Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: EdrickV on February 01, 2003, 06:28:19 pm

Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: EdrickV on February 01, 2003, 06:28:19 pm
Here's a freighter I was working on a while ago and intended to post about but never got around to it. (Especially since for a while HLP seemed to be down or something.)

(http://members.aol.com/huntercomputers/FS2/Exon1.jpg)
(http://members.aol.com/huntercomputers/FS2/Exon2.jpg)

The idea is, the Exon class freighter would be a civillian ship, often used as a tanker, rather then a military transport. And if you haven't noticed by now, it's somewhat inspired by sea going tanker ships. The cargo pod would be either a seperate subobject (thus letting the freighter have cargo and still be able to dock) or a seperate POF.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Sesquipedalian on February 01, 2003, 06:46:36 pm
Nice!
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: ZylonBane on February 01, 2003, 07:03:55 pm
Does the captain's chair have a built-in breathalyzer?
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Goober5000 on February 01, 2003, 07:33:58 pm
:lol: That'd have to be the GTFr Valdez. ;)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Knight Templar on February 01, 2003, 07:41:08 pm
Instead of making a pod, you should make the already pod things on it destroyable subsystems. :nod:

let us know when you finish it por favor :D
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: EdrickV on February 01, 2003, 07:58:19 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Knight Templar
Instead of making a pod, you should make the already pod things on it destroyable subsystems. :nod:

let us know when you finish it por favor :D


One of my original ideas was to make 2 versions. (With possibly 2 table entries.) And it's designed to cary one large cargo pod, which is in the center and held on by that "rib cage" like structure. (The cargo pod is shown docked BTW.) For one version the cargo pod would be a destroyable subsystem and there would be a docking port so that you could destroy one cargo pod and have it dock with another. The other version wouldn't have the cargo pod as a subobject. If I get it textured and POFed, I may ask for some help with the cargo dockpoint, because (like the Brontes) it wouldn't work quite right for a straight in dock path. (The docking port would be on the underside of the middle set of "ribs." The ship also has 4 multi-part turrets, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. (Which I realize does leave it's sides vulnerable.) Deciding how to texture it will take some thought. (Might have to split some faces for better texturing.)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Eviscerator on February 01, 2003, 08:02:45 pm
oooo... I like it! We need more stuff like this.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Whitelight on February 01, 2003, 08:13:11 pm
How long is it, it looks big, if so then it will be the largest freighter class of all.. by the way EdrickV, very nice design :yes:
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: EdrickV on February 01, 2003, 08:35:01 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Whitelight
How long is it, it looks big, if so then it will be the largest freighter class of all.. by the way EdrickV, very nice design :yes:


How big it would be depends on what scalefactor I use in PCS. I could probably make it smaller then a herc or bigger then an orion. :) I'd have to experiment to find a size I think looks good, once it's textured.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: StratComm on February 01, 2003, 08:36:07 pm
Nice :nod:
I'd reduce the inset on the engines (or the glows will be tough at best and you'll have clipping issues) so that they don't all look like hangers; in other words change:

.________/
|
|
|________
..............\

to

./
|
|
|
.\

and that'll help a ton.  The front engines maybe shouldn't extrude like pipes from the forward hull either, but that's just a difference in design philosophy I guess.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: EdrickV on February 01, 2003, 08:46:05 pm
The front engines are kinda afterthoughts. Without a cargo pod, the ship looks like it could be broken in half a bit too easily, so in theory if that happened the engines would be seperated from the main crew area, leaving the ship dead in space. Front engines kinda fix that. (They were loosely inspired by submarine dive planes.)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Alikchi on February 01, 2003, 08:54:02 pm
What exactly is that you're using to make it?
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: EdrickV on February 01, 2003, 09:23:27 pm
I use Wings3D (from Wings3D.com) for modelling and creating UV maps, Lithunwrap for applying textures/conversion to cob, Truespace for hierarchy, PCS for conversion, Modelview32 and PCS for POF editing.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Raptor on February 02, 2003, 03:28:24 am
Quote
Originally posted by Eviscerator
oooo... I like it! We need more stuff like this.


Like the man said.  Damm thats good;)

Quote
Originally posted by StratComm
Nice
I'd reduce the inset on the engines (or the glows will be tough at best and you'll have clipping issues) so that they don't all look like hangers; in other words change:

.________/
|
|
|________
..............\

to

./
|
|
|
.\

and that'll help a ton.


I agree with that too.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Bobboau on February 02, 2003, 03:44:53 am
that's a fairly nice looking ship,
IMO I think the engines need to be redone a little though (and the ones on the front should be removed outright)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on February 02, 2003, 04:41:11 am
That is one hell of a ship. The sort of thing you'd expect a scoundrel to fly.:D
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: diamondgeezer on February 02, 2003, 06:23:11 am
FreeSpace needs stupidly big freighters. I always thought it wasa bit daft making the Triton so small, given that there's no real upwards limit on the size of space ship (well, except the size of the universe, obviously)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: pyro-manic on February 02, 2003, 11:47:34 am
At last! Someone finally decides to do a ship that isn't a fighter or a stupidly hard capship!

