Unvanquished Forum

The leech is the alien's mining structure. Like a mushroom extracts nutrients from the ground, this similiarly shaped creature sucks some invisible resource right out of the air (it competes with the human mining structure). It can be built on walls and ceiling in addition to the floor and thus needs to roughly fit into a cube for technical reasons.

Original concept by Khaoz (note that the proportions aren't ideal as the bounding box doesn't describe a cube):

Previous model attempty by kuntiss:

SPOILER

If you chose to look at kuntiss' version, you can use similiar proportions if you like (note how the bounding box describes a cube). Apart from that feel free to create your own interpretation of an alien fungus sucking valuable nutrients out of the air. It doesn't need to look like a real mushroom at all.

Animations should include idling, pain and death and they should look fitting regardless of the orientation in which the structure is built. You can animate yourself or have us assign this to a specialist.

I'll concept some ideas in Zbrush. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a underwater sponge with tubes sticking out to filter nutrients.

Awesome! The requirements should be the same as the egg.

Pinging for updates.

I sculpted a concept of a potential leech. It is akin to a sea sponge with multiple tentacles for basic swaying when i can get the base mesh to the animators. At first I wanted to create something that would crawl to different destinations, but decided to keep it anchored and possible release spores to grow in different spots. The other reason for keeping it anchored was for it to ship the nutrients through underground roots of sorts to the main alien chambers (trying to give some practical lore).

Leech sculpted concept.

I like that more sea sponge look you came up with than the original fungus design we had. Definitely looks distinct, and could probably go pretty well with a variety of color schemes. Let's see what Viech says about this, he should reply by the morning. He lives in Germany, so he's asleep now.

Good idea and solid model! Can you reduce the height a bit, so that it fits into a cubic bounding box? Do you have any more details planned? I think the stand/attachment could profit from ridges or the like that explain how the structure can grow on and stick to metal surfaces.

I'll think more about how the body attaches itself, especially if you place it upside down from a ceiling or sideways on a wall or something. I was thinking something along the line of noticeable hooks around the bottom base and micro suction cups/drills underneath to support the hooks (although i guess the players won't really see it, but it could be part of the lore as to the leeches functionality). I'll play around with it some more so it isn't rectangular as much, but I just wanted to get across the overall concept. More updates to come once I get to it.

I reduced the overall size of the leech to be more square-like, added roots/veins to anchor to the ground/walls and chose a different material so it captures some of the reflective lighting that I wanted as ambient light bounced off the particular angles. If it looks good in the sculpting department I can start planning out the bash mesh/uvs/textures.

Leech side view.

leech corner view and how it looks like hanging from a ceiling/wall.