[Black Wolf]

One of my more recent models, I'm actually rather happy with this one, though I'm thinking the front might need work... or, you know, to exist. It's supposed to be a long range exploration vessel - there's a whole backstory that goes with it, but essentially it's a post Capella TV design (popping up somewhere around 10 to 12 years after the nova) that's been equipped with a new type of subspace drive and is used to explore nodes that would have been too unstable with traditional drives.

Unfortunately, I doubt I'll ever finish it, as I have no idea how to texture it - either how the texture should look (TV texs are damned near impossible in my experience, and I've tried), or how to go about texturing something this big (destroyer sized or so).

Anyway, opinions?

[comic]

That is one crazy design, Not shure about the rear pods but you should definately texture it as it could be a really cool adition to FS!

Maybe it would look ok with icini type textures as they always struck me as a bit of a cross between T and V

[aldo_14]

Whoa.  Combine dropship.........

I like the TV-ness of it, though.  IMO TV hybrid textures could be the same scales as the Hatshepsut, but with a more grey-blue terran colour.  Just as a change to the usual idea of mixing stock textures from both species, or using khaki-tinted Terran ones.

Or just use completely new textures........

[Unknown Target]

Interesting and weird design...where's the front?

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Or just use completely new textures........

That's actually the plan, if I ever do anything with it. I'm just shocking at tile texturing, and making UV maps for something this big (I'm thinking around destroyer size, maybe slightly bigger) would be... challenging.

Though the idea of Blue Grey hat-like stuff is an interesting one...

[StratComm]

I don't particularly see blue-grey Hatshepsut-style plating as particularly feasable.  I mean, it doesn't look like terran material processing techniques, which produce the metalic plating, would be compatible with the scale-forming of a Hatshepsut's hull.  They are just too radically different. Of course, if you are custom mapping it you could use something like the Iceni textures as a base on the "terran" parts, and scale over them as you transition into the Vasudan ones.  It wouldn't work with tiles, but with the right technique it could come out nicely I think with a custom map.

[aldo_14]

I'd suggest using a mix of tiles and custom uv-templated textures.  Specifically, I'd suggest using a tiled texture for the squishy bits.  but not the engines; that's one texture file to load, for only a few faces.  (in fact, if you have a suitable one, I'd suggest taking the engine rear face, and simply applying a plain black texture to them by simply using a single black pixel from a map used elsewhere, and fitting the uvmap to it.

Originally posted by StratComm
I don't particularly see blue-grey Hatshepsut-style plating as particularly feasable.  I mean, it doesn't look like terran material processing techniques, which produce the metalic plating, would be compatible with the scale-forming of a Hatshepsut's hull.  They are just too radically different. Of course, if you are custom mapping it you could use something like the Iceni textures as a base on the "terran" parts, and scale over them as you transition into the Vasudan ones.  It wouldn't work with tiles, but with the right technique it could come out nicely I think with a custom map.

Well, the way I see it is that it could simply be a different way of overlapping or welding armour plates; perhaps the Vasudans have a better way of welding plates together for strength, but Terrans have better armour materials.  Or it could just be paint

TBH, I'm sick of seeing the Iceni / Colossus textures used as hybrid textures; they're too Terran by far IMO.  I'd actually recommend a completely custom hexagonal tile rather than recolouring the scales, but at the least I think the scales would be more original.  

Seeing as the Iceni textures are just recoloured grey Terran tiles, I don't see how it's any less applicable than them; and I think hexagonal textures are more suited to wrapping round a smooth object.

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Whoa.  Combine dropship.........

My first thought was the illegitimate child of a Combine Dropship and a Typhon...

My personal vote is for the Aten's textures in a dark brown for the majority, Aeolus-like grey plating for the front end. It would bear some resemblance to a Terran craft (read that: Hecate), but still be distinctly Vasudan. Besides, the ship looks as if it owes more to Vasudan design then Terran design, anyways.

[StratComm]

The only reason I say that is that the vasudan hex tiles look organicly created, rather than welded together.  Maybe not grown, per-se, but at least formed in their shape by a process radically differing from that of Terran plating.  We don't know what they are made of, and while I could find a metal that, in the void of space, would be brown, I don't know that we can say the same thing about the Vas hex material.  But, 'tis only my humble opinion

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by StratComm
The only reason I say that is that the vasudan hex tiles look organicly created, rather than welded together.  Maybe not grown, per-se, but at least formed in their shape by a process radically differing from that of Terran plating.  We don't know what they are made of, and while I could find a metal that, in the void of space, would be brown, I don't know that we can say the same thing about the Vas hex material.  But, 'tis only my humble opinion

Paint!

I dunno.  My opinion, is that it works quite well as a texture scheme on (a) fighter, although I'm still deciding how 'Vasudan' it looks.

[Woolie Wool]

Both Terran and Vasudan starships are almost certainly painted on all their surfaces (note the color differences of the Fenris, Orion, Deimos, and Colossus, and of the Mentu, Bes, Typhon, and Aten), so color really isn't all that important. Furthermore, I highly doubt that Vasudan or Shivan (especially Shivan) materials are "organic" in any way as they have similar strength and other properties to Terran materials and many of them look very metallic, such as the Demon textures and the VCTile textures. The differences in plate outline boil down to different metallurgy and construction techniques or simply aesthetic preferences.

[Black Wolf]

I think I'll try tile texturing it with a mix of V and hand drawn texs, then see if I can bake it into a UV for specific detailing (maybe only of highly specific parts - not sure yet) - it's likely to be an arduous process though, so don't expect any updates for a little while. I'd still like model coments though, as I'm largely working on very specific little bits, so any general ideas for greebling or aditions are still open to be considered.

[StratComm]

I'm reserving judgement until I see a perspective shot from below.  I like what I see so far, but there really isn't all that much on the top to differentiate it from a giant Vasudan support ship.  There's structure underneath, I can see it in the side shot, but I have no idea what it is.

[Galemp]

I would really like to see those extended front pseudopods either more blended into the hull, or morphed into something more traditional like you have the engines on the back.

[Cobra]

nice

kinda looks like a typhon (combined with a Tauret) smallified.