I give permission for members of Project Caelus at the Starfarer forums to use any and all of my ships, so long as credit and notification are provided. This applies to anyone else who would like to; just let me know first and make sure you don't claim them as your own. Additionally, if you need any better images than I posted or the files themselves, just let me know. Glad the situation was resolved.
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Partitioned for new ships
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Spoiler!
So I've been putting together a fleet of ships, and while I'd like to wait till their far more finished, I'm going to Yosemite for a week so I wanted to get these out there for more feedback. Several people have been instrumental in refining them as far as they are now, but theres still alot to do, and a number of ships not finished enough to show.
I also threw together a backstory, which I don't normally bother with, but figured what the heck. It was written at 5am though so don't be too harsh. I'd like any constructive criticism from anyone willing to take the time. That includes telling me their junk and I should start over.
It was in what would have been the last days of humanity that the aliens came to Earth. Not so far in the future, a mere dozen years, but in that time chaos had become the norm. No troops were recalled from foreign wars, no revolutionary fuel discovered, worse than nothing done to repair the ever increasing damage to the planet. Although outright intercontinental war had not yet broken out, those whose influence had long since faded whispered in smoke filled back rooms of a return to the days of the Cold War; an ever decaying and yet escalating spiral from which mankind would not recover a second time.
Not on it’s own.
When the ship appeared in orbit of the third planet from the sun, things did not go as anyone since Galileo first peered beyond our atmosphere imagined.
No beams of destruction rained down from above, no giant walkers stormed our streets. Perhaps most disappointingly, there were no three breasted women. Nor was there any cover-up by the government; indeed, there was no point in attempting such a thing. Broadcasting itself through every TV, computer, cell phone, and chat room, the alien’s face spoke to the whole planet at once. It was not an unkind face, though unmistakably non-human. Still, the voice spoke in a gentle and aged British accent as it told Humanity, who for once did not interrupt, of it’s own last days and of what the future held for the sons and daughters of Adam.
Mankind, for its part, reacted quite maturely by the standards of it’s fictional telling of first contact. Too long had people looked through telescopes knowing the futility of the universe if we were indeed alone, and imagining almost every conceivable type of life and how they might react to us. And, of course, a deniably small portion of the population who spent most weekends dressing up with pointed ears and swinging glow-sticks were not surprised in the least. Oh there were riots and doom criers, but the alien had timed its appearance as well as circumstances allowed, and for the first time in history, mankind stood as one and listened. And learned…
The alien was quite young. Traditionally it is the centuries old beings that possess all the power and wisdom, but perhaps this was not well thought out. That this species was an evolutionary dead end, rather than the alleged perfect being, would quite probably have made Darwin chuckle. Having a short individual lifetime brought determination and passion far beyond that of a species with even our limited lifespan. Similarly, as a species, there was a far greater drive for knowledge and wisdom with which to leave a legacy. So for centuries, rather than thousands of years, this species had fought and learned and made the most of the moment in its growth into the universe. Perhaps this was to our benefit because in observing many planets, they saw not our centuries of dark age mentality, but the drive and growth of the last two centuries. In that time they saw something of themselves in us, and when it became obvious their race was going to die out, they had no wish to fade away without a legacy.
Thus, they acted quickly and chose us.
“All of these worlds, all our technology and culture and history will you become guardians of”. A mind-boggling thought, but the aliens had chosen well, and we did not hesitate. The history went to the scholars, the music and art to critics, even a team from the Vatican was sent to observe their religion. One would have expected a team of men in black suits to sweep in and secret away all traces of technology, but that too did not go as expected, and here our story begins.
The President of the United States had not come to office in the expected way either. He was the first to successfully run his campaign for free: using sites like Youtube, virtual, ads and debates within popular games. He received the largest youth vote in history, though he did take a minor cut for choosing Horde. When NASA came to him demanding sole access to the new technology, he scornfully turned them away and looked to the internet. Banding together the world’s greatest programmers, and with the help of the alien ambassador, a interface program was created. It allowed a simplistic simulation to be widely distributed as freeware, which in turn allowed anyone, anywhere, to submit a design for Earth’s first fleet.
Thousands of usable ships were submitted, culled in a virtual combat which became as much a pastime as Baseball or UFC. Simultaneously, actual scientists were constantly developing new ways to use the alien technology and new materials. The interface quickly improved from a laggy bug ridden beta to a self contained operating system surpassing Vista in sales. As one of their last acts before they departed to their ancestral home world, the aliens provided a station that could create ships of any design using common components. Competition among ship designers became feverish, with corporations rising up behind the top designers to support upgrades, but in the end no design style was chosen exclusively. Humanity knew that its greatest strength lies in its diversity. Thus a hodgepodge fleet of ships, of all shapes and sizes, now orbits earth, waiting for the inevitable contact with a less benevolent race.
The story is mostly designed to explain why so many of the ships are of similar size and fighting ability but vastly different design. I tired to keep a theme among them but that size seemed like the winner to me so I've not bothered trying to classify them as cruisers, destroyers, etc. I'll fill in details later but think of them as purpose built ships.
I'm aware of the mirroring error here but lost the original file; its now like four sections.
