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Tau Empire: XV-95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit Custom

Scale replica of an XV-95 "Ghostkeel" Stealth-Battlesuit, as used by the Tau Empire from Warhammer 40,000, with a custom weapon loadout.


The XV-95 is one of the most advanced battlesuits the Tau currently have. It is over-engineered and loaded with experimental technologies to the point it makes Crisis Suits look obsolete.
Despite it's considerable size, a combination of sound dampeners, sensor baffles, and active optical camouflage can render it nearly impossible to detect, even in an open field.
Using these stealth capabilities and it's excellent mobility provided by it's powerful jetpack, Ghostkeels operate as "lone wolves" ahead of friendly lines, engaging in force recon and sabotage operations.

When Shas'o T'aku - supreme military leader of the D'weeb sept (an insignificant listening post on an inhospitable world at the literal edge of the Galaxy, crewed entirely by a single cadre of battlesuit pilots and roughly twice their number of earth caste engineers & attendant staff) received his shipment of a couple such suits, he was deeply impressed by their design and performance - save but one burning fact that put a familiar twitch in his eye his engineers learned to dread by now;

O'taku (as his closest subordinates call him) found the '95's standard weaponry inadequate, declaring it lacks "Pzazz" and please do something about it post-haste.

The unfortunate technical staff tried to patiently explain to him that a STEALTH suit might not require quite as much "Pzazz" as one would think, and that his proposed modifications would put a dangerous strain on the suit's reactor, or that the requested weaponry's heat signature alone would effectively nullify the Ghostkeel's stealth fields, but when the commander explained equally patiently that if they're not going to be busy with this project, then they're free to finally de-ice the base's external window shutters (a task which went ignored in the past decade, given they tended to freeze over faster than one could clean them, and no tau was particualrly keen on freezing their hooves off.) - the engineers figured it's better to just go along with his request and see what happens.

What happened was a Ghostkeel frame, armed with an entire weight class heavier weapon from a Riptide suit, a pair of Smart Missile Systems, and a twin Fusion Blaster for good measure. Whatever their misgivings, in the end everyone agreed that the project turned out quite terrifying, and it would surely devastate any invader foolish enough to set foot on D'weeb holdings - if the planet's extremely backwater nature wouldn't have made sure no invader was sighted in living memory.

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In-game, The XV-95 is a 6.6 meters tall mech, just shy of 13 tons.
The game lacks "stealth" mechanics at the moment, so that particular aspect is not represented.

-The cockpit may be opened from the outside by a button behind the suit's head, or from the inside by the corresponding switch just above the player's head.
It also closes / opens automatically whenever the player seats/ unseats.

-The main and secondary weapons, as well as the head are mounted as turrets and are taken control of automatically by activating the suit itself via one of it's two joysticks.

-The suit's main armament is a "Heavy Burst Cannon" - a six-barreled, rapid firing pulse weapon, pretty much as long as the suit is tall. The original mounting point had to be moved forward for better balance.
It is triggered by holding [Mouse 1], and can sustain fire for 8 seconds before entering a "reload" animation to unspool it's rotator blocks. You may also let the cannon spool down manually at any time, simply by releasing the trigger.

-Tapping [Mouse 1] triggers the cannon's underslung Fusion Blasters - a pair of short-life, high intensity beam weapons.

-[Mouse 2] triggers the "Smart Missile Systems" - although the game lacking any missiles, they're temporarily represented by high-powered cannons. They fire in pairs, and if all six pairs are on cooldown, the missile pods enter a reload animation until all weapon modules are ready to fire again.

-[1 Key] triggers the backpack mounted "Flare Launchers" - although the game lacking any flares, they're temporarily represented by rapid-fire cannons for the sake of spread. Their usefulness is dubious at best, but they're fun.

-[G Key] switches the docking connectors mounted on either side of the chest. They're connected to a functioning, if worryingly low capacity fuel system.

-As it's main attraction, the suit boasts a double control-system;

Taking control of the Left joystick lets you operate it as a normal mech with a custom walk animation, while taking the Right joystick activates a starship computer instead, and lets you fly the suit in "jetpack" mode.
All weapons are fully functional in both modes.
In Flight mode, you'll also control the two small attitude thrusters as decorative turrets, and going into Boost mode with [TAB] alters the lower thruster's angle.

Thanks to it's digitrade gait and weird center of gravity, the deactivated suit is remarkably unstable. A trick that lets you land on your feet most times, is to hover at least 1 times the mech's height above ground, enter first-person view, exit starship controls, and you'll have a few seconds to grab the mech controls instead.

Enjoy the build, and let me know if I ramble too much!
Cheers!
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Heresies:

-I could only give the suit 1 camera setting, but it is technically 2 vehicles. Apparently said settings apply differently to mechs and starships, resulting in a rather distant camera for the latter.
-Armor pauldrons removed to provide greater clearance for Missile Systems
-Heavy Burst Cannon barrels aren't angled.
-No stealth mode.
-Is xenotech

Updates:

-Better camera settings.