Askan Shipyards Machete Class Corvette

The Broadsword is a reliable vessel, but its cargo bay is still somewhat small, limited by the Broadsword's own small size. Askan Shipyards designed the Machete as a means to transport more cargo per ship over a longer distance. They still put out contracts for cargo delivery with certain independent couriers, and purchase some third party freighters, but the release of the Machete has decreased that somewhat.

At 160 meters it's one of the largest corvettes in the game, though not big enough to border on freighter. True, some freighters are fairly small (eg: the Turtleshell at 130 meters) but the majority are 300 meters and longer. The Onli Vache, in fact, is over 1,000 meters long. The Machete focuses on versatility; there are several standard variants available for purchase on the open market. The stock Machete is a well-rounded corvette, but there's a version based around speed, another built for firepower, and one more specializing in passenger duty. It's not a full luxury liner like the Tulip, but it will grant players access to some of the lower-paying passenger duties not usually granted with other ships.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:19 PM

Askan Shipyards Claymore Class Battleship

The Claymore is a monster. Packing guns and cannons alike, several PD systems, and a torrent of missiles, there's nowhere in a system you can hide once it enters the battlefield. The twin command towers share the load of monitoring everything that happens onboard while the smaller, forward tower handles exterior sensor duty, monitoring everything that happens outside. It has little in the way of carried fighters, however, instead only carrying a quartet of Switchblades for support fire against fighters, leaving the rest of the job to its scores of turrets.

This thing is massive, one of the largest human ships in the game, at 3.4 kilometers. It's no Basilisk (Star Navy carrier, over 5 kilometers) but it gets the job done. You'll almost always find at least one in the Igloo system, location of Askan HQ, and in the Roid system, where Eros HQ is located. The rest are kept either in reserve for defense fleets or as escort for important freight convoys. It's also the only vessel other than the SD Mercs' Wolf Class Missile Frigate to mount Fusion Missile Turrets, the only kind of missile turret in HOTS.

I posted this now rather than later for two reasons: first, I happened to have it ready. Second, and more importantly, I really wanted to show it off.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:22 PM

The Longsword is still my favorite, but this is a close second. Looks like you took two aircraft carriers and mashed them together into an amalgamation of awesome.

The Claymore is actually my favorite of the Askan ships. It's not my favorite of all ships I've built (currently that's the SD Phoenix, a starfighter built by Askan Shipyards expressly for use as Kronos' personal starship.) but I'm still fond of how it turned out.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Nov 23 2010, 07:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Askan Shipyards Claymore Class Battleship

I find it very interesting how versatile the Archon Fin part is. You've made it the dorsal and ventral plates on the Claymore and Broadsword, the wings, solar Panels, and hull on EVN:UGF's Black Knight, and the fins on the Newton Luxury Courier.

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 24 2010, 02:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I find it very interesting how versatile the Archon Fin part is. You've made it the dorsal and ventral plates on the Claymore and Broadsword, the wings, solar Panels, and hull on EVN:UGF's Black Knight, and the fins on the Newton Luxury Courier.

Oh you have no idea. I also used them for the wings and tail fin on EVN:UGF's Apache, they're present in every single Askan ship (minus the Machete, though it does use the whole Archon Plate, not just the fin), and you haven't even seen Eros' ships yet. Almost anything that doesn't use the fin has the plate instead.

In fact, the list of ships that use neither the Archon Plate nor the Archon Fin is very short:

• DCD Peregrine
• DFS Cricket
• ELX Neptune
• Navy Anaconda
• Navy Basilisk
• Navy Python
• Navy Saraph
• Newton Fighter
• Newton Gunship
• 6 of the 7 Onli ships (the sole exception is the Navette)
• Samurai Halberd
• Both Shuto ships

So out of the 100 ships total I've modeled so far, 18 of them don't use the Archon Plate or the fin.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 24 November 2010 - 05:54 PM

I don't know how many of you celebrate Thanksgiving, but I do and, for a special Thanksgiving treat, I'm giving you five ships in one post! The entire Eros Mining line. Before I start, I'll repost my review of Eros Mining from earlier in the thread:

DarthKev, on May 30 2010, said:

Eros Mining produces only small ships, the largest being an asteroid miner simply dubbed the Collector Class. Everything else is a fighter, and only one is capable of operating on its own. That said, they hold the designs to the most advanced and cost-effective solar panels in the galaxy, allowing every one of their designs to generate power at a prodigious rate and eliminating the need for large batteries to hold immense amounts of energy. The pros are fast and nimble craft that are hard to keep up with and extra space for weapons and upgrades. The cons are dependability on a mothership to travel from one system to the other (for most models) and limited ability to use energy-sucking weapon systems.

