Zeonic Industries by ProfDriftwood

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    This thread exists both to list the Gundam Themed resources I have contributed and to document the development of new ones.

    Note that these are all based on the cannon names of different Zaku Models, and only conveniently fit my plans perfectly. That is to say, virtually every part that changes from Zaku to Zaku already has a model name. This post is meant as a table of contents, and will be periodically updated with links to dock downloads and posts describing features under construction.

    If you would like to contribute to any of these projects, even in a small way, Send me a private message or join the Neo-Zeon Discord. Even if you don't want to contribute, but would like to play with us in Starmade, Robocraft, or even just chat about Gundam and anime, feel free to drop into our discord.
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    Player Skins: I have created pilot suits based on pictures from Mobile Suit Gundam, which are pretty accurate and help with that Gundam immersion. They all have Neo-Zeon Clan Emblems on the back side. Click for details. More colors available upon request!

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    Neo-Zeon Pilot Suit
    A common uniform used by Soldiers of Zeon.

    Char Aznable Pilot Suit
    A unique uniform worn by Zeon Ace Char Aznable, The Red comet.

    Black Tri-Star Pilot Suit
    A unique uniform worn by the Zeon Aces, the Black Tri-Stars. Black and Gold.

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    Mobile Suits: Lovingly replicated mecha from the anime Mobile Suit Gundam. The source images listed are partly for my own reference, and partly so that contributors can see the dimensions we're working with.

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    MS-06c Zaku II (Type C: Early Production Type)
    The Original Shell will likely see more updates, though they will be relatively minor. You can read about it by clicking the link above. It's much larger than an actual 1/1 scale, I wanted it to be big enough to use for fighting pirates at least, players at best.

    MS-06a Zaku II (Type A: First Mass Production Type)

    This is actually the second version, the first one I ended up scrapping due to bugs. This one's much better though. Full featured. Spawn and you're ready to rock.

    All further changes on this list will require the updates to be in place. Instead of links to the download, here is a general description of what is planned and some links that illustrate what I mean.

    MS-06f Zaku II (Type F: Power & Weapons Update)
    Will use the new power and weapons update effectively, once they're available.

    MS-06tb Zaku II (Type TB: Add Large Backpack, extra arms.) (Source Images)
    This Addon will be done if the main entity is not big enough to be very usable in the PVP meta. It is intended to make the Zaku Viable by expanding the main entity, and with it, the reactor. It is possible that following variants will integrate this.

    Dodai YS - (Thunderbolt Version) (Source Image)
    A large ship you can ride on the back of. This will be intended to supplement some of the Zaku's limitations by having AMS turrets and additional weapons, plus its own reactor, which may be bigger than the Zaku's and thus used in place of the Zaku's on board reactor, or as a backup.

    MS-06ck Zaku II Half Cannon (Type CK: add fixed weapons) (Source Images)
    Another addon that may be implemented for metagame reasons. This would add 2-4 more guns.

    Ms-06s Zaku II Commander (Type S: High Performance edition) (Source Images)

    Painted Red, with a horn on it. Will use what I learn from prior versions to try to make it PVP capable, or moreso.

    MS-06s Zaku II Patrol (Type S: Stealth Model) (Source Image)
    I hope use the replace tool to make a version mostly out of motherboards or other lightweight materials, for the purpose of making a stealth edition.

    MS-06r Zaku II (Type R: High Mobility Type) (Source Images)
    Fancy Legs and a Different backpack. Built as fast as I can get it, while trying to preserve the performance enhancements of the Commander model.

    MS-07b Gouf (Source Images)
    Basically A Zaku Reskin. Most of the changes would be in the knees, shoulders and torso. The main entity would need to be reconstructed around a different cockpit.

    MS-06rpd Zaku II Reuse Psycho Device (Source Images)
    The Ultimate, and definite final MS I would make. Basically, I'll build this if all the other attempts at making the Zaku formidable in PVP are failures. Built on the MS-06r Frame, it would have an outrageously large backpack, and extra arms wielding additional guns. Possibly have a system where I swap out a stack of torpedo bazookas so that I can fire a ridiculous number of torpedoes. It would have a huge reactor.

