[Kieve]

Designed after the medieval concept of "battering ram," the KVC Grimalkin is built to withstand heavy fire while returning its own. Its critical systems are fortified with heavy plating, most noteably the large reactor that occupies most of the cruiser's mass. Its one major drawback is the sluggish handling all this armor creates - because of this, the Grimalkin is usually dispatched in pairs, with a wing or two of fighter cover.







In case you're wondering, no, I'm not intending it to be uber. It's like a cruiser-sized Ursa - a lot of firepower, a lot of armor, but it flies like a brick. It's usually deployed to smash through blockades - sometimes literally, bringing the wedge-shaped prow into action.

[Dark Hunter]

Looks kinda like a gun...

I smile ( ) at the thought of that thing crashing through a line of cruisers though. Well done. 

[Taristin]

I like everything but the split neck.  IMO, for balance, that ship would have to be extremely slow (15-20m/s) to keep it from becoming "uber"...

[Mefustae]

Looks good. Although, for some reason I seem to be picking up a Deus Ex multitool vibe from it.

See if you can highlight the armour a little more, make sure that the armour is the first thing you notice about this beast. Moreover, if it is intended to ram enemy ships, it might be worth losing the split-neck. While aesthetically pleasing, it looks like it'd buckle a little too easily under the stresses of ramming something of equal mass at 20m/s.

[Mobius]

What about the weaponry? Medium-size beams or normal slashes?

[Roanoke]

I like.

I likem the split neck too. You could say it uses the same principal as that medical ship (ie easily isolate breached areas).

[Mobius]

Also in case of reactor failures. This reactor is supposed to be big...

[darkship]

Just out of curiosity is the cruiser equipped with an armored prow to allow it to survive ramming into other ships? Does it ram ship at all, I mean routinely…

[Unknown Target]

Looks good. Although, for some reason I seem to be picking up a Deus Ex multitool vibe from it.

Probably because of the colors Anyway, looks good, but which way is the front?

[Kieve]

Apologies - the "tail" section is the part with the two beams (split-neck I believe you're calling it?) - the more solid part towards the right is the prow. Or to put it another way - two decks, tail / three decks, prow. Thrusers located in the large chunk on the underside (note that "notch" cut out of the gray armored bit)

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I'm far from done, however this is what I've got worked out thus far:
-I'll need to add some armor reinforcement along the tail sections, and probably something down the front as well (although I'm not sure, as I want to avoid it becoming too "Deimos-like")
-Top speed I was actually thinking something rather high for a cruiser - around the 30-40m/s mark. Its turning capabilities however, would be something on par with a destroyer. In a PCS sense, that would be copying an Orion's maneuvering code from the tbl's and importing the mass and MOI from... well, atm I'm thinking Deimos, which is about double the Grimalkin's size.
-Weaponry: I'm actually going to try and avoid beams altogether, if I can. Turrets will be a combo of rotating cannons and "buttons" as well as a single "Primary Gun" (actually classed as a missile-bank) mounted in the dorsal structure - something I'm currently calling a "Fission Cannon"
Other armaments will focus mainly towards cap-grade lasers and flak/missile arrays.

-Ramming isn't a "common" tactic, although it's been known to happen. In those instances, two Grimms will usually coordinate and focus on a specific target of corvette or destroyer class and aim for the center. It's quite demoralizing for the opposing fleet to watch one of their big killers fold on itself after getting gut-punched by something half or a quarter of its size... Not that I could ever recreate that effectively in FS2... 

-The tail section contains the mainframes for communication and sensor data (read $sensors and $comm subsys). Would've liked to have $Nav too, but it would be horribly inefficient for the crew to plot courses and subspace routes, etc. with the mainframe at the other end of the ship...

[Mobius]

You need SEXPs for a ram-effect or...I don't know,an untergatable and invincible turret with the firepoint placed ahead and a special weapon with no-or invisible-textures....

[Whitelight]

I like it to. It looks futuristic and new at the same time.   

[Kieve]

Worked a bit more on the plating / circuitry panels


Most noticeably, there's now plating on the tail and "chin" of the prow. I also reworked the tail's original plating a bit.
Next phase, strapping on all the "fun" details to that plating (these kind of details).

[Kaboodles]

How many beam turrets are gonna be on the prow?  It would be cool to see it fire the beams off point-blank to open her up before driving it home.

EDIT: 

[Mad Bomber]

What species is this for?

[Kieve]

Kaboodles: That thing, the "fission cannon" I mentioned? Picture a gauss rifle (aka railgun) merged with a nuclear missile. XD Just one, but it will be  a sight to see...

Mad Bomber: The species is currently designated "Kh'aj" although it may change. I fear to say more than that.

[nubbles526]

You need SEXPs for a ram-effect or...I don't know,an untergatable and invincible turret with the firepoint placed ahead and a special weapon with no-or invisible-textures....

For SEXP-s, don't you need to make the Grim go faster beyond 20 (I use subspace for example) To create this high spped revelance to a ram.

[Kieve]

Well, I tried my hand at some plating "details"
...and after doing so...



...I've concluded that 1) I really don't know the first thing about doing those (correctly) and 2) I like the Grim better without it.
Unless you folks would rather I keep trying to get it "right," I'll probably scrap that idea, map and mirror it, and start adding in the turrets and subsys and all the fun stuff that makes it useable...

[Kieve]

Whipped up a button turret. At least that's one less thing I have to worry about later...



Current plan is to "sink it" into the hull up to the dark section with lights. And the lights themselves are... well, let's say "up for debate" although I think [some] TX detail is necessary there. Might replace with some vent-looking stuff.
Thoughts?

[Taristin]

THe plating looks off because it sticks up too high and doesn't bevel inward at all, IMO. I'd make it less high off the hull, and have about a 70-80* angle on the sidewalls.