- Joined
- Oct 24, 2017
- Messages
- 39
- Reaction score
- 54
Hello, I'm sorta new to the game and I'm working on a mech, because starmade needs more mecha. Right now it's just a shell and some basic systems, because like everyone else I'm holding off until the new power system goes live to deal with that. All the same, there's tons of work to be done in the mean time. Here are some shots of my progress thus far.
Source-
My goal in posting this to kind of show what I have so far, and take some suggestions for how I might improve it, and what considerations I might need to make down the line. A heads up about any issues you think I might encounter would be helpful.
Partially Completed Features-
The Zaku is Watching- The eye is a turret, which allows it to follow Targets.
Somewhat accurate hatches- Work about like they do in the series.
Durable Docking- Having been warned that dockers are extremely vulnerable, I've encased the important ones in advanced armor.
Planned features:
Standing and flying poses (legs) - I've made a demo rig that'll make this pretty easy, once I've finished making the legs.
Active skirt armor (docked skirt parts move to make room for legs) - The Skirts will raise and lower with the legs. Automating it might be convoluted. I'm going to try to make a system where it reads the current position of leg to determine where the skirt should go.
Alternate leg / Zaku Kick (pulse weapon attack)- Probably not the most effective weapon, but potentially a very satisfying one.
Missile Launcher Alternate Legs/Shield--Missile weapons on the shield or on the sides of the legs, like this guy has.
Machine gun turret arm. (Right)
Alternate Bazooka Arm (Right)
Alternate Big Rifle Arm (Right)
Alternate Beam Rifle Arm (Right)
Heat Axe Arm (Pulse weapon) (Left) - Like the Zaku Kick
Throwing & Gesture arm (Left) - This arm will be able to make a few gestures and hand signals, and will hopefully be able to "throw" things with the torpedo system.
Potential Features:
Space Truck - As much as is possible, the zaku will be designed for combat. I'd like to make a slightly bigger ship with a docking that'll carry extra, less important systems like a jump drive and salvage equipment.
On-board computer/Super Fancy cockpit- Might try to setup display switching/commands to make a fancy interface for it. As this seems likely to take a lot of space, the end result will probably not be so complex.
Equipment swapping dock mechanism- Since I'm planning to have a lot of alternate limbs, a system to swap them out would be clutch. Not sure how I'd work it though.
Completely unnecessary walking/running animation- Probably not going to make it into the design, but I've made a walking animation with my test rig, which could be applied to the Zaku. It's possible that I could link it up with a moving arm on the ship it docks to or something similar to make it actually move forward as the animation plays. Would be a lot of work, wouldn't do anything important, but would look awesome.
Thunderbolt backpack - It seems likely that the frame I'm building will not be able to do all the things I want it to, and perform in combat. It doesn't need to be "Top teir OMG the best" but it can't suck. To offset this I might increase the volume of the main entity with a large backpack pictured here.
Weapon Swapping- The Thunderbolt backpack mentioned above also has smaller arms that are intended to switch out your weapons. Right now the current plan is that all of the interchangeable weapons I'm making are going to include a chunk of the arm to make the turret mechanics cooperate, so that's probably not going to viable, but I'm interested in seeing what it would take to move an entity from one dock to another on a separate parent entity.
Warhead Bazooka (Torpedo Launcher)- Because Torpedoes.
Phew. That's all for now. Any feedback at all is appreciated, and I'm open to ideas for new features. Let me know what you think!
Source-
My goal in posting this to kind of show what I have so far, and take some suggestions for how I might improve it, and what considerations I might need to make down the line. A heads up about any issues you think I might encounter would be helpful.
Partially Completed Features-
The Zaku is Watching- The eye is a turret, which allows it to follow Targets.
Somewhat accurate hatches- Work about like they do in the series.
Durable Docking- Having been warned that dockers are extremely vulnerable, I've encased the important ones in advanced armor.
Planned features:
Standing and flying poses (legs) - I've made a demo rig that'll make this pretty easy, once I've finished making the legs.
Active skirt armor (docked skirt parts move to make room for legs) - The Skirts will raise and lower with the legs. Automating it might be convoluted. I'm going to try to make a system where it reads the current position of leg to determine where the skirt should go.
Alternate leg / Zaku Kick (pulse weapon attack)- Probably not the most effective weapon, but potentially a very satisfying one.
Missile Launcher Alternate Legs/Shield--Missile weapons on the shield or on the sides of the legs, like this guy has.
Machine gun turret arm. (Right)
Alternate Bazooka Arm (Right)
Alternate Big Rifle Arm (Right)
Alternate Beam Rifle Arm (Right)
Heat Axe Arm (Pulse weapon) (Left) - Like the Zaku Kick
Throwing & Gesture arm (Left) - This arm will be able to make a few gestures and hand signals, and will hopefully be able to "throw" things with the torpedo system.
Potential Features:
Space Truck - As much as is possible, the zaku will be designed for combat. I'd like to make a slightly bigger ship with a docking that'll carry extra, less important systems like a jump drive and salvage equipment.
On-board computer/Super Fancy cockpit- Might try to setup display switching/commands to make a fancy interface for it. As this seems likely to take a lot of space, the end result will probably not be so complex.
Equipment swapping dock mechanism- Since I'm planning to have a lot of alternate limbs, a system to swap them out would be clutch. Not sure how I'd work it though.
Completely unnecessary walking/running animation- Probably not going to make it into the design, but I've made a walking animation with my test rig, which could be applied to the Zaku. It's possible that I could link it up with a moving arm on the ship it docks to or something similar to make it actually move forward as the animation plays. Would be a lot of work, wouldn't do anything important, but would look awesome.
Thunderbolt backpack - It seems likely that the frame I'm building will not be able to do all the things I want it to, and perform in combat. It doesn't need to be "Top teir OMG the best" but it can't suck. To offset this I might increase the volume of the main entity with a large backpack pictured here.
Weapon Swapping- The Thunderbolt backpack mentioned above also has smaller arms that are intended to switch out your weapons. Right now the current plan is that all of the interchangeable weapons I'm making are going to include a chunk of the arm to make the turret mechanics cooperate, so that's probably not going to viable, but I'm interested in seeing what it would take to move an entity from one dock to another on a separate parent entity.
Warhead Bazooka (Torpedo Launcher)- Because Torpedoes.
Phew. That's all for now. Any feedback at all is appreciated, and I'm open to ideas for new features. Let me know what you think!
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