Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: lint on November 20, 2007, 08:15:41 PM
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Hey All,
After deciding to do a Re-texture of The LB Equinox/Nova i noticed the model itself is'nt what it could be,
So i have decided to do a Refit of the model aswell, (im still waiting for permission from LB for a release, untill then it will stay safe and private on my HD :),)
I hav'nt done much so far, but i have replaced the bridge area, New Nacelles and new escape pods instead of them just being textured on.
Almost Every canon ship has a good quality version for bc except the nova, and i think its time there is :)
If anyone has a link to some good reference pics for the nova, that would be helpful, im having trouble finding that many.
Opinions and suggestions are welcome and encouraged as usual :)
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Looks good....keep it up...I need a good new Nova for a scout/science vessel..
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No offense, but looks like its going to be far to many polygons for a ship that size if you keep that amount of detail. The escape pods really don't need to be modelled on. Detailed texturing goes a long way to helping good models look great. A ship doesn't need 15k polygons for it to look awesome.
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yeah, the things i replaced bridge/nacelles are probably going to be the highest quality things on this model, the escape pods are done cause thats all the nova has, the rest of the changes will be cleaning up and smoothing parts, the rest of the moddeling wont be to the same level of detail
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at last! :)
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woah, i cant believe it, i just sucesfully converted this .3ds into .nif and it actually worked in bc, i just have to fix the scaling so it does'nt face upwards and is'nt the size of a starbase :lol:
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Hey All,
After deciding to do a Re-texture of The LB Equinox/Nova i noticed the model itself is'nt what it could be,
So i have decided to do a Refit of the model aswell, (im still waiting for permission from LB for a release, untill then it will stay safe and private on my HD :),)
I hav'nt done much so far, but i have replaced the bridge area, New Nacelles and new escape pods instead of them just being textured on.
Almost Every canon ship has a good quality version for bc except the nova, and i think its time there is :)
If anyone has a link to some good reference pics for the nova, that would be helpful, im having trouble finding that many.
Opinions and suggestions are welcome and encouraged as usual :)
Ask and ye shall receive
(http://www.bolarus.de/sibs/class/pic/nova04.jpg)
(http://trekufp.org/database/images/e/e2/Equinox_four_views.jpg)
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oh, in that case, i could really use some hot lovin ;)..
I decided to model some new Nacelle Pylons aswell to compliment the new nacelles,
The old pylons just did'nt look right supporting the new engines.
The poly count is still lowish as well so dont worry :).
Does anyone think the Blades on the nacelle's should be a little smaller?, im not too sure if i got the size right, i think they might be a little too big?
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This is looking awesome! Great job so far.
Yes, I would have to say that the blades on the nacelles are a bit too big... but not by much.
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Another quick update before i go out.
I have reduced the size of the blades and ripped out the entire secondry Deflector Dish and put in a new one, next thing todo is fix the crimping around the phaser arrays and put 2 little ones on the aft of the saucer, 1 on the belly and 2 under the saucer.
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Im glad you decided to go with my decision. the model you found looks great. if you need any hand with any textures nip over to our section over at bcs.
~Jb06
JL Studios
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Model on ALL the phaser strips!!!
:arms:
Only the 2 strips on the saucer were modeled on. The rest were textured which made it just look bad, aswell as the bad textures.
Cant wait to see more progress on this. I agree that the escape pods dont need to be modeled. They can easily be textured on.
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If anyone has a link to some good reference pics for the nova, that would be helpful, im having trouble finding that many.
try these - many many screenshots of the Voyager episode it was in :)
http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=153
http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=180
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With all the changes you've made to the original model, why not go all the way and model the full ship from scratch?
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FINALLY!
I hope this will end the curse of the Nova :P
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yeah, i think i may have to remove the escape pods, they push the poly count up around 19000 with them and if im going to put in all the phaser arrays its gonna go alot higher, and im the long run its more important to have modelled phaser arrays instead of escape pods in a game like bc ;)
@dark,
My Modelling abilities arn't advanced enough to do a whole ship from scratch yet, but i have an original ship design in my head im going to start working on after this baby is done :)
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My biggest gripe about the existing Novas is that no one has ever properly modeled the torpedo launchers even though the are visible on the saucer. Lint do your best and ill give ya a cookie or 2. And i agree build the phaser arrays they look so much better than textured ones
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Ask and ye shall receive ;)
i have never noticed torpedo launchers but then again i have never really looked for them, i will rectify that now :)
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Just double checking to be safe,
these are the only things that resemble torpedo launchers on the saucer so im guessing these are it?
