D097 Star Industries: -ON HIATUS-

[The Error]

Yay! Cool animation stuff!

Also, a thought for the future- maybe a form of "landing gear" that works like the CLAW, as a dock-anywhere thing?

So I can just slap my fighters onto the deck instead of trying to line up the docking? Maybe an animated thing that looks like skid landing gear, but functions like the grabber unit.

(And yes, emulate a BSG combat landing)

[nianor]

Felt like this would be a post worthy progress report:

The "Landing Leg" animation for the Dropship has been done, now I just need to get the ting textured and add a few little things such as a docking node, so you know, you can actually attach it?

VIDEO!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4ZR18MlGYU&feature=youtu.be

So if it has landing legs, that means VTOL!

[Deathsoul097]

Yay! Cool animation stuff!

Also, a thought for the future- maybe a form of "landing gear" that works like the CLAW, as a dock-anywhere thing?

So I can just slap my fighters onto the deck instead of trying to line up the docking? Maybe an animated thing that looks like skid landing gear, but functions like the grabber unit.

(And yes, emulate a BSG combat landing)

Not a bad idea that, though the animated legs and drop ramp are a part of the dropship itself, so i'll have to be careful how I build it out. You know, I've never seen Homeworld, or Battlestar Galactica, maybe I should get around to watching those.

So if it has landing legs, that means VTOL!

Wait, did I forget to mention that? Lol. It will have RCS too for a lower Part count, but the docking unit will have to be separate to allow more conventional use and placement. I do like the idea of using the claw module for that, as that would halve the amount docking port type parts needed, and allow for way more customization/modularity/utility than just having a few set docking points.

After I finish of the dropship and frigate class, I was thinking of doing a "Cargo" Dropship. Something that would be able to carry things such as ammo resupply, or possible boarding craft similar to those used by the covenant in Halo 2, a long with actual combat vehicles, etc. (Right now however, I'm focussing on the frigate class and the associated Dropship and DropPod.)

You might not have noticed, but to fit in with this mod, I changed my position thing from rocket jokey to warmongererer.

[The Error]

One thing - specifically, drop podding.

Are the tubes oriented down, or backwards? Because if down, I'll need to point the tubes retrograde to deorbit.

Unless you eject the pods, reorient and deorbit, and the reenter. But firing them out of the tail of the ship seems a bit simpler, but maybe it's just me.

EDIT: Also, Homeworld and Homeworld 2 are games, so you don't "see" them, you play them. And feel awesome when doing so.

[Deathsoul097]

One thing - specifically, drop podding.

Are the tubes oriented down, or backwards? Because if down, I'll need to point the tubes retrograde to deorbit.

Unless you eject the pods, reorient and deorbit, and the reenter. But firing them out of the tail of the ship seems a bit simpler, but maybe it's just me.

EDIT: Also, Homeworld and Homeworld 2 are games, so you don't "see" them, you play them. And feel awesome when doing so.

Oh, yeah, the tubes will by default be oriented down, and the idea is that the pod will basically drop out, and fire its engines during reorientation, and then use the engines to brake to ~40ms when close to the ground after the deorbit which would occur at the same time as reorientation. The BurnTogether plugin would be useful for this. Overall, firing out of the bottom would work best IMO, because your ship may not always be facing prograde, you may have oriented it in many different ways depending on the situation, and in combat, things would be even more hectic.

EDIT:

How's this for texturing o the Dropship:

Added some greebling here and there, and generally dark texturing (You know, space camo). I don't think it even needs mentioning, but the legs and ramp haven't been textured yet. I think I should darken the windows a bit more, and make them a deeper hue of blue.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Deathsoul097

[The Error]

Hmm... yeah, if you want space-camo, probably darker blue on the windows. Also, is the dropship a VTOLSSTO style, or essentially a larger, powered drop pod?

Oh, and bonus points if the fightercraft all look like Viper Mk. VIIs.

[Deathsoul097]

The Dropship is VTOLSSTO, yeah. The DropPod may not even have the TWR to take off again after it hits, and I'm going to shape the collider on the X2 to be more of a wedge on the bottom, so it lands mre like the ODST pod from Halo. As or fighter craft, I think I should make those less modular, and maybe only a couple of parts too, considering the fact that carriers usually have a LOT of fighters with them. I would think maybe 1 for the body, 2 for weapons (Either missile pods or cannons), and another 1 for the docking/klaw unit.

Viper MK. VII? I'll have to look into that. I'll probably at least draw some inspiration from it, depending on it's design. (I don't want to make exact replicas of things, I want this to just be at most heavily based on them.)

