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That new Bulk shuttle is more what I thought it would be like. Looks very cool. I still disagree with the wings existence, but it has to fly somehow, right? Other than that, it looks completely awesome.
@cosmic_nusiance, on Oct 8 2010, 10:51 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
I like this design. The cockpit seems much more integrated than the beetle, and much more fighter-ey (I'm sure this was intentional ). It looks a bit large for a fighter compared to Nova's, not that that's a bad thing. I believe there was an Epic Discussion about ship sizes a while back, and large (747) size fighters were brought up. Pretty awesome.
Actually, the Wasp is only 4 meters in length, fairly small compared to EVN's Viper at 7 meters. As for the cockpit, I quickly realized the first cockpit piece I made wouldn't do for faster, sleeker fighters. So I modified it to make a sleeker one, the design you see above.
Edit: After making some measurements, I've realized 4 meters is WAY too small for the Viper. I've also discovered a lot of my smaller ships are much too small for their purposes. It's looking like the Wasp might actually end up being twice its original length at 8 meters instead of 4. Still it's only 1 meter longer than EVN's Viper.(/edit)
@spartan-jai, on Oct 8 2010, 12:18 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
Technically, you don't need wings to move in space. Additionally, a starship could just as easily move in an atmosphere without wings if it had the right technology. In Star Wars the wings on the Republic Gunship are actually next to useless. The main reason the thing flies is due to special anti-gravity devices in the bottom platform under the troop deck.
But that's beside the point. One of the things DFS is known for is their style. The wings are purely for show in this case. Besides, removing the wings gave it the look of a giant space slug, not what I was going for.
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 08 October 2010 - 10:45 PM
I thought there was a turret on the end of each wing on the Republic gunship. Oh well. Still looks good.
@spartan-jai, on Oct 9 2010, 08:31 AM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
There are. You didn't see the little pods on the ends of the wings? Those are beam turrets. I said they were next to useless, they still carry those two pods and provide fighter cover.
Dragonfly Syndicate Hornet Class Heavy Fighter
The Wasp may be the mainstream fighter now, but the Hornet is what DFS hopes will become the top design before long. Better shields, stronger armour, and additional weapons including missile systems, the Hornet represents the next generation in fighter technology. It's no starfighter, but it has the balance to combat other fighters and still be able to assault larger ships to a degree. So far no one outside the Merchant Marines has begun using these in any great quantity, though DFS seems satisfied with this for the moment.
That last bit about the Merchant Marines can be a little misleading. While they do use the Hornet more than anyone else, they still use other fighters more often than the Hornet. You will see Merchant Marines flying Hornets solo more than you will Wasps, though, as they use the Wasps in small fleets with larger ships for support. Also note the fact the Hornet is little more than a Wasp with two extra gun housings and missile launchers strapped on. It also bears a strong resemblance to the Star Corps variant of the Wasp. In reality, the Hornet was designed for the express purpose of getting the Merchant Marines to back off from their attempts to gain access to the Star Corps' Wasp designs. DFS did this because the Star Corps threatened to cease usage of their Wasp designs and look for an alternate fighter if DFS didn't do something. This would have lost DFS a lot of money. So they made the Hornet as a compromise for the public.
You might ask yourself, "Why didn't the Star Corps take care of the Merchant Marines themselves?" Well, with the war against piracy, the Star Corps has their hands full. They're also not know for negotiating, but rather for shooting and annihilating. They can't simply arrest/kill the Merchant Marines, either, because the Merchant Marines are the only ones preventing the small-time pirates that permeate Empire space from controlling the shipping lanes. Why the Merchant Marines specifically wanted the Star Corps' Wasp designs more than any other fighter is anyone's guess.
@darthkev, on Oct 9 2010, 09:57 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
Well, there is another good reason for a starship (at least, for a small one) to have wings: it makes atmospheric maneuvering simpler. Nothing that would affect EVN gameplay, obviously, but ...
Example: look at the TIE fighter. Works great in the vacuum of space (fast and maneuverable), but it is not aerodynamic in the slightest, and those big flat panels are a great target for a stray crosswind, never mind gunfire. Such scenes are fairly common in the X-wing book series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston, wherein the X-wings do much better in atmo than their TIE counterparts (check out Wedge's Gamble , The Bacta War , and Solo Command in particular). Plus, an antigrav system just makes you float above the ground; it doesn't make you any less susceptible to such forces as air friction and wind.
