Hah, an AK-47 of the Delphi universe? You need an RPG next--it's ever always in the wrong hands

Now I'm tempted to download SketchUp and piece together a ship of my own so I can get it into Delphi.

Here's the Kevilan II, a heavier mod of the standard Kevilan. The mark two sacrifices weapons in exchange for heavier armor across the entire hull, which in combination with the powerful shields makes the ship into a sort of flying tank. There is very little that can break the hull of the Kevilan II, making it useful for blockade running and deep voidspace operations.

Then there's the Pariah Combine. The Combine are a religious cult exiled from the majority of civilized space for their practices of kidnapping and human sacrifice. Many independent worlds in voidspace are threatened by their presence, the victims of raids for future sacrifices. The Pariah don't hold any worlds, residing instead on mobile battlestations in the void between major star clusters. Their entire fleet consists of stolen vessels refitted for close-combat operations. Their variant of the Kevilan is no exception, a nasty vessel modified with multiple continuous electromag lasers designed for crowd control during abduction landings. Though its original purpose suits it best for atmospheric operation, don't be fooled; the Pariah Kevilan's quad lasers can rip apart ships with frightening ease.

The Kevilan II reminds me of the A-Wing from Star Wars without the fins (if I got my Star Wars crafts right). The quad laser variant looks like some sort of creature-thing. Seriously.

What?

And by the way, I shall now start failing to assemble some Manticore-ish ship in SketchUp. Let's see how terrible this turns out.

First order of fail: how the frick do I open up this Component Window? Not even Google is very clear on that.

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 04 July 2010 - 12:52 AM

Both the Mark I and the Mark II have an undercarriage much like the larger Enclave cruisers, so although the 3/4 view looks much like the A-wing (you're right on your call), in practice it looks and behaves quite differently.

Also, I'd like to think the Kevilan is a slight bit bigger.

QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Jul 3 2010, 11:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First order of fail: how the frick do I open up this Component Window? Not even Google is very clear on that.

Window > Components

The directions for loading the components should be in the folder with the files themselves. Everything should hopefully be clear past there!

Woot, thanks. Let us hope that I can actually forge something awesome from all these parts. Seriously.

Now may I ask: how do you resize objects?

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 04 July 2010 - 01:03 AM

I just hit (Command)+(9), but I'm not sure what the key combo is in Windows. Unless you're using a Mac, in which case that'll work.

Cool, cool. I'm going to have fun messing around with this, and if not, have some half-assembled thing that actually looks like part of a spaceship

For building something resembling EVN's Manticore, I suggest using 'Panel Chunk' pieces, rotated to make an upright circle. Select it, copy it, and then place the copy behind the original, leaving space between (very little). Just mash things together for the rear/engines.

Here's a nice little frigate for the horrible Pariah Combine. Seriously through, these guys are about as evil as you can find in the game. They kidnap people from undefended worlds to use in ritual human torture and sacrifice, before their victims' flesh is fed to the "priests" alongside heavy amounts of hallucinogenic chemicals to keep them in a semi-catatonic state. They are bound by religious law and follow it to the letter, even if that calls for the evisceration of you and your entire crew. You don't want to find yourself a stranger on one of their settlements, and if they board your ship in the dead of the void, pray that the only things they take are your cargo and your money.

By the way, the Pariah ships are fast. They have surprisingly powerful missile jamming, tough armor, and their favorite weapon is the terrifying continuous electromagnetic laser, for its ability to surgically slice through a target's hull.

Good luck.

The first thing I do when I get a decent warship is huntin' me some Pariah punks. <insert devious emoticon>

Let's see if my Inexorable Class Cruiser can top one of those Pariah ships

Can someone tell me how to link photos from Dropbox to here without it giving me error messages such as "Dynamic links are not allowed" or "You aren't allowed to use this image extension on the boards"?

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 04 July 2010 - 06:14 PM

You need to put the image into the Public Folder and post the link here. The Photos Folder is for galleries like the one I set up. You cannot link to images in the gallery, only to the gallery itself.

So just move the image over to the Public Folder and we can see it.

Speaking of Manticores, though (;)) how's this beast scale up?