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Just double checking to be safe,
these are the only things that resemble torpedo launchers on the saucer so im guessing these are it?
You would be correct. Have a cookie
And dont forget the lateral phaser arrays on the aft sec hull by the shuttlebay
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oh!. thanks for pointing those lateral ones out, i did'nt notice them :shock:,
Was the nova ever equipped with aft torpedo bays?, because i am unable to find any..
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Yes it does, In the Voyager Episode Equinox (Part 2) The Damaged equinox fires a photon Torpedo from its aft launcher while traveling away from voyager
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ahhh yeah, i think i remember that, it was while they were in warp yeah?, ill hafta have a quick watch of it now to determine the exact position of the launcher(s)
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i believe they were breaking orbit of a planet im sure the torp came from somewhere along the spine area
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i believe they were breaking orbit of a planet im sure the torp came from somewhere along the spine area
Thats correct, the aft torpedo launchers on the Nova are in a similar position to those seen on the Intrepid Class. Nice start lint, keep us up to date lol. :)
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I couldn't get a blueprint but I think this will do
http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/scienceresearch_nova.jpg
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don't forget the rhode island variant.
And is 19000 really that bad? I bewlieve other models have been close to that 17000, for instance. I have a tos pytor around here that's 19k. Optimisation may help too.
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don't forget the rhode island variant.
yes please :) and being from Rhode Island myself, i of course am biased to that being my fav class of all... :D
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looks fantastic!
a halfway off-topic question: can anyone tell me what WIP means?^^
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This looks realy promising :), we need definatly a new nova class. Great work so far!
looks fantastic!
a halfway off-topic question: can anyone tell me what WIP means?^^
WIP means Work In Progress
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Work In Progress, and that nova looks ace, nice work :)
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its hard to determine what the max polly limit is that i can have, i hear different things from everyone, :lol:.
Whats the absolute max?, because i want to model the most detail i can on to her, the less textured on parts the better in my opinion,
I want to release a high quality Nova to make up for the lack of them since BC's release :),
9thdawg asked me the same question about the Rhode Island variant, and my answer was and still is, if enough of you guys want me to do one after this sucker im more then happy to fulfill your request :)
And thanks to everyone who has posted reference pics and links to schematics :D,
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the less textured on parts the better in my opinion,
I agree, and yes, a Rhode Island variant would be great ! :D
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you ARE going to give it a new name, aren't you
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you ARE going to give it a new name, aren't you
Why whats wrong with the Rhode Island Class, Many other ships have gone by their Ship Name:
The Centaur Class For Example: The only Ship of this class was the USS Centaur the official title is "Excelsior Variant" But fans have come to know it as the "Centaur Class" I don't see what wrong with the Nova Variant being given the same treatment "Rhode Island Class"
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yeah, i think Rhode Island is the most appropriate, sounds better than Nova Variant Class, Harry Kim Class Or Nova X class
:lol:
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dont say Nova X anytime theres an X next to a ship its either a god ship or has 3 nacelles or more
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If you are seriously thinking about making a Nova-X (IE: 3 nacelled disaster) you may experience a sudden 'shun' sensation from the rest of the community. LOL.
Stick with your original idea. the USS Equinox and possibly USS Rhode Island.
I would just call the Rhode Island 'Nova Refit Class' since, well, technically, it is a refit.
Also, there is 'edges' on the engineering hull. This has plauged every single Nova ship I have tried (all of them). Will you be trying to smooth it out or round it off a bit better then in the original model?
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haha man, i dont have any intention of turning a science/scout ship into an X class whatever thing.
Yeah, gonna try and smooth that it all out :)
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you ARE going to give it a new name, aren't you
Why whats wrong with the Rhode Island Class, Many other ships have gone by their Ship Name:
The Centaur Class For Example: The only Ship of this class was the USS Centaur the official title is "Excelsior Variant" But fans have come to know it as the "Centaur Class" I don't see what wrong with the Nova Variant being given the same treatment "Rhode Island Class"
exactly! besides, half the ship's charm is being that it is named the Rhode Island :)
(and it is nice to have a class and ship named after my state hehe)
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thank you rengers :)
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Now that's HOT!!!!!!! :dance
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Update time,
First off, I have been thinking about the level of detail on this ship and the concerns of some people with the amount of poly's, So i have Decided to release two versions of her,
A mediocre version for people with standard computers...(yawn)
And a High Quality version for the Computer with balls that can handle it!
