Cool, though I have a few questions. First, on the bow you have two rectangles, one on either side of the top fighter bay. What are those for? At first I suspected they were a pair of smaller fighter bays, but they have little artifacts in the middle of each side. Are they weapon bays?

Second, the entire ship looks heavily armoured, one solid hull capable of deflecting blows from most directions. My problem, though, is how the command tower looks so flimsy compared to the rest of the ship. It just seems odd to me that a ship so heavily armoured would have a command tower so vulnerable. Is it protected in some other way?

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Nov 4 2010, 06:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cool, though I have a few questions. First, on the bow you have two rectangles, one on either side of the top fighter bay. What are those for? At first I suspected they were a pair of smaller fighter bays, but they have little artifacts in the middle of each side. Are they weapon bays?

Second, the entire ship looks heavily armoured, one solid hull capable of deflecting blows from most directions. My problem, though, is how the command tower looks so flimsy compared to the rest of the ship. It just seems odd to me that a ship so heavily armoured would have a command tower so vulnerable. Is it protected in some other way?

In order:

• The two smaller rectangles are general-use docking bays, for bringing small ships aboard, carrying landing craft and the like.
• The command tower has its own deflector shield separate from the main shield grid. It's also better armored than it looks. The wraparound viewports are reinforced transparisteel.

This afternoon I finished another one, the Corunian Planetary Alliance's Durandal fighter-bomber.

Manto Aerospace Industries HF-98A Durandal

With this one I experimented with intersecting polygonal components. The wingtip-mounted engines are comprised of a Missile Tube/Quad Cannon, attached to a pair of Panel Chunks, with four Large Vector Thrust Blocks on the end. The lasers, both the six bow-mounted guns and the tail-gun, are Large Cannon Housings, plain and simple. I built the under-slung Striker missiles by hand and attached them to the wings with a Multipurpose Strut each.

If you want additional views, I'll attach them later.

Oh, I've been waiting to see the Durandal. It's one of my favorites from EVN:UGF that I've seen so far. That baby is going on my desktop.

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 4 2010, 04:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In order:

• The two smaller rectangles are general-use docking bays, for bringing small ships aboard, carrying landing craft and the like.
• The command tower has its own deflector shield separate from the main shield grid. It's also better armored than it looks. The wraparound viewports are reinforced transparisteel.

Makes sense. Will players be able to use those landing craft in any way or are they strictly imaginary?

I like the structure, and it mainly looks cool, but I personally have two problems. A: I really don't like the patterened green paint on the hull, but I guess that's what they're supposed to look like (I think a duller or darker green (not too dark) would look better), and B: I don't know the corporation/government that manufactures it, but the cockpit sticks out a LOT, and it takes away from the smooth and sleek look of the craft. Plus, the inside of the cockpit is just a continuation of the hull (might want to add one of Delphi's thrust blocks and paint it grey, inside the cockpit, of course). And the green bars that look like they're supposed to hold the cockpit in place just, don't really, uh, look like support bars. Just a few ideas.

Fixed a spelling error.

This post has been edited by Spartan Jai : 06 November 2010 - 11:25 AM

QUOTE (Spartan Jai @ Nov 5 2010, 07:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Plus, the inside of the cockpit is just a continuatin of the hull (might want to add one of Delphi's thrust blocks and paint it grey, inside the cockpit, of course). And the green bars that look like they're supposed to hold the cockpit in place just, don't really, uh, look like support bars. Just a few ideas.

I agree with this.

One approach could be to make the cockpit totally opaque, and have the pilot see via cameras and sensors, ĂĄ la the Starbridge or the Viper. You definitely don't want to have too much glass on an assault ship, unless you decide to go the route of the transparent aluminum or whatever they use in Star Trek (which isn't a bad option either, assuming you make it clear that that's what it is). I will say that opaque cockpits look awesome, IMO.

This ship looks totally awesome, though. Probably what I'll fly when this sucker is out.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Nov 5 2010, 03:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, I've been waiting to see the Durandal. It's one of my favorites from EVN:UGF that I've seen so far. That baby is going on my desktop.