Note: This ship is designed not to look good but to support the story. It was NASA's attempt at a warship, afterwhich the president laughed at them and turned to public designs. Need to update the story to reflect that.
I've had alot of criticism of this ship so I know it needs work but I like the mental design so much I can't help but keep trying to fix it.
Will add a .gif of it rotating and more recent changes later. Gotta run for night class.
I also threw together a backstory, which I don't normally bother with, but figured what the heck. It was written at 5am though so don't be too harsh. I'd like any constructive criticism from anyone willing to take the time. That includes telling me their junk and I should start over.
It was in what would have been the last days of humanity that the aliens came to Earth. Not so far in the future, a mere dozen years, but in that time chaos had become the norm. No troops were recalled from foreign wars, no revolutionary fuel discovered, worse than nothing done to repair the ever increasing damage to the planet. Although outright intercontinental war had not yet broken out, those whose influence had long since faded whispered in smoke filled back rooms of a return to the days of the Cold War; an ever decaying and yet escalating spiral from which mankind would not recover a second time.
Not on it’s own.
When the ship appeared in orbit of the third planet from the sun, things did not go as anyone since Galileo first peered beyond our atmosphere imagined.
No beams of destruction rained down from above, no giant walkers stormed our streets. Perhaps most disappointingly, there were no three breasted women. Nor was there any cover-up by the government; indeed, there was no point in attempting such a thing. Broadcasting itself through every TV, computer, cell phone, and chat room, the alien’s face spoke to the whole planet at once. It was not an unkind face, though unmistakably non-human. Still, the voice spoke in a gentle and aged British accent as it told Humanity, who for once did not interrupt, of it’s own last days and of what the future held for the sons and daughters of Adam.
Mankind, for its part, reacted quite maturely by the standards of it’s fictional telling of first contact. Too long had people looked through telescopes knowing the futility of the universe if we were indeed alone, and imagining almost every conceivable type of life and how they might react to us. And, of course, a deniably small portion of the population who spent most weekends dressing up with pointed ears and swinging glow-sticks were not surprised in the least. Oh there were riots and doom criers, but the alien had timed its appearance as well as circumstances allowed, and for the first time in history, mankind stood as one and listened. And learned…
The alien was quite young. Traditionally it is the centuries old beings that possess all the power and wisdom, but perhaps this was not well thought out. That this species was an evolutionary dead end, rather than the alleged perfect being, would quite probably have made Darwin chuckle. Having a short individual lifetime brought determination and passion far beyond that of a species with even our limited lifespan. Similarly, as a species, there was a far greater drive for knowledge and wisdom with which to leave a legacy. So for centuries, rather than thousands of years, this species had fought and learned and made the most of the moment in its growth into the universe. Perhaps this was to our benefit because in observing many planets, they saw not our centuries of dark age mentality, but the drive and growth of the last two centuries. In that time they saw something of themselves in us, and when it became obvious their race was going to die out, they had no wish to fade away without a legacy.
Thus, they acted quickly and chose us.
“All of these worlds, all our technology and culture and history will you become guardians of”. A mind-boggling thought, but the aliens had chosen well, and we did not hesitate. The history went to the scholars, the music and art to critics, even a team from the Vatican was sent to observe their religion. One would have expected a team of men in black suits to sweep in and secret away all traces of technology, but that too did not go as expected, and here our story begins.
The President of the United States had not come to office in the expected way either. He was the first to successfully run his campaign for free: using sites like Youtube, virtual, ads and debates within popular games. He received the largest youth vote in history, though he did take a minor cut for choosing Horde. When NASA came to him demanding sole access to the new technology, he scornfully turned them away and looked to the internet. Banding together the world’s greatest programmers, and with the help of the alien ambassador, a interface program was created. It allowed a simplistic simulation to be widely distributed as freeware, which in turn allowed anyone, anywhere, to submit a design for Earth’s first fleet.
Thousands of usable ships were submitted, culled in a virtual combat which became as much a pastime as Baseball or UFC. Simultaneously, actual scientists were constantly developing new ways to use the alien technology and new materials. The interface quickly improved from a laggy bug ridden beta to a self contained operating system surpassing Vista in sales. As one of their last acts before they departed to their ancestral home world, the aliens provided a station that could create ships of any design using common components. Competition among ship designers became feverish, with corporations rising up behind the top designers to support upgrades, but in the end no design style was chosen exclusively. Humanity knew that its greatest strength lies in its diversity. Thus a hodgepodge fleet of ships, of all shapes and sizes, now orbits earth, waiting for the inevitable contact with a less benevolent race.
The story is mostly designed to explain why so many of the ships are of similar size and fighting ability but vastly different design. I tired to keep a theme among them but that size seemed like the winner to me so I've not bothered trying to classify them as cruisers, destroyers, etc. I'll fill in details later but think of them as purpose built ships.
I'm aware of the mirroring error here but lost the original file; its now like four sections.
Note: This ship is designed not to look good but to support the story. It was NASA's attempt at a warship, afterwhich the president laughed at them and turned to public designs. Need to update the story to reflect that.
I've had alot of criticism of this ship so I know it needs work but I like the mental design so much I can't help but keep trying to fix it.
Will add a .gif of it rotating and more recent changes later. Gotta run for night class.