Capital ships, on the other hand, can look however you damn well please; they're not supposed to go in-atmo.
This post has been edited by StarSword : 28 October 2010 - 02:15 PM
@starsword, on Oct 12 2010, 08:25 PM, said in Legacy TC Status Thread:
This is true. However, the Republic Gunship's wings are much too thin and molded the wrong way to provide any lift. At best, they might provide some resistance to wind when their engines go down, allowing a slightly softer crash than without. For the most part they are there to carry those two extra turrets and the Gunship's air-to- ground air missiles rockets.
In the case of the Beetle, though, they are entirely for show. No weapons are carried, no cargo space, nuthin'. I suppose the combat variant might carry guns or missiles on the wings, but the standard variant doesn't really use them for much.
Quote
True again, but I find wings aesthetically pleasing, thus why even a lot of my larger ships have them. The Wyvern, all three SD warships, most Estee ships, MDS ships (once modeled), and Onli warships (again, need to model) have wings. Though, in the case of Estee ships, they are more of pylons supporting the engines than they are wings, but still...
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 13 October 2010 - 09:43 AM
There's another good reason:
Because of the way physics works, sticking the engines further from the center of mass would result in a higher turn rate. Wings aren't technically needed, all you'd have to do is put them on poles, but it is a good excuse.
Dragonfly Syndicate Mosquito Class Interdictor
Sometimes you need speed. Sometimes you need firepower. Sometimes you need resilience. And then sometimes you need all three. In those situations, the Mosquito is what you need. The Mosquito is something of a jack of all trades with its blinding speed in space and in planetary atmospheres, intimidating weapons systems, and special reactive armour that's tougher to punch through than most craft its size. It suffers slightly from short range, weaker shields, and a lack of space for expansion, but most pilots think this of little concern.
By 'reactive armour', I don't mean the Mosquito can repair its hull like EVN's RAGE Gunboat. No, Reactive Armour is a special armour kit invented by a DFS engineer to mirror the insect names* of their ships. Just as some insects have an exoskeleton consisting of layered plates along their bodies rather than hardened segments, the Mosquito has layered plates of armour that support each other and move to resist and deflect damage more easily, resulting in less damage delivered. It can be applied to any vessel on the market, but the Mosquito is one of the few to equip it standard.
*The Carpenter is named after the Carpenter Ant, so it does count with the rest of them.
Dragonfly Syndicate Cricket Class Corvette
The Cricket is a good, solid vessel. It's fast, combat capable, and it has a spacious cargo bay. A lot of shipyard firms have used it as a baseline for their own corvettes, though somehow the Cricket always shines above them. Most chalk this up to there being no replacement for originality, though some claim it's thanks to DFS' own sense of style mixed with function. In the end DFS enjoys a decent profit margin from Cricket sales and is content to let others have the flashy designs on the market.
The Cricket is the ship the basic player starts with. HOTS will have various chär types to choose from with varying backgrounds and starting ships (rich family, hardcore mercenary, and even an upstart pirate king) but the default chär has the player in the Cricket in the role of a merchant. The player's father owned and captained the ship before them and the player inherits it when a pirate attack kills the player's father. The player then looks for revenge in the form of joining the Sapphire Dragons who mainly fight the pirate faction responsible for their father's death: the Mafia.
The other chär types have different amounts of starting cash and different ships, but the main background is pretty much the same. In the case of the upstart pirate king, the player's father was an indy pirate who attempted a hostile takeover of the Mafia and failed. You'll be in a Pirate Destroyer but you'll have almost no money. The rich family starts the player with plenty of cash but you'll be flying a Tulip. The mercenary has more money than the pirate king, less than the rich family, and gets a Tern (not modeled yet).
** Edit:** Oh, and I've made new parts for the Onli vessels and have even modeled three more Onli vessels. The Cheval Class Light Freighter, Vache Class Bulk Freighter, and Chasseur Class Gunship can all be seen in the gallery. The Navette will not be remodeled using the new parts, at least not at this time. It's a more recent design and includes more human tech than other Onli designs, though not nearly as much as the Requin Class Destroyer, which is a legit hybrid between Onli and human tech.
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 25 October 2010 - 03:08 AM
The Cricket looks like the EVC Corvette, but that's most likely on purpose. Still looks really cool. I'm liking the idea of the upstart pirate king...
Yeah, the Cricket is based on EVC's Maskirovka Corvette. It was my favorite ship in EVC and I liked the idea of it living on in spirit in HOTS. The SD Falcon is also based on EVC's Hawk, my favorite EVC fighter.
