Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Modding => Topic started by: DJ Curtis on August 08, 2009, 04:33:39 PM
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I needed to model for fun. Textures and scripting make me die inside a little each time. Named after Lawrence Holland, who developed the original XWing game! (any others, that we know of?)
This is a Miranda equivalent commissioned probably around 2315. It has early phaser arrays and a refit excelsior derived body inspiration. I'll do a back story later. C&C welcome.
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Nifty little vessel
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NICE!!
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I also like the fact that it somewhat reminds me of Centaur.
I should probably say I intended that as a compliment! (Some find the ship ugly, not sure why)
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Thats a great looking ship.
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Have a cookie mate, I really like that.. its simple but yet detailed enough to work.. great work
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ditto on the cookie. a late TMP/Early X Miranda...
I'll look foreward to DLing this one.
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This looks familiar...the Reliant-A, isn't it? There was a version of it done for Klingon Academy; the guy who made it said it was based on a Rick Knox design. I liked the idea...it seemed similar to an Ambassador, like a Miranda is to a Constitution, or a Centaur to an Excelsior.
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Millions of ships that have this layout, but no, this is not from KA, it's an original from my head. :)
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DJ, you're amazing.
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DJ, I think you just gave me some ideas for a Miranda refit I've been storing in my head. Never occured to me I could make more significant changes and still keep the same feel. Thanks.
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wow..nice!..for sum strange reason the second pic if you take away the weapons pod looks like a Centaur Design
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Lovely! Excelsior-era escort/courier?
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Battlehawks 1942, THeir finest hour: The battle of britain, Secret weapons of the Luftwaffe, Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Star Wars: X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance and Star Trek: Bridge Commander, did I forget something?
I think Lawrence Holland deserves this honor. I look forward to the release of this ship. Long live Lawrence Holland, long live Totally Games.
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nice!
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O_o frak me thats good for a bored project
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Saucer aztec and registry done. I will probably detail that aztec up more down the road tho. Cookie to the first person who can figure out what the reg number is.
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I cheated, went and looked...Bridge Commander's release date. (Though I had a feeling before I went to Wikipedia to confirm it...)
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Good start DJ, looks sharp.
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I knew it was BC's release date the second I looked.
Though I thought it was released on the 25th. My nephew was born on the 25th of the following year.
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Nice ship. I'm guessing a bit before the Ambassador class, timeline-wise?
Also, is that horrible aft phaser coverage intended? :P
If yes, she's probably more of a strike cruiser than a ship that operates without support for long periods of time? After all, her engine sectios seem to be exceptionally tasty for any BoP that happens to stumble upon her ;)
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Well i'll be... a ship with a sexy back-side.
Niiice work. :D
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makes me want to see a future style one to go wih the rest of the ships
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here a quick idea make the weapon pod into a little attack ship (MVAM).
but love the design you are a god i pray that i be this good one day just my pc holding me back
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Wife went to bed early tonight and I didn't get my Left 4 Dead time in. Worked on this instead because I didn't feel like working.
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very nice! I like the style of the warp nacelles :D
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Awesome. We gon't have enough Excelsior-era ships :D
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Took ya long enough... :hide
Just kidding, it looks great and take your time. :D
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*arms and fires a temporal flux cookie* :D
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Nicely done mate... it looks sharp as a kitchen blade, keep the texturing going and keep sending ur missues to bed in my opinion, this forum misses your HUGE input ;)
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Ooh, very nice. And without the roll bar as well. :)
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Left 4 Dead Rocks, This ship Rocks, DJ rocks, Planet Earth has lots of rocks..... Coffee, nuff said.....
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Dalek--> Yeah, decided I didn't like the roll bar. I left some mounts in case I come up with something in the future, but I like the ship equally without anything.
Did some work this morning to the engines and the phaser arrays.
Also, some good news about the textures in terms of performance. I'm working hard to keep the entire texture set for this ship on a single 2048x2048 texture map. That should allow you to use quite a few of these ships in a single engagement by reducing the load on your graphics card.
