EVN - Delphi

HK is for Hunter-Killer.
B is for Bat.

I vote HK-9, although I am interested in the Enclave ships.

would it be possible for you to make some sketchup tutorials?
and there have been many times I wished I could have multiple ships. about the way your doing this dont make it so you can buy _____ ship for $0 and sell it on a different goverment's planet for like $772635463728. because that happened in anathama and where you could buy a titan for 2 mil and sell it on auroran for 25mil.

this number 772635463728 was just off the top of my head

This post has been edited by of doom : 25 April 2008 - 07:53 AM

I am EXTREMELY impressed with your work so far. Keep up the GREAT work here. If there is anything I could help you with (mostly creating the galaxy map / setting up individual systems or spobs) I would love to help but I can imagine you already are doing fine with that part.

PS: All your designs are very cool but may I ask why so many of the pictures so far look so similar? I know they are from the same gov. but the differences of ships in Nova is what helped make it so great.

Keep up the good work!

@1purevengeance1, on Apr 25 2008, 08:20 PM, said in EVN - Delphi:

I am EXTREMELY impressed with your work so far. Keep up the GREAT work here. If there is anything I could help you with (mostly creating the galaxy map / setting up individual systems or spobs) I would love to help but I can imagine you already are doing fine with that part.

PS: All your designs are very cool but may I ask why so many of the pictures so far look so similar? I know they are from the same gov. but the differences of ships in Nova is what helped make it so great.

Keep up the good work!

NDC ships are very compartmentalized, and on top of that, for the most part you fly military ships for the whole of the game, which are of course all painted to match fleet colors! :laugh:

Also, my texturing skills have never been top-notch, so the game is set more for the mood than the actual visuals. In fact, using the drab color palette for the NDC ships makes them seem all that much more depressing, like a universe gone cold and devoid of emotion.

Also, I've only really put serious work into the NDC ships so far, so it's a lot like if I were to remodel the Federation Navy of Nova, and only them. Hence the uniform design, etc.

Don't worry, there will be variety in the ships, I promise you; remember that a lot of the variation comes from their physical size on-screen. I'm thinking of uploading the small, stable tester plug I've been using a few times here to experiment with ship resources, although it's less than 2% complete in relation to the whole projected final product, really. Has about five or six planets with experimental outfitters (no custom graphics, and half the things don't function yet -- I haven't begun balancing), the NDC Versatile Shuttle, the Renault Cruiser (which is waaay too big on-screen, by the way), and the Raptor-class Corvette. Only two weapons so far - the pulse cannon and the enhanced variant, plus turrets for both - but hey, they work to an extent. I'll see what I can do once school is done. Only one more day...

@of-doom, on Apr 25 2008, 06:52 AM, said in EVN - Delphi:

would it be possible for you to make some sketchup tutorials?
and there have been many times I wished I could have multiple ships. about the way your doing this dont make it so you can buy _____ ship for $0 and sell it on a different goverment's planet for like $772635463728. because that happened in anathama and where you could buy a titan for 2 mil and sell it on auroran for 25mil.
this number 772635463728 was just off the top of my head

I'll be starting up the SketchUp tutorials once the semester is finished. Very soon here.

I'm just not sure where to start. :laugh:

I'm glad you didn't give up on your ships, Delphi. They are really cool.

Delphi your plug in and of itself is amazing and has been thought to be good enough to be EV4 by many people. You are awesome!
Also 1000th post on the same topic as my first!

Thank you for your support, EKHawkman. You've certainly been patient, and I hope you can remain so in the future, there is much work to be done yet! Likewise, my thanks for the same to you, Shlimazel, as well as everyone else who tracked me here from the old topic on EV-Nova.net. Rest in peace, old stomping ground.

I know I've been away for quite a while here, and I apologize for my absence! To be honest, I haven't put too much extra effort into Delphi in the past couple of weeks (I've been rather... preoccupied), and when I do, I tend to get so analytical about it that I reject almost every ship/weapon/image design right after the first few seconds. My sketchbook would look hilarious to any future artists looking back on our backward era: nothing but pages and pages of single lines that never became anything more.

