@starsword, on 20 June 2011 - 06:34 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
I've played a couple different variations on that game, but I'm not familiar with that weapon.
It's a similar idea, but uses something like 7 or 9 big nukes instead of the 4 or 5 the MIRV uses, and it creates a skull-shape upon detonation. It basically wipes the entire map if used.
@darthkev, on 21 June 2011 - 12:32 AM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
Awesome new ships! I especially like the Nemesis; I have a thing for 'flying wing' designs.
Edit: The MIRV looks good, too. I do have one question on it, though: I feel safe assuming more than one is needed to destroy larger warships, but I'm curious as to how many anti-spöb versions are needed to destroy a planet or station.
I'm actually a little iffy on the coloring for the Nemesis. The wings, at least, need a little improvement (maybe a stripe or two?).
As far as anti-SPOB weapons, it will take several shots to destroy a terrestrial planet, and only a couple to destroy a station. That goes for all the anti-SPOB weapons. Hypergates, gas planets, stars, and the like will be indestructible. Most major plots will involve at least one attack against stations after the player unlocks a ship that can carry them.
All of the major factions produce at least one anti-SPOB weapon. In each case, the weapon shows up in the secondary weapons with the suffix (Bombard). The Axe-tails have the photon beam, the UGN has the Devastator MIRV. The Varellavites use nuclear torpedoes, and the Balcrusians have singularity weapons. I haven't worked out what to give the Ganba or Klavarese yet, but it'll probably be a missile in each case.
Okay, I made some modifications to the cannons, and added some more color to the wings.
Nemesis v1.jpg (25.63K)
Number of downloads: 2
Old version
New version
The last Balcrusian hull.
Balcruz Aerospace HEP52 Bulk Freighter
Bulk Freighter, Balcrusian Civilian Market
Balcruz Aerospace designed the HEP52 Bulk Freighter using the blueprints for Kandava's cancelled 2z6 Starlight bulk freighter, which the parent company stopped making so it could focus on fulfilling a lucrative starfighter contract for the War Council. It has greater range and a much larger hold than the EP49 Light Transport, but again, due to harsh "public safety" regulations, if you ask an HEP52 captain about his armament, he'll likely say "What armament?"
Unlike many Balcrusian ships, the HEP52 is very hard to kill. Despite its near-lack of defensive weapons, the design is widely used in both Balcrusian space and the neighboring Galactic-controlled Marathon Sector. This is mainly because it is 1.5 million credits cheaper than its Galactic counterpart and main competitor, the Superstar by Republic Heavy Engineering. It also requires only 40 crew members compared to the Superstar's 175. HEP52 freighters found in Galactic space frequently carry aftermarket weapons like quad lasers.
I was trying to get a bit of the US Air Force C-5 Galaxy into it with the wide-body, but somehow the HEP52 came out looking kinda like a turtle with no legs. I like it, despite it looking a little goofy.
Yeah, the Nemesis does look better with the new wing strips and guns. Awesome. Also, while I agree the HEP52 is a little goofy but in a good way, it reminds me more of an armadillo than a turtle. Either way, it's fitting given that it apparently has tough shields/armour.
One question on the HEP52, though. What is the patterning on the sides for? Escape pods? Emergency hatches? Loading bays? Crew quarters?
Late update: the Klavarese ships are now posted on DeviantART, but I'm not going to bother posting them here since I did all six back on page 12. Klavar Republic @ DeviantART
Thanks again to Meaker VI, this time for making the SKP version available.
@darthkev, on 21 June 2011 - 04:45 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
One question on the HEP52, though. What is the patterning on the sides for? Escape pods? Emergency hatches? Loading bays? Crew quarters?
Loading bays, or more specifically, freight airlocks.
Okay, that's it. Signing off.
This post has been edited by StarSword : 21 June 2011 - 11:34 PM
When I put the HEP52 up, I figured it to be the last Balcrusian ship. I figured wrong: the Sunflash has two different versions, and they require different sprites for a simple reason: the manned version has a cockpit.
Kandava 4c4M Sunflash
Space Superiority Fighter, Balcrusian People's Navy
Kandava 4c4 Sunflashes come in two types. The manned version is much rarer, but better-equipped than the drone. In addition to all the armament of the drone, the 4c4M carries micromissiles for fighter-to-fighter combat. It is a great threat to freighters and fighters; however, its weaponry is of little use against capital ships, which are liable to plow straight through.
The 4c4M is a great deal tougher than the standard 4c4 drone, which is thanks largely due to increased shielding and armor, and of course a living pilot who can think creatively. Kandava designed both versions at the same time, but the 4c4M wasn't as readily accepted by the BPR War Council due to both its price tag (175,000 credits a pop compared to 50,000 for a drone) and the fact that it requires a live pilot (which can be hard to come by for the long-lived and slow-breeding Balcrusians).
