[Rga_Noris]

Okay, improvements based on feedback:

*Reduced height of the upper plate on the head.
*Front engines are hidden by the hull, but still exposed on the sides and underside.
*Rear fins are more solid, appearing more armored.
*Rear fins are in more of a Y pattern as opposed to a T pattern.

[Herra Tohtori]

Very good! Very, very good!

Crazy idea: Would there be market for the head (or the rear) section being a separable object, or possibly a cruiser/gunship grade ship of its own? It has propulsion of its own, fair bit of armour, and good bits of weaponry (assuming it can power them up).

It could certainly be interesting to be able to destroy the rear or the front of the ship only to see the rest of the ship keep fighting. Obviously this shouldn't happen in retail missions but it could be of use in new missions, handwaving it as a new feature of the late Sobeks (Vasudans have invented a secret unknown to all the rest of FreeSpace Universe - a bulkhead) that is supposed to reduce losses and improve effectiveness under heavy fire. Or something.

[Rga_Noris]

It would not be too difficult. Basically, make the head detail0, and the rest a destroyable subobject. It would look better if the head was a seperate ship, with the breakaway effect achieved through FRED. (Sobek splodes, that appears in its place). I was also going to release an "in construction" pack, with the tail fin joints in place, but the fins absent and available as seperate objects to be placed in a shipyard, along with engines. Remind me about your break away idea again with this is finished. It should not take long at all to do, and I'd be happy to do it.

[Alan Bolte]

Couldn't think how to phrase my question about how you were going to add the pink color to the texture, so I just made an example:

i.e. glowmap windows or something

[Rga_Noris]

You pretty much guessed it.

[Rodo]

you nailed it.

keep it comming

[mjn.mixael]

Couldn't think how to phrase my question about how you were going to add the pink color to the texture, so I just made an example:

i.e. glowmap windows or something

This is a good idea.

[Aardwolf]

I know I'm jumping in a bit late for the "what's the pink stuff" discussion, but...

Previously it was stated that only some of it was recessed, and that other places it was flush with the hull, or extruded... but examining the retail version, I found that they were originally all flush with the hull.

Of course, I suppose if you want to draw on the existing mediavps version for inspiration, I suppose that's ok too



Have you been making sure the turrets stay in reasonable places?

[Rga_Noris]

...but examining the retail version, I found that they were originally all flush with the hull.
=========
Have you been making sure the turrets stay in reasonable places?

The flush bit was mentioned before, by me on the first page I think.

What do you mean by reasonable? They should be just about exactly in their original retail positions to maintain compatibility, if that's what you mean.

[Aardwolf]

I mean remember to look at where the turrets will go, and make sure you don't have a hole / greeble-pile / other un-turretworthy feature there.

[mjn.mixael]

I mean remember to look at where the turrets will go, and make sure you don't have a hole / greeble-pile / other un-turretworthy feature there.

He knows. In fact, it might have been implied that he checked that sort of thing earlier in the thread. But in any case.. suffice to say that checking turret placement is one of the first things that we in FSU look at.

[Cyborg17]

Much better design on the tail fins. 

[Vasudan Admiral]

Oh wow, this is looking verruh, VERRUH cool.
About the redish stuff, I imagine it could very easily be a kind of extremely tough ceramic material, in which case really it would only need a good shine map on those parts to give the proper effect. Don't be afraid of using it anywhere you like - it's an important colour component!

I have four not-terribly important suggestions - so if you don't want to on any of them, no worries.

1) The three large rear chunks just in front of each of the fins currently have a seam line running down the middle of each one. (The topside one most prominently visible in this pic) I would suggest merging these seams so they form a continuous chunk, as the scales plating effect definitely lends itself to larger curved surface areas rather than smaller segmented ones. Also in that pic, other than that topside chunk, there's nothing with such a distinct line running down the centre, and I think it would look cleaner without it.

2) The retail model's neck texture has more of a 'horizontal lines with lots of recesses' theme to it, which I'd say is an important attribute of the neck, and it would be great if some element of that could be modelled in. I think such recesses would work really well in augmenting the 'layered hull' kind of effect you have going over the rest of the ship, as well as more clearly defining the neck section.

3) There is what looks to be a flat surface with a straight edge at the back between the lower two fins on the belly - If that is the case I think replacing that with the kind of curvy layerd detailing seen on the head surface would be great. Or at least the straight edge - that's what caught my eye as not quite belonging!

4) Hmm this one will need a pic, so I may as well label the other things on it as well.

Anyway this suggestion is to pull the 'cheek' of the head down to where the red line is to cover more of the side, as this will make the head easier to texture in-line with retail colours and also remove the kind of 'thin ledge' bit marked by the blue line, which I don't think quite fits with the rest of the look.

Oh and the smallest niggle is those structures attaching the axle of the fin-hinges to the hull - the engineery part of my brain would looooove to see them beefed up a bit. Might also be very cool to separate the fins (if you weren't going to already) to animate them folding in during subspace jumps or something.

Anyway, fantastic work - I look forward to seeing this one in-game!

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Both the front engines/head and the fin armour look much better now, good work! Good to know you won't completely ditch the pink arc, too.

I'll second especially VA's first point on the 'seams' in the shields, and what he said about the hinge attachments of the fins... Especially in this picture, the side attachment of the top fin looks more like a decoration ribbon than an actual load-bearing structure. The rear engines, well, I'll just shut up about them

[Woolie Wool]

Are those giant hinges at the bases of the fins?

[Rga_Noris]

Sort of. The round object is meant to appear to be rotatable. I'm a Paramedic and I stole the idea from an ambulance gurney. It has a strut the supports the lower portion of the gurney, and is lockked into place by pushing it in to a wheel type structure, and pushing up until it clicks into place. The only reason you would ever move it is for maintenance, so I applied the concept to the Sobek. If you look at the side shot, it also fits nicely with the rounded contour of the back of the main hull.

[Rga_Noris]

I know, there are some seams in the middle... I'll fix that when the time comes.

So whuddya think?

[Dragon]

Looks good.

[Droid803]

Oh yes :3

[Kolgena]

Fantastic. Looks ready to release, IMO.

Turrets could use some work though. (Do something about the rectangle barrels, and make the two vslash dishes bigger (at risk of screwing balance))