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Hiigaran Fleet

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:59 pm
by Wicky_42
So I was playing on Homeworld 2 the other day and thought 'Hey, making Homeworld 2 ships would be such a great, original idea!'. Naturally, original it was not - someone already took a stab at some Homeworld 1 ships, but I reckoned I could do better. I made the Hiigaran destroyer, interceptor and bomber, all to scale with each other (which makes the fighters kinda minuscule... as they should be)... then I embarked on making the biggest ship that I have ever attempted, the Battlecruiser.

EDIT: That was then. Now I have made a nice little Hiigaran fleet that I thought I'd share, complete with fighters, 3 corvettes, 3 frigates, a carrier and 3 capital ships. These ships are still subject to revision, but that's mostly aesthetic. In game they seem to play pretty well for values just thrown in ;)

Here's the lot:
http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... p_Pack.zip
http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... part_2.zip

Further details can be found in subsequent updates, and just beneath :)
*EDIT - new release: Hiigaran Assault Cruiser - see page 4
http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... ruiser.zip

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Hiigaran Battlecruiser:
Image

and reference pic:

Image

The double beam turret towards the back is a 2D combo of the top and bottom turrets, and the positions of most of the kinetic cannons are not cannon just to help the ship work in BSF (the forward kinetic cannon was far too easy to destroy, so the mid way cannons are the heavy guns with the others being lighter, destroyer-strength weapons). Each outer point defence blister is positioned on what I assume to be the point defence markers on the hull, whilst the inner ones were added again for balance. The Hyperspace module is temperamental, and I'm not sure what to put on the second module slot (if anything). If the engines are destroyed, the ship retains acceleration (i hate skating ships), but looses almost all speed and turning. The Ion Cannons have 360 fire arcs, but slow turning so flanking is still a viable strategy.

Just to make it clear, even on a 'fan' ship such as this I still value balance and playability above cannon perfection, hence the extra point defence and cannons. It would be a simple matter to delete the extras, but the ship as a whole would suffer. As it is it is balanced roughly to the MRA standard, though be aware that a Hiigaran 'Battlecruiser' is the largest combat vessel produced by the Hiigarans - there is no battleship or dreadnought above it, so it is suitably hard as nails :D.

The major point that I am worried about is are the internals messy or acceptable? This being my first 'really big ship' I'm not really sure what pitfalls there are, or what detailing I've missed, or is the internals are cluttered. There are some areas that annoy me, but I'll let you have a look and see if you spot the same bits.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:06 pm
by Blackhart
Wow that looks amazing! I love homeworld!

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:08 pm
by Darkship
Though i know little of Homeworld 2, that is still quite a cool ship. I like.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:10 pm
by DeathsHand
Very nice! I'd go so far as to say that it looks quite better than the screenshot of the actual ship :D

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:17 pm
by Wicky_42
Why thank you, lol... I didn't expect that :)

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:25 pm
by Exethalion
That is the best attempt at that particular ship I've seen, the detail is very good, although there are some parts that are a little messy.

Overall, very good job.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:45 pm
by Nahki
yay! homeworld2 cool! i like it

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:48 pm
by Lord-General Thunder
Very nicely done. Really, bang up job. I can't comment on the armament until I get home, of course, but the appearance is spot on, IMHO.

You are aware that the word you're looking for is "Hiigaran", not "Hiiagran", though, right? ;)

EDIT: Duh, of course you are. But you misspelled it in the topic title. Just FYI. :)

EDIT2: Of course, after pointing out the sliver in your eye, I'll have to get the plank out of mine... -_-;

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:50 pm
by Gkug
Are you going to be making any more Hw2 ships?

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:48 am
by Wicky_42
Here's the afore mentioned Destroyer, to scale with the Battlecruiser ingame (though not in pic).

Image

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edit: here you go... http://www.wyrdysm.com/battleshipsforev ... troyer.zip
Again I took some liberties with the armament: There's a fourth turret on the underside half way down the neck that could have looked messy on the top, so the centre gun (above the core) is double-barrelled. I also added four point defence turrets (to give it a chance against MRA ships) and four pulsar turrets. The pulsars are mediocre against fighters due to a slow traverse speed, but their instant hit capabilities (potentially) make them great against slower small targets.

Ship balance against the battlecruiser is way off compared to Hw2 - if I can be bothered I might try and get the actual damages and healths off the ships from the game's BIG file and convert those... but that's too much work for tonight ;) The interceptor and bomber are nothing special - they're two sections ships after all that are smaller than a single section on a destroyer, so don't expect to see a screenie of them. I plan to work on the carrier, though whether I use drones or not is debatable. Probably not...

Thanks Thunder for pointing out the spelling glitch, lol.

Exethalion (and anyone else) could you point out particular sections that could use some work? my perspective's got to close to be subjective...

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:15 am
by The Chief of Braves
I love this. I don't know about the issue of Section repetition or anything but I love how you constructed the hull of the Battlecruiser. If anything, I'll be studying closely this arrangement of sections in case I plan to redesign and rebuild my Pioneers where I always felt I can do something better for its hull.

And I await to see how your interpretation of the Carrier would be like, or any of the other combat warships of Homeworld 2 for that matter.

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:50 am
by Lizzie
Why does the destroyer have missile launchers? :|

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:22 am
by Nahki
Lizzie wrote:Why does the destroyer have missile launchers? :|
reeaally :shock: maybe its in PDS mod? PDS destros have rockets...

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:12 am
by Droid
Lizzie wrote:Why does the destroyer have missile launchers? :|
Seconded.
They should use gatblasters or rails as the main guns, then missiles as the torpedoes at the front (which are missing :? )

While you're at it, make the Ion Cannon destroyer from HW2 Complex. That thing was awesome. (its just a rearmament of the standard destroyer with the Ion beams from the battlecruiser).

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:07 pm
by Wicky_42
They're not missile launchers on the Destroyer (or the BC for that matter), they are kinetic cannons. 0 interceptability, yellow shot, no turning and 800% bullet speed makes the best kinetic cannons by far in this game. No point defence in Homeworld can shoot down bullets, but in BSF only point beams can intercept 0 interception projectiles, so missiles become the best choice. Trust me, it works in game, especially when they hit a parent behind the front armour and there's a nice cinematic explosion from within :D

About the torpedo tubes... um, yeah... oops |>.>) They're mounted on the bow, right? Sounds like a tricky proposition, but I'll see what I can do. Might add demeter turrets to the cannons as well just to quieten the 'missile launcher' complaints :P

I'm working on the carrier now - will be up soon. I also plan on including the Light Cruiser from FX mod. It's just too bad the Vaygr ships are so vertical - would fail in BSF :(

Any other interesting ships anyone can think of? I wanna see if I can get on a roll ;)

Edit: damn, I get half way through the Carrier before realising my ref pic was about 50% larger than it should have been :( bugger...