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    Weapons: Note that all parts will fit on both the Zaku and Gouf, with only having to change a few pieces. It is intended that Gouf weapons will precede the Gouf. I will try to make Left and right handed versions of each when possible. I may also try to make versions without arms, for use on ships or stations.

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    Zaku Bazooka-
    A torpedo Launcher arm. Inspired by launcher designs other users have posted.

    Torpedo Bazooka-
    A Missile launcher arm. A It will end up being a lot bigger than the Rifle.

    Leg mounted Missile Launchers-
    Extra weapons for the legs.

    Pulse Weapon Legs-
    So you can kick ships or crush people under your massive boot.

    Throwing arm-
    An advanced arm capable of swapping/throwing weapons. I'm not sure if it'll be possible, but I'll try.

    Gouf Shield-
    The general idea is to have it be a defensive turret so it points at enemies.

    Gouf Rotary Cannon Shield-
    More gun than shield, this thing would have a big rotary cannon inspired by some of the others posted on the dock. Should look awesome.

    Gouf Heat Sword-
    A Heat hawk Reskin, essentially. A pulse weapon. Maybe higher powered.

    Beamzooka-
    The massive main gun used by the MS-06rtb, is essentially a titan sized lazer.


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    Space Stations:

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    The Space Colony (Name Pending)
    Critical to the lore of Neo-Zeon, the faction for whom these Zakus exist, is our homeland, the space colonies. I made a real ambitious start before realizing that that I didn't have as much interest as I thought I did in building it, and didn't have the hands to make it happen. I would like to continue work on it, but don't intend to spend a lot of time on it without some volunteers. Right now it is kind of a barren shell, but there is some of a transit system in place that is used to switch the gravity around between the different interior faces that the city is to be built on. I have a general plan for how the space is to be broken up, which I can expand on upon request. But in short I had imagined it would be a booming metropolis with a nice automated factory, trade hub, Logic Game Arcade, and a few pretty RP details.

    Please send me a private message or contact me through the Neo-Zeon Discord if you'd like to contribute.

    Colony Images


    Zaku Factory-
    The station I'm building these on is gradually becoming the zaku factory. It'll just be a lot of docks big enough to house the zakus, plus some a launch catapult to shoot them off of. With some normal station stuff--factories, defenses, etc.

    No images yet, but you can see bits of it in the background of some of the screenshots I've posted. It's not that special right now.

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    In the very long run, I would like to make equivalent Federation MS (Gundam, GM, Maybe Guncannon), as well as matching fleets and bases for both factions. I've located some Federation ships that have already been built. They are 1/1 scale, I think, not big enough to house my mobile suits, but cool all the same. Shoutout to these uploads:

    Earth Federation Columbus Class Transport
    Earth Federation Magellan Class Battleship
    Earth Federation Salamis Class Cruiser Drone/WIP
    Earth Federation RB-79C Drone

    PM any and All Gundam Themed uploads for maximum out-shouting!

    Assuming I had all this stuff done, the goal would be to have both factions setup on a single server for the purpose of mass producing each for MS fights. Even if they never become competitive against normal ships in PVP, making something fight an enemy that functions in the same way is implicitly balanced, and should be remain entertaining regardless of meta-game changes. The rest of this thread exists to document my progress toward these various goals.
     
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    Original Post
    I thought I'd make a thread devoted to my work at bringing the Zaku II Into Starmade.
    The First version 0.9 is up on the Dock, but it's not very complete. You can find it here.



    First, leg control panel.
    The legs are restricted to forward and backward movement, for the sake of simplicity and durability. It is important to me that when it's all said and done, this be a build that you can load on any server and wreak havoc with it. I've got about 95% completion on a system that'll switch it from its standing pose to a more elegant flying pose automatically.

    I also added a bit of detail to the shield.


