[Black Wolf]

Been working on this in and off for a few months now, finally finished up the UVing and started texturing.



It's called the GTF Herakles, the derivation should be obvious. It's designed to be the killer Terran fighter early on in the TV War, designed from the ground up to integrate with the (then new) energy weapoons that the Terrans had finally gotten working on fighters. It's meant to be the mainstay of the Terran fleet for a big chunk of the War, before the development of the Hercules and the Apollo later on.

Stats and balance wont be finalized for awhile yet (tabling comes after texturing) but it'll have 4 gunpoints (You can't actually see them, but they are modelled in between the two big engines/missile bays and the core part) and a decent sized missile bay, though probably only around half that of the Hercules (good, for the timeframe). Once textured, this'll be released, like all the other mods for the (not) Supar sekret project, ala the Canberra and Stalker.

And the beginnings of the textures, obviously still very early WiP.



EDIT - Quick not - I am aware of the smoothing error, this will be fixed when I get it into Max to add the cockpit and (I'm going to be adventurous with this one) make some LoDs. It'll probably be about 90% faceted rather than smooth anyway.

[Nohiki]

Nice box  Feels like fighter-bomber hybrid, kinda reminds me of athena with the huge missile bays (i assume those big forward planes are those)

[BengalTiger]

It should work nice with the Angel and others.

[Galemp]

Isn't there some Herc concept art that's something like this?

EDIT: This one.

[Snail]

I agree with Nohiki, it looks sort of like an Athena predecessor.

[Trivial Psychic]

I think that it needs some slight canting of the engine nacelles, and perhaps some slight sweeping to their forward end as well.

[Thaeris]

Would I forever be despised if I said I think it's a horrible design?

In practical terms, should you care to discuss them, it's not unrealistic, as you have your engines balancing the moment about the fighter's center of mass. But, it really does lack inspiration as far as a FS fighter goes. It's entirely possible to make an interesting, working design without resorting to making something along the lines of the Martin-Baker MB 2. If you're interested in some quick concept art, please let me know.

[General Battuta]

I think something closer to the concept art right in this thread could be interesting.

[Thaeris]

The concept art from Volition there is quite interesting, as we see a ship that would be right in place between FS1 and FS2. That said, it doesn't really work for Black Wolf's purposes in my opinion as it does fit in between FS1 and FS2. The target design needs to work for the early Terran-Vasudan War.

[General Battuta]

Think it works fine there, would like to see it in Frontlines.

[Dilmah G]

Would I forever be despised if I said I think it's a horrible design?

In practical terms, should you care to discuss them, it's not unrealistic, as you have your engines balancing the moment about the fighter's center of mass. But, it really does lack inspiration as far as a FS fighter goes. It's entirely possible to make an interesting, working design without resorting to making something along the lines of the Martin-Baker MB 2. If you're interested in some quick concept art, please let me know.

True, but I guess that's the good part about it, if you get what I'm saying? I've always viewed the Terrans as progressing in terms of 'creativity' with regards to ship design. Looking at a ship like the Herc and then the Herc II, the II has sleeker lines and looks on the whole, more streamlined than the original.

And then you have the Perseus v.  Valkyrie and so on. Working back from this, I'd believe that the FS1 fighters could be modern derivatives of GW fighters, which could probably have been even blockier.

Although, I will offer my support if BW decides to pursue a model looking closer to that concept art posted earlier - that thing looks sweet!

[ION3]

I like it. Redefine the box.

[Hades]

I've always viewed the Terrans as progressing in terms of 'creativity' with regards to ship design. Looking at a ship like the Herc and then the Herc II, the II has sleeker lines and looks on the whole, more streamlined than the original.

yeah but the Herc II looks like an ugly potato

anyway, I do agree that a direction which is more like in the concept art would be nice, now it's a somewhat uninteresting box, also partialy because it's almost symmetrical from top to down as well as side-to-side.

Also, a slight nitpick but Herakles is the Greek version of Hercules (which in turn is the roman rip-off of Herakles) and are the same thing.

[General Battuta]

anyway, I do agree that a direction which is more like in the concept art would be nice

IDENTITY VERIFIED

[Hades]

Oh hush, I'm not the first to have said it :<

[General Battuta]

i know, i did too~

[Thaeris]

I suppose the concept art in question here is of interest, but it's definately FS2-era/Reconstruction. What I wonder the most about it though is exactly what the artist was going for. The forward section irrefutably is that which ended up on the Artemis, the aft engine design is akin to what we see on the Myrmidon, and it also has this interesting bridge between the Herc I and the Herc II. The thing is, it's all of those and none of those at the same time.

If I saw that design made, I'd want to see it come out as a pirate kitbash sort of fighter, but one which was made properly - not like the Star Wars-esque uglies as seen in Blue Planet.

[General Battuta]

For me it's definitely pre-FS1 and would fit well in Frontlines. Looks like it's what BlackWolf was riffing from too. I think sticking closer to it would make a more interesting model.

[Black Wolf]

Actually, I was coming at this from the PoV Dilmah was talking about. The Herc 2 trends owards the Herc 1, you get a blockier, less curvy ship. I wanted to push that trend even further backwards. I hadn't looked at that piece of art when making this ship because I am terrible at working from concept art. The lower fin has been removed for purely practical reasons, since I'm going to need to put this ship down on a flat surface, and the fin would have gotten in the way.

There are some cool ideas in that concept art, but I think it's pretty plainly the basis for the Herc II, which goes in the opposite direction to where I want to go. Also, UVMapping is a ****, and major changes to the geometry will require  remap, which I am definitely not keen on. There is space set aside on the map for the addition of greebles, and I'm still struggling with the nose/cockpit area - this would be the only part that might get a full rebuild. I don't want to shoot down constructive crits here, but the boxiness was a deliberate choice at the beginning.

A lot of what I make is meant to look like something very specific. My Gas refinery is meant to look like an oil rig, with big pylons and a flat top, my Canberra carrier is meant to look like the Canberra class LHDs that the RAN is getting. I'm building a transport atm that is designed to look like a big-rig in space. They're not supposed to be exact mimics of these terrestrial things, but they're supposed to make the player look at them and think "Oil rig" or "truck" as an immediate, visual clue as to the purpose of the model. This ship was designed to sit right at the bottom of the Herc2->Herc1 evolutionary gradient, and for me that visual indicator of purpose is actually more important in most cases than a neccesarily aesthetically pleasing design.

On that front, I am a tad concerned that people look at it and think "Athena". Snail and Nohiki - is there anything specific about the ship other than the colour scheme that gives you Athena vibes? For the record, the colours (specifically the red tips) are there as a sort of subtle homage to Lt. Ash' Apollo from the FS1 opening cutscene rather than trying to reference the white and brown of the Athena.



Oh - unrelated, but following conversations on IRC the other day, I just want to make clear that the current cockpit glass is a placeholder, and will be upgraded when I drop in the pilot and cockpit, even if there aren't big changes to the nose.

[Galemp]

My Gas refinery is meant to look like an oil rig, with big pylons and a flat top.