The Combat Mini-Sentry Robot

So, after posting that last one I realized I never actually posted my dear friend the Combat Mini-Sentry Co-Op Robot to this blog! I love doing portmanteau art, combining similar or separate concepts into one design. I do it a lot with TF2, having done combos of Team Fortress and Portal several times, as well as Bioshock, Minecraft, Left 4 Dead, Orcs Must Die, and on one weird occasion, Shadow of the Colossus.

This guy here is a Portal co-op android, but also a combat mini-sentry. He was designed to solve complicated riddles, such as "What are the effects of bullets on human flesh" and "At what frequency do bullet-riddled humans beg for their lives." He is, and I quote, a "cute little gun".

Ugh, a New Robot

So I was thumbing through backlogged ideas of cool stuff that I could do, when I saw on my DeviantArt that The Combat Mini-Sentry Robot got a ping, and I decided to design another one, this time based on the dispenser. That may have been a mistake.

Well, you can see him there on the side, and of course all the problems that come with trying to find an iconic Engineer item that you can wrap robot limbs around and turn into a Portal robot become immediately apparent. Once the Sentry was gone, there isn't a single shape that fits the bill the same way. Maybe I'm too structured in my thinking, but the dispenser's boxy shape just doesn't work.

 Use the comments to tell me what you think. Make suggestions! This guy's design is bugging me, and not just because I was really lazy while throwing together his limbs. Is there a more iconic engineer shape you would recommend, or some other thing I should use?

Mann Versus Halloween Mode

It's interesting to think about, the addition of this new Horde mode, because I think everyone sees the blood-writing on the old-timey parlor wall. We're going to get a Halloween-themed MvM map, perhaps with zombies for mobs. Or, if my fantasies are achieved, zombie robots, commanded the Headless Horsemann himself.

I was going to suggest it, on this very blog, in my typical suggesting-things style. Until I realized there could be a problem: Valve has never produced an "original" Halloween map. Harvest, Mann Manor, and Eyeduct are all Halloweenie reskins of existing maps, with only Eyeduct being a reskin of a map that was already in-game.

Hopefully, with the dearth of MvM content, we'd get a shiney new map.

Sorry, I was looking at my little thing up there and realized I was complaining about something that hadn't happened yet, and that MvM Halloween Content is inevitable and was probably planned like a month before MvM launched.

So yeah, just kind of enjoy Count Demoskull up there.

Fighting Robots

Here's a picture of the Headless Horsemann drinking scrumpy.

And one of him flipping you off. I'm going camping, see you next week.

The Posse

The Posse
Level 10 Sentry Manufacturing Device
--Dispenses up to 3 simultaneous Disposable Sentries

Disposable Sentry
20 HP
35DPS (+ 20 per level)
Cannot be repaired, cannot be refilled

This sentry deploys disposable sentries. When it senses a foe, it fires a disposable sentry at it. The DS then activates and engages the foe until it runs out of ammo or is destroyed.

The Posse upgrades as normal; HP and sensing speed upgrade at the same rate. A deployed DS will stay put even if the Posse is moved or destroyed and vice versa, but a given Posse will only have three DSes out at a time. Sapping one DS will sap all related elements, and destroying a DS will deal 20 damage to the Posse itself.

The Arms Race

The Arms Race
Level Vodka Fists
On Miss: Hit Yourself, dummy
On Kill: Throw enemy ragdoll for heavy damage

A weapon that allows you to kill enemies, and then throw their bodies at their buddies. Yeah, this is a remake of the Heimlich Counter Maneuver, but I liked it so much I wanted to repost it.

The downside is kind of a rough issue. On the related SPUF post  people pointed out that hitting himself would allow for advanced mobility options, or "self-damage jumping". It immediately split, one person liking it, the other seeming to dislike it. Either way, I'm not wedded to that as a downside, so if it's not downsidey enough... who knows. If it's too tough on the Heavy, a simple cooldown on missed swings might be preferable.

And handling a technical issue: I know that ragdolls are handled client-side. On a kill, the "real" ragdoll would have to be hidden or destroyed immediately, while the heavy created a generic version of his victim's ragdoll in his hands to serve as the actual projectile weapon. Since it has immediate in-game consequences, it would be treated as a projectile, NOT a ragdoll, in order to prevent people's optimization settings from killing the rag-doll. Think of it as a sandman ball that happens to be victim-shaped.

For a model, I was thinking that rather than created a new set of gloves for the Heavy to wear, his melee animations would change. The idle animation, rather than a pugilistic boxing pose, would be the Heavy standing with his palms open flat and displayed, almost like his retreating animation. The swing would be an open-handed swat. On a kill, he'd lift the body over his head--from the player's perspective, he'd see the Heavy's elbows (maybe?) and the hand of his victim visible in the upper corner of the screen. From someone else's perspective, they'd see the swat animation coming down, followed by a brief recovery animation as the Heavy lifted up his victim.

Rejected Mercenaries

An idea I'm developing...a short video featuring four classes that tried out for the mercenary team but were ultimately rejected. I like the idea that the merc team we see aren't the only people in the world, that there are people with highly specialized skills that could have been on the team but aren't simply because the gameplay would be godawful or they couldn't fit into the culture of mental illness propagated by the team. Specifically, the idea is that RED and BLU actually hired a GI-Joesque universe of mercs with highly specialized skills, and this video would be a small sampling of who they are and why they're not in Team Fortress 2.

The Diver

A frogman-style diver in a skintight body suit, flippers, and monoglass scuba goggles, he speaks in a voice like Sean Connery pretending to be English.

Weapons: Speargun /Limpet Launcher /Diving Knife
Abilities: Can breathe underwater / Improved Swimming speed
Scene Baselines:
Runs out of spawn into Badwater's desert environment.
Ambushes a spy, but is subjected to a karate chop, larate kick, and eyeful of powerful chest hair
Eventually settles blithely in a knee deep puddle, sighs dejectedly

The Pilot 

A long-faced but smiling chap in aerial ace gear, like the fur-trimmed bomber's jacket, aviator's goggles, and mic. He speaks in a methodical, almost lyrical slow tones, like a commercial airline pilot or Bing Crosby. On his back is his main loadout, a rocket backpack. Different loadouts carry different packs, including a balloon, helicopter rotor, and jump jet.

Weapons
Shotgun
Airborne PDA
--Letter Bomb (creates area where enemies temporarily take minicrits)
-- Air Drop (drops a fast-deploying air sentry or weapons crate for allies)
--Paralanding (teleporter)
Microphone
Abilities: Hold jump to fly
Domination lines:
"You are now free to move about the coffin."
"And if you look out the window on the right, you will see the fiery gates of Hell."
Jokes for video:
takeoff through roof
Runs out of fuel, landing amongst an enemy camp

The Boxer

Weapons: None, obviously
Abilities: None of these, either.
Hand to hand fight with scout, as he's winning, scout pulls out his scattergun

The Bureaucrat

Weapons: n/a
Abilities:  n/a
Spends the entire video sitting quietly at a desk, scribbling. Various explosions rock his desk, disturb his papers, and tip over something onto his desk.