Forged Alliance Forever

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-08-02T17:05:25+02:00

Hooray! A new dev diary is out!

This is the first diary after the newshub has been released! As mentioned previously the diaries have fulfilled their purpose since the changes to the news page, and so we stepped back a little to see what would happen This diary is here as another test to see if we can integrate them into the newshub, or use them for something else.

We arent posting everything we do in these dev diaries though! If you want to see more, to leave feedback or even to help out, join our Nomads Development Discord

The future of Dev diaries? Who knows!
Clearly, we arent posting these every week anymore. These diaries were intended to promote the nomads mod, and they have certainly done that. in the period between the first and last dev diaries, the number of nomads games played every day has tripled. Thanks to the newshub, this has continued to grow since then and now Nomads is more popular than ever! We even have an ultra fancy graph for you to check out:

You can see when we started these in late 2019, Nomads had about 50 replays per day, which went up to 150 per day near the end of the dev diaries. And then of course the news hub appeared and Nomads skyrocketed. In short, the mod is looking better than ever right now!

This does leave the question of what to do with these diaries, and we are going to look at various options. But that needs dev diaries that are nice and fresh, so here we are making one!

The T1 PD and AA
In the latest patch we have replaced the T1 static anti-air and PD models, and thought that it may be good to look through the process of how they got to where they got.

Way back in 2019 we made a plan of all the Nomads weapons, which units should have them, any variants and so on. This let us ensure that the faction has consistent technology and looks similar. In the same way that UEF anti air guns are all railguns, and the aeon use green lasers on all their gunships, we needed to have a list of weapons, their types and what they were used for.

This is quite an old picture, so you may find some interesting caveats in there, such as the t3 submarine no longer having a nuke at all! nonetheless the weapon types are accurate, and you can see that we are going for a theme with the nomads - they use lots of missiles and lots of projectiles, but practically no lasers, with the exception of the beamer. (which isnt really a laser!)

You can also see that the AA and the PD weapons are used on other units too, such as for secondary weapons, and for the T1 frigate. The first model for the AA was used on the T4 transport as a secondary weapon. It was originally supposed to be an AA weapon but got changed to anti ground part way through! Perhaps theyshould be replaced with the PD model in the far future?

The PD model itself took a lot more time to make after Armaster made the AA turret model, before it was finally put on the T1 frigate. From there it was put on the structure. The T1 frigate is still not finished at the time of writing this post, but the building is!

Since the other factions share the same base for their T1 defensive structures, we did the same thing. And because we already made the decision to use the same model or variants of it on different units, it meant we could develop the base separately to the turrets themselves. Marlo did the bulk of the work on that one, and luckily we didnt run into any significant issues with scaling the models. Very early on in the process we set out dimensions for what they should be, and thankfully we got them right! The weapons on the transport are exactly the same size as the ones on the building.

Making the base also took quite some time, and we tried many variants before we got something that looked right. We wanted the base to not be too entrenched in the ground if possible, since the Nomads are a mobile faction we wanted their structures to at least look like they could pack up and be moved around. Check out some of the early variants we tried. Can you see which bits were kept and which were discarded?

Finally we arrived at the completed model for the base, and it was a simple matter to then put the turrets on.

However what was interesting is that the base shares the textures! By using a little bit of magic with UV unwrapping, we were able to get the same texture to be used in two models. SInce the base of the turrets is the same, this lets us update the texture much easier and ensure that it is indeed the same all the time for them.

Below you can see that the model was in three parts, and on the right you can see the texture space. The stuff in orange is used by the base, while the gaps are filled with both of the turret types, on top of each other. Then each unit uses either one or the other turret, while the base is shared between them.

We did this by fully unwrapping the AA first, and then deleting the parts of the AA. After that we unwrapped the PD into the gaps left over. Then when texturing we linked the textures from one model to the other, and now if we ever tweak it all we need to do is just re-export all the textures and they will be updated on both units.

So. Which do you like more? the Anti-Air or the PD? Let us know!

