Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: Locke on May 23, 2011, 05:34:49 PM
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I was looking around for ideas for a new Ferengi ship, when I ran across this as a free download on TurboSquid. It wasn't intended for Trek, and I've modified it a bit, but I can't decide whether it should be Ferengi or Cardassian. The Ferengi obviously need more ships, but for some reason it keeps yelling "Cardassian!" at me.
What do you guys think?
Check the later posts.
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depends on where the front is, it the end with 2 points is the front then Ferengi, but it the other end is, then a hybrid of Cardassian and Dominion
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Well that's kinda what I was asking. I know it could go either direction, but I'm wondering which the community would rather see . . .
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IMO she looks too aggressive to be Ferangi. I like the sound of a Cardassian/Dominion hybrid. Like maybe she was a ship that was still in a construction yard somewhere when the war came to an end.
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Do both!
No one would notice it though, so it would work well if you did them both just flipped.
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Of course no one would notice! Well, except for everyone that reads these posts . . . :funny
No, I think this will end up being a hybrid as mentioned before. Problem is, the mesh has some weird incongruities and asymmetry that I want to cure. Some asymmetry I can attribute to the Breen's involvement, but the way it's looking, I will have to rebuild the mesh. Which I don't exactly mind. The hard part's been done for me! (Designing the darn thing . . .)
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You could always do both. Star Trek is famous for re-using models for different species and just changing a few things on them, or complete flipping the ship around so that it can appear as a different type of ship.
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Delete half the mesh, then copy the remaining half, just mirrored
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Yeah, thought about that deadthunder. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that will work since the centerline of the ship seems a bit ambiguous. It's okay, I'll probably just start my own version of this mesh, since the greebles are ridiculously small for BC. Some of them will end up being textured on instead.
EDIT:
Okay, I cut half the ship out and mirrored it. Worked out alright, but I still might go back and redo it myself, because of that greeble issue. I'd actually rather rebuild than spend hours and hours picking off individual polys from the mesh.
So anyway, here's a thought: I am a little befuddled by the nose section (the single pointed part is the nose) in that it just doesn't look right. I tried removing it, but that didn't seem to help. I want to get this right before I continue with the mesh, so I know what I'm getting into.
jb76 edit - images uploaded...
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Well after removing the Nose, maybe you could design a Galor style Bridge to put on it?
jb76 edit - image uploaded...
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Either would be nice, but the hybrid is better IMO :D
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Someones just found the Greeble plugin for Max. :P
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Someones just found the Greeble plugin for Max. :P
Nope. I didn't design this thing. I just found it and cut some stuff off. Where would I find such a plugin, BTW? Might come in handy when I redesign this beasty.
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Theres a site called MaxPlugins.de, which has almost every single plugin you could find. Most are free, including Greeble. :D
http://maxplugins.de/
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i say arch the nose gracefully and slightly.. then tip it downward just a hair (maybe even the wings behind the nose as well, so it flows better with the rest of the body.. the body is arched but the nose is flat and harsh as it stands now
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Well, I'm doing away with the nose and going with Nihilus's suggestion. Or something quite similar, anyway. That's where the main weapon battery will be housed, with the bridge being in the middle of the "dome" on top. I'm thinking that the twin booms will function as the warp engines. Or I might just leave those off and go with what I already have prepared.
The images below show my current progress. This is just from selecting polys and detaching them from the main mesh. After I get all the base polys set, I'm going to go back and handpick some of the greebles to integrate into the main mesh.
The current name of the ship is Macet, named after the first Cardassian to appear in Trek. Although if anyone can come up with a better name I'm all ears (and :thumbsup:). The idea here is to create a hybrid ship that can stand toe-to-toe with the Defiant and hold her own.
Currently the mesh in the pics is 2270 polys, which is exceptionally good. I don't expect the entire thing to get over 8k. Ignore the blank spots; those I will fix when I finish picking apart the current mesh.
jb76 edit - images uploaded...
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kinda like
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You know, come to think of it, I kinda like it just as it is. I mean, I'll obviously fill it out and clean it up some more, but I don't think those long struts are really necessary. I could put the warp nacelles on the trailing edges of the wings, sorta like a Galor.
