[Kieve]

"Tigris" - Light Recon craft
Exceptional maneuverability and speed, but poorly armored. Its thin profile makes targeting difficult (add to that its lightning-quick responsiveness) but the designers were unable to provide more than basic protection, leaving it vulnerable to heavy fire and/or prolonged battle. A reactor focused towards raw speed leaves little energy for weapons/shielding.

So I finally hit an inspiration today (while doing dishes of all things) and managed to crank out a basic mesh. It's currently hovering around 400-some polys right now, since I've chamfered the hell out of it, but I intend to bring that down where I can. I've made a cavity for a cockpit, but I'm still not sure how to work those, so I've left it an empty socket for now... anyways, here she is:

Fore & Aft


Profile


Head-On / Above


Now here's where the glitchiness starts. I've tested it in-game, and the firing points were misbehaving terribly.

That's how they "should" operate - but instead they all just seem to blaze forth from the pivot point (0,0,0) with some minor shifts along the Z-axis.
And the missiles are the same deal - up & down, but no side-spread. I tried adding a glow-point for flavor, but the online PCS tutorial is outdated, and doesn't include info on "GLOW" tab (lack of PCS "help" menu aside) - would be on the rear-middle corner of the dorsal fins.

Details:
In testing, the five gunpoints drained the energy reserve in a couple salvos (of course, I was using twin Kaysers, a morning star over the cockpit, and twin Maxims on the wingtips  ). Which fits the bill pretty nicely, actually - the intent is for a "few shots/make it count" piloting style, almost a snipercraft I guess. It literally ran CIRCLES around the Aeshemas I was using for target practice (no real shock, they're slow, but is it really natural to do loop-de-loops around an enemy while they're burning hard to get AWAY from you?). I may have to cut back on the maneuverability just a tad. I also noticed that all "side/rear" glances did for me was make my HUD vanish - but my vision stayed face-forward the whole time. Is there an eyepoint sub-object I can add in MAX, that I don't have to try and make PCS do it? I haven't quite got the knack of [changing] things in PCS, although viewing them is quite simple...

So if someone can help bring this little devil to completion, I'd appreciate any and all (constructive) input.
Particularly on the topic of getting these firing points to work (is the tertiary gun bank too much?), and the use of eyepoints and cockpits. And Bob, what are the GLOW type classifications? 1 is beam, I think I read, but what are the others? (most importantly, which is "running light" point-light?)

[Colonol Dekker]

Original i'll give you that

I can't help thinking kitchen implement from tlooking at the picture though......

[asyikarea51]

The nose reminds me of the abandoned M6-class cruiser from X2:TT.

Spoiler:

The one which that (Tooooot...)ing lizard creature thingy tries to steal from you in one of the missions.

[Taristin]

I used to have a smexy vertical fighter at one point... shame what happened to that file.....

anyways, I say you should work a little more on making a more detailed shape for it, and it could be nice.

[Kieve]

Actually, I trace the original inspiration back to Titan AE...


I did a little tweaking on the missile racks this morning:


I've also reduced the number of gun and missile mounts, as a 3/2 loadout bank seemed excessive for a recon fighter.

Now restricted to one missile bank (I'm thinking maybe a payload of 80, will need to test more), and the gun mounts I was going to add to the wingtips have been nixed entirely - I'll add those to its bigger cousin.

Edit:

anyways, I say you should work a little more on making a more detailed shape for it, and it could be nice.

Could you elaborate a bit? I'll agree that untextured it looks a might bit too plain, but I'm not sure what else you think I might go welding onto it...

[Kieve]

Got the model done to where I want it, now to begin texturing (henceforth abbreviated Tx'ing)


As you might note in the background, I upgraded my tester "Nasty" wing from Aeshemas to an unpleasant mix of Dragons and Manticores. Most recent test results: Maybe I was too hasty in nixing the third gunbank - I finally wrapped my brain around some of PCS and got the firing points to work, but in doing so I noticed that EACH gun- and missile- bank had exported from Max with ten firing points (arrayed along the center of the ship, as per my previous problem. So it looks like every time I fired my tri-salvo from the test last night, I was blasting out 30 beams of Morning Star, Maxim, and Kayser at once. No wonder I ripped the Aeshemas to ribbons. x.x; My latest run, I felt a tad under-gunned, although part of that had to do with a mixup in gun banks (the solitary firing point above the cockpit is supposed to be a Morning Star, the guns below twin Kaysers, but I ended up with twin Stars). Maybe I can squeeze a new gunmount in the corner under the missile racks...