Well, in that case, did you base the Mosquito on EVC's scoutship?
Yep. I don't know why but it just looked so much more combat capable than it really was, so I based an interdictor on it. The Mosquito will still get squashed if it goes up against a true warship, but at least it can take out various fighters without much trouble now.
For that matter, a lot of the ships in HOTS are based on ships from EVC, EVO, and EVN. For instance, the Panther is based on EVO's UE Fighter. The Kingsnake takes its inspiration from the Heraan Argosy. There are those I came up with myself, such as the Turtleshell, Komodo, and Puffin, simply because basing every ship on something else would be boring and unoriginal. Of course, doing so at all is unoriginal in a sense, but I also see it as a kind of challenge to rebuild an existing ship out of different pieces while also putting my own flair on it.
Except for the Newton ships. Those are pretty much ripped from Ares. I'll probably give them better paint jobs at some point, something other than that washed-out blue that matches Ishiman ships so well.
Onli update! The last of their vessels have been completed and can be viewed in the gallery in my signature. In alphabetical order as they are listed in the gallery, you may now view the following:
You'll notice the Requin has a radically different paint job in comparison to other Onli vessels. This is because the Requin is a hybrid of human and Onli tech, specifically pairing superior Onli shielding with stronger human armour. The result is a vessel with unparalleled defenses, though this diminishes the purple color.
Since I'm posting this I might as well give a bit of background on the Onli, as well. Simply put, they are bipedal frogs with mottled blue and purple skin, minus the extendable tongue. Their home planet of Onli is almost completely covered by water with one single spot of land sticking out. This sole island is roughly half the size of Australia and the location of the only spaceport on the planet.
The Onli Conglomerate controls a vast stretch of territory in the galactic south of the Milky Way galaxy. Though the amount of space is roughly equal with the Earth Empire's territory, Onli systems are more spaced out giving them fewer systems total. To the north of Onli space is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, and then Empire space on the other side of that. To the east is Orion space and then Mafia/Shojen Samurai space beyond that.
One last thing: bonus points to anyone who can figure out the small bit of irony in the names of Onli ships when compared to Onli physiology. It's vague and stereotypical, but it's there.
QUOTE
The ship class names are all French; a common abbreviation/mild slur for French people is frog(s).
Oh, and I've been following this TC with some interest, it looks very promising. And I'm a big fan of the ship models you've posted so far :-).
That wouldn't technically be ironic, my guess would be that the irony is that the French eat frogs.
Gotta say, out of the Onli ships, the Requin is my favourite by a long way.
Bonus points to Templar! Nice try, Valkyrie, but the ironic part was that the French eat frogs. I was unaware 'frog' was slang for French people.
Thanks for the support, Valkyrie. Just wait, I've got more ships in store. Templar, is there something in particular you don't like about the other Onli vessels, or do you just prefer the traditional style of Delphi's pieces?
** Edit:** Strikethrough result of there being nothing traditional about Delphi's work. I don't mean his work is unorthodox, but it's certainly original.
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 29 October 2010 - 07:39 PM
QUOTE (DarthKev @ Oct 30 2010, 04:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Templar, is there something in particular you don't like about the other Onli vessels, or do you just prefer the traditional style of Delphi's pieces?
Nah, it's just that the other Onli ships feel too fragile to me, and the coloured sections taking up 90% of the ship is a little odd, especially compared to the other Onli ships.
But it does give them a very different feel to the other race's ships, so I approve of where you're going, but I'm just not a huge fan of the results. They're still good ships, though.
I knew I forgot to mention something in my small background post of the Onli. Onli ships are organic by nature, very much resembling living creatures. The purple colors are literally the ship's skin with the yellow being radiator strips that bleed off excess energy when needed as well as carry energy across the ship when internal circuits are tied up. Anything colored with that dull metal blue is an artificial implant, if you will, meant to enhance the vessel's performance. That's why Onli ships have so much color.
Part of the organic nature is also to create a better shipboard computer, one that will actually value self-preservation and will do what it can to ensure its crew's survival. As a result Onli ships tend to be fairly intelligent and often bond with their captains and crews. Some examples have even been able to learn to speak both the Onli language and Terran, the universal human language. Those that do are highly sought after for the conversation they can provide on long journeys as well as their superior intellect compared to other Onli vessels.
This post has been edited by DarthKev : 30 October 2010 - 11:25 AM