It's currently 4:41 AM in Calgary, Alberta, and I'm sitting in my room with a clever design for a ship in mind.

We'll see if this one makes it to production.

If I can make this design a reality, I'll be offering it as a special teaser plug as well as a bonus for those who have shown support so far and will hopefully assist me in the beta-testing. If I can even just get together a strong alpha-worthy universe like Uncle Twitchy did with SFA I'll throw that out to the public while I work on the immense story line. Considering that it spans nearly a century, expect delays. For those who tried SFA and and wondering if I will be implementing the same "emerging technology" feature, by which new ships appear every so many years, replacing old designs, the answer is yes. It was such a cool yet simple addition to UT's conversion that I can't afford to overlook it. However, weapons will not be changing throughout the game, as I figured I'd take a bit of human history and apply its realistic fundamentals to the future of war: although tanks, vehicles, and other technologies of war have changed drastically between 1908 and 2008, the common weaponized idea of hurling a shell, however compact, into the heart of your enemy has been around before even the time of the vehicle, and as sophisticated as it may become, the bullet is still a staple technology. For example, the 1895 Lee-Enfield rifle was still the primary firearm of the British Army well into the 1960s, and still finds use in the hands of some modern soldiers in the form of a sniper rifle, for its rudimentary-yet-effective design. The technology to be developed by Dr. Charles Nichron in the middle of the 24th century is equally primitive and yet at the same time, nearly incapable of improvement, save for minor refinement, and as such makes sense finding continued use all the way up until the 27th century, in which our story takes place.

I'm not sure why I felt like justifying that, but hopefully the following makes up for my verbosity.

I just had another ship design hit me. It resembles a vacuum cleaner. I'll be damned if I'm not going to make it, too. 'Gonna be an EC recon vessel.

Also, upon testing the concept of music in-game during battle sequences, something I toyed with back on EV-Nova.net, having more than one song, approximately one minute in length, causes the plug-in to crash when loading; it's simply not capable of handling a sound byte any longer or larger. Sorry folks, but short of writing a "reverse-trainer" program to listen from outside of EV-Nova for mission bits and such and play the appropriate sound files, I have no real method by which I can implement in-game music. I'll be sure to include whatever I can with the cutscenes, of course. I'm going to try and assemble a rather aggressive approach to the cutscenes this summer and see if I may possibly enlist the talents of a few friends/colleagues, etc. to put to use in assembling even just a few FMV sequences set against digital backdrops, Command and Conquer style, but I really have no idea if that'll work out in the end.

In regards to the story, I may actually complete Delphi in a sort of episodic style, first producing a working universe plug and then adding content as it becomes available. That way, the entire story gets told, you all only have to download the universe plug-in to begin, and you'll get the chance to play it as it's developed, instead of waiting arduously for the final installment just to decide it wasn't worth your time, although I'm praying you won't think such things!

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, that sounds like a fantastic idea. Episodic it'll be. As a matter of fact, I have a really cool idea now for a "Sandbox Mode" plug that you'll be able to load in which you can just generally tool around and conquer the universe. Generic cargo/defense/offense/bounty missions will be available, but will not affect the galaxy as a whole. You'll get full access to the tech tree from the get-go, the only restriction being price. It'll keep the game's timeframe locked within the EC/NDC war so there's always something somewhere threatening you and requiring vanquishing, but unfortunately this means I'll have to close off the Crux Arm of the galaxy, denying you access to the alien territories. I know this is a bit of a bummer, but remember that they are strictly mission-specific, as well as all of their systems and worlds. By that point in the regular story, the ball is rolling pretty steeply downhill toward the climax at the end, and as such you won't really have the option to just jog home and do a few passenger pickups. Well, to be honest, you'll always be able to do that, but really, what fun would that be when there are unknown menaces to destroy elsewhere?

As a warning, it's 100% a sure thing that you won't be able to use your sandbox character to play the story. Can't have you defeating the first missions in a battleship, now can we?

Either way, with the goal of a "sandbox universe" in mind, I set forth to craft some ships. Including one that looks like a vacuum.

