Auroran States: Because epic scale is the new norm.

Archives for ships and fleets. 'nuff said. Most of the ships here are very very old and will not work in current versions of BSF or SM. You have been warned!

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Wind Tempest
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Auroran States: Because epic scale is the new norm.

Post by Wind Tempest »

Image
Utsuho Battleship
Super Capital Ship Scale:2km blocks
Faction Information

Length: 8.6 km
Width: 10.4 km
Height: 3.6 km
Crew: 30,000 + 20,000 Auxiliary Crew
Sections: 150
Total Armor: 130396.61
Speed: .5
Turning .1

Weapons:
30 Ion Cannon
22 Placer Fusion Cannon
14 Displacer Jump Cannon
6 Fusion Torch Arrays(Point Defense)

Armor:
Crystalline Tungsten Carbide
Front: 2 km
Sides: 1.5 km
Read: .5 km

Reactor:
3 DD Macro Reactor
2 DD Reactor

Conventional Thruster:
3 Macro Heavy Ionic Graviton Thruster
2 Ionic Graviton Thruster

Faster-Than-Light Engine:
1 Macro Heavy Rapid Jump Drive
2 Heavy Rapid Jump Drive

Command Structure:
Commands 4 Capital Phalanx within a Battle Armada

Image
Lore
"Christ!" Admiral Helios shouted amidst the disaster before him.

Helios was given a important task by his superiors. Take his fleet along with the remaining ships in the late Admiral Yoshida's fleet and late Admiral Joseph's fleet and destroy the Utsuho Battleship. Both had met their end after the Utsuho Battleship jumped to the middle of their fleets and using their immense firepower crippled both fleets. Including those two fleets, Helios was in command of roughly 62 ships. Normally this would be enough to secure a planet, but they weren't fighting a Planetary Defense Force. Against the Utsuho Battleship he felt naked even amidst his bolstered fleet.

He was not hard headed nor arrogant about his position and men. He knew his strengths and weaknesses when combating the enemy. However, all he knew for this battle were weaknesses. Even before his fleet entered combat range, several streams of purple light struck the hull of several frigates only to bore through them and smash against the frigates and destroyers behind them. These frigates Helios thought, were lucky as he watched the destroyers who were the true target of the Utsuho's cannons erupt in flames and explode. Displacer Jump Cannons were the name of those terrifying weapons. The violet light was the only visible hint of its power as it can easily slice through the armored hulls of his ships only to detonate in a fusion explosion. Practically useless against smaller ships like frigates and gunships, but utterly devastating against anything larger.

Another wave of violet misfortune soared towards his fleet, this time it was followed by a wave of white lights. He would be in range of the Utsuho in ten seconds. This last barrage would be the last barrage his fleet would take without retaliation. He urged those ships under his command to continue and brace for impact. Impact was indeed what they braced for as the violet lights chose their targets against even when shielded by the smaller frigates. Once the violet lights made their mark, the white lights slammed themselves into the frigates leaving holes into and out of their smaller chassis. Unable to take this sort of punishment many frigates fell apart and were destroyed alone with the destroyers targeted. Helios knew from previous battles that those white beams came from what Placer Fusion Cannons. Powerful fusion torches enhanced with their warp engines for greater range for minimal damage lost. It was horrid, within a span of 30 seconds he had already lost 7 ships; 3 Destroyers and 4 Frigates.

Now with 55 ships under his command he issued his second order which was favored in these situations, "All ships, full power to thrusters, engage at will!"

That was two minutes ago. Surrounding a larger ship and focusing fire upon its hull would have been enough, but the thick hull of the Utsuho was just too much for the frigate's light weaponry and a majority of the larger ships were torn asunder and left mostly helpless with most of their weapons stripped by weapons fire.

"Christ!" Admiral Helios shouted amidst the disaster before him.

What was 55 when he ordered the charge was now to a meager 13 mostly functional frigates fighting for their lives. Helios stood on the remains of the bridge of his Battlecruiser which received countless Displacer rounds which ruptured the warp drives and engines leaving him derelict. Having told everyone to evacuate and withdraw from the battlefield, the frigates only stayed so that the shuttles could board them and escape safely. This was unfortunately a harsh task as the multitude of Ion Cannons unloaded their ionized blasts into the frigates in rapid succession forced them to constantly evade these volleys. Admiral Helios attention soon focused on the starboard side of the Utsuho Battleship which faced his crippled ship. As six Displacer cannons charged and aimed towards his ship and he knew that his part in this war was over.
-----

I felt that writing some lore for the ship gives it more flavor(also allows me to practice my writing skills. If you people do not want me to write such long stories for each of my ships then I will stop.