This should make everyone happy so there is no need to worry about poly counts and lag :),
I have Decided to do the High Quality version first, when that's done i'll remove the details from the high quality version then release it as the standard version with textured on detail instead of it being modelled on.
And now, to the ship,
I have had to almost guess where the aft torpedo launchers are located, from what i can gather they are sitting just a little bit below the impulse engine, i had to guess what they would also look like so opinions on the position and the design of the launchers itself would be appreciated, i still have some mesh smoothing to take care of but ill do that stuff last,
I created some new phaser arrays aswell,, i still have to replace the top and only array but that is a quick job..
I have done some other stuff, but ill just show you instead of explaining ;)
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Is it me, or do the nacelles look a little too close to each other. It might just be the angle.
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after you pointed it out i kind of agree, so i spread them out a little bit :)
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Ok, well, firstly, max poly count is meaningless. ANything under 25k with most of todays vid cards will run BC 3 times over with a fleet of 30 of'em. Older cards, well, get yourself promoted at burger king and buy a better one or don't whine.
I'ev had 98000k in on a geforce3 w 1200mhz and a 256 ram chip and it took 3 minutes to load but ran fine after that. So really anything is possible.
If you do a 3 nacelled/rediculous phaser canon version, you'll have atleast one download 8)
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:lol:
maybe ill do a Nova x or rhode island X just for you SF ;)
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The plain Rhode Island varient is a must along with the plain Nova.
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Heck I'll download both versions and try her out on my fairly old vid card LOL wichever won't blow her up, will be the one I use. Frankly though, I can run two CG Sovereigns, an LC Intrepid and ambassador, and an SNS Galaxy with acceptable lag. So this may not be very hard on me :).
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i just tested it with no textures (because they dont exist yet) and i got no lag with a polycount of 21k
which is good because that means more nice looking details :D
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and i got no lag with a polycount of 21k
which is good because that means more nice looking details :D
The Whitestar ThunderChild ported was...
The model is very high poly. 45,650,
and some textures on dat model was over 2 MB...
I think the limit should be now 22k polys, and max 1 or 2 1024x textures or lag will occur...(this is just my opinion, others will think something else)
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yeah, thats why im doing a high poly version and a simple version, some peoples computers cant handle ships aswell as other peoples
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A new nova yea can't wate to have it. or blow it up with Voyager. :D
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I definitely glad you're doing a new version of the Nova class...I also used LB's version in a release a year or so ago. I had been working on new textures for a 2nd release...however..Since you're actualy revamping the mesh as well, I won't need to. ...this looks fantastic!! Thanks for making a more cannon Nova...it's definitely one of my favorite ship class.[/color] :king
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Commander_One, you might want to consider using a different color than blue for your font... that color is kinda tough to see on this background..
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Sorry Commander, but it gives me a headache. :?
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Commander_One, you might want to consider using a different color than blue for your font... that color is kinda tough to see on this background..
Sorry...noted for future reference sir, :D
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Yay! An uber-high-quality Nova! I always loved this design lineage, from the Nova to the Rhode Island. Always been a favorite.
Great work, can't wait to see more. :D
-Aeries.
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Same here. Its looking awesome.
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seeing as you guys have new interest in the nova i have just started texturing her,
here is a couple pics, she should be ready in a few days, prolly a late christmas present, along with my b'rel, :lol:
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GOSH!
She's DEFINITELY on my Christmas wish list! Excellent work!
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ow, looks nice, I've been waiting for a good Nova.
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everyone has, :lol:
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There are 3 Nova Class types
Equinox: damaged, undermanned, horrible condition
Nova: fully operational, undamaged
Rhode Island: upgraded, more advanced model
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well, there are 2 types,
Nova and equinox are the same class, equinox just had its arse kicked.
and the rhode island is the future variant ;)
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Yet the Rhode Island had a low registry number, not making it impossible there was perhaps an escort variant and a science variant of the Nova class. Or it is supposed to be a different ship and the CGI-department used the equinox design to not have to design a whole new ship. Then again she could be to the Nova as the Lakota is to the Excelsior. Assuming it's a future refit is also possible, but an assumption too easily made considering because we saw the ship in the future.
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sorry guys, but while texturing the Nova i realised the shitty the saucer section looked, so i scrapped it..
No not the Nova, the Old saucer!, so i pulled an all nighter (with the flu) to build a new one,
I also decided to sculpt some new phaser arrays the resemble the ones on the Nova,
So the Texturing will now continue, I have my Christmas Day planned, :lol:
Presenting the FINISHED Model..
