[Excalibur]

I did some more work on this over the holidays, though probably not as much as I'd have liked to.

What do you think of the beam turrets? Do they look too flimsy?
I'm going to add some detail to the front part of the ship, but the face count is now at around 60 000 (according to the little counter at the top of blender), with 44 000 vertices.

I'm beginning to think it may be a little too detailed to run smoothly on some computers?

Any advice appreciated.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Water]

Well you should check it in game to find out. There is a difference between render and game models.
Fly around it and work out where you can save polys. During the fly round, try to think as someone focused on a mission rather than just looking (you will notice some areas that could be simplified)

And some of those faces could be quads - (triangles x2)

Steps
Save blend
Auto uv map (smart projections)
ambient occlusion - Alt-CTRL-b (then save uv image)
export to cob
PCS2 to pof (just convert - nothing else)
simple tbm
simple mission
fly

If you need any steps expanded, let me know.

[Vengence]

I'm pretty sure some of those details could be replaced by alpha channel transparency, normal maps, and clever polygon crunching.

[Retsof]

Ooooooh Preeeeety. 

[Hades]

Its nice but it would really reduce polys if the beam was like the other ships beam cannons.
EDIT: It would also reduce polys by taking off those front arms.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Wait... Is that a freighter with beams? Can someone explain the idea to me?

[Getter Robo G]

It's his ship, he can arm it with anything he wants.

Could be a "Q-ship" a predator disguised as normal prey for pirates or enemy to lull them into complacency until the time is right to strike unexpectantly.

It's very impressive (and suitable for sci-fi meshes site caliber), it'd be more impressive though if it was 6k polys but looked like 60k, just my opinion. 

[Excalibur]

I think I'm going to finish this in full detail then make an FS2 version - you're right about 60k polys...

The beam in the middle might not need the suports as detailed.

[diceman111]

How about an exploration ship, could possible carry lots of cargo and put something that looks like an Awacs antenna and a small shuttle bay, that would free up the use of a corvette or destroyer for exploring solar systems.