I've been playing around with this new turret and cosmetic armor the past week or so. The idea was to try giving the Vangaurd a more sloped and angular look. I would have liked to have more angle on the side sections, but I can't really push it out too far away from the collision box. I also need to do a lot more on the front, but I'm kinda having issues getting ahold of the model for the front armor to work around(If anyone can help me out here, it would be greatly appreciated). This stuff is still very much a work in progress, but I wanted to see what you guys thought before I got too involved with adding in all the little details and bits of geometry.http://p3d.in/QV1Gl
Everything looks good except the front bumper. Its oddly shaped and feels like it could be shorter. Eliminate the bend where it comes down or make it half as long. The turret is sick, but from what I can read it must use the same rigging as the original turret, so the barrel and turret need to pivot in the same place. However there is no offical rules for creating turrets at the moment so I would suggest leaving turrets alone until we can receive clear rules for their creation.
Looks darn great man! Just watch out for the positions of utility/defence slot items on the back, as well as the ornament location on the front. I've made an image album with all of the item locations. It does use the original rigging, the original turret is asymmetrical but the barrel is centered.
You'll want to add some poly details to those big flat surfaces, I think. The Vanguard texture sheet doesn't have any large colour swatches like other sheets (helmets) do.
First off, very well put together design, so nice job on that. I know the point of the design was to make a sleeker Vanguard, which I think you've achieved with the armor, but the turret's not really doing it for me. It feels almost too sleek compared to the various pieces of NC gear made by SOE and other creators. NC is supposed to be visually intimidating and tough; bulkiness and sleek are not mutually exclusive imo, and can be combined to create something that is still visually strong with a sleek look. The other issue I have is the barrel design looks very heavy at the end and awkward; it gets progressively larger and thicker as you get further out from the rotation point. Try doing the opposite by slimming the barrel down slightly as you get further out, but keeping the endcap as is or scaling it down slightly as well. Draw inspirations from real life to make it immediately recognizable and comfortable to your audience.
Yeah, I was wanting to bring it in a bit closer to the Front Armor attachment. I was just having trouble working around it without actually having the model. I did manage to guestimate the shape a bit with some screenshots, so I reworked the front a bit. I did my best to work around the utility and armor placements. But I totally forgot about the hood ornaments and all the new models for other defense items. Thanks for reminding me about those. That's the plan. I just like to get the general shape down before going into more detail. It sucks having to completely remake all the little details because the overall shape needs to be reworked. yeah, I kinda see your point about the turret. I wasn't trying to go for sleek as much as aggressive. Originally, the design was inspired by the sharp, angled look of the Merkava turret. It was a lot beefier when I started, but I ended up having to raise some parts around the bottom to avoid clipping, and pull the entire turret base in tighter to the collision mesh. So it became more sleek than I intended. I think I will try to rework it a bit, but the turret isn't really a priority since turret submissions are indefinitely closed. I also have a bit more detail sketched up for the barrel. I just didn't bother working it out too much, because again, the turret isn't a priority. I might try tapering the barrel a bit like you suggested whenever I get around to it. UPDATE: http://p3d.in/CReFI
ARMOR UPDATEDid a first pass with the textureing There are still a few rough areas and normal mapping issues to work out. I used a bit of the leftover poly-budget to cut into the the plates a bit in a few areas to give them more detail. I also scrapped the strut running along the side between the front and back sections, because I just couldn't quite work it into something that looked cool. http://p3d.in/g5duI TURRET UPDATEI'm scrapping it for now. I was working on trying to make it more brutish and beefy. I realized the direction I was going with it looked almost identical to the recruitment reward turret in the overall shape and design. So, I'm just going to hold off on doing anything else with that unless I can come up with something different.
For me the thing that kills it is the corners, the way they flare out towards the bottom and not same size as the top, i get this bumper car vibe from it that puts me off it for some reason. I like the rest though, looks nice.
