[bobbtmann]

Are those the hangars under the bridge? I like the openness of them, and that chute exiting forward is really cool.

[An4ximandros]

That ship looks fantastic.

Given the amount of detail, I could guess that a good chunk of the polygons your ship has comes from the railguns, or however they are called. Try reducing the amount of polygons on those once you get to optimizing. And as Luis mentioned, a good normal can replace the "bones" in the cavernous engine section.

Aside: The bridge looks awesome as heck. How do you people come up with such interesting shapes? Getting back into modelling is difficult since all I got is the slow boxes and up technique.

[whitearrow]

Thank you guys!

Are those the hangars under the bridge? I like the openness of them, and that chute exiting forward is really cool.

Yes, those are the hangars: you land from the rear and depart aft-way (could it be said "aft-way" in english?). They still have to go under a detailing session.

That ship looks fantastic.

Given the amount of detail, I could guess that a good chunk of the polygons your ship has comes from the railguns, or however they are called. Try reducing the amount of polygons on those once you get to optimizing. And as Luis mentioned, a good normal can replace the "bones" in the cavernous engine section.

Aside: The bridge looks awesome as heck. How do you people come up with such interesting shapes? Getting back into modelling is difficult since all I got is the slow boxes and up technique.

Yes, I guess you're right. I should reshape the antennas. I'll try to do the same for the railguns, but I fear it won't be easy without make those cannons too banal...
About the bridge... Well, I wasn't satisfied with the previous version, so I totally rebuilt it. The flow of thoughts that led to that shape was... absurd. I initially was thinking, you know, about those robot helmets with a red light that comes and go. That stripe is sometime triangular, so I used it for the main bridge "window". Than I said: this is one of the most important part of the ship, but it's the most exposed to enemy's fire; so it must be heavily armored. I duplicated, scaled and detached the side panels of the bridge and thickened them. Now it would be nice to break them into some sections I thought and started to engrave the thick shield. Here comes the absurd: that shape reminded me the one of a big CRAB! The crab is "heavily armored" so it's perfect!  The upper round dish was inspired by the Grissom, the scientific vessel destroyed at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. Finally for the antennas I thought to a samurai helmet  ... THE END... of my mental trip!
There was nothing already planned: ideas came to my mind just during modelling... I think you just need to feel inspired and let your unconscious to lead you where he wants...

[guitarfan01]

I really like it, and it looks great!

But there's one thing that's confusing me. I understand that maybe you are not a native English speaker (congratulations on your excellent command of the language, if so!), and so maybe that's the cause of the confusion.  In English, "aft" means "towards the rear of the ship" while "fore" means "toward the front of the ship."   "Bow" means "the part at the front of the ship" while "stern" means "the part at the rear of the ship." I thought I would tell you this because I was confused that you said "this is the aft" on one or more of your pictures of this most very excellent looking model which seemed to be the bow instead.

Blessings!

[whitearrow]

  Ooooops.... guitarfan01 you're right. I've been mistaken! Sorry...

I just installed the "mag-drivers". 8 cannons: this should be an almost definitive configuration.





So here's the "mag-driver". "Mag" stands for "magnetic". These babes are able to instantly accelerate up to 15000 m/s any metallic stuff you want to put into them. Kinetic projectiles, bombs, dust bins, your old car... They are the futuristic version of the XVIII century naval cannons...

I know they're an enormous waste of polys but I like them too much!

[An4ximandros]

Maybe you can ask for help with using detail boxes on those guns? That way you can get all the detail when you are close enough to see it and hide it when you are away from the ship.

[whitearrow]

I'm moving the p3d window to the first post, so you can find it immediately without scrolling all the topic's pages. I'll keep on posting other updates, renderings as images, comments etc. here below as usual.

[whitearrow]

UPDATES:
I added some gribbles and plates on the upper stern, expaded the hangar bay, reshaped and slightly detailed the fore hangar gate. I closed all the hull's remaining gaps. The ship is now ready for another detailing session, then I will work on the remaining weapons.
I actually think that the ship is matching the GTD Titan class, due to dimensions (little less then 2 km in length), payload capabilities and firepower( which is actually far superior to the Titan, considering the main beam cannon). So I think I can safely call it a destroyer.   

[An4ximandros]

This is turning out really cool.

[whitearrow]

Thank you An4x!
I think I will follow your suggestion to use detail boxes....

I posted a couple of questions in the scripting section. If anyone of you guys is expert in scripting (I am not for now), please check out my post here http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85270.0
thanks!

[whitearrow]

UPDATE:
So, I added a small radar tower on the ventral part of the hull. Than I reshaped again the hangar bay to obtain a better space optimization in relation to the dimension of fighters. 2 radar antennas added.

I also rebuilt my pan-tilt version of the gauss cannon. Not that I wasn't satisfied with the other one, but I felt that its shape didn't match the general mood of the ship.
This is the new version:







Finally I tried to place some cannons (red) on the ship. Here's the result. You can see it also in the p3d window in the first page. Its just a try so the cannon are still floating.
Any opinion on the cannon arrangement will be very appreciated!

[An4ximandros]

Are those all the turrets in total, or just the cannons? If only the cannons, you might want to consider removing a few and increasing the firepower of the remaining ones to compensate. Ultradakkus is already pleased with the M-Ds. Overgunning has destroyed many a ship's coolness.

[whitearrow]

It's only the cannons. Anyway, yes, I think I'll remove a dozen of them...

[whitearrow]

Ok, I cut down a half of the cannons.

[whitearrow]

UPDATE:
I worked on detailing the hangar. I added two lifters. They are not supposed to move: it's only for fashion. I also worked on some antennas and mag-driver cannons to reduce the poly count from 70000 to 44000...

About the hangar, do you think it would need further 3d detailing or should I use textures instead?


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[NeonShivan]

Hangers don't need to be detailed imho, they're meant for launching fighters or hiding, not for sightseeing, but it's overall your project, not mine, doesn't change the fact that I still love the work you've put into this ship.

[TheGruntMinion]

It heavily reminds me of a Star Wars Imperial-class Star Destroyer, probably due to the daggerish shape and Bridge placement. That would make it a craft heavily geared towards forward assault, much like how all the Shivan-inspired attack patterns. Still, very impressive

[MatthTheGeek]

=>


Nuff said.

[BritishShivans]

I thought of that, too. This ship is starting to remind me of a joint Vaygr-UEF designed ship.

[whitearrow]

It heavily reminds me of a Star Wars Imperial-class Star Destroyer, probably due to the daggerish shape and Bridge placement. That would make it a craft heavily geared towards forward assault, much like how all the Shivan-inspired attack patterns. Still, very impressive

Thanks! Yes, all your assumptions are true. Star Wars star destroyers are some of my favorite vessels. The Executor above all.

I thought of that, too. This ship is starting to remind me of a joint Vaygr-UEF designed ship.

It's the first time I see this "Vaygr"...