[karajorma]

Okay. Here's a little carrier I`ve been working on for the last few days. It's about 1km in length (maybe smaller)
The Textures are temporary of course as it fairly obviously needs a better UV map.







It still needs turrets etc but I wanted opinons on the general shape first.

EDIT: BTW what designation would be suitable for a small carrier?

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Nice, I especially like the long launch deck, kinda reminds me of the Taiidan carrier (no disrespect to your originality:D )

Very sweet, any ideas on armament?

[Alikchi]

Reminds me of the Taiidan carier in Homeworld..but I really, really like this.

Excellent shape. The final texturing, if done right, would make it perfect.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Originally posted by Alikchi
Reminds me of the Taiidan carier in Homeworld

LOL!

[Nuclear1]

*decides to continue the spam*

Wow, reminds me of the Taiidan carrier from Homeworld!

*ducks to avoid the admins and runs*

[karajorma]

The funny thing is I haven`t played Homeworld much so I haven`t seen the taidan carrier but after I had the runway done I spent ages trying to figure out what the ship reminded me of. It took me ages before I noticed the resemblence to the Tiger's Claw from the original Wing Commander.

So I guess the taiidan carrier was already a copy of something else too. Makes me feel better about people thinking I might be plagerising it

[quadinhonic_II]

Originally posted by karajorma
EDIT: BTW what designation would be suitable for a small carrier?

I'd make it a Support Carrier.

GTSc *******

I wouldnt go turret crazy on it though. Maybe some forward turrets, few on the side. If you are going to make it a support carrier, keep in mind that its turrets would be almost purly for defense (but it would have 2-3 small anti-cap beams) A support carriers job is to resupply the battle with additional bombers and fighters.

(*isnt that also what the Taiidan carrier did\does in HW\HWC?)

[karajorma]

I was thinking Light Carrier (GTLC) because although the carrier can be used for the role you suggest in my campaign the carrier will be used more often to deliver fighters to a situation which doesn`t yet warrent the use of a destroyer.

As for the turrets I won`t be putting anything too impresive on it in the way of anti-cap (my original idea was that the ship should be barely able to stand up to a cruiser in a fair fight) but should have decent anti-fighter protection (to prevent the enemy following crippled fighters back to the carrier and taking it out).

[Nuclear1]

Never seen the Taiidan carrier before?



Well now you have (and yes, TAP. this is YOUR pic)

[untouchable]

Its a great mesh , but the texturing could use a little help. There is way too much of the blue Orion texture. You need to add some texture contrast in certain points and clean up the VUMapping.

[diamondgeezer]

Reminds me of Aldo's Rosmerta. Quite a lot, actually

Still, this is how I like my carriers, with uber run ways rather than just bays. Might not be practical in space, but looks 1337

[Knight Templar]

I like it a lot, but shouldn't it have some sort of Hangerbay at the beggining of the runway? unless you house the fighters on the runway itself.

[EdrickV]

Dang. Scary how much that thing looks like the carrier I've been working on at first glance. (the Damocles class.)

No runway on mine, but it has a large hanger with 2 entrances (one shown and one right below it) and the "guideway" booms in front would carry anti-fighter turrets on the tops and bottoms. (To protect returning fighters.) The turret on top would be the biggest turret it has and equipped with the most powerful anti-fighter weapon, compared to it's other turrets. My engines are a bit different (It's got a top engine set and a bottom engine set) and it doesn't have a fin on the bottom. (It does have a groove put in the middle of the bottom that I liked, since it needed something.)

[Raptor]

First: Nice Carrier!

Second: I personally feel that It should be a GTCa ****** - a standard carrier.  To me carriers would be about the size of frigates, with the armaments of cruisers.

Light Cruisers: ~100 < length < 250
Cruisers: ~ 250 < length < 500
Corvettes: ~ 600 < length < 900
Frigates: ~ 900 < length < 1250
Carriers: ~ 900 < length < 1250
Destroyers: ~ 1900 < length < 2500
Super Destroyers: 3000+

But as I said, this is my opinon.

[diamondgeezer]

Nah, carriers need to be huge, like modern day carriers. Well, U.S ones, anyway.

FS2 carriers should be destroyer sized or a bit bigger, but only armed with defensive weaponry. Booyah!

[Raptor]

Thats the thing, isn't it? It all depends on which scale and model your looking at.

If we use the US Navy as a model, then yes, Carriers are massive great things,  as large (if not larger) than battleships, the centre of any force.

Where as if we look at the Royal Navy, Carriers are much smaller, roughly the size of cruisers (naval cruisers).

[diamondgeezer]

That's thanks to the uber-sexy Harrier, o' course

[karajorma]

Here's a prelininary version of the tech room entry

The Second Great war cause a lot of problems for the GTVA military. After the end of the war the military budget was slashed in an attempt to prevent economic disaster caused byt the devestation of Capella and the effects of the NTF Rebellion. They could no longer afford to build the numbers of destroyers required. Instead the GTVA came up with the idea of replacing them with small carriers capable of carrying 50 or 60 fighters to any small trouble spots and thereby freeing up the few remaining destroyers for real problems.  

So as you can see these carriers are more like the Royal Navy ones than the American kind. I suppose I could get away with just calling it a GTCa but somehow I also feel that carriers should be huge things too (at least in FS2) since destroyers can carry far more fighters than my little carrier can. So it needs some sort of designation to denote that it is smaller than a standard carrier would be (even though the GTVA has none at the moment)

[Anaz]

cool...has that ugly-heavy-industrial style to it. Me likes...

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Knight Templar
I like it a lot, but shouldn't it have some sort of Hangerbay at the beggining of the runway? unless you house the fighters on the runway itself.

Actually that brings me round to a gap in my truespace knowledge. Just exactly how do you make a fighter bay and still manage to leave a face at the front that you can paint with the invisible texture?
 I just can`t figure out how to do it. I can`t simply extrude into the ship as that doesn`t leave me with a face I can paint just an open hole which ships can fly into (which isn`t the effect I want on this particular ship).