Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: Herra Tohtori on March 29, 2006, 05:23:14 pm
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Okay, here's a space fighter design I patched together. The name itself should already tell something of it, but here's a little piece of history behind it.
This craft was designed shortly after the second Shivan incursion and is, unlike other terran fighter designs, not a result of corporational design but rather a design patched together by GTVA's own engineers and just built by mentioned corporations (Nankam and other corporations mentioned in FS2). Therfore it combines prominent and tested features of the former, noticed-to-be-good terran fighters. Mainly it is influenced by GTF Perseus, GTF Hercules 2, GTF Erinyes and GTB Artemis, but it also bears some resemblance to GVF Tauret. It is best at maintaining space superiority or assault role, having a reasonable payload capacity while being much more maneuverable and faster than GTF Hercules and being as fast as the GTF Myrmidon while slightly faster than it. The fighter is intermediately shielded, while hull plating is where it exels.
The fighter manages to be as strong as the GTF Ares while achieving much higher maneuverability and speed than "The Potatoe". This is due to advanced (read: Shivan) reactor technology, thrust vectoring systems and optimized angular momentum hull configuration.
The design is two-seater by default, but most of the missions can be, and often are carried out with just one pilot. Additional pair of eyes is always a good thing to watch the six, and the back-seater can also serve as a battle leader, sending commands to the wing while not forced to concentrate on dogfighting himself. In simulations, having one such co-pilot in a wing increases performance by 15%, but this is yet to be confirmed in real combat.
The fighter measures 19.00 metres in length, 12.80 in width and in total it is 5 metres high. It has six primary weapon hardpoints, two near the center of aim below the cockpit and four on the extended side pods for heavy bombardment for large targets. Next to these primary weapons is a pair of secondary weapon launchers that can be fitted to launch anything up to Harpoon missiles, while the upper secondary banks fitted further back on the side pods can carry missiles of size of Piranhas, Infyrnos and, most importantly, Trebuchets. It can also carry most Great War era bombs (like Tsunamis) if they are available and it's absolutely necessary, and in forced conditions it can be used to carry two Cyclops missiles, but that's not feasible for obvious reasons - let the bombers do their job.
As a bonus, the fighters side pods can be replaced with wings and a tail section. Also, the side pods can be ejected if they are heavily damaged. They are relatively cheap to manufacture, consisting basically of just thrusters and weapon bays. Dropping these behing allows the central section to achieve much greater speed while still having ability to fight back with the nose guns.
(http://users.tkk.fi/~lmiettun/Kuvat/GTF_Percules/Front_small.png)
(http://users.tkk.fi/~lmiettun/Kuvat/GTF_Percules/Top_small.png)
(http://users.tkk.fi/~lmiettun/Kuvat/GTF_Percules/Side_small.png)
The fighters name, obviously, comes from two important fighters that have rent features onto it - GTF Perseus and GTF Hercules 2. But there's more to this name, too. The leader of the design team happened to have Finnish roots, and Perkules is actually a Finnish mild curse that derives from the word perkele, which was kind of a demon creature in old Finnish mytology, nowadays also used as synonyme for devil (which is lame, IMO).
Percules was originally a project name and is yet to be confirmed as official type name by GTVA Headquarters, and it might be replaced with some more typical name from either Greek or Roman mytology. (In other words, do you have suggestions for name of this ship?)
Also, only prototype currently exists and mass production, much less deployment, can not start very soon. (Read: I can't model, at least not yet. As of now, the model exists only in paper and in my head of course.)
:D
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Good idea - I especially like the copilot element. The design is good in general, but when I look at the side view, the cockpit's bay windows doesn't seem very tall - the pilots could have very limited side views. That ship must be hard to reload :p!
Adding some details to the wings like decals or vents for all those missiles on the sides would be cool! But that's just my view, the ship itslef looks good.
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From the front, it sort of looks like... a controller for some space-age Xbox... but a good design nonetheless, apart from the name...
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The name Perikles sounds better in my opinion, and doesn't differ that much from Percules
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Wrong name, not a name of a Greek (well or Roman) mythical figure.
The design also seems to stem from the Perseus and the Artemis.
Nice design though.
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LOL.
