Machine's Creations - TSC fleet, UPDATED (8/29/11)

[Machine]

Well none of them are actually sprited, they were rendered. I sightly tuned down the colour depth, resized them and fixed some issues manually; but most of the work was done in 3D. As a source I've used some screenshots, leaked SC2 zerg images, and just wildlife images, that I used as texture maps for the models.

I will probably do some mechanical stuff after these, using the same technique. It should be faster as I've made around 500 mb worth of 3d mech/tank/vehicle models

[Ixranin]

I'm keeping an eye on this thread.

Definitely one of the better 3D->sprite conversions I've seen too. You even put weapons on them. Or... at least I think those are weapons.

[Droid]

Those organic-looking stuff are awesome.

[Machine]

Hello again, first sorry for being away for quite some time, mostly college stuff.
I haven't forgotten about my organic monster/spaceships stuff, and I'll upload some WIPs (no grey-scale versions yet) the attached file contains a couple of doodads, 2 larval missiles and tentacle weapons (those are best used as short range railguns). I'll probably do more sprites after new year.

Also I've been experimenting with shiny sections, which are awesome BTW. And I would like some feedback. I'm planning to build a fleet with them. Just 3 ships, for now, all of them WIPs.



The Pavise and Sabre can go into a protected state that disables a couple of their weapons, the Pavise does so because its missile launchers are quite weak and easily destroyed, the Sabre disables its main mega particle cannon in order to expose a little less it's anti capital ship torpedoes (they have a critical object module).
The Pavise (it's a kind of shield) is meant as a shield and has a Flux Projector and an Impeder module, it barely does damage, but it can take a lot of punishment. The Sabre is structurally weak, but it's a much faster ship with a long range Dieterling module (nice shockwaves). They both work well together, specially if the Pavise is the target.




The Halberd is a capital ship, mainly a partial remake of my Leviathan, with some new stuff. As it's namesake, the Halberd is a multi-purpose ship, it has a pair of nuclear MIRVs, 2 side mounted cannons (haven't named them yet), a dual version of said cannons in the middle (C&C inspired in design) and a main Tesla Cannon.
And yeah, the central turret has thrusters to counter recoil, and the MIRVs use laser targeting. And no animated gifs since it doesn't show well on the shipmaker.

Finally, I would like to know if it's possible to get rid of the line between a section and its aegis deflector. The thing is, I want to parent the deflector to the same section as the Flux Projector, so it acts as a centralized shield generator, but I get a very faint line, even if I set the aegis colour to black.

[Rugdumph]

Those are some honestly great ships, love the front of the Halberd particularly. Shall look forward to more!

[Machine]

No ships with this post. I got a weird idea a pair of days ago, a small ship (exosuit actually) made of completely animated sections.
The thing is, I LOVE mechs, but they get too big in comparison to ships, and making one with small sections doesn't give you the detail I would like. The best way to solve this would be using one or 2 sections, but that would mean a lack of animations and that sucks.
I'm planning to render an animated 3D model from the top view, this would remove the lack of animation (I could get a more fluid movement too), and let me increase the detail.
In relation to the missing outlines, I think I can fix it, by using cell shading and a ink material. But before I start doing this (which would be likely in a month), I would like to hear some opinions.

Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

The sections I would be making would be composed of a mix of those models I made for a Tiberian Sun mod (example links). I'm currently planning a shield, a backpack and, of course, the suit itself (all 3 animated with the same frame number so they would fit together, I hope).

Anyway that's the idea, I would like to hear opinions or different ideas, since I don't really want to waste my time, and realize I did do something for nothing (it has happened me before, several times).

Finally, what would be your opinion on a flamethrower weapon in space?, as silly as that may sound.

[Da_Dooley]

Approval: Given
CnC: Win
Machine's kewlness for referencing CnC: LEVEL UP!

I think that these would be pretty sweet, and if you make them with the same level of awesomeness as you did the bioships, then these should be pretty well received.

By me, at least

[vidboi]

hmmmm, a flamethrower in space, could actually work... napalm has it's own oxygen supply (basically trapped air in the fuel) so it could burn in a vacuum. the flamethrower would produce a much more stable plume than that sprite as there are no eddies in space ^^ but yeah, cool sprite anyway

[Machine]

Considering I got some free time I decided to do some rendering and see if my mech idea was doable; it is.
Here is an animated ingame screenshot

It's not continuous but that's my fault since I just got around half the frames when screen capping; at least it works fine ingame.
The suit is made of the following sections:
-Torso
-Backpack/Jetpack
-2 Arms (actually 2 individual sections)
-2 Guns (again, 2 individual sections)

The suit also has a critical object, so you can't replace them (via powerup); it also works as a self destruction mechanism as critical objects seem to explode after a ship jumps away.
I doubt I'll make it more compatible with the shiny sections, since I want to do a mechanical counterpart for my organic sections.

And I'm adding some more WIPs.

