Ho, ho, ho! It's me! Your favorite slavic Santa... Or perhaps Ded Moroz? Who cares. The point is: A gifted man brings gifts gallore!
2019 is slowly going to end and it was really busy year for Inferno team. Now it's the time to share our work. This Christmas we decided to release 3 high-poly, terran models for usage of aspiring mod creators :D. This thread will be updated with new assets tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
So let's begin ^^!
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(https://i.imgur.com/vvn5ULP.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/7A5yvKi.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/uTPiPgx.png)
First release of this christmas is:
GTCv Phobos
Our awesome blacksmith of words, master of letters and shaper of sentences - Rhymes will introduce you to the Phobos in his tech description:
Terran heavy corvette.
Produced in response to an Admiralty request for a heavy strike platform, the GTCv Phobos is a bruiser of a corvette. During the NTF Rebellion, the Deimos corvette had generally performed well, but coordinated bomber strikes posed an unacceptable risk to the Deimos's relatively fragile beam emitters, and the variability of the Deimos's 'slash' beams limited its performance against large or numerous enemy warships. To address these weaknesses, the Phobos design team opted to maximize firepower and survivability across the spaceframe. Clad in destroyer-grade active armor and studded with a staggering array of beam weapons, plasma cannons, flak guns, and missile batteries, the Phobos is designed to plunge into enemy formations and decimate enemy cruisers and corvettes. Its sleek configuration allows the Phobos to bring the majority of its firepower to bear on a target from almost any vector.
In a first for Terran designs below destroyer classification, the Phobos incorporates its own fighterbay from which it can field three wings of fighters, significantly increasing its tactical flexibility. PATHFINDER integration provides for artillery and antifighter TAG support, and a next-generation destroyer-scale ultracompact fusion reactor powers the entire assembly. The major weakness of the Phobos is its tremendous cost--at two-thirds the price of a Hecate destroyer, the Phobos is, ton for ton, the most expensive warship ever produced by the GTVA. Logistical overhead is also very high, as the many tactical systems reduce the class's onboard supply capacity, rendering it more dependent on supply lines and infrastructure than its older sibling. As a result, Phobos deployment is much slower than most other next-generation spaceframes, and is mostly seen as an element in major fleet actions, with the Deimos remaining a primary line combatant.
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One of the most iconic GTVA-terran ships from INFR1. I admit I highly anticipated this one working on EA fighters and bombers in the meantime. Mostly because I love it's crude, blocky and solid design and I had a certain vision in mind how to rework this one. Phobos was always younger, heavier brother of Deimos so creative direction I picked for Phobos is obvious. I wanted this ship to scream "I'm heavy Deimos!". For this reason I carefully examined HTL Deimos modelled by Hades and Vasudan Admiral, and even injected certain elements of it into remodelled Phobos.
Finally I discussed the matter with JSRNerdo aka Faceman - one of our lead mission designers. Phobos is centerpiece of many missions of Inferno Nostos, so I was worried about the balance. After some small brainstorm Faceman decided to grant me full creative control about it's armament. I decided to keep the spirit of INFR1 Phobos. Unlike GTCv Chimera known from Blue Planet or my GTCv Eurynome, Phobos relies on 8 smaller beams to punish her enemies. Her firepower is decentralised rendering Phobos less vulnerable for precision strikes. Beams are efficiently set around the hull, providing Phobos both strong spinal and side firepower. Corvette inherited excellent point-defense screen of her older brother and is equipped with small fighterbay.
Inferno Nostos use custom, gray reskin to resemble the GTCa Warlock. The version I decided to release share color palette with Deimos.
(https://i.imgur.com/v5TK4I3.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/hFcdzVP.png)
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Developer Notes:
- HTL Phobos is PBR asset, so she require modern builds to work correctly.
- Debris use their own set of textures. Debris maps share UVs with normal textures, so if you replace PhobosMain01 with PhobosDead01 [and DeimosMain02 with DeimosDead02], you will get nice-looking hulk. This trick works for all of my PBR model releases equipped with unique debris texture.
- Phobos share turret texture with Deimos from MediaVPs 4.0.X and require them to work properly.
- Beam emmiters of released version are green.
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DOWNLOAD - Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/file/zr61e1nrkbkl2rw/HTLPhobosRelease.7z/file)
DOWNLOAD - ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/infscp/addons/gtcv-phobos-release#downloadsform)
:bump:
(https://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/13/12178/INFSCP_Screenshot13.jpg)
(https://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/13/12178/INFSCP_Screenshot15.jpg)
Once upon a time, some mysterious screenshots appeared on Inferno ModDB page. An Apothess-class destroyer along with unknown, shadowy figure. I may reveal that this figure is a destroyer. It was dropped long years ago... But death is sometimes not the end.
(https://i.imgur.com/UiBpbXF.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/990NbjR.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/qg8dxan.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Q3E400A.png)
...death is sometimes just a beginning.
A second release of this christmas is terran destroyer called...
GTD Phaeton
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Rhymes, buddy! The show is yours!
Terran line destroyer.
In 2369, responding to the failure of the Hecate class to meet its design goals, the Admiralty laid out a two-stage initiative to correct strategic weaknesses in both the ship design and fleet doctrine. The first stage would be a crash program to rework the Hecate design into a capable line destroyer, balancing ship-to-ship firepower with fighter-based power projection and subspace mobility, designated Phaeton. The second stage would be a heavy strike platform for fast response work and heavy artillery, designated Boreas.
