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RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:42 pm
by Darthlarrious
would it by any chance be that free-cam droid??
EDIT: YEA, WOOT, COOKIES ROCK, thnx Shadow Hawk
Metal On
Darthlarrious
Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:14 am
by ShadowHawk
Darthlarrious wrote:would it by any chance be that free-cam droid??

MMMMmmmm maybe, maybe not...
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 1:00 am
by guru
so where is the web cam droid WOOT!
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 4:34 am
by ShadowHawk
Darthlarrious was correct and gets a cookie.

It is the model for the prototype FC1A Observer Droid, commonly known as the flyby cam. Here are the specs:
Name: FC1A (Prototype)
Specification: Survailence Droid
Armor: Class 5 Mandalorian Shielding
Weapons: None
Equipment: 3 High Resolution Cameras w/ 2 zoom settings
Capabilities: Fly, Hover, Self Repair
Usage: This droid was designed with the modder in mind. It has several uses:
- Used by the modder to view a mod for flaws and AI problems from different heights and angles.
- Used by a reviewer to get a birds-eye view of the action when reviewing a map.
- Used in multiplay to observe the action as a spectator, referee a match, or do in-game commentaries for audio webcasts with the assistence of a VoIP server (teamspeak or simular).
- Used in conjunction with fraps, used to create movies for demostration, entertainment, or selection screen purposes and high quality screenshots.
This droid is indestructable, but weaponless. This is to avoid using it as a way to cheat in a match. I cannot control it, but I'm sure rules can be made governing that.
Now for a challenge. I'm setting up a contest to see who can create an odf file for this model. The person who can create it or come the closest to the specs will have the opportunity to beta test it and include it in their map first before the droid is released to the public. The specifications are as follows:
- be playable as a unit
- be virtually indestructable
- be able to fly, hover, go fowards, backwards, and side to side
- be able to zoom twice
- Be able to switch between the cameras (forward and two sides, sides will eventually be able to move 360 degrees on the x-axis)
In all aspects, this droid should act like a vehicle, but be playable. The odf must be clean, organized, and have explainations as to what you did so others that download it later can also use it as a guideline. I set up this contest because I am tweeking the model to get it into the game and do not have time to mess with the ODFs. I think there are lots of people who would find this very useful and would like to have it ASAP, so if I did it, it would take forever.

To submit the file, e-mail it to
[email protected]. I hope everyone will participate in this contest and good luck to everyone. I will keep posting updates on this thread on the progress and announce the winner.
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 6:10 pm
by Saturn_V
Well, three and a half out of five ain't bad
My initial investigation leads me to believe you are hoping for too much to have it as a unit
and behave like a vehicle; that is, you can have the functionaliy of the sniper remote droid, but not, say, the manoevrebility of a clone gunship... following on from that is the difficulty of assigning multiple cameras (viewpoints) without it being a vehicle.
IIRC there is a parameter that stops AI from using vehicles, so you may want to consider this option.
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 6:29 pm
by dipstick555
darthlarious' icon is to big.
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 6:41 pm
by BlackHawk549
how big will it be? twice the size of a recon droid? dathlarrious, make ur avatar smaller
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:06 pm
by ShadowHawk
Little bigger than the size of a head. About the size of a basketball. I can create a screenshot to show the size relative to a trooper if people need it.
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:10 pm
by ShadowHawk
Let me loosen the rules. Can be a vehicle only accessable to human players if it can't be done as a unit.
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:13 pm
by Rends
Darth,
is that a wallpaper you use as avatar?
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:19 pm
by ShadowHawk
Darth, hate to say this but, I agree with the avatar being too big. It doesn't show up on my forums. Keep it at 80x80.
RE: Re: RE: New "toy" discovered.
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:49 am
by Saturn_V
Thinking about this, there is another compelling reason for it to be a vehicle: if it's a unit, in order to include it you have to replace a unit class from the map, which could seriously unbalance the gameplay, or you'd just have to add it for all sides. And you couldn't just add it to a special "review" version of the game, because the gameplay balance would be different, if you see what I mean.
Also, i found that even though my test "cambot" had no weapons, I would still attract enemy fire, allowing me to distract enemy bots while my team slaughtered them.
If it's a vehicle, it can be added to any map fairly unobtrusively if you deny the bots access to it; in which case, just modify the LAAT odf to not have a FPV or weapons, and bump up the health.
Do I win ?

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:16 pm
by SteveK14
Saturn_V: There is a problem with it being a vehicle. When you change positions (viewpoints) in the vehicle, you leave the pilot's seat. Would the LAAT have to be made that EACH position was the pilot position and is it possible?
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:23 pm
by Saturn_V
There's a lot less problems with a vehicle than a unit, I'll tell you that much (I'll never get that lost Sunday afternoon back!) I seriously doubt you could have more than one pilot_position, so have the camera be able to rotate freely in X, Y and Z (easier option)
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:27 pm
by Qdin
lol, you guys don't like me and Darthlarrious's Avatar??? lol, I've seen somebody, who has even LARGER avatars

well, I won't change it now

but I think the size is great...
C ya - and I think, that you just should aim for a FLYING/HOOVERING unit, instead of a vehicle, and why don't you add it as a 4. team?? like the Attackers, defenders, locals, and FREECAM
I think its possible, I've seen, that you could "select team number"

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:30 pm
by ShadowHawk
I noticed that when a control point is taken, the vehicles blow up, on some maps with the person still inside. Also, units with rockets fire on flying vehicles. As far as the LAAT, I think it still hovers even if noone is in the pilot's seat. I agree with you though sat. I think it has a better advantage as a vehicle than as a unit as far as not disturbing the gameplay much.
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:33 pm
by SteveK14
The reason I said that was that when you leave the pilot position the vehicle stops. A flyer would do this to. I've missed weeks from my work on the transport, R2D2, command speeder, etc. I know how you feel.
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:38 pm
by SteveK14
sdwhwk wrote:I noticed that when a control point is taken, the vehicles blow up, on some maps with the person still inside. Also, units with rockets fire on flying vehicles. As far as the LAAT, I think it still hovers even if noone is in the pilot's seat. I agree with you though sat. I think it has a better advantage as a vehicle than as a unit as far as not disturbing the gameplay much.
The vehicles blow up because the decay is set for them to when the enemy takes over a CP. The entity you make could have a 3rd team, uncapturable CP or the vehicle spawn point for it could have no decay set for it. Yes it does hover when you leave the seat but then those views would only be good for "stills". Why not just turn the bot while in the pilot's seat. However you can have it manned by 3 humans in MP mode with the extra viewports.
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:11 pm
by ShadowHawk
I just thought of something else. The droid is too small to mount inside. If it is a vehicle the pilot whould have to have a way to be protected during use so he doesn't get killed by the AI.
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:02 pm
by SteveK14
Make a unit for both teams that is like the Jedi, indestructible with the camera bot as his only "weapon" and make the camera bot indestructable. The indestructable part is easy in the odf file. don't know if the different views will work though.