[Unknown Target]

Skipping cockpits for now...I'm trying to get as much done as quickly as possible, so fancy features like cockpits will have to sit out until round 2.

[MatthTheGeek]

I like where this is going. I'm gonna have to dig up my copy for Cromson Skies now.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Hmm, shiny Though the gun doesn't really fit in with the rest of that sleek body, a streamline cap (possibly a transparent one?) would do good there.

[Unknown Target]

The idea is that the gun is bolted on - there's a story reason for it.

[lostllama]

That looks really nice. The gun looks like it could be replaced easily, like in a modular weapons system.

This project has given me some incentive to try to attempt modeling again, so I've been working on this for the past few weeks.






It’s mostly based on this design, which the artist calls the Bv140. The closest historical thing that I can find to it going by the name is the Blohm and Voss Ha 140, which was a twin-engined seaplane. But I suppose it can be given a different name. It has a faint bulkiness that reminds me of the Grumman Avenger, so I’m thinking that a short to medium range dive or torpedo bomber role would be appropriate (this is just my idea though – I'm open to alternative uses for it). It doesn't look very interesting but I wanted to start with something conventional.

If I decide to make it into a dive/torpedo bomber, then I'd like to shorten the hump on the top of the fuselage, add a gunner's position and maybe merge and flip the gun blisters (I think the correct term is ‘barbettes’) 180 degrees so that they point backwards. I’m envisioning a remote-control system for these guns, something akin to that used on the Me-210. However I don’t know if the FSO engine is capable of supporting this kind of turret setup so I might have to drop that idea. The guns also look like they could be modular and replaced with alternative ones.

I've been experimenting with a couple of techniques for making convincing-looking propeller blades, as I'm not satisfied with them as they are now. I think there might be problems with the  trailing edges of the wings and stabilizer too that I'll need to fix. I'd also like to add cylinder detail to the engine, cowl flaps, moving control surfaces, flaps, dive brakes and undercarriage but I'm not sure that I'll get that far.

Any opinions or advice would be appreciated.

Before I forget, I recently came across the tabletop game 'Aeronef', which features aero fleets.
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/search/label/Aeronef
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14324/aeronef

[The E]

That looks like a very cool design, and I'd love to have it in this.

Regarding propeller blades, I would suggest that, for the moment, the models should be made with propeller blades modelled out (like you have it right now). I'll have to figure out a solution anyway (Probably involving some clever tricks with materials etc, once I finish that).

BTW, here's the current to-do list of features I plan on implementing for this.

1. Simplified atmospheric flight model (The biggie)
2. Compass/Altimeter/Artificial Horizon HUD gauges (Can be prototyped in scripting, but I kinda want these in the engine)
3. More options for rotating subsystems (Rotors that change speed relative to throttle setting, Flaps that rotate based on control input, that sort of stuff)
4. "Atmospheric mission" mission flag, which can be used to set various parameters, like starting altitude, max flight ceiling, min altitude, stall speed
5. Fog settings to adjust visible range etc
6. Clouds

Obviously, there's no ETA at all for any of this.

[Angelus]

That looks like a very cool design, and I'd love to have it in this.

Regarding propeller blades, I would suggest that, for the moment, the models should be made with propeller blades modelled out (like you have it right now). I'll have to figure out a solution anyway (Probably involving some clever tricks with materials etc, once I finish that).

BTW, here's the current to-do list of features I plan on implementing for this.

1. Simplified atmospheric flight model (The biggie)
2. Compass/Altimeter/Artificial Horizon HUD gauges (Can be prototyped in scripting, but I kinda want these in the engine)
3. More options for rotating subsystems (Rotors that change speed relative to throttle setting, Flaps that rotate based on control input, that sort of stuff)
4. "Atmospheric mission" mission flag, which can be used to set various parameters, like starting altitude, max flight ceiling, min altitude, stall speed
5. Fog settings to adjust visible range etc
6. Clouds

Obviously, there's no ETA at all for any of this.

YES! 

[Unknown Target]

Hey, The_E, if I could add one more feature request; could we get debris chunks to spew particles? I'm specifically thinking smoke.

[The E]

The burning debris script used in the latest mediavps can be used for that, one just has to provide a fitting "smoke" effect.

[Mobius]

Guys, just a suggestion. There are many modellers on deviantART who worked on similar stuff and may give you their meshes, if necessary.

