Disassembly Drone Design Guide
Hey y'all, here's the first OC design guide! It will go in order of importance and list requirements for an OC of this type. Where needed, I'll be using my own OC, Delta, as an example.
Now without further delay, let's get into it!
We'll start with the requirements of a Disassembly Drone. Your OC MUST have the following, as required by the species:
*The five lights on their head - These are their actual eyes and are required for sight.
*Yellow lighting features (Actual eyes, visor display, nanites etc) - Canonically, Disassembly Drones can only have yellow lighting features, whereas Worker Drones will have any colour except yellow. Additionally, their stripes are also yellow.
*Tail - All Disassembly Drones have tails filled with nanite acid.
*Wings - Another standard for Disassembly Drones.
*An arsenal of weaponry - Will elaborate further later.
*Clothing and hair - All drones, both disassembly and worker variants, wear clothing and have hair. Included in this, are the arm bands Disassembly Drones wear.
Now let's take a look at the limbs. We'll start with the arms:
*N, V and J are all shown to have the same type of arms so we can consider that the standard. However, you might find you want to choose a different shape or design. We'll use Delta as an example here. While the canon DDs (Disassembly Drones) have the wider wrists and narrow elbows, Delta has narrow wrists and his arms get wider at the elbows. This is because Delta is geared towards melee rather than long-range combat. A narrow wrist supports a blade better whereas a wider wrist provides more room for guns. So the type of combat you want your OC to be geared towards, if any, might play a role in the design.
We see two main types in the pilot, seemingly chosen depending on gender. If your OC is male, you might want to design their legs in the image of N's. If your OC is female, you might want to design their legs in the image of V's or J's. Also notice how while V and J have the same leg type, they are noticeably different in design, meaning there's plenty of room for variation! For Delta, the shape is closer to N's legs but has the stripes V and J have because I like how they look. :)
Half way there, y'all! Onto the hair:
*As you can see in the pilot (or not see because of the lighting), N, V and J all have very light hair. Silver/white seems to be the standard but that might be a little too boring for you. I mean, there's millions of colours out there! Pick what you like, hair dye exists! Light hair didn't really suit Delta so I gave them darker hair that matches their outfit.
*Also keep in mind the style. Hairstyle is a very important part of OC design as it can help distinguish two similar OCs from one another and also indicate personality. Think about how long the hair is. Is it shoulder length? Longer? Maybe a pixie cut? Is it messy or tidy? Is your OC's hair tied up in any way? If so, what do they use to tie it up? Keep in mind that choosing a particular hairstyle might help with defining the OC's gender if it isn't immediately made clear by other aspects.
Now onto one of my favourite parts; choosing an outfit:
*N, V and J are all wearing uniforms. You might want to choose a uniform to match or go off book. You don't need much guidance there.
*Does your OC have any accessories? Hat, scarf, shoes etc. Think about the colours. You might want to try make them match so the outfit doesn't clash. As mentioned before, DDs each have a yellow arm band.
*Keep in mind that a Disassembly Drone's clothing should not be restrictive in any way. They need to be able to move around easily in their clothing.
*Y'all already know what their tails look like; long tube/wire with a syringe full of nanite acid on the end, complete with a stabby needle. What does the needle look like? How long is it? What shape is it? What does the tail's casing look like? Standard top and bottom with glass in between like N's? You might want to have the top and bottom meet eachother, maybe a cross or a single beam either side?
Alright! All the main stuff out of the way! Now let's discuss some of the stuff that you don't HAVE to think about but might want to anyway. Starting with the wings:
*As shown in the pilot, DDs have wings that are collapsed into their bodies while not hunting. Blades are substituted for feathers the case of the DDs. What shape are these blades? Are they curved or straight? Are there any bends? Maybe they're large, maybe there's loads of small ones, maybe a mix of both.
*Where the wings fold/join to other segments, there needs to be some kind of joint. Maybe a circular disk or wheel, maybe a hinge of some kind. Perhaps you want to add an additional blade to one or more of these joints? Do these joints have any lighting features on them? If so, what shape and size? Keep in mind that all lighting features of a DD should be yellow as that is, canonically, the only colour DDs can have but I won't blame you for going off book. Like I said, there's millions of colours out there!
*N, V and J are shown to have a variety of integrated weaponary stashed on their persons, all of which are compact and stored within their bodies, often taking the place of their hands during battle. A few standard instances would be claws (seemingly a default or go-to), what seems to be a laser gun (N slicing that worker in half in the hallway using a gun, V trying to slice N in half with a laser gun during the fight towards the end of the pilot), several other guns/similar weapons and potentially blades/swords (V is shown to have a blade stored in either arm during the same fight scene). You might want to consider giving your OC these weapons.
*Does your OC focus more on short-range or long-range combat? This is important for determining their weapon ratio of gun to blade. A long-range OC will have more guns than blades and vice versa.
*You might want to choose specific, real-world weapons or make up your own, the choice is yours!
You might want to think about your OC's personality when designing them. Personality often influences hairstyle or fashion sense so it's a very important factor when it comes to design.
And that concludes my Disassembly Drone design guide! Please let me know if I missed anything and I'll update this if needed :)
Please keep in mind that this is a GUIDE, not strict law on what you can or can't do. I'm not trying to stifle your creativity, I'm just trying to help those that are struggling with designing OCs! Personally, I love seeing all the unique designs y'all come up with!! Please also keep in mind that as the series goes on, this guide may become outdated, in which case I'll make an updated version :)
Anyway, I hope this helps some of y'all! If you do decide to use this guide, please tag me and show me because I'd love to see them! My alphabet challenge is still ongoing so I might even pick a few and draw them!
Design guides for Worker Drones and Wild Cards are coming soon!
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