Eros Mining has three bay-restricted fighters, one mining ship, and one starfighter. Let's start with the bay-restricted fighters.

Eros Mining Defender Class Solar-Powered Fighter

The smallest and most basic of the Eros Fighter line, the Defender is a defensive fighter, meant to stick by its mothership and fend off other fighters and give supporting fire against larger vessels. Its armament consists of a pair of Medium Lasers and nothing else. Fairly sparse to be sure, but effective given the Medium Laser's efficiency.

Eros Mining Avenger Class Solar-Powered Interceptor

The mid-ranged Eros fighter, the Avenger's duty is to intercept and destroy enemy fighters long before they reach the mothership. It sacrifices armour for pure speed and doubles up on Medium Lasers over the Defender and even adds in a Light Rocket Pod.

Eros Mining Vindicator Class Solar-Powered Gunboat

The Vindicator was designed with capital ship assault in mind. It carries identical armaments to the Avenger with the addition of an array of missiles and even adds in thicker armour and more powerful shields. It does lose quite a bit of speed to attain this, though, and thus is the slowest of Eros' fighters. Often ships carrying Vindicators will carry a few Avengers, as well, to serve as escort for the Vindicators and keep fighters off their backs.

And that's Eros' fighter lineup. As I said before, these are bay-restricted, meaning they don't have Fluxdrives and are only available to players as launch-able craft. You can escape from your stricken vessel in one of these, but without a friendly port in the same system you're still stuck.

Eros Mining Solar/Hydrogen-Powered Mining Vessel

Though smaller than the Ceres, the Eros Collector is faster, better armoured, and more combat capable. It still requires escort in more dangerous space, but that escort can easily be another Collector. It uses a combination of solar and hydrogen power as solar power becomes useless when one gets too far away from a star. At the same time, Collectors carry small drones capable of diving within a star and scooping out hydrogen to power the Collector if the ship is far from any friendly port and needs to operate away from stars for a while longer.

In-game you won't be able to do anything with the hydrogen probes, it just manifests itself as player-usable inherent energy generation for the craft. You'll also more often see small fleets of Collectors flying around in systems with asteroids instead of lone Collectors. This isn't so much for extra protection, but so the Collectors can share their collective cargo space and haul back more resources from asteroids. If needed, one can enter a crawl space inside the pylon connecting the two hulls and move from one hull to the other.

Eros Mining Solar/Hydrogen-Powered Starfighter

Out of all the starfighter designs, the unimaginatively-named Starfighter Class is probably the most well-rounded. This does have the side effect of less effectiveness in any one role compared to specialized craft, but it also means Eros Mining can handle almost any situation with these.

You'll usually see these patrolling Eros space alone, but occasionally you'll see one or two escorting a group of Collectors or alongside a Longsword flying Eros IFFs.

And that's the Eros line. As I said before, nothing too exciting, but still useful. Eros Mining also offers solar panel outfits that can be fitted to any ship. A lot of commercial factions offer some special outfit, in fact. Eros with their solar technology, Newton Electronics with their equipment pods, and the Dragonfly Syndicate with their Reactive Armour are only a few.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:26 PM

Very nice TIE renditions, DK.

Two questions: Since Askan and Eros use the same color scheme, am I correct in inferring that they're run by the same overall corporation?

The other question is, I know most of the TIE fighters you based the Eros ships on -- the basic TIE (Defender), the TIE Defender (Vindicator), and the TIE Bomber (Collector) -- but I'm not sure about the other two. I'm guessing the Starfighter is based on the TIE Advanced (Vader's fighter), and I'm stuck between the TIE Interceptor and TIE Hunter for the Avenger. Care to enlighten me?

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 25 2010, 08:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very nice TIE renditions, DK.

Thank you, kindly.

QUOTE

Two questions: Since Askan and Eros use the same color scheme, am I correct in inferring that they're run by the same overall corporation?

