[BengalTiger]

I won't be able to commit due to 9 month old son, and new private sector EOD job meaning I'll be travelling a whole hell of a lot.  But it's good to see you back.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal? Can I make an assumption that robots are involved?

Hi BengalTiger,

Nice to see you back and active...

While I do want to see what will come of this, I have to say that I can't come back to help... I've to join the workforce in earnest by the end of the year 'cause I fail to "earn" my recommendations for a position that would allow me to stay in academia (also my grade average is just south of what I'd need, by a single decimal point)... so I will focus on finally pushing out portfolio stuff for myself for foreseeable future (*discomfort rising*)...

Well then maybe join in on that EOD gig?
I heard its a blast.

That really looks like I'd have to wait until 2030+.

@BengalTiger: Even though you're just back- do you already have some detailed plot-outline (in case enough people/somebody volunteers)? Last time I heard it was still subject to changes.

Those changes being were worked out a few years ago. Later I did some writing and now I have a coherent plot, as well as a timeline of T-M as a species in general and the evolution of their space ships that goes well beyond what TotT would cover...

Now I would need to work on the details and make mission by mission "chapters" (or at least some of them)...
Then I'll ask for help with FREDding to make it work in game.

I believe I would be able to find a 3D artist easily to help out with the models that still need work.
Much of the stuff that was sort of done will need to get remade quite a bit, I came up with some better ideas over the years.

[Nightmare]

That sounds pretty good. I'm sorry if I bother you too much with my questions (but I still have some)

Can you give some stats yet? I mean how many missions in total/per chapter, how many ships are planned (I've heard it's been 30 in the original)/done/need to be redone, things like that?

So TotT is going to be a chapter-based releases?

[Jadehawk]

I remember LONG ago when I was part of this testing the first 5 or 6 missions that the first campaign was supposed to be like something around 50+ missions. Correct me if I'm wrong as it was a LONG time ago. The missions I DID test were great, first brief encounter of a TM fighter at a Node, a blockade mission that was way cool and so on. The more I think about it, the more I wish I was not so busy back then.  I'd like to help again someday when this is going full tilt again, but cannot do much (like Freespace does not work well on current laptop).

I'm keeping tabs on this thread

[BengalTiger]

That sounds pretty good. I'm sorry if I bother you too much with my questions (but I still have some)

Can you give some stats yet? I mean how many missions in total/per chapter, how many ships are planned (I've heard it's been 30 in the original)/done/need to be redone, things like that?

So TotT is going to be a chapter-based releases?

Well let's see...

There's like 13 player ships, from stealth fighters to interceptors, multi role fighters, strategic bombers and gunships...
I think they're all ready to go, albeit low quality in terms of visuals.
That's just on the Tiigran side of things (won't spoil anything else).

The T-M also have 2 cutters (this sort of large transport size patrol unit); 2 Destroyer Escorts (cruiser-ish size ships with less weapons but more AWACS); 2 Corvettes (IIRC this is where in game models end); 2 frigates (modeled, not finished, will need a rebuild to look better); 2 carriers (same); a Dreadnought (one of those most guns forward sort of thingies, I don't think its even textured); 2 battleships (definitely not textured, need a rebuild, these guys will have their main guns in rotating turrets)...
Also a few (actually, a lot of) ships that have .tbl entries and possibly partial models done of various other types, combat and non-combat.

As for the campaign, I'll look into it soon. So far trying to find my way through the mod files to see what needs to be done, then I'll have to make a few concept drawings and get a quick tutorial on Blender, as well as getting a friend involved.

[Nightmare]

Hmm, that sounds like a doable thing, unless you start upgrading all not-100%-up-tp-date ships (I'm not a modeller though).

[Nightmare]

Anything become of this?

[Nyctaeus]

No matter what others may say: Midpoly ships are still good

[BengalTiger]

Well, some will be low poly. :-P

But yeah, mod is slowly progressing...

Alas, I do not have any flashy updates now, I did lots of bug hunting, story writing and stuff like that recently.

Also I need to polish my skills in Blender.

