They say you can measure a society by the way they treat their animals. I think similarly, a game modding community can be measured by how they treat noobs.
So, by this measure, I have a lot of respect for Diaspora Devs and the community here. Unlike other modding communities. I am glad that at least a chance was given to the guy instead of the instant ban boot. Having said this, I'd ban him without second thought if he continuous to criticise without basis and without some sort of valid suggestions for improvement.
I'll take this opportunity to express my own thoughts, and let it be noted that I do not post here often, and the only reason I'd criticize the Dev's works is ONLY to help them make it better or at least consider something from a different perspective. Considering I have supported Kara and his team for over 2 years now through BSGpilots, and that I've actually produced some Battlestar Galactica 3D work myself (granted not much), that my criticism gets taken the good way.
Neuman, first of all, I'm impressed with how you handled yourself there. I know exactly what it means to put literally hundreds of hours of work into something, release it to the public, and then await comments and criticism. I have produced BSG work (notably Fan Videos and some 3D work) and some of it has received exceptional ratings and others not so great ones. One of my YouTube videos has a 3.5 star rating (which I take as it not being good work) while another has I believe the highest 5-star-rating-to-Views ratio of any BSG fan video on YouTube, with over 130 5 star ratings and over 12,000 views and rising. Of course, it doesnt please me greatly when people rate my work badly, but almost always there is a good reason for it because a work is either 5 star or 1 star. I believe in entertainment you either amaze or you fail miserably, there is no in-between.
Anyways, regarding the Basestar.
1. I believe the modeling is absolutely exceptional. Truly there is no one here or anywhere that doubts you are one of the best BSG fan modelers out there. Your base star looks amazing, including your Raider Racks.
2. That noob knows nothing about texturing or modeling or any 3D work, as his posts have proven, and probably 99% of the people here have absolutely no clue what a Specular Map is. Having said that, although your modeling is exceptional, and your texturing looks really amazing at a distance, I must agree that it does not hold up to close shots. Specifically, the "lighting" or white and red boxes on the ship, and indeed the Raider Rack textures do not hold up to close scrutiny. Now, there is probably a good reason why things are the way they are that only the people who actually know what they are doing (the Devs) are aware of. You have indicated many reasons yourself. If there is a way to improve the textures so they hold up to close scrutiny, then great. If not, no problem! It still the best darn base star that has ever graced the gaming world, and the very fact that it has Raider Racks that work is enough as others have said.
3. I have never liked BSG's base star. I have always thought it lacked detail and was textured poorly. Yes, even Zoic's basestar. When a basestar was present in the same scene as a Battlestar or any other ship, it has always looked out of place to me. It always looked a bit fake due to the low level of detail on the texturing and modeling. I'm not sure if a new Basestar was developped for the Plan movie, but those actually looked a lot better to me than the base stars in Season 1-4 of BSG. So, really, even when comparing your base star to Zoic's, well...Zoic's isnt' that great IMO in the first place. Again, just personal opinion. I just think the Basestars remain in the shadow of the incredible models of the Battlestars. Maybe it's just the fact that a Basestar is such an organic model with little detail to begin with, I mean in it's design, which btw, I think it's beautiful.
4. You cannot possibly compare a game-model, which has to be low-poly by nature to maintain frame rates, to pre-rendered 3D work which in theory has no limit on how detailed it has to be. You could have a 50 million poly Basestar with a 20K x 20K texture on it, and it would take maybe 2 years to render a 30 second animation, but it'd certainly look better than a 100,000 poly in-game model on a low res texture. You just cant compare the two.
Having said all this, you have done an absolutely fantastic job on the Basestar, and I look forward to blowing up all your hard work to little bits one day
I hope to one day be able to model and texture as well as you.
Keep up the great work.
And since we are on the topic of Basestars...you definitely should check out the render by BSG VFX artist Mojo utilizing the Season 3 Basestar modeled by Pierre Drolet. You can see the missile launch tubes on the edge of the basestar.
Adalla