Designers competed furiously for the strike destroyer contract, but most wanted nothing to do with the Phaeton project, believing the mandate was far too broad to ever produce a functional destroyer, and Han-Ronald's team won the Phaeton contract virtually uncontested. Initial problems with the design were both pervasive and stubborn. The Hecate frame made inefficient use of space, had glaring structural weaknesses, and was extremely difficult to design defensive screens around, forcing the team to excise massive portions of the original superstructure. Making matters worse, each modification to the superstructure necessitated modifications to the internal systems as well, causing significant delays. As the delays piled up, the Admiralty mandated that the Phaeton integrate new technologies and systems, such as the PATHFINDER communication standard, next-generation active armor, and the new beam and plasma cannon systems. The project was so behind that thee GTD Boreas was already exiting its OpEval period and entering general service by the time the Phaeton started full construction. Scope creep had also so seriously affected what was once merely a Hecate refit that one engineer commented 'By the time we finished designing the Phaeton, our planned refit procedure was to lift up the registry number and insert a new destroyer underneath.'
Despite the myriad roadblocks, the Phaeton team slowly worked through the spacecraft's problems. As requested, the onboard command and control systems were upgraded to the PATHFINDER standard, allowing the Phaeton to coordinate with fleet command assets, provide comprehensive TAG support to allied strikecraft, organize and direct strike groups, and serve as the centerpiece of Alliance combat formations. The Hecate's single fighterbay under the nose was replaced with three: with one larger bay on the dorsal section, and two smaller bays on the sides amidships, ensuring that a lucky shot or single accident would not cripple the ship's force projection capabilities.
Defensively, the Phaeton maintained the Hecate's antifighter armaments while drastically reducing hull blind spots and incorporating modernized active armor and a collapsed-core molybdenum/duranium alloy double hull. Offensively, the Phaeton was equipped four destroyer grade anti-warship beam cannons in an even split of direct-fire and slashing systems, as well as half a dozen plasma accelerator turrets.
The Phaeton entered service in 2384, and has completely replaced the Hecate as a line destroyer, with the older design moving to a support role. Modern examples of the class, such as the GTD Ramayana, have performed well in the Earth Alliance conflict, particularly when working in concert with their Boreas counterparts.
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This one is old. Very old. The design is one of the elder, unborn children of Raven2001 released in his modeldump. Inferno once picked this design but quickly dropped it in favour of Boreas from current release. When I finished reworking EA fleet, I needed a testbed for GTVA-terran modelling style. I picked Phaeton because I loved it. Eventually I figured out that Phaeton was not what I needed to understand terran style. HTL Deimos was. Phaeton was anyway finished model-wise. It was supposed to rot on my HD without purpose to the heat death of the universe.
But one very annoyi... Motivating somebody was bugging, nagging and lingering all the time about it. This somebody was actually present during whole development process, providing feedback and even painted some plating lines. He later POFed it and made table entry. The same guy is pointing me up all the bugs in my models. Slavs are sloppy, but germans are picky. Perfect composition, huh :]? So I decided to join forces with our tester Nightmare to make GTD Phaeton happen.
Eventually Rampage proposed Phaeton to be included in Inferno modpack. Rest of our team welcomed it with open hands. In the end, Phaeton replaced venerable GTD Icelus as line destroyer of Terran-GTVA fleet.
...and now she can be yours too :]
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Developer Notes:
- Phaeton comes in two texture variants - Blue and Green. Maps are not PBR. She will be converted to PBR standard in the future.
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DOWNLOAD - Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/file/l6zizo6qrshm5bs/PhaetonRelease.7z/file)
DOWNLOAD - GoogleDrive (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GIbF2SdCdHd1RzhK5Ha40uVBf9Qc968w)
DOWNLOAD - ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/infscp/addons/gtd-phaeton-release#downloadsform)
...aaaand finally, after few weeks of being overloaded with stuff, artblocks, and dealing with neverending hangover of my engineers of obvious ethnicity, time for third release :]
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(https://i.imgur.com/lWygwnA.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/paqVOjF.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/guDNfZL.png)
Third release of this... Ekhem... Christmas is:
EAB Gagana
Sorry, no fancy tech description this time. EA stuff is highly classified :].
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You hated this thing in INFR1. I know you do. We all do. We all hated swarm torpedoes, impenetrable armor and sheer amount of dakka. Gagana appears in Nostos as thicc girl, but I was never a fan of her current appearance... So instead of inventing the wheel anew, let's do it truly FS style. Reworked Gagana become heavier and bulkier version of Medusa, with lots of changes to keep the proportions akin to INFR1 Gagana. I pillaged some parts from current and beautiful HTL Medusa that Hades and Sab0o made for FreeSpace Upgrade Project. Because what's wrong with copying from the best, huh :]?
But nooo, I won't give you truly EA stuff :P. What would you do with single EA bomber and without rest of the fleet? That's a good question... So let's pretend our beloved engineers from Han-Ronald copied the design from EA, and reworked to be part of GTVA. Of course she won't appear in GTVA fleet in Inferno Nostos... But now she can appear like that in your mod!
(https://i.imgur.com/IThJxW9.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/WW8K3vr.png)
So released version is green to resemble Medusa even more.
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Developer Notes:
- Gagana is PBR asset, so she require modern builds to work correctly.
- Debris use their own set of textures... Blah blah, she can be turned into nice hulk.
- Gagana require MediaVPs to work properly. Either 4.0.X or 2014.
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DOWNLOAD - MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/file/3gtwd59fhgeusuy/GaganaGreenRelease.7z/file)
DOWNLOAD - ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/infscp/addons/eab-gagana-release)