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Description

Some more ArtFight ref stuff that I made earlier in the year - currently trying to finish up a few private commission/gift pieces before the event begins so I'm uploading these in the meantime.

These guys are animal-based surveillance drones that Nexus 3 uses to get video/photographic data on elusive or dangerous creatures. The Nagogin Division has a handful of them (including the two colored at the bottom), and uses them to photograph the lizard bois without scaring them and/or endangering human researchers. More context below, per usual.

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I like these guys (and the main reason I made them) because they're a good showcase of how nagogin learn and respond to unnatural stimuli. The team originally used aerial drones to try and get close to the creatures, but jungle terrain proved difficult for drones to navigate. Even then, in the rare instance one became close enough to a nagogin to properly photograph it, the nagogin (understandably irritated by the noise and electrical signals) would be able to easily destroy the lone drone or flee deeper into the dense canopy.

Wheeled all-terrain vehicles proved more effective in transportation and damage resistance, but (a) had a hard time navigating large fallen trees and underbrush, and (b) were difficult to calibrate to track fast-moving arboreal nagogin. The noise of the large mechs would alert the nagogin to their presence long before one got close enough to collect data. Later studies revealed that the nagogin began to not only avoid the noise of the vehicles, but also the tracks they left, associating the unnatural indents in the earth with the potentially dangerous machines.

After these failures, the team began to develop its first animal-mimic mechs, hoping to minimize disturbances to the nagogin's habitat. Original legged mechs proved successful in navigating the jungles, but their large size (bottom heavy car-sized machines loosely based off of gators), intended to carry all necessary electronics while preventing nagogin (or other animals) from damaging them, proved costly and noisy. Furthermore, nagogin soon began to avoid the sequential round holes of their footprints, and reports of multiple nagogin beginning to avoid similarly-sized burrows of potential prey animals lead researchers to abandon the early mechs.

Modern surveillance mechs, nicknamed "data-dogs" as 'a researcher's best friend' are the current and most successful drones used by Nexus. Their small (comparatively quiet) size and flexible joints allow for easy maneuverability over obstacles, and their pack nature deters larger predators from attacking the small mechs and prevents total data loss if one is destroyed. The issue of nagogin tracking their footprints has temporarily been solved by replacing the DDog's "feet" with silicone molds of a native prey mammal's paws, leaving minimal and natural-looking footprints. While deployed, the DDogs are covered with plastic and rubber shielding to protect the drones, minimize electrical signals, and dampen sound.

Description

Some more ArtFight ref stuff that I made earlier in the year - currently trying to finish up a few private commission/gift pieces before the event begins so I'm uploading these in the meantime.

These guys are animal-based surveillance drones that Nexus 3 uses to get video/photographic data on elusive or dangerous creatures. The Nagogin Division has a handful of them (including the two colored at the bottom), and uses them to photograph the lizard bois without scaring them and/or endangering human researchers. More context below, per usual.

-------

I like these guys (and the main reason I made them) because they're a good showcase of how nagogin learn and respond to unnatural stimuli. The team originally used aerial drones to try and get close to the creatures, but jungle terrain proved difficult for drones to navigate. Even then, in the rare instance one became close enough to a nagogin to properly photograph it, the nagogin (understandably irritated by the noise and electrical signals) would be able to easily destroy the lone drone or flee deeper into the dense canopy.

Wheeled all-terrain vehicles proved more effective in transportation and damage resistance, but (a) had a hard time navigating large fallen trees and underbrush, and (b) were difficult to calibrate to track fast-moving arboreal nagogin. The noise of the large mechs would alert the nagogin to their presence long before one got close enough to collect data. Later studies revealed that the nagogin began to not only avoid the noise of the vehicles, but also the tracks they left, associating the unnatural indents in the earth with the potentially dangerous machines.

After these failures, the team began to develop its first animal-mimic mechs, hoping to minimize disturbances to the nagogin's habitat. Original legged mechs proved successful in navigating the jungles, but their large size (bottom heavy car-sized machines loosely based off of gators), intended to carry all necessary electronics while preventing nagogin (or other animals) from damaging them, proved costly and noisy. Furthermore, nagogin soon began to avoid the sequential round holes of their footprints, and reports of multiple nagogin beginning to avoid similarly-sized burrows of potential prey animals lead researchers to abandon the early mechs.

Modern surveillance mechs, nicknamed "data-dogs" as 'a researcher's best friend' are the current and most successful drones used by Nexus. Their small (comparatively quiet) size and flexible joints allow for easy maneuverability over obstacles, and their pack nature deters larger predators from attacking the small mechs and prevents total data loss if one is destroyed. The issue of nagogin tracking their footprints has temporarily been solved by replacing the DDog's "feet" with silicone molds of a native prey mammal's paws, leaving minimal and natural-looking footprints. While deployed, the DDogs are covered with plastic and rubber shielding to protect the drones, minimize electrical signals, and dampen sound.