@darthkev, on 13 March 2011 - 01:29 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
Right. When I said 'I' I meant 'EVWeb'. He's doing all the texturing (though he's been teaching me a little of how it's done) and he uses Bryce. I'm still no good at actually texturing, though.
Meh. Maybe I'll download the Bryce 5.5 for free.
Alright, so I did some thinking on my ship class arrangements, and decided it is a little confusing considering what real-world ship classes are. I thank StarSword fro bringing to my attention that frigates are actually smaller than destroyers, and I'm taking a page from Templar's book by eliminating the term 'frigate' from being used completely in HOTS. What follows is a revised list of ship classes in HOTS, with expanded definitions for each class, as well:
Bay-Mountable Craft, Smallest to Largest
Interceptor: The smallest and weakest, but fastest of all fighter craft. They're best used as a defense against other fighters, or for intercepting small craft on the run. Some can make strafing runs on larger ships if they have support, however. It's not uncommon for carriers to use their interceptors in this way.
Fighter: The mid-size of fighter craft, simply classed as 'fighter' for lack of a better name. They're comparable in size to interceptors, but slower and with heavier weaponry.
Shuttle: Small transport vessels capable of moving small cargoes. They are fast enough to outrun larger warships, but any fighter would swiftly catch up to them, as would missile systems. You will rarely if ever see a shuttle lingering about in dangerous space alone.
Bomber/Gunboat: Both classes are very similar and differ only slightly, and so are lumped into the same category. Both are heavily armed and armoured for taking down larger prey, though bombers tend to have more weapons while gunboats tend to have more speed.
Interdictor: With enough firepower to rival schooners, interdictors are usually seen flying on their own (maybe with escort) but can be carried in launch bays.
Schooner/Yacht: Formerly known as cruisers, these are the largest ships that fit into launch bays, and even then only the largest ones. They're often used as patrol ships by the military and personal luxury ships by civilians. They're referred to by either name, though 'yacht' is most often used for civilian models and 'schooner' is more reserved for military designs. When carried by larger ships, they're almost exclusively used as the captain's own personal transport to and from the mothership. This is not to say larger ships don't launch them, just that the captain is never aboard when used for combat.
Independent Craft, Smallest to Largest
Starfighter: These independent fighters operate alone. They are the smallest craft that don't fit in bays and are made only by Askan Shipyards and Eros Mining, the latter of which is owned by the former.
Scout: This is a specialty class that, in recent times, has seen the beginnings of extinction. Only two such vessels remain in use, and only one of them is actually used for its specified purpose.
Gunship: The main class used as picket ships. They're usually armed with guns and missiles and little else.
Courier/Corvette: Both are of comparable sizes, like the bomber/gunboat comparison. Their duties are also similar. Couriers are generally used to haul cargo in relatively safe areas, or in dangerous areas with escort. Corvettes can haul cargo alone in dangerous areas, usually, but can also be used as escorts for couriers and other freight vessels. Gunships are still generally more combat capable than corvettes, however, so corvettes see little military use.
Freighter: Large and vulnerable craft. You won't see them alone in dangerous space much, but rather in safer zones. Otherwise, they can be seen en masse in cargo fleets.
Destroyer: Standard warships. They're usually the backbone of a fleet and show up in larger numbers than other warships. They can mount launch bays, but most don't, preferring instead to maximize weapon space.
Cruiser: Formerly known as frigates, these are the next step up from destroyers. Unlike destroyers, most examples carry a few fighters for scouting, overwhelming enemy forces, and fighter defense.
Battleship: These are battlefield juggernauts. These are insanely overpowered but are kept balanced by their small numbers and incredible difficulty for the player to obtain. You won't see them often, but when you do, either run, or fly as best you can to survive. Unless you have your own battleship or carrier, these monsters are tough to topple.
Carrier: Top-of-the-line warship. They have massive amounts of firepower on their own, and their compliments of fighters only add to it. You want to take one on? Be my guest. Just make sure you grab a carrier of your own and a full fleet of escorts with at least 1 battleship if you want to have any semblance of combat ability when you've finished it off.
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 20 March 2011 - 08:22 PM
@darthkev, on 20 March 2011 - 08:14 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
Bay-Mountable Craft, Smallest to Largest
Ummmm. You can carry these? Uh, how big does your ship have to be?
