New civilian (child) model

[Destructavator]

One area where I've found the game to be a little lacking was good civilian models, especially children, so I'd like to introduce all of you to this little character.

He's a boy somewhere in his teens, more than capable of running around causing all kinds of trouble and mayhem, even when he hasn't gotten XVI, complete with the attitude to back it up.  He points and gawks with the "Oh wow, cool!" mentality when he sees a military dropship come out of the sky, land in front of him, and real soldiers with real machine-guns and stuff come running out blazing away, and yet he can run around screaming in terror when he sees an actual alien.

I kept in mind that the game takes place some 70 to 80 years in the future, and obviously since I can't know what youth styles will be like by then, I kinda thought one up loosely based on some of the newer stuff I've seen, but mostly tried to avoid anything archaic or very old-looking.  I also didn't want to go too outlandish with anything too futuristic (I considered, but then decided against Visual Kei*).  The only major thing I need to finish, besides minor touch-ups, are the hands, which I didn't do yet.  I'm also thinking about making a version with a jacket or second shirt of some kind.

I should also mention that this kid hangs with the GPL crowd, although he doesn't mind Creative Commons kids too much.  Anything else he has a problem with.

So, what do all of you think?  (Don't be afraid to give constructive criticism, but on the other hand don't be too harsh, he's a bit sensitive!)



*(If you're not familiar with it, Google it!)

[Winter]

Not bad. It looks fine to me, the more variety we get in map stuff and civvie models, the better.

Regards,
Winter

[Destructavator]

Thanks!

I found adding animations was very easy, it took just a few minutes to copy a skeleton from my soldier models and adjust it for this one.  Since most of the soldier animations I did before were done, that makes this model almost ready to use also, because even after adjustment all the animations are carried over with the skeleton.

I still have to do the hands and touch up a few other texture areas.

[H-Hour]

Agreed, more civilians are needed. This civilian is good. Nice work.

[Destructavator]

Here's what the kid looks like in the game at this point (I'm still working on the texture).

I intentionally made him smaller than the big, burly and muscular Phalanx troops because of his youth, I just hope I didn't make him too small.

Side note:  Something with the current AI seems to be working, because he ran for help straight towards the middle of where the Phalanx troops are, which makes sense.

[Mattn]

make him a little bit bigger please - a teenager should already be almost the size of the soldiers (this would e.g. be needed for the bounding boxes, too)

[Destructavator]

OK. Will do.

Side note:  At present the game doesn't give me a good way to test most animations with civilians, especially combat/firing animations (when infected).  Would it be possible to add "Civilian" to the list of teams in skirmish mode?  I already see just about everything else in that list.

Edit:  Right now, all I can do is try skirmish over and over and hope I get the boy as at least one of the civs, and even then only the computer controls them, I don't have a way of testing specific animations or actions.

[bayo]

Is'nt there a way to use that size? It add more diversity than another "skin"-like people

[H-Hour]

I would agree he should be a little bit bigger. I think the top of his hair should come up to the soldiers' shoulder height. Also, it would be useful to see him in perspective with other objects in the world, not just the soldiers, and from a more top-down view.

It's hard because most maps/objects in the game don't maintain a very consistent sense of scale (see the dead kid by the van and the car, the van looks huge compared to the car and the kid). But if we can see a shot of the kid in amongst several different objects, and especially in reference to the standard height for a level, it might make it clearer whether he needs to be bigger or not.

[Destructavator]

Yeah, I think I did indeed shrink him a bit too much - These are side-by-side orthographic shots of him next to a soldier.  I think the kid needs to be at least a whole head's height taller, unless he's going to be a very young kid, which isn't what I had in mind.

[Mattn]

Side note:  At present the game doesn't give me a good way to test most animations with civilians, especially combat/firing animations (when infected).  Would it be possible to add "Civilian" to the list of teams in skirmish mode?  I already see just about everything else in that list.

you can edit seq_modelview.ufo and type seq_start view to the game console

[Destructavator]

you can edit seq_modelview.ufo and type seq_start view to the game console

I looked at that, that doesn't help too much because I really need to control a unit with the kid model on a map with other objects.  Only then can I see if the TAGs for holding and firing weapons and such (for an XVI-affected civ) are in the right place and the animations work properly.

I tried to temporarily edit the kid in as a soldier, but it made the game bomb back to my desktop I think because he doesn't have an armored version.

If I could control a civ unit in skirmish, that would really be what I need for testing.

If you don't want the game to really have a player-controlled civ team option, perhaps it could be disabled when compiled in "release" and not "debug"?

Edit: Either that, or is there a console command to control a different team once a map is loaded and a battle starts?

[Mattn]

you can also specifiy tags in sequences - but if you want to use the civ in skirmish you have to use it as solider and provide armoured versions

[Destructavator]

I think I figured it out - I can copy the exact same model as an "armored" version into the armor model folders.

I scaled the kid a bit, now he's just a tiny bit shorter than the soldiers.

I think this looks much better.

[Mattn]

just the texture needs a little bit of work - it looks like it could need some smoothing here and there