WYRDYSM GAMES

Here is the first bit of a possibly on-going project to make "functional" and "realistic" ships. What do I mean by these claims? Well:

1. System representation in design
Most ships are designed to look cool and then just have some weapons or other systems stuck on. For these ships I wanted the weapons to not only be a major part of the design, but to feel realistically large and complex. Those Laser cannons or point defense guns have generators, ammo supplies, cooling systems, etc. Engines have fuel tanks, thrusters are present all over the body to enable movement in any direction and so on. Ships all begin with a frame over which internal systems are assembled and then armor is layered on top. They were built for functionality first, ascetics second.

2. You are going to die, space man
When this is eventually done the ships will be balanced in a hopefully realistic way. This means that Weapons will be slow, very long range and very powerful. The armor on ships will only be able to survive a few shots at best and the internal components are fragile (read: Prone to explosion). This means that fights are long distance, brutal and short lived.

Still in the experimental stage, but maybe I'll get around to making something good. for now though, this is it.

Ships so far.

"Hotseat"
Nickname references large, exposed heat sinks on either side of the main laser assembly. A test ship really, slow to accelerate, somewhat quick to turn. Useful in swarms but cannon fodder otherwise.
Armored

Laser assembly exposed


"Lobster"
Reason for the name is obvious, I hope. Two lasers with matching generators behind the cockpit. Armor is much thicker then that of the Hotseat. Dangerous at long range and against larger ships, but lacks the ability to fight small ships at close range.
Armed Frame

Armored

_________________
http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr40 ... 0001-5.gif

Intruiging Noctis, both of those are quite nice looking. I have a question though.
Where's the heat-sinks on the Lobster ship?

EDIT: Fixed the name

_________________
Mildly sane.

I'm loving the concept. I think BSF has been heading this way in some respects, and I hope it kicks off. They look great, and the "functional" aspect is something I've been wanting to see since I started looking at the Beauty Pageant ships. I really hope you make more.

Any chance you'll be posting downloads? If you do, I'd like to build something to balance against them. Could be fun, and some nice videos of battles would be good for the community's vigor.

Interesting... This could add a much appreciated dimension of reality to BattleShips Forever... Also the ships look really nice.

_________________
Roses are RED,
Violets are BLU,
In Soviet Russia,
Sandvich eats you.

Gamertag: SpectreX027

This is hardly the first attempt at this style. Indeed, the style was pioneered by xVhorpax quite some time ago, and I made my own designs of a similar bent. I haven't tried it yet using shiny sections though.

These ships aren't bad, but not really anything special either. I daresay they look more interesting before the armored layer is added.

_________________
Founder and Event Coordinator for the BSF Beauty Pageant. Founder of the Pseudo-Chainship Project. Admin. Games Master.
Quality Control Enforcer

Not surprised, but its the first attempt that I've personally seen, so I'm guessing it's the first attempt in a little while at least. I'm curious about the others though, yours included. xVhorpax doesn't return anything in searches and I'd rather not attempt to find yours, considering your prolific nature and habit of scattering ships about in different posts. A link or two would be appreciated.


Ha, obviously, I think so too. If I do it right the armor will strip off with damage and reveal the inner workings, which is kinda neat. But, like I said, I'm just kind of experimenting with the idea of building stuff that looks real, as opposed to stuff that looks cool. There's overlap, if I'm lucky. Thanks for the C&C.



I'll post a full download of all the ships I make whenever I finish/get bored and give up. Wanna have more then 2 before I start releasing shit.

_________________
http://i467.photobucket.com/albums/rr40 ... 0001-5.gif

It's vVhorpax; his thread is here.

_________________
　 ／l、
ﾞ（ﾟ､ ｡ ７
　l、ﾞ ~ヽ
　じしf_, )ノ

I broadly agree with your ideas on this, I try to include thrusters for braking for example. These fights need not necessarily be short, the likely distances involved mean that misses are far more likely than hits, even with very accurate weapons. Weapons with an effective muzzle velocity of C or near C might seem unbeatable, but at large distances, it would be quite difficult to hit a ship making radical evasive manoeuvers, given the minuscule degree of arc it would occupy.

Also, you can't shoot at where it is, because you can only see where it was due to the time it takes photons etc. to travel. Missiles are probably a better bet, if they have good active targeting, and their own evasive pattern to avoid PD systems. It's a shame the game doesn't accommodate this, the PD is just too effective, especially point beams. Stealth technology makes hitting stuff even harder, and I'm not talking about cloaks, just what already exists.

I don't know that you'd necessarily have too many workings exposed, given the extremely low temperature and negative pressure it's best to protect moving parts if you can. This helps with heat sinks though, they can be much smaller than if they were in a planetary atmosphere. I noted in another thread someone saying spaceships don't have to be aerodynamic; true if they're not going to have to operate in atmosphere, but they still need to be more or less symmetrical in terms of mass distribution otherwise steering might be problematic...

You don't see these kinds of battle in TV series or films because they're visually not very dramatic. There was a program on Radio 4 the other day about sound effects in space scenes, they always add a low rumble and moving stars because it doesn't look right if you don't (except in 2001 presumably).

_________________
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?