    Next I'm working on left arm, and with it, its secondary weapon--the Heat hawk.
    Yay! It's got an elbow now.

    The Heat Hawk is going to look like this. It's a little small, but the forearm is part of the same entity, so I think it'll be enough room to put in a pretty decent pulse weapon. The arm controls will be rigged up in the shoulder to save main entity space. Basically it'll have a ready weapon command, and then a spammable axe swing command. I'll be trying to make the pulse weapons rigged with an area trigger so it only fires when it's going to hit. The actual weapon system will not likely make it into the next upload however.

    Once I have the heat hawk built and the basic animations all rigged up, I'll tie in some extra details. I'm going to make a simple enemy detector out of the eye, so it points out enemies for you and looks awesome. The head is already a turret, all that needs to be done is a tiny bit of logic/ systems. The light on the scope and eye will activate when you shut the cockpit door, and the cockpit will have a fancy RP activation animation. The Gun arm is a functional turret already, and you can use the scope to manually contol it if you so desire (it looks cool from the scope). The range of motion should permit it to work fluidly with the upcoming manual turret aiming system.

    All that will go into the 1.0 Shell. Hopefully by then the pre-release will be ready for full release, so I can power it with the new system. I gather that because of the entities involved, I will probably want what is planned for the weapon update to be implemented in the zaku. But if it's not ready, the shell isn't 100% I'll try to make a "quick" version with the old power for use.

    A new power version will be uploaded separate from the shell upon completion.

    From there I have further plans to expand the Zaku II. There are innumerable variations of the Zaku to draw upon for additional weapons and modifications, the most likely of which I will attempt is the Thunderbolt Backpack, which presents the option of adding more arms (to wield more guns) and enough space to put in a much larger generator on the main entity. If it's wimpy without it, you can bet I'll do this next.

    Well, that's it for the current overview. I'll add in more pictures as I make progress! Thank you for your interest in the Giant Zaku Project.

    Edit: Broken Images fixed



    Elegant flying stance complete. Automatically assumes this pose when undocked



    And I've completed the heat hawk.


    Attack animations, next, then I'll get the head watching for enemies, edit some cosmetic details, and it'll be ready to share.
     
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    Indeed, Seig Zeon My friend!


    Going to tune the animation to make it smoother using rail speed controllers, add a bit more logic to make it spam-proof.
     
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    Animations are done! Will make some modifications to the head and clean up a few cosmetic details and I'll be ready to upload.

     
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    This post was edited. Sadly I had to rescind the posting of my powered version. Too many issues, it wasn't worth having up yet. I will post updated versions as soon as I can debug them. Because the rail that the limb entities connect to changes into a rail rotater, the tendency seems to be for it to immediately rotate after spawn in whichever direction it's set to. So to fix this, what I think I'll do is have a switch that turns it into a normal rail again. I've thought up a way to have it not eject the limbs in the process. Sometimes the wireless modules seem to fall off upon spawning, sometimes not. Seems hit or miss. I don't understand why.
     
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    Great good work, this mech is turning out well.
    I could definitely see how this mech could have a series of warhead weapons, like a trowing spear, or a rotaring warhad drilling unit to drill through space stations!
    Versions are endless!
     
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    Thanks for saying so! I'm definitely interested in adding lots of warhead weapons. I had considered trying to make the axe have a system something like a permanently mounted MK VI Torpedo System, built in such a way that when the axe strikes it injects warheads into the target. Haven't had the time to tinker with warhead weapons yet, but I'm guessing it'd be somewhat more devastating than the pulse weapon I've got now.

    That said, I just re-uploaded my old power version. I had it uploaded briefly, then took it down due to bugs, but I'm like 95% sure this version is bug free, or as bug free as anything can be in starmade.

    MS-06a Zaku II (Type A: First Mass Production Type)


    The turret works better than I thought. Definitely make sure the ai module in the rifle (access from armpit) is set to any. It doesn't do well with selected target. I took it out on LvD and tried to fight some pirates with it, encountered a Starship Enterprise. Was blown to pieces. Don't even care. Watching it take damage was delightful, losing my limbs one at a time. The Zaku explodes sooo goood.

