Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: DJ Curtis on December 27, 2007, 04:44:21 PM
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Ok, so this is the BC mesh of the ship I'm offering up to BCC's new talent. I've been in discussion with several different people, and I'll pass it off to someone soon. i must admit I'm having trouble choosing. I've got someone who knows how to texture, but not map. Is there anyone out there who knows how to do mapping that could collaborate?
Here are some pix.
if you remember the old CGI mesh, you can see I've changed a lot of stuff. The biggest difference is that I've added a couple of big but sleek impulse engines to the nacelle pylons. I wanted engines that looked unique, and that's what I cam up with. You can tell the ship is fairly small by the size of the torpedo launchers and the bridge. The whole ship is only 9 decks, so the total length probably weighs in around 200m.
C&C welcome.
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nice work.
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Hmm... reminds me of a more futuristic Nova. Whereas the Nova was like a tiny variant of the Intrepid, this is like a tiny variant of the Vivance. Kinda cool. Personally not too fond of the colossal impulse engines, but then again, I do suppose they blend well with the overall design, so I'm not going to nit-pick. :P Wish I knew how to map & texture. This would have been great fun, I'd imagine.
Excellent work, as I've come to expect from you. :D Keep it up!
-Aeries.
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wou that impulse drives...
jeeeesus
nice design, still...
too bad I'm a dumbass in any of these categories :P
you can clearly see your influence of the vivace and century class
I'm suree you will only choose HQ Modders, so I don't have any fear that this wont become successful
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Judging by the size you specified, and the looks of the ship itself, i'm thinking... Nova replacement?
I count 8 phasers and 4 torpedo tubes so it is actually pretty well armed for a ship of it's size. For hardpointing i'm thinking that the phasers should be similar in strength to the Sovereign, albeit have longer recharge time or a shorter "burst" duration. And for the torpedo tubes perhaps 2-3 torps per tube before recharge? I think if textured appropriately, it would be a nice "little sister" to the Century class.
EDIT: Seems like more people think of this ship as a Nova replacement besides myself :P
I actually like the impulse engines. If you look at the Sovreign, it too had very large impulse engines. And considering the Sovereign is also 3.5 times bigger than the Abante class you have to imagine how big of a surface those occupy.
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Judging by the size you specified, and the looks of the ship itself, i'm thinking... Nova replacement?
I count 8 phasers and 4 torpedo tubes so it is actually pretty well armed for a ship of it's size. For hardpointing i'm thinking that the phasers should be similar in strength to the Sovereign, albeit have longer recharge time or a shorter "burst" duration. And for the torpedo tubes perhaps 2-3 torps per tube before recharge? I think if textured appropriately, it would be a nice "little sister" to the Century class.
EDIT: Seems like more people think of this ship as a Nova replacement besides myself :P
I actually like the impulse engines. If you look at the Sovreign, it too had very large impulse engines. And considering the Sovereign is also 3.5 times bigger than the Abante class you have to imagine how big of a surface those occupy.
2 torps before recharging ok, but imo 3 is too much...
The Phaserbalance you mentioned is a good one I think
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One of the reasons why I made the impulse engines so large, is that I really wanted to emphasize that the ship is small but very fast and maneuverable. It should accelerate quickly too.
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Yeah as I said "2-3 torps per tube". Wasnt sure what would be better. Maybe 2 torps per tube with 15 or 20 second recharge timer. Not sure if the ship should have purely quantums, or a standard compliment of photons and a limited supply of quantums.
One of the reasons why I made the impulse engines so large, is that I really wanted to emphasize that the ship is small but very fast and maneuverable. It should accelerate quickly too.
Yeah I think your impulse engines definitely blend well with the ship. I might give it a shot at hardpointing it at some point ;)
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:shock: a post-Nem Libertas class?
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As I said about my Mithra Class, I think photon torpedos would be thoroughly out-dated by the time these ships saw mass-production. Pure quantum torpedos might be the best way to go imo, but I can't say for certain. Photons have been around for... what? three hundred years? Nah... gotta be way more than that by now...
Anyways, I see your point DJ. She might actually wind up being one of my favorite ships as I always liked the small "kick yer butt and book it like a bat outta heck" ships. ;) She's totally cool, and as I said, the engines do blend nicely with the overall design, so i won't pick at them. :P
-Aeries.
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yeah, photons are outdated, but pure quantums?
2 per load..
that will make it quite strong imo.
the real strength should be its manouvrebility (hard word), correct me DJ, if thats not right...
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wow, very nice little ship :D
I like that impulse engines, they are indeed unique.