[The Error]

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121030095418/snubfighter/images/c/cb/Viper-mk7.jpg

A Mk. VII for you.

And for the parts, maybe 1 for the cockpit/nose of the fighter, one for the engines, and one for the docking unit? Maybe the weapons clip overtop the cockpit? IDK.

[Deathsoul097]

Interesting concept. I was talking about haing the engines integrated into the fighter body anyway, so no need for another part there, and the weapons would probably just be syymetrically placed on either side of the cockpit. As for actual ideas around the design, I've been doing some sketching,and I think I'm getting nearer to something I would like to make as a fighter ship thing. I'll take some of the structural layout and design for my own use, but I feel that the Viper as you've shown me it has a few too many curves for my much more blocky style. I wont make a replica, but probably something more along the lines of half viper(Structural layout), half xwing(Blockiness).

EDIT:

I have separated off the nacelles and mounts, and I am going to pull some trickery to half my workload on that. As for the dropship, what is the general consensus on that? Do people like the overall colour scheme, and texturing? If you don't I would be pretty happy to see what you would be able to come up with. Texturing isn't my strong point, to say the least.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Deathsoul097

[The Error]

Personally, the DropShip could (maybe) use some wings, if only for Rule of Cool. However, perhaps take the little geass emblem out of the texture? I have no issue with it, but other folks might want to put their own flag on it or whatever, so

Also, from what you said, the other Viper models might work better for you; the Mk. II (I'll find a picture later) is essentially the same as the VII, but blockier and more squared off. But from what you said, the fighters will probably look awesome anyways.

Also, not sure if you're planning on this, but giving the fighter wings - or just wing-shaped bits - would probably make it look quite good. Also, if they're forward-swept, bonus points.

[Deathsoul097]

Yeah, the BlackKnights logo doesnt fit too well on there. It was just a test really. I wasnt thinking of wings, at the most the fighter and dropship would have small strakes that would "double" as radiators and weapon mounts. The only reason I am saying things aregoing to be more blocky is because with more detail comes an exponentialy higher poly count, and I'll have to be very careful about managing things like that if I want to make this playable to any extent. (For me at least. I dont have the best rig. The best thing about my setup is probably the 42" TV I got seperately,and it was half the price of the laptop I have hooked up to it.)

[The Error]

I say wings on the DropShip because, well, it's meant to fly into an atmosphere, drop troops, then leave, and your efficiency (and cross-range ability) improves dramatically with wings. Maybe foldaway wings, like carrier aircraft?

[Deathsoul097]

Hmm, possibly, but it's not meant for atmo only use, it's more of a jack-of-all-trades dropship, for use everywhere. Basically, a Kerbal equivalent of the Pelican in Halo. (Though, the dropship does have some relatively teeny stabilizer wings mounted on the sides of the engines, but they arent incredibly obvious.) Also, without (proper) wings the dropship can be justified to have less mass, which makes it more efficient, along with engines that will Rival those from KSPI in efficiency. This is more of a militarised, KSPI endgame tech level i'm going for, so everything will be relatively OP, and possibly even use the Interstellar engine modules. Plus, it's no fun to have to worry about your dropship just dropping out of the sky because of a lack of fuel, at least, not have to worry too much.

Foldaway wings arent a bad idea, but they would be pretty limited in size, and mass, because you can only make things so strong. Thanks for the ideas though. I have done a bit more work seperating things off, and UV mapping the Nacelle, etc, but progress is slower due to school coming back. I have been drawing a bit more for plans on the fighter, but any major developments probably arent going to happen until the weekend, when I have some free time.

[nianor]

Hmm, possibly, but it's not meant for atmo only use, it's more of a jack-of-all-trades dropship, for use everywhere. Basically, a Kerbal equivalent of the Pelican in Halo. (Though, the dropship does have some relatively teeny stabilizer wings mounted on the sides of the engines, but they arent incredibly obvious.) Also, without (proper) wings the dropship can be justified to have less mass, which makes it more efficient, along with engines that will Rival those from KSPI in efficiency. This is more of a militarised, KSPI endgame tech level i'm going for, so everything will be relatively OP, and possibly even use the Interstellar engine modules. Plus, it's no fun to have to worry about your dropship just dropping out of the sky because of a lack of fuel, at least, not have to worry too much.

Foldaway wings arent a bad idea, but they would be pretty limited in size, and mass, because you can only make things so strong. Thanks for the ideas though. I have done a bit more work seperating things off, and UV mapping the Nacelle, etc, but progress is slower due to school coming back. I have been drawing a bit more for plans on the fighter, but any major developments probably arent going to happen until the weekend, when I have some free time.

