[Black Wolf]

So I've been working on this one for awhile, shown off a few WiP shots in IRC, but it's finally reached a point where I'm more or less happy with the design, and just about ready to finalise the UV (Most of the individual components are UVed already, I'm just holding off on assembling the various pieces onto one map). I'm looking for any last minute ideas or suggestions for what I can do to improve it, without modifying too much of the basic design - without being too much of a prick about it, this is the result of a lot of changing and experimenting and tweaking, and I'm broadly happy with it, but it's always nice to get other people's opinions and suggestions for the nitty gritty stuff - the little details that make or break a model. So, here it is, anyway



(Image link isn;t working for some reason - http://oi47.tinypic.com/auji8x.jpg

The basic idea is that the top booms swing up to admit large rocks into the rings. The four turret looking things around each ring will have AAAf like beams used to do the heavy breakup of the rocks (in theory, that is - this whole process will be impossible to more than simulate in-game) while little worker-bee type drones (akin to Mixael's Colossus construction drones, but obviously designed differently) go along and pick up the pieces, depositing them into the little hatches, where the raw materials enter the central part. The refining process takes place there, and the resultant pellets are sent down the chutes into custom designed, Triton scale containers  (I'm assuming that this is primarily intended to eliminate silicates, and produce metal pellets for latter differentiation - I don't actually have enough space to put in my initial idea, which was a sort of "docking area" where various different refined products like PGMs and the like could be taken away in addition to the primary product (presumably Ferronickel) which goes down the chutes). And yes, I know there's no gravity to send them down the chutes, but I'm assuming they're impelled in some fashion - the design choice was aesthetic, rather than defined by the physics of zero-gee refining processes.

Anyway, I've mainly got two concerns - the first is what to put in between the chutes. I'm currently tossing up between a tiny little habitable area for a maintenance crew to live/work in or the afore mentioned by-product docking area/splitter type thing, or just it more or less how it is, just with a bit of additional support for the chemical drums (which are currently just floating in space) and maybe a couple of collars/crossbeams to brace the bases of the chutes together.

The second concern is what to do with the recessed bit in the central "tube" - I had origninally planned to just make it a different texture, but it looks really empty right now - I'm thinking maybe a series of pipes, or possibly a big rotating subobject to simulate the entire section rotating - possibly justifiable as a pseuso-gravity density separator (For those of you wondering, yeah, I have thought this through pretty thoroughly - I work in mining, I'm around gear like this all the time ).

So those two areas are the big ones, but any other siggestions or ideas would be welcome.

[Raven2001]

Looks very cool! How many polys?
As for suggestions:
- Yes, the first thing I saw sorely lacking in the design, was some sort of living area.
- Those "legs"... it looks strange. I know they aren't supposed to be "legs", but they do makes it look like it is designed for an environment with gravity. I'd change them so they reinforce the feel that this is a space installation.

My 2 cents

[headdie]

I suppose it depends on where you see it operating,

If it's on the edge or away from the asteroid field then the separator and hab modules sound good.

If you see it in the middle of the roid field then out of respect of the fact that stray roids will probably bump and damage it from time to time then to me it would be best kept simple and used more to do 1st stage work so perhaps an internal crusher, means of directing the crushed rock into the different loading tubes and thats about it, just to keep it relatively simple to fix, in this case I would go with the piping in the recess and perhaps have a docking point extending from where you are thinking of putting the hab complex so a ship can dock onto and move the installation when needed, either to avoid danger, move it to a more economical locations or for repair.

[Col. Fishguts]

Looks very nice and convincing.
What it could use is some small control tower or office complex. Just something smallish with windows, to give it a sense of scale. Preferably somewhere off-center to break up the radial symmetry, so it would get a bit more of an offshore oil rig feel to it.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I've mainly got two concerns - the first is what to put in between the chutes. I'm currently tossing up between a tiny little habitable area for a maintenance crew to live/work in or the afore mentioned by-product docking area/splitter type thing, or just it more or less how it is, just with a bit of additional support for the chemical drums (which are currently just floating in space) and maybe a couple of collars/crossbeams to brace the bases of the chutes together.

