Reaching Terminus - Dev Log
Week 10 (May 15th - May 22nd)
Testing Mech Model Viability:
Now that the mech is rigged, I reimported it into my Unity scene, and it was made very obvious that I had not taken into account how much larger the mech would be compared to player for the scales to match. Coupled with the fact that the ladder on its back to reach the top of themech would need to be super long is kinda inconvient, and looks strange design wise.
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I think I was to ingrossed with making my mech design be similar to those seen in Titanfall 2, that my mechs design has ended up being kind of derivative. But what's more worrying is that the mech has barely been designed with my games actual fueling mechanics in mind, as the ladder would end up blocking acces to the back fuel port, but is need to actually reach the coolant port on the top, which is also on a super precarious angle.
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All of these design problems that I managed to overlook up until now have led me to make a decison: I will redesign the mech, to make it a better fit for the actual gameplay mechanics of Reaching Terminus.
Designing The New Mech:
This time, instead of focusing on the visuals off the bat, immediatly I blocked out a model that contained all the esstential parts of the mech: The points that recive and consume resources carried by the player, a ladder to reach the top of the mech, the cargo containers, and an accesible embarking point.
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I also wanted to move away from the slender and Titanfall esc design elements, and make the mech stockier/shorter to fit the scale and manurverability of the pilot.
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I took the demo version of the model into unity right away (which in hindsight is what I should have done with the first model) and tested out how my pilot felt relative to it. The new design felt good to interact with as the pilot, and it felt like embarking was much easier to belive with the new mech height, and ladder accesing the ladder seems much more natural.
Beginning New Model:
Now that I knew the shape and general design elements, I got to modelling the details. (Mood board on the left).
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I want to lean into more of a diesel-punk aesthtic, to make my designs standout more from generic sci-fi, and allow me to frame the rest of my game in a specfic style. This comes in the form of pipes and exhausts, to convey the mechs dependancy on fossil fuels.
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When the proper modelling began (Bottom of page) I kept the storage containers and ladders the same, as I was a fan of their designs in the original model. Similarly to the orginal the legs are reverse joint, but now the calfs are wider, but shorter. The feet will be wider to compensate for the width of the new frame as well.
The fuel depositing ports for the mech are located on the two back ports, and a third on the top where the fires from the radiator will spawn.
