Ghost Ship

Namigob · Post by **Namigob** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:37 am

I would like to share with you a ship I call Ghost.

Here is a link to the Ghost.shp file:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gijyzudxjyv

I'm hoping that I have something new and unique with this ship.
Ghost should not be judged simply on appearance because I admit my artistic
skills in ship building may not be up to the level of many that post here.

First off you may notice some things that you normally cannot do with ship builder.
I would point you to the 'ship maker modifications' sticky topic in the general
discussion forum that will explain how this may be done.

The really unique thing about Ghost is the fact that when it is attacked by another
ship, weapons will have no effect on most of the ship. Only a small area near
the back where the ships weapons are can be affected by any weapon. Projectiles
or beams will simply pass through the sections inflicting no damage. This special
characteristic does not however require the use of the modified ship maker, it
can be done with the normal one.

I'm not going to reveal my secret just yet on how I have accomplished this
special characteristic of Ghost. If this has been done before I apologize in
advance because I have not seen it.

Another thing I would like to mention about Ghost is that it has it has some very
unusual weaponry. I don't have names for most of them yet but there is one that
I call 'Ghost Lights'. It produces balls of energy that float around like 'ball
lightning'. They persist for a long time and are a little like space mines. If
your ship touches one it can do a lot of damage.

This is another ship that I have built that I call Reaskadi.

Reaskadi.shp:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynom96t1ld6

It was built with the normal ship builder and weapons have very little modification.
The array of beamers in the back are it's most powerful offensive weapon.
This is a very strong ship but very playable in the game as well.
I hope you like the visual appearance of the Reaskadi. I think it is my favorite
in appearance of all the ships I have bult to date.

Even though the Reaskadi is a very powerful ship the Ghost ship will destroy it
every time. It is difficult to destroy something when your weapons can't touch it.
I have noticed that the Reaskadi can in fact inflict some damage to the Ghost
ship but not enough to bring it down. If a special ship was built with enough of
the right stock weaponry I think it could be defeated. Anyone want to guess how?

Here you see some of the Ghosts special weaponry in acton.

The Reaskadi unleashes an awesome beamer shot but Ghost is undamaged.

Post by **Anna** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:51 am

Disregarding your absolutely mediocre and at best disdain-worthy ships, learn to crop your fucking screenshots. Stretching the forum frames is a no-no, and the big 1024x768 sandbox screenshots do exactly that.

Caesius · Post by **Caesius** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:17 am

The second one is alright, though the demeter launchers look awkward. However the ghost ship looks very blocky, especially at the front and sides (why would you make a starship with a flat bow?). And don't use missile launchers as thrusters...

FIREST0RM000 · Post by **FIREST0RM000** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:31 am

this is hardly a secret. a large portion of the forums already know about this exploit, or some variation of it. tricks been out for a while now.

Swamp Fox · Post by **Swamp Fox** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:37 am

Caesius wrote:The second one is alright, though the demeter launchers look awkward. However the ghost ship looks very blocky, especially at the front and sides (why would you make a starship with a flat bow?). And don't use missile launchers as thrusters...

MmmmK. A couple of points here. Blocky is not necessarily bad. It can be made to look good. Also, I can think of several reasons for a flat bow. For example, what if you had several weapons at the very front that you wanted to reach their target at the same time? Or what if it's simply easier to make? Or, at the very least, what if you want it to be flat?

Now, as to the missiles: Why shouldn't they be used as thrusters? Nerf 'em so they don't actually do anything, and I think it could look nice, Admittedly it wasn't done as well as it could be, but I can see how they might be appealing.

Now, about the ship. I'd rather not get into the Ghost, I'm still sorting it out, but as for the Reaskadi, it looks a bit skeletal. Perhaps flesh it out more? That's my opinion, anyway.

Namigob · Post by **Namigob** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:01 am

learn to crop your fucking screenshots. Stretching the forum frames is a no-no, and the big 1024x768 sandbox screenshots do exactly that.

That's pretty harsh language and from a moderator no less.
Everything fits all right on my screen (1280 x 1024).

However the ghost ship looks very blocky, especially at the front and sides (why would you make a starship with a flat bow?).