You said there would be variations? Maybe an in-atmos variation?

Also a collaboration with green skull industries for themed suits?

[Deathsoul097]

You said there would be variations? Maybe an in-atmos variation?

Also a collaboration with green skull industries for themed suits?

That's not a bad idea, collaborating with GSI could produce some pretty cool designs, especially for things like specific "armour" sets for pilots, commanders, engineers, troops, spec-ops, etc.

As for variations, that was before I came to a solid idea for the Dropship and it's more to avoid unnecessary part bloat, and increasing part count, and just generally to keep RAM usage down. (More parts, more ships, and more textures can exponentially increase RAM usage, and using a large texture sheet for multiple different parts can be problematic, and lowers the amount of detail possible.) As I said before, I want this Dropship to be a jack-of-all-trades, but as I have also said, there will also be a larger, more customizeable variant, which I plan to allow for pretty much anything up to using it to deploy entire artillery units, tanks and troop regiments from an orbiting carrier or supercarrier.

[The Error]

And on that note. The big ship.

Two things about the hangar: is it just the current open-to-space with exit forward style, or can we get a full-length landing bay? As in, a mini-runway with a small hangar underneath it?

And bonus points if you have runways (yes, illogical, but so are space warships) on both the "top" and "bottom" of the hangar.

[Deathsoul097]

And on that note. The big ship.

Two things about the hangar: is it just the current open-to-space with exit forward style, or can we get a full-length landing bay? As in, a mini-runway with a small hangar underneath it?

And bonus points if you have runways (yes, illogical, but so are space warships) on both the "top" and "bottom" of the hangar.

Well, I plan for it to have a door to protect the ships in the hangar, but that was as large as I was going to make it. A couple of the extra parts I have planed would either replace the MAC with an extra hangar bay, or be a large bay with a space for the MAC on the end. TBH, wasn't planning on runways, for no other reason than there isn't enough space, and the UV map I have made wont support it. (And it is one hell of a pain to sort that UV map. )

[The Error]

I just meant "marginallymenclosed flat spot" but that's cool.

But replacing the drop pods and cargo bay with one long hangar/runway might be cool. Possibly a though for THE FUTURE.

[CrazyOdd]

Damn, that looks awesome, WANT!

[Deathsoul097]

I just meant "marginallymenclosed flat spot" but that's cool.

But replacing the drop pods and cargo bay with one long hangar/runway might be cool. Possibly a though for THE FUTURE.

Heh, just wait until you see what I have planned for the Carrier.

[CrazyOdd]

By the way, I love the Code Geass sign on there *-*

If that stays on there in the final release, could i ask for a specially colored one?

[Deathsoul097]

Lol, don't know about it staying on the Dropship, is messes up the UV a bit, and it gets a weird seam down the middle, along with randomly going really high res in one spot around the sigil, but I may well put it on one of the raised plates on the Frigate. That or I could even make a large partially transparent plate with the sigil on it, so you could put it wherever. As for coloured, it is really just a black outline, and adding colour into the gaps wouldn't be to hard, so when I can I will try for it, if you want.

<offtopic>

I have to say, after watching a few anime, Code Geass and Mirai Nikki are pretty much tied for best. Lelouch is just so goddamn awesome, but Yuno is bloody (Lots of emphasis on the bloody, and in a literal sense) insane. Still, the ability to just look into someones eyes and make them obey your every command is probably one of the best powers ever, even with it's limitations.

"I Lelouch Vi Britannia, command you. Now all of you, DIE."

</offtopic>

[CrazyOdd]

Haha, Code Geass is definitely THE best anime for me, but i almost like Akito more than Lelouch (for one part, better Knightmares, the other part is just screaming "DIE" over and over again ) well, i had something like this in mind: http://wallbase.cc/wallpaper/623163

well, I wont disturb you any further, i just hope you can release some sort of alpha or something soon

[Deathsoul097]

Ah, you wanted the Black Knight logo/sigil/thing done up like the Geass, sigil, glowie and all? I could probably manage that. Fact is, I'm not bad at using the programs, I just seem to jettison all abilities at using the program when I have to texture a mesh. (Or so it seems to me.)

(And while Code Geass is almost without a doubt, the best anime, Petra Ral is the BEST CHARACTER EVER, OF ALL TIME. (As Washington would say. ))

[randomness5555]

Can we have a bridge with an aircraft carrier type deck attached? I like the idea of a space fighter/carrier...thing.