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 4 2010, 07:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

• The two smaller rectangles are general-use docking bays, for bringing small ships aboard, carrying landing craft and the like.

Makes sense. Will players be able to use those landing craft in any way or are they strictly imaginary?

Oh, I wish! No, they'll be imaginary in that sense, although many invasion missions will involve cargoes of landing ships and the like.

QUOTE (Spartan Jai @ Nov 5 2010, 07:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I like the structure, and it mainly looks cool, but I personally have two problems. A: I really don't like the patterened green paint on the hull, but I guess that's what they're supposed to look like (I think a duller or darker green (not too dark) would look better), and B: I don't know the corporation/government that manufactures it, but the cockpit sticks out a LOT, and it takes away from the smooth and sleek look of the craft. Plus, the inside of the cockpit is just a continuation of the hull (might want to add one of Delphi's thrust blocks and paint it grey, inside the cockpit, of course). And the green bars that look like they're supposed to hold the cockpit in place just, don't really, uh, look like support bars. Just a few ideas.

The green paint was tough to pull off, and you're right that it needs to be somewhat duller and more metallic. I intended to cut a hole in the top half of the fuselage for it; going to work on that next. (I created the fuselage and cockpit by push/pulling filled-in arcs; the two actually intersect without edges.) As for the dimensions, I was working from my concept art drawing on graph paper. I had decided that the ship was 23 meters long, so I counted up the number of grid squares from bow to stern and divided the total from 23, with the result coming out as ~0.793 meters per square. To get any other dimensions, I multiplied the number of squares by 0.793 and drew the lines and arcs accordingly. Used the same technique with the Ganba Command Cruiser.

The "support bars" aren't really supports, but rather a seam in the canopy. The front section slides forward and the aft section to the rear, allowing ingress and egress.

The government that uses the Durandal is the Corunian Planetary Alliance, a minor government that is a member of the UGF. Unlike most of the other first-tier fighters in EVN:UGF, it's a two-man ship with a tail-gunner, and can also carry an additional specialist crewman for unusual missions.

QUOTE (Cosmic_Nusiance @ Nov 5 2010, 10:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with this.

One approach could be to make the cockpit totally opaque, and have the pilot see via cameras and sensors, ĂĄ la the Starbridge or the Viper. You definitely don't want to have too much glass on an assault ship, unless you decide to go the route of the transparent aluminum or whatever they use in Star Trek (which isn't a bad option either, assuming you make it clear that that's what it is). I will say that opaque cockpits look awesome, IMO.

I favor the material they use in Star Wars, something called "transparisteel". Don't have a clue what it's made of (probably esoteric substances such as unobtanium :D), but it does the trick (lightweight, transparent, and tougher than glass). The trouble with opaque cockpits is, what happens when battle damage or electromagnetic interference knocks out your cameras and sensors? It's true you'll probably have backup systems on a combat starship, but I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor: The simplest solution is usually correct.

I am also assuming that you are remaking at least one of the old Nova ships, since this is supposed to be after the end of a Nova string. If you are (I don't know), you should remake the starbridge and have it seem like the antique tech that they make the hail chaingun in Nova seem like. And unobtanium isn't from star wars. Besides, it wouldn't be esoteric because it is on every starship, if 'actually used' in transparisteel. And, I think the viper cockpit is painted black, but it might be like the mirror on one side window on the other kind of trick, or, it could be slightly transparent and it's just not noticeable in any of the graphics.

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 6 2010, 11:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, I wish! No, they'll be imaginary in that sense, although many invasion missions will involve cargoes of landing ships and the like.

Well, HOTS has tangible landing craft. It's not hard to do, really. I mean, you can't use them to literally land troops on a planet or space station, but you could still use them for combat when needed. In HOTS there are bays for carrying shuttles aboard your ship for the express use as defensive fighters if you can't afford true fighter craft. In addition, each shuttle gives a small boost to the player's chance of successfully capturing any given ship, representing the shuttles' ability to insert boarding parties at multiple points along a ship's hull rather than the single entry point a lone starship has to settle for.