[Nightmare]

That's good~

[Nightmare]

Do you still have the ships that got upgraded by former TotT team members? I remember this HTL Cataphract that never got released.

[5thAce]

Is there a demo of this available somewhere? It sounds very interesting!

[Nightmare]

It's not on Knossos but on SG: https://sectorgame.com/fsfiles/download/dXBsb2Fkcy9Qcm9qZWN0cyUyMC0lMjBDYW1wYWlnbnMlMjAtJTIwVENzL0RlbW9zL1RlZXRoJTIwb2YlMjB0aGUlMjBUaWdlciUyMEludHJvJTIwdjEuMCUyMCUyOFNDUCUyOS56aXA=/h/195357eb91bf92d20117c0752efb7f15

It probably hasn't been updated since the release 10 years ago, but I liked it a lot.

[5thAce]

Thanks for the link, the demo was quite fun! Im always interested in stories that involve new species.

[Nightmare]

In that case you should play Twisted Infinities once it's released.

[BengalTiger]

It most definitely hasn't been updated, not that I know of at least...


Anyways...

How to design a Warship in (Free)Space?

I'm working on some of the larger ships now, I'll spoil the logic behind the designs.
I read up on cruiser, battleship or carrier design before hitting the drawing board (I have a helper who will do the 3D stuff - so the drawing board is literally with a pencil. I'm currently also doing weapons and their visual effects, which have sooooo many options to play with...).

In FreeSpace there always is the possibility of a big ship warping in next to a big ship of the enemy side. This means there is quite the need for having a direct combat force.
These would be battleships and cruisers (or in FS terms - frigates), as well as destroyers (or over here - corvettes) to a smaller extent.


A destroyer, battleship and a cruiser

Some considerations on firepower:

Ships work in an environment where threats can come from any direction. Thus they will have their firepower distributed all around them - including above and below, just like a real world one needs to be covered from forward and aft.
The main battery should have the best possible coverage, and this is where things get a bit funky. Your typical GTVA destroyer in FreeSpace can fire all around itself, but with not a single area that can be covered by the whole battery. Your typical Shivan destroyer can fire all weapons forward, but when it gets flanked, it's safe to sit there with a Sobek and blast away.

So, let's put our main guns in turrets, and give their guns some depression so they can fire below the horizon. This gives far more coverage than any crater shaped beam cannon can dream of.
They should be placed on the hull to provide a clear field of fire, so going with the highest point and the lowest point (and making the rest of the ship taper down towards the ends) seems to be the way to go.

Then the next turrets should be in positions where the ones with full view could superfire over them...


Superfiring gun turrets

This gives a warship that can fire all guns forward, all guns to both sides (within the range of the gun depression), and then the turrets with a 360 deg view can also engage targets behind the ship. With 2 turrets up top and 2 bottom for instance, half the firepower is also available for stuff above and below until the ship adjusts its orientation, and only an enemy from directly behind would require some significant maneuvering to put a full broadside into it.

The Hiigaran battlecruiser in Homeworld 2 is a great example of such a configuration, except it has only 2 main gun turrets and Tiigran-Merisst ships will have a bit more of em...
The size and number of guns will be a good indicator of what sort of firepower a ship carries.

Some considerations on protection:

Now battleships and cruisers have what's called a citadel....

The mighty Yamato

This is a way of saving weight around the less important parts to have the ability to put as much armor as possible on the important bits. As long as the citadel is intact, the ship can be shredded all over and it will still stay afloat.
Expect T-M warships (the larger ones designed for duking it out at least) to have a sort of armored outer layer on which the main battery is mounted, and within which the reactor and such would fit. This will be a visual cue that the ship has a disproportionate amount of hitponts as well.

Some considerations on subsystems:

Alright, but what about the bridge, comms, sensors and other subsystems? A warship needs to see, needs to have a control center, needs to move around... Just being able to shoot and get shot does not make a warship yet.
Welp, everything has to be clear of the main battery. The nav bridge can be a step down below the upper guns, comms will fit a step above the lower ones (sort of like the antenna plantation on the GTD Orion).
Sensors can go in a place where there is also a great view... On the very bow of the ship, put on a spire.


