Welcome to another dev blog, this one is a little unique, focusing on research trips our team have completed in recent weeks that have proven more than fruitful. There are some secrets too for upcoming content… so make sure to look for clues! Before we get started on the gathered research, we have two announcements. [h2]Marauders Champion Tournament [/h2] Our Marauders Champion tournament will start in the next few hours. As stated in previous blogs, this player-kill competition is a limited-time event that will normally last for a week. These competitions will usually happen once a month but may occur twice a month. This one will run a little longer - around 2 weeks - and have additional prizes alongside the exclusive nomad blood mask, so make sure to get in the top 100 to earn it. [img]https://i.imgur.com/Etz4roE.png[/img] [h2]Merch Store Updates[/h2] The second announcement is that our merch store has been updated with two new items! We are extremely proud of our new Champion Space Nebula (tie-dye) ultra premium hoodie. The quality is unparalleled and will work wonders for the upcoming winter season. Our second item is an additional “F1” design, as requested the detail is on the front and displayed on another high-quality Champion product. We hope one of these newly created clothing pieces tickles your fancy. [b]Hoodie:[/b] https://marauders-shop.fourthwall.com/products/marauders-ultra-premium-hoodie [b]Long sleeve t-shirt:[/b] https://marauders-shop.fourthwall.com/products/marauders-premium-f1-long-sleeve-shirt [h2]Research[/h2] Now onto the field research. Our team has been exploring the U.K. in search of inspiration and references that can be used for Marauders. Since real-world engineering cannot be beaten for its badass aesthetic and brutal style, our research helps us design new environments, vehicles, and characters. It's no secret our spaceships look like armored tanks with booster engines, but this is mostly intentional! First up is our trip to the “D-Day Story” in Portsmouth, England. This has a strong history for the World War 2 Allies, as a large number of forces set sail from this location during Operation Overlord to begin taking back France. This Museum is filled with elements to commemorate that day. They have a fascinating range of equipment, everything from amphibious vehicles to secret documents, but it was great seeing such large landing craft up close, so we can appreciate the detail and effort that went into building them. [img]https://i.imgur.com/iCuw0BV.png[/img] It was also a pleasant surprise to see the Denison jacket and paratrooper helmet worn by the British forces. As some of you will notice, we took inspiration from these elements for our very own S.A.S operatives. [img]https://i.imgur.com/91eG888.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/IcENMjD.png[/img] Another recognisable item we found is the sea mine (which we retrofitted into a space-variant for Marauders). We noticed some interesting details that could definitely be applied to our version, such as strong central welding. The personnel landing craft behind it provided endless texture inspiration. [img]https://i.imgur.com/pqD2ov1.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/RjTwvO0.png[/img] They also had the military documents for “Operation Neptune” which contained top-secret orders for the D-Day Normandy landings. It is an amazing piece of history and a great opportunity to analyze these items so we can accurately create our own versions of intel. [img]https://i.imgur.com/3qWfwCX.png[/img] These are only a few highlights of what the museum contains so make sure to drop by if you are in the area! The following week we visited The Tank Museum in Bovington, England. This took us by surprise as the wealth of world war weaponry on display was tremendous. I'm sure the team will agree that this was probably the most impressive collection we have ever seen. We had our work set out for us with over 500 photos taken and 40 minutes of footage, it proved to be more than useful. You are welcomed by a tank that needs no introduction, the very same Sherman that took the cinema by storm in the movie “Fury.” [img]https://i.imgur.com/EcTQTiB.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/EcTQTiB.png[/img] The tank is covered in unique and interesting details, they clearly knew how to dress a vehicle to make it special, almost like a character on its own. It gave us a tonne of ideas that we can use to spice up our own vehicles with going forward. [img]https://i.imgur.com/MrSyIkQ.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/vchMleo.png[/img] Alongside the tank, they had great pieces of memorabilia of the tank crew from the film, and in real life. We were especially in love with the tanker helmet, a real iconic piece of gear that will definitely be coming to Marauders in some sort of fashion. You may recognise Brad Pitt’s jacket from the film since we took inspiration for our very own U.A. commander concept art in our previous dev blog. [img]https://i.imgur.com/zDS5e9X.png[/img] The Museum was filled with light tanks and reconnaissance vehicles, the more interesting ones were the Panzer 1, and the Guy and Daimler armored cars. All the bolts, paint and panels provide great ideas for our dieselpunk aesthetic [img]https://i.imgur.com/J5O3pQQ.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/AYBMhzI.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/9cougf7.png[/img] They have a wide range of world war nations. The Japanese WW2 tank crew equipment was especially useful for inspiration for a potential new faction coming to the game in the future. [img]https://i.imgur.com/29n1bRZ.png[/img] The range of Great War British “Mark” tanks on display was immense and filled with loads of variants, crew uniforms, and fully explorable interiors. A personal favorite was the world's first APC, the “Mark IX”. Once again the details and texture reference was invaluable. [img]https://i.imgur.com/6Q9dB7Q.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/MHrfraF.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/VK3CBsn.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/SFV7sls.png[/img] Even though this is just a slither of imagery gathered from our trip, we couldn't recommend it more. Research aside, it was an amazing experience and would rather not show too much so you can see it for yourself! We were fortunate enough to witness their “Tiger Day” event. Please excuse our rough edit but it works great as a tease of what they have to offer. You can watch our footage here: [previewyoutube=1m8cqcH7Q8A;full][/previewyoutube] So make sure to plan your next excursion to The Tank Museum in Bovington. You won’t regret it! We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into early research and development. We may do some more blogs like this in the future. For now, we are heads down building Guilds for our next update, so stay tuned for our progress coming soon. Dash or Die Marauders