The Final Freedom!

[Tame Fisher]

So yeah, I've decided to try and put together that sort-of-post-apocalyptic-FF mod I was talking about, and so far EzScript has proven to be amazingly easy to use (thank you, M25, and Benton for encouring my jobless pursuit of awesome). In about a couple hours I've managed to more or less finish a whole mission, cutscenes and all...just, y'know, without the cool FF variants I wanted. I think I'll try and make 'em, now.  

For reference, I'll keep a list of characters I plan to put together while I work on the scripting aspect of this.

Minutemen - Patriotic Supercommandos, maybe some kind of Soldier mesh variant...
Man O' War - Re-skinning to reflect scars of war, loss of his second eye, new keyframes (no more swimming).
Mister Liberty - A more adult, streamlined evolution of the Liberty Lad costume worn by a crazy geezer.
Sea Urchin - Probably the hardest to do. A grown up fish girl, like Namorita but 10000 times tougher-lookin'.
The Ant King - I want to do this like...I dunno, the standard Ant mesh, but huge, and with freakin' mandibles.
Blackjacks - Civilian gun and bat thugs modeling themselves after the old WWII hero.
Tombstone - Undead gunslinger showing some serious decay after thirty years of lying in the dirt.

More when I think of them...

My first attempt begins today, with the new El Diablo!

Spoiler

I've not perfected the pants, but the rest is coming together nicely so far. Using a Gryphon base skin.



Besides the phoenix and FF tatoos, I wanted to give him more of a soldier-ish feel, so he's got a couple bruises, a chest scar, and an ominous flame-like burn along his entire right arm. Also, the serial number thing seemed cool at the time (fifteen minutes ago?). Changing his eyes to a glowing yellow-orange, I think, reflects the character's change from a womanizing joker to focused, powerful leader figure in a world where all the heroes have faded away.

[President Raygun]

You might be able to use an Antman mesh for Ant King's mandibles, or if they just symbolic Tommyboys new Blue Beetle mesh has pincers, but those are placed on the back.

[Gremlin]

Don't know if I can help much, but I am SO STOKED to hear you're doing this! Can't wait!

[daglob]

Regarding Tombstone, you might put him on Texas Jack's Gunwich mesh insted of his own.

[livewyre1014]

I love this idea!  I have always been a fan of Elseworld or What if... stories that deal with apocolyptic futures, they are my favorite stories.  I would suggest considering trying to come up with some second generations, perhaps the offspring of two of the heroes or even a child of one of the villains?  Keep us up to date on this, and if there's anything I can do to help out with skinning some of the characters, let me know!  I would love to be apart of this project!

[Cyber Burn]

Great Idea here, Tame. I'm digging the ideas of the Minutemen and the Blackjacks.

[Tame Fisher]

Thanks, guys. I've considered using the Gunwitch mesh, but I'm going to try skinning a version on the original, first. As for Ant King, I'm looking at some of tommyboy's Ant Man variations for inspiration. And livewyre, I'd be more than happy to accept help in anything as far as this thing goes, especially someone like yourself with actual skinning ability. I'm not exactly a genius at it (or nifskope, either-- been trying to put Ren's Firebrand mesh bandana-tie thing on a vxmale for like four hours now...).

The second generation thing's a bit tougher to think of good ones at the moment, as I haven't really figured out where everyone is/whether they're alive or not. Right now I'm trying to piece together a Manbot concept, though, so maybe that'll go somewhere if I can figure Alchemiss out.

Manbot - After the fallout destroyed his world, Ted Taylor sealed himself away in a massive steel prison to contain his energies and keep the mutants at bay. Eschewing most of his armor, he works tirelessly to once again access the Celestial Clock and free the Alchemiss to help him save what is left of the world.

Here's a...well, I guess you could call it concept art, but not really:

Spoiler

Since I would probably take like a year to hand-draw anything resembling what I initially thought up, I decided to instead piece together bits from various meshes in Paint to use as reference for my future character designs. This one's just Bruce Banner from Renegade's Professor Hulk with Manbot's helmet and gauntlets. My idea for Ted was either A. The above 'naked' hero with helm and gloves, rationalized as his inability to control power emissions from those areas just yet, or B. 'naked', maskless Ted with a cracked and rusted chest plate, beard and all a la Iron Man from Marvel's old Earth X miniseries. The second idea's armor doesn't really serve a purpose; it's just the last thing he has left of his old life, and you know, that old chestnut.