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Good to see more people workin on Cardassian ships. This design right here looks like it would make a great interceptor or fighter. Bui the other designs posted looks like it would be a great capital ship. Very interesting.
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please upload images rather than hotlinking to them...
thx :)
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Main mesh ready for detailing! Just need to go get some greebles, now . . . ;)
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Okay, one more update for this evening.
Greebled my way to 10k polys, and still need a little bit of detailing to finish the mesh on this one. Weapons, warp grilles, and impulse are on the way!
EDIT: And a comparison shot with the Defiant!
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She's really starting to look like the Cardassian's answer to the Defiant alright. Looks good :thumbsup: Do you know what you plan to borrow from Dominion designs yet? Right now she looks pure Cardassian so I was wondering what you planned to borrow from the Dominion since she is a hybrid.
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Look at the overall shape and think "bug". :thumbsup:
However, that's not all. The coloring will be two-toned, just like a Cardassian ship, but it will be Breen-colored (I think). The glows of the engines will be those of the Dominion. The idea is to take the best of all those races and combine them. The sturdiness of Cardassian design (ref: Terok Nor), the armor of the Breen (ref: What You Leave Behind) and the maneuverability and general space-worthiness of the Dominion ship (ref: the Dominion's destruction of the Odyssey).
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Ah yes I always forget about the Breen. I don't know why, they were pretty memorable. It should really look interesting with a Breen color scheme. Will she still have a Cardassian or Obsidian Order making on the hull?
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Which end is the front because i think the double fin setup looks more like a tail section rather than a head section. But it definately looks good, I also think she has a hint of ferengi touch to the overall design, i know it isnt meant as that though. However if u wanted to make a new ferengi design I think removing the tail fins and beefing up the size it would make a damn fine ferengi vessel as well
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In the last pic above, both the Defiant and the Macet are flying in the same direction.
A few more shots of some greeble-y goodness! In the first shot, you see the prow with the weapons banks and deflector array. Second shot shows off the triple impulse engines and rear torpedo tubes. In the third, the recessed area you see is one of the warp grilles. There are also a set of pulse weapon emplacements at the very tips of the "wings", and the glowing bits are phaser banks.
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I see that you used the "greeblie" plugin. What's the polycount on this ship?
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Just over 12k with everything included. It's fairly low for the detail quality, since it's made entirely from dozens of boxes set at angles to each other. Without weapons, engines or greebles it only amounts to 2670.
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Very Nice man. I especially like the greeblies.... :thumbsup:
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Yep, this looks pretty cool.
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Okay, beginning texture experimentation. This is far from the finished texture. Right now I'm working out how to accomplish my goal. For the moment, I think I may only need one 2048 texture, since the green color is a set of four square's near the top, each with a different blend. The brown is another square near the top that is used just for the greebles. How does this appear to you guys? Of course, the coloring will change a bit, but I'm wondering if it seems random enough . . .
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like coloring and pattern
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It amazes me how often a simple coat of paint can bring your work to life! Obviously, still just rough draft. Getting things mapped out. When the basics of the ship are in, I'll get to serious calibration of the colors and whatnot.
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NEAT :D
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Still working on the texturing, and I was wondering about the warp grilles. I gave it some Dominion influences, but I'm concerned about how it looks. The color is up for debate, but I'm more concerned about the direction of the grille itself.
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i thought you said the Y shape was the FRONT end?
it's hard to tell the design signatures even for the Cardies themselves. it looks like for DS9 that they were putting most of the modeling effort into the Greebles like you did. wish I'd have seen more of the actuall shows. every time I try and watch sci fi, i either get told to change the channel and get off that *@$!, or it was on so late at night (the syndicated version of DS9 in my area ran after the late night news on fox) that i was too tired to stay up.
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I would go with the second version. The first one looks more like Brake - grills to me.
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@KCS: front view (http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=8497.0;attach=56151;image)
Thanks, Krrks. Not sure if they'll remain that color. Probably end up going with an off-white, since that's what the Jem'Hadar used.
