Hi, first of all, I should probably introduce myself quickly, I just registered here a couple days ago while I was searching the forums for some modding info. From my username, you can probably tell that my name is Simon, although some might remember me (although I doubt it, since it's been about 8 years I guess) from the original bridge commander modding forums, I believe they were called bridge commander network, or universe, but anyways, back then, I went by the online alias of saxman.
back in the early days of the game, I had made two or three small ships that I seriously doubt anyone still has (anyways, I hope not, they weren't my pride and joy to say the least), and I had also done some hardpointing work for a modding group on a dozen or so vessels.
Anyway, up until recently, I hadn't played the game in a while, until I stumbled upon my old cd while doing some off-season spring cleaning, and on a lark, decided to search google for mods and WOW you guys have been busy and frankly, quite amazing!
This is not the bridge commander I remember, and it's not a bad thing at all. From being a basic 3d shoot'em-up to a game with hundreds of vessels, the ability to run around the galaxy, provoke and end wars, use actual strategy by tweaking your systems, and wow... okay, enough gushing, but I have to say that you guys have turned this game into a game that looks and feels fresh and modern, and I applaud that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
okay, my ship
The design itself is not set in stone for me, I've doodled some sketches on my ipad, from those, I'm doing a basic 3d mesh to actually design the thing, once I have a design I like, I will render the different views and make myself some blueprints to work from in photoshop while designing the final tweaks for it, and figuring out details like windows height and stuff like that to give a sense of scale to the ship.
to help my mindset while designing it, I've detailed myself a few in-universe guidelines, so that it sort of fits in somewhere, even if it adds nothing to the model itself or gameplay mechanics, lol.
the ship is contemporary to the sovereign but smaller, about the length of an excelsior at most. It's main purpose would be to be a self-reliant deep-space explorer, going out beyond the regular borders of the federation for extended periods of time. To that end, it should have a crew of about 400, large enough to not have the ship fall apart if someone takes a few days off in the holodeck.
With the prospect of possible first contact with cultures that are farther away, the ship should feature full diplomatic accommodations and a senior staff as well as captain with diplomatic and first contact experience.
recent troubles with the borg and dominion would give starfleet incentive to arm this vessel well enough to defend itself from almost anything, but it is in no way a match for starships such as the sovereign. Not a warship, but able to hold it's own.
In my opinion, the moveable nacelles of the intrepid would be a repair-team's nightmare after a bad firefight, so I'm opting for a more conventional nacelle pilon design and I am personally partial to the nacelles hanging over the main hull and not around the centre.
I would guess that bio-neural circuitry of the intrepid would be abandoned by starfleet considering that they make the ship vulnerable to most things living creatures are as well as to bad cheese...
anyways, I've rambled on more than I should have, here's the ship so far.
like I said, the design itself is still in flux, so if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, don't be shy.
Topic: WIP a custom ship class (post-tng federation) (Read 1206 times)