And that was the dev diary for today. As mentioned above this is a small part of what happens on the Nomads discord, so if you want more, absolutely check it out. Even more important is your feedback on the mod, which we never have enough of, so if you have that, hop on as well!

Thanks for reading and see you next time, whenever that may be!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 02 Aug 2020, 17:05

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-06-01T00:13:14+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last post we showed you some building models, and this week we are going to talk about the T2 Destroyer, and some decisions behind its design process. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Artists still wanted
This may be the last chance for you to see this! (reason below) So if you are interested in helping out with the mods development, join the discord and ask questions.

The Last Dev diary before the news hub?
So, it just so happens that in a few days time there should be a wonderful new way of viewing the news, which makes this post one of the last posts to show up before the transition. It also means that the future of Nomads dev diaries is a little uncertain. The nature of the new news hub will mean that we might be moving away from posts and towards little bits of info, such as tips and tricks. There is still some scope for dev diaries, but it may be reduced, or even made obsolete. In any case, interesting times await.

Update to the T2 destroyer
So Marlo has been busy working on all sorts of models, and among them is the destroyer, whose design has just been finalised and is now moving to the cleanup stage, where it will get some slight tweaks and optimisations before being UV unwrapped, and textured. There is still plenty of work to do, with the unit being somewhere past the halfway point in its development.

As the model was being worked on, there were ongoing discussions with Apofenas - who is in charge of balancing the faction - as to what role it should have, with weapons being added and removed up until last week. For example, there were going to be some torpedo defenses on the sides of the ship, however they were removed entirely in the end to make the unit more specialised, and rely on support units such as the planned EMP boat to provide that functionality. You can see what the defenses would have looked like below:

This was quite an interesting process as we are having to design many units at once in order to make sure they will work with each other later, as opposed to working on them one at a time. Additionally there are other considerations as well, such as the transition between old and new units - if we replace a unit that has different weapons on it, it will affect the balance of the faction and will need to have that taken into account until the other units are replaced. For reasons like this we may have to wait until multiple units are done and release them together, which is what we are considering for the Artillery boat and the T1 Frigate replacement, which are designed to work in tandem.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 01 Jun 2020, 00:13

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-05-26T00:04:14+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last post we talked about Nomads structures and have you a mystery picture, this week we explain what it is, and show some more model work on the side. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Artists still wanted
If you can draw or make models, the mod needs your help. We run on contributors wanting to work, and there is only a handful of people working on it right now. If you are interested in helping out, you can make a huge difference, so ask around on the discord server if that sounds like you.

Power generators, Mass-fabs, and other structures
So, last week we posted a picture with no rhyme or reason, and this week we get to explain it! Clockwork has been hard at work making all sorts of neat models and animations for Nomads buildings, and what you saw there was an early try at the T3 Pgen, here it is again:

That said, its most likely no longer going to be used, instead being taken apart and added to the building kit, since it looks pretty cool but doesnt quite show that its a power generator at a glance. Here are some of the earlier models and things explored. Can you guess which is which?

Here is a closeup of one of the buildings, this one is a try at the T2 mass fabricator, which is meeting a similar fate to the T3 pgen above - repurposing into building parts. This may seem like the model isnt successful if its not going into the mod, but since the style is pretty inkeeping it gets to be reused later, and serves as a style guide for future models, meaning that it is still very useful on its own.

Here is a more updated version of the T2 power generator, or at least a candidate for it. Currently there is a little debate on whether it is more suited to being a mass fabricator or not. Which role do you think it suits most?

And finally here is another mass fabricator concept which resulted in this fantastic animation - instead of having fabricators, the nomads could have landing pads that recieve materials from space. Its a great idea, but can also provide some of its own issues in terms of visual effects - this model is currently very small so the pods would be hard to make out. Additionally there is the issue of where the pods should appear, since you cant have them actually coming from space, as that would cover the screen with tiny pods falling. We are currently exploring other options for how mass fabricators could look like, with this being one of them. Perhaps this particular model might find use somewhere else, as part of a larger scale building or maybe even a campaign objective.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 26 May 2020, 00:04

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-05-18T23:49:32+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last post we showed you the T1 artillery boat, and this week gamenders, mass extractors, and a mystery picture. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Even more artists wanted
Following our previous advert, we got a couple of great guys contributing to the mod, but we need many more than just one or two. The last post got covered up almost instantly so most people missed the follow up, so here it is again: If you can draw or make 3D models, and are interested in making something for a project, then talk to us in the discord server. We will be glad to have you, as well as provide you with tools and top secrets.