As far for the photon torpedos, I don't think that they are outdated, but I think it would be the best to have photon torpedos like
on your Century Class, very fast and precisly.
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I'm learning how to map....if someone wants to take on the textures, I can map her according to the textures...let me know what you think DJ :)
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Very nice ship man :)
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Looks great DJ :) The impulse engines really give it a stealthy look, unfortunatly I also don't know how to map or anything of that kind :(
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Looks great.
How about phtons for the aft launchers and quantums for the forward launchers?
The impulse engines look great!
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Guys before you can think about weaponry, you have to think about the ships role.
If its designed as a nova replacement as some suggest, then it is primarily a sience vessel and I see no reason for it to have quantum torpedoes at all.
Enhanced sensors; yes, enhanced propulsion; yes, but fitted out with quantums because they're the best in the arsenal? Come on its just a waste of resources.
As for the torp rate, I agree with DT mostly, the forward tubes should fire two torps a peice with a nice long recharge time and the aft ones should fire one a peice again with a nice long recharge time.
Also DJ, I like the impulse housings apart from the front bit were they are joined to the hull, maybe make them a little more flush like the sovvie?
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COOKIE ALERT...... COOKIE ALERT!!
Superb work DJ, I really like your Abante Class It reminds me of the Libertas you released a while back but with a secondary hull. I'm not a big fan of the impulse engines but thats just personal taste.... one things for sure it wont stop me from downloading it once it's released!!. Besidea the enlarged impulse engines allow you to get a lot of detail in with the textures. :lol:
A couple of questions for you....
1) Why the name Abante Class..... does it have some special meaning!?.
2) Whats you current poly count!?.
Once again it's first class work DJ, I'm glad your with us.... and modding for BC!! 8)
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Nice, looks like a mini Vivace ;p
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A couple of questions for you....
1) Why the name Abante Class..... does it have some special meaning!?.
2) Whats you current poly count!?.
1) Abante is latin for Advance.
2)11,722 polygons. Though I'll probably be able to reduce that about 10-20%.
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Pretty! Though, that's typical of your ships DJ, I hope she gets a decent texturer and hardpointer.
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Are you saying that DJ is not one then ;)?
I love the nacelles, you always seem to come up with something different each time. Nice work
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Are you saying that DJ is not one then ;)?
I love the nacelles, you always seem to come up with something different each time. Nice work
Actually on this particular ship, DJ wanted the community to "step up" and do the texturing work.
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Guys before you can think about weaponry, you have to think about the ships role.
If its designed as a nova replacement as some suggest, then it is primarily a sience vessel and I see no reason for it to have quantum torpedoes at all.
Enhanced sensors; yes, enhanced propulsion; yes, but fitted out with quantums because they're the best in the arsenal? Come on its just a waste of resources.
As for the torp rate, I agree with DT mostly, the forward tubes should fire two torps a peice with a nice long recharge time and the aft ones should fire one a peice again with a nice long recharge time.
Also DJ, I like the impulse housings apart from the front bit were they are joined to the hull, maybe make them a little more flush like the sovvie?
I agree with every Elm says until you get to the Quantum Torps, i feel that they will replace the Photon torps to become the standard for all ships over time, so why not this ship.
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You forget the political uproar which would come with a massive refit to quantum torpedoes. If the federation would arm every ship with quantum torpedoes, they'd initiate an arms race with the romulans and klingons who would feel the need to invent more terrible weapons to stay on par. Being that the federation are explorers and the weapon was originally a weapon deviced to fight the borg with, we can assume it is more likely distributed to starships on a special occasion or is accessable only to captains with a certain level of authority.
- USS Enterprise: Flagship, may encounter the most dangerous of situations where quantum torpedoes are required.
- USS Defiant: Invented to counter the borg, quantum torpedoes remained on the ship, perhaps a wise choice for the gamma quadrant's potential dangers and later as a weapon against the dominion.
- USS Lakota: We can only speculate if the Lakota was armed with quantum torpedoes for dangerous missions or if Leyton had ordered such to have superior firepower if anyone'd try to stop his coupe.
While memory alpha says the weapon was deviced to replace the photon torpedo, they've provided no source of how they came to that conclusion.
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Matter/Antimatter warheads to Zero-Point Energy warheads.
It's like going from the Tactical Nuke to the Hydrogen Bomb.
For one thing, it would be expensive to produce, and also I agree with the arms race scenario. Remember that after the Dominion War, relations between the Alpha Quadrant species broke right back down again.