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I would say 2nd version as well, but make the grills more defined. Yeah, that color doesn't go well. Perhaps something a little deeper and darker... try something in the spectrum of purple/pink
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Okay, here's a shot of what I'm going for. The grilles are as detailed as I want them. The rest of the textures are a little shy of the intended goal.
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Okay, fair amount of change, here. Don't worry about the colors of the warp grilles or any other glows: I intend on utilizing the glow system described here (http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,8414.0.html) to go between on and off states. Which brings me to a question. If I leave the grilles as are, and then make the "on" texture a bright purple-white, will they glow correctly, or will you be able to see the original texture beneath that?
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Well, I reverted back to the original color scheme because I needed to be adding glows and things constantly, and just couldn't deal with that god-awful rust color on the nacelles anymore. :P
But now I'm stuck. It seems that I need something else added (possibly several things) but I"m at a complete loss as to what that (or those) might be. Anything stick out to you guys? Oh, and I didn't put any insignia on it, but I'm not sure if I should. After all, this is basically a prototype war machine. Not really a production design . . .
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You could always add a few windows to the top. Not a lot but enough to give it a little something. I would also go with the Obsidian Order logo to show that it was a secret prototype.
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This ship looks really epic! Glad to see that my suggestion for the coloring of the warp engines works out well with the rest of the ship.
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Thanks, server! Getting this ready for combat is coming along nicely!
Nihilus, I was going to add more windows on top, but I honestly couldn't see where they would fit. Most of those polys are at weird angles that prevent me from adding a row of windows in most spots. I think I will add an Obsidian Order emblem, but I would really like to use this one (http://hsnz.deviantart.com/favourites/#/d1orljc) since it seems like it could be a cross between the three races' black ops forces.
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Well, after nearly two weeks, I think I'm ready to get this sucker in-game! Of course, I'm still far from getting a beta ready, but it will happen eventually. Haven't changed much since the last update, but I did end up getting permission to use that emblem I wrote about. I think it works pretty darn well on this. I also modeled in some actual grilles for the nacelles.
And I've started a bridge for this one! I know modding bridges is a painstaking process, but I think I can muster it with a little patience and some trial-and-error. It's a unique bridge, in that both the engineering section and the bridge itself are a singular room. The engineering section is the lower floor, and the suspended platform is the actual bridge. So the engineer can be monitoring the systems personally and still be in constant contact with the bridge crew. And it's just cool-looking . . . ;)
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Is that a Bryliuem Sphere? :funny :funny :funny
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Is that a Bryliuem Sphere? :funny :funny :funny
Not quite, although the look of it and how it's mounted is based on one! ;) :P
I actually intended that to be an experimental power tech. It's sort of like a mini-star encapsulated within a set of magnetic constrictors, similar to confinement chambers for antimatter. I'm sure I've heard of this somewhere before . . . Spider-Man 2?
Anyway, that's just the beginning stages. The rest will come along soon. Hopefully, I can incorporate transparencies as on some ships' bussard ramscoops to get a constantly swirling, gaseous-looking sphere that looks more like a star. Anyone know if that's at all possible on a bridge?
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Not quite, although the look of it and how it's mounted is based on one! ;) :P
I actually intended that to be an experimental power tech. It's sort of like a mini-star encapsulated within a set of magnetic constrictors, similar to confinement chambers for antimatter. I'm sure I've heard of this somewhere before . . . Spider-Man 2?
Anyway, that's just the beginning stages. The rest will come along soon. Hopefully, I can incorporate transparencies as on some ships' bussard ramscoops to get a constantly swirling, gaseous-looking sphere that looks more like a star. Anyone know if that's at all possible on a bridge?
I was just playing with you, it looks very good.
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Just thought I would give a little preview of the current way things are shaping up with the Macet bridge. I'll be working on the hardpoint some time in the next couple of days, but right now I'm having too much fun messing with this. The first thing you see is the main computer access terminal, followed by the power sphere (not sure about a name for that . . .) and you finally end up looking aft from the actual bridge towards another door to the rear of the compartment. It's all pretty unconventional, and the rest of the bridge setup is headed that way as well. Do not expect the normal layout of any other vessel, here.