What Should I Make Now?

[Atrocities]

Ok, I have finally finished up the remakes for the Star Trek sets, and I have made several other non-star trek sets so what should I make now?

I was thinking about making a Battlestar Galatica set, but have dabbled in both an empire and rebel set for Star Wars. There are some requests for Babylon 5 sets, but the ones I have made have never really been that well recieved. (??)

I know that my talent is a dying breed with the 3d ship model system that SE V will most likey use, and that any ship sets I make now are kinda in vain given the short time we have before SE V comes out. So really anything I make is just an indulgance and nothing more.

However given that depressing nature of my previous statement, I still get board and wanna make things. So the question stands, what should I make?

Perhaps a Ship Set Build Off. Two modelers make a basic set each and people vote and choose the best set of the two.

I jsut realized I also have five sets not yet released, pending the out come the Tournement. Plus the set that Solops is working on. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif (That a nice one)

Well enough praddling on. I am going to go spend some pennies and get a die coke. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Kevin Arisa]

Star Wars is a definite maybe. There is the Old Republic, New Republic, Trade Federation, and Galactic Empire. I'm sure there are others