The Multipurpose handle

So in looking at how I want to display things I had an idea about how tools will be displayed.  I am taking the perspective that the aliens in charge only wish to provide the most basic equipment to the humans, and many things are in reality virtual objects.  So as far as actual physical objects go every player will have the suit and an all purpose handle.  For the three main modes that will always be available for players in the field the handle will  change what kind of output it gets.  I envision this handle being somewhat like a WII remote in size.  For ranged weapon mode a glowing pistol/rifle will be attached, with the handle being the handle of the weapon.  For melee weapon/tool mode a glowing blade will appear on the end of it.  In placement mode a beam of light will come out of the end of the handle and whatever object the player wishes to place will show up either 1 a wireframe of the object in the color of the faction to indicate that it can be placed there or 2 a grey wireframe to indicate that it is a no go at that spot.  The last mode I think I want to have is just the laser pointer with the option of visible beam and invisible beam(it will default to invisible) which will help players to quickly communicate if they see something that they wish to draw their teammates attention to.

Powerups - Same look different function

I have been thinking a bit about how to handle the graphical aspects of armor and weapons and how they will interact with the game.  As I was explaining the game to someone and I told them that the "Aliens" have encased the players in suits that keep them from all harm, then I was trying to explain things like armor and weapons they pointed out that a graphical armor would be pointless since they are already encased in an all harm reducing suit.  Also there was the issue of the armor only covering certain areas, like would it protect the torso if you have the standard shoulder pad type armor.  This also led to me thinking about this from the perspective of an experiment, where much of what is going on has to be simulated to be like war, but not actually be like war.  Anyway the short story is that I am rethinking how these will happen in the game.  Rather than have a brand new graphic for weapons and armor I will make them more like the slot system in FFVII.  this will mean that the powerups for weapons and armor will be represented by little globes which when they are "equipped" they will do things like make the player's suit glow brighter or make the weapon fire differently.  This will mean that the "Aliens" will be able to introduce and temporarily disable all kind of things without necessarily changing anything in the reality of the simulation.

So what this means is that every player comes equipped with the suit, a distance weapon, and a melee weapon that then can change depending on what class they are.  The powerups are then applied to these already existing items to simulate a weapon change or increased armor.  They will still have to be "hacked" in order to be compatible with a given faction, and certain power ups will require the correct class to use them.  They can still take up the pack space as I talked about in armor a while ago.

Anyway a quick update about school.  I am very busy doing the projects for my classes, though I am still learning a lot of valuable information.  I won't be able to work on this project extensively in the near future, though I have a good idea of what I need to do to get started now.

A free gun

So looking around the internet I stumbled upon some rather nice models that people have donated to the public.  This one caught my eye and I think it would be useful as the pistol for both workers and scouts.  At any rate I think it would make a nice addition to the game.  I'll have to keep my eyes open to see if there are any more models that would be of use.  I found this on Blender Cookie if anyone is interested