In recent years, though, thanks largely to the advent of the SF-81A Black Knight, which demolish a 4c4 drone in nothing flat and soak up anything the 4c4 can throw, the 4c4M has gained a deserved niche as a space superiority fighter. Most Balcrusian commanders now intersperse 4c4Ms among swarms of 4c4s. The 4c4M's pilot acts as a squadron leader, using the easily replaced drones as cannon fodder while he delivers killshots.
Turning the drone Sunflash into the manned Sunflash took a fair bit of tedious work and frequent instances of Ctrl-Z: I had to cut a hole in the top of the fuselage for the cockpit, and chop the top half off my pilot's chair so it would fit (apparently the Balcrusian People's Navy Starfighter Command has a maximum height restriction :D).
This post has been edited by StarSword : 22 June 2011 - 09:44 PM
@starsword, on 22 June 2011 - 09:43 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
... and chop the top half off my pilot's chair so it would fit (apparently the Balcrusian People's Navy Starfighter Command has a maximum height restriction :D).
Or you could just, you know, make the fighter chassis bigger. Scale the whole thing up a bit so the chair fits. As I recall, the Balcrusians are significantly taller than humans, and if it's so hard to find pilots, having a height requirement would be senseless. I may be understanding wrong, of course, but that's my view on the subject.
The height requirement thing was a joke.
I tried to make the chassis taller so I could fit a bigger cockpit, but unfortunately it's not a clamshell design like the rest of my curved ships (two or four identical sections mated together, with the bottom flattened using the Scale tool). And the engines are also physically part of the fuselage, and it'll take a while to put them into a separate group.
The root problem is the Blade-Cutter array (the spikes behind the cockpit). If I make the cockpit canopy taller, the middle column of launchers would fire through the cockpit instead of over it.
<sudden flash of inspiration, followed by facepalm>
Easy solution. Move the Blade-Cutters to the underside. Then I can make the canopy as big as I need.
@starsword, on 23 June 2011 - 07:29 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
The height requirement thing was a joke.
I figured that out after I clicked 'Add Reply'. Oops. 
Quote
I tried to make the chassis taller so I could fit a bigger cockpit, but unfortunately it's not a clamshell design like the rest of my curved ships (two or four identical sections mated together, with the bottom flattened using the Scale tool). And the engines are also physically part of the fuselage, and it'll take a while to put them into a separate group.
Actually, I meant select the whole thing (except the cockpit) and scale the entire model up a bit by using the boxes at the corners of the selection box. Basically make the fighter longer, taller, and wider at the same time while keeping the proportions equal.
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<sudden flash of inspiration, followed by facepalm>
Easy solution. Move the Blade-Cutters to the underside. Then I can make the canopy as big as I need.
Or, that works too. 
I'm working on some pirate and civilian ships right now. The Pirate Carrack is nearly finished, and...
Terran Engineering Corporation DS-30 Saladin -class Destroyer
Destroyer, Civilian Market
The Terran Engineering Corporation DS-30 Saladin -class Destroyer is the third-most recent destroyer keel used by the UGN, after the discontinued Galaxy -class. Though relatively outdated, TEC still sells them since many poorer worlds cannot afford newer capital ships. Saladins carry several weapons, but their greatest strength is their performance: they are distinctly faster and more agile than their successors.
Named for an ancient Terran general, the Saladin -class destroyer was built for the UGN from 962 to 977 GSD, and has been on the civilian market since its decommissioning. Primarily because of its age, the Saladin -class is just shy of six times cheaper than the current Anaconda -class. They are fast and fairly well-armed, but compared to the newer RNS-built Anaconda the Saladin's defenses are wafer-thin. This is more due to technological advances in the interim than anything else. Still, Saladins are frequently seen in system security forces and private fleets.
The Saladin -class has gained notoriety in recent years, unfortunately, with the appearance of the so-called "Pirate Saladin," a heavily modified version built by the Rosenberg mafia family at Black Rose Station. The most infamous of these is the Zek'tar Labroi , captained by Yapeel, a rogue Galactic privateer who now commands a pirate gang commonly called the Vibroaxe Death Knights. (This is a fairly poor translation from the original Paz/kanran.)
I came up with the name for the class on my own several years ago, unaware that Star Trek and Starfleet Adventures had their own Saladin -class destroyer.
My first pirate ship is the Rosenberg version of the famed Carrack.
