FSB Shipyards - WIP list in first post.

[FarShot]

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing with the ventral ribbing.  Most likely change would be to shorten each spine by about half, thereby adding more flat hull space.  Would be good for fitting in more escape pods.

Anyways, working on the ventral sensor dome.  It's obviously based off the Sovereign quantum turret / captain's yacht assembly.  But instead of a yacht, it'll have a glowing sensor dome like the one on top of the Vendetta.  Also added phasers.

Bones, you know how to script a pulse weapon to fire quantums?  I want a similar quantum launcher to Wiley's and CG's Sovereigns.

[starship]

... As you can clearly see, the middle model is a rip from STO.  I try not to rely on rips for reference (I didn't use one for the Exeter) but I nabbed it just to show a little something...

The ripped model was around 10k tri's.  I say "was" because by just messing with the saucer, I was able to remove a good five thousand triangles.  STO models have a different way of smoothing than what we do with BC ones.  STO's meshes all use only one smoothing group.  At areas that need hard edges, like the rim of a Sovereign-like saucer, there are actually entire bunches of minuscule polygons that make it appear sharp.  Without these micro-polies, the entire mesh would look like a blob, but with them the poly count is excessively high for a relatively low quality mesh.

Basically, a rip is nearly useless for BC without heavy modification.  And assuming all these useless polies are removed and the smoothing groups are remade, you come out with a mesh of five thousand triangles or less, definitely on the lower end of current BC standards.

Did I understand it wrong, or you?re saying you sucessfully imported a STO mesh in Studio Max? If you did, can you tell me how it is possible? My plan is to use a few STO meshs as a reference when building higher polly versions.

[Bones]

Bones, you know how to script a pulse weapon to fire quantums?  I want a similar quantum launcher to Wiley's and CG's Sovereigns.

That's lame just need to put quantum torpedo projectile instead of pulse phaser ;)

[King Class Scout]

what bones said, but turn down the charge and fire speeds.

[Bones]

yep, that's right

[FarShot]

Did I understand it wrong, you you?re saying you sucessfully imported a STO mesh in Studio Max? If you did, can you tell me how it is possible? My plan is to use a few STO meshs as a reference when building higher polly versions.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=3d+ripper&l=1

That's lame just need to put quantum torpedo projectile instead of pulse phaser ;)

Oh, well I don't know the first thing about hardpoints, so yeah, just as long as it works.

[starship]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=3d+ripper&l=1

Thank you !  Cookie for you.
I was looking for something like a STO plugin for max, with no lucky, and completelly forgot about options for capture the mesh data.  
I?ll take a look and try to use the 3D Ripper.

[Bones]

Beta testers report in via PM.

Vendetta is ready for trial runs.

Last updates to the textures, added black armoring around nacelle front (mainly ventral area) and some escape pods on ventral hull.

I've also discovered that specualars without alpha channels look really weak, so I kept both and alpha channels on specualrs, now the hull is mainly grey but at certain angles it shines with fain teal tint on some panels ;)

[FarShot]

Wait, am I not automatically assumed to be a beta tester?

[Bones]

that's right

[FarShot]

I wanted to try something else with the deflector, something like the Sovereign's.  So I made these, a blue one and a yellow one.  I'm thinking of one or the other.  Which looks better?

[Bones]

Yellow fits better ;)

[FarShot]

Guess it's yellow then.  Back to the Excalibur I go.

[Killallewoks]

Quick report, everything works fine don't know about the ballancing though. I have major difficulty defeating the Exeter but I can smash DJ's Enterprise. You want screenies?

[Bones]

Sure, we could use some for BCF download page ;)

I'm gonnabalanceher against Exeter and Defiant, she won't be maybe a little bit stronger than Defiant andabout equal in fire power than Exeter (maybe even a lil bit stronger)

[Killallewoks]

Ok then, time to get taking.

[FarShot]

Perhaps you should get the updated textures first.

[Killallewoks]

Ok il sit tight. 

[Lionus]

Quick betatest report: She's quite a little spitfire. Handles just fine but IMHO weapon charge rates should be turned up as I end up waiting for a long while in the middle of battle when all torps and phasers are recharging. I'd ramp it up by 25-50% to avoid feeling naked when going against battleships.. Speaking of battleships..

She did well against Klingon Negh'Var, Cardassians, Romulan D'deridex and dominion cruiser and battleship. Those torps pack a punch but their tracking has odd delay which causes them to miss over short distances. Ship damages well, but god help it if the shields fail, she won't last long..

[FarShot]

All torpedo modes besides single create a delay before torpedoes begin tracking.  Either set it to single or fire them from a distance.  It's the same for all ships with torpedo pattern options.  Try a Galaxy class set to full spread and you'll see.