[DarthWang]

In FS1, the ships were, frankly, huge. If some of these ships existed in the real world, it would be hard to believe how big they are. For example, if you took an Orion class destroyer and stood it on end, it would be nearly as tall as 5 Empire State Buildings! Then there was the Lucifer, which was even bigger. In Silent Threat, the GTA got its own superdestroyer, the Hades, which was comparable in size to the Lucifer. FS2 upped the bar yet again, by adding the juggernauts - the GTVA Colossus and the SJ Sathanas, which were 6 kilometers long! Now modders are making custom 'Super Juggernauts' that range from 10 to 15 ks! Eventually, when we have all these absolutely huge ships, there has to be a point where we just throw up our hands and say 'this is ridiculous!'. When it comes to custom FS ships, how big is too big? Just thought I'd ask.


BTW, is this in the wrong folder? Since it has to do with modding I thought I'd put it here.

[pyro-manic]

It's a very good question, and there are a couple of possibilities. For ships which are meant to be used in missions, then I'd say nothing larger than the Lucifer (definitely under 3000m). Beyond that, ships are simply too big for the player to affect them. If you're going to create a "supership", then it has to be a plot device for a campaign. Take the Sathanas, for example. It's great as part of the story, because it's big and bad, but you only ever face one of them because it's just too big to kill without serious capship backup.

If you're trying to make new ships, I'd say limit yourself to destroyer size and below (nothing over 2500m). Anything bigger just isn't practical unless the storyline of a campaign demands it.

[Nuke]

ssj dante is still smaller than a super star destoyer by about a kilometer. getting to that range poses other problems, beam cannons ranges are less than a third of the ship length, requiring tweaked beams and an awacs tag.

[IPAndrews]

Only today I got I_E_Maverick's Vorlon Planet Killer model working in-game. 45km long.

[pyro-manic]

That's just silly...

[DarthWang]

What next, a Death Star?

[StratComm]

Um...

[Nico]

Pfffah, I made a true scale planet for OTT, it was earth scale, but it also had rings, so I'm pretty sure I've made the largest model ever for FS (and it worked, but that was just before the scp, so there were cliping problems with the ring ).

[DarthWang]

Put that in the same mission as the Death Star, and you can have a working demonstration of the superlaser.

Although it would probably crash the game.

[Nico]

nah, it changes nothing, you know, in 3D, it can be big or small, it's the same deal, it's just coordinates after all.

[IPAndrews]

You get some serious zbuffer issues with supersize ships though. So that's something you have to watch out for.

[TrashMan]

The biggest ship I made is 5km, nad it's the only one that big... Usually my ships are destroyer size or smaller..

[Taristin]

My largest model is 3Km, IIRC, and only because it was requested to be made so large. Usually, I make Corvettes and cruisers.

[Nuke]

i perfer to keep my caps in the 600-800 meter range, ssj dante was just me wanting to make something you could fly your ship through, its got about 20km of tunnel throu it. i still need to detail model the interior.

[Bobboau]

Originally posted by Nico
Pfffah, I made a true scale planet for OTT, it was earth scale, but it also had rings, so I'm pretty sure I've made the largest model ever for FS (and it worked, but that was just before the scp, so there were cliping problems with the ring ).

I made a full scale jupiter

[Jetmech Jr.]

Someone make a Full-scale sun, to put everyone to shame.

With animated textures!

[DarthWang]

I don't want to give anyone any ideas, but I just watched the ST:TNG episode 'Relics'....

[Grimloq]

NO! BAD! *Thwack* >_<

Lesse... Although all of these are still trueSpace models, these are the biggest designs I have... As long as I'm here, mind telling me if you think these are decent sizes?

SDn Nosferatu: ~3 or 4km; storyline imperative, rarely seen.

GTBs Parthenon: ~4km; storyline imperative, rarely seen. (And decently balanced, even)

SSSSSSSSJ Omfgitsgonnagetusallanditsuberanditsscaryanditsmeanlooking: ~431063829km; me experimenting with how big trueSpace can handle models  

SBc Rikkitath: ~2-2.5km; player interactive.

SCa Sicalith: ~2-2.5km; player interactive.

TCCa Falconer: ~2-3km; player interactive, storyline imperative, rarely seen.

TCD Arbiter: ~1.5-2km; player interactive, background ship (ie, 'just there').

(The 'TC' designation is 'Terran Cooperative'. Don't ask. I'm not in the mood for explaining things right now )

Those are what come to mind for me... Those are just the big ones. The little ones I'm not gonna bother mentioning.

[Jetmech Jr.]

*Slap

WHERES MY HI-POLY HECATE?

[karajorma]

Geezer has a great saying. "If I can't blow it up, I'm not interested".

Basically any ship the player can't kill himself in a mission should have a lot of story wrapped around it to justify its existance.