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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 10:26 am
by Doogie12
I thought for sure that these were metagame ships....very VERY nice...
other than that there isn't too much critique to give :D

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:00 am
by Dyjeccu
I really like your 'semi-modular-destroyer/frigate-thing' and where it is headed.

That said, do you find the thrusters producing exhaust while you use an exhaust sprite to be more appealing than using the exhaust sprite alone?

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:12 am
by Killerhurtz
I love your work. Especially the larger ships. Think you could send me the .sb4's so I can see your layering? I'm sure I could learn some neat tricks from that.

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:34 pm
by Rugdumph
@Doogie: Oh pleeease, you're embarrassing me lol. Nah i am tempted by the metagame but i think i'll wait till MG2 before considering it until i have more experience and time and the planning for MG2 looks very interesting regardless of whether or not it comes into production :D

@Dyjeccu: Yeah i do like the exhaust thrusters, the only annoyance being the the exhaust one is called 'thruster' in SM and the normal thruster is 'thruster ex' :S. But i also thought the back of the ship would be somewhat empty, and the exhaust just makes it come more alive to me.

@KHZ: Sure, just pm me an email address or whatever and say which ones you what. Dunno if you'll learn any 'tricks' persay, but i'm happy to share. Also i've been watching your thread and your progress is astounding :D.

Edit: More!

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Another modular thingy, a support/command version, with an impeder on the right hand side, nano matrix on the left, two grav beams in the middle, and extended mountings for 8 flak guns and 4 point missles. Does the job nicely :).

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I decided to go back to this and finish it off since it fits with the modular feel. A gosling on the prow, closely followed by a particle cannon, and an emp torp launcher, two heavy sabots on the side, two heavy gat blasters on the rear, and two pairs of heavy gat blasters at the sides on armoured turreted mountings. Oh yeah and two beefed up lower range repeating artillery cannons, since in combat trials i found it couldn't lay down enough forward fire once it was in the fray.

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Just so you can see all the lovely thrusters

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And everyone together! Bare in mind i still have to colour these, add doodads, and most importantly name the blesed things!

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:12 pm
by 25000st
Pretty cool stuff. Your detailing looks good. IMO Now you should simulate more depth by using more contrast in colors. There is also a cluttered feel to your ships but it's not too bad. Can't wait to see more.

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:03 pm
by Homer
A bit offtopic, does anyone else find this style familiar of some other shipbuilder I don't remember the name of?

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 5:46 pm
by HorseMonster
Those are some pretty sweet rocket nozzles you have there, I wonder where you got them.

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 6:58 pm
by Gottfried von Manhausen
The rocket nozzles on the big ship came from HorseMonster's "Realistic" pack.

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:40 pm
by Rugdumph
@HM: And if you look very close horsemonster you may see many of your weapon sprites dotting around, lol i can't help it i love your work :D.

@25000st: Tbh all contrast in colours so far is just the sections being differently shaded as standard, everything is coloured block white atm. And yeah i know i clutter a fair bit, eg. the front of the and a little bit at the back of the big ship.

@Homer: I'm now dying of curiousity to know who i'm reminding you of!

Edit: Another style of modular thing

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Long range support version, two longer range, higher damage, smaller explosion repeating artillery, four autocannons, and two mguns, triple burst, extended mag. Hmm not much left...maybe a twin beamer? or maybe a more powerful weapon but on an asymmetrical, i.e. only one forward gun plus some sort of gubbins or module....

Oh also a more stripped down hull, i.e. more modular possibilities :D

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More Edits: Well...i decided to make a 'Fast' version, by uping the exhausts to full blown engines...then decided that was boring and carried on for a bigger ship...went further than i first intended but this'll be the base for my larger ships. It's smaller the the other big ship, but will have more armament because of the fact this was purpose built to go with the modular designs. If i do keep the other big ship then i'll probably convert it to a heavy carrier, since there aren't many nice spots for more guns but i can see a couple of places i can convert to fighter bays etc. Anyway less rambling more picture goodness :).

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Even More Edits: Ok just thinking about the bigger ship i decided to load it up and finally found something that was bugging me about. Since adding the Horsemonster stone section on the bridge to match the smaller ships the side pieces just didn't flow with it. So....

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There, not much of a change and much could be done to improve the rest of this but i'll work as i get ideas.

Ok I Swear I'm Not Going For The Record Of The Most Edits In One Post Edit: Changed the turrets after seeing the same section on the other big ship and wondered, i think this is better, am i right? or are the squatter turrets better? Also beefed up the side gun clamps since now they'll be holding weapons more like the main guns oh the piddly ships :D. Also made the front armour blend.

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Edit: I know this is ridiculous but work goes fast working the old modular system.

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The smaller one at the bottom is more the size i wanted, but the top hull i also find possible, which i made first... I was going for destroyer size, basing that the little 'uns are frigates and the most recent bigish one is a cruiser or something. Soooo.... any ideas? which do you prefer? Any details i've overlooked? I do think that the top one looks like the bigish ship after a bloody battle, and hence is more cluttered...

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:59 pm
by Gottfried von Manhausen
You equaled my quintiple edit!

Your ships are all very good (the modular style especially). The best, IMO, is the fast carrier/cruiser/whatever design.

I prefer the second-last ship to the last ship as a destroyer, it looks a lot tougher. Maybe the last ship should be destroyer escort sized while the second last one is a heavy fleet destroyer.

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:21 pm
by Rugdumph
Thanks!, that's a great idea! Means i don't waste any work and build up the fleet some more :)

Edit: Armed escort destroyer. Two beam turrets based off the mining beam, two medium range missile pods, and two twin vulcan turrets.

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The vulcan turrets i rather like come they came out so the housing i'll use on most the large circular 'hardpoints' with different guns etc

Edit: Armed heavy fleet destroyer. Two particle cannons, four HV rockets with enough homing to hit stationary/slow targets consistently, and two twin beamers.

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Edit: Armed escort destroyer. Two blaster rifles, two quad gat pulse turrets, and the return of the 'hoplon' shield!

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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 3:58 pm
by Corporal Jomn
Are you going to make a download? I like these.

Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:29 pm
by Rugdumph
Yeah i shall do, i'll make a filesmelt, or firesmelt or whatever it's called account and post up a link soon.

Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:22 pm
by Gottfried von Manhausen
Beautiful ships. I will DL them as soon as they come out.

You might want to lower the barrel lengths on the last batch of ships? They sort of stick out and mess up the "flow" of the ship somewhat.

Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:28 pm
by Rugdumph
As in make the guns shorter or bring them in parallel to the ship? If the latter the only reason they stick out is to get the turret arc right. Otherwise, i just didn't wan't to shrink the sections too much but i guess in game it'd still look fine.

Anyway here's the download with custom sprites folder included just in case, but mine is just arca's which i download plus a few weapon sprites.

http://filesmelt.com/dl/Rugdumphs_Mod_Fleet_0.1_.rar

Edit: Armed heavy fleet destroyer, two pairs of railguns, two twin particle rifle turrets, and two short range gluon bolters.

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I'll make new downloads every few ships or so depending on progress. And yeah i still haven't coloured them but i don't want to ruin them, i'm going to do team colours properly two and add doodads too just for prettifyings sake. And for your own warning i haven't balanced the destroyers yet so some own others and etc.