[Knight Templar]

Roxor.

[Nuclear1]

Good work as always, Raven. Definitely a nice upgrade from the original.

[Jonathan_S47]

Dang, this is the second time the Hecate changed modelers. I started to work on it a long time ago but ran out of ideas as to what to do to the model.  I hope you succeed where we stalled; this ship is looking really nice!

[Sigma957]

Looks great Raven

[Vasudan Admiral]

Uhh, it's quite nice Raven, but Grim is still very much working - if quietly - on his version. He never dumped it at all, and so far it's looking a thousand times better than the old versions he posted pics of.

Ugh, both models are in far to an advanced state to stop now, but at least they've gone in somewhat different directions. Grim is going for a far more HTL Deimos - style industrial curves and chamfers look.
Please people, check first if the ship you want to build is under development already or not, otherwise this sort of duplication of effort happens.

[Jonathan_S47]

We have no real organized method to keep track of what models are being worked on and duplication of effort is unavoidable. We have a thread in which people post that they are working on something but it is not updated very often and is commonly overlooked.

So far this has happened to 3 HTL modeling projects:

Nico and WeatherOp both have a Moloch model they are working in. (WeatherOp May have stopped working on his. I haven’t seen any development lately.)

Karma and I both have our own version of the Colossus that we are working on.

And now Grim and Raven are working on their own idea of the Hecate.

In order to prevent this from happening again we would need a much more organized approach to what is being worked on.

[Vasudan Admiral]

I think it happened with the deimos as well. Karma began work on one before Bob made his.

The tracking system is a good idea - any ideas for a more effective method? One that would be more obvious/accessible than the current thread we have?
If not, people are just going to have to use that thread more i guess. :\

Actually, it doesn't take long at all to update that thread or to check if a ship is already under development, so it's really just a matter of remembering to do so.

[MetalDestroyer]

Awesome work you do Raven. If this model will be released in the next version of Media VP or as a stand alone ship, it 'll give to Freespace 2 a new look.

We have the beautiful nebulae, we have new models, new HUD, and now new model (Hercs Mark II, Hecate, etc...).

I expect the ship will be available soon ^^

[WMCoolmon]

I'd rather see people actually finish the HTL models they're working on. Right now there are at least 5 different ships that have had HT&L versions made, but never released (Either in some state of production, or work was stopped on).

I'm not sure if I've seen the other one, but this one is looking pretty good (esp. the gun turrets)

But, someone could start a page in the wiki so people could keep track of who's doing what HT&L model (And where to download finished ones!)

[Kie99]

Wouldn't it be easier just to add "CHECK HERE BEFORE STARTING A HTL MODEL" to the top thread?

[WMCoolmon]

The wiki would let everyone update on their own progress, rather than having one person keep try to keep track of everyone's status. (Although they could also do that with the wiki)

[KARMA]

Originally posted by Vasudan Admiral
I think it happened with the deimos as well. Karma began work on one before Bob made his.

The tracking system is a good idea - any ideas for a more effective method? One that would be more obvious/accessible than the current thread we have?
If not, people are just going to have to use that thread more i guess. :\

Actually, it doesn't take long at all to update that thread or to check if a ship is already under development, so it's really just a matter of remembering to do so.

I remember someone making a good fenris too while I was working on mine (which could have been used for the leviathan IMHO). BTW in my case this happens because I'm slow and work on different things at the same time, this increase the possibility of "model forking".
Anyway, there's nothing wrong in making more versions of the same things, it's called competition, but of course it could be a waste of time and efforts which are already limited in the community.
A simple database of what's going on, like the one on the xwaupgrade site, could be a good solution, or at least a stickyed thread would work too

[Flaser]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,29228.0.html

HTL-Status v.2
This thread was already made with the intent of keeping track of whose working on what along with finished releases.
(Actually HTL non-canon models could be included in their own section, like the Raa's Killercraft or Nico's Ezekiel)

Having 2 finished models is still better than none - and I don't think that having competition / different implementation would hinder progress.
Quite the contrary IMHO.

Even if we have 2 models, a good mission designer can still use them both:

"Ladies and Gentleman on the left, you see the original Hecate variant built in the Polaris shipyards.
After the NTF took over the system; production was transfered to Deneb. The difference in the shipyard facilities and building methods resulted in a vastly different ship at glance.
However their internal systems are identical, the fusion plant and engine built in Vasuda, the beam systems in Beta Aquale - cosmetics aside the ships have the same capabilities."

[Vasudan Admiral]

lol, i guess that's possible. One could be used as a more modern version or something.
Either way tho, it'd have been better to have two separate HTLed ships as opposed to two variants on the one. HTLing takes a lot of time effort.

[TrashMan]

I mayself am working on improving hte stock Hecate model by adding a lot of detail. How far I will go, I have no idea yet, nor do I have plans for making new textures or anything, so i prolyl guess, it wouldn't count as HT&L...

[Raven2001]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
I'd rather see people actually finish the HTL models they're working on.  

I intend to get the model finished soon enough, as for the texturing and conversion part, that is another matter, but I assure you that the mesh and subobjects will be finished by the end of the month. You have my word on it

I'd really like to see some pics of Grims version (searched over his thread, but all I can see are the red X's...)

[FireCrack]

You made ths ship i used to hate beautifull.

Awesome.

[Ghost]

I never hated it, m'self.. more like never got attached to it like the Orion. Why'd you hate it, FC?

[FireCrack]

Well, i just thaught it was ugly, especialy that horrible brown texture, and also mabye the fact that it tries to replace the orion wich IMO is the coolest ship design ever. Also other things of weirdness about it, how it looks like it belongs in an atmosphere, how it's biggest looking guns are AAA, though in retrospect the long range flak thing is preety cool. Ok, mabye i didnt hate it, but out of all of the fs capships, it was my least liked design-wise.


It's most of a first impression kinda thing, the first time we get a good look at one is in a nebula, where you can only see limited sections at a time, and therefore it looks ugly.

[Raven2001]

Ok ladies, this is how the main hull is right now. it is about 6000 polys and I don't think I'll change it much more. Some geometry fixes and that's it I think... unless of course I remember of something uber cool

Oh and yes, the wing structures are LODed sub objects, that's why they aren't shown here.

And please don't start yelling at me for that round structure in the front part of the engine pods... I guesss they look ugly for now, but with I am thinking to do to that part in terms of sub objects, *think* it will look good... We'll see

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/sb38R2/Hecate10.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/sb38R2/Hecate9.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/sb38R2/Hecate8.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/sb38R2/Hecate7.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/sb38R2/Hecate6.jpg

I'm going on vacation this week, so don't expect any updated until next week