Machine - Work In Progress

[Darkness_Falls]

Before I go any further on this, let me know if you think I'm on the right track with the design of this machine.

 

I stopped adding details to it and gave it some quick color. I haven't done very much on this yet, as I don't want to waste time doing something nobody likes. I know the coloring and everything is pretty crude here; just focus on the shape, design and functionality of it. The final will look more polished.

 

Do you think I'm going the right direction with this?

 

Keep in mind we'll likely need to have many different machines, so let me at least know if you think this would be usable in our Thief universe. There will always be more time to do other machine concepts/shapes/etc.

 

PS: That's an energy beam going between the power thingys. I remembered Thief 2 had an energy beam between two lamp posts or something on one of the levels. I liked it. This is "in the spirit" of that.

 

 

EDIT: Please also make any suggestions you have for this endeavor. PS: I know there's no depth to the drawing; I wasn't gonna go there yet.

Edited January 19, 2005 by Darkness_Falls

[Ishtvan]

Aesthetically, I approve. It would be cool if the gauges fluctuated in time with the beam fluctuating.

 

As an electrical engineer, I want some concept for why it needs an energy beam going a short distance from point to point on the same machine? Nothing really detailed, just a general explanation.

 

Maybe it's measuring some property of the air inbetween, like humidity, or measuring the air quality to make sure there are no toxic gasses present, or measuring magic field fluctuations that we cannot comprehend, etc. It could have one of those big red "alarm lights" on it to reflect this.

 

If this were in a "test lab" it could be a piece of R&D equipment to test a communication system. I say a test because it's just going such a short distance.

 

If you had the beam starting out on one side kind've wide and narrowing down on the other side, it could be a coupler to couple the energy from one guide down to another guide or guides. This would make sense as a component of the energy transfer system, kind've like a transformer in your house. If you had the beam come in from one point on the left and split to multiple points on the right (or vice versa), it could be a multiplexer or demultiplexer (that's a device that takes several communication signals going along on one channel and splits it into several channels to go to the right locations, or the reverse).

 

Finally, I guess it could be some sort of horizontal antenna that's setting up an AC field to transmit signals in freespace. The energy beam could be the air ionizing around the field (although this would mean the antenna is starting to short out and not very efficient... oh well )

Edited January 19, 2005 by Ishtvan

[oDDity]

Yes, his would fit in the Mechanist 'future' city. Defiitely not red though. It;'s hard to give any furthur crits based on such an early WIP.

[sparhawk]

Maybe they should be split apart, so we can place them on the street instead of cables. One would be the transmitter and the other the receiver. IMO that would be explanation enough. I never had an explanation in T1 for these and they still looked cool.

 

How large would this model be?

[Springheel]

I agree with oDDity that it should be blue/white, not red. And I agree with Spar that we don't really need to know the purpose of all the machines. What was the purpose of those glowy balls on top of the streetlamps in T2? I didn't know and didn't care, but it looked cool and different and gave the setting atmosphere.

 

The only thing I don't care for in the wip is that the emitters look a little like old fashioned laser pistols. There's a bit of a sci-fi element to them.

[sparhawk]

The only thing I don't care for in the wip is that the emitters look a little like old fashioned laser pistols. There's a bit of a sci-fi element to them.

 

I thought the same, but as it is WIP I thought hit is just because he drew this very fast.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

Hmm, if i may give my 2 cents, i would tone down the "technicalness" of it. It looks quite a bit like what i'de find in Doom 3, with it's future setting, but not thief. Of course, it's not finished, so I can't fully guage it.

[Domarius]

...And I agree with Spar that we don't really need to know the purpose of all the machines. What was the purpose of those glowy balls on top of the streetlamps in T2? I didn't know and didn't care, but it looked cool and different and gave the setting atmosphere.

Argh! There he goes again! Just because you didn't care doesn't mean other people don't.

 

I personally hate things that are just thrown in "to look cool"; the fantasy world feels less believable and more like some guy's try-hard effort at looking cool.

 

If people are gonna spend a few posts discussing the workings of such things, let them! At the very least, it can appear in the game as documentation for an interesting read. The workings of things were found as readables in the original game too.

 

As for the glowing balls on the street lamps, I found myself wondering if it was a ball of magical energy cast by the mages, held in place with the technology of the era.

[sparhawk]

I like to have a background info as well. But this doesn't mean that we should have to invent an enitery quantummechanics physical explanation for everything.