QUOTE

It's true you'll probably have backup systems on a combat starship, but I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor: The simplest solution is usually correct.

Agreed. It's hard to see sometimes but all of my ships feature a 'glass colored' section representing the bridge or cockpit. All of them, from fighters to dreadnaughts, it's in there somewhere.

How would you use the landing craft, anyway? It wouldn't seem possible, unless you made a bay/outfit that boosted your capturing ability.

QUOTE (Spartan Jai @ Nov 6 2010, 03:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am also assuming that you are remaking at least one of the old Nova ships, since this is supposed to be after the end of a Nova string. If you are (I don't know), you should remake the starbridge and have it seem like the antique tech that they make the hail chaingun in Nova seem like. And unobtanium isn't from star wars. Besides, it wouldn't be esoteric because it is on every starship, if 'actually used' in transparisteel. And, I think the viper cockpit is painted black, but it might be like the mirror on one side window on the other kind of trick, or, it could be slightly transparent and it's just not noticeable in any of the graphics.

Yeah, I know unobtanium isn't from Star Wars. All I meant was it would be esoteric and unobtanium from OUR point of view. (In other words, I was being a smart-ass.)

And I am, in fact remaking at least one ship from Nova, the Kestrel to be specific. I've said it before in this thread, but the story goes that a company called Merlin Starcraft Corporation bought the plans and technical readouts from Matt Burch's PERS after the end of EVN. The successor to the chaingun is the assault cannon, which is basically a high-tech belt-fed machine gun that wraps a fired round in a plasma shell. And (you didn't ask, but) the successor to the Valkyrie is the Porsche Corsair, an image of which appeared earlier in the thread.

However, since EVN:UGF is set over a thousand years after the Rebel thread, most of the ships are original.

In other news, here's an updated version of the Durandal.

I made some of the changes you guys suggested, including adding cockpit detail (you can't see it too well, but it has ejector seats and instrument panels) and dulling the dark green paint.

Personally speaking, that looks a lot better (the Durandal). I assume that you've switched from LDD to sketchup, right? Anyway, I still think the cockpit could be set a little lower. And with the "New Valk" as I shall call it, it could be a little longer to look more like a Valk. Other than that it looks cool.

QUOTE (Spartan Jai @ Nov 6 2010, 08:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Personally speaking, that looks a lot better (the Durandal). I assume that you've switched from LDD to sketchup, right? Anyway, I still think the cockpit could be set a little lower. And with the "New Valk" as I shall call it, it could be a little longer to look more like a Valk. Other than that it looks cool.

Lego Digital Designer isn't meant to be a 3D modeling program; it's for building stuff with LEGOs. It's just that I already had the model built, so I figured I'd post a screenshot of it to illustrate the Corsair.

The Corsair isn't really meant to look like the Valkyrie; it's more of an all-purpose medium ship. I had it in mind to be a star yacht that could be easily converted into a light capital ship. You could call it the Starbridge of EVN:UGF. And the cockpit, by the way, is a good deal larger on the real thing (though still too cramped to be called a bridge in the traditional ship sense). It was based on the ship that appears on this book cover (silver shuttle-thing, center-right):

In LEGO form, it didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped...

Oh, and just for grins, here's a detail view of the Durandal's cockpit. I did try to lower the peak some, but it didn't work out because of the segmented arcs. (It's two separate arcs joined at the ends.)
CPA_Durandal_cockpit_detail.jpg (75.84K)
Number of downloads: 13

The instrument panels are artfully colored Chevrons. I made the seats out of a Fork, with two Anything Pieces (stretched and tilted to within an inch of their lives) as the seat cushion mounts, and two more as the armrests. I drew the cushions by hand, and textured them with textile-type prefab textures. I then put the whole thing on top of a Multipurpose Strut.

This post has been edited by StarSword : 06 November 2010 - 08:14 PM

QUOTE (Spartan Jai @ Nov 6 2010, 04:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How would you use the landing craft, anyway? It wouldn't seem possible, unless you made a bay/outfit that boosted your capturing ability.