Here's what I found after a quick search. That's probably just the tip of the iceberg:

http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2010/195/6/9/WIP_Sky_Crawlers_Aircraft_by_shelbs2.jpg
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs16/150/f/2007/178/4/4/P_23_Ragona_aircraft_modelshee_by_charfade.jpg
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/150/i/2010/130/9/f/aircraft_by_PeeDee4.jpg
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs41/150/i/2009/036/7/b/Concept_Corprate_aircraft_by_shelbs2.jpg
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs31/150/f/2008/226/c/f/Crimson_Skies___Cargo_Zeppelin_by_foxmalcolm.jpg
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs9/150/i/2006/070/7/5/Crimson_by_ttvortex.jpg
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs9/150/i/2006/070/8/2/Crimson_II_by_ttvortex.jpg
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs46/150/f/2009/201/e/8/crimson_skys_by_whitedragon1204.jpg
http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2010/255/1/b/racing_float_plane_m2_2_by_shelbs2-d2ymisk.jpg
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2010/252/5/3/racing_float_plane_model_2_by_shelbs2-d2yef3n.jpg
http://th08.deviantart.net/fs12/150/i/2006/316/5/9/Plane_Design_Model_by_Chanderzz.png
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2010/130/9/6/the_bird_plane_by_shelbs2.jpg
http://th08.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2009/360/b/b/Turbine_racing_plane_by_Nestor_K_YA_T.jpg
http://th03.deviantart.net/fs48/150/i/2009/231/a/4/Concept_Sport_Plane_by_shelbs2.jpg

 

[Angelus]

Hm, most models i've found on the interwebs, aren't build for a gameengine. And even those which are, aren't build for FSO.
We can't use 20-80k poly/ tris fighters.
That means, that all planes would need some serious fixing, and UVs and stuff.

It's better to build them from scratch, imo.

[Mobius]

That is not a serious problem if you talk to the right person. dA modellers oftentimes reduce polycounts on request and can do other helpful things, too.

[lostllama]

That looks like a very cool design, and I'd love to have it in this.

OK, thanks. I'll try to continue work on it soon.

Looks like I'll have to reduce the polycount, particularly that of the propeller, the guns and their housings. I might decide to have two versions, one being a single-seat fighter (like it appears now) and the other being a bomber version with a turret.

[Black Wolf]

Will the engine even handle something rotating at those kinds of speeds? Props go pretty bloody fast, as I understand it.

[The E]

They do, but that is where other tricks come in. Like a pre-blurred texture on the rotor blades that creates the illusion of fast movement.

[Unknown Target]

Just an update on this...I've got a rough concept for one of the capital ships and the main floating island to be featured in the demo, but I'm lousy at modeling very large objects, does anyone want to have a go at it?

[lostllama]

I'm still a novice at this model making stuff, unfortunately. :< Angelus has made a couple of nice looking capital ships (as in flying battleships), though. Maybe he'd be interested.

I've noticed that Jadehawk is back. He's very good at texturing for IL-2 models (I think he actually works in the aviation industry too), so on that basis I think he'd be really keen to help out with your project and Free Skies.

[Angelus]

Just an update on this...I've got a rough concept for one of the capital ships and the main floating island to be featured in the demo, but I'm lousy at modeling very large objects, does anyone want to have a go at it?

You can shoot it my way.

[swashmebuckle]

Hey, sorry I kinda ran out of steam on this, but at least it's got a rough draft now.  The writing gets a little clunky here, but I'll make a pass over all the entries and try to even stuff out and make it move when I get some more free time.  Then someone else should probably edit it down if you wanna use it for something like intel entries, as it's pretty freaking long.  Could just be useful as sort of a background bible thing too.  Anyway, yay!  Free Skies!

Rising Sun

In 1931, the Japanese and Russian empires formed a secret pact to divide the Asian continent.  Just as Japan had once aided the Tzar against the Red Army following the World War, Russia was heavily involved with funding and equipping Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang against the communists in the ongoing Chinese Civil War.  This meant that Russian operatives were in an ideal position to gather strategic information on the Chinese forces, a situation that was tolerated by the Chinese nationalists because they knew that Russia lacked the manpower to occupy China while maintaining her strength at home and over Europe.  Japan, on the other hand, was eager to expand on its Korean foothold in the mainland, and was confident in its ability to hold down all of the East Asian territory not currently controlled by western colonial powers.  The essence of the joint plan was to bide time while Russian support gave the Nationalists a substantial advantage in the civil war, all the while withholding the skyfaring technologies that could provide a knockout blow.  By the time Japan was prepared to invade, both Chinese armies would be severely depleted, and the two technologically superior Imperial forces would make the conflict a quick one.

Meanwhile, the entire world was shocked when Japan completed its remarkable transformation into a major industrial power with the capture and reverse-engineering of a fully-functional Flugstein warship.  By 1935 Japan's fleet was a force to be reckoned with, and some analysts have surmised that Russia pressed for the invasion to begin mainly because they were afraid that they wouldn't get much of anything if they waited any longer.  The move proved to be a wise one when, immediately after routing the Kuomintang, Japan began airlifting in prefabricated military and industrial emplacements to the sites of China's vast deposits of critical natural resources.  While Russia gained an enormous quantity of land in Manchuria, Mongolia, and down through the Tibetan Plateau, they were cut off from the prized North China Plain at the Great Wall by the lightning-quick Japanese advance--the territorial divisions agreed upon four years earlier were now meaningless, as neither force could afford to fight the other, so the conquest effectively became a race for territory, a race that Japan won hands down.