Also, we thought it might be interesting to put up a top secret picture up there with no explanation of what it might be. Can you guess what it is? The answer will be covered in next weeks post!

Disruptions to Diary postings
So in the past week there has been quite a bunch of stuff going on with news posts, a whole new promo councillor appearing, and nomads getting shoved aside to make way, which led to one post getting delayed and then the next one cancelled entirely, finally with this one getting delayed as well. Hopefully things will calm down a bit and we can resume our scheduled sunday posts again. We will have to see.

Surprise game ender
Well, its not quite a surprise to us, since the Nomads have been missing one for a while now so we had shared some ideas for one a while back and decided on something that has a pretty unique flavour to it - a game ender factory. Unfortunately after that the idea sat around for quite a while with no development on that end, which ended quite suddenly when Utter asked me for a drawing of it:

I quickly threw together the first idea that was floating around and put it on, not really expecting much.

By the next day there was already a sketch model up. This still has quite some work to do but it was very surprising that it was there at all. I thought that there would be more time to get some more concrete ideas together, so i really quickly rushed out some more, after thinking that there might be a lost opportunity with the more traditional dry dock approach to the model.

None of those really turned out that well since they were done so fast, but we will see where that might lead us in the future.

Mass Extractor Models
Armaster has been working away at the mass extractor models. Since those can upgrade into each other we start with the T3 version and work our way down. So far this is still very early stages for the model, with just the basic idea nailed down. Check out the pretty pictures:

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 18 May 2020, 23:49

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-05-04T23:39:28+02:00

Hello everyone,

The last post we mentioned project organisation, and today we will talk about the T1 artillery boat. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Artists (still) wanted
Last week we mentioned that we are looking for artists and modellers, and this week we are letting you know again. We already got a couple of prospective contributors from the previous post, but as always more are needed. If you can draw or know things about 3d modelling, then this may be for you. We have quite a number of concepts that need drawing, developing, with fan art also welcome. If that sounds like something you are interested in, give us a ping on the discord.

Today is Monday
There has been a bit of a queue this weekend in posting news, and so we decided to wait until Monday to post, to avoid upsetting people too much. There is rather little organisation going on on that front so we can either post in each others faces or check before we post. Next week hopefully things will clear up and the post can be on time again.

Artillery boat
This is the mostly finished model of the artillery boat, which is planned to be added to deal with anti air and ground targets for the Nomads. The T1 frigate will also get a few changes to make them work together, such as having its anti air removed. The model itself is now almost ready for being finalized, it just needs a couple of tweaks, and then it will be optimised for the game, unwrapped, and textured. Check it out:

Currently the model doesnt have any team colours, which are going to be added at the texture stage, so everything looks rather grey. At this point we dont add any of those designs, aside from really basic indications of what is going to be what, such as the glowing faces, and which faces will be dark and which will be light.

The overall idea for T1 nomads units is that they are pretty bare bones. As such we looked at having a sort of sled-like quality to the boat, where its bridge is minimised to the point of being non existent. You can check how low its profile is above the rest of the boat. We made it progressively lower every iteration, and it now has an interesting quality to it as a result.

The boat also features space-craft style engines on the rear and sides, to help give it that spacefaring look. One of the ideas behond nomads navy is that the ship designs were very hastily converted to work in the water from existing spacefaring blueprints, so things like engines and such are modified to work in the water instead of designing a new navy from scratch.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 04 May 2020, 23:39

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-04-26T23:39:52+02:00

Hello everyone,

The last post we mentioned RKs Nomads support, and today we will cover project organisation, and gunships. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Artists wanted
The picture above isnt planned to be inside the playable game, but it is a part planned Nomads stuff. We will leave it for you to guess what it is. (with some research you can find out)

With that out of the way, if you are interested in drawing stuff like that, we are looking for people who can draw concepts for nomads to look for some more ideas, and in general to have fun drawing/painting. If thats you, drop by and we can have a chat.

