[T-Man]

I've been meaning for ages to get stuck into learning Blender proper (and get back into FS stuff in general for that matter) and I’ve had this ship concept in my head for years so what the heck decided to go for it as a 'getting to know Blender' project. Basic premise was a Pre-FS1 era heavy-torp artillery frigate (Sins players, think Ogrov) around about the size of TVWP's Atropos, that became outmoded with the invention of subspace and rise of jump-capable cruises and carriers full of bombers (and truly outmoded when bombers become jump-capable).

A couple of hours worth of work in (and a moment getting this p3d doohicky to work) and here's the results (quick save your eyes );

Note: this viewable model has been updated since this post was written.

So far just the body and the beginnings of detailing (death-by-extrusion may have been involved) and there's plenty missing (some defensive turrets for one), but thought I’d put up a few pics and see what people thought of it so far. The Damocles was a big design inspiration. Doubt this design will ever make even close to up there with the beauties many here can pump out, but want to get the model at the very least working in-game and for now at the standard of higher-end retail models like the Deimos.

The two doors on the front are the torpedo tubes (gives you an idea of how big these torps are; maybe a tad too big in hindsight, I may shrink them and redesign it a bit ) that will (hopefully) animate and open for launching. I'm thinking of having this mechanic for it where a torpedo submodel (which is an untargetable but destructible subsystem) appears in the tube while it is open, and a fast player can thus shoot the torpedo before it launches (it vanishes as the tube's turret fires, so it looks it is the same torpedo coming out the tube) and cripple the ship. Other plans is for the port 'wing' of the ship (where the square is) to be a targeting and guidance array with a cluster of antennas, while the starboard is the command/habitation section with the visor-like part including a large window the bridge/fire control. May beef up the neck with some detailing (perhaps another armour layer) as it looks a little bare, and I need to put a large door somewhere that would be used for getting new torpedoes on board.

Comments/suggestions and laughter at the pathetic-ness welcome.

[Luis Dias]

it's not pathetic at all. Seems like a solid start. The profile is strong. Go on!

[Nyctaeus]

I'm glad to see someone else but me, making FS1-style warships. I'm feeling lack of classic terran warships in decent quality. That's why I'm working on TFg Vengeance. Can't wait to see some good progress on this

[T-Man]

UPDATE (Replaced first post link):

As many do, I shall be updating the image on the first page as I go. I've modelled in the tubes, basic guides for where the engines are going to be, and added a sliding door on the bottom so new torpedoes can be loaded on board (not intending to have that working in-game as would mean modelling the whole interior, but technically possible).

Current challenge is turret design; I wanted to have a turret on either side of the nose near the front, but wanted to avoid the normal static ones if possible and have a barrel that has to aim at targets (never liked how the weapon on those can inexplicably cover such a wide arc, and though I liked BP's magnetic technology explanation I'm assuming it wouldn't have been invented yet).

I'm under the assumption that multi-part side turrets are still impossible and so debated ball-shape or sponson-like designs, but thought these would stand out too much and look bad. I did get this idea from someone about having an almost flat horizontal slit, but mounted on a circular base that could twist (so to aim down for example, the turret would twist the slit so it was vertical and then aim the barrel down) but I don't know if that's engine-capable. Would welcome any thoughts/ideas.

In other news;

...around about the size of TVWP's Atropos...

...ah... (note to self; re-scale when ship is finished)

[AdmiralRalwood]

I'm under the assumption that multi-part side turrets are still impossible

Wasn't that capability added years ago?

[Black Wolf]

Yep, non-horizontal turrets are a-okay now. You need to use u-vec and f-vec in the pof file, which can be a little tricky the first few times, but don't let that stop you from making them at this stage - worry about it when you convert.

[T-Man]

Upgate: A couple of ideas for turrets (but will likely bin the front one since turns out i can use a normal turret sideways now )

Wasn't that capability added years ago?

Oh cool. Heh, I should warn I've essentially been under a (university-sized) rock for the past few years (plus i'm usually the last to notice things anyway)

Yep, non-horizontal turrets are a-okay now.

Excellent. I see the two values you mention go in the properties bit (looked at a model in BP with side turrets; recall that properties area from when i had a play with some &FOV stuff once); cheers for letting me know. Means i could use a normal turret instead of the weird turntable design from earlier I tried to implement (see update above, may need a wire viewmode to see all of turret). It would probably have kinda worked, but it needs a lot of polys, and a standard turning turret on it's side would probably give slightly better coverage for a lot less polycount anyway. If anyone particularly likes this design i could keep them but otherwise will likely switch for a thin-ish standard turret and hope it doesn't wreck the look too much. Been backing up as i go so changing wouldn't be an issue.

Had a quick play with scales as well, muddled a little when i realized that the converted POFs i've been using as reference have not all been to 1.0 scale within Blender ( ) so everything is up in the air. Fortunately when the model is all joined up at the end you can scale it all at once, and i recall on the wiki a mention of 1 Blender unit equalling 1 FS meter, so that won't be an issue.