Gotta say, I'm really digging the way this ship looks from the aft. :)
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nice little ship :D
It have any pulse cannons or armor? Quantums?
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Nope. Actually will be quite lightly armed by Dom War standards. However, for the early 24th century time period, it's phaser arrays will pack a punch relative to other beam weapons of the time.
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I can understand why you like its aft. :D Looks beautiful DJ.
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I can understand why you like its aft. :D Looks beautiful DJ.
me too.
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Nice! The backside does look pretty slick.
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I will happily pilot her against the darn Jem'Hadar.. as long as she survives from my trial runs. :evil
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She looks amazing from the rear. Sign of a good design
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[offtopic]Bow chicka bow wow[/offtopic]
[ontopic]Very nice DJ, looking slick! :) Can't wait to fly this baby![/ontopic]
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I'm a fan. :]
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Work continues on this ship behind the scenes. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I only really get time to work on ships in piecemeal format nowadays. Work, kids, the band... you know the routine.
Mostly just been working on the hull texture. I've refined the shuttle bay though, and added some regs to the sides of the nacelle pylons. I think I also added impulse engine textures since the last update as well.
Comments and suggestions are welcome as always.
Lol. Hopefully once I'm done this ship I can shed the rep of being a one trick 25th century pony. :)
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Looking real good there DJ.
Just don't forget your 25th century ships. :P
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it indeed does look nice. :) I'm eagerly waiting for this and Eclipse-class. :D
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Looks very nice.
But, what are those thingys on either side of the of the impulse reactor? They look like telephone keypads.
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The background story of this ship is that it was a testbed for the earliest phaser arrays... as opposed to the singular or double emitters we saw on Constitution and Excelsior Class starships. It will state that one of the challenges they had developing arrays was managing the extreme heating of the equipment, requiring an extensive cooling system as a part of the array.
Those telephone dial pad like boxes are actually very large heat-sinks, for conducting the excess heat from the phaser system's coolant out into space.
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Okay, so more update. I like this ship, plus I found a really easy way to do hull textures that works well on this ship. :D
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Hmm... Hey DJ, I have an idea if you don't mind my input...
This ship really screams a lot of similarities to the Excelsior class design lineage, for the saucer/impuse sections... have you thought about removing the nacelles and pylons, and using that as a base for building a refit excelsior class ship? Just a thought... 'cause it reminds me so much of the Centaur and both this and the centaur have remarkable similarities to the Excelsior.
All in all, this is a really cool looking ship. To me it really has that "work horse" feel to it and that's something I really like. Very cool, dude. Glad to see you're still in the game. :]
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Glad you like it Aeries, though I'm not gonna commit to a bash of this. You'll get it when you read the backstory upon release.
One final update before bed. Had fun with this today. :D
About 70% textured.
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Looks like a fused Centaur/Lakota...just smaller and therefore slightly changed proportions. Excellent design and model!
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The background story of this ship is that it was a testbed for the earliest phaser arrays... as opposed to the singular or double emitters we saw on Constitution and Excelsior Class starships. It will state that one of the challenges they had developing arrays was managing the extreme heating of the equipment, requiring an extensive cooling system as a part of the array.
Those telephone dial pad like boxes are actually very large heat-sinks, for conducting the excess heat from the phaser system's coolant out into space.
Nice explanation for the heat sinks - sounds logical.
But, to me the look of them is too... blocky, for lack of a better word. The ship as a whole is beautifully fluid looking, but the heat sinks just look, I don't know... somewhat off, for some reason.
Just my 2 cents but maybe you could try a more blade or fin like array arranged in a similar fashion as what you have now. Kind of along the lines of a CPU heat sink - made of thin blades in order to maximize heat dissipation and get the most surface area. Of course, you can't go too crazy otherwise your number of polygons will go too high. But, I think you get my meaning.
Just a suggestion.