Like I said, simply make a fighter bay weapon that launches shuttles/landing craft instead of fighters. Each individual landing craft boosts the chance of capture a little bit. This way buying more landing crafts not only means extra 'fighters' to launch in combat, but it also means a better chance of capturing a ship. Think of it as your standard fighter bay with a little something extra.

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 6 2010, 04:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In other news, here's an updated version of the Durandal.

Nice. In regards to the cockpit, I don't really think it needs to be lowered. Doing so could make the Durandal look like a tube with wings, IMO. But, if you want to lower it, have you been using the click+drag function of the select tool? If you angle the camera so you can click and drag over the entire cockpit (and only the cockpit) you can then use the scale tool to lower the ceiling.

The cockpit looks extremely large and spacious. I figured it would be more like-sized to today's fighter craft cockpits.

Maybe it's supposed to be bigger. After all, space is big. For a fighter used as a policing vehicle, that means lots of time spent just flying around. If the pilot is stuck in that chair for the entire flight it can cause problems. A cockpit that big allows the crew to get up and move around a bit, stretch their legs. At least, that's what I assume the extra space is for.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 07 November 2010 - 11:37 AM

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Nov 7 2010, 12:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe it's supposed to be bigger. After all, space is big. For a fighter used as a policing vehicle, that means lots of time spent just flying around. If the pilot is stuck in that chair for the entire flight it can cause problems. A cockpit that big allows the crew to get up and move around a bit, stretch their legs. At least, that's what I assume the extra space is for.

Partially. In addition to shipboard deployment, the Durandal (particularly the recon version) is designed to be able to operate independently for extended periods. The other reason is that a couple of the CPA's member races (specifically the Drakens and Sorns) are quite tall, and need extra headroom; the Durandal is meant to accommodate them with a minimum of seating adjustment.

I've got two images to show off: a destroyer, and my first weapon.

Based on a very rough sketch, I threw this boxy monster together in about an hour and a half.

_ H.A.V.O.K. Destroyer, Ganvor -class_
Light Capital Class Vessel, Ganbar Imperial Fleet

The Ganvor -class H.A.V.O.K. Destroyer is a powerhouse light capital ship that excels at search-and-destroy missions due to its high speed and long range. Capable of dancing in and out of enemy gunfire, its craggy hull conceals an array of weapons that is quite impressive for a vessel of its size. Though little match for the larger Galactic capital ships, it makes bantha hash out of pirates and frigates.

I used almost nothing apart from Delphi's pieces to build this. The engine stalks at the stern are a Missile Tubes/Quad Cannons piece, cut in half horizontally and fused to a pair of Large Vector Thrust Blocks. The main hull is a Ribbed Hull Block - Expanded, with a Massive Curved Hull With Substructure on either flank and an Equipment Block and Starship Core - Offset on top.

It's a smallish vessel at only 635 meters (compared to 4700 for the command cruiser), and was designed without any measure of aesthetics in mind. I based it off a clump of meatspace LEGOs my brother was using as a gun turret of sorts.

Next, my first posted weapon design: the Striker missile, which made an appearance as a component of the Durandal.

** Magnum Dynamics, Inc. RH119 Striker Missile**

The final starship for today is the Balcrusian Marauder, which I spent the bulk of the afternoon on.

_ Balcruz Military Industries Dragon Claw - and Moonsplitter -class Heavy Warship_
Heavy Battleship, Balcrusian People's Navy

The Dragon Claw -class Marauder heavy warship is a two-kilometer dagger-shaped juggernaut that wields a deadly fusion beam as its main weapon. It carries clouds of Sunflashes and Moonblazes and mounts hundreds of weapons, most notably the singularity torpedo. Few other vessels can fight Apache-class command ships one-on-one and win.

The original Dragon Claw is still the flagship of the BPN, forty-odd years after its construction, but even it is a poor match for the new Aegis -class command ship. It was the advent of the Aegis that spurred the development of the Moonsplitter -class Marauder, a terrifying vessel with more than enough destructive capacity to slag inhabited worlds. Though expensive and slow, the Moonsplitter is surprisingly maneuverable.