Nomads To-Do List
Ajack has taken a little time to help set up this rather nice list of things that need doing for nomads models. We have been asked a few times as to whats left, and now we have a single place for all Nomads related info. We also plan to try moving some of the documentation and story to this, so stay tuned on that front. In the meantime, enjoy both a nice image:

And the interactive version below, where you can see what stage every unit is at:
https://share.clickup.com/b/h/5-10558774-2/3e8701dc24a9cee

Lastly, we have a list that covers everything above, as well as non-model related stuff such as explosions, the campaign, and more:
https://share.clickup.com/l/h/4-4394431-1/4940a6e661aa97d

Hopefully that should give you an idea of what stages various parts of the mod are at, and also where you can jump in to help. In short though: help is needed everywhere.

Gunship sketch models
Thanks to Redmelevolence, we have some very early sketch models for the Nomads gunships, for all three tech levels:

These are the first few models that are using the building kit mentioned a couple of weeks back, and as its developed further, things should come along even faster.
The advantage of using kits is that you can churn out models really quickly, and in the right style since everything is made out of nomads parts. These ones in particular took a couple of hours and already look quite detailed.

That said, these are still very early models and we can expect that there will be quite a long road ahead for them before they are done.

Here is another view of the T2/3 gunships. The models already look pretty convincing, but being made out of kits makes them pretty messy and inefficient. While that is being worked on we can also expect the design to change a little to make them a bit more unique looking, and in general add a bit more polish.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 26 Apr 2020, 23:39

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-04-20T00:53:51+02:00

Hello everyone,

The last post we showed you some building kits, and today we will be showing you some explosions. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

RKs Explosions
The short news is that RKs explosions now supports Nomads! The mod is available for download from the mod vault right now, and also check out RKs forum thread.

Meanwhile, enjoy these screenshots of Nomads units being blown up:

The idea here is that Nomads use plasma as their power sources, so when their stuff gets destroyed clouds of the plasma are released, rather than having smoke or fire.

These effects can still do with plenty of work, and some things such as effects for experimentals havent been done yet. Also RK is going to be working on making weapon effects and other such stuff for Nomads as well, so stay tuned for that.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 20 Apr 2020, 00:53

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-04-14T23:29:24+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last week we talked about mass storages, and this week we are looking at building kits. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Delayed Post
As promised last week, this post is coming out a bit later than usual. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week, but there may yet be more posts in the posting queue. Things arent too organised and so its a bit hard to say whether nomads might have to be shifted again.

Kits
You may be wondering: what is a kit? Just to confuse you, its not what is on the top image, that is a top secret teaser we are posting just for you to guess at.

A kit, also known as a kit of parts is just that - a collection of model parts that you can then use to create a model. Sometimes they are sold online, but in this case we are talking about making our very own for Nomads. Here is the above top secret model broken into its component pieces. There arent that many of them:

The reason why is pretty simple - consistency. One of the most important things for a faction is to have units that have a consistent style. This is quite difficult without also making the models generic, and so it would take a long time working on each model to bring it to the same theme as the rest.

One way to make units look consistent is to make sure they have similar details. A circle shape thats got one type of detail looks more similar to a square shape than the same circle with a different type of detail. Check out this somewhat crude comparison:

Using kits will help us add a few details to our units that will make them share components, and in doing so look similar to each other. Its important to not overuse kits since then it may become obvious that parts are being reused and the units start to look a lot less creative. What we are concentrating on is the use of recognizable parts - those which add character to a model - which would be used once or twice per unit as small but visible details, that let us have loads of varying shapes, while still looking uniform.

Hopefully these measures will help us make models with even higher quality, faster. We will see.

Marlos Models
At this rate, we might have to make this a weekly section at the bottom of each post. This is a good thing. Once again Marlo slammed out a couple of models from nowhere. Check them out.