More importantly this is the largest ship I have made and have put a great deal of effort into trying to make it look nice. Originally I wanted to give make the weapon banks sliding so when enemies came, the armored sections(blue) slid down revealing the weapons. I choose not to at the end due to lack of effort on my part and lack of knowledge on the advance portions of Ship Builder.
Wicky_42
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Post by Wicky_42 »

Ok, you've made the basic beginner mistake of spammage. The shape of the ship has potential, but try to make use of more than 5 sections when there's almost 200 bundled with the game, plus player made sections, plus your own. Also, fewer more powerful guns is always better than lots of - try consolidating your batteries.

On the flip side, nice custom turrets - I particularly like the second tier.
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Danny420Dale
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Post by Danny420Dale »

Ship's a wee bit section spammy and HOLYSHITWTF weapon-spammy. Try grouping them into distinct batteries at the least. However, the weapon sprites are win!
maarten
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Post by maarten »

Hideous, that's all I can say. I am sure other people may find more pleasant ways to tell this but:
Group 1 only parts????????
Epic weapon spam
Ugly shape
No sections placement, just random sections
Boring colours
And even MIRRORING ERRORS

Lurk more or leave, all I can say.
Danny420Dale
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Post by Danny420Dale »

maarten wrote:Lurk more or leave, all I can say.
No. You don't need to run him off. :roll:
maarten
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Post by maarten »

Danny420Dale wrote:
maarten wrote:Lurk more or leave, all I can say.
No. You don't need to run him off. :roll:
Didn't mean to.
Just....come on he has spriting potential but you don't post stuff like this.
AlphaDetisMegas
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Post by AlphaDetisMegas »

*Stops the flamewar before it begins*

you have spriting potentail but try to use sections from more groups using the ~ and 1-4 keys

the ship is way too weapon spammy like this.
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Wind Tempest
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Post by Wind Tempest »

Lurk more or leave, all I can say
Nice to see such fine examples of criticism.

As I stated before this is the largest ship I built and worked on reducing the section spam. I agree that this could still use some finer details. I never saw weapon spam as a huge problem due to the size of the ship. There are plenty of open sections which balance it out. Section making is something I haven't tried yet. Probably because it would just be one of the pre-made sections modified.

With the exception of 'he who shall not be named', thanks for your comments.
Wicky_42
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Post by Wicky_42 »

Wind Tempest wrote: I never saw weapon spam as a huge problem due to the size of the ship. There are plenty of open sections which balance it out.
That's not quite how it works. It's more about the repetitive nature of placing row upon row of the same weapon, particularly when it's clear that that's all you were thinking of - literally taking banks of weapons as a row of the same gun.

Think about designing emplacements - bits of hull that look like weapons should be mounted there, layer hull over the weapons partially, group them in clusters, replace each group of three with one with the same power/ burst of three. Just have a look at some of the good ships on the forum - it's not hard to steal some ideas.

Same goes for your use of sections - hit z then the top left key, then try pressing 1, 2, 3 and 4 to get access to more sections. Then have a play, or look at how other people have used said sections. Look in the Holy Ship thread. Don't tile two or three sections over and over - that was what people were doing when the ship maker was released, and as a community we've come a long way. Learn from our experience. Please.
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Squishy
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Post by Squishy »

Custome weapons are the saving grace for this ship.

Take Wicky_42's advice regarding weapon placement, as well as continue working with the hull itself. Currently it's a large oblique block of gun emplacements.
Isu
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Post by Isu »

Exposed core is exposed. >.>
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and two we find before.
We stand behind before we find
what those behind be for.
jwa8402
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Post by jwa8402 »

Isu wrote:Exposed core is exposed. >.>
How do you figure? Ya its visible, but pretty well armored from the front at least.

I'd say this is a good shape, but you seriously need to start from scratch, even if you try this design again. Probably 90% of the sections would have to be swapped or severally changed to make this look any better.

Each deck could be a different set of sections, the whole design could be elongated slightly, probably every other weapon removed, the ones that are left depthed properly or put on bases, the ablative armor done properly, details like: reactors, launch bays, command towers, etc to break up the monotony of sections, and more detail could be given to the engines.

I'd love to get my hands on some of those weapons though... did you make them or were they released in another pack?
Wind Tempest
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Post by Wind Tempest »

I made these weapon sprites. I have a habit of only using the stuff I make with the exception of the default sections since I am lazy. If I had something beyond mspaint I would make animated weapons. As far as I know you can't replace the core of the ship with a custom shape, which is too bad. I wouldn't mind making a new bridge section. Currently in the process of making a few custom sections. I doubt I would have anything usable for a few days though. Especially for a ship of that scale. Probably convert some of my smaller ships with those said customs.
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Arcalane
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Post by Arcalane »

Wind Tempest wrote:If I had something beyond mspaint I would make animated weapons.
This thread has some basic info.
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Raul
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Post by Raul »

you can't replace the core sprite but you can take the sprites of the core in the misc folder and alter them, or make it look like the core is at a different depth. Theres also sections built as core armor in the custom sprites folders!
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