I probably won't use it in HOTS, but I thought the idea of basing a design on the Manticore sounded cool and manticore here decided not to do it. If anyone else wants to use it, or start a design off of it, you can download the Sketchup file here. You may have also noticed the new format for images I've been using. Most past images have been updated to this format, as well, in case you wanted a better look at some after I stopped making extra angles of view. They're also made in a 1280x800 pixel size, perfect for small screens if you want to use them as desktop backgrounds.

That thing is really scary, considering it's got 12 Ion Cannons instead of 8. And a giant spinal cannon. That would totally be my Manticore in Nova

Plus, my Inexorable Class Cruiser. Needs a lot of work still, but this is my draft so far. Kudos and bonus points to whoever figures out where I got the "three railguns on different levels plus the one in the back" idea from.

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 05 July 2010 - 01:29 AM

Today's US Navy ships have that design. I've never seen one with three on the front, but definitely two. Also, they're not railguns, but still... Is that it?

Uh, not really. Sorry.

I've added arms and a few more weapons to the Inexorable, and corrected a few weird spots. I cannot get this thing to have four (preferably more) front cannons like the Thunderforge, which sucks. I also cannot get the railguns to be mounted on some sort of swivel mechanism (as I wanted every railgun, with the exception of the big one on top) to rotate 180º. The big one fully swivels 360º. Yes, I also realize that the right arm is not as detailed as the left arm--it's what I get for exploding the left arm and fixing it to have the same details as the right. Still, for a first try, it's not half bad so far.

Man... that's one mean mother... just a tip, though: there is such a thing as too many cannons. The Inexorable pulls it off nicely, but you're pushing it.

I don't have any further guesses on where you got the idea for three forward cannons and one rear cannon beyond the starships used in Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles. By-the-way, that series (or the movies it's based on) is probably where ATMOS got the idea for Admiral Raczak and the Federation Roughnecks.

manticore, I'm not sure what you meant regarding the right arm being less detailed compared to the left arm. For one, the right arm is mostly obscured from this angle. I did notice that the 'Archon Plate' on the right arm is flipped relative to the plate on the left arm. Another tip: if you have an asymmetrical piece you need a mirrored version of, go to scale (Command+9) and click and of the green boxes that are located in the center of a side. Go down to the lower right corner, highlight the contents, type -1, and hit Return. The piece will be mirrored.

It's even easier than that, DarthKev. Just right/control-click on the piece, and choose which axis to flip it along. If your vessel lies parallel to the red axis, then choosing "flip along red" will mirror it. Another good tip for creating symmetrical ships is to create a single "guide wire" along center axis and build out from there. When you create one half of the ship, select both the half and the axial line, duplicate-move it somewhere else, mirror it, and then perform one last move, selecting the tip of the duplicated wire and placing it onto the matching point on the original. The ship will be perfectly mirrored.

Also, please do remember that the component names don't necessarily define function. You can use them like Lego blocks, in that every piece is multipurpose. What is a cannon barrel in one model can be placed facing backward in another, turning it into an engine.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Jul 5 2010, 05:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, please do remember that the component names don't necessarily define function. You can use them like Lego blocks, in that every piece is multipurpose. What is a cannon barrel in one model can be placed facing backward in another, turning it into an engine.

Oh I know that, I was referring to the number of pieces manticore is referring to as cannons.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Jul 5 2010, 05:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's even easier than that, DarthKev. Just right/control-click on the piece, and choose which axis to flip it along. If your vessel lies parallel to the red axis, then choosing "flip along red" will mirror it.

Oh, thanks, Delph. I'll get to fixing that.

And Darth, a user named TrashMan was attempting to make an expansion he named Vaynor Alliance, but he gave up when it came to missions and uploaded his work online. I don't believe you were here when this occurred, but if you search this forum, you'll find it, though I'm not certain if the download link still works. The Archangel Battleship is where I got the "three railguns" idea.

Now I think I'm done. Here's the SketchUp file for the Inexorable. Delph, you are free to mod it in any way you see fit. If you could implement the items I was unable to do in my post at the top of the page, that'd be great, but you don't need to.

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 05 July 2010 - 11:51 AM