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hmm.. that structure would look similar to the grille in Excelsior neck, right? I agree, it woul?d be more pleasing to watch
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Thanks for the suggestion on the heat sinks. While I was happy with them the way they were, I've tapered them at the top and added some slant to the front and rear ends. I like them now too, so it's cool by me.
Textures are nearing completion. About 90% finished.
There are a few large flat face sections to do, mainly on the underside, but basically what I want to do now is add in some details like more pennants, panels, and doohickeys. However, most everything is mapped out except for a few of the ships narrow edges.
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You know, how big is she compared to an Excelsior? Those windows make it seem quite big. IN a good way. :)
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So what happens may I ask if one or both of those heat-sinks get shot up? Do your phasers go down or do you just go *boom*?
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I've always found it funny that we often compare ships sizes by windows, without thinking that ships can have different size windows. :) Here's a general approximation of size.
As to if the heatsinks get shot up.. isn't the answer obvious? They simply re-route the secondary phase-couplers by disengaging the primary nadion sequencer. All after clearing the level3 security override, of course. :P
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you have my download :whenitsdone
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Thanks.
You know what I'm actually kind of proud of with this ship? Is this level of detail, all on a single 2048 map. This is actually a much more efficient texture scheme than any ship I've done before.
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and that's why I'm glad that my rig will be completed within couple months. then I can see all these ships in their full, smooth glory. :D keep up the good work, and have a cookie. you've deserved it. ;)
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I've always found it funny that we often compare ships sizes by windows, without thinking that ships can have different size windows. :)
I always thought that ship sizes are more determined by the size of the ship's torpedo launchers.
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You know, I actually discovered that many of my ships could have much better performance. I shipped them all with 2048 specular textures, which really kills the graphics card for whatever reason. Probably because there's so much more calculation that goes into the specular rather than diffuse maps. Anyhow, I re-sized my specs to 1024. basically no quality degradation, but way more playability.
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You know, I actually discovered that many of my ships could have much better performance. I shipped them all with 2048 specular textures, which really kills the graphics card for whatever reason. Probably because there's so much more calculation that goes into the specular rather than diffuse maps. Anyhow, I re-sized my specs to 1024. basically no quality degradation, but way more playability.
That's what I do ;) And ship size should be measured by the deck count times 3.5 meters. How many rows of windows = how many decks. You can't fail with that one.
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Those heat sinks look much better... more "in-line" with the flow of the ship.
Glad I can help.
She's a beauty.
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almost done the textures.
here's a neat little shot to give a sense of scale.
also the bottom has been improved. just need some stuff on that center part.
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Thanks.
You know what I'm actually kind of proud of with this ship? Is this level of detail, all on a single 2048 map. This is actually a much more efficient texture scheme than any ship I've done before.
I'm glad we have guys like you DC. Always looking for a more efficient way of doing things.
We could almost* call you lazy :P
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Here's hoping no one shoots a torpedo through that shuttlebay, or you're gonna run into trouble. :D
Cookie, sah.
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Questions. Are you going to relise a model of this ship with the shuttle bay doors open? jest for fun it would be cool. And second, what type of shuttles are they? Are they something that is all ready out to down load or are they something you made? Steller work as always...
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Everything on the ship is now mapped and textured. There is still some detailing to do, but the textures are essentially 97% finished.
I also lengthened the warp engines by about 15% or so. Makes the ship look just a touch sleeker at certain angles without throwing off the balance.
I think I'm going to make some changes to the nacelle glows yet, but once I'm done that and some details, I'll get some specular textures and glows rolling.
You might also notice the tops of the "stumps" at the rear of the dorsal side of the ship have circular latches. This is the latching system for attaching different modules. I think I'll model 2 or three different ones for the ship to specialize it.
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OMG one outstanding ship here... I think it's one of my fav ships of yours.
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You might also notice the tops of the "stumps" at the rear of the dorsal side of the ship have circular latches. This is the latching system for attaching different modules. I think I'll model 2 or three different ones for the ship to specialize it.
