Quote - Letterworks is right you can model that easy enough, but it's the afterwards thats usually the major hassle. Suppose I'm making a spacesuit and want a pipe running from the rear of the forearm to the rear of the upper arm. So when the arms move the pipe would move as well and remain connected to both body parts. Easy enough to model the pipes onto the forearm, but when the arm moves so does the pipe. Put the figure in a even a basic pose, like a bent elbow, and theres a chance the pipe would poke through the front of the upper arm. OK, you could use a mix of things like easy pose, morphs or ERC. But you'd need to really break the mesh down into lots of groups. It's often the same for non-organic things like Hydrulic struts as well. Which raises the question is it worth the time? Personally If I'm making a static prop or part that won't move, then yes I'll happily detail away like a loon. Indeed I rather do that than modeled always looks better than stuff like displacement. Polycount isn't always an issue either if you're careful. But for moving stuff, I find giving the impression the parts are joined is usually quicker and easier. Which in some ways is a shame as I'd rather try and keep true to my design idea, but equally I know it's about accepting a compromise on whats possible.

 

Exactly, I made a mini-gun, like the one used in predator, once then found that it was virtually impossible to make the ammo feed work rigged and not stretch or distort to the point where I would never offer it to the market place for fear of too many complaints. I wound up making it a static prop shaped to the pose in the render. Way easier!

Of course that was a few years ago, the morph and ECM tools are better now, but then you run into the problem of work/time vs sales. It would then be a matter of "if I were doing it for my own needs, then just putting it in the store to see how it would sell", but I seriously doubt  the number of sales  would be worth the effort of making something like that, with the rigging and tweaking needed to get it right, strictly as a RMP product and then try to sell it at a price point the Poser community seems willing to pay. It would possibly take years to show a profit. Which is probably the main reason you don;t see that type of work. Incidentally, it's probably also the reason you see so few "non-mainstream" figures supported.

It's a lot more profitable to make less complicated and thus faster/easier, and to make items for the mainstream figures, then set a price point that the community would embrace. The number of sales make for an acceptable profit.

Look at the complaints that have been generated since the RMP has raised the minimum prices for some products. Sales are already down from a few years ago, making the market less attractive to "higher end" products. That is not to say the quality is any less, actually the opposite! But it's more attractive to choose to make a product involving less time to make, and so raising the "Profit to Work" ratio for the creator.