Did manage to scale a copy of the model and make this rough comparison with the Atropos of how big i'm aiming the ship to be; shall use to re-size parts and turrets so they look better. Opinions welcome if you think parts are too big or anything (i think the engine 'wings' are maybe a little big). The torp size i'd chosen seems to be a perfect fit though thank god .

[Hades]

For a first try this is pretty good! I do have some suggestions though, mostly relating to the shape. You don't have to take them, they're just ideas I had that might give it more callbacks to the Orion.



The circles on the top would also be on the bottom and those are bases for big multiparts. The right side has the antennae section moved a bit back and sloped some, and I think the rest of the stuff is self explanatory, but don't be afraid to ask questions and such.

[Droid803]

Indeed, I think exaggerating the asymmetry a bit more like the Orion could be very cool.

[T-Man]

Beg pardon for the delay in getting back to you guys. I really like the ideas there Hades, especially the slopes on the nose (not only goes with the Orion as you say, but fits in better with the Damocles I’ve been taking inspiration from too); definitely doing those as I'm not a huge fan of that 'slab front' look at the moment. I was debating moving one of the side bits back a bit as I like the idea of a-symmetry on ships, but I never thought of having a angle like that; it looks nice and again it lessens the 'slab' look (and agree with you Droid on my asymmetry). May also have the back changes too as it varies the shape out a bit. I do like your idea of the multi-parts on the command side there (was debating a turret there) but not 100% sure yet, as I want to be quite frugal with the turrets so the ship isn't on par with true combat ships like the Damocles or Atropos; envisioned Pilums being stay well back, unload all it's torps (about 6, maybe 8 with some pushing), then get away as quickly as possible.

Ironically I did debate 'sub-style' doors just as you have there to begin with, though decided in the end to go for the two-part sliding doors as the ship is meant to have been built on a budget (actual story in my head is Mars, related to some old TVWP ideas I had once) and the sliding doors would be a simple mechanism for them to maintain, plus the door could be made quite thick and heavy without much issue (yes I think into 'realism' things way to much for the record; sig says it all ). Do like the look of those sub-doors though and I’ve been thinking of doing more ships set in the same timeframe that would have better budgets so I may incorporate them into those. Cheers.

[T-Man]

MODEL UPDATE (replaced first post P3D): Lots of structural changes made based on Hades ideas and Droid's thought. Preliminary turret layout modeled and put in place. Rails added for torpedo tube doors. May need to move engines around a bit as back is a bit thicker now, and tris has shot right up, but she's slowly getting there.



EDIT:

Can't decide something with the engines so would appreciate opinions; occoured to me the top and bottom engines had plenty of room to be side-by-side instead of stacked, meaning the whole top and bottom parts of the 'cross' (which I felt jutted out a bit) could be shrunk a little. Doing so does however make them shorter than the side parts (which I doubt could be shrunk any more) and might make it look worse. I dunno, do you guys think I should keep to the old shape (first pic) or go for the new shape (second pic)?

[Mito [PL]]

How about making each the "cross" with only one engine section per side and adding a "tail" (like in Iceni) inside the "cross" with few turrets?

[T-Man]

How about making each the "cross" with only one engine section per side and adding a "tail" (like in Iceni) inside the "cross" with few turrets?

That's an idea; would cut on poly-count a bit and make arranging them a lot easier. Shall model it and see how it looks. Was debating a tail of sorts in the middle; may avoid another gun turret but i could put a third missile hard point there perhaps.

Model Update (see first post): If no one minds, i decided to change the name of this to 'TFg Ballista' as i just remembered i hope to save the 'Pilum' name for a future project plan. Would also like people's opinion of the top Gun turret with the single barrel, which i may make the same for all the gun turrets; was originally planning traditional twin-barrel arrangement (which the others still are on the model) but thinking since it's meant to be auto-cannons mounted, and most naval guns you see seem to be single-gun (with the exception of massive cannon arrangements like on WWII ships) might make sense realism-wise, plus save me a few polys. If i do go for single I might still do an alternative version with the twin-barrels for anyone who prefers them.

[T-Man]

Model Update: So, the news was broke to me that Freespace actually can't handle translation animations at the moment (hats off to the animators like Steve-O in that case, coz i would never have known ) without i quote "nasty hacks" (the concept of which scare me, being a non-coder ), so sliding doors are a no-no for the foreseeable future; torpedo style doors ala-Hades it is. I debated having them flush but i think they actually look a bit better raised slightly. There's also a rudimentary version of the torpedo model in the tubes or those interested in them (there will be two actually part of the ship model to do that subsystem mechanic i mentioned). Slight correction made on the turrets too and they're now all the single-barrel model i mentioned previously.

Ironically the biggest changes at this point are those invisible on the model; she's actually been scaled up to true size now, which inadvertently meant putting the beginnings of the hierarchy together (so they all scaled the same). She's still not totally finished but she's certainly nearing there model-wise; must say i'm finding this a lot easier than i thought i would (probably because i haven't tried UV-mapping her yet ).