Cool. I can almost imagine the weapons pod (if there was one) being used as a really big mine if you detached it and set it to explode.
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Imho, this is how the Centuar Class should've looked. With the variable module system you got on this ship, I can imagine both a Reliant-variant, and a Phoenix-variant as two of it's pods.
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oh yes, that's one sexy little ship. :dance
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Here is the first completed pod. It is a long range sensor pod for deep space reconnaissance. No additional weapons, but in-game you will have a major sensor advantage.
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And now with some extra punch. Reliant-like phasers.
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hmm I'm not to sure about the design for that sensor pod....
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Now brought to life with specs and glows. :)
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Wow, that looks fantastic, I like the idea of the additional pods attached to the ship.
BTW, pic #3 makes her look like a sleeker, more refined Centaur. :D
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This is looking great, I hope scripting goes well. I like that you brought back the pods. I was dissapointed when you originally removed it. I was wondering if you would have a Reliant-esk pod, or some kind of torpedo pod. Still looks awesome with the sensor pod.
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Sensor pod looks great. Would not change a thing on it.
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Looks good!
Are you going to also include making a pod with photon launchers in addition to phasers?
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Not really sure. There will already be three ships in the pack. Not sure I want to add more to be honest.
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hmm if you are going to add a torp pod.... put it where the neck would usually go... (be even more Centaurish)
;)
Could say this ship was the intended replacement of the Centaur.
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centaur this, centaur that, yada yada.. just upload this beautiful ship so I can spend few days staring at it. :D
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Simply excellent. I love that sensor pod. :]
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Absolutely beautiful. Although it occured to me the Reliant like phasers don't have much coverage.
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Absolutely beautiful. Although it occured to me the Reliant like phasers don't have much coverage.
perhaps this ship is more agile than your average Starfleet barge? A defiant of it's own era?
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Maneuvarability doesn't adjust the coverage given by phasers. As far as I can see, those phasers are partly blocked by the bridge and the curvature of the saucer.
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they look fine to me, they've got plenty of coverage; forward, above and aft.
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they won't have very big arcs.
basically the idea is that they will be very high power phasers, but with very limited arcs and a long recharge time. Designed essentially to give extra punch during an opening volley or when the LH has an advantage in positioning.
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As long as something makes up for the not "very big arcs". :)
Btw, I never noticed the bottom of the saucer, it looks fantastic. :D
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*walks over to DJ and hands him a cleaning bill* I had an accident when I saw these pics.
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FYI. Ship is ready for HPing. No further variants coming. My BC install is on a BSOD fritz atm, so once I get that figured out I'll move forward on this ship and get it released.
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Ship is now in the game and mostly hardpointed. Just a few things to do here and there.
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Beautiful work mate :)
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Looks awesome.
Excellent work.
Cookie
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Thanks fellas. Here's the ship description that can be read in the QB menu.
The USS Lawrence Hollance was the second of only seven Incom Class starships designed and manufactured at the San Francisco Fleet Yards orbiting Earth. The early design phase began in 2308 and the prototype vessel was launched in 2315. Despite being the only ship class of its time armed with phaser arrays instead of single emitters, the production run lasted only seventeen months. A comprehensive review of all existing and planned ship classes was carried out in late 2318 by the newly formed Advanced Starship Design Bureau and the decision was made to halt production. The ASDB review found that the ship had been platformed on technologies that were extremely near to becoming antiquated in the face of several unforseen and largely incompatible technological breakthroughs. Those breakthroughs would render the continued production of the class a waste of resources.
The Incom Class was built not to replace any existing ship designs, though many Miranda Class Captains were concerned that their ships might be prematurely decomissioned. Instead its purpose was to augment Starfleet's core defensive ability. It was the first class of ship to be armed with phaser arrays, much more powerful and robust than their predecessors. In early tests, the phaser arrays had been found so effective against existing and predicted threat forces that the designers at the SFY felt it unnecessary to add a significant photon torpedo launching system.
