Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => Blue Planet => Topic started by: Hades on January 05, 2016, 11:48:46 am
-
After testing the new BP release quite a bit, one thing kept popping up that there was no answer or bugfix for: The Sanctus is kind of an eyesore. It's incredibly inefficient even for tilemapping's standards and it's one of the older models used in BP aside from the Kulas.
Normal, uparmored Sanctus already seen
Nothing fancy, it's basically the old design already used in blueplanet. When making it, my main goal was to clean up some messy modeling and streamline it a little bit. It's entirely remodeled, but I liked the original design enough so it stayed. However, thanks to Matth asking for an uparmored one, this lead the way for two variants of the Sanctus as well, as follows:
Pre-refit Sanctus, pre-war
It got me thinking. How do you uparmor what looks like an already uparmored design, which lead me to another point: What is it uparmored from? This bred the concept, the Sanctus we see in WiH is a hasty refit done for the war, with armor panels thrown on (instead of being built in) and cargo removed, since the military freighter idea was built out of a need to defend against GEF attacks, but would be so utterly useless against the advancing Tev fleet. It's a perfect fit too, since the armor plating on the original design looked slapped on as opposed to built into the design itself. Out of this thinking was the Pre-refit Sanctus, which would be what the various UEF fleets would have been operating in the pre-war and early-war stages, but mostly phased out by the time of WiH.
Second refit Sanctus
Of course there's still the further up-armoring too, on the opposite side of the spectrum. Despite the hasty refit of the Sanctus military freighter, the ship was never truly a terribly strong combatant. Some inherent design flaws surfaced, such as the relatively poor firing coverage, limited arc on the main cannons, and the still rather lacking armor. Unfortunately, the UEF military's infrastructure and supply getting hit hard by WiH's end doesn't allow them the luxury of a full rebuild. So my idea was to rectify these in a design while still looking to be the same ship, but further upgraded to the best of the UEF's capabilities at the time. The fore armor paneling is brought in a little bit to the centerline and their support is a stronger, unified mass. It loses the two forward mass drivers in exchange for two mass driver turrets on the top and bottom, which offers it greater firing flexibility against capital targets and the smaller missile launchers were forfeit in exchange for heavier VLS tubes on the side. The engines received some armor paneling as well.
Props go to Steve-O for the original design as well for providing some inspiration for the new engine and topside design and to the BP team for putting up with my stupid questions.
-
Pre-refit is the one that I like the most due to expression of Sanctus idea. Your model really looks like transport-cruiser hybrid. Good to see you guys are going to improve Sanctus, for many reasons. Current textures makes this cruiser pretty messy [mostly because tcov1 was used for covering skeletal hull plating].
Only thing I can suggest so far is remodelling rear armor plating in Second Refit, as panels mostly block path for bigger transports. At least one, closer to front of the ship. Some greebles are also always welcome.
Overall, it's a good job :yes:. I may lend a hand at uving some polygons for you guys, if it's needed.
-
I still think, based on similar structures on the Solaris and to some extent the frigates, that the detached armour plates on UEF ships are there so that any kinetic projectiles that penetrate the plate will spall before hitting the main hull. It's a nice detail.
-
What are the eight midships spikes/antennae for?
-
Looking cool.
-
That, and presumably receiving/sending signals. :) Probably a backup in case the main ones get hit.
I like these models. Not an overt departure, just a slight rework or problematic areas, probably a new texture as well. Just like with Esarai's Karuna and Narayana.
-
I like, nice to see this get some love. Sanctus is one of my fav UEF ships
-
Much approval here. the original version of this was...hmm...just gross....i even start a rebuild...never finished.
-
Very cool. It definitely adds to the character of the ship class--gives it history, logical development, uniqueness.
I get the impression that the UEF admiralty are continually frustrated by how deficient their cruisers are compared to the Tevs; Sanctuses (Sancti?) are big ships for cruisers--arguably small corvettes in scale--but are outdone in the AA role by Tev cruisers (why, hello there Aeolus and Hyperion, please don't murder me) and in the anti-warship role by Hyperion-class cruisers. This is not to say that they're useless, but given that all other types of UEF warships have their distinct advantages--the Karuna's sheer flexibility and versatility, the Narayana's extreme-range firepower, the Solaris' incredible torpedo spam, and the Custos' effectiveness in shooting down warheads (and potential ECM capabilities, IIRC)--the Sanctus is kind of distinct in how much it falls short.
But it looks awesome, and it's fun to fight alongside. As disappointing as it is on its own, it does decently well when it's helping to flesh out a larger force.