In space there is no reason not to. My experience in building contest ships revealed that the more armor up front the longer you are likely to survive in battle. I readily admit that the appearance of the Ghost ship is not anything special. The point of this post was just to demonstrate the technique of making the phantom effect for ship sections. The method I use limits the sections you can use because you are not able to flip or mirror sections.
I'm stuck using only those sections that can be positioned properly by rotation alone.

this is hardly a secret. a large portion of the forums already know about this exploit, or some variation of it. tricks been out for a while now.

Hmmm... It seems I may have reinvented the wheel then.
I wouldn't mind having a look at some other ghost ships if you know where I can find any. They're really kind of tedious to make and it's harder to make them look nice because of not being able to flip sections.

as for the Reaskadi, it looks a bit skeletal. Perhaps flesh it out more? That's my opinion, anyway.

Skeletal, exactly, that's the look I was going for. It looks somewhat like some giant creature that has been picked clean to the bone.

Post by **Anna** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:26 am

Namigob wrote:
learn to crop your fucking screenshots. Stretching the forum frames is a no-no, and the big 1024x768 sandbox screenshots do exactly that.
That's pretty harsh language and from a moderator no less.
Everything fits all right on my screen (1280 x 1024).

If you'd bothered to lurk a little and read around a bit, you'd know that this is fairly typical of the forums and especially of me. Yes, it's harsh language. Got you to pay attention, didn't it? I don't particularly care if it fits all right on your screen. You're not the only person using the forum, and there are people who use 1024x786 as their default resolution.

Cropping your screenshots isn't difficult. Your screenshots are largely blank space anyway. I'm not asking you to do something horrible and difficult, I'm informing you of this, so you don't make the same mistake in the future.

Swamp Fox · Post by **Swamp Fox** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:35 am

Namigob wrote: The method I use limits the sections you can use because you are not able to flip or mirror sections.
I'm stuck using only those sections that can be positioned properly by rotation alone.

Quote:
this is hardly a secret. a large portion of the forums already know about this exploit, or some variation of it. tricks been out for a while now.

Hmmm... It seems I may have reinvented the wheel then.
I wouldn't mind having a look at some other ghost ships if you know where I can find any. They're really kind of tedious to make and it's harder to make them look nice because of not being able to flip sections

In my opinion, this contains excellent usage of doosections. Also, they flip/scale the same way their parent does. Basically, upside-down-parent = upside-down-doosection. That is, if I'm remembering it all correctly.

Namigob · Post by **Namigob** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:14 am

In my opinion, this contains excellent usage of doosections. Also, they flip/scale the same way their parent does. Basically, upside-down-parent = upside-down-doosection. That is, if I'm remembering it all correctly.

Thank you so much for that. I thought I had exhausted every possible way to try and flip the doosections. I did a quick test and it does work but it's still will be tricky because I want to use as few real sections as possible. I can parent several doo's to the same section and hope I can get everything to flip the right way.
Maybe I can finish my ghost of Hestia ship project after all.

ChaosTheory · Post by **ChaosTheory** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:29 am

Swamp Fox wrote:In my opinion, this contains excellent usage of doosections.

No. These are not good ships, and just because they use the latest fad, doesn't make them any better. This is further compounded by Namigob's ignorance of how EVERYONE knows how to use doosections if they're been in either Custom Ships or General Discussion at any point in the last week and a half.

[Edit:] Okay, SF fixed his link. That makes much more sense now.

Swamp Fox · Post by **Swamp Fox** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:56 am

Umm, CT, there was a link there to Venator's ships. It musta broke. Anyway, I was referring to them, not the ones in this thread. Again, I'm referring to http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921 when I say they have good use of doosections.

EDIT: Link fixed.

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:38 pm

Sorry, you're about a week or two late.

Namigob wrote:Everything fits all right on my screen (1280 x 1024).

There are still people who don't run on OMGWTFHUGE desktops. Get into cropping them as a habit, got it?

Post by **Aralonia** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:42 pm

Namigob wrote:my screen (1280 x 1024)

Fuck you, buddy, I run on 960x600

TormakSaber · Post by **TormakSaber** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:13 pm

Everyone relax a bit, yeh?

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:39 pm

Aralonia wrote:
Namigob wrote:my screen (1280 x 1024)
Fuck you, buddy, I run on 960x600

This, on top of using the segway-of-the-interstate for IRC?

Good lord, man.