Here he just went and made a range finder, presumably inspired by some of the work on radars.

And then another one. These ones in particular are unlikely to make it into the mod, but they are already creating new ideas for what will, and so doing a pretty important job as a result.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 14 Apr 2020, 23:29

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-04-07T23:12:46+02:00

I loved the coffe machine , but much more the T2 amphibious missile launcher , that fires from the bottom of the sea . This unit means new tactics, strategies , good criativity, together with diversity , the magic word !!!

Statistics: Posted by vongratz — 07 Apr 2020, 23:12

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-04-05T23:51:20+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last week we talked about mass extractor concepts, and this week we are continuing the theme and looking at some storage buildings. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Possible distruption to Diaries next week.

There has been quite a queue of posts for whats new all of a sudden, and since none of them are being combined, and all of them need to be posted, Nomads might need a bit of delaying, from sunday next week to tuesday next week. This isnt a super organised effort however so who knows what will actually happen, but being warned for possible disruptions is a good idea.

Mass and Energy Storage
Storages are quite interesting buildings since they are rather dynamic, with the building also being a visual indicator for your storage levels. They need to have a large part of the building moving around, and showing clearly what is going on. This means we can really go for that idea and make some stuff going on.

This is a different concept, which might be for either mass or energy storage. Right now we arent making a difference between them, and just seeing where the ideas develop before locking them in, and adjusting to make them more suited for their roles. This idea features three sliders that are diagonal, which is a potentially nice move since when viewed from above its more obvious if its full.

Marlos Models
As always, marlo jumps in with his models out of nowhere and shows what these sketches might look like in a more salient fashion. This immediately helps us make a design review, and move onto the next iteration.

Here you can see that the model above isnt too inspiring, which clearly shows the flaws in the design, so the next iteration is to try a tower like design, where the rising area is a very prominent part of the unit, which should hopefully make it more dynamic.

And we also got a couple of other ideas for the storages, this one is a bit more traditional, with the stored elements being arranged similar to the seraphim version.

The Nomads Coffee Machine
Marlo decided to have a little fun and convert the storage into a coffee machine. Its great. Enjoy.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 05 Apr 2020, 23:51

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-03-29T23:30:23+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last week we talked about the world borders, and today we are looking at a concept for the mass extractors. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

Mass Extractor
During todays stream we explored on what mass extractors might look like. They are a rather complicated unit, which give us both plenty of constraints and just as many opportunities. The unit comes in three tech levels, and needs both upgrade animations, as well as a mining animation.

The idea we are looking at here is a fairly minimal structure, with a bare bones set up. It has three mining drills which move up and down when the mex is active, which is pretty simple so far. To let it support upgrades, there is a hangar on one side, with the mining rigs attached to a rail. The upgrade animation will involve the hangar building a mining drill, which will then slide out along the rail and unpack into position.

This led to quite some limitations, and was a little bit of a challenge to make sure all the parts can actually fit inside the hangar on the side, and that they will slide along properly. You can see a few attempts at side sketches trying to work out how the drills will attach to the rail, and also some stuff to counterbalance the drills on the other side. Taking a purely functional approach here was difficult, but also pretty fun and hopefully will result in an interesting unit.

Surprise scribble
This wasnt really anything, just a quick drawing for fun. I started out by drawing some sort of building shape, but then after adding an eye to it, it became more of a robot head. After that I messed around with its methods of locomotion, thinking that maybe it could hover around or be on wheels.

Things like this dont serve a direct purpose, but they do get ideas going, and could lead somewhere interesting. Where might this one lead us? We dont know. Can you think of something?

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 29 Mar 2020, 23:30

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-03-22T23:45:25+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last week we talked about Air staging, and this week we will be talking about the world borders. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

World Borders

So, it might not be clear what a world border is. Check out the image below for an explanation. Its the thing that appears around the map so you arent staring into blackness.