You're welcome, Delphi. It's a very impressive concept and it deserves completion. I look forward to it!

@delphi, on Sep 8 2007, 01:12 AM, said in EVN - Delphi:

More new stuff for you!

Here's a few sample shots of what could either be the Renon Class Police Boat (I ditched the old model), or possibly the Horizon Class Civilian Cruiser (it'll need a new color scheme in this case). Either way, you'll notice that it uses the same engine configuration as the Journeyman, mostly just because of modular design and the already-determined efficiency of the Journeyman Thruster System (JTS). The up-scaled engines provide more than enough power to make this light cruiser (or police vessel) a formidable opponent if you find yourself on the wrong side of the battle. Either way, I kinda like the way it fits inside a square, but not quite. I'm pretty sure, though, that Nova will like it for its it's sprite dimensions as a result of this, I can almost promise you.

Front 3/4 view, sorta.

Other side of the front, lower-angle to give you a better view of the ship's industrial "curves".

Almost top-down view, to show you rough ship dimensions as they'd appear in Nova.

Delphi, Sol, If there is any plug worth waiting for its yours. I can't wait to see this sandbox mode and this episode idea is wonderful! Finally I can whet my appetite that has been building for so long!
Also I quoted this to ask what its status is. It was probably one of my favorite of your ships and I would hate to know it died. LONG LIVE THE NOVA DEFENSE COALITION!

yes please put that ship in the teaser.

You had better believe that ship will be in the game. The teaser may not include it because I want it to be a staple ship, which may require continued balancing and refinement, but I'll see what I can do. The teaser will be like your typical "2 new ships and a weapon" plug made by most newbies, that you'll be able to add to your regular Nova game for a little bit of fun.

Looks interesting so far; I await playable versions with some interest. With regards to texturing, dull and flat may not cut it, regardless of the feel you're looking for. If you need texturing advice or tips, let me know.

@pipeline, on May 22 2008, 12:32 AM, said in EVN - Delphi:

Looks interesting so far; I await playable versions with some interest. With regards to texturing, dull and flat may not cut it, regardless of the feel you're looking for. If you need texturing advice or tips, let me know.

ABSOLUTELY.

I never thought you would be one of the ones to take interest in my little plug-in experiment. I must say, I'm honored.

Also, if you're referring to the model pictured in EKHawkman's post above, those shots are just the standard ray-trace view from Sketchup 5. Currently, I've been going the way of Polycon EV and doing my rendering in Bryce 5.5, although admittedly, that makes my texturing options extremely limited.

This post has been edited by Delphi : 22 May 2008 - 03:30 AM

It might be time to try your hand with The GIMP and Blender (if Photoshop is out of the question, and it usually is). Blender allows you full flexibility and decent accuracy with your lighting, animation and texturing. For making the best Nova ships, those are important. You don't want to have to wrestle Bryce to the ground.

Pipeline and Delphi team up in an epic adventure of a plug? DAMN THATS HOT!
Yay my fav ship will be in the game! Everytime I see a new post in this topic my heart leaps for joy. Correct me if I'm wrong but the reason Sol only uses bryce is cause he cant afford blender?

EKHawkman, just so you don't get the wrong idea, I haven't offered anything more than advice on texturing, and I'm happy to share that with the community as a whole. I'm far too busy on my own projects to get involved in anything else.

Best always,

Dave @ ATMOS

You know you want to!! But yeah I understand, Also delphi, if there is anything I can do in writing I would love to help. I wish I could do more than just cheer you on but I have no modding skills. But here is my description of your Nitcron cannon.
The Nitchron cannon was made for the NDC as a way to combat pirates and other threats to the general public. This weapon has seen wide use in the military and is standard armament for most ships. It utilizes a nuclear explosion focused into a powerful beam to tear through the shields and armor of opposing ships. The cannon comes in varying levels of power but this particular variant is for larger capitol ships.

Do you like? I want to do desc for things. I will do planet and bar desc if you want as well! Ships even.

EK hawkman blender is FREE.

As "of doom" notes, Blender is free software.

Ok I'm confused, Delphi which is the software is was too expensive or something.