Our environment artists have been cranking out both map specific and generic props. We wanted to post some images of these assets, and discuss a bit of the process involved. What's shown here is only a handful of what's been done for the game so far.
The environment props have several categories. There's large landmark props, which are specific to one map, and usually one room or part of the map. Then there are generic props which are specific to an art set, but can be used in multiple areas on multiple maps within that art set ( I.e. Refinery art set, Biodome art set, etc.).
Finally there are the props which are generic enough to be able to be used on any map and in any art set. For example, pipes, railings, lights, crates, etc.
With a few exceptions, the majority of props are based off of some form of concept art. Ideally a detailed color painting, like the crate image concept above, is provided to the environment artist. However, due to time constraints, detailed black and white sketches are often created instead, and sometimes less detailed and messier sketches, such as the ones below, created for a set of generic Refinery wall machine props.
Having environment artists who have the ability to adapt to the art style, can accurately interpret details shown in a rough sketch, and are able and willing to come up with their own appropriate details to fill in any blanks, can save an immense amount of time for the concept artist. As you can see from the above generic wall props, the environment artist really managed to bring the simple sketches to life, staying true to the shapes, look, and feel, while at the same time adding a tremendous amount of extra detail for visual interest and to help give the models a sense of scale.
Sometimes the props are pulled from a more finished color painting of an entire room or area, like these robotic arms for the tram repair room in one of the refinery maps.
The tram itself was modeled from a quick sketch that Frankensteined elements from several earlier tram/ rail cars concepts into a new version that would fit in better with the look of the map.
Sometimes props are created from a combination of concept art as well as photo references of real world objects. In the case of these modular refinery buildings which can be seen outside the windows on one of the maps, the art director provided a large amount of photo references of existing factories, refineries, and oil rig platforms, along with some concept images, and described the look he wanted to achieve
The environment artists are often asked to interpret and create a detailed model out of a few messy brushstrokes. In this example you can see the process of creating a wall mounted machine/computer prop that is just one part of a large room in one of the refinery maps.
The environment artist interpreted the low detail image and created a high poly model. The art director provided feedback by doing a quick paintover on top of a screengrab, then, after the changes had been made, a low poly version of the prop was created. The normal map and ambient occlusion map were baked out from the high poly and mapped to the low poly, and the diffuse, spec, and illumination maps were created, resulting in the final in game prop.
The process is not perfect by any means, and for a larger company with teams of concept artists, it's often preferable to generate detailed color concepts, with orthographic views, for most props, before they go on to the modeling/texturing stage. However, with the talented environment artists we have on our team, and proper feedback and communication with the art director/concept artist, we feel that we've been able to achieve high quality results that will add a lot of detail and life to maps in Natural Selection 2.
We hope you enjoyed this overview on environment prop creation.
Being a small team with limited resources, and because we are essentially minimalists, we are always thinking of ways we can get more out of less. We try to reduce the amount of artwork we need to create, reduce the code we need to write, etc. With this in mind, here's some background on the roles of the knife and pistol in Natural Selection 1.
The knife in NS1 wasn't originally part of the game. I realized early in playtests why most or all FPS games have a melee weapon that you spawn with - when you run out of ammo you need to have a CHANCE to defeat other players. This was magnified in NS1 where you could be out in the field and reliant on another player (the Commander) to give you ammo. So we knew we need a melee weapon in NS2. However, the fact is that players often spend a significant amount of time using their knives on high health alien structures. That is, they stare at a big stationary object and hold down their left mouse button. And wait. There must be a way to lessen the monotony of this.
And what about a pistol? When we were thinking about how to improve the pistol in NS2, we realized that the pistol in NS1 had only one really good use - a backup ranged weapon that could be used when your primary weapon couldn't be used (ie, it needed to be reloaded or needed ammo from an armory or Commander). The long-range accuracy of the pistol along with it's high damage and essentially infinite rate of fire (which was added to give it more skill, but was commonly scripted) made it sort of an uber-weapon. We knew we didn't want it to function this way in NS2 but the question was, what to do with it?
So this is what we desired in NS2:
- A melee weapon that you can always use
- A secondary ranged weapon that isn't better than your default weapon
- A way for players to destroy structures without monotony
- To minimize the work we have to do
With these goals in mind, we started thinking about a "hybrid" weapon that solved all these problems. This is what we came up with:
You can see from the notes in the concept largely how it functions, but let me describe it in a bit more detail. The primary fire ability fires transponders into ranged targets. This is our basic pistol functionality and will let you try to stop a fleeing Lerk or nail an assaulting Skulk before your screen fades to black. The alt-fire ability functions as a basic melee attack, not unlike the knife.