New Netherlands Spaceworks Carrack -class Light Freighter (Pirate Upgrade)
Blockade Runner, Pirate Factions
New Netherlands Spaceworks' classic Carrack -class Light Freighter is one of the most popular models around. Modification is made easy by its modular construction, and its range enables it to carry large cargoes quickly and safely to all corners of the galaxy. Of course, historically carracks were a type of warship, and the Rosenbergs remembered this when they took the basic design and put their own deadly spin on it. Sadly, much of the NNS Carrack's original trim lines have been destroyed (some would say "perverted") in this model.
The technological parent of the famous galleons, carracks were used on Earth in the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Designed for long voyages across the deep ocean, one of them, Ferdinand Magellan's Victoria , was the first to circumnavigate the planet.
In truth, the so-called Pirate Carrack is truer to its name than the original NNS Carrack, despite wide agreement that it is uglier. Carracks were designed for long voyages, and the Rosenberg Carrack has twice the range of the original. Carracks also were heavily armed for their day; the basic Pirate Carrack has three quad lasers, a Tempest assault cannon, and Striker missiles, compared to a pair of heavy laser turrets on the original. It has the same top speed as the basic Carrack, thicker armor, and higher acceleration and agility, making it perfect for smugglers and pirates despite its slightly smaller cargo bay.
This is the fourth and final variation on the Carrack design, the others being the normal Carrack, the UGN fleet tender, and the Balcrusian transport. For this version, I took the original Carrack, changed the paint job, added weapons, and stuck several random pieces from my component library onto the sides.
@darthkev, on 02 July 2011 - 04:13 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
Whoa. The looks alone make me afraid to go up against it. Nice detailing on the ribcage.
It's half of a Ribbed Hull Block, the same piece I used for the engines on the Gunstar. Got that one by pulling apart the warship Delphi shipped with his component library.
This post has been edited by StarSword : 02 July 2011 - 10:19 PM
My third Ganba ship is much improved over my previous attempts. (Note to self: redo the destroyer.)
H.A.V.O.K. Escort Carrier, Krogon -class
Medium Capital Ship, Ganbar Imperial Fleet
The Ganba have historically been more dependent on fighter support than their counterparts in the UGF and elsewhere. Their fighters are more powerful kilo-for-kilo in most respects, but they're still no match for capital ships and have short range. The H.A.V.O.K. Krogon -class escort carrier has a smaller complement of interceptors than the command cruiser, but still more than the UGN Anaconda -class destroyer. Despite its classification it fills the approximate role of a light cruiser and has powerful enough engines to dance in and out of firefights.
The Krogon -class comes in three main variants, distinguished mainly by weapons complement. Standard Type I Krogons (like this one) are the most commonly seen. Type II Krogons ("Extra Fighters Detected") have no missiles at all, but carry a total of 12 fighters (more than a command cruiser!). Type III Krogons ("Heavy Fighter Version") carry Heavy Interceptors instead of Light, and fewer fighters total. They also mount ten Thunderbolt torpedoes, enabling them to do serious damage to ships many times their size. During a rare full-scale battle with the UGN's Seventh Fleet in 999 GSD, a bold attack by a dozen Type III's forced the Apache -class command ship UGNS Panther into full retreat (though most of the carriers involved in this sortie were destroyed in the process).
Named for a large predatory amphibian native to the Ganbar homeworld of Gan (one which hunted the Ganba in their prehistoric years, and remains a favored bogeyman for Ganba parents), the Krogon -class is at first glance relatively weak as a front-line combatant due to its focus as a light carrier, and weaker shields and armor than its counterparts. Appearances are misleading: while a full fighter complement is a requirement for maximum firepower, the high recharge rate of Ganba deflector shields means they are effectively just as tough as similar vessels. It carries six Ganba Light Interceptors and four neutron beam turrets. Krogon -class ships easily outmatch the Naloth -class frigate, and in numbers they can challenge O'Brien -class battlecruisers, though some losses are guaranteed.
In short, despite the brute firepower of the Verlodra -class command ship, the Krogon -class escort carrier is a strong contender for the cornerstone of the Ganbar Imperial Fleet.
I decided to leave the edges turned on when I rendered this: all the gray in the model makes it hard to discern detail. At the scale it will be rendered in-game this should actually make the details easier to see. The model started as an expansion of the Ganvor -class destroyer. The neutron turrets are derived from the handiwork of Meaker VI.
For a while I couldn't decide on a good place for the fighter bays, but I eventually chose to place them in a cavity underneath, not unlike that of a Star Destroyer. Obviously, they're out of sight at this angle.
