For the latter part of this week I've been working on one of the more significant art elements for Angels 22, the sprite for the boss who has the most integral role for the story, and sort of by definition for us, the Emotion 4E5 element.



Colonel Meyran:
Neo-Soviet Ace Pilot

This guy with be the most obvious antagonist in the story, and provides some of the most dramatic emotional material for the story. Let me provide a dramactionization of the mission in which he first appears(he's going to be the only real reoccuring enemy). It's actually pretty long, so here's the main piece for tonight:



It's the in game version of this airplane(which I did this summer):




The Mission

The mission starts as you take off from a captured Serbian airfield with your wingman, Lt. Carl. The sky begins as drearily overcast, becoming darker and more rainy as you progress. Your mission is to protect a group of transports(see previous entries) that are set to deliver food and vaccines to Belgrade, which had been largely destroyed by bombing and fighting within the city, with being predictably awful conditions for the civilian population. The aid is purposely entirely humanitarian, but you are sent along as a break for you fromheavy combat. Yeah, right...

your mission is to escort a gaggle of transports, two C-25s and three C-17s. You spend the beginning of the mission defending them from a couple of MiGs and a few scattered flak emplacements, nothing really to worry about. Before you reach the city, which is in a relative dead-zone, having been overrun and abandoned by the armies, there are a couple smaller drops on smaller towns that have had thier roads lines cut. You have the standard banter with the transport crews, all while the weather becomes worse, lightning periodically blinding you and thunder breaking the relative silence. Just then:

Transport 1: "Hey Captian, we're detecting something, it's hard to make out through the weather... [alarms sound] Evade! Evade! [transmission ends instatic]"
Transport 2: "The cockpit of Lead just exploded! Wait- what is it? Shoot Flares! Pull...[Transmission ends in static]"
Lt. Carl: I can't see anything! That cargo was for the...
You(the Captian): Transports! Hit the deck, mask yourselves with the terrain!
[Transport 3]: We'll try, the gusts are hard to deal with, over
You: It's that or a missile to the face; we'll find them, don't worry.
Lt. Carl: I'm detecting something [your HUD locks onto an enemy airplane]
You: I see it! It's fast as hell, get him on the next pass
Lt. Carl: That bastard, first chemograd's labs and now this...
You: Look, don't get caught up in this, keep your eyes out. One rash move and you're dead.
Lt. Carl: Why not? Then what's the point of fighting?
You: That's what you decide when the -Here he comes!
Lt. Carl: He's going after the transports!
[Transport 3 explodes after getting hit with a missile]
Transport 4: Oh my god -Were gonna hit it! Brace for imp-[cuts out]
[you can now see the MiG on your indicator]
You: Damnit! He's hanging around this time!
[MiG stay in area, circling around under regular, not scripted, AI]
[Over the Radio]: Haha... time to fight for real.
Lt. Carl: That pilot! I'll kill him for this...
You: Don't get emotional! We still have one left!
[Your screen flashes white, alarm sounds, screen fades back in with most of HUD visibly damaged complex controls disabled]
You: I got hit by lightning, I can't see- my weapons are down, too
Lt. Carl: It's up to me, then, I'll get him for this...
You: Calm down! We need to think our way through this
[Carl tries to fight Meyran, who easily shoots down the last transport]
Lt. Carl: No! AAARGH!!!
You: Get a hold of yourself, you can't take him alone- we need to get back to base!
Lt. Carl: I'll never retreat! He's a war criminal, he won't get away!
You: Carl, stop it! Emotions can get you killed in a battle, we need to get back, you can kill him later!
Lt. Carl: I'll kill him now, leave me alone!
[You watch as Carl and Meyran dogfight, Meyran winning]
Colonel Meyran: Gotcha
[Carl gets shot down in slow-motion]
You: Noooooo!!! CAARRLLLLL!!!
Colonel Meyran: See you in the stratoshphere, Captain. Ha Ha...
[Meyran's MiG flies away at top speed]
[screen fades, mission ends]



Ok, keep in mind I just wrote that, so it's a really rough draft. Critique it if you like.



Other stuff
On Friday I went to the Air Force base we have here to see the "Silver Anniversay" of the F-117A, which was fairly boring, except for the kick-ass flyover of 25 of 'em in formation. It looked like this, only airborne:Them on the ground


I also took the ACT yesterday, which I've taken before, but took again trying to get my score up. I got a 29 last time, which is respectable, but taking it again never hurts, plus I have different classes now, like Calculus, which means I'm all brushed up on math and stuff. The English portion seemed really easy, the reading was pretty good, but the math I ran out of time and had to go into random guess mode on the last five questions. The science went pretty good, and I was really glad I knew some basic astronomy, which we don't really get in school here.

I'm also participating in that new drawing workshop, and I put up my "I am this guy" post, and hopefully tomorrow I can start on the actual assignment

Yeah, that's it for me, I'm planning on a homework day tomorrow, so probably not much new for you guys. Comments welcome, as always.

Goodnight!