We could make a doghouse ;) Interesting concept!

It would alter the "surprise" factor of how we've built this model (where it morphs from a fake sentry gun form to a dog) but it would be an interesting variation to consider.

It would be a bold idea to be sure. I like it, but you may need to brainstorm the abilities a bit more. On a normal day, if I ever see an enemy sentry and I have the luck of being able to see it from outside of its range using a class like the soldier, I will just blow it up from outside of its range. If I'm forced into a bottleneck and have charge to blast through, I will do the same.

The reason I bring this up is, because the attack-deploy-transformation time would need to be very fast in order to be useful. Especially given they do not shoot like true sentries, because if a sentry doesn't shoot, then any enemy will get close enough for a clear shot and then be on their way, but I doubt most would tempt fate to run right up to it.

Now, on the other hand, the anti-spy concept sounds really good. This would be of more benefit to groups with multiple sentries and buildings closer together so that while 1 sentry actually fires, the other could "fake" fire and be waiting for a Spy.
Depending on how you program it for the game, it can either be bound to a specific range to where, it goes back to one spot once someone runs out of range. OR you program it to where it deploys and follows the Engineer wherever he goes making him the true "Anti-Spy" engineer.

One last idea: howling - how about the ability for one of the "dogs" to howl to scare or stun nearby troops for a second or 2? Maybe it does that when it first deploys when an enemy comes in range then it jumps them.

Originally posted by Fierce1:

It would be a bold idea to be sure....

Now, on the other hand, the anti-spy concept sounds really good. This would be of more benefit to groups with multiple sentries and buildings closer together so that while 1 sentry actually fires, the other could "fake" fire and be waiting for a Spy.
Depending on how you program it for the game, it can either be bound to a specific range to where, it goes back to one spot once someone runs out of range. OR you program it to where it deploys and follows the Engineer wherever he goes making him the true "Anti-Spy" engineer.

One last idea: howling - how about the ability for one of the "dogs" to howl to scare or stun nearby troops for a second or 2? Maybe it does that when it first deploys when an enemy comes in range then it jumps them.

Good idea on the howling - we'd thought about a charge stun or something along those lines - there are a lot of cool abilities that could be added if accepted.

Agreed on your points about how the sentry needs to morph fast - our animation cycle is reallly slowed down to show the details of the work we put in.

The spy interaction to us is the main interesting shift in strategy that this could add, as well as a lot of skirmishes between teams with multiple engineers and invading groups.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas!

-MCS

Cool, I'm glad I could help. I really do hope the DoW gets added.

Ah that makes sense, so if you clocked the actual time, how long does it actually take at this point?
(By the way, I wanted to tell you, you may need to adjust the run cycle for the bulkier DoW, it seemed a little jerky in the demo video.)

Indeed, it'd be cool to see a bunch of engineers charging forward with DoW's stampeding toward the enemy or swarming spies.

No problem, you're welcome!

Originally posted by Fierce1:

Cool, I'm glad I could help. I really do hope the DoW gets added.

Ah that makes sense, so if you clocked the actual time, how long does it actually take at this point?

We put in a lot of work on this because we did a lot of conceptualizing and iteration before we even hit the 3d tools (not to mention documentation). I'd say all in all we've got about 300 or so clock hours on this project. It was made a lot more complex by the desire to make it look like a sentry gun, then morph into a dog - but I also think thats one of the things that gives it a tactic as well as a "gee whiz" type of effect.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Originally posted by Thing 1:

We put in a lot of work on this because we did a lot of conceptualizing and iteration before we even hit the 3d tools (not to mention documentation). I'd say all in all we've got about 300 or so clock hours on this project.

Awesome, that sounds about right, given the status at this point. I myself am an animator (I use Maya mostly for 3D), so I know much about the modeling and animating process for these characters and such. (Though I don't have much experience with programming game elements.)

Also, just to clear things up, when I asked about the timing you'd clock it at, I was actually asking how long the transformation/deploy sequence of the DoW actually takes, since you had said that it was slowed down for the demo? (That said, I truly admire the time and effort you've put toward this.)

Random Idea --- DoW jarate - One of the DoWs has the ability to... "jarate on" people. Yeah it's kinda stupid and crude, but hey TF2 practically runs on that. lol (Or perhaps that's what happens when it dies if it don't just blow up. --- I'm thinking the smaller of the 2.)