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You forget the political uproar which would come with a massive refit to quantum torpedoes. If the federation would arm every ship with quantum torpedoes, they'd initiate an arms race with the romulans and klingons who would feel the need to invent more terrible weapons to stay on par. Being that the federation are explorers and the weapon was originally a weapon deviced to fight the borg with, we can assume it is more likely distributed to starships on a special occasion or is accessable only to captains with a certain level of authority.
- USS Enterprise: Flagship, may encounter the most dangerous of situations where quantum torpedoes are required.
- USS Defiant: Invented to counter the borg, quantum torpedoes remained on the ship, perhaps a wise choice for the gamma quadrant's potential dangers and later as a weapon against the dominion.
- USS Lakota: We can only speculate if the Lakota was armed with quantum torpedoes for dangerous missions or if Leyton had ordered such to have superior firepower if anyone'd try to stop his coupe.
While memory alpha says the weapon was deviced to replace the photon torpedo, they've provided no source of how they came to that conclusion.
Another thing thou, is that this (along with the Century, and Vivace and most of DJs other ships) exist in the late 24th or early 25th century. By which point the following has likely happened:
- Klingons at the Federations closest ally sign a treaty making the Klingon Empire a part of the Federation.
- Romulans being severely weakened after the Shinzon incident would likely be on the same level of alliance the Klingons had with the Federation during the Dominion War (and during TNG-era).
So why would there be a major power struggle over what tech the Federation arm their ships with? I find it more likely they would've simply had all the ships equipped with quantums and in some rare cases, even transphasic torpedoes in case the Borg decided to pay them a visit again.
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Hmm, some valid points. But I still think it all comes down to the ships role. You just wouldn't equip a science vessel with top of the line weaponry.
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I think she could take the role of a modern intrepid class.
a fast, agile small cruiser.
I think because of the fact that she will play in the early 25th century, she should carry qunatums.
As already said, some ships would be equipped better, but its the same as the intrepid.
the intrepid doesnt have quantums because she doesnt need them in her usual role.
Of course its all up to DJ, but just a suggestion
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Hrmm but the Vivace seemed to be the intrepid role (which basically is a light cruiser / explorer). I like the ship alot, has DJ style in it, both Vivace and Century elements and original concepts.
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It looks more like maybe a Nova or Miranda replacement than an Intrepid size cruiser.
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Well some people see that arming a explorer ship with quantums as aggressive, but i see it as a defensive move, if it has quantums then it is less likely to have ships attack it if they know they can take alot of damage in return.
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It looks more like maybe a Nova or Miranda replacement than an Intrepid size cruiser.
nova perhaps, but Miranda ?!
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Yeah, not so sure she'd get shredded in the battlefield like the poor old Miranda's did. :P
When i suggested pure quantums I was thinking in the same style as the Vivance. Fire one, maybe two shots, before she has to reload. But enough of that.
To me, she seems like a Nova (or Rhode Island, perhaps?) replacement. In any case, however, I can't wait to see what DJ and his recruited/drafted "new talent" can come up with for her. I eagerly await future updates. ^_^
-Aeries.
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I say Miranda because it might be around the same size, judging from the deflector and shuttlebay. And it could very well be a replacement as the Miranda class is obviously obsolete by the Dominion Wars considering how many of them got blown to pieces.
And I honestly don't know if pure quantums are the way to go, photon torpedo tech isn't quite obsolete yet and quantum torpedoes are still quite demanding as far as resources go.
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True, true. It was just a thought. :)
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Time to revive this...
Working on the Galaxy refit has got me actually in the mood to do some texturing. Thus, I thought I'd pick up this little bad boy and get to work. I had originally intended to do the Raptor before this, but I think I'll do this one and then redo the other to match.
Not tons done, just the nacelles, but they're the hardest part to texture because you've got to get the maps to line up all around the body. Mapping nacelles is such a pain in the arse. I typically don't start with nacelles, usually the saucer, but I find that whenever I get to the engines on a ship I tend to stall out for a while because they're such a pain. So I figured, I'll try doing them first and see if that improves my motivation, since the rest of the mapping is simple. :D
Anyhow, pix. C&C are welcome.
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VERY nice. Those nacelles give it a mean "cute but deadly" sort of look.
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"cute but deadly"
Kirk is rolling is his grave, the way you talk about the Federation. :)
I like her DJ. Keep it up!
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very nice DJ, subtle yet agressive and im looking foward to seeing more of the ship with textures
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Holy thread resurrection i havent seen this thread since last year lol. Looking mighty great DJ l like the nacelle textures alot
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personally i think the impulse engines roll a little to far up onto the dorsal side of the nacelle pylons. maybe if you pulled them back some to match the ventral side...