A space ship also sort of works like an airplane, right?

Capital ships also have their own airplane facilities:

Scout floatplanes, they get moved to/from the hangar using a crane, launch off a catapult and then land in the water next to the ship.

The hangar on a space warship can be on the centerline, so it is clear of the main guns. Tiigran frigates and battleships will have disproportionately small hangar facilities compared to GTVA or Shivan ships of their size. There are better ships to do this task then the ones that are dedicated to carrying guns and armor, and this sort of mirrors reality again.

The whole rest of the ship remains free for the secondary and point defense batteries and docking points.

Now regarding corvettes and carriers - these are for another little chapter I guess...

Hope all y'all enjoyed the read... This is another, unseen part of modding that I personally like - looking for inspirations and figuring stuff out... sort of engineering it all in a way.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Nice read Thanks for sharing !

[Nightmare]

Interesting read! I actually have Terran Destroyer that has taken some of the design aspects you mentioned into account (i.e. the placement of the flak turrets).

2 things:
-My question's still there: Do you still have the ships that got upgraded by former TotT team members? I remember this HTL Cataphract that never got released.
-Do you want to make this a Dev thread? I'd ask a mod/admin to split out the posts from here onward if you want that: https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94636.msg1871742#msg1871742

[Colonol Dekker]

Nice to see BT still here 👍👍

[BengalTiger]

How to design a Warship in (Free)Space?
Part 2

So, time for an update on how to make a sci-fi space ship.

Last chapter covered direct combat ships that were designed to duke it out in fleet engagements.

Cruisers are kinda expensive.
Battleships are hella expensive.

So what happens with all the rest of the fleet? The units that create the presence in a large volume of the battlespace?
Welp, they have to be smaller to be easier to build. So, corvettes.

These would be the sort of the sibling of destroyers in the common classification of modern navies.
Back in WW II they had no citadel, they were built to be small and go fast, you can't have armor weighing you down.

So, our corvettes will not have an armored ring around the hull like the big boys.
But similarities don't end here. From a mod developer's perspective, making many, many hulls for each role, each ship class, is time prohibitive. We see this officially in universe even - the Leviathan and Fenris use the same outer shell, and the Orion and Typhon get refitted bigly between FS 1 and FS 2.

How did this work in the real world?
Well, the US Navy had destroyers adopted for various missions.

Here's a Gearing class destroyer (or in FS - a corvette), it has a torpedo launcher on its centerline, between the stacks:


Some of these had an extra radar array instead of the torpedoes for picket duties:


The T-M Cv will have some big cruise missiles, with a limited ammo reserve. These ships could not fit big guns IRL, so they won't be able to do so in TotT either.
The same space on the hull will be occupied by sensor towers to create an AWACS corvette.

Let's go even smaller. At around 200-250 meters is more or less cruiser size in FS. This will be occupied by the destroyer escort/frigate of navies IRL.
Now I also ran into a fun way of using this size of hull for a second purpose...

Here's a destroyer escort:


And this is what they called a high speed transport, which used the same hull:

These ships basically had the torpedo launcher replaced with landing craft, and were re-arranged inside to have room for troops.

So, our Space Marines will use transports based off the escort ships that provide cover for them. Replace main turret with dockpoint and done.

Alright, but how do they travel from system to system...?
250 meters is quite small for a ship to have proper endurance, it isn't much bigger than an Argo class transport.

Let's take a look at how it works IRL...


And how it would translate into space....



Hope all y'all enjoyed the read... I've sent a few concept arts for modelling also. Hopefully we'll see some serious ship coming soon.

[Nightmare]

But similarities don't end here. From a mod developer's perspective, making many, many hulls for each role, each ship class, is time prohibitive. We see this officially in universe even - the Leviathan and Fenris use the same outer shell, and the Orion and Typhon get refitted bigly between FS 1 and FS 2.

That's a pretty interesting line of thought; I think 90+% of people on HLP (myself included) would just say "well wanted to safe some $", and that despite massproduction being pivotal in futuristic warfare (atleast in FS).