Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Tonight's project... Catapult


PranQster

Recommended Posts

I made a decorative onager/catapult tonight for the hell of it. This one is non-functional, but I plan on working on a functional one in the future.

It was based on this image:

catapult01.jpg

 

And it turned out like this:

onager_01.jpg

onager_02.jpg

onager_03.jpg

 

If anyone wants it I'll post the prefab.

Edited by PranQster

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks good. I see instantanously maps with plots where you use that baby to fire a moveable boulder at a bank vault or something to gain entry. Not very stealthy, but a cool distraction..

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was also gonna say the wood is too nice :)

 

I also think you should use cylinder patches for the axles (which you're missing) and for the wind-up device and rope. It'll make them nice and smooth looking instead of blocky.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those materials can be "grimed" with decals no? (I read an ole TTLG mini-discussion about this...) I suspect it would be better if there were more pre-grimed stuff for this purpose though... :huh:

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL, but it's brand new!

Yes, it looks way to clean-cut. The Ikea Onager... I'll be sure to add some of those screw lock fasteners to make it more realistic wink.gif

Besides, we look at items from bygone eras and see them as old, because to us they are. But they were new at some time, right?

All good suggestions and I'll be modifying it tonight.

Yeah it will get new textures with rougher wood. I'm also going to make it a bit taller. Easy to do those. The axles are present, but don't extend through the wheels... will fix that so it's more like the reference image.

I'll have to jump into the tutorials for the patches... haven't learned anything about that yet.

Also it needs some iron rings, etc. for towing. When horses are ready (or mules or oxen), I can see a team of them pulling it along.

 

I imagined sneaking past some guards (of an army laying siege to a castle) to get to it, triggering it, then climbing some ivy to reach the hole it makes in a wall.

 

Sotha: Once I learn how to work with patches, I'll have fun making a harpsichord. Most of it could be done with what exists now, but some textures of ivory and ebony wood will be in order.

Edited by PranQster

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's the latest model from Ikea. :) (if that's a critique, it's of our materials library (*shakes fist!*), not the catapult)

 

Nah... those materials are quite nice, when used in a house of a noble. Perhaps this catapult was contracted by a nobleman.

I'll make a second catapult appropriate for military use.

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Woot!

It took me a few minutes to work out the basics in the patch tutorial, but I got it.

I can now make bevels and cylinders and it is so damn easy!

 

Though, I think 1 extra step should be included in the patch tutorial. KaiserJohan ran into the same issue a couple months ago that I did today and the tutorial was not clear.

Right after making the Patch > Bevel, the tutorial should state to change otho-view and resize the patch to 8-units high (for the learning experience). Else, if you rotate the newly created patch in place it creates something confusing for first-time editors using patches.

After the resize, then rotate it and you get the same result as pictured in the tutorial. It can then be resized back to the desired height after making the subdivisions.

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not a clock, don't try to turn it off... catapult!

 

 

LOL, but it's brand new!

 

...

 

Besides, we look at items from bygone eras and see them as old, because to us they are. But they were new at some time, right?

 

Yes. This is what I would say as well. It seems many feel everything needs to look grimy and dirty.

 

Not necessarily the case. Relics are grimy and dirty because they are relics; Old Quarters are grimy and dirty because they are now Old Quarters; But a catapult might be considered not only state-of-the-art but a well-maintained, very valuable piece of equipment.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not a clock, don't try to turn it off... catapult!

 

Yes. This is what I would say as well. It seems many feel everything needs to look grimy and dirty.

 

Not necessarily the case. Relics are grimy and dirty because they are relics; Old Quarters are grimy and dirty because they are now Old Quarters; But a catapult might be considered not only state-of-the-art but a well-maintained, very valuable piece of equipment.

 

I compromised. :)

The textures I just applied to the frame are rough_wood_brown and rough_wood_darkbrown. But all of the cylinders (now brushes) were kept as nice shiny pine texture. This is a well maintained catapult, so I want the most important parts looking in good shape.

 

All that's left is to decide on final textures and to replace the rope brushes with curved patches... oh, and to make some new wheels too. Those cart wheels are nice, but look out of place on this thing and I needed to bundle 3 of them for each wheel.

Edited by PranQster

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, trying to bend cylinder patches sucks. I'm having a hell of a time grabbing the proper vertices and having them end up where they should go. It seems that there should be a way to select the cylinder and select '90 degree bend' and presto!... a curved pipe, rope, etc.

The doom3 tutorials out on the web covering this topic mostly don't exist anymore, or they rely mostly on screenshots which have long since been deleted.

 

First I tried making a long stretch of rope and started to wrap it around a cylinder. I got as far as making a candy-cane shape, but attempting to wrap it any further got very ugly very quickly. Then I nearly succeeded with a properly 90 degree bend in another piece of patch 'rope' and thought I'd trim off the excess and do a clone-rotate job until I had a circular winding of rope... only to find that I cannot trim patches like can be done with brushes. So then I tried with a cylinder of proper length and all attempts to make a successful bend totally failed and I ended up with what looked like a damaged intestine.

