[bobbtmann]

So I've started re-texturing the old Carrack. I fixed a few issues with the geometry and remapped it. Anyways, there was a lot of wasted space on the old UV map, so not only is everything arranged in a more square fashion, I was even able to scale everything up a bit.

Here's what I've gotten so far.



 I was never satisfied with how armoured the old Carrack felt, like the plates covering it were thin and had no thickness to them.  This time I've swung in the other direction and given each panel a lot of depth.

Let me know what you think.

[zookeeper]

I suppose now would be a good time to reduce the number of turrets a bit, right? The concensus seems to be that it'd be better if there were fewer of them, and it'd be easy to remove one of each of the pairs turret25 & turret23, turret24 & turret26, turret19 & turret15, and so on. Harder to remove them later when the AO's been baked in.

If you don't mind more geometry suggestions at this stage, I have a few. Now, really, some of these are nitpicky and you'd probably have wanted to hear them sooner, I'm not the content moderator anyway and you might have fixed some already, so make of this what you will:

• Personally, I'd like it if the barreled turrets were a bit more substantial; they have a really small base and a long elongated barrel, making them look pretty flimsy and probably hard to hit as well. If it's at all possible to make the bases a bit beefier then I think that'd be great.
• The turbolasers turret01-10 are made up of big pieces of geometry, causing them to often seemingly spontaneously blow up even when you think you're not shooting anywhere near one. I think they really should get a slightly smaller piece cut out from the hull for them.
• The "block turbolasers" (turret31-35) are somewhat weird because they're just flat panels and don't look much like turrets. Maybe the same kind of "pit" as the others have could be incorporated into them?
• The bridge has a rather huge hit area, and would probably work better if you removed the outermost polys from it to make it one step smaller.
• Sensors should probably include that little block it's mounted on.

[bobbtmann]

• The "block turbolasers" (turret31-35) are somewhat weird because they're just flat panels and don't look much like turrets. Maybe the same kind of "pit" as the others have could be incorporated into them?

Those were supposed to be tractor beams. 

[TopAce]

Will you also fix its shields?

[bobbtmann]

I don't remember ever making shields for it. I thought we were using surface shields.

[attachment deleted by a basterd]

[zookeeper]

Yeah, surface shields for ships of that size for now. We could add shield meshes later if we get the ability to, for example, actually use different meshes against different weapons like a bigger shield mesh against turbolaser fire and surface shields against small lasers. The old corvette still has a big lame shield mesh on it but it's not exactly a model example of how we should do things.

Also, are those modelled tractor beam turrets? If you finish those then it'd be great to have them to replace the flat panels, since even if we don't have working tractor beams yet we probably will eventually, and in the meantime those would act as nice extra detail. So, to clarify, if you're making those turrets then please make them as functional as the rest; we'll just disable them in the tabling until we have working tractor beam weaponry to put on them. Also, if it's difficult to incorporate those to replace turret31 and turret32 (since they're shaped a bit differently), then we can probably skip those two since three tractor beams is probably plenty enough considering that their use is likely going to be almost exclusively FREDded on a per-mission basis.

[bobbtmann]

Nope, those are models for the point defense guns, though I think they're supposed to be armed with ion cannons. I was thinking I'd just get rid of the tractor beams altogether. None of the other ships I've made have them, so I'll keep everything consistent.

[zookeeper]

Nope, those are models for the point defense guns, though I think they're supposed to be armed with ion cannons. I was thinking I'd just get rid of the tractor beams altogether. None of the other ships I've made have them, so I'll keep everything consistent.

Okay, that's fine. Those guns look nice in any case; if you want, we could of course use two different models, one for the turrets which are supposed to have anti-fighter lasers and another for those which should have ions, although I don't think we have the placements plotted out anywhere. Still, a single model probably works well enough, like on other ships.

[swashmebuckle]

The textures on the front look hugely improved (no more staircase effect!) and I like the point defense weapon a lot better too.  I'd say around 20 guns (some on the surface, some on the tower) would be ideal for a ship like this--clearly able to stomp on corvettes, and with a similar density of point defense turrets as found on the larger cruisers so it doesn't feel like a dedicated anti-starfighter ship.  Anyway, it looks great to me!

[Alan Bolte]

Looks good, considering what you have to work with.

I'd nominate the Carrack for the most embarrassing item in there...

-Karl "Kanastrous" Martin, on his illustrations for the Imperial Sourcebook (misattributed to the Rebel Sourcebook)
Source

[rhettro]

Looks nice!

[Archaic]

very imperial

[bobbtmann]

So I feel like it's time to move on to other ships. I'll upload the files when I'm out from behind this firewall.