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Don't know if this was answered earlier and i'm too tired to check atm: Will you be doing the Rhode Island variant as well?
The new saucer looks ace btw. Which begs the question: What remains of the original model? I think the escape pods can be textured in like pretty much all other ships for Bridge Commander. I do think the "Wind Runner" or whatever it's called on the underside of the saucer should be modelled in thou.
What's the final polycount as it stands?
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Looking good, but something nags at me...I don't know why, but something feels off.
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yeah, ill be doing the Rhode Island in the new year, polycount is around the same as the b'rel, low 30k
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yeah, ill be doing the Rhode Island in the new year, polycount is around the same as the b'rel, low 30k
As I said in my last post, I think you can shave off a fair amount of polygons if you remove the modelled escape pods. In all honesty, it aint needed. And for the record, "30k" is not considered LOW. Among the best ships in BC, don't go over 15k (CG Sovereign and SNS Galaxy), and they have superb work on the textures as well as great models.
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COOL! work lint.
And if you make an x I'll dl it.
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when i said low 30k, i meant its around 32k,
I can just never get the result i want without using a high amount of poly's,
Maybe its something ill get bettter at in the future :)
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when i said low 30k, i meant its around 32k,
I can just never get the result i want without using a high amount of poly's,
Maybe its something ill get bettter at in the future :)
Meh it's fine ignore those with inferior pc's they just need to upgrade ;)
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great job on the mesh
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Looking good, but something nags at me...I don't know why, but something feels off.
ya im afraid i gotta agree here... i cant quite put my finger on it tho, but something does feel off somehow...
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The saucer is too narrow. It makes the model look strange. Widen the sides a little bit and it would look great.
That said, you rebuilt the saucer and warp nacelles. Why not just go full throttle (sp?) and make a completely new mesh?
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Lol! And they still say that my Mithra, being at 12.2k, is 'too high-poly', and I've modeled in the escape pods, too. :P
In any case, this ship looks totally ace. She's definitely going to be a download for me. :D can't wait to see the Rhode Island variant, too!
Keep up the excellent work!
-Aeries.
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yeah, i need to re-scale the saucer, it looks weird on other angels aswell, :lol:
Ill do that a little later on and post some pics
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Dont forget the forward torpedo launchers
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yes dawg, i have done the launchers just then you bastard, :lol:
I was'nt happy with the arrays so ill redo them, it will take me about 30 mins
I have rescaled the saucer, does it look right now guys?
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much better now, I always liked the nova very much and you did an awsome job there :D
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I dunno, it seems that the engineering hull seems off...either that or the pylons. The pylons don't quite seem long enough. Do you have any direct views of the ventral side of the ship?
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just a small texture update for everyone :)
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Very nice. Loving the textures.
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nice metallic feel to the textures. Though you might want to reduce the lustre just a bit. The hull looks a bit too shiny imho.
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nice job, mesh looks great, but the texture does look a little shiny but im sure ur way ahead of that already... great work :)
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yeah i agree DJ, i was playing with the specs, ill tone them down a little :)
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I like it...too bad I can't handle the high poly version LOL Good job though :)
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the Rhode Island will be low poly for you guys who have low end systems :)
Here is a couple ingame shots of the nearly complete nova
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*cuddles the Nova*
Rock-a-by Staaaar ship, on the tree top... when the solar wind blows, the warp drive will drop. When the 'drive drops, the Warp Core will breach... and 'boom' will go nova... crazy sadistic crew and all... O.o; Oh yeah... I'm a poet...
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I hope you are going to scale the ship appropiately to the LCVoyager. If you do, that would seriously rock.
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Ill scale it to Lc's Intrepid just for you, Billz 8)
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is this about right?, i tried to match it up the best i could..
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This will most likely be the last preview before posting on BCfiles,
All i gotta do is map the registry on the under side of the nacelles then she is all done,
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Theres a few things missing in the textures.
jb76 edit - in the future please do not link large images to this site... please instead upload them...
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yeah but im lazy and sick of fed ships!, haha :(
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I'll be now taking over the texturing of the nova, as it seems lints too lazy ;)
i'll post some results in a few hours.
~Jb06
JLS
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OH MY GOSH!
This nova will bear my metophorical children! lmao!
I can't WAIT to put this into BC in concert with the new Intrepid! I'm so excited! :D
Beautiful work!
-Aeries.
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yeah, im a bit lazy, i have some Non-fed stuff coming up that will make some of you wet your pants :D
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can this please be locked aswell, an announcment will be made about the nova soon :)
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done