What you see here is a quick test to make sure our model is going to work in game. There is quite a lot of stuff going on here, even though it doesnt look like much. For example, we are taking a different approach to texturing and polygons, which means that we can expect to have a lot more details to play with than the other factions borders. To make things more clear, the model in the game has around 6000 vertices, while the UEF world border has about 35000. So we are at a fraction of the complexity, which we will be increasing back up to the same level, but ending up with a lot more details in our world borders.

the downside of this approach is that our texture resolutions will be lower in some areas of the model. This is a manageable problem though, and by using clever methods we can really make the most of things without impacting game performance.

For instance, we can place most of the details in the centre of the model, since the edges of the model are rarely visible, and when they are, they are often obscured by fog, so texture density doesnt matter much over there.

Lastly, just earlier today Utter has made a great contribution to the model by adding some extra details to it, which are shown in green.

A thing to bear in mind is that this is a version thats not the same as the ingame screenshots, so there are other things that are not green, but also different. Maybe you can spot some differences with that version from here.

Lastly, note that this is still a work in progress, but when we are done we can expect to have the best world borders ever, and with no performance impact. Incidentally, the black plane bug is fixed with these borders, so if they are finished soon you can play on those maps without anything breaking.

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 22 Mar 2020, 23:45

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-03-15T23:05:40+02:00

Hello everyone,

Last week we talked about the T1 Artillery boat, and this week we will be covering Air staging. Check it out. Lastly, check out our development streams.

As always, this content you can spy ahead in the Nomads Development Discord, so if you want to get the exclusive info before everyone else, chat to the devs, ask questions or even contribute, you can do that here.

The Hangar
The Nomads really like their space stuff, and we thought it would make for a refreshing change to make the air staging facility a little more exciting. So instead of just anything the nomads might get a hangar. We are still working on the practical tests since we arent sure what would work best yet, but the model concept is going to be more enclosed than the typical air staging.

Instead of approaching from the top, the aircraft would go inside the structure and dock there instead. There are quite a few possibilities with gameplay that would need to be tested. Here are some ideas we are looking at:
1.it works just like regular air staging - this is the safe route
2.instead of just docking, the aircraft will go inside fully, just like in an aircraft carrier. these aircraft would then be hidden and untargetable, giving an interesting faction advantage to the nomads.

What would you like to see? Leave your comments in our discord.

Right now the model is still in its sketch stage, and you can see some explorations of the shape above. The last iteration is in the middle left, and could feature animated opening doors to accept larger aircraft from the top as they come in, while smaller ones enter through the sides.

Lastly, this design idea might end up as a different unit. There is some scope to make this the air factory instead, or even have both air staging and the air factory look similar.

Surprise Legs
Now, before you get too excited, none of these models are planned to make it into the mod, but recently Redmelevolence had quite some fun taking existing nomads parts and combining them into wonderful and weird new things. You will notice, all of them have legs. Check these out:

This one is a 4 leg gun emplacement, possibly for artillery or anti air use.

This one has 6 legs, and is using both acu and beamer parts.

And here is another picture of the same thing from a different angle.

Lastly we have this rather beefy looking mech. This one sparked interesting ideas for both ACU and SCU models, but nothing concrete.
And just to be clear again, none of these are planned to make it into the mod itself, they were just for fun.
All of these units have been made from existing nomads models. Can you recognize which bits are from where?

And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!

Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don't worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 15 Mar 2020, 23:05

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-03-10T17:12:49+02:00

FunkOff wrote:
Is the frigate going to have a torpedo weapon to attack subsurface targets? Or will Nomads have 3 t1 ships like aeon?

Nomads are going to have 3 t1 ships. T1 sub, Frigate with no aa and TMD as secondary ability and AA/Artillery boat - something like aeon Shard but with missiles as secondary ability (more like naval version of nomad t1 maa/arty).

Statistics: Posted by Apofenas — 10 Mar 2020, 17:12

Re: Nomads Development Diaries

2020-03-09T22:29:48+02:00

Is the frigate going to have a torpedo weapon to attack subsurface targets? Or will Nomads have 3 t1 ships like aeon?

Statistics: Posted by FunkOff — 09 Mar 2020, 22:29