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Update, anybody? :P
Hauled this project out of mothballs today. Figures that I'd start on the second last day of holidays. :banghead: on the bright side, I've done all this texturing work in the last five hours.
Some of you probably know that this ship goes back a long way, much further than 2007. I think I did the original (crappy) hi poly version back in 2003 or 2004.
I've tweaked the mesh in places, smoothing out hard edges and creating a more pleasing transition behind the bridge and around the shuttle bay.
Texture style is taken straight from the texture file of the USS Athena, hence the same hull color etc.
More pics in the morning.
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:yay:
DJ is back in da hizzouse!! :D :thumbsup:
*moar cookeez*
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:yay:
DJ is back in da hizzouse!! :D :thumbsup:
*moar cookeez*
seconded :yay: good to see ya beck DJ ;)
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He's back baby!!
Will she have a DJ type deflector array? Please say yes as I love it so and would refit every class in the fleet with one if I could!
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Holy thread resurrection i havent seen this thread since last year lol. Looking mighty great DJ l like the nacelle textures alot
Wow DJ wb man hope u doin ok.
Anyways like what u are doing desgin reminds me of the norway class somewhat could be the big brother hahahaha
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SWEET!!! :D though DJ how bouts trying those larger box like windows Voy has in those window slots....
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Work progresses on the ship, especially the ventral saucer, though I've mapped the dorsal drive section as well. (you can see a little bit of paneling already textured on by the shuttle bay) :D
Neb--> Sry man, I already textured them by the time I saw your comment. :)
9th--> Yes, doing fine. haven't been around much. I needed a break after the big Xmas blitz, and work has been busy as nuts. :hithead:
MckinneyC--> The deflector will have a color scheme similar to the Athena, though with obviously a different layout. not sure exactly what it will look like yet. :idk:
Jimmy--> Hi Jimmy! :dance
Pics or gtfo? :funny
... Also, loving all the new smileys! :evil:
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OMG HE'S BACK!!! :dance :dance :dance :dance :dance
+ 1 COOKIE
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Don't know if I could ever leave for good. :thumbsup:
Shuttle bay in progress.
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hmm put a door next to the shuttle bay... maybe?
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you know i love you, right? :cry:
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She's looking very pretty. Good to see you back DJ, I was starting to think you'd run out of ideas. :P
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Awsome small and cool ship ;) Very nice work DJ *cookied*. DJ, nice to be back here :)
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I personally think this isn't the prettiest of ships DJ has doled out...
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Dalek--> Thanks man.
Shadow--> Actually, i did.
JTK--> I love you too man.
Neb--> Door added.
Deflector in progress as well as the dorsal engineering hull. Oh yeah, impulse textures are on.
Belly of the ship is now mapped.
Hopefully more progress yet today. The wife wants me to houseclean. :bitch:
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She's looking gorgeous, mate. Cookie!
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sweet :D this thing must have 4 impulse engines 2 in each pylon.
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I have to say, I like that deflector. And here's hoping you find some inspiration!
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I'm liking the deflector DJ, sort of like a mini Galaxy class one :yay:
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reminds me more of voyagers.
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Everything looks good as always(shocker right? lol) though why two forward tubes and three aft? I don't see anymore than those. Is it going to fire two each out the front and one each out the back?
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the launchers on this ship could possibly the Type 4 burst...the dual launchers fore and aft fire up to twelve at a time in a burst every five seconds or single fire every half second...while the single aft is a standard tube that can fire single rounds every two seconds
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This ship is quite small if it were like that it would exhaust it's supply very quick....
I'd reckon the 3rd launcher... is for probes only.
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The "third launcher" is actually the tractor beam. :P
As to how many torps will be fired... this isn't a warship. In fact, I'm not really sure what its role is, exactly.
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short range patrol/science ship?? kinda like the nova?
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short range patrol/science ship?? kinda like the nova?
Possibly a destroyer...in that case..pulse fire torpedo launchers similar to the Akiras but of course only 4 as opposed to 15-18 lol
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Well, its really a backbone kinda ship that you'd see everywhere, I think. Not heavily armed, but not weak. Relative to its size, it's as strong as say a galaxy would be for it's own size.
Anyhow, didn't have lots of time for this today, but I mapped out and started texturing the nacelles.
The last shot should give a good idea how the ship will look in game at the start of QB. :D
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She definatley looks like a workhorse type ship, stout and durable. As always, design, mesh ans textures are spectacular.