Hm, yeah, I think a bit of structural support would make it look better - even if it's just some truss structuring around the tubes. And I like the mini-hab idea.

The second concern is what to do with the recessed bit in the central "tube" - I had origninally planned to just make it a different texture, but it looks really empty right now - I'm thinking maybe a series of pipes, or possibly a big rotating subobject to simulate the entire section rotating - possibly justifiable as a pseuso-gravity density separator.

A centrifuge would be very cool, could be used for density-based or grain-size-based filtering. It's already round, so that would fit perfectly.

[jr2]

Looks nice!

How about a separate control / hab module that serves as basically a way to keep the maintenance crew / whoever's in charge of the operation a home away from the operation, but close enough to observe, with the ability to head in and dock with a station if repairs or perhaps inspection of mined materials are needed?

This way, one control / hab module can service multiple refineries.

[Black Wolf]

Looks very cool! How many polys?

At present, 82,000. I expect that'll be closer to 90k when I'm finished connecting up the chemical drums. I also feel I should emphasize that the chutes are their primarily for aesthetic reasons - I'm quite fond of the specific way this looks in terms of vertical and horizontal scale when it's linked up to four of its custom cargo containers - it's kind of hard to demonstrate in 2d, but I think they're important to the overall design, even if they don't make an awful lot of sense.

I suppose it depends on where you see it operating,

If it's on the edge or away from the asteroid field then the separator and hab modules sound good.

If you see it in the middle of the roid field then out of respect of the fact that stray roids will probably bump and damage it from time to time then to me it would be best kept simple and used more to do 1st stage work so perhaps an internal crusher, means of directing the crushed rock into the different loading tubes and thats about it, just to keep it relatively simple to fix, in this case I would go with the piping in the recess and perhaps have a docking point extending from where you are thinking of putting the hab complex so a ship can dock onto and move the installation when needed, either to avoid danger, move it to a more economical locations or for repair.

Realistically, if it were ever to be moved, it would probably be broken down to components and then reassembled in its new location. If I wanted the ability to move it in one piece, I'd probably want to integrate a dock for an Orestes (or at least, something on that scale), which wouldn't be practical with its current shape and lack of flat surfaces. Anything smaller would just not seem entirely right, IMO - something like an Elysium, even an Argo shouldn't probably be moving something this scale (the rings are about 200m in diameter, FWIW).

Otherwise, sounds like it definitely needs a little hab/admin/control area, and I'll probably just truss up in between the chutes.

[Spoon]

Like the gas refineries, I expect this baby will probably see some good usage too.

[SypheDMar]

This is beautiful stuff!

[Vasudan Admiral]

I love it!
And yeah I'd agree with the ideas for a small habitable area between the 4 legs, and a constantly spinning centrifuge or two (you can also implement a periodic rotation like on the shivan gas miner) somewhere on the central cylinder. Awesome as always though.

[Crybertrance]

Awesome stuffs!  I agree with the others on the inclusion of the habitable areas, but I was wondering how big the actual structure will be? and since that model sure looks like a work of art, how many polies are we talking?

[NeonShivan]

Reminds me a lot of those asteroid stations in EvE. Love the design! Keep up the good work!

[mjn.mixael]

Yet another model of yours that I'm waiting to use...

[Droid803]

Will you be modelling a rock for it to hug? :3

[Rodo]

Yeah, a friendly hug

On subject, nice work!, it's been ages since I've seen a good station getting done.
Kudos.

[Black Wolf]

So I basically forgot about this thing for... nearly two years it seems. But now it's UV Mapped! So it's coming along again.

[Cyborg17]

Nice! Would definitely use this model if it was released.

[Ulala]

Wow, it looks awesome! Hope to see it in action sometime soon.

[Nyctaeus]

I have usage for this in one of my projects. Great work

[headdie]

So I basically forgot about this thing for... nearly two years it seems. But now it's UV Mapped! So it's coming along again.

wth 2 years, still feels like yesterday.

excellent work btw