At only 2,000 meters in length Marauders are the smallest ship of the line fielded by the major star nations. (As has been stated, the biggest is the UGN command ship.) This is mainly a function of the Balcrusians' low population and reproductive rate, for which they compensate with a mastery of automation. Most battleships require crews in the tens of thousands; the Marauder can run quite efficiently with only two thousand-odd crewmen.

The big gray metal thing at the bow is the Marauder's main secondary weapon, the Balcruz Military Industries AX-type fusion beam (see below). It gravatically focuses a thermonuclear explosion into a cohesive bolt of plasma that can rip a battleship in half. (Yes, I got this idea from StarCraft's Yamato Cannon.) The Balcrusians are quite skilled with gravity manipulation, even more so than the other star nations: their biggest homing weapon is the singularity torpedo, which creates a momentary black hole at the point of detonation. The tidal forces of the detonation tear apart large vessels, and small ships unfortunate enough to be within range frequently just disappear into thin air. Intended for use against warships, it can be fired against planets as well (an act which the other star nations view as a war crime*).

I made the fusion beam by sticking a Chevron (upper middle) on top of a Fork. I used Missile Tubes/Quad Cannons as the four gravatic focusing arrays, and a quartet of Small Cannon Housings as the main emitter.

• Does anyone know of a way to actually code this into the game?

This post has been edited by StarSword : 16 November 2010 - 04:31 PM

Nice, though the large turrets initially gave me the impression this vessel was much smaller. I was guessing it was more along the lines of a frigate (according to standard terms, not my own :D) maybe 400-600 meters in length before I read the rest of the post. On the other hand that makes them pretty enormous turrets that you don't want to get on the business end of.

I am curious as to the purpose of the thick rods on either side of the fusion beam emitter. Sensor antennae? Ordnance tubes? Something else entirely?

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 7 2010, 04:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

• Does anyone know of a way to actually code this into the game?

Well the spĂśb resource has a field for what bits to set when a spĂśb is destroyed. This field is specific to each spĂśb resource, too. You could have each resource set a bit, any bit, that would allow another mission to activate once the player lands anywhere. This mission could simply start off with the player getting a communique from one or more of the other factions stating that the player has been deemed a war criminal as a result of his actions and that all military ships of the various other star nations have orders to shoot the player on sight.

The player could then be advised in standard narrative that the only safe place for them now is Balcrusian space. The player has to make it to Balcrusian space for the mission to complete (doesn't matter where, though you will need a specific destination, setting it to pick a random Balcrusian port won't work in this case). You could even throw in a few Galactic ships that would dog the player all the way back.

Also, make sure the mission starts a bunch of invisible missions that complete when the player lands at the same place he needs to go to complete the main mission, one invisible mission for each faction (minus whichever one the main mission handles). Upon completion they give the player a major negative legal status boost. VoilĂ , destroying a planet makes you public enemy #1 (once you land, anyway).

I'm sure there are other methods I'm not thinking of, too, if you'd prefer something simpler.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Nov 8 2010, 12:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am curious as to the purpose of the thick rods on either side of the fusion beam emitter. Sensor antennae? Ordnance tubes? Something else entirely?

They were supposed to be the launchers for the singularity torpedoes. I sort of goofed: I forgot to add holes in the middle.

The big turrets are a holdover from its origins in my sci-fi writing: big freakin' rotating plasma cannons. (They'll be coded as the turret firing points in the SHAN resource.) I liked them enough to keep them in this render, though I might well end up removing them before all's said and done, for precisely the reason you mentioned.

Interestingly, in the story the Marauder made its first appearance in, what is now the fusion beam was actually a weapon that emulated the Winter Tempest. The wingtip guns produced a similar effect to the Flower of Spring. Just a little background for you.

Oh, and good thinking on the war crimes thing.

This post has been edited by StarSword : 08 November 2010 - 12:12 AM