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The "third launcher" is actually the tractor beam. :P
Oh I see. It looks exactly like them thats why I was confused obviously lol.
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Had some time to work on this tonight so I've hit the belly with some textures. Additional textures around the deflector dish now, though the dish itself still needs some details.
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Deflector update.
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You owe me a keyboard DJ, and another cup of coffee. that looks awesome.
+1 Cookie
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Well then I hope the coffee keeps you up long enough to see this... :evil:
Best of all, all the textures are on a single 2048x2048 map. Hooray for no slideshows!
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Also, alongside the Athena for reference. The Athena is about 80% the length of an Excelsior. I think they look pretty good together, eh? Funny, putting these side by side, I seriously like the Athena right now. :D
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I use the Athena most often in BC! ;)
They look so well togther, the Athena escorting her little sister to make sure she doesn't get picked on.
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wow - loving it! looks perfect alongside the Athena :D
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Is it just me or is there something wrong with the phaser on the underside? It doesn't look like it's properly welded..
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it's welded fine, that's just a little fix i have to make with the mapping on all of them. It sometimes doesn't show up in the viewport.
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Ah, nevermind then. Keep up the good work, etc. :thumbsup:
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Best of all, all the textures are on a single 2048x2048 map. Hooray for no slideshows!
Gotta say, your mapping skills are impressive. What does the unwrap look like?
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Here's a shot of the unwrapped texture.
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Cute ship.
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All right, kids. Last chance to provide suggestions on the textures as I'll be preparing to export in a little while.
I'll let the pics do the talking.
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hmm... all looks good except for the top of the bridge... seems like it's missing something.
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Here's a shot of the unwrapped texture.
Thanks, that explains some neat shortcuts to save on texture memory.
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Kirk--> How so? What were you looking for?
Ship's playable and in game, might be able to put it up for download tomorrow.
Specs--> Done
Glows--> Done
Scripting--> Done
Conversion--> Done
Icon--> Done
Tactical Displays--> Done
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awesome. never expected such an early relase. but oh well, dj curtis=synonym for quality.
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How so? What were you looking for?
Just to see how you get so much from so little. I wanted to see what you cut out, what/where you mirrored textures, etc.
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How small is she compared to the Eclipse?
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A fairly small ship. Maybe 250 meters.
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hmm I wonder if you should get Cord to experiment with the Nif... get those extra glows working.
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extra glows?
i have enhanced glows turned off, if that's what you mean.
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no that's not it....
here is a pic showing what I mean.
http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4361.0;attach=41332;image
they aren't baked on..
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I would like to try it. All the glows would have to be on a separate texture and it can be in in any variation of color that you choose. No Alpha channels needed in the textures. I used a MultiTexture node in the Nif file to add the glows on the ship, no "_glow" needed.
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Looks good, I like it they way it is right now, I think that if you added more glows, you might ruin the subtle-ness of the ship. The only thing I don't like is the dual white spots on the impulse engines. It would probably look better if it was set up with one spot and that spot being a slightly lighter shade of red, In my opinion anyway. Also, The saucer looks like it could get elongated a little bit that might be better as it might give the ship a more stealthy look
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Hey guys, I'll have this ship packed up and released soon.
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Oh I almost forgot about this one very nice ship.
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Awesome!
I asked this question in another thread but your new Sovereign won't overwrite anything right?
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Not a thing.
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Damn, DJ. Gettin the lead out, huh? :dance :thumbsup:
Glad to see you're finally getting all these projects off the ground. What, may I ask, prompted this explosion of work?
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only the beta version. all the files are clearly marked as DJEnterpriseE
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Damn, DJ. Gettin the lead out, huh? :dance :thumbsup:
Glad to see you're finally getting all these projects off the ground. What, may I ask, prompted this explosion of work?
Nothing in particular. The school year is starting to wind down and I'm basically just doing review with my students, so I have very little planning and marking to do. Plus I'm in kind of a STO lull right now while I wait for season 4 to go live. I've also had the modeling bug. I've actually been working on a couple other things too that I haven't posted about, but I don't want to put those out because there's a good chance I won't finish them in reasonable time.
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glad to see you back in the game for now DJ, i look forward to seeing what you knock out this summer :thumbsup:
BTW thanks for putting up you MAX texture tutorials, im gonna texture a dummy to see if i can pull it off myself :evil:
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BTW, whatever happened to that TNG frigate you were working on? That looked freaken awesome!
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BTW, whatever happened to that TNG frigate you were working on? That looked freaken awesome!
Hopefully it is still in the release lineup, I love the concept of that one. It really turned out nice.