Yes. Now, I could've sworn I mentioned this in the past, but Eros Mining is owned by Askan Shipyards. When Askan started making their own weapon designs, they quickly realized they didn't have the capability to gather enough resources to mass-produce their weapons. They managed to broker a deal with Eros Mining that entailed Eros giving Askan a cut of the resources they gathered from asteroids and the like in return for a cut of the profits Askan raked in with their weapons. That eventually evolved to Askan buying Eros and relocating their weapons plants to Eros facilities.

QUOTE

The other question is, I know most of the TIE fighters you based the Eros ships on -- the basic TIE (Defender), the TIE Defender (Vindicator), and the TIE Bomber (Collector) -- but I'm not sure about the other two. I'm guessing the Starfighter is based on the TIE Advanced (Vader's fighter), and I'm stuck between the TIE Interceptor and TIE Hunter for the Avenger. Care to enlighten me?

You would be correct on the Starfighter. The Avenger is based on the TIE Interceptor. Remember, the Hunter has more of an 'X' shape to the panels.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Nov 26 2010, 02:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You would be correct on the Starfighter. The Avenger is based on the TIE Interceptor. Remember, the Hunter has more of an 'X' shape to the panels.

Oh yeah, huh. I must've had the Hunter confused with something else.

By the way, if you want some more TIE ideas, the Empire alone built a total of 38 TIE models, and over a dozen more TIE ships appeared from independent sources. Wookieepedia has the complete list.

EDIT: I think I know what fooled me. If I remember correctly, the TIE Interceptor's solar panels were broader vertically than you made them in the Avenger.

This post has been edited by StarSword : 26 November 2010 - 11:20 AM

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 26 2010, 08:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

By the way, if you want some more TIE ideas, the Empire alone built a total of 38 TIE models, and over a dozen more TIE ships appeared from independent sources. Wookieepedia has the complete list.

Well, if I end up basing more craft in TIEs, I'll check that out. As things are now, that's about it for Star Wars stuff.

QUOTE

EDIT: I think I know what fooled me. If I remember correctly, the TIE Interceptor's solar panels were broader vertically than you made them in the Avenger.

Hmm. Well, that might actually be a good thing. It's only based on the Interceptor, it's not supposed to be an exact copy.

I noticed you changed the colors of your avatar again. Have you not settled on national colors yet?

EDIT: One other question. I was re-reading the post about the Claymore, and I noticed you mentioned missile turrets. Is that an unguided turret (like the Raven Turret in EVN), or something more complex (like a turret whose shots submunition into guided missiles)?

This post has been edited by StarSword : 30 November 2010 - 12:14 AM

QUOTE (StarSword @ Nov 29 2010, 09:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I noticed you changed the colors of your avatar again. Have you not settled on national colors yet?

The color change is seasonal. With the brown version, didn't you notice the turkey tail feathers on the rear? With the current red and white version, there are black skis on the bottom. I've nicknamed the brown one S.S. Turkey Shoot, and it's for Thanksgiving. The red and white one is named S.S. Candy Cane and is for the winter holiday season. The SD Mercs' colors have already been decided.

QUOTE

EDIT: One other question. I was re-reading the post about the Claymore, and I noticed you mentioned missile turrets. Is that an unguided turret (like the Raven Turret in EVN), or something more complex (like a turret whose shots submunition into guided missiles)?

The latter. It's actually fairly simple. I've already got a Fusion Missile weapon in rack form. The Fusion Missile Turret simply fires a turret shot that immediately submunitions into the standard Fusion Missile. And since both the rack and turret use the same ammo, I only need three outfits. One for the rack, one for the turret, and one for the missile.

Estee Luxury Yards Uranus Class Shuttle

The Uranus Class Shuttle, like all Estee ships, is somewhat larger than other ships of its class. In the case of Estee ships, this is due to the fact that all of them are designed to have a certain amount of luxury involved. The Uranus has the most luxury seen in all of ELX's designs. Fast, well defended, and built to act alone or in combination with another ship mounting a launch bay, the Estee Uranus is the perfect ship for those small time rich people who just want some mode of transportation.

You will be able to buy launch bays for the Uranus, and you will be able to buy Uranus to place in said bay. However, it won't be the standard Uranus. Tough as it may be, the bay-launched version has had most of its cargo bay stripped out to make room for additional weapons, more powerful shields, and a boost to the engines. That same variant can be seen flying around independently, and I'll probably allow players to buy it from the shipyard, too.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:28 PM

Estee Luxury Yards Phobos Class Interdictor

When it became clear the Venus was not enough to deter pirates, a new ship was needed to defend ELX freight fleets while the freight vessels made their escape. Thus the Phobos Class was born. These sleek devils are capable of unleashing hell on just about anything. They mount, among other weapons, several types of missiles and torpedoes, half a dozen guns of various sorts, and a few sets of Tazers. Getting in a fight with one of these is not recommended.