To the attacking powers it was a foregone conclusion the the Chinese would be completely smashed by the double-assault, but both the Nationalist and Communist armies showed tremendous resilience, regrouping and temporarily halting their conflict (at least in some areas) to better face the foreign threat.  Assistance for China (almost entirely for the Nationalist faction) eventually began to trickle in from sources opposing Russian or Japanese interests elsewhere in the world, with the United Kingdom being particularly keen to protect her Asian possessions.  After sweeping through what had been French Indochina and Siam, the Japanese Navy turned to preying on shipping out of Hong Kong to the extent that the city was basically under siege, and by 1937 nothing could get in or out except under the escort of heavy warships.  A war to destroy Japan's fleet seemed like the only viable solution, but even with Australian and Canadian forces shouldering much of the burden, Britain simply lacked the resources to carry out a full-scale Asian campaign while protecting the rest of the Empire.  The United States too was leery of becoming involved in a major action against one of its primary Pacific trade partners, but it did allow for a volunteer fighter unit (the now-famous Flying Tigers) to be assembled and assigned to the ROC Air Force flying out of Burma as privateers.

Japan's military and industrial stylings were by this point thoroughly European, but her goal of establishing a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosparity Sphere" free of western influence found them few allies in the increasingly global economy.  Barring foreign businesses from setting up shop within Japanese territory did not, however, halt the new flow of materials coming from their freshly minted industrial districts, and cheap goods and arms from the far east could soon be found in the hands of independent factions throughout the world, particularly in the likewise rapidly modernizing Persian state.  When the German Civil War began in 1939, a healthy portion of the craft flown by the Kaiser's army were of Japanese construction, but Japan was willing to go one step further and offer Wilhelm something his other allies were not: Flugstein ships.  The first delivery of such a vessel in September of 1940 came as a shock even to the Kaiser's handlers, and efforts by his enemies to halt further additions to the Kaiserliche Marine eventually led to major confrontations over the Persian Gulf which cemented an alliance between Japan and the German Imperial Remnant.  This arrangement is considered by many in the west to be the most critical threat to peace they have faced in their lifetimes--through Wilhelm, Japan has gained the leverage it needs to plunge all of Europe into the morass of the Civil War if need be, and thanks to recent technological developments, such a turn of events could mean disaster for the entire world.

A Nuclear Era

Since the publication of Einstein's papers on relativity, scientists have worked tirelessly to harness the power of the atom.  In the arms race that has been raging since the debut of Flugstein technology, however, little funding has been provided for the creation of weapons of mass destruction, as the full-scale escalation of international conflicts has been regarded as economically shortsighted.  Unfortunately, the ideologically based German Civil War has recently breathed new life into the prospect of total war, and given the number of known military research facilities around the globe, it seems inevitable that sooner or later one or more nation states will develop working nuclear weapons.  Already, nuclear reactors have been introduced in the most modern Flugstein warship designs, and while creating an atomic bomb is quite another matter, there have been whispered rumors of sailors having seen bright flashes over the horizon and tropical atolls turned to glass.  Weighted heavily by the inevitable judgement of history, famed physicists such as Enrico Fermi have been forced to flee their countries and live under assumed names in order to avoid being pressed into work, and those who have offered their services willingly such as the American J. Robert Oppenheimer are no less jealously guarded for it by their respective governments.

Strategically, it remains uncertain whether a valuable application for a nuclear weapon can be found.  When compared to conventional explosives, nuclear weapons are expected to be sensitive and massive to an extent that deploying them in an offensive role would require already having established complete dominance of the enemy's airspace.  The maneuverability of modern Flugstein ships means that a successful direct strike on an enemy fleet seems unlikely at best, though the weapon's potential to kill the entire crew of a battleship without causing irreparable harm to the ship itself has led to thoughts of creating suicide airships.  Clearly though, the obvious application for these bombs is something that modern warfare has gone to great lengths to avoid: the wholesale slaughter of the population of an enemy state.  Faced with the reality of these weapons, the world's political and military leaders have been backed into a corner--although no one wishes to be put in the position to have to use one, neither can they afford not to have them.  Although little has outwardly changed in the daily conduct of the business of international relations, the shadow of this technology has drawn a pervasive undercurrent of paranoia into the zeitgeist of modern Europe, muting reason and lending weight to more extreme voices in the political field.

Yet even with the fear of ultimate annihilation waiting in the wings, this is still a time of amazing possibilities.  Constant advancements in aerospace technologies and the resultant trade and manufacturing booms have opened up markets across the globe, and the powerful middle class this new economy is creating has already begun to shape the face of the industrialized nations.  What direction this group will take is anyone's guess, as difficult generational conflicts have emerged between parties unwilling to let go of the world's colonial past and others bent on realizing her corporate future.  This is a time where the old and new exist side-by-side: vast fleets of airship freighters point to a world brought together through commerce while matched sets of triplanes intended solely for settling points of honor testify to a culture and way of life that many still aspire towards.  The world's navies have been gathering their strength for over a decade, and in spite of deepening ties of economic interdependence, international animosity remains as strong as ever.  In this uncertain environment, the strategy of non-alignment that has kept Europe safe for the past twenty years seems less and less trustworthy as around the world a fatalistic sense of the inevitability of a second world war has taken hold, threatening the promise of freedom that calls out to all those who take to the skies.

[Scourge of Ages]

That is some truly impressive writing there, swash.