I'm also linking a new edition of the EVN:UGF timeline. I've added the above firefight (999 GSD), and information on the Rosenbergs (3-70 GSD, 938 GSD). (The PDF was too big to attach here.)
This post has been edited by StarSword : 09 October 2011 - 06:09 PM
@starsword, on 10 July 2011 - 11:24 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
My third Ganba ship is much improved over my previous attempts. (Note to self: redo the destroyer.)
Did you post the destroyer? I remember seeing the Verlodra -class Command Cruiser (very nice, BTW) but I don't remember seeing a destroyer.
At any rate, the Krogon looks awesome. However, it doesn't have the same design style of the Verlodra, so it doesn't quite look like part of the Ganba fleet to me.
@starsword, on 12 July 2011 - 09:18 PM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
I recruited a new team member from DeviantART today. An artist by the handle Davbla has joined EVN:UGF as a storyline/content writer.
If his writing is as good as the classic car he's working on, EVN:UGF is in even better hands now. 
@darthkev, on 13 July 2011 - 11:45 AM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
Did you post the destroyer? I remember seeing the Verlodra -class Command Cruiser (very nice, BTW) but I don't remember seeing a destroyer.
At any rate, the Krogon looks awesome. However, it doesn't have the same design style of the Verlodra, so it doesn't quite look like part of the Ganba fleet to me.
I posted the Ganvor -class destroyer back here. It was one of my first attempts at a SketchUp ship using Delphi parts, so it came out pretty weak. I need to add more color and detail to both it and the Verlodra -class.
My official reasoning on why the Krogon -class and Verlodra -class look so different is that they were designed by two different groups of engineers within H.A.V.O.K. Most of the time in EVN:UGF, a government hires a defense contractor, which basically designs and builds the thing all on its own, subcontracting parts and equipment as needed. By contrast, H.A.V.O.K. is a pure design firm, entirely focused on R&D. It makes its money through licensing agreements with other companies: the shipyard or whoever gets to use the design, and H.A.V.O.K gets a thirty percent cut of the profits.
The other major faction to use an atypical arrangement for building starships is the Klavar Republic, whose Ministry of Defense owns and operates its own shipyards. In this case, all the military R&D is done in-house, where the Klavarese can easily keep track of who knows what. MoD is a little paranoid given the long history of corruption in the Republic (and the uptick in Axe-tail intel-gathering efforts in the past decade).
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If his writing is as good as the classic car he's working on, EVN:UGF is in even better hands now.
Met him a few days ago when he commented on a couple of my ships. He offered when I posted a journal entry on the Ganba the other day, and I accepted.
Repost of my Ganbar Empire journal entry on DeviantART (subtitled "Oh, rats"):
StarSword-C said:
The Ganba are a species of one-meter sentient rodents who neighbor the UGF to the west in the Andromeda Galaxy. Their eyesight is very poor, but their senses of smell and hearing are far in excess of what a human is capable of. They have parity with the powerful UGF in all but numbers. Their government is a constitutional monarchy, but the greater power lies with Emperor Tazzo Dafel rather than the legislature, called the Imperial Parliament.
The Ganba developed faster-than-light travel approximately 2,500 years ago (roughly 2500 AD, around two hundred years before the first human FTL ships began to explore the Milky Way), and for a long while were a major player in Andromedan politics, starting with them spearheading the pan-galactic uprising against the Holy Sathu Commonwealth. However, a later emperor enacted extreme isolationist policies, which cut the Ganba off from Andromedan events starting in roughly the year 1100 NC.
In 935 GSD, the UGF was reeling from a major economic meltdown, the Depression of 929. Then a United Galactic Navy patrol made the irst contact in over a thousand years with the Ganbar Empire, which now spanned nearly a hundred star systems from the Galactic border to the galactic rim. The UGF signed several major trade agreements with the Ganba; with new export markets, the stagnant Galactic economy got a boost that pushed it out of the Depression.
The Ganba and UGF remained closely allied for 55 years, but then a near-civil war in the Empire changed everything for the worse. The so-called Kobor Insurrection began in early 990 GSD when a religious sect called the Kobors petitioned Parliament to grant independence to the three star systems they inhabited. Initially Parliament, while reluctant to grant full independence, placed the Kobor systems into the category of a "special autonomous region," officially subservient to the crown but an independent country for all intents and purposes. This was not enough for certain radical elements among the Kobors, who proceeded to assassinate several prominent Members of Parliament in a terrorist bombing. A wave of retaliatory attacks prompted several million Kobors to flee to the UGF, including their leader, the prophet Miloz Kavat (whose erstwhile followers had acted against his commands, and against all moral principles of the Kobor religion). The Emperor ordered the Ganbar Imperial Fleet to suppress the Insurrection and restore order at all costs. GIF airstrikes and a major siege operation against a particularly recalcitrant moon quickly put down the rebellion.