 

If you have a good explanation for this device, we can still add it to the documents. No problem. If we can't find an explanation for it, should we drop this model just because of that? No way.

[Springheel]

As for the glowing balls on the street lamps, I found myself wondering if it was a ball of magical energy cast by the mages, held in place with the technology of the era.

 

Exactly! So did I! But did it ruin the experience for you because you didn't know for sure? It didn't for me. Sometimes it's good to let the player's imagination run with things. Giving the *illusion* that things all have a purpose and make sense is different than actually planning them out in advance.

 

It's similar to the principle of a book vs a movie. When you read the book, your imagination is totally engaged, because you have to fill in most of the details yourself. In a movie, it's all done for you. And it's ONE person's vision. The chance of it being as appealing to you as your own personal vision is not high.

 

I think the same principle applies here. Some people may have imagined the glowy balls were magic, as you said. Some other people who don't like magic might have imagined they were some kind of new electrical resevoir or something. Do we need to tell one group they're right and the other they're wrong?

[Domarius]

Not really, but the main thing is that when we discuss things like this, it changes what the thing looks like, into something, that I beleive, can't be thought up just by "trying to make something that looks cool".

[sparhawk]

I always thought they are electricity.

[Darkness_Falls]

Yes, thank you. Definitely not "RED." After I mocked it up, I was like arrrgh, they should've been blue'ish -- like oDDity suggests. I agree wholeheartedly that red looks a little funky.

 

As for "laser pistolish" - yes, I agree there too. I'll tone it down. I think those designs work okay when they're standing vertical -- as I believe T2 has a similar design to that, maybe GIMG, too -- but when they're shooting something, they become too laser pistol'ish.

 

I think the pointy things at the top on either side make it look too futuristic, too.

 

Splitting them apart sounds really cool too. For this one, I think I'd like to keep it a standalone unit. We can then make some modifications of it that are split apart, as you suggest. I envisioned the size of this machine to be about 15-feet from left to right. About 6-feet tall. Not too big, not too small. I'd have to see it in the game to fully judge.

 

I'll try to not make it too technical, also. I don't want people thinking Doom 3 when they see it, of course. I just remembered T2 had a bunch of dials, switches and meters on their machines, so was striving for that. Let me load up T2 again tonight to absorb their machines' "look and feel" more.

 

It would emit a droning hum sounds. The particles (not an all-out "beam") moving between the energy transmitter/receptor would move fairly slowly.

 

In general, I'll try to tone down the futurism. Good suggestions! Any more? I won't be able to start working on modifying it until later tonight. Thanks again, all. Much appreciated.

[Ishtvan]

I didn't mean you need exact technical specs for it, just a general idea of what it does (for YOURSELF, you don't need to make this absolutely clear to people looking at it, if they figure out the general idea, kudos to them, if not it adds to the mystery). Having an idea of what it does also means that different moving parts will work together in a more believable fashion, even if it's just on a subconscious level to people looking at it.

 

When I see for example in T1 the energy connecting streetlamps, I think "Cool, that's how they power the streetlamps, with some sort of magic energy I don't understand" When I see electricity arcing between two points that are close together on the same machine with no apparent explanation and no other moving gauges, etc, I think "Wow, this looks like a fake setpiece from a 50's Frankenstein movie" [sorry if that sounds harsh]

 

So that's why I was just saying that IMO it helps to have some vague idea for why the energy needs to go between two points that are close together. You don't have to go into detail, or know HOW it works, just WHY it might want to do that.

Edited January 19, 2005 by Ishtvan

[Darkness_Falls]

No prob. I was more referring to GIMG's comment, with respect to making it less technical: "Hmm, if i may give my 2 cents, i would tone down the "technicalness" of it." I agree it's nice to give purpose to machines a lot of the time. However, I kind've enjoyed the mystery behind some of T2's machines. My mind went wild trying to make sense of something; wondering what it did. That was fun for me. I'll write more later. I mainly want to say, though, that I think when a machine is tossed into the Thief universe, no matter how basic it is, the last thing on people's minds is a cheesy (err, classic? ) 1950s film. Many of T2's machines are very basic and lame if you take them out of the thief world and just look at them. Because they're in Thief, however, it takes on a new role. You get the ambience, lighting, music, machine hum, etc., going into your cerebral cortex, and all of this creates a unique view for the machine.