Tombstone - Seemingly unable to die, Tombstone has defended the graves of the fallen heroes outside of Patriot City since the cataclysmic war that doomed them all. Decaying but never weakened, he terrorizes any who dare approach his makeshift memorials to the Freedom Forcers who gave their lives to save the world.

[Gremlin]

Why should Man-Bot even have the suit still on? I can see him getting so freakishly powerful he just becomes this flying purple energy being.

Spoiler

...with his connection to the Celestial Clock...
...once he gets powerful enough he can go back in time...
...and BECOME ENERGY X.

Is this awesome? Y/N

[livewyre1014]

Great Tame!  I would love to take a stab at an aging, more detatched Mentor and possibly some new take of Law and Order!!!

[Gremlin]

Great Tame!  I would love to take a stab at an aging, more detatched Mentor and possibly some new take of Law and Order!!!

OOH. Forgive me for my muse here, but what about something like Captain Marvel/Billy Batson from The Dark Knight Strikes Back? One of them died/got injured horribly/went crazy/evil/whatever and now only one can come through.

Mentor as an alien would be cool. Somebody did a skin of that somewhere.

You have a plot for Microwave at this point? I'd like to see him either a) turning into a central AI program for the resistance's mainframe or b) adapting himself into an almost completely human android. Maybe he was somehow behind the rest of the world being nuked? Say, Nuclear Winter got some evil Microwave clones or something?

[Tame Fisher]

I've been wanting a stranger, more alien Mentor, now that you mention it-- remember the cutscene where he's got that huge Dominion head and everything? Maybe as the years piled on, he stopped worrying so much about fitting in with the humans.

As for the Man-Bot armor stuff, it'd be mostly just to keep some piece of his character aesthetic intact, although...

Spoiler

...the Energy X thing was something I had completely forgot, and seems like an INCREDIBLY awesome way to have this go full-circle. I think it'd be cool to have something like Silhouette in C4's Reformed mod for him: like a helmet and arms surrounded by a moving Energy X cloud, serving as an in-between state where Ted remains partially tied to his humanity before ultimately accepting his fate as the time-paradoxed catalyst of the entire saga by transforming into the purple dude at the end of  !

EDIT: Missed your second post, Gremlin. The Billy Batson thing would be awesome. Also, my first scripted mission for the mod actually involves El Diablo trying to steal and reactivate Microwave, who's been placed in storage since Liberty's takeoever. He's basically been reverse-engineered to develop much of the tech Patriot City thrives on.

[livewyre1014]

I like the idea of the Law/Order Captain Marvel/Billy Batson parallel.  I think I can do something with that.  Also, Tame, I know that you have your adult Liberty Lad and your MinuteMen malitia...but if you don't mind, I would like to try something for an aged MinuteMan.  I think Frank was such an important character in series I would hate to see him gone.  So, I'll try and have my Mentor and MinuteMan designs...and backstories to email for you within the week. 

[Tame Fisher]

That's awesome. Whatever you want to do is fine by me. Reimagining the FF wouldn't be complete without the old man, anywho!

[docdelorean88]

Will they at some point become a group agian? Uniforms? I do and don't like Diablo's design. I think it is a great prisoner/military/fugitive design. I suppose it is just because i am soo use to the costumed version. I think the energy x manbot idea may have more potential for designs for you. I am not sure how you could go about it though. hmm. What if you did kinda like in  how he was in both the celestial clock and in patriot city at once. What if you could incorperate that into the design. You know, like the energy x is overcoming his armor so it is like the spidey simbiote  partially covering peter parker.

Kinda like this

Spoiler

or more specifically this

just instead from the outside in the inside out.(and not all stringy like the movie one, more of a liquid/wave/ameba effect shown in the center panel (where the suit hits his neck and face) in the comic pic.) This would show that he is bound at his core to the clock and its duties, though he has finally mastered its abilities well enought to be in both places at once. Even though he would be physically and mentally in pat city, a part of him is bound supernaturally to his duties. Is this making any sense? Great thoughts all around though! Thanks for starting this up, what a great idea!