You need a ship of 1,000 meters in length or larger to mount a bay for a schooner, the smallest of which is 40 meters in length. The biggest one is just over 60 meters. For interdictors, you need a ship at least 500 meters in length. The largest interdictor is around 30 meters. The smallest a ship can be in HOTS and still be capable of mounting even one turret is 40 meters.
Those ships that do carry interdictors and schooners don't carry any more than two. Generally, only carriers actually have schooners standard, but battleships can be adjusted to carry them, too. Anything else is too small. Cruisers are the smallest that can carry interdictors, bar a few larger freighters.
Oh, and i forgot to mention something regarding shuttles. Most are not combat capable in the slightest, but the ones you can carry are modified for use as cheap fighter defense.
Just a short check-in here. No more images for the moment, though I will start posting more images once I get into modeling more weapons and outfits. For now, though, I'm working on finishing ship stats (2 1/3 ship files to go, meaning roughly 58 ships left ) but once I finish those, I'll work more on outfits and weapon sprites before going on to ship variants.
Wow, almost a month since my last post. Well, I've got a graphic to show off this time. 
Behold Shipwreck Station, headquarters of the Shipwreck Rogues. From afar it appears to be a completely symmetrical construction, but a closer inspection would actually reveal hundreds of thousands of starship hulls meshed together with space rocks to form it. The spike coming out of the top is a combination communication/sensor tower, with the command center located in the bottom spike. From tip to tip the station is over 16 kilometers tall with a diameter of approximately 5 kilometers. It's armed to the teeth with lasers, missiles, rockets, and fighter squadrons aplenty. By now this should be obvious, but players will have to fight this thing eventually. Don't worry, you won't be alone. But it's still gonna be tough.
Oh, that's also the in-game size. Gives you an idea of the scale of station graphics in HOTS.
Far be it from me to actually comment in this thread rather than lurk, but that looks pretty damn awesome.
I welcome comments. If something needs improvement, speak your mind! If you have a question about something, ask away!
Thanks for the complement. And wouldn't you know it, I did all the texture work myself on this one, and all in Sketchup, too! I owe the lighting to Meaker's render file for Sketchup, though. Thanks, Meaker!
@darthkev, on 26 April 2011 - 03:59 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
I owe the lighting to Meaker's render file for Sketchup, though. Thanks, Meaker!
You're welcome. I have no comments/complaints about the look of the station, but I think it should maybe be bigger(assuming the engine can handle it). It looks about the same size (visually) as one of the Arouran colony-station things.
Will you be using landing pictures that are different from your global pictures? And if so, will we get to see the actual ships involved in this monstrosity? I ask because I think that would be awesome.
@starsword, on 26 April 2011 - 08:31 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
The yellow seems a little garish for a pirate gang called the Shipwreck Rogues (might want to make it somewhat duller and/or darker), but other than that it looks really cool. Nice job, Darth.
It was actually supposed to be a dull brown or tan. I'll work on it. Thanks!
@meaker-vi, on 26 April 2011 - 10:27 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
... but I think it should maybe be bigger(assuming the engine can handle it). It looks about the same size (visually) as one of the Arouran colony-station things.
Oh I'm sure the engine can handle it. Have you seen some of the stellar graphics in SFA? Some don't even fit on the whole screen if you're not sitting on their center. Note I'm going by my screen size, which is 1280x800. I'm sure there are much larger screens out there, but nonetheless the engine can handle it.
Though I have to ask: which Auroran station? The smaller Deimos-class or the larger Double Deimos? If the former, it's probably just the site around it making it look smaller. You know, an optical illusion. I say that because it's currently 300x300, and the larger Auroran station is 315x200. They are in fact about the same size. I might make it larger, but some of my other planned stations will be even bigger. The Onli Battlestations, SD Battlestations, and Bridge Station (headquarters of the Mafia) are all enormous constructs. Bridge Station itself is the largest man-made object in the Milky Way galaxy.
Quote
Will you be using landing pictures that are different from your global pictures? And if so, will we get to see the actual ships involved in this monstrosity? I ask because I think that would be awesome.
I haven't decided yet. If I do close-up shots for landing images, I'd like for there to be ships floating around. But mixing EVWeb's texture style for the ships and my texture style for the stations wouldn't look too good. And I'm not going to make EVWeb texture the stations. He's got his hands full with the ships of HOTS and other stuff he's working on.
What will probably happen is stations will have slightly closer views for landing images, probably from a different angle to give another view of the station, but far enough away to explain a lack of any visible ships as they would be too small to see from that distance.
