Chilibird Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Howdy all, I've spent some time in blender, and after much tweaking, I think I've got something that looks at least somewhat like a tank. It's based loosely on the M1A2 Main Battle Tank, and the M109 Howitzer Cannon. The very back flat section is obviously going to be where the turret will end up. There are weird lighting artifacts showing up near the front, which I'm going to mess around with. Other than that, lesse... A brief description of where stuff is, and the whole idea.. First of all, it is, like I said, a Main Battle Tank. Well.. sort of. It's more like long range LOS artillery. So it's a Artillery Battle Tank (ABT) More like the Howitzer I suppose. It will have the armor of a thor, as well as it's inherant slowness. However, it will have a very powerful 120 MM gun, though only loaded with AP rounds. HEAT rounds will explode upon leaving the barrel due to the high muzzle velocity. It will be treaded, not wheeled, as a wheeled chassis would flip under the sheer velocity of the shot. Finally, the Ammo will be stored under the turret, near the crew compartment. Obviously, this will make either a shot through the crew window, or through the ammo boxes most likely fatal. As for physical stuff... The gun, once created, will be mounted on that rear flat section, and its muzzle will extend to near or past the nose. That front bulge, kinda where those lighting artifacts are showing up, will be the engine. It is mounted behind those sloped plates, as to minimize the chances of a penetrating shot. Behind that, kinda where the triangle is, is the battery/fuel. The raised section leading to the flat area is the crew area. Like howitzers, it will be a windowed cockpit, and the crew will be its most vunerable aspect. Treads are not in yet, but they will go in the sides there. The general concept is going to be many sloped sides, as to minimize the chances of penetration. I'm not too sure how this works into the .physicalobjectgroup file, so that may be more complicated that I'm thinking, but we'll see I guess. If it is a problem, it wouldn't be too hard to flatten things out a bit. I know at least a few of you are going "Hey, that's not very fair. A gun like that will be able to pulverize anything". Not quite. It's AP, not HEAT, so you still need to hit the correct subsystems. Second, the turret will rotate very slowly, like the howitzer, so it won't be too good in close combat. Also, it will only be able to rotate maybe 30 degrees to either side, not the whole way around. (Can this be done?) Of course, even if it can't be restricted, the back is going to have very weak armor, as that is the crew entry/exit doors, so leaving your behind exposed will most likely result in you getting your behind kicked. Lastly, it will move very slowly, due to the weight of its gun, so it's not like it can immediately get to the optimal position. BTW, dropping it onto mountains, ect, wouldn't work because the cannons velocity will either overshoot the target, or send you rolling down the mountain. Well, anywho, that's the general idea. Any comments, questions, or concerns? The one thing I'm not too sure about are those raised areas to either side of the Crew windows. (It appears dark black in the render). I'm thinking I might just shrink those back to be flush with the crew window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander SquidLord Williams Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Might flatten that front armour to straight across and possibly dip the front end just a hair. You want the shells hitting and bouncing up and away from the tank, not across and up. More energy transfer the way you have it, though it is damn pretty and I'd be tempted to leave it as "unmodelled physics in this game" muttered under my breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilibird Posted August 30, 2006 Author Share Posted August 30, 2006 Yeah, I think i'll prolly go and change that front armor. I was never too sure how much I liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilibird Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Alright, I went and flattened that front end out, and also had a name hit me. I'm thinking this is the M9 Ramses Long Range Battle Tank. Or of course, Ramses for short **edit** Now some renders. Of course, any input is appreciated (Clay, any say on this?). I'm hoping to get to the texturing part of things before long. I'm trying to figure out how to combine multiple polygons into 1 in blender so that I can reduce the polygon count somewhat near the wheel tread wells, ect. One question, though. Do I want to create my treads in the same model as the chassis? It would appear as though my turret should be a seperate model file, but I can't tell with treads. What about animations? Does DT render those, or do I have to do it somehow in Blender? Anywho, here's the new renders... I've still got those weird artifacts, which is something I hope to solve via combining some polygons, if it can be done. [ August 30, 2006, 08:13 PM: Message edited by: IcemanUSA ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilibird Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 Alrighty. Here's a render of the Ramses plus the turret. I'm not too sure how much I like it, but so far, so good, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aittam Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 since it's a los artillery why don't integrate the cannon barrel in the hunch that eventually should be a little higher? ps: still waiting your little tutorial about map making on mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander SquidLord Williams Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 The underside of that turret is just a hint shot-trap-y. I might lower the profile just a smidge, so there's less gap between turret and chassis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilibird Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 aittam- Are you saying the gun should be part of the chassis? I didn't think of that, but I like it.. might need to look into that. I'm not sure if the gun can rotate without a turret, though... Still.. I'll spend some time with that. I like that idea. And I'll get that tutorial done soon. Just need to get off my lazy butt and do it Squid- I agree, looking at it now. I'll probably change that if I don't integrate the gun into the chassis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aittam Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 if i understood correctly you should have the gun as a separate piece anyways and you can give to it limited left and right movement, kind if a futuristic wespe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wespe but with a better design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilibird Posted September 6, 2006 Author Share Posted September 6, 2006 a little more like this one, maybe? (I wasn't having much luck with the integrated turret. Prooved to be too restrictive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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