[Gremlin]

I've been wanting a stranger, more alien Mentor, now that you mention it-- remember the cutscene where he's got that huge Dominion head and everything? Maybe as the years piled on, he stopped worrying so much about fitting in with the humans.

As for the Man-Bot armor stuff, it'd be mostly just to keep some piece of his character aesthetic intact, although...

Spoiler

...the Energy X thing was something I had completely forgot, and seems like an INCREDIBLY awesome way to have this go full-circle. I think it'd be cool to have something like Silhouette in C4's Reformed mod for him: like a helmet and arms surrounded by a moving Energy X cloud, serving as an in-between state where Ted remains partially tied to his humanity before ultimately accepting his fate as the time-paradoxed catalyst of the entire saga by transforming into the purple dude at the end of  !

EDIT: Missed your second post, Gremlin. The Billy Batson thing would be awesome. Also, my first scripted mission for the mod actually involves El Diablo trying to steal and reactivate Microwave, who's been placed in storage since Liberty's takeoever. He's basically been reverse-engineered to develop much of the tech Patriot City thrives on.

Mentor: Did he stop caring because of apathy? Loss of power? Loss of hope?

Man-Bot:

Spoiler

I don't think retaining the aesthetic is too important. If he's powerful enough to be mostly Energy X, he wouldn't worry about the suit at all. Unless it had sentimental value, which might be cool. One thing you could do is make him a free-form energy being that goes into the suit when he has to leave his personal bomb shelter. Then you could do something where every seam and orifice of the suit has glowing purple energy X bursting to explode.

Microwave:

Spoiler

Can you say HACK THAT STUFF? I can totally see Microwave using the remnants of his AI to control the city defenses at one point later on. Also, how did the nuclear apocolypse occur? Did the Microwave robots have anything to do with it? Nuclear Winter?

Minuteman:

Spoiler

Oooh, how about Nick is keeping him in cryo-stasis (got the tech from Nuclear Winter of course!), so he doesn't lead Patriot City in a revolt? He knows Minuteman wouldn't stand for tyranny in his fair country. But he can't KILL him. He's his idol. Maybe he's pretending he's dead as a taunt to all the heroes? The Patriot City citizens think Minuteman is a saint and a hero and he's paraded around like the corpse of Lenin. Ironic, considering his hatred of communism. But there's a RUMOR that he's still alive! And it turns out he's fine. We wouldn't even necessarily need a new skin.

[livewyre1014]

My idea for Mentor would be that he really had no more desire to help, or even emulate humans after witnessing the horrors they could cause(i.e. nuclear apocolypse), and without the moral heart of the Freedom Force(MinuteMan) the team could no longer exist as it once had.  I spent a few hours last night designing my interprettation of an aged Minuteman, a sort of Kingdom Come Superman concept. 

[daglob]

My idea for Mentor would be that he really had no more desire to help, or even emulate humans after witnessing the horrors they could cause(i.e. nuclear apocolypse), and without the moral heart of the Freedom Force(MinuteMan) the team could no longer exist as it once had.  I spent a few hours last night designing my interprettation of an aged Minuteman, a sort of Kingdom Come Superman concept. 

... we're waiting.

[livewyre1014]

My idea for Mentor would be that he really had no more desire to help, or even emulate humans after witnessing the horrors they could cause(i.e. nuclear apocolypse), and without the moral heart of the Freedom Force(MinuteMan) the team could no longer exist as it once had.  I spent a few hours last night designing my interprettation of an aged Minuteman, a sort of Kingdom Come Superman concept. 

... we're waiting.

TOO MUCH PRESSURE!!!  haha, no, as soon as I get home from my real job I'll post what I have.  Didn't mean to keep you in suspense.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Great Tame!  I would love to take a stab at an aging, more detatched Mentor and possibly some new take of Law and Order!!!

OOH. Forgive me for my muse here, but what about something like Captain Marvel/Billy Batson from The Dark Knight Strikes Back? One of them died/got injured horribly/went crazy/evil/whatever and now only one can come through.

Mentor as an alien would be cool. Somebody did a skin of that somewhere.

I did one (he is/was for a mod idea I have)...

[UnkoMan]

Hey, cool stuff going on around here.

Hey, for that ant king... I think Texas Jack or somebody did a human body with ant head and butt mesh. I've got it somewhere. That might be cool...

