[starbug]

Well after playing the release of Bloodfleets HW mod, i wanted to have a go at up gunning the Hiigaran Destroyer and class it as a heavy destroyer, as the destroyer in HW2 is by far one of my most favourite ship designs next to the BC304 from SG1/SGA. This is my very first attempt at doing this, so i have exported the pof to 3ds max 2012, i took one of the existing turrets selected everything and copied it with helpers, not instanced it, and repositioned them. Now i am really not sure what to do as i have tried to view the turreting, submodel tutorials but everytime i click on the links i keep getting internal errors, contact administrators, so i am unable to view them. Are they linked anywhere else, also how complicated are they? as i am dyslexic and i really struggle to understand long complicated written passages. Funnily enough verbal tutorials i never have problems with, its just written, they kind of become a blur to me.

Anyway i am attaching a screenshot of what i have done, i have added 4 smaller turrets, which will be anti-fighter and 2 extra torpedo tubes. I want this to be a capital ship hunter, but very very weak against fighters and bombers.

Ships now ingame, check out the video to see them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTgQ9kFW86c&feature=youtu.be

Kudos to Bloodfleet for getting the original models in game 

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[BloodFleet]

Do you know about how you need to link stuff in the schematic view? That's pretty much all you will need to do here.

So open that up and link the turret arms to the turret base then link that to detail0

example of what it will look like
                                              detail0
                                                  |
                                                  |
                                              turret01
                                                  |
                                                  |
                                            turret01-arm

if there is no turret arm then pretty much that but without the 3rd part
then of course export to .dae so you can import it into pcs2
you will have to do some stuff in the .pof file too, need help with any of that stuff too or no?

[starbug]

Thanks, bloodfleet, so do i need to copy the Helpers that are on the turrets in 3ds Max? I may need some help with PCS, as i have only added subsystems, docking points and glowpoints so far.

[BloodFleet]

uh well I guess so...I don't use the helpers myself, the HW ships are simple enough.

for how to set up turrets and whatnot you should be able to just look at how I did it and go from there but if not then I can try to help with whatever problem you have

[starbug]

Ok i have managed to get the upgunned ship into Freespace 2 and working but i have encountered another hurdle, the size of the ship. Its half the size of the regular HGN Destroyer in the mod, i only noticed it when i put the upgunned model into fred and put it against the original. I am unsure why this is happening, i followed Scooby-doo's tutorail and set it up as generic units and system unit setup is 1 unit = 1.0 inches, which is default should that be meters instead of inches?

[MatthTheGeek]

Just scale it up with PCS2.

[starbug]

How do i do that?

EDIT: never mind, figured it out

[starbug]

YES i have got the ship working ingame, correct scale, working turrets and subsystems added! First time i have tinkered with a model in 3ds max, edited in PCS2 and then put in game. Im pretty chuffed and its actually not that difficult once youve actually tried it

So heres a screenie, What i did was add 2 more torpedo tubes, gave it 4 anti-figther turrets and then gave it a extra anti-capship turret. So it now packs a big punch and has limited fighter screens, but has of blindspots for bombers as i wanted this to focus on killing capital ships.

Whats left to do, create shine, normal maps and then start adding glowpoints to make it more pretty.


[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Rodo]

cool little destroyer, hw had some of the best ship designs I've ever seen.

[starbug]

Ok got 2 versions of the destroyer working in game, 1 medium destroyer, replaced the forward torpedo launchers with 2 more cannons and the other is a Heavy destroyer, added another cannon to the belly along with more torpedo launchers, so it now has got 4 prow launchers! both have pretty weak anit-figther defense. Must admit once i figured things out in PCS, it not that hard. The thing that took me the longest was adding the glowpoints around the hull! I also redid the texture, the blue that Bloodfleet did was nice but i thought it was to much so i have made it blue/grey.

Along with all the new turrets and glowpoints i have added subsystems to them. So heres a video of them in action against the Shivans! I am using the Blue Planet mod for the weapons. Will embed this in the first post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTgQ9kFW86c&feature=youtu.be

Next stop the battlecruiser!