HorseMonster Spaceships

Chiiro · Post by **Chiiro** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:35 am

They look great. Not flashy, or cool, just downright functionally great. This is really a zone of shipbuilding that people have been hesistant to venture into, since it's not what most people typically think off when they start thinking about spaceships but you went there and you did it great.

Sponge · Post by **Sponge** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:36 am

Anna hit the nail on the head. That said, I think these could actually be really fun to play with. Mess around with some light machine guns and maybe some hidden thrusters, set health to ultra low, and make an encounter. Might be fun.

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:28 am

I do appreciate that the huge PCV pipe section + Sheets of crackers with rocket engines attatched isn't particularly "beautiful", but I think that there are things other than aesthetics that are worth striving for when designing a fictional spaceship. Additionally I thank people for the extremely positive comments regarding the quality of the ships.

I'll probably have something to release tomorrow, assuming that everything works out It'll probably be a pack of eight ships (Four of each type and with a tech level ranging between 1960-2015) and my entire section folder.

For anyone who downloaded earlier, there are lots of issues with the ships released earlier that have now been fixed.

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:39 am

Okay, here is a download featuring everything I promissed.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zjm3wh3cinm

This download features eight different spaceships each of which is made in one of two distinctive styles in order to represent opposing forces in some space conflict which I could come up with soome kind of story for, but who cares about that? Also included are all of the sections needed to use the included ships (probably) and some more after that. Feel free to make your own things using them if you so desire, but don't come running to me complaining that things are off centre, I know, I'm working on it.

If you notice any major problems with anything please do point it out. In the mean time I'll be writing descriptions for and taking builder shots of all my spaceships so that I can post them and entice people into downloading them.

praetors · Post by **praetors** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:16 am

hey, i use your ships, i see the ship with missile launcher in action and i have a question:
How do you make the HVR-Rocket launcher?
I like the mix between the 2 weapons, first acts as a HVR, and then pursued the enemy and accelerates like a rocket.
Please, give me the secret!

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:24 am

praetors wrote:hey, i use your ships, i see the ship with missile launcher in action and i have a question:
How do you make the HVR-Rocket launcher?
I like the mix between the 2 weapons, first acts as a HVR, and then pursued the enemy and accelerates like a rocket.
Please, give me the secret!

It's not really a secret, you just give a HVR a shot tracking value above 0, I'm pretty sure that the ones on those ships have 9.

praetors · Post by **praetors** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:27 am

ok i don't try that hehehe...

TY

Post by **Arcalane** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:29 am

Nice stuff. Be warned that custom beam sprites are buggy when firing on enemy ships, so I'd suggest sticking with the defaults where possible. Don't forget you can recolour them, and use multiple/linked beams to get a nicer visual effect.

Take in mind that the "origin" of a sprite (the position that spawns certain effects, amongst other things) is set to the dead center on custom sprites, so you should take this into account when drawing custom projectiles. You can safely add empty, black/background-colour space to your sprites to balance things out, though this can be tricky for selecting weapons with custom sprites.

Properly set origins are a must have for any sections or objects that are intended to rotate or spawn effects like smoke and submunitions when destroyed, like turrets, hinges, and bullets.

Ed: Definitely borrowing those big scary autocannons for the metagame's pirates though, they're perfect for a frigate design I have in mind...

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:41 am

If you intend to use that Autocannon you're going to want this, the version in that download has a minor error in one of the firing frames. Basically there's some transparency where there should be green instead. Here it is fixed.

Post by **Arcalane** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:41 am

BSF isn't upset by GIF transparency actually, but hey, better safe than sorry right?

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:50 am

It actually did cause a minor graphical hiccup in game. It wasn't visible under most normal circumstances, but when a weapon using the sprite was against a bright background and it fired a one pixel thick line was visible at the very end of the weapon sprite during a single frame of the firing animation. You can test it yourself to be sure if you are in that way inclined.

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:02 am

Here are some individual spaceship preview images along with some passable background and descriptions of each. Because I said I would ages ago and then didn't.

The AANC

The Alliance of Autonomous Nations and Colonies is an alliance consisting of space habitats with autonomous governments , independent extra-planetary colonies and a few terrestrial nations formed for the purpose of mutual defence and the preservation of sovereignty of its member states. The AANC is often brought into conflict with the Unified Strategic Defence League as in recent years and in the light of the increasing profitability of offworld resource collection several USDL members nations have attempted to assert diplomatic and military pressures against independent offworld colonies in attempts to bring them under their control.

Spacecraft of the AANC

Inscrutable-Type Light Attacker

The most lightly armed and armoured transorbital spacecraft operated by the AANC, the Inscrutable type is designed as an relatively cheap but effective orbital defence solution suitable for production by poorer and less developed colonies equipped with only basic spacecraft construction facilities.

Irresistible-Type Medium Attacker

The Irresistible type light attacker is a more heavily armed variant of the Inscrutable type and features two anti-spacecraft missile racks that enable it to engage targets at much longer ranges and with much greater lethality than the Inscrutable type.

Unfathomable-Type Heavy Attacker

Rarely seen in orbit over minor colonial conflict zones the Unfathomable type heavy attacker is a powerful and hard hitting combatant capable of effortlessly dealing fatal damage to anything short of a battle station. The Unfathomable type is armed with two powerful chemical laser turrets as well as four anti-spacecraft missile racks.

Invisible-Type Long Range Harrier

The invisible type long range is designed to intercept ballistic missiles, satellites and orbital-only spacecraft by means of a pair of continuous beam chemical lasers, but is also effective at dealing substantial damage to transorbital spacecraft at long ranges and as such it often fills a fire support role in larger engagements.

Irrevocable-Type Heavy Gun Carrier

The purpose of the Irrevocable type is to destroy large, heavily armoured targets from extreme ranges with its 90mm high velocity cannon. The cannon in question uses an advanced liquid propellant system and a complex robotic autoloader to achieve extremely high projectile velocities and a rapid rate of fire.

Immovable-Type Defence Platform

The absence of a large scale orbital conflict occurring in orbit of the home planet of the AANC and the USDL is often attributed to the presence of the AANC’s nuclear armed Immovable type defence platforms. Whilst largely immobile the Immovable type defence platforms are a nightmare to anyone planning an orbital campaign anywhere that they are present. The primary armament of the Immovable type is a single huge projectile cannon that can accurately fire massive, low-yield nuclear warheads far beyond the effective range of most spacecraft weapons. It is also armed with two supplementary chemical lasers for defence against small targets.

Post by **Arcalane** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:17 am

Are those a new gun sprites I spy on the Irrevocable and Immovable?

Also, I think you missed a word (in red) in the opening paragraph;

The AANC is often brought into conflict(?) with the Unified Strategic Defence League as in recent years and in the light of the increasing profitability of offworld resource collection...

HorseMonster · Post by **HorseMonster** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:35 am

Why yes they are new sprites. Here they are, these are they. I felt the need to differentiate between the two opposing forces' autocannon weapons.

And I'm fairly sure that I used that term as I intended. The two parties are in conflict with eachother and now a state of conflict exists between them.

Post by **Arcalane** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:37 am

No, my point is, the word isn't even there.