Magical Shadows..with NO source?

Originally Posted by Dr. Aeon

So, funny story with that helicopter. I was assigned as the everything designer for the neutral tutorial, which meant designing the zone, missions, layout, powers, etc. World design wise, I wanted to get a sense of danger in the area and that a lot of things were going on. The first thing I thought of was, wouldn't it be cool if there were helicopters and jets flying around?

I talked to one of our animators, and this was on a Friday when no producers were around (<_< >_>). He grabbed the helicopter geometry we already had and animated the blades to spin. I spent a while trying to figure out how to get the thing to patrol on a regular path. I used all the new techniques we had developed - patrol routes, unique behaviors, etc. But in the end, the helicopter patrol just wasn't smooth enough; it was jerky and would stop at each patrol point for 1/10th of a second, but that was long enough to bug me. I was banging my head against my desk trying to figure out HOW to get a smooth patrol path. Then, it hit me. Not the desk, but a realization.

The blimp in Atlas Park.

I did some archaeological digging and found out how that blimp worked, and discovered it was a simple but robust system. Soon enough, I had helicopters and jets flying around in the tutorial. And then, just to help add to the idea that things are going down, I added the helicopter into Atlas. To keep it consistent, I also added (I'm pretty sure) another one in Perez Park, since it's supposed to be flying over to Galaxy City.

It's a small thing, but it was something that I was really excited when I found out how it worked and that it could be used in a lot of different ways to help worlds feel more alive.