At first I didn't realize it. But then I started thinking about the name from a finnish point of view. Percules, thats a good one.
:lol:
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GTF Pericles... Well, Pericles is not actually a mythic figure but rather a war hero and celebrity - essentially just human, though.
Got a better suggestion. GTF Chimaera.
Chimaera was a horrendous monster made of the parts of multiple animals. That also describes this fighter in some regards, as it really does imitate tested an dood design features from many of the fighters GTVA has used.
I still like Percules too.
EDIT: Yaa, is suspected the Chimaera was used. Perhaps I'll find something else...
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Chimera has been used like 50 times and percules sounds like a deluxe coffee maker.
There are a lot of greek and roman heroes and gods unused.
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LOL.
At first I didn't realize it. But then I started thinking about the name from a finnish point of view. Percules, thats a good one.
:lol:
I thought the same, really hilarious...
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wasn't there a Pericles destroyer in Babylon5 ?
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Good idea - I especially like the copilot element. The design is good in general, but when I look at the side view, the cockpit's bay windows doesn't seem very tall - the pilots could have very limited side views. That ship must be hard to reload :p!
Adding some details to the wings like decals or vents for all those missiles on the sides would be cool! But that's just my view, the ship itslef looks good.
Yeah, I'll have to add some detail on sides if I'm ever to model this one.
However, I'm a little puzzled by your comment about limited view. The cockpit is actually cuite comfortably sized. The window is 130 cm wide at the root on the widest part. The canopy height at that point is 80 cm. Furthermore, there is no bars limiting view at all. So the side view is not a problem IMO. Reloading shouldn't be any harder than reloading a Herc, Artemis or Erinyes or any multi-fuselage craft.
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Naming things after mild curses has a bit of an illustrious history. Lamborghini Countach, for example. Can the GTF Ubar be next?
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wasn't there a Pericles destroyer in Babylon5 ?
Season 4, "No Surrender, No Retreat", E.A.S. Heracles.
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Season 4 kicked so much butt. Then Season 5 didn't. :(
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Pericles was a Greek historical figure (one of the most famous real ones, actually). Percules sounds like a greek coffee maker.
*runs*
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"A-ha, I see! Running away! You yellow bastard! Come back! I'll bite your legs off!"
;)
Quite like I thought. Non-Finnish part of the community can't approve the finest nyances of the name. *snif* Oh well, if I ever get to model this one out I'll come up with something else.
There is a *plentitude* of unbooked Greek mythology figures... How'd be for example:
- GTF Otus
- GTF Echo
- GTF Proteus
- GTF Erebus
- GTF Chaos
- GTF Atlas
- GTF [Insert Random Figure from wikipedia article of Greek mythology and if that's not enough check the Romans too... :rolleyes:]
Name is not really a problem. What do you think could be improved in overall detail, besides adding some detail to sides?
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Could be less square, and I'm unsure what the cylindrical objects are supposed to be, but they're both minor questions more than crits. It looks pretty cool, especially the cockpit. Doesn't have enough fins for Freespace, but that's not a bad thing.
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- GTF Otus
Oh man. Another one! :lol: Should be a Shivan fighter for that name...
About the design... Add the Perseus "belly fin" on it to give it some vertical profile. Right now it just looks like it has been run over... The back should look ok as long as you add something sticking out downwards...
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What! At least Otus is a perfectly valid Greek mythology figure (besides being a Finnish word...) :drevil:
The cylindrical objects are supposed to be secondary weapon launchers. I decided not to make them visible on side view, they would have made it impossible to see the overall form. I'll try adding some vertical profile as you said, but IMO it's better the thinner profile a ship has. Cool factor doesn't help you in a fight, so there should be some function for such a protrusion.
Perhaps it's a way to move the sensor systems as far from engine interference as possible. Yeah, that must be it. ;7
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In my opinion all "wing it" comments are the work of the dark side. But that thing is just begging for something thats sticking out of it. But you know, pretty much all terran "new generation" (FS2) fighters and bombers have somekind of extension sticking downwards. It could be a docking struckture or for IFF purposes. Or sumthin'...
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"Wing it" comments are more in line for people making ships as concept art, rather than those making ships from existing art. However, sometimes you need to get it in 3d in order to see where you need to add something.