[Vengence]

Some of you may remember this baby from a few months ago, sadly I got sidetracked by contracts and projects. Only recently have I been able to not only have time to work on this, but also some minor bits of design inspiration that allowed me to finally complete the overall form. However, I've been having some last minute design bad gut feelings about this and I'd like some feedback before I commit and start UV-Unwrapping.




FYI each window is 4 meters tall  .

I've got a crap ton of ideas I'd die to get working on but I cannot live with myself leaving these good WIP ships hanging, especially when only a few steps from completion.

Additionally it struck me that this thing could possible have a few 'surprises' aside from the turrets. on the front line of side turrets there's a device on the side. Initially I didn't really think much of it aside from decoration, but they could be double barreled small beam cannons. Then on the second line of turrets on the side there are those hexagon extrusions, perhaps those could be beam cannons as well  . I've still got some PD turrets to add to the side of the nose, its a big blind spot right now. Also got a shuttle bay to somehow add to the thing. UV mapping is going to be an utter absolute pain, especially with my planned method.

[Dragon]

Awesome, can't wait to see it mapped.

[Droid803]

Lookin' good.

[bigchunk1]

Got enough cannons on that thing? lol

[IronBeer]

I like the overall design. Very sleek, simply looks fast and aggressive. Somewhat unusual for such a large (I'm assuming?) ship, but the form is actually kind of refreshing. ...now what would you have a bad gut feeling about?

[Alan Bolte]

At first glance it's awesome and I have no complaints. However, since you're looking for some sort of fault, I have two ideas, neither of them a matter of aesthetics.

Problem 1: non-weapon functions
You've got a nice set of engines there, and what is either a Star Destroyer-style command bridge or a nav/comm/scan mast with an observation window. I don't know if you've got anything on the ventral side, but additional sensors in the blind spots couldn't hurt. All those turrets probably have their own targeting sensors, but wide-area scanning tends to be a different beast. Speaking of targeting sensors, the side-mounted objects you mentioned that look like small forward cannons could be remodeled to remove the cutouts and maybe add some other detail to make them targeting sensors for the spinal armament.

You mentioned a shuttle bay, that would be good. Also, there are a few places that might be docking ports, but that's not clear without textures. There's also plenty of odd little extras you could add by considering famous sci-fi ships. There's the garbage chute and minelayers on the Imperial Star Destroyer, various radiators and vents on all sorts of ships, escape pods, etc.

Problem 2: Turret placement
It looks like you have 3 models, which I will call primary, secondary, and point-defense turrets. Exactly how much the point-defense matters is going to depend heavily on whether the primary or secondary turrets are defensive flak or anti-ship weapons, but it still couldn't hurt to move some of the PD guns to better locations (or add a few extra). The forward dorsal pair have a rather poor field of view due to the forward dorsal primary turret. There doesn't appear to be any coverage forward (as you mentioned), aft, or around the bridge.

As to the primary turrets, something that size should require a certain amount of space underneath for power cables, ammunition or coolant if any, rotation mechanics, and at least some basic structural bracing. That is, placing two turrets on opposite sides of a protrusion that's smaller than either of them looks a little hard to believe. The Nova-class dreadnought from Babylon 5 is probably the most egregious example in mainstream sci-fi.

[Vengence]

You have very good points there Alan and indeed if I had to say what is my weakest skill in ship design, it is all point defense. See I've originally designed this ship around 5 years ago and those huge turrets and their positions are kind of there if only for 'tradition'. I cannot change them around so much and make me 'feel' that it is the same ship. So the PD coverage is sadly horrific as you've pointed out due to the forward dorsal turret. In fact I do confess the thing's a PD nightmare  .

There are indeed 3 kinds of turrets. The main batteries which are for... I shall say alpha striking anything of remotely similar size. A large PD turret that fires explosive rounds and small PD turrets that rely on a high rate of fire. Double barreled to match.

...now what would you have a bad gut feeling about?

Quite frankly, I've tried to design this thing to be remotely sensible to internal space. From what I imagine is a gigantic line of spinal generators down the body, if I add anything else likely whoever serves on this thing is going to be cramped. Including the shuttle bay. There's only really one location I can think of that'd be able to easily 'model' in a bay as well as path it. Right under the tower. But then again this thing is huge, which means I'm probably wrong. I suppose I'll start by resizing the main turrets. An 18 meter bore is quite.... indomitable, as seen in this bit of art somebody showed me. I only just realized when I saw this how huge huge things are probably a bit too... excessive.

[LordPomposity]

When your targets are the size of that ship or larger, a gun that large is entirely reasonable. I think you should leave it as it is.

[Alan Bolte]

The Yamato was 263m long and carried 9 x 46cm guns in three turrets - and that was its primary armament, whereas you have spinal mounts. With 18m guns and a similar ratio, your ship would be 10.3 km long, though yours is rather skinny. You say it's huge, but I would guess 2-5 km. That's not to say there's anything wrong with building your ship with so many huge turrets - it certainly looks distinctive. But when I look at something so heavily gunned, I imagine it requires enormous logistical support, and probably lacks the endurance of similarly sized warships, both in travel distance and length of time in combat.

[Vengence]

Its roughly 6km, and indeed in lore it is a rather overly specialized ship. I've reduced the turret size by about 10%, looks a lot more managable now. And the turret bore I think is now at 15. Still big but any smaller and they lack visual impact to me.

[Sololop]

I just have to say, those turrets themselves look darn cool.