Still wondering - Does anyone know how to make the damn eyepoints work? I like being able to look behind me in combat.

[Taristin]

Edit:

anyways, I say you should work a little more on making a more detailed shape for it, and it could be nice.

Could you elaborate a bit? I'll agree that untextured it looks a might bit too plain, but I'm not sure what else you think I might go welding onto it...

Erm, even textured it is very plain. I cant, for example, tell which is the front, nor the rear. top, nor bottom.
What *I* would do, would be to carve out a definitive cockpit area, make the winglet thingies look more like they're physically substantial, rather than cardboard pieces taped on, and perhaps create engine inlets, outlets, gun areas, a recessed/extruded panel here and there, and then make a good texture for it.

But that's me.

[Cobra]

Argh, HLP problems continue to plague me.

The Tigris looks more like a Shivan craft to me.

[RazorsKiss]

Looks like this:



Baroness Onrald's "Flare".

From Tachyon: The Fringe

[spartan_0214]

pretty.....must....have.....

I've also reduced the number of gun and missile mounts, as a 3/2 loadout bank seemed excessive for a recon fighter.

says who? Recon fighters need to have SOME cover if their pilot is stupid enough to run into trouble....

[Kieve]

Spartan: 3/2 was the number of slots available, not actual firing points. IMO, a single bank of missiles and two gun choices should do it for a little guy like this (Heavy assault craft like the Ares and Erinyes don't have 3 separate gunbanks, even). I did say I would up the count on firing points however. Although I will say that with a top afterburn speed of somewhere in the vicinity of 190, any pilot stupid enough to wander into an ambush better be smart enough to turn this thing on its tail and draw the enemy back in range of support fire.

Taristin: I see what you mean. *erk* Truth be told, I [did] tack the fins on - the central body structure is saved separately to be the basis of many ships to come. Although I don't see how it's that hard to tell back from front, up from down, or left from right. @.<; At a glance, the body itself might look like a smoothed- and streamlined Hygeia.



Thanks for the comments, folks. ^_^ Although I do reiterate previous statements- Cockpit and Eyepoints, still need help with 'em. Anyone?

[spartan_0214]

Suggestion: Put the primary fire points on ONLY the.....fins.....and have the secondaries come from the middle of the horizontal wings....

[Kieve]

Kind of like the guns on old WWII era fighters? Interesting, but I like them close to the body where they are - more compact (I like compact ).
Unfortunately, in adjusting the model again I've mucked up all my UVMapping (I'm meticulous about that stuff, so for me it's a real setback ), however I might be back up and TX'in again by this afternoon. Should re-map it anyway, as I have far too much empty space and some of the mapping is horribly disproportionate (that little engine chunk gets as much UV tilespace as the whole top of the fuselage in its current build!). Ah well... back to the meshing board.

[spartan_0214]

I also like compact, but I didn't know what you were going for. Some like it in, some like it out, some like it nine meters up...

[Kieve]

Some revisions are slight, others are just not as visible as they might otherwise be:


I added a pilot/cockpit section, although I don't have the TX quite done yet.
Been re-mapping the rest of the ship, so it's back to its untextured state.

Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes is the increased thickness of the wings. Unfortunately, I don't think I can smooth out the transition any more than I have, but hopefully they look less "tacked on" than before.

[Colonol Dekker]

Getting there, I'm thinking Lost in space fighter, but far less stupid. 

[spartan_0214]

I dunno, it's starting to look worse, IMHO....

[Kieve]

Better, Spartan?



Some pulling on the engine TX's - I'll have to fiddle around in Max so it stops doing that - but otherwise, things are progressing smoothly again.

As you can see, I've adjusted the missile banks - there will be two firing points on each side, with the lowest section devoted to another gunbank. Missile payload will accommodate approximately 40 Tornados per side - 80 in all. Gunbanks... well, I'm still determining loadout. Kaysers seem a bit much - maybe Prometheus-S paired with that Morning Star.

[spartan_0214]

It's not the model, or the modeling, or the textures, it's the way the ship is. I just don't like ships that are oriented vertically. I really don't like the main fighter in Inferno 1. because it's oriented vertically   2. the weapons are asymmetrical...

it's just my preferences.... All in all, a nice ship that I will never use, sorry

[Taristin]

The only thing I'll fault you on is the cocpit. That ship would be a dog to fight in with a cocpit that you can only see directly in front of you in...