How 'bout making those thruster paddles into separate sub-models, so someone can get them animated, triggered to control movements.
Unfortunately not only will I not be doing that, I don't think that's ever going to happen. While it would be cool, I'm forced to remember that this is supposed to take place in space, where a rudder would do precisely squat at controling motion, and that there will be both a glowpoint and a nebula trail on the tip of those things that would get messed up to hell and back if the rudders were animatable. Of course, the modder in me also says no because I'm trying to keep everything under a single render call so that it's faster. The only thing not on the one map is the pilot (seperate submodel) and the glass (small TGA texture) and with the polycount issue that I'm forcing I'm not breaking it up any farther.
And it's just over 3700 tris, for the record. Plus pilot, turret and barrel submodels, it's a little over 4300.