shifty left any! ) ... but this all started from a desire to make something that was not tied to history, didn't have strong roots in a set fantasy world, and was completely free to development. I wanted to make wheeled units, I wanted to make huge units.... but I also had to come up with a story that fitted what could be done.

Look at the efforts to make WW2 or Star Wars based mods....they died. They had to make the RTW engine do what the story said. I worked from the other end!

Yes...it's a futristic mod....but, it's not a future war. Our units are there as mining droids, colony builders and terraformers. They are not combat designed units. Weapons had to be developed, improvised, and evolved. There doesn't need to be massive artillery, aircraft, and all the guided missile technology of modern warfare.

Weapon technology would be all but non-existant to start with, so early combat will be brute force. More interesting stuff will come with research. Flame guns and simple rockets would be logical developments based on technology salvaged from remnants of original equipment, and things like lasers will be much later on. These would be enhancements of mining tools etc.

As far as formations go, the units don't duck or dodge...well...their robots why would they! Also...the idea was that oly the general units would be actual AI's, with the actual soldiers slaved units. This seemed to fit well with what actually can be seen in game, and at every point, this has been the key driver for design decisions.

We accept the limitations of the RTW engine, and work with what that leaves us. We have built up a backstory and plan based on what can be done, rather tha some pie-in-the-sky hope that we would find some way to do something.

As a case in point...lasers were not going to happen originally...and wouldn't have if Shifty hadn't spent weeks understanding the particle streams for weapon effects, and allowed us to make a particle stream that was bright enough, long enough, and contained enough to give a half decent effect. It's not perfect..granted...it doesn't look like a Star Wars laser bolt...but..this is our world

[shifty157]

Innovation is not working with the system. Innovation is making the system work for you. And i think our mod does that rather well.


Im kind of surprised so few people even care to comment. Maybe people still dont believe me when i say that all of our goals are completely possible. We made sure they were possible before undertaking this mod. Maybe people still dont believe me when i say that this mod will not die off. We've been working on it for months and we'll continue working on it alone if we have to. Or maybe people just dont have vision anymore. Maybe they have no desire to push the limits of the system and help make something thats beyond what any other mod is is even hoping to accomplish. Every other mod is just basically the same. They argue about whos more historically accurate. They argue about what makes them so different from all the other mods that are working on the exact same period in time. When really its still just the same guy on the same horse with the same sword. The only thing thats different is the design on his armor and shield. Its like every period of human history has at least three mods devoted to it. Its almost like people are too lazy to push their boundaries and do something thats truly new and unique. Wheres the drive? Wheres the ambition? No one makes their own path because its just easier to follow the path that everyone else is going down. It really saddens me. There are very few mods that i really have any respect for. The rest are just more of the same.

[Faenaris]

You got me interested, Shifty and Bwian. But is it possible to show some recent screenshots? Old screenshots don't do your mod justice.

[shifty157]

To be frank Bwian and I havent made any new units recently. I have been working almost exclusively on mapping out the tech trees and Bwian has been busy working on his animations. Although Bwian did say that he'll make a unit or two so i may be able to give you something soon. I would show you one of the new effects but they really dont look that great because i cant make a texture to save myself.

[Bwian]

I got 4 or 5 'half' units built up. These are replacement mounts, and I have not yet built the top halves. I needed to finish off some elements of the unit roster to make ure I was building the right sort of units to fit the tech trees.

In a day or so, I hould have ome top half bits built. I can show sceenie now...but you will only get half the effect... like this:



The top will be replaced by a series of small droids. A simple missile unit... a flame armed unit... and a couple of melee units. There will be several scaled up 'wheel' sizes, plus variations with blades, spikes etc.

There are also a couple of light tracked units built and in game ( no pics yet.... )

Give me a couple of days....and you shall have pics! I need to get a few together for our new website

[Faenaris]

Okay, I'm looking forward to seeing some new screenshots. Keep up the good work.

[Bwian]

Just working on a few animation routines for the top halves now. I am planning a couple af variants on melee combat, which need their own animation routines. Missile firing is easy.... just raise the arms. Like a gun turret!
For hand to hand... I want a 'snipper' animation, where I will move the 'hand' bone as the moving part of the snipper, with the fixed part attached to the fore-arm. Then where will be a spinning disc type of weapon. Final variant might be a stabbing spear type animation ( or I mght just use fs_hc_spearman ) for the charging units. fs_hc_swordsman will give me a basic 'smash' type attack. With each of the stock anims, taunts and incidentals will be replaced with static poses or toned right down. These should be quick to do ( compared to the mounts ) and relatively simple, Then I can get the meshes finalised and weapons placed.

[Bwian]

I promised images...so here is a shot of what has been going on model wise!







In this motley bunch, we have the tracked base 'light' tractor unit, bakground shot of
the enhanced version. Also shown is the single and twin wheeled chassis and teh
firs of the rider units. All models have 4 levels of detail.

[Radier]

Awesome!

[shifty157]

Just to reiterate. All the wheels turn etc. etc. Basically any part that should move or spin does move or spin due to Bwian's totaly new set of animations.

[Bwian]

My kids are mad on Dawn of War, and this was done to keep THEM quiet! It won't be in the finished mod, since we have developed things along far more invovled lines now. It served as a good test of certain ideas though

I also tweaked the alignment so the robot sits on the chassis a bit more neatly.

[ExcaliburFIN]

This is gonna be hell of a mod. If I could mod I would join rigth away but I cant

I must go learn it