[Nohiki]

I for one like the reskin It reminds me of that shivan tech infused Orion from the campaign-which-name-i-forgot (apologies to author)

[Deadly in a Shadow]

I for one like the reskin It reminds me of that shivan tech infused Orion from the campaign-which-name-i-forgot (apologies to author)

Do you mean Tides of Darkness?

[StargateSpankyHam]

Indeed, Tides of Darkness - and specifically, Droid's model with extra turrets. Ironically, the same Orion I'm using now, with another reskin.

Although the latest stuff includes non-arbitrary damage values for all the weapons - so if you're wondering how the Shivan weapons stack up against GTVA ones, here are the numbers for some of them (a full list would be nightmarishly long):

Subach
Standard Issue Photonic Weapon
Damage: 2.45 Shld, 3.15 Hull, 1.05 Sbst
ROF: 5/sec   Energy: 20 Kw

Shivan 'Pulse'
Light Repeating Plasma Projector
Damage: 1.0 Shld, 1.56 Hull, 0.94 Sbst
ROF: 10/sec  Energy: 15 Kw

Kayser
Zero-Point Microburst Plasma Cannon
Damage: 9.63 Shld, 8.75 Hull, 3.06 Sbst
ROF: 4/sec   Energy: 120 Kw

Shivan 'Scythe'
Zero-Point Microburst Plasma Cannon
Damage: 10.63 Shld, 8.08 Hull, 6.38 Sbst
ROF: 4.5/sec   Energy: 210 Kw

Maxim
High-Velocity Kinetic Plasma Rifle
Damage: 1.5 Shld, 11.25 Hull, 7.5 Sbst
ROF: 6.66/sec   Energy: 100 Kw

Shivan 'Nova'
Zero-Point Microburst Assault Cannon
Damage: 33.0 Shld, 39.0 Hull, 9.0 Sbst
ROF: 1/sec   Energy: 425 Kw

I am also in the process of applying m!m's particle trail script for all ship explosions and weapon hits. With the changes I've made, the surface of a dying warship erupts into vapor before it explodes. Below is a tech demonstration of four Kismats obliterating an Orion.



And it doesn't hurt FPS too badly.

[Droid803]

too badly XD

[StargateSpankyHam]

The feature of "Not making ppl'z PC's cry (or burst into flames) whenever a cruiser/corvette/destroyer dies" is still WIP.

I cringe to think how many death particles will be necessary for a satisfying hull-flash-to-vapor on the Vinaashak or the Dante.

Honestly though, this is only a preliminary thing. I can think of a lot of things I can do to improve the system friendliness of the new special effects. First on the drawing board is to use a lower rez .ani for all the explosions.

[Nyctaeus]

In the matter of Orions in Singularity, I think the GTVA don't need to waste a lot of money for upgrading a lot of 50-years old destroyers. Presuming from look of your ships, [which is totaly different than FS2-era ships] GTVA pass into era of totaly new techology of designing starships. Hecate is relative new conctruction, so upgrading Hecates to new standards is good idea, but in my opinion, upgrading Orions is just a wasting of money. It's better to disassemble old ships, and use the materials from Orions to build more Titans and Raynors. What do you think StargateSpankyHam?

[-Norbert-]

Oh common. The Orion is a cool ship. Let's just assume it's a totally new ship that only has the same outline as the original Orion and be happy with it.

[MatthTheGeek]

His campaign, his call. If he wants to apply rule of cool, fine by me. If he can find a better explanation, fine by me. If he wants to get rid of them, fine by me too.

[StargateSpankyHam]

There's actually a backstory as to why the Orion and Typhon are still in use.

When the Shivans started sporadically showing up with their brand-new, shiny, high-tech (shielded) warships shortly after Capella, the only thing the GTVA had going for them was superior numbers. The Shivans never came in full force, for reasons the GTVA never really understood. All they would do was throw a few cruisers, or a couple corvettes, or occasionally a destroyer at the GTVA, along with some fighter and bomber wings.

Once the GTVA saw how fantastically poorly their warships performed against high-tech Shivan targets, there was a huge push to make GTVA ships better. Both the Terrans and Vasudans began upgrading their Hatshepsut and Hecate destroyers, opting for more beam weapons, higher system redundancy, and stronger hulls. While the upgraded ships did work better, they were still no match for Shivan warships.

The Terrans developed the Titan and Raynor - and although the Raynors proved they could easily absorb fire from Shivan plasma beams, and overpower Shivan destroyers with their own suite of beam weapons, they were also prohibitively expensive. The Vasudans developed the Pharaoh destroyer-carrier, with similar survivability to the Raynor - and almost as expensive.