@darthkev, on 26 April 2011 - 03:31 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
Oh I'm sure the engine can handle it. Have you seen some of the stellar graphics in SFA? Some don't even fit on the whole screen if you're not sitting on their center. ...
Though I have to ask: which Auroran station? The smaller Deimos-class or the larger Double Deimos?...
I haven't decided yet. If I do close-up shots for landing images, I'd like for there to be ships floating around. But mixing EVWeb's texture style for the ships...
In the case that it'd fit bigger, I'd say make it somewhat bigger. I was thinking of both Deimos-type stations, and while I'll admit I haven't been on NOVA in a while (or on this machine which has a larger monitor), it is probably the optics of a solid, cube-shaped station looking beefier than the cobbled-together station with space showing through you're showing.
If you do show closeups, this would be a sweet one to see. You could even show just a portion of the station where your ship landed/docked (Kinda like the landing scene on the Demos stations), since the entire thing is supposed to be so massive.
Okay, I haven't done enough work on Shipwreck Station yet to feel confident posting it again, but I do have a teaser to show off in the meantime.
This is an alien corvette players will encounter very late in the game. Players will not be allowed to fly it, but they will fight alongside it. That's all I'm saying about it. 
Okay, I've finally done enough work on Shipwreck Station that I'm willing to post it. Ta-dah!
StarSword, you were right, the tan was too bright. This looks much better. Meaker, I haven't enlarged it yet, I'm still considering whether I'd like to or not.
I also have another station I did some more work on in the meantime.
ELX Shipyards. Just as with Shipwreck above, this is the current in-game size of the station graphic. The station itself is approximately 1,500 meters square and only a few hundred meters tall. Most battleships are about on par with it in size, as well, possibly slightly larger. This shipyard is not of unique design. In fact, it is merely the most recent station to be built in its class. In this case, it is a Class 2 shipyard. The Class 1 is largely obsolete in modern times, though is still in use by pirates because of the lower maintenance requirements.
You're alive! breaths sigh of relief I thought you were gone for a second there! Anyway, I love the new station. Personally, I believe that stations should be about 2/3 to 3/4 of the sizes of your planets, but that's just the way I personally favor it.
@spartan-jai, on 25 May 2011 - 07:00 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
You're alive! breaths sigh of relief I thought you were gone for a second there!
While I'm flattered by your concern for my well-being, my previous two posts were less than a month apart. 
To be exact, only 17 days. Roughly two and a half weeks. To me, that's hardly worth worrying about someone/thing. 
I'm glad you like it! I can't say for certain at the moment how big the stations will be in comparison with the planets, as manticore is still making those. At least, as far as I know he's still planning to make those. :unsure:
Jeez, I'm emoti-happy today. 
In an effort to prove I'm not dead (looking at you, Jai :p) I'm posting a few comparison images, showing the similarities and differences between certain vessels and variants in use by other factions. First up, the USEC Clipper Mk.II and Mafia Missile Barge.
I haven't posted either of these before now. The Clipper Mk.II is, as the name suggests, an upgraded version of the Clipper. The Clipper is a courier while the Mk.II is a corvette. The main difference is the Mk.II has additional engines for speed, wings and fins for stability (thrusters are mounted along them for extra control) and a larger stock weapon setup.
The Mafia's Missile Barge is a retrofitted Mk.II, with a huge stockpile of guided ordnance. However, because it is still a civilian corvette at heart, this leaves it with little in the way of expansion room or normal energy weapons.
Here we have the Star Navy's own freighter class, the Boinae, and the Pirate Destroyer, a heavily modified variant. The Boinae (right), while a freighter, is no pushover. It was designed by military shipwrights for military purposes, specifically transporting classified and sensitive cargo such as weapon parts, ship subassemblies, and on occasion large battalions of troops. It only made sense the pirate gangs would select it for adaptation to their most feared warship.
The Pirate Destroyer is actually much larger than other destroyers, easily the largest in the Milky Way. Also unlike other destroyers, it carries fighters, in this case a trio of Wraith class stealth gunboats.
Ah the Kestrel. The current models produced by EEI are far superior to these older models, but these are also the classic, original models. Before EEI became an autonomous corporation, it was the Earth Empire's Eagle Project, an attempt to improve on the Star Navy's aging warship designs. Before the project was terminated, two vessels were produced; the Aquila and Kestrel class destroyers. The old Aquila has long been discarded as obsolete in favor of EEI's newer Aquila cruiser.