In 2325, the USS Lawrence Holland was the first Starfleet ship to begin surveys of sectors close to what would become known to be Cardassian territory. For that mission she was equipped with a special sensor pod, greatly extending the range and resolution of the ship's long range sensors.
In 2331, the Holland was assigned to a lengthy term of escorting anti-matter tankers between production and deep space facilities. Given the potential danger of dealing with pirates and other threat forces, the ship was augmented with 4 phaser emitters adapted from a recently decomissioned Miranda Class vessel.
In 2352, all seven Incom Class ships were recalled to Utopia Planitia for decomissioning. Ironically, despite the potent offensive capability they were originally endowed with, only two minor combat engagements ever occured for the class, and both were by the Holland during her time as an anti-matter escort.
The prototype vessel now resides at the Starfleet Museum. The six other ships of the class were stripped down and recycled.
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Very nice history behind the ship. And a very nice ship too. Cookie time :)
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Thanks DT. Here's a shot of the phaser variant above a Cardie station. If you have a keen eye you may notice something a little different about those phasers. I tilted them outward instead of inward. I didn't actually do this for additional arc, but rather I had to move them out because I moved them down. i didn't want to have to move all the hardpoints for the variants, because the additions changed the where the center of the ship was on the z-axis. Just makes HPing a lot faster. So both variants have been slightly modified so that the bridge, in all three cases, remains the highest point on the ship.
Also I noticed I spelled Hollance in the first line of the desc. It's been fixed.
Two more things, too. 1: I can't believe the ship turned out looking this sharp on a single 2048 map. Hooray for smaller ships. 2: This will be the fastest ship I've ever produced I think from modeling to release. Which should be very soon.
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Wow! If not for that Cardie station, I would've sworn this was in something other than BC.(Seriously, we need new Cardie stations, eh?)
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Hey guys, would a few of you mind volunteering to run this ship through a beta tonight over the next couple hours?
Just say so here in the thread and I'll PM you a link to the zip. Feel free to place your reports right here in the thread.
If everything's running well I'd like to upload the ship to BCFiles tonight.
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I will give her a whirl.
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link sent.
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I will looks nice
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*raises hand* count me in, captain Solo.. Er, captain Curtis.
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Yo!
:dance
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She's a beauty with a dagger.. :D that's all I can say until she is released for all. I was pleasantly surprised.
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Wowzers :eek I'm amazed yet again DJ! Looking forward to this gorgeous piece of work :)
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So far i've got two beta reports back with overall positive results. i'd really like a couple more if anyone has the time.
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Hm I wonder how would look Excelsior styled variant of Lawrence Holland ;) this surely IS the best non-canon TMP design :D
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Hm I wonder how would look Excelsior styled variant of Lawrence Holland ;)
oooh now that's a thought!
this surely IS the best non-canon TMP design :D
couldnt agree more!
*more cookies to DJ*
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interesting idea, but not gonna happen right now. I really want to finish my other projects before taking on something new. :)
thanks for the compliment, Bones.
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I understand, perfection cannot be rushed so we will wait patiently ;)
this surely IS the best non-canon TMP design :D
couldnt agree more!
*more cookies to DJ*
err... I knew I forgot something :funny
more cookies !!! :P
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interesting idea, but not gonna happen right now. I really want to finish my other projects before taking on something new. :)
Yes, you should :P
This is a fantastic design DJ, I really love that ship.
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I?m always amazed how you can do so beautifull meshes with so few pollys DJ. The quallity remains even in 3dsmax conversions i?ve made of your mods. Is a pleasure to play with your ships. :)
Someday you really need to adventure yourself with a higher polly mesh. ;)
Congrats DJ, you?re the best!
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i wish I would have gotten in on this beta when it popped up, but I was having a testing hardpoint crash on me.
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wow. DJ Curtis: I have to say that is one impresive ship.
I'd love to know if you have any tips on ship modeling... if you dont mind helping out a fellow modler PM me.
Love the ship off to see if i can DL it.
oh and merry christmas to you and all :)