Competition #11 - yoyomon

[yoyomon]

Cool theme for this month’s contest. I’m a huge fan of RTS games. For my entry I think I’m going to pay homage to a classic RTS favorite of mines, Westwood’s/EA’s Emperor: Battle for Dune. It was a great game at the time but looking back at it after playing games like CoH and Medieval 2, it’s just painful to have to go through such an ancient AI and interface.

Anyways, I’ve decided to do my take on a building that’s unique (I think) to the game and the Dune universe, the wind trap. It’s basically a power station that generates its energy from sucking in the high winds of Arrakis/Dune, which is the planet which the Dune universe mainly focuses on. I’m going to keep House Atreides in mind and look back at the faction’s buildings in the game for reference.

I’ve decided to stray from the design used in the game and went with something totally different. It’s going to have a large main turbine to draw in the power like it should with some minor add on traps on top of it for commanders who wants a little kick from their traps.

Arrakis is known to have some pretty hellacious sandstorms so I’d figure that it’d do some damage to the large exposed turbine. Well, I’m sure the storm wouldn’t do too much harm if the turbine was behind a thick slab of steel, so I’m gonna slap on a canopy that can open when things are fine like candy and close when stuff starts to pick up. The minor traps will have Venetian blinds that closes during the bad times.

With the turbine covered up during sandstorms, it wouldn’t be too good for commanders since there would be no way for the wind traps to generate power. I kinda went crazy with this idea. While the canopy is moving to cover the main turbine, off to the side, a large rod will be deploying (kinetic collector). During sandstorms, a lot of particles will be flying around at pretty high speeds. What the rod’s main job is to let to sand particles collide or brush up against the rod, and the kinetic energy from these fast moving particles will generate electricity. Yeah, I know, the particles would probably have to be moving at higher speeds that a couple hundred miles per hour and sand isn’t conductive. But hey, this is Arrakis sand and the rod will have a blue aura running up it’s length and maybe a few sporadic flashing white orbs hear and there along the length during a storm.

The structure will also be sporting two large halogen lights that goes up when the map shifts to night or a sandstorm is going on. It’s good for your enemies to see you.

Welp, I better get started on it less I lose interest. Here’s the concept so far.

[Havoc89]

Oh wow, I love this design. Really looking forward to this one.

Emperor battle for dune was probably the best 3D RTS game i had ever played. Westwood did an amazing job on that one. I honestly cannot wait to see this done.

[yoyomon]

Thanks Havoc89. Yeah, I'd like to see another Dune rts but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon .

Started on the low poly. I'm just about done, a couple of little tid bits here and there and some refining. Made some slight changes from the concept but nothing too drastic. The mesh is 1437 tris but I could probably trim it down to maybe 1350 or so.



Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I should of done the highpoly version first

[myles]

Hey i love this idea, nice job with the concept and the model.
It really does not matter the you have done your low poly first. One question i have is would the halogen lights point up ion the sky? Why not at the building or at the turbine. Maybe some flood lights would serve better.

Just make sure your texture is nice and scratched. Anyway good luck and nice to see another maya user

[laughing_bun]

i love the concept, but its going to be really hard for you to pull this off, simple because the concept is so obscure. but GOOD LUCK!

[yoyomon]

Thanks guys.

Myles: Yeah your right, I think it might be better for the lights to lean towards the building a little more, perhaps at the emblem on the canpoy when its up.

Laughing_Bun: obscurity gives room for creativity . J/k, yeah the concept isn't too crisp, lots of big nasty lines everywhere.

Here's an update on how the low poly is coming. Deleted uneeded polies and added some more bits here and there. I still have a little over 50 tris to play with.

Model is influenced by the Atreides faction in Battle for Dune. Color is probably going to be similar aswell.

[requiem2d]

Very cool design, I agree. Would like to see it wider, but that's just personal preference

Keep up the good work !

[theQiwiMan]

I LOVE the concept page! Seems like a great unique idea, can't wait to see it textured.