I will look forward to seeing where this goes. I love making things in the FF universe.

[livewyre1014]

First of all, cmdrkoenig67 I like that alien Mentor skin...mine is a much different interpretation, but your's is amazing!

Secondly, I was going to post my MinuteMan skin, as well as a first draft of my Law/Order skin, but I am currently experiencing some minor computer problems, so the posting of the images will be put off until...well, until I fix my computer issues.  Sorry guys, I promise I'm trying.

[Scorpion13mk2]

Iron Age Freedom Force?

I likes it!

[Tame Fisher]

I'm gonna be out of commission for a day or two, but I just converted Tombstone's DDS files to something I can actually reference while I mess with Gunwitch...I'll be back with that.

EDIT: I decided to start work on it before leaving for my family reunion, so here are some pictures:

Spoiler

I imagine this is basically just a tattered version of a second, not-yet-seen costume Tombstone changes to some time after the events of the games. When I'm done, it should retain some elements (skull on belt, crossbones, etc), but reflect a more utilitarian hero.

The poncho-like thing on Gunwitch worked perfectly for that, as I can see Tombstone ditching the long, torn-up cape after tripping over it a couple times, and likewise replacing the tights and cowboy boots with something more sensible and low-maintenance.



Here's a close-up shot of the face. I started with elements of the original Gunwitch skin, but it really didn't serve my purpose as it looked more like an evil ghoul than just a neutral, rotting-face human. So, essentially, I created a new face in like ten layers: one drawing a crude, normal human face with lips and stuff, and the rest just piling on smudges and streaks of reds and yellows until I got a somewhat natural-looking skintone. Layering some blues in gave me this cool veiny effect in some areas, but I'm not sure if it's that noticeable. Let me know what you guys think.

[docdelorean88]

good start. I think tombstone should retain some theatricallity if only to scare the living crap out of people, but it is looking good.

[Torch]

Great idea    I like the What If / What Happened storyline.

One hint I can give on EZScript dialogue creation:  Don't use colons.  It doesn't seem to like them!

For example:

Hero1 says, "I've taken a look at the book, and it reads as follows:  Abandon all hope ye who enter here!"

The colon in the above line will give you problems.  I ended up changing lines like that to:



Hero1 says, "I've taken a look at the book, and it reads as follows - 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here!'"

The dash doesn't give an error

[Tame Fisher]

I'm having some trouble cleaning up Tombstone-- the Mentor skin map is just a little confusing to figure out. Anywho, to answer an older question, I do plan on bringing some of the team back together again, and am working on designing an actual costume for El Diablo and the rest. Going back to The Ant, though, I remember reading someone's post about a Texas Jack ant-person mesh...anyone know where I can find that? 

EDIT: In the spirit of the base games, I've decided to work on 'bonus' characters that, while not directly tied to my planned story, are related to the team in some way. First on the list? A futuristic, blaster-whipping Blackjack to lead the revolution!

[herodad1]

what if mentor was old/unable to walk but his mental powers had increased.put a skin on the professor x mesh when he's in the big floatng chair.it has mental kf's.manbot being an energy being without the armor is a cool idea.maybe iron ox could be all metal or a cyborg like teen titans cyborg.

[docdelorean88]

I'm having some trouble cleaning up Tombstone-- the Mentor skin map is just a little confusing to figure out. Anywho, to answer an older question, I do plan on bringing some of the team back together again, and am working on designing an actual costume for El Diablo and the rest. Going back to The Ant, though, I remember reading someone's post about a Texas Jack ant-person mesh...anyone know where I can find that? 

EDIT: In the spirit of the base games, I've decided to work on 'bonus' characters that, while not directly tied to my planned story, are related to the team in some way. First on the list? A futuristic, blaster-whipping Blackjack to lead the revolution!

OOOH! Me likey the Black Jack Idea! I am liking tombstone by the way, it is just a different look is all. Great work now and to come i am sure!

[Tame Fisher]

He's coming along okay, I think.

[Tame Fisher]

Okay, so I've been away from here for a while. Truth be told I pretty much just took a break from the world and wandered Oregon quoting Emerson while chopping wood. Or something. Anyway, while all my previous work for this idea is locked away in an old PC somewhere, I have been working on something: