I made a sentry! :D

[Lizardizzle]

So I posted this on the steam forums earlier today, so I might as well put it here too.

Spoiler

so this sentry, which I modeled in about an hour (I haven't modeled much before, just animated.) I thought of while taking a shower last night. What if the engineer could build sentries on WALLS and CEILINGS? I thought about how it would work for a long time, and this is what I thought up:

* About the size of the ammo-thing on a lvl-1 sentry
* Engineer holds it in his hand and throws it anywhere. It sticks to any(?) surface
* Doesn't scan the area, lies dormant until it sees an enemy, then lights up (there's no lights on the model yet. don't know where to put them) and shoots

+ no build time, you just throw it and it activates
+ Engineer can build 4 of them at 50 metal each
+ good surprise to unsuspecting enemies
+ can be repaired (if you can reach it)

- does roughly 33% damage of lvl 1 sentry
- cannot shoot straight down, straight to the side, or straight up.
- very small amount of health (quarter of lvl 1 sentry?)

any other ideas for it? I can't think of anything.

yeap.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Hmm, do normal sentries tell the engineer when they are firing? If not, if there were a way to make this one do that, it could make great surveilence items.

 

[Lizardizzle]

well if you have the hit sound on then in a way, yes

 

[Dekstar]

How would spies put sappers on them if they were too high?

 

[Lizardizzle]

uh... I guess they'll have to not be a spy then...

 

[MorganFreeman911]

If they have 33% health of a reg sentry, they just could be shot at by anyone, right?

 

[Lizardizzle]

what do you mean? Of course they can

 

[Wanted Bob]

See, I think these are more effective as monitoring hallways. Perhaps if a noise went off if an enemy goes near one.

 

[Lizardizzle]

oh yeah, it'd light up and beep

 

[morgs]

Cool idea.

 

[Naph]

It would be a nice addition. Especially if it highlighted enemies within a distance kind of like how L4D has for friendlies.

 

[Lizardizzle]

I'm so glad that you've all responded to this. It's way different in the steam forums.

over there this is all I've gotten:

Not bad. Nice work!

 

[MFL]

Interesting idea. For some reason, it reminds me of Ballmen. I miss Ballmen =(.

 

[Polaristo]

Cool story, bro!

 

[Lizardizzle]

Cool story, bro!

what story?

 

[Escaep]

Have you textured this yet? Looks pretty sweet

 

[Wanted Bob]

I'm so glad that you've all responded to this. It's way different in the steam forums.

We care more. Keep us updated.

 

[Lizardizzle]

how about some suggestions for what the texture should look like? I could make a texture sheet and send it to someone who knows how to make good textures. I'm not to good at them

but some ideas to make the model more "tf2-like" would be appreciated.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Perhaps pull inspiration from the TF2 'control room' areas - usually spawn rooms. Those old style computers, perhaps a metal strip around the edge with rivets in.

Alternatively since it is a sentry you could go down modelling it around the engineer style traditional sentry - using the level 1 sentry casing colour & style with some extra orange cables for aesthetics.

 

[manny786]

I made a (horrible) drawing of what it should look like. More of a siren light thingy.

 

[Druckles]

Annoyingly I tried to post something to this effect, but I lost it somewhere in the poor unsecured network I'm currently leeching off. I've attempted to reconstruct what I can.

It's incredibly round, which doesn't quite fit the TF2 style. The top being round is good, but the base makes it look like a blob. It also gives it a very polished and round feel, and more modern. The models in TF2, on the other hand, are clunky and detailed.

Your model is quite plain, and while it's a good idea, if you look at existing items in TF2, it's not simply that they have some cool textures but because the model has little details which make them interesting. Take the Razorback as a prime example, which has a small box on and some wires, which sort of imply its functioning. Likewise, the pointy bit poking through the gun is good.

The current sentries are all incredibly thought out. If you read the manual, it shows the progression between them, and how they're modelled makes it feel like they've actually been designed and created from blueprints. You may want to think about how your sentry actually functions, design something like that and then build the shell around it, rather than building a shell over something you haven't thought about. Be imaginative when it comes to thinking how it works.

The best way to illustrate what I mean is to raise the gun slightly, showing off a bit of the interior and how the top part rotates around the bottom, rather than disguising that from the viewer.

 

[Higlac]

Mount the gun on the center gear using some sort of swivel thing.

 

[Schall]

You could stack 4 of them right by each other and it would be pretty lethal(and if properly placed, they would be hard to shoot down).

I really like your idea.

 

[zombiemeowww]

i like it. go for it man.