[T-Man]

After seeing that Axem featured it on this month's newsletter (if your reading Axem wanted to say, thanks for that ) I'm conscious I haven't been updating the progress of this model;

VasCruiserYardWIP2 (View in 3D)

The concept is for this to be a T-V War era shipyard for cruisers and below (will be checking the various fan-made ships of the era too to make sure they all fit inside). Taking inspiration and cues from the Karnak and Abydos for some parts of the model (and the texture choice will be inspired by them at the end) so that they go together well. Couple of good ideas from Black Wolf I've been adding in already (swapping the two solid ribs to a lattice work like on his Abydos, and putting some detail onto some of the plain surfaces, of which there were and still are many).

I'm trying to keep the design relatively simple as I've envisioned this facility as a design that can be easily shipped in parts somewhere and assembled quickly for supporting the basic vessels of new Vasudan colonies or supporting PVN cruiser wings in wartime. I've always imagined the PVN having a slight preference towards group tactics among it's staple units like the Aten or Anubis, and are usually able to deploy far more of these than the GTA can for the same costs and resources. This class of yard would traditionally focus on these mass-produced designs (and likely stores interchangeable machinery specifically designed to ease and speed work on ships of those classes), allowing the PVE to quickly establish and efficiently maintain a core cruiser and light carrier garrison, and any needed civil vessels, at even the most remote colonies.

But yes, the model is still very much WIP and many details are still to be added (particularly to those towers between the two large segments), but shall make sure I keep this P3D updated as I progress.

Cheers.

[Black Wolf]

I'll be keeping a close eye on this, for obvious reasons. Only have my phone right now, but I'll have a look at the changes once I get back to a p3d capable machine.

FWIW, I came up with a similar justification for the Aten being so rubbish compared with the Fenris, I.e. That they were cheap, mass-produced, and the Vasudans had all the facilities built and ready to stamp them out. While the technology existed to build better ships, the logistics and practicality costs outweighed the combat gains. Essentially, in my mind, the Vasudans more or less froze themselves technologically at the point at which they scaled up their military production to face the Terran threat in the TV War as a direct result of the methods employed to undertake that scale-up.

One note I would give just for general practice is that if you want it to be modular, make sure that the pieces are precisely identical - this makes sense in-universe, but will also make UV Mapping and texturing considerably easier.

Good Luck!

[Black Wolf]

A few quick thoughts:

• Like the changes to the ribs, particularly the different sets above and below.
• Possibly add some detail to the control tower structure. I like the basically hexagonal form, but a bit more going on on the walls might be nice. Possibly an observation deck/windows a third or so of the way down? If you do do that, make sure you make it nice and smooth and use a lot of polies - the contrast between that and the quasi-hexagonal structure of the rest of the tower will provide good contrast and emphasize the fact that the shape is deliberate rather than designed to decrease the polycount.
• Any way to change the profle of the sides so that they aren't so flat? At the moment, it looks like they've been sheared off with a giant cleaver. You're going to find that part challenging to texture if you don't model in some additional detail - it risks becoming a featurless plane otherwise.

I'm really liking the general direction you're taking - there's still a little bit more detail that could stand to be added here and there, but the bones of a really cool model are definitely there. Good stuff. :yes: