USS Lawrence Holland NEED TESTERS Nov. 23

[eclipse74569]

[offtopic]Bow chicka bow wow[/offtopic]

[ontopic]Very nice DJ, looking slick!  Can't wait to fly this baby![/ontopic]

[Aeries]

I'm a fan. :]

[DJ Curtis]

Work continues on this ship behind the scenes.  Sorry for the lack of updates, but I only really get time to work on ships in piecemeal format nowadays.  Work, kids, the band... you know the routine.

Mostly just been working on the hull texture.  I've refined the shuttle bay though, and added some regs to the sides of the nacelle pylons.  I think I also added impulse engine textures since the last update as well.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as always.

Lol.  Hopefully once I'm done this ship I can shed the rep of being a one trick 25th century pony. 

[Shadowknight1]

Looking real good there DJ.

Just don't forget your 25th century ships. 

[Lionus]

it indeed does look nice. I'm eagerly waiting for this and Eclipse-class.

[moed]

Looks very nice.

But, what are those thingys on either side of the of the impulse reactor? They look like telephone keypads.

[DJ Curtis]

The background story of this ship is that it was a testbed for the earliest phaser arrays... as opposed to the singular or double emitters we saw on Constitution and Excelsior Class starships.  It will state that one of the challenges they had developing arrays was managing the extreme heating of the equipment, requiring an extensive cooling system as a part of the array.

Those telephone dial pad like boxes are actually very large heat-sinks, for conducting the excess heat from the phaser system's coolant out into space.

[DJ Curtis]

Okay, so more update.  I like this ship, plus I found a really easy way to do hull textures that works well on this ship. 

[Aeries]

Hmm... Hey DJ, I have an idea if you don't mind my input...

This ship really screams a lot of similarities to the Excelsior class design lineage, for the saucer/impuse sections... have you thought about removing the nacelles and pylons, and using that as a base for building a refit excelsior class ship? Just a thought... 'cause it reminds me so much of the Centaur and both this and the centaur have remarkable similarities to the Excelsior.

All in all, this is a really cool looking ship. To me it really has that "work horse" feel to it and that's something I really like. Very cool, dude. Glad to see you're still in the game. :]

[DJ Curtis]

Glad you like it Aeries, though I'm not gonna commit to a bash of this.  You'll get it when you read the backstory upon release.

One final update before bed.  Had fun with this today. 
About 70% textured.

[gdata]

Looks like a fused Centaur/Lakota...just smaller and therefore slightly changed proportions. Excellent design and model!

[moed]

The background story of this ship is that it was a testbed for the earliest phaser arrays... as opposed to the singular or double emitters we saw on Constitution and Excelsior Class starships.  It will state that one of the challenges they had developing arrays was managing the extreme heating of the equipment, requiring an extensive cooling system as a part of the array.

Those telephone dial pad like boxes are actually very large heat-sinks, for conducting the excess heat from the phaser system's coolant out into space.

Nice explanation for the heat sinks -  sounds logical.

But, to me the look of them is too... blocky, for lack of a better word. The ship as a whole is beautifully fluid looking, but the heat sinks just look, I don't know... somewhat off, for some reason.

Just my 2 cents but maybe you could try a more blade or fin like array arranged in a similar fashion as what you have now. Kind of along the lines of a CPU heat sink - made of thin blades in order to maximize heat dissipation and get the most surface area. Of course, you can't go too crazy otherwise your number of polygons will go too high. But, I think you get my meaning.

Just a suggestion.

[Lionus]

hmm.. that structure would look similar to the grille in Excelsior neck, right? I agree, it woul?d be more pleasing to watch

[DJ Curtis]

Thanks for the suggestion on the heat sinks.  While I was happy with them the way they were, I've tapered them at the top and added some slant to the front and rear ends.  I like them now too, so it's cool by me.

Textures are nearing completion.  About 90% finished.

There are a few large flat face sections to do, mainly on the underside, but basically what I want to do now is add in some details like more pennants, panels, and doohickeys.  However, most everything is mapped out except for a few of the ships narrow edges.

[Dalek]

You know, how big is she compared to an Excelsior? Those windows make it seem quite big. IN a good way.

[captain_obvious]

So what happens may I ask if one or both of those heat-sinks get shot up? Do your phasers go down or do you just go *boom*?

[DJ Curtis]

I've always found it funny that we often compare ships sizes by windows, without thinking that ships can have different size windows.   Here's a general approximation of size.

As to if the heatsinks get shot up.. isn't the answer obvious?  They simply re-route the secondary phase-couplers by disengaging the primary nadion sequencer.  All after clearing the level3 security override, of course.

[Lionus]

you have my download 

[DJ Curtis]

Thanks.

You know what I'm actually kind of proud of with this ship?  Is this level of detail, all on a single 2048 map.  This is actually a much more efficient texture scheme than any ship I've done before.

[Lionus]

and that's why I'm glad that my rig will be completed within couple months. then I can see all these ships in their full, smooth glory.  keep up the good work, and have a cookie. you've deserved it. ;)