Retsof's Ships

Let's face it, the main attraction of BSF is building your own ships. Share them! If you need help, check the Shipmaker Info & Help forum a little ways down.

Moderators: th15, Moderators

Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

So, I've lurked for a bit, and I think I have something that is fiarly flame resistant, but I guess I'll find out. These are fairly small and simple. They are not balanced to the default ships, but they are balanced for thier own continuity. I have not put too much thought into a backstory yet, aside from blatantly stealing from freespace 2. These ships do include some custom weapon sprites (one or two are simply SWized default weapons). Also used Kaelis' SW sprites and one of HorseMoster's cannons. Things I would like advice on: Coloring, I made these shades of grey because I couldn't think of anything else that would look half decent. Also Doodads, I have not put any on because I am bad at good doodad placement.
Oh, and my sprites are not in the proper naming format, I will correct this if I make a Custom Content thread for them.

EDIT: Updated 9-19-2010
Attachments
Mercury class frigate.  Workhorse of the fleet.  Has two machineguns and and a high velocity missile launcher.
Mercury class frigate. Workhorse of the fleet. Has two machineguns and and a high velocity missile launcher.
Mercury.png (3.86 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Phobos class frigate.  Brings a trio of enhanced range missiles to the feild.
Phobos class frigate. Brings a trio of enhanced range missiles to the feild.
Phobos.png (3.12 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Deimos class frigate.  Armed with a single light artillery cannon.  (light only in relation to it's bigger brothers)
Deimos class frigate. Armed with a single light artillery cannon. (light only in relation to it's bigger brothers)
Deimos.png (3.19 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Seth class frigate.  Primary ship of the (insert alien race here) fleet.  Has two dual machineguns and a five-per-volley missile launcher.
Seth class frigate. Primary ship of the (insert alien race here) fleet. Has two dual machineguns and a five-per-volley missile launcher.
Seth.png (3.58 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Qeb class drone.  Cheap and expendable, brings a short range missile system to the feild.
Qeb class drone. Cheap and expendable, brings a short range missile system to the feild.
Qeb.png (1.17 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Thoth class frigate.  Launches a packet of 20 missiles from long range.
Thoth class frigate. Launches a packet of 20 missiles from long range.
Thoth.png (5.58 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
RetShips.zip
Zip file of ships and sprites.
(15.41 KiB) Downloaded 115 times
Last edited by Retsof on Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Aurafire
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:45 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Aurafire »

The first three are fairly good, the shape flows and it's nice to look at.

The last three aren't appealing the two big, flat sections throw it off. Try covering it up with smaller sections to add more detail.

But yeah, the nice, shiny steel looks very flame resistant.

Also, kudos to creating a new balance system. That's often time consuming to do.
Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

The first three are fairly good, the shape flows and it's nice to look at.
Thanks
The last three aren't appealing the two big, flat sections throw it off. Try covering it up with smaller sections to add more detail.
These are fairly small ships, so I don't want to use too many sections, but I'll see if I can slip some more detail in there. I want to keep them rather blocky in shape though.
kudos to creating a new balance system. That's often time consuming to do.
Thanks, it takes a lot of tinkering to get it right. I used ally ships with the AI fleet controller during testing. Then you just watch and see what happens, change a number here or there, maybe move a section, and repeat. Incidentaly the blocky "terran" ships will usually win in an even fight, but not by much, so the alieans (guh, need a name) will need a small numerical advantage to win.
Water_and_Wind
Captain
Captain
Posts: 497
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:29 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Water_and_Wind »

Welcome to the community! Your ships are a bit too simple for me to make any judgement from, but its good to have newbies who've lurk a bit and have checked out what others have done. My advice for colouring is to use colours with low saturation (below 50%) and read up on some colour theory (e.g. http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html), which can be easily found on the search engine of your choice. :)
Metagame 2.0 calculator: [url]http://bsf_meta2_calculator.byethost17.com/index.php[/url]
Curvy Alien Fleet: viewtopic.php?t=4959
Thrusallanian Naval Database: Patrol Craft to Behemoth, support ships, stations, warp gates, everything.
http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... sc&start=0
Fleets of the Five States, get it here: http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1929
Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

Replaced the flat sprite, better?
Your ships are a bit too simple for me to make any judgement from, but its good to have newbies who've lurk a bit and have checked out what others have done.
Thank you, I plan on making at least two more size levels, but figured I had enough done for now to post and get feedback. I may check out that color theory thing, it's just finding out where to put the color that has me stumped.

EDIT: Forgot to add the image.
Attachments
SMscreen06.png
User avatar
Anna
The artist formerly known as SilverWingedSeraph
Posts: 3447
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Anna »

Pro-tip: Press "Home" before taking your screenshot. That will take the screenshot at the default zoom level, and means we can see your ships without them being big blurred messes. You can also change the background. Changing the background to an ordinary flat black .bmp file makes seeing your ships a lot easier.

The ships themselves seem decent enough for a beginner.
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer
Gay cute girl and fucking proud of it.
Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

Updated first page.
vidboi
Tournamentator
Tournamentator
Posts: 669
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:14 am
Location: UK

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by vidboi »

i actually preferred the terran ships when they had the "flat" sprite, it looked clean, wheras now they just look messy. there's nothing really wrong with small ships as they are good to play with in game, they just don't have as much scope aesthetically as larger vessels
There is no OP, there is only more boosters...
Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

Thoughts?
Attachments
SMscreen06.png
User avatar
Kiltric
Captain
Captain
Posts: 491
Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:44 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Kiltric »

Is this meant to be an entire ship? If so, the square-ish shape isn't very appealing.

It looks to me like a ship sitting in a dock that's attacked to nothing. If that's the case, then this looks pretty good, assuming you actually make the dock look finished.
Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

It is supposed to be a dock in the process of constructing a Mercury. The dock was a rather quick build, I guess I should have put a little more time into it... *yawn* but not tonight.
User avatar
Son Tzu
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 7:55 am
Location: Hunched in a corner, muttering

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Son Tzu »

Quite like the Seth & Thoth, nice shape. Guess it's personal taste when it comes to how much detail you put on. Sometimes more is too much, and if I'm building ships to use them in sandbox or encounter maker I prefer to keep the sprite count as low as possible in order to have LARGE scale battles without massive slowdown.
Don't worry chaps, they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist

Some people spread happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go

nuqDaq yuch Dapol?
Retsof
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:46 am

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Retsof »

Well, I think I am going to redo my terran ships from the ground up, just to let you know. By the way, is there any way to change the ratio of forward to sideways/backward movement? It annoys me that I can place these nice big thrusters on a ship but it still goes nearly as fast backwards or sideways.
Lord Aries Greymon
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:24 pm

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Lord Aries Greymon »

No, there's no way to change that ratio. Sometimes I wish there was.
Mildly sane.
Preacher
Captain
Captain
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:38 pm
Location: somewhere cosy

Re: Retsof's Ships

Post by Preacher »

although STARSTRUCK did a used triggers to give the impression that the ship was accelerating in his Viking ships check it out to see if its what your after, of course your relatively new so I don't know what your trigger experience is like.

On the whole though a decent start, you show some skill so hopefully with a bit of practice you will be churning out awesome ships in no time ;) .
Image

"I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. " Kingdom of heaven.
Post Reply