[Vengence]

I have spent around 6 hours modeling and skinning this new beast  . Thats right, I said skin. This is the first model I have UVW uwrapped and made a dedicated texture for in a LONG time. Because the skin is a dedicated texture and not a tiled texture the texture has LOADS of details. It looks almost bump mapped too . Behold, the Hurricane v.6






Doing away with most of the plasma turrets, V6 uses 8 single barreled heavy beam cannons, 4 older plasma turrets, 1 Titan missile launcher, and 2 double barreled Super Beam Cannons! The 2 doubles at the front replaces the dual mega beam cannons of the previous version. Though only 1/3 of the strength of the megas, the doubles are mounted on turrets and fire in almost any direction offsetting the power disadvantage.


Background: Soon after the assasination of President Morgan, succeeding President Malford ordered the top secret Hurricane v6 project to begin production and testing of the next generation of Hurricane Heavy Cruisers. This, however, came as a shock to those on the project. The Hurricane v5 is only a few decades old (v1 was built around 2895, it is now 5098. Do the math ) and hasn't reached the end of its operational lifetime. Because the Hurricane series are so huge (at 6km) and destructive, their power isn't eclipsed very easily.

The tradition was that once the tech is available, the new version must be at least 3-5 times more powerful, capable of accelerating much faster, and has superior armor protection than the last. V5 had 14 enourmas plasma turrets that can fire a 1km bolt at a target at 6km per second every second. Each bolt is capable of ripping shields off a capital ship and tearing the armor to shreds. V5 also had 2 awesome beam cannons mounted on the front of the ship. This beam cannon model was ranked as the largest beam cannon in existance. Spanning 2km, the Hurricane 5's main cannons took up a whole third of the total length of the ship. At the current moment, the Hurricane ranks as 4rd most powerful ship class in the known galaxy and 3rd largest ship in the galaxy.

To make a more powerful ship with the current level of technology seemed impossible... but thats where the other races come in. Since the project was top secret, the pieces needed to produce the weaponry had to be 'aquired' secretly and discreetly. When the parts were 'aquired' the project carried on. Despite the advanced tech used, it was not enough to surpass the previous version over 2 times. But the president was satisfied and ordered Champion and Capellan Shipyards to produce a dozen at the same time (each shipyard can create 6 heavy cruisers at once).

Ok, thats a part of the story. Just remember that my mod here IS NOT RELATED to FS2 at all. It is a unique universe.

This here is the V5 for reference:

[Shade]

I like it Only objection I can think of is that the turrets may be a touch too big for the hull - They actually make it look kinda small, so shrinking them a little (like 20% smaller) might actually make the ship look bigger and more powerful.

[Vengence]

I guess people still don't understand that the huge turrets are the icon of this series . Trust me, the turrets were once bigger before and were shrunk almost half the old size. oh wait, yep a slight screw up. Turrets got oversized all of a sudden.

[Shade]

Well, I don't know where is comes from so I'm just going from personal opinion. If everything else is like that too, I guess it's fine And that really was my only gripe - I like the model, and the texture is especially excellent.

[Vengence]

It comes from my own original universe. So there isn't much reference to base it on. The closest reference I know thats like this are the Hiigaran capital ships from Homeworld 2, and they had quite of big turrets.

[NGTM-1R]

To put it simply...The Dreaded AC Silliness^TM.

Or put another way: there does not appear to be sufficent space within the hull to house the turret traverse mechanisms, nevermind the generators necessary to power the actual weapons themselves. And, having played HW2, let me put it this way...they come nowhere close to this.

[Vengence]

The turrets have been resized about 16%. The old pics are now outdated. I will not go into details about the power thing, but trust me power is covered. Also this ship doesn't have any fighter bays and the front section that was once the beam cannons in V5 are now mostly generators for the forward section. About the turret mechanisms, well the resizing makes it more sensible but that I cannot explain.

EDIT: I forgot to ask, what do you mean by AC?

[Vengence]

Errm, yeahh I ran into a little problem. The turret firepoints are way off. They seem to shoot lower than what I set them to. Is there anyway I can fix this in coding or do I have to reposition the firepoints in PCS or modelview?

EDIT: Oops, forgot the pic

[NGTM-1R]

EDIT: I forgot to ask, what do you mean by AC?

The Dreaded AC Silliness^TM term was first coined to describe several BattleTech 'Mechs which did not appear to have the space available to house the ammunition for their autocannons (the classic example is the CN-9A Centurion); hence AC. It spread to energy weaponry eventually and then beyond the genre to anything that appears to have too many/too large guns and no space for the ammunition/power generators/support systems.

The new one looks much better, but it still smacks a little of the overgunned. In considering what's reasonable for turreting I always tend to look at WWII-era battleships like the Yamato or Iowa classes. They represent about the maximum weapons density possible for a ship. A spacecraft is of course more advanced and so would be able to pack on more weapons, in theory, but a spacecraft also has greater concerns about compartmentalization and life support that would take up more space, so it roughly evens out.

[AdmiralRalwood]

But, of course, you are assuming realism... and if there's one thing we've all learned about the FS2 engine, it's that realism is thrown out the window when compared to fun.

Very nice. I remember the old one, I like this one better. Probably because it appeals to my tastes in ship design. Looking good.

[Vengence]

EDIT: I forgot to ask, what do you mean by AC?

The Dreaded AC Silliness^TM term was first coined to describe several BattleTech 'Mechs which did not appear to have the space available to house the ammunition for their autocannons (the classic example is the CN-9A Centurion); hence AC. It spread to energy weaponry eventually and then beyond the genre to anything that appears to have too many/too large guns and no space for the ammunition/power generators/support systems.

The new one looks much better, but it still smacks a little of the overgunned. In considering what's reasonable for turreting I always tend to look at WWII-era battleships like the Yamato or Iowa classes. They represent about the maximum weapons density possible for a ship. A spacecraft is of course more advanced and so would be able to pack on more weapons, in theory, but a spacecraft also has greater concerns about compartmentalization and life support that would take up more space, so it roughly evens out.

Ah, I get it. I always felt that it was wierd.

Well here is my response: Most of the nose section of the craft is completely umanned and is lined with generators that replaced the once prevelent 2km beam cannon which now supplements the primary generators mounted in the rear of the ship. There is also no fighter bay or launch bay, only a docking port. Since this ship is a capital ship killer it has little need for an army inside for invasions either. So to sum it all up, the crew size would be considerably smaller than what would have otherwise been needed. It is even smaller thanks to a robotic maintenance force to handel the nose and engine modules. What is left to be crewed are the most important systems, emergency repair, medical crew, ect and a small marine force to prevent a boarding assault.

So because this ship has so few roles and jobs to cover it doesn't need a huge crew. But it is still big at around 8,000-12,000 centered close to the location under the large bridge/observation tower near the rear of the ship.

Now realistically too, the large missile launcer in the rear only has enough missiles for 2-3 salvos. I'm not sure how to code it in yet but thats how it is going to be.

[Titan]

The new one looks much better, but it still smacks a little of the overgunned. In considering what's reasonable for turreting I always tend to look at WWII-era battleships like the Yamato or Iowa classes. They represent about the maximum weapons density possible for a ship. A spacecraft is of course more advanced and so would be able to pack on more weapons, in theory, but a spacecraft also has greater concerns about compartmentalization and life support that would take up more space, so it roughly evens out.

[/quote]


you're forgetting that they had to be able to have men running across the decks in WWII

[Vengence]

"AHH, I'm running across the decks of my battleship! And I have no space suit, only my uniform on!"

That reminds me of the Volition Bravos pirate ship thingy.