[InsaneBaron]

My Shadow Rising project requires a modpack of post-capella ships. If I tried to make the ships myself, I'd end up with an ugly mess that wouldn't be finished till doomsday, so I elected to use a pre-existing modpack so that I could focus on FREDding. (That's not to say I won't be retabling stuff, just that I don't have the time and resources to get into modeling.)

The problem is, picking a modpack. Plan A was to use Inferno R1's assets, but... they're old. And a lot of them are ugly by today's standards (take the Menelaos and Archon. You can almost count the polygons). Plan B is the Shadow Genesis modpack (Betrayal's suggestion), which has a thorough collection of Terran ships and is an awesome feat of modeling. Problem is, it doesn't include any Vasudan ships, and unlike SG which happens way off in Terran territory, Shadow Rising deals with a civil war with the Vasudans. I could mix Terran ships from SG and Vasudan ships from INFR1, but that would look even worse that just using INFR1- "Command, why are the Vasudan ships made of polygons with pixeled paint jobs?" "Because they're all evil and we're better than they are! Now blast them!"

Because I wasn't able to find one by poking around, I decided to ask for ideas. Does anyone know of a modpack with a thorough set of Vasudan ships and a comparable quality level to Shadow Genesis? If it can't be found... I'll just use Inferno.

[Phantom Hoover]

The selection of good-quality Zod ships is very limited, but Matth's list is pretty much the definitive collection of decent FSO assets.

[InsaneBaron]

Hm. Interesting list, I'll have to comb it more thoroughly.

Here's the problem, I'm reluctant to go grabbing ships off the wiki that haven't been used in some released mod. Two reasons, first, I end up with stuff that varies greatly in quality (partially mitigated by Matth's list), second, I end up[ with stuff that isn't configured properly: gun points, turret angles, cockpit viewpoints, and stuff like that still need to be added, and again, that's a major hastle that decreases that odds of ever getting anything released.

[Nyctaeus]

Check the Project Outreach modpack. Droid803 released it some time ago. A lot of cool vasudan ships are included here.

[InsaneBaron]

It took a long time to find!

I'm downloading and configuring it now, I'll have to see how it looks.

[InsaneBaron]

I've made a decision. Betrayal, I'll be borrowing my Terran fleet from your Shadow Genesis models (I might change my project's name to "Maccabeus" or something like that to avoid confusion) My Vasudan fleet will be taken from the Project Outreach dump. I'll be using the Inferno Vasudan Pack model dump and two or three Blue Planet models to fill in the cracks, and I'll be taking some more alien- and spoiler sensitive- models from another certain mod.

Thanks!

[Nyctaeus]

I'm glad U like them and can't wait to see some screenshots and more info .

[Black Wolf]

Be careful about restricting your options too much InsaneBaron. Matth's list is good, but it's hardly exhaustive - he says himself that the selection criteria are subjective. Similarly, just because a ship is outside of existing modpacks doesn't necessarily make it any more difficult to use.

So I guess all I'm saying is stay open to the possibility of good mods outside of your "comfort zone", as it were.

[InsaneBaron]

Be careful about restricting your options too much InsaneBaron. Matth's list is good, but it's hardly exhaustive - he says himself that the selection criteria are subjective. Similarly, just because a ship is outside of existing modpacks doesn't necessarily make it any more difficult to use.

So I guess all I'm saying is stay open to the possibility of good mods outside of your "comfort zone", as it were.

You make a good point. Actually, I didn't use Matth's list much (although it's certainly a useful asset for people looking for ships). Like I said, I had my eye on Shadow Genesis terran ships; and Project Outreach provided me with Vasudan ships of the needed detail levels.

I realize that there are plenty of perfectly usable ships floating around; the problem in my case lies in figuring out which loose ships are usable and which are beyond my ability to configure. So it does'nt necessarily make the ship harder to use, but it potentially could, if you see what I mean.

Lastly, collecting loose ships might end up leaving me with ships of varying graphical quality (I'd rather have "universally low" than "Widely varied.") SG and PO ships are very similar graphically.