[RyuHimora]

I'm putting together the story bits for a campaign and getting experience using FRED, but since my plot is going to be set after FS2 I'm going to need new art assets and 3D models, neither of which I am capable of. The problem is, I really don't see anywhere official in this forum to ask for that kind of help. Is there somewhere specific for me to do this? Or is this the right place already and I should be preparing my non-spoiler information?

[niffiwan]

Either this board or the General Freespace board would be fine for this sort of request.  I should say though that waiting for custom assets has been the death of many a mod.  I'd recommend that you look through the existing community created ships for designs that will suit your story rather than creating new ships from scratch. That'll be much more likely to result in a successful mod release.

Anyway - here are some ships lists on the Wiki which you could look through:

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/User-made_Ships
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/User:MatthTheGeek (one of our members favourite ships)

[mjn.mixael]

Indeed. Those of us who have been here for years have seen way too many campaign creators sign up, say they have a campaign idea but need all kinds of help to create new stuff for it. I can't think of many that really succeeded like that.

Your best bet is to sift through those links that Niffiwan posted. Find ships that work for your story. Pick ones based on need. Make your missions and get something released. After that, you'll likely have much more momentum to get new ships made to replace ones you merely tolerated.

[headdie]

Indeed while there is a good selection of ppl with the skills to make a ship model, the availability of those with skills in texture mapping and creation is very lacking and all the guys with shose sorts of skills are normally backed up with their own projects so it is always best to start with publicly available assets and then replace them as the replacements become available.

[Black Wolf]

I also generally suggest that people in your position make it a point to describe in some detail exactly what kinds of ships they want.

This serves three primary purposes:
1: Helps you finalize and clarify your plans, filtering down your ship requests to only what is needed for the story you want to tell.
2. Lets other members suggest ships that already exist ( possibly ones that you may not know about) that might be suitable for your purposes.
3. There's a small chance that if you suggest something unique or interesting enough, you might inspire a modder to build it for you.

[RyuHimora]

Thanks for the advice! Looking through the user-made ships, there's a lot I can use, and enough to actually get started on the first few missions.