The transponders both do damage when they hit and also stick in for awhile (either for a certain amount of time or perhaps fall off relatively quickly from moving targets and stay for a long time in stationary ones). By charging the primary attack, you can send electricity through the transponders, doing damage to one or more targets in range. This would start as a harmless light electric shock, but over time would grow to massive damage. This makes it ideal for taking down structures (high hit points, stationary). Because it can work through multiple targets too, it means you might be able to take down a few structures without too much effort or time. It would take long enough for the alien team to respond but not so long as to be tedious.
Besides achieving our design goals, we think there are going to be a lot of other cool things players do with this weapon. Chaining of electricity, holding the alt-fire to form a "shield" that does damage if an alien runs into it, possibly even electrifying marine structures. It also means one less weapon to concept, model, texture, rig and animate!
Thoughts?
Hey everyone!
Last week IGN released the first of our 5 alien "reveals". Each one showcases an alien in NS2, including the new concept art, final in-game model and texture, some animations as well as a description of the creature's abilities in game. Here we've written the Onos up in a bit more detail here for you guys.
This was originally written up for a different web-site. I've adapted it somewhat but please forgive the slightly formal tone. We know you guys know some of this stuff already, but we wanted to include all of it for new people that might be reading.
Visual and gameplay evolution from Natural Selection 1
It's been a long time since the original Natural Selection and we wanted both sides to feel like they've really evolved. All of these changes improve gameplay, make the visual look of the aliens more consistent, or both. In NS2, both the marines and aliens have changed and they've both taken some visual cues from each other! This highlights one of the underlying themes in Natural Selection – on the surface both sides seem diametrically opposed, but one thing they do have in common is that they are not good and evil, they are both just species trying to survive. We wanted to hint at these commonalities through the visual design.
The marines have always had subtle animal/alien influences including the curvature of their armor, the exposed “spine” on their backs and nature-inspired shapes in their equipment. With the evolution to Natural Selection 2, traditionally human elements pervade the alien designs; hardened armor plating now guards the alien creatures and structures, replacing flowing lines with harder angles. You can also see from the plated armor on his front legs and chest to the almost mechanical, extending blades on his head. The edges and tips of them are square and look almost machined. But with his tentacles and gorilla-styling, he is still indisputably of alien and animal origin.
Another aspect of the alien visual design is the infestation - that lacy greenish goo you know and love. The infestation is actually a bacteria that has taken control of various animal species on other planets and has warped their bodies and controls them as a parasite might, and the tentacles you see on the Onos emanate from this bacteria and are another unifying visual element for all the alien player classes. As you probably know, this infestation spreads dynamically through the level as the game progresses.
The role of the Onos
There is a lot of difficulty incorporating a player class of this size, but we knew we wanted the Onos to return in NS2 and to be better than ever. In NS1 he lacked “purity of purpose”. His abilities changed a lot with different versions and he a gore attack, a charge movement ability, devour (the ability to take another player out of the game for 10-20 seconds while he was ingested, or rescued) and even a paralyze ability in earlier versions. His abilities were all over the place...no wonder he was hard to balance.
So we knew that we had to rethink his role. One of our gameplay goals with NS2 is to make sure no lifeforms, tech, weapons, etc. will make earlier ones obsolete. They should provide diversity and advantages but generally should not similar enough to earlier tech as to make them unused. Instead of being just a bigger, tougher version of a skulk with a bunch of varied abilities, his role is now the “disruptor”. The Onos is designed to shake things up and stymie the marines and force them to react. All of his abilities were designed this in mind.
Onos abilities
Here are the current disruptor-based abilities we've designed for the Onos in NS2.
Gore: This is a basic melee attack, in which he bucks his head and gores targets with his horn. Instead of just doing damage though, he can fling targets around. With an effective attack, he should be able to knock back a few marines at a time, disabling them for a few seconds while they get back on their feet. Gore will do plenty of damage, but in the hands of a skilled player, the knockback should be the most effective aspect of this ability. Gore can also be used to smash through doors that have been welded shut, as shown in our teaser video.
Bone shield: The shield ability makes the Onos' head blades extend out into a fan and the Onos crouches down, forming an impenetrable shield of armor that takes no damage from any attacks from the front. The head blades extend a bit behind his normal width to provide cover for other players or other targets. During this time the Onos moves slower and can still take normal damage from the side or back. We hope that use of this ability will allow aliens to break stalemates with entrenched marines surrounded by sentries and armories, as well as provide some needed defensive capabilities to the alien side.
Stomp: This ability lets the player stomp his legs on the ground and send out a shockwave in front of hit. Any structures that are hit by the shockwave are temporarily disabled – resource towers stop harvesting, sentries' aim goes haywire and Commanders inside command stations have their view dim black and shake, temporarily hindering his support of his troops. Marines hit with a shockwave will likely have their aim disrupted as well (although we hope good players will be able to counter-act this to some effect, like recoil).
We hope you enjoyed this overview of the alien visual and gameplay design in Natural Selection 2 and are looking forward to showing you the Skulk, Gorge, Lerk and Fade!