In the aftermath of the Kobor Insurrection, Emperor Tazzo demanded that the UGF extradite Miloz Kavat to the Empire in order to prosecute him for high treason, under the terms of a little-used treaty provision. The matter thus fell to the United Galactic Senate, which almost unanimously voted against extradition. President Solara Tanam publicly stated that Kavat was innocent, but Tazzo would have none of it. He recalled all but a token diplomatic presence from the Imperial embassy on Luminous and ordered a GIF black ops unit to spirit Kavat out of Galactic territory. The team was foiled by a neighbor who called the police when she saw the team break into Kavat's apartment; a shoot-out at the spaceport with a UGBI tactical unit resulted in the rescue of Kavat and the deaths of three of the GIF personnel.
Tazzo could do nothing to stop the UGF from putting Kavat and his family far beyond Imperial reach, all the way on the southern rim of the Milky Way Galaxy in Orion space. Furious, he broke off all remaining diplomatic ties except for a presence to keep communications open. The Ganbar Empire and UGF entered a state of cold war, which lasts to this day. Border skirmishes are common between the GIF and the UGN, and the Ganba give as good as they get.
Within the last decade, a growing movement dissatisfied with the Emperor's dealings -- ranging from anti-Galactic rants to reprisals against remaining Kobor civilians, to the mysterious deaths and disappearances of several prominent reformist politicians -- has spawned a rebel group called the Churgos Revolutionary Front. The CRF has, as yet, not made clear their intentions, but the Ganbar Imperial Fleet is hunting hard for their headquarters, seeking to snuff the candle before it becomes a firestorm.
Ganba ships are fast and have great firepower. At first glance their defenses seem fairly weak, but while the Ganba deflector shield has a lower maximum power than its Galactic equivalent, it also has a much higher recharge rate. Finally, their ships typically have quite high fighter complements. Each Ganba military vessel is built in various shipyards, but each originated from the design firm known as H.A.V.O.K. This engineer-run company is almost completely focused on R&D, and makes its money by licensing its designs to other companies.
To get the date for the Ganba and human development of FTL travel, I extrapolated from the EV Nova Timeline, which set 0 NC, the year hypergate (and presumably hyperdrive) inventor Omata Kane died, in 2780 AD. For the sake of interest, the Axe-tails achieved FTL around 1400 AD and started to build an empire that lasted until roughly the year 2000, when the other spacefaring peoples of the Andromeda Galaxy, led by the Sathuans, rose up and overthrew the First Empire in the War of Retribution. The Balcrusians and Klavarese got there in 350 NC, thirty years before the Kerell Polaris colonial expedition was first proposed. The Varellavites were the last major faction to develop FTL, in around 80 GSD, ten years after the Rosenberg Famiglia started making starships, and forty years before the three colony ships of the Grayson Expedition suffered navigational failure and ended up on the far side of Wraith space from Earth.
I finished the STR# lists of government starship names (used mainly for randomly generating names in MISNs). Each major government has a list of 20 possible names. Here's a sample of the names in each major government list:
Galactic:
UGN frigates (planets and moons): Earth, Menin, Luminous, Tau Ceti Prime, Aurora
UGN destroyers: Agamemnon, Intrepid, Relentless, Hornet, Serendipity
UGN cruisers (historical figures)*: Abraham Lincoln, Chester Nimitz, Claus von Stauffenberg, Hans van der Putte, Ul'kan'sheenee
Varellavite (mostly planets): Emperor's Edge, Obrala, Varellanil, Admiral Kroll, Kataga
Axe-tail: Tailstrike, Song of War, Remembrance, Kha'lorin I, Great Crusade
Ganba: Krogon, Zalatar, Gan, Emperor Tazzo IV, Empress Shola
Klavarese: Thiera, Konro'ma, Majesty, Harpoon, Reaver
Balcrusian (IRL, mostly borrowed from Star Destroyers): Star Stinger, Leviathan, Implacable, Dominance, Crucible
Three of these people are real-life figures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Lincoln and Nimitz should be obvious, and Ul'kan'sheenee obviously isn't. Guess who the last one is?
@starsword, on 16 July 2011 - 12:04 AM, said in EV Nova: United Galactic Federation:
- Three of these people are real-life figures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Lincoln and Nimitz should be obvious, and Ul'kan'sheenee obviously isn't. Guess who the last one is?
My guess is Hans van der Putte.
Spoiler
After doing a simple Wikipedia search, however, I know I am incorrect.