I like it a lot. I agree about the engine shape, and the front ones should be small and on the underside of the hull - like on the Hecate or the Deimos:)

Re: size, it should be at least corvette-sized, but the bigger the better IMO. I'd love to see a civilian ship that you can see next to a destroyer, like a supertanker or something.


*has brainwave*

THe next one you should do is the Nostromo - the massive ore hauler from Alien . That would rule!:p Nostromo pic (http://www.foxhome.com/alienlegacy/html/alien/equipment/1equ_nost.html)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: diamondgeezer on February 02, 2003, 12:04:53 pm
That's not a pic of Nostromo - that's a pic of the cargo, a massive great refinery. This is Nostromo:

(http://www.culttvman.com/assets/images-SF_MOVIES/kyonostromo03.JPG)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Black Wolf on February 02, 2003, 12:17:42 pm
Quote
Originally posted by diamondgeezer
FreeSpace needs stupidly big freighters. I always thought it wasa bit daft making the Triton so small, given that there's no real upwards limit on the size of space ship (well, except the size of the universe, obviously)


(http://www.scifi3d.de/twistedinfinities/screenshots/ingame/AtlantisPimp.jpg)

For use in TI, and over 1 km in length. We have 2 other massive freighters (both vasudan), and one other large ship hauler, not exactly a freighter, but very similar.

Oh yeah, just to reemphasize what the pic says I did not make this and take no credit. This was entirely done by Flipside, one of our modders for TI.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Knight Templar on February 02, 2003, 02:11:27 pm
The long tubes being docking ports?
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Rampage on February 02, 2003, 05:34:25 pm
Um... This is made in BLENDER, right? :nervous:
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: DTP on February 02, 2003, 10:43:40 pm
for some reason it reminds me of a Cylon refuel tanker.

(http://ravensbranch.allen.com/artwork/cylontanker.jpg)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: EdrickV on February 07, 2003, 02:41:34 am
To give people a better idea what the Exon looks without the cargo pod, and what the pod itself looks like I added some pics.
(http://members.aol.com/huntercomputers/FS2/Exon3.jpg)
(http://members.aol.com/huntercomputers/FS2/Exon4.jpg)
Yes, I know the pod has a lot more polys then it needs. That's due to how it was made and the fact that I haven't reduced it's poly count as of yet. I'm not planning on removing the front engines (the front looks too bare without them) but may modify them. They never turned out quite the way I wanted.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: karajorma on February 07, 2003, 04:53:22 am
I quite like the engines on the front actually. My only gripe about them is that they look a little small and stubby where they join on to the main body but I think you should keep them too.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Noise on February 16, 2003, 08:15:39 am
:yes: I've been waiting for a large freighter to come along for a LONG time.  Just an idea though, depending on the size of the freighter and if you increase the cargo arms length and depth, the Exon could pass for a mobile shipyard;) .  A mobile shipyard would be so useful for my campaign.:)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on February 17, 2003, 01:55:44 pm
So you could have cruiser and stuff dock under the cargo arms and get repaired? Like the submarine depot ships of yore?
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Noise on February 17, 2003, 04:11:55 pm
:) Exactly.  Depending on how big the arms are, and if the length of the ship were to be increased, you might even able to fit a Deimos in there.:yes:
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on February 18, 2003, 02:12:03 pm
Hmm, or it could be used to salvage hulks, like when that Royal Navy destroter ran aground a few months back.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: beatspete on February 18, 2003, 05:01:24 pm
As a side note, heres a transport i've been working on.
http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/beatspete/transport.html
No plans for release, i just wanted to model something.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Goober5000 on February 18, 2003, 05:10:52 pm
Ooh ooh!  Can you round off the corners and let us use it for a Vasudan frigate? :)
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Noise on February 18, 2003, 05:21:39 pm
:) Love that new freighter.  Release it as soon as possible.:yes:

I really think the Exon should be big enough to handle corvettes, simply because it would be easier to repair them in the field.  Destroyers are to uncommon and building a mobile shipyard large enough wouldn't be feasible.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on February 20, 2003, 01:35:13 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Goober5000
Ooh ooh!  Can you round off the corners and let us use it for a Vasudan frigate? :)


I've said it before and I'll say it again, we will have every minimod ever made.
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: beatspete on February 20, 2003, 03:39:09 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Goober5000
Ooh ooh!  Can you round off the corners and let us use it for a Vasudan frigate? :)


...Me or him? No, i dont do curves :nervous:
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Noise on February 20, 2003, 04:29:47 pm
beatspete > dude, your design is great the way it is, now if it could only be released for public use.....:yes:
Title: GTFr Exon
Post by: Goober5000 on February 25, 2003, 09:00:12 pm
Quote
Originally posted by beatspete
...Me or him? No, i dont do curves :nervous:


You.  The transport.  I think it'd be very cool.

Bah.  You don't do curves at all?