Battletech: Timelines looking for Coders and Animators

[Raingod]

Hello today i would like to announce that we are looks for a few coders, animators.

Here is what we are looking in a coder

- at least 6 months experience in Unreal Script, and enough ref material for those hard jobs
- kowledege of UnrealEd and how to import and test
- some kind of 3d program (max or maya) with ActorX or similar UT export tool
- some experience rigging and animating meshes
- and most important, know the limits of the UT engine (1024x1024 textures, ect...)

Here is what we are looknig in an animator

- At less 6 months experience animating with Maya or Max
- Examples of animations (Weapons, vehicles).

If you are interested you can email me at general_raingod@msn.com

 

[SolaceEternal]

1) ...honestly I think you're asking for a bit much to start off with. Might want to take what you can get, then start culling through to get the best of what is offered. In my opinion, of course.

2) Are you sure you're not gonna run into copyright infringement with this?

 

[BinarySystem]

2) Are you sure you're not gonna run into copyright infringement with this?

I somewhat doubt that they would even be able to defend the Battletech trademark in court, as there have already been commercial games released using their universe and they didn't say anything; (the Earthsiege series) if you don't reasonably defend a trademark then you lose the ability to do so in future cases. Of course, it's possible that Earthsiege got the okay, (seems unlikely as it's directly competing with the MechWarrior series) so what I just wrote might not apply. It is of course a good idea to ask regardless.

Now, secondly, I agree with SolaceEternal that you are asking a bit much, specifically expecting coders to deal with importing models and such.

Also, you've provided very little information about your project. If you want talented people to join your team they will at least need to know what they'd be getting into before it will even spark their interest. Specifically, what your project seeks to accomplish, what sort of gameplay you expect, features, how various things should work. (damage, customization, etc) These things may pique a coder or modellers interest if they see a feature they are interested in, and most importantly, it shows potential team members that you actually have a plan and have thought about this more than just the name.

There are already a couple of mech projects in the works, and the pool of capable coders and modellers is relatively few, so you would have to either join an existing project (probrably not as bad as it seems) or convince them to join yours. (Which will require either good reasons for them to do so, or a legendary reputation. )

Depending on the skills you have to contribute, showing that you have done some work on your own will also encourage others to join. For instance, if you're going to be coding, showing some stuff working with some placeholder art is very encouraging. If you're going to be modelling, showing some nice models in-game will also encourage people to join. If you can show either of the above that will by itself put your project above the majority of those that are proposed.

 

[Raingod]

Yea forgot to post a link to our webpage, http://www.battletechmodproductions.com/bf2750/

 

[Psyk]

Hello today i would like to announce that we are looks for a few coders, animators.

Here is what we are looking in a coder

- at least 6 months experience in Unreal Script, and enough ref material for those hard jobs
- kowledege of UnrealEd and how to import and test
- some kind of 3d program (max or maya) with ActorX or similar UT export tool
- some experience rigging and animating meshes
- and most important, know the limits of the UT engine (1024x1024 textures, ect...)

I don't think it's right to expect a coder to know all of that. Why does a coder need to know how to rig and animate? I don't see why that is relevant to coding. As for using max or maya to export, why can't modellers do that themselves? I'm sure it's not hard to do when the model is correctly prepared.

 

[[SAS]Solid Snake]

don't think it's right to expect a coder to know all of that.

There is very good reason for that. Being a 2D/3D/Coder/Mapper/Sound all at the same time helps you as a coder actually understand the ideaology about things. By knowing these details, it actually helped me a lot to get grips with what I could and can't do with the animation function sets, what I can and can't do with the bone function sets. Without knowing prior to what bones are and so forth, I would probably would have had to use the UT2004 normal models and wouldn't have had much to experiment with.

Why does a coder need to know how to rig and animate?

They don't really need to, but as I said above it helps with certain bits in the field of coding, especially when you attempting to create systems based heavily on animation.

As for using max or maya to export, why can't modellers do that themselves? I'm sure it's not hard to do when the model is correctly prepared.

Yes, but modellers often don't understand certain things about code relevancy, such as the fact that models cannot share animation packages, etc. These are things that a coder should note as well as the modeller.

All in all, I think what RainGod has asked here is more than reasonable. All of those things above aren't much, that is if you happen to have been using Unreal as long as some people have (I started Unrealscripting since Unreal I and other things much earlier). Simply put, what RainGod is really asking here is a lot off experience and wide broad ranged knowledge of bits and pieces and I think that is fine. However finding such a person who is actually free and isn't commited to a lot of other mods will be difficult.

 

[Raingod]

Hey that list of requierments comes from our head coder, I didn't create it. But yea we will take people who can just do coding, or importing and so on.

 

[Raingod]

Were still looking for anyone who can code, import models, get vehicles or weapons to work.

 

[Raingod]

Just wanted to say that were are still looking for anyone experince with codding, animating and rigging.