    Rest in pieces Unit 01.

    I'll update the documentation, post more pictures in here soon.
     
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    Created a Left handed Machine Gun. Will upload along with installation instructions.





    Initial testing has revealed that the head has some issues, tends to get caught in strange positions. I'll be attempted to edit it. After that, I'll either work on a Bazooka, a a large Backpack, or the Dodai--which is basically a huge platform the zaku can ride on, which will provide additional weapons and some AMS turrets.
     
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    Hey, glad the forums are back at last. I've done a little work during the break. First, I went ahead and uploaded the colony. If anyone wants to load it up and play with it. It's not very done though.

    The Space Colony (Name Pending)

    I've also determined that the main entity for the Zaku is almost certainly too small for my desires. As such, I've begun working on a rather large backpack for it.



    When all said and done, it should look something like this:


    Surely with a huge tube on the back I'll have enough distance for a sizable reactor.

    Unfortunately when FRU reset I lost the left handed rifle. But the new head was saved, and I can recreate the rifle later.

    I'm also sad to hear pulse weapons are on the way out, but not really surprised. This will move up plans for alternative configurations of the heat hawk. The warhead idea/non-launching torpedo idea I mentioned above seems most likely.
     
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    Thunderbolt Backpack is more or less done. Now I'm just adding the extra arms to it. The posable mounts in the following pictures should fit most turrets. They'll also let me shoot behind myself reliably.










    As you can see from the X-ray here, there's much better main entity space now, so I should be able to fit in a pretty beefy reactor now.

    I hope that when the arms are complete, I'll be able to set up a system where they hand off explosives to the left arm. This thread here: Attaching rails to docked entity led to some hope that this may be doable. The Sub arms will look something like this.



    If handing myself extra explosive axes doesn't work, I'll just let them wield extra guns instead. At least one of them will probably be dedicated to wielding an extra gun in any case, since both hands won't be capable of operating the axes/grenades.
     
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    I ran into limit to the number of consecutive docked entities I would use, which left me a few joints short of a completed arm. At some point I may try to simplify and re-implement the arms, but for now I've slapped some quick turrets on it so I can move on. I'll detail them better later. Right now I want to get it ready to dock. The huge backpack made it difficult to dock from the back side, so' I've come up with a plan for a docking tube that'll be made of plex door that'll let you connect to universal dockers. I'm also looking at a more complex arm design that should make it a bit more versatile.

    But that's the boring stuff, here's the cool stuff I'm working on.



    The big ol' purple thing the zaku is crouching on is called a Dodai. The idea is that it should supplement the weaknesses of the Zaku and act as a support craft. This is approximately what it'll look like when complete. I'll also add ~16 AMS turrets to the Dodai. That's coming along fairly quickly.

    I've also completed something pretty cool. I need to test it out, but I have good feelings about the idea. Meet: The Dummy Balloon.



    The absolute minimum of essential parts for an AI ship. Designed to be hidden in a tiny tiny 6x2x1 slot.



    And then, connected to the docker...



    Is a wee baby plex door Zaku. Actually it's a 1/1 scale, chassis shape by Swinglow20. My Zaku is like a 5/1 scale. But the general idea is that you dump out a bunch of them to try to draw fire off of you. And they're adorable! The Plex door causes no collision while shut, so you can cram several in a tight space, and they're set to turn on when they undock, so the mechanism to launch them is ultra simple. This is based on a a tactic that appears in gundam anime. They'd take a small amount of gas and put it in a rubber balloon, and in the vacuum of space it'd inflate to a huge size They made them different shapes--rocks, mechs, wreckage, sometimes with explosives inside. For my purposes I've elected tiny facsimiles of the Mech that will launch them.
     
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    Zaku + Dodai Shells are mostly done. Need maybe a few small detail bits, some logic. Waiting for weapon update to continue.