Sigh...

Best I could manage so far in this image...

post-3285-128011450161_thumb.jpg

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nielsen74: The harpsichord prefab was corrupted by the forum posting. Can you post it again but this time give it a .txt suffix and attach it to your post? Otherwise upload it somewhere?

 

It showed OK in Dark Radiant but I got errors linefeed inside string in Dark Mod. I made a big effort removing them but it still gives an error I can't find.

 

I'm also unsure of the scale. If you put in a nobleman and the piano stool from some angles it seems too big even if it were a grand piano. From other angles I think maybe it's OK. So I'm unsure. Can you confirm you checked the scale?

 

Also, a grand piano variation would be great. I suppose all it needs is a single keyboard and a polished black carcase.

 

BTW there is a polished black texture for the black keys and the main frame (if grand piano.) It's perhaps not great for this but useable: modesty_screen/black_laquer Just paste it into Surface Inspector if you can't find it. It's probably among 'other materials'

 

I'd certainly like to include this in a Dark Mod update if possible. In fact like to include it in my own FM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nielsen74: The harpsichord prefab was corrupted by the forum posting. Can you post it again but this time give it a .txt suffix and attach it to your post? Otherwise upload it somewhere?

Yes, and please remove the visible code block in the post. It somehow freezes my page loads for tens of seconds.

 

I'm also unsure of the scale. If you put in a nobleman and the piano stool from some angles it seems too big even if it were a grand piano. From other angles I think maybe it's OK. So I'm unsure. Can you confirm you checked the scale?

 

The instrument looks really nice, but I've not yet had time to check it ingame. The instrument is not very large. Here's some reference images to see how it scales to a normal human:

17009-the-harpsichord-lesson-jan-steen.jpg

HassAtGermainHorizontalLG.jpg

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yer sorry about the code thing blush.gif it has ben deletede!

 

@Fidcal

I don´t seem to be able to finde the texture: modesty_screen/black_laquer anywhere in the darkmod texture tree mellow.gif and I rember seeing it a good wile back dry.gif

 

@Fidcal and Sotha

The cemblao is too big so I´l scale it down or remake it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fidcal

I don´t seem to be able to finde the texture: modesty_screen/black_laquer anywhere in the darkmod texture tree mellow.gif and I rember seeing it a good wile back dry.gif

That's because it is not in the darkmod tree. It's not even in the texture tree! Re-read my post haha! :P
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm... I see the need for a stringed instrument strings texture or two, to be scaled depending on size and number of strings of the instrument. Starting with heavy gauge strings on one end to light on the other. Or does it exist already for a harp from someone's FM and if so, can it be applied to a piano/harpsichord type instrument, or does there need to be one with many more strings?

 

Also, to fit in with the steampunk theme of the game, should there be some kind of 'player piano', with a big crank on the side and steam and electric pipes coming out the side... playing away by itself with the music sheet/punch-card scrolling on a wheel above the keyboard?

Chase_%26_Baker_player_piano,_Buffalo,_NY,_circa_1885.JPG

 

Edited by PranQster

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, trying to bend cylinder patches sucks. I'm having a hell of a time grabbing the proper vertices and having them end up where they should go. It seems that there should be a way to select the cylinder and select '90 degree bend' and presto!... a curved pipe, rope, etc.

The doom3 tutorials out on the web covering this topic mostly don't exist anymore, or they rely mostly on screenshots which have long since been deleted.

 

First I tried making a long stretch of rope and started to wrap it around a cylinder. I got as far as making a candy-cane shape, but attempting to wrap it any further got very ugly very quickly. Then I nearly succeeded with a properly 90 degree bend in another piece of patch 'rope' and thought I'd trim off the excess and do a clone-rotate job until I had a circular winding of rope... only to find that I cannot trim patches like can be done with brushes. So then I tried with a cylinder of proper length and all attempts to make a successful bend totally failed and I ended up with what looked like a damaged intestine.

Sigh...

Best I could manage so far in this image...

 

Probably alot easier to to a simple cylinder and just bend it 90 then clone and rotate. Although with more segments you could wrap one all the way around.

 

The easy way to bend is to drag select to top row of verts and hit the y,x or z rotate button. BAM! 90*, then just drag them out to the side. for the middle row I'd drag select them, just use the freeform rotate and get about 45*, then ctrl-G so they snap to grid, should be pretty close. Then just adjust the position on them so they align nice. (4 units up/4 across...)

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...some kind of 'player piano', with a big crank on the side and steam and electric pipes coming out the side... playing away by itself with the music sheet/punch-card scrolling on a wheel above the keyboard?

 

+picture

 

I say if you build that freaking thing for the (should be) possibly (should be) upcoming (should be) engineering (should be) contest... you win.

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
    • OrbWeaver

      I like the new frob highlight but it would nice if it was less "flickery" while moving over objects (especially barred metal doors).
      · 4 replies
×
×
  • Create New...