The Raynor and Pharaoh both use active powered armor and damage control systems, to bolster structural integrity in areas hit by weapons fire - thus allowing them to soak up tremendous amounts of damage and still remain operational. But this feature was the single most expensive implementation on the Raynor and Pharaoh. Building more of the near-invulnerable warships was simply too impractical.

The solution wasn't to beat the Shivans at short-range combat with plasma beams - but instead to out-range them. The Titan and Pharaoh excelled at this, since they could deploy fighters and keep the Shivan warships at range.

The Vasudans built the Apophis destroyer, wielding a single, long-range, anti-juggernaut beam cannon. Although expensive, it was nowhere near as impractical as the Raynor or Pharaoh.

Meanwhile, the Terrans had already decommissioned half of their Orions, and the other half were merely held in reserve. The Vasudans modified their Typhons, removing most of the weapons from them, instead installing VLS-torpedo launchers. Since it required almost no reactor upgrades, and only minimal internal reconfigurations, the Typhon quickly became a reliable, long-range artillery ship.

The success of the Typhon prompted the Terrans to develop similar, low-energy-demand, long-range strike solutions for the obsolete Orions. Terran engineers made a few minor upgrades to the hull and internals, and installed long-range railgun turrets along the top and bottom of the ship.

Make no mistake, once the Orion and the Typhon end up within range of a Shivan destroyer or corvette (or even a couple cruisers), the excrement hits the fan very quickly. In that video, Kismats are powerful, but the reason why four of them can one-shot an orion is because it has only has 165,000 HP. Compared to the Hecate's 285,000, that runs out pretty fast (The Raynor and Apophis have over 700,000).

Then again, once the Shivans show up in full force, they have numerical and technological superiority.

TL:DR - Orions and Typhons got cheap and easy refits, and are long-range strike vessels for outranging Shivan beam weapons.

[Nyctaeus]

It has a sense. Orions from my Shadow Genesis campaign have similar history. Good job with the story.

[StargateSpankyHam]

Also coming out very, very soon (in screenshot or video form) will be the retextured GTVA stations, matching the Terran warships.

Just...right now, the shine maps are too shiny, and the installations need more silver.

[StargateSpankyHam]

Those screenshots I promised earlier...

You know it, you love it, it's the GTI Arcadia! (But in green)


Also, the GTI Acropolis (Previously the Silex, by Stratcomm and Droid803)


Then, there's the GTI Archon - which I forgot to log where I downloaded it from. Regardless, I didn't make the model. (Original model file is GTVAcommand.pof - any idea who made it?)


Finally, the GTI Summit (Previously the Whitehall, from Flames of War). It's massive. In fact, the single largest thing in the ships.tbl file of Singularity.

[Deadly in a Shadow]

Wow....I mean marvelous. The Arcadia looks reeeeally good in green.
Terran Command was made by Stratcomm and Droid803 released it as a model dump.

[Droid803]

SSH, I have a smoothfixed version of the Whitehall.
I can PM you it if you want.

Your "GTI Archon" comes from the exact same modeldump as the GTI Acropolis/Silex.

[Nyctaeus]

I just can't accept recolored capital03-03 texture on terran ships. I don't like that since first version of Blue Planet, this texture is just... vasudan. It don't look like a vasudan texture, but it is... Texture from 50-years old destroyers. Don't care about it. It's my personal deviation. Otherwise they look very good, especialy the Arcadia and Acropolis.

[Droid803]

It looks vasudan, which is perfect because a lot of post-capella ships are fusions of Terran and Vasudan technology?
And its not 50 years old! Its in a different color! Clearly that demonstrates technological advancements.

[Nyctaeus]

I didn't negate technical reasons for using this texture on terran ships, which is appropriate. Just don't like how it looks on terran ships. StargateSpankyHam's mod - his textures, he will do what he want. Just express my taste.

[StargateSpankyHam]

Betrayal brings up a good point. Although the Singularity mod is hardly an attempt to please everyone, it may be time for a new capital03-03. Of all the modified textures I am using, it is the one I am least proud of.

At the very least, it's an oppurtunity to crank up photoshop and make another ship texture - which has worked really really well, every time I've tried my hand at it.

I'm going to dig the PC tablet pen out again, and we'll see if I'm any good at making a texture from scratch.

In the meantime, an example of a glowmap I drew in photoshop, from scratch, then applied to a darkened version of capital04-01:

[StargateSpankyHam]

I've been doing some meticulous tabling of point-defense weaponry, as of late. A picture is worth a thousand words, and at 30 frames per second, every 33 seconds of video is worth a thousand pictures.

So, here's a technical demonstration video of the new weapons in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv_603ruWEU

[Spoon]

TBH I'm not sure what that video is suppose to be showcasing. 2 minutes of AA beams, Flak and fast firing pulses from the same boring camera angle?