[Enioch]

I'm checking it out right now but you weren't kidding with the steep learning curve. It looks promising though.
Thanks for the link!

You're welcome. There are a few tutorials in their site, but you'll have to figure out what everything does pretty much on your own.

What is really helpful is the 'Import SVG' and 'Import bitmap' nodes. You can draw the basic panels of your fighter in Inkscape, export them as SVG and then apply colors, dirt, rust etc in MapZone.

I agree with Enioch. Give it some wives.

War machines don't get the chance of having a quiet little family life.

lol 'Wires' dammit! 'Wires'!! (meanies...)

[Spoon]

Working on a carrier atm.
Since this will be a one of a kind, i'll try not to be to cheap on the details of the mesh.

[Spoon]

kinda hard to make out details with max default render with no textures


Added some more detailing. This is going to be such a pain to texture, looking forward to that already.

[Trivial Psychic]

Looks vaguely like 2 Triton class freighters joined together.

[Spoon]

Oh.. Ookaaay 

[General Battuta]

It looks good. And it doesn't really look like a pair of conjoined Tritons.

[Trivial Psychic]

Just put a pair side-by-side and add the cargo units (though longer and less boxy) and on the front.

[Snail]

Looks cool.

[Spoon]

It looks good. And it doesn't really look like a pair of conjoined Tritons.

Looks cool.

Thanks! 


Guess i'll go scale it down quite a bit. At the moment it's pretty huge. (i've got 2 shipclasses planned that are going to be bigger then this)


I'm not really digging the long barreled cannons yet (aside from their faaabelous color).
Suggestions?   

[General Battuta]

Okay, one thing to note is that small ship classes are much more useful from a FREDDing perspective and much more likely to get used.

Corvettes, cruisers, and small destroyers are the sweet spot. Anything much bigger is tricky to use as anything but a prop.

[Rhymes]

Depends on the ship being flown though, and the weapons on it.  Remember how Inferno had those anti-juggernaut Armageddon Torpedoes? (which were meant to be mounted on bombers, IIRC)

[Snail]

Corvettes, cruisers, and small destroyers are the sweet spot. Anything much bigger is tricky to use as anything but a prop.

Definitely, ships like jugs are very hard to get the player to interact with.

[Spoon]

Too bad I still suck at texturing

Guess i'll just have to fred amazing missions that will make people forget the poor textures 

[Droid803]

You could get someone like Jadehawk of Freespaceking to fix up your textures for you.

[ssmit132]

Too bad I still suck at texturing

I wouldn't say your texturing sucks.

[Enioch]

Too bad I still suck at texturing

I wouldn't say your texturing sucks.

I really don't know if I agree. By that, I'm not saying that I think it sucks, just that I don't know if it sucks.

To tell the truth, I expected more...variety. You've got these huge surfaces that are only covered by that cellular pattern, you've got no windows (a big no-no in my opinion, especially in larger ships) and last, but certainly not least, you don't show how the thing works.

I dunno, maybe it's just my own aesthetic conception of how capital ships should look like, but I really do expect some wiring, pipes, sensor hubs, dashboard puppets, docking rings etc.

Oh, and as for the 'panels' I see there:

It is IMPERATIVE that you give them a different filling than the surrounding armor. That's what makes them stick out and be panels, rather than four lines painted on the ship. If the general armor is one unit, the panels should be another, distinct one. That can be achieved either by just removing the cellular pattern from inside the panel surface, and/or by recoloring the panels and/or (my fave) by making the panels 'un-armored' areas -identations in the hull, where you can see the wiry, pip-y insides.

Oh, and MAKE NORMAL MAPS. They help A LOT!

And I can't wait to play your amazingly fredded missions. 

[starlord]

quite nice! It reminds me a bit of the WC4 intrepid.

[ssmit132]

I should have elaborated: What I meant was that at least it's a decent, working texture job, even if it's lacking in your opinion(s).

[Spoon]

You could get someone like Jadehawk of Freespaceking to fix up your textures for you.

I might do after a first release or something. For now i'm stubbornly holding on to the idea I can do this all alone  

quite nice! It reminds me a bit of the WC4 intrepid.

haha yeah, when I was busy creating it I paused for a moment and said to my self "Now what does this remind me off?" (on a somewhat related note, that bridge bunny of the intrepid (forgot her name) looked a scary lot like my older sister. To the point that I started to wonder if they made a clone of her) so I adjusted it a bit to make it seem less like the intrepid.

I should have elaborated: What I meant was that at least it's a decent, working texture job, even if it's lacking in your opinion(s).

Well hearing this reassures me a bit. I'm not aiming to create something as beautiful as the mediavp HTL herc II or likewise.
As long as people can say its decent i'm content for now  

I really don't know if I agree. By that, I'm not saying that I think it sucks, just that I don't know if it sucks.

To tell the truth, I expected more...variety. You've got these huge surfaces that are only covered by that cellular pattern, you've got no windows (a big no-no in my opinion, especially in larger ships) and last, but certainly not least, you don't show how the thing works.

I dunno, maybe it's just my own aesthetic conception of how capital ships should look like, but I really do expect some wiring, pipes, sensor hubs, dashboard puppets, docking rings etc.

Sorry I kinda forgot to mention that it's still a WiP and realise there is a lot of flat empty surface still. As for windows, ive got the same in-universe excuse for that as for not having cockpits  

Oh, and as for the 'panels' I see there:

It is IMPERATIVE that you give them a different filling than the surrounding armor. That's what makes them stick out and be panels, rather than four lines painted on the ship. If the general armor is one unit, the panels should be another, distinct one. That can be achieved either by just removing the cellular pattern from inside the panel surface, and/or by recoloring the panels and/or (my fave) by making the panels 'un-armored' areas -identations in the hull, where you can see the wiry, pip-y insides.

Oh, and MAKE NORMAL MAPS. They help A LOT!

And I can't wait to play your amazingly fredded missions.  

Good point about the panels. (Some times I just need someone to point out the obvious, if I work long on one thing I tend to stare myself blind on stuff.) I'll get on that!
Normal maps&glow maps will come as well, just the last thing on the list  

(Drats, now I hope I can actually live up to my promise of super duper awesome fredded missions   )


Here's something small I did recently as well

A texture ripped from a vasudan capship and tiled for easyness. The tentacles are animated when the afterburners are engaged and can be destroyed when shot at (which really amused me for some reason as I was testing it "Noooo! Not my teeeentaclessss"). Low poly as these guys are going to be swarming you on screen.

[Enioch]

 

Amazing!

Now, where did I put the bug spray?