The Venus Class, as mentioned earlier in my review of Estee Luxury, is a freighter originally built to act as a defensive carrier. The experiment ultimately failed despite being somewhat effective against smaller pirates.

The Tazer is a very old weapon, first used in the time of Solar Ships. They function along similar lines to Tasers today. A turret mounted on the hull will track and then fire four grappling arms at a target, each arm connected to a tether who's other end is connected to the turret. Once the arms latch on, a powerful shock is sent through the tethers, overloading the target's systems and searing the hull. The tethers can also be reeled in to pull the target closer to the mothership or pull the mothership closer to the target, depending on which is more massive.

While it's not unique to ELX, they are the only ones to mount the weapon as standard on their ships. The exceptions being the few Solar Ships still around in the present day (basically refurbished couriers sold out of Darkstar City) and the two Shuto ships, also very old vessels, the first to incorporate Fluxdrives and shields. Modern Tazers have upgraded the grappling arms with equipment capable of bypassing shield systems, allowing a firm grip on the target's hull. The shock, however, will still be absorbed by the shields as it passes along the tether.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:27 PM

Estee Luxury Yards Mercury Class Courier

A relatively new development in the ELX freight line, the Estee Mercury is fast, nimble, and well armed. Continuing ELX's trademark design for starships, these vessels are the fastest of their kind. Though their cargo bays are slightly smaller than their counterparts, most merchant captains agree that, in this day and age, a smaller cargo bay is worth the extra speed.

I'm hoping at least some of you have caught onto the trend ELX has for the names of its ships. And I'm not just talking about celestial bodies (and their moons) found in our solar system. Mercury is also the name of the Roman god of eloquence, skill, trading, and thieving. He was also herald and messenger of the gods. Basically the Roman equivalent of Hermes. Uranus is from Greek legend, the most ancient of the gods and the first ruler of the universe. Phobos is one of Mars' potato-shaped moons, the other being Deimos. Phobos literally translates to 'fear' while Deimos can be either 'fear' or 'terror'. Both are sons of Ares, the Greek god of war.

Now, despite being well armed for a courier, it doesn't come equipped with Tazers. In fact, it's the only ELX design to forego Tazers as standard armament. Instead it relies on a few guns, some turrets, and a pair of Light Rocket Turrets. Think EVN's Raven Turret or EVC's Javelin Rockets if there was a turret version. The difference with HOTS' Light Rockets, however, is the fact even standard Light Rocket Pods can swivel in a forward arc and Light Rockets blast out of their sockets at almost full speed. They're also mounted standard (either in pod form or turret form) on almost every human-designed ship in the game.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:13 PM

I know it's the government/shipyard color scheme, but that yellow clashes with the red on all of these ships.

I agree that it clashes, but I actually rather like it.

Actually, the red and blue are part of the engines. The red glows and the blue has a conical contrail. The blue serves as main forward thrusters and the red provides maneuverability. ELX ships have some of the fastest turn times in the game. It's nothing to do with ELX's own color scheme.

That's also ELX's unique outfit. You can add an ELX Thruster System to any ship not made by ELX for additional maneuverability in exchange for some free mass and probably something else, I haven't decided yet.

Also, that's supposed to be gold, not yellow. Sol Shipyards has yellow.

Estee Luxury Yards Venus Class Freighter

The second ship designed by ELX, the Estee Venus was originally designed to act as a carrier for the then new Estee Uranus. This was partly to aid in defense as its purpose was to be a luxury liner, but mainly so it could aid in the ELX Defense Force. Now that Estee Luxury has the Neptune and Pluto, though, that role has been greatly reduced. Currently, these ships serve primarily as secure freighters for ELX and many rich merchants.

Though now classed as a freighter, the Venus does have ample weapon room and its stock setup isn't too shabby, either. Shields, armour, and engines would definitely use some work, however. When the ship was first designed they were top of the line, but as its role became less and less combat-related, its systems weren't updated as often.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 19 January 2011 - 09:12 PM