On the left is the original Kestrel destroyer, still in use by pirate gangs, mercenaries, the Merchant Marines, and most notably USEC as escorts for freighter convoys. The center variant is the Kestrel Mk.II, a moderately upgraded variant used exclusively by Goliath Shipping and painted in their colors. Its stats are only slightly above those of the original Kestrel, for the most part consisting in simply additional weapons. The vessel on the right is the Mk.III Kestrel. Also used solely by Goliath, the Mk.III is much deadlier and tends to be seen guarding the more important convoys and certain GS executives.
These two have appeared once before as examples on how making extra faces to cover up hollow points could be done attractively. On the right is the Kingsnake, an armoured courier designed for transport of Earth Empire VIPs and small valuable cargos.
The other is the Missileboat. Its purpose is to be a mid-range commerce raider, meant to assault convoys from a distance with ordnance, but no match for a warship. The paneling present on the Kingsnake was removed in the modifications to create a lighter, faster frame. The action of doing so does have a negative effect on defenses, but the various pirate gangs fielding the vessel see it as an acceptable risk.
Another pirate rebuild. The ship on the right is the Star Corps' Ranger class scout, kept in use thanks to its long range allowing it to make incursions deep into hostile territory and still return in one piece. Its combat ability is nil, however.
On the left is the Blastboat, a pirate variant that throws out the expanded fuel tanks and advanced sensor systems in order to pack the hull full of guns and cannons. Indeed, the Blastboat can unleash a blistering hail of fire on its targets.
For the last image I have the evolution of the Wasp. From left to right, oldest to newest, they are the DFS Wasp, Medical Wasp, Star Corps Wasp, and DFS Hornet. It began with DFS' Wasp, initially meant for civilian sale and use until Star Medical saw it as the perfect platform for a fighter of their own. After SM's variant proved a success, the Star Corps bought several Wasps and refitted them completely, eventually getting DFS to produce the Star Corps variant themselves and sell them exclusively to the Star Corps. Then the Hornet came along when something of a cold war sprung up between the Merchant Marines and the Star Corps over access to the SC Wasp variant.
So yeah. I'm still here, I'm still working on HOTS, I simply don't have any graphics work to show off. Basically the same as Delphi. Also, I just thought these comparison images looked pretty cool, so I decided to share.
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 04 June 2011 - 04:22 AM
@darthkev, on 04 June 2011 - 04:21 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
<snip on kestrel>
Is it okay to say I just drooled on my keyboard? I love them.
It's not Delphi's epic 4 gigs of HD usage, but I've managed to get my total HD space usage for HOTS-related material up to:
Yeah, I know, kinda pathetic. But at least it's 1 gig. However, a large part of it is my ship graphics are not true renders with epic details like Delphi's, and thus take up less space. A lot less.
Speaking of graphics, manticore managed to finish some planets for me. I haven't finished making masks for them all yet, but in the meantime here's Earth for you all to bask in the glory of. Great work, manticore!
Note: I may make planets bigger than that. At the same time, though, I don't wanna make planets that are too much bigger than the gas giants I have. manticore didn't make any gas giants for me, so I'm currently reusing the ones from EVN, and I'd like to keep the other planets at least kind of to scale. For that matter, I may make Earth smaller, as well. Not quite sure yet.
@spartan-jai, on 04 June 2011 - 08:46 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
Is it okay to say I just drooled on my keyboard? I love them.
Aww, your poor keyboard. :despair I hope it's okay. 
But yeah, glad you like them.
It's interesting the way you've taken basic models and done variations on a theme rather than designing each separately. I've only done that a couple of times myself. (The Kangaroo freighter and Orion Frigate, and the Carrack, which shows up in four different forms.)
@spartan-jai, on 25 May 2011 - 07:00 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
You're alive! breaths sigh of relief I thought you were gone for a second there!
@darthkev, on 25 May 2011 - 07:48 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
While I'm flattered by your concern for my well-being, my previous two posts were less than a month apart.
<snip>
Jeez, I'm emoti-happy today.
Yeah, I'm the one he should be worrying about. Before I started working again (and designing ships), I was off the boards for a year, and my last three posts have been months apart.
And as far as being smiley-happy, you should see the string of them at the top of my last post on the UGF thread.