The big ship is the Arbalest, it uses lasers as main weapons and it has a Rorsarch module.
The small satellite is an Ion Cannon , it has one big laser and it barely moves.
The medium ship is currently nameless, and it was just done by playing around with the new shiny sections, it has no weapons currently. (Probably going to replace all the thrusters of my older shiny ships with the section I used in this ship)
The caterpillar ship, well I'm currently redesigning the "drones" (sections), the sections will be also ships on their own. Those drills on the tail are actually missiles, and they do spin . I made the drills for a mining vessel I never did, dunno why I gave the drills to this ship.
The weird looking thing is a Gate, well I'm probably going to remake. It just spawns bigger ships.

[Corporal Jomn]

They're pretty interesting, can't wait to see more.

[Squishy]

Might be cool for the Pavise side missiles to extend and retract for firing.

[Machine]

Well I've had very little free time since classes restarted, until quite recently (this week; and it's likely not going to last), this is because it's my last year of college before doing my thesis.
However I haven't been idle, well mostly.
I'm almost done with a pack of shiny ships (fleet), I just need to do some fighters and a couple of frigates.


I've updated with new thrusters my old shiny ships. And I've also added some new ships, in a sightly different colorscheme, you have drone ships, Human made robot ships created to fight the aliens (upcoming bioship fleet and sections; dunno when it will be finished though)


This second picture is the new work, mostly...
It has a couple of pirate/corsair ships, the Ballista, Cutlass and Dagger classes. Of them the most special is the Dagger which can cloak itself at your command (pressing ",") kinda useless ingame against the AI, but it makes nice screenshots. The Dagger's weapons are deactivated when it cloaks. The main weapon, a sabot cannon, also cloaks and it's a mobile turret (actually it's just a section with an invisible weapon as a driver).
The Claymore is quite fragile and it also lacks weapons, but it has a powerful laser, this dreadnought is meant to siege/destroy planets, it also has a pair of torpedoes.
The Maul class dreadnought is kinda slow but bears several torpedoes and missiles in addition to conventional ballistic weapons, unlike the rest of the human ships, it lacks energy weapons, this includes the trademark dual 3 point defense laser array present in all cruiser and dreadnought class ships.
The Kestros (a kestros is a dart throwing sling) is a carrier cruiser, it deploys Darts and Javelin class fighters.
The Scepter is a command cruiser, unlike the Pavise or the Lance, the shield it employs isn't hardened, so it doesn't mitigate every attack against it, however it does cover the whole ship, weapon wise, like the Maul and Pavise, the Scepter class can hide it's missiles to protect them. It also has a mega particle cannon and a pair of lasers.
Finally the Lance has a hardened shield it doesn't cover a lot, but it's not meant to be used like that, as it's a weaponized shield. When a target gets close the lance impales it extending its prow.

[Kiltric]

I must say, I love these. You have solid designs all around, and the general feel of the fleet as distinctly purposed units is great.

The torpedoes on the Claymore are an especially nice touch.

Two questions: Where did the shield sprite for the Scepter come from? and is the Lance's impaling combat functional or just cosmetic?

[Machine]

First, some updates. I've been trying to finish the fleet, which finally has a name, though it's not very original... (Terran Systems Coalition). Also added a logo to the every ship with the exception of strike craft and turrets.

The new ships are mostly "stationary" defenses
Well both the Onager (a mass driver turret) and the Oxybeles (a missile battery) have dieterling devices so they can teleport; both names are based on siege weapons.
The Scorpion (a defensive hangar) is meant to deploy 4 Flechettes (which I haven't made yet); it's name is also a siege weapon.
The Ayllo (Ayllo was the Incan name for Bolas/Boleadoras), is another missile battery, but this one is deployed from Atlalt Carriers. I couldn't get a nice ingame screenshot from its deployed state (it opens the missile launcher's cover and deploys radiators after firing its lasers). There's quite a difference in shading between the game and shipmaker due to gradients .
The Atlalt is the last Dreadnought class ship for the fleet, the name comes from Aztec spear thrower weapons (The ayllo was named like that because of this ship, I thought it would be nice to have both related to American civilizations, yet this won't extend to the aircraft it deploys, Bucklers (a mobile hardened shield with a pair of point defense turrets) and Pilums (not started yet, meant to be a bomber). The Atlalt is unfinished in the image, which is why it's lacking thruster flares and most weapons, though it won't have many weapons, after all it's meant to rely on the deployed ships.
The Tomahawk can be seen as a small Maul, since it only uses conventional weaponry, but unlike it, it's quite fast and it's not meant to destroy big targets, instead it excels at destroying strike crafts and does OK against similarly sized targets.
The Longbow is a long range ship armed with missiles, a pair of railguns and a torpedo, it's also able to deploy Arrows, which are mobile laser cannons.

Ships remaining:
-1 Cruiser class carrier (after standardizing the ships into classes based on their size, the Kestros was too small to be a cruiser, so I reclassified it as a frigate).
-2 Strike Craft (Flechette and Pilum).
-1 Frigate
-1 small turret

@Kiltric
The Scepter's shield sprite is actually 4 animated sprites made by TheBlueEcho; it's on the second page (or in this link).
And the Lance's impaling is mostly cosmetic, since it just requires to be in close proximity to the target ship to damage it, however it does serve to increase the ship's range.

[jwa8402]

Wow you've got alot of good ship designs, and such a variety too! I like the naming scheme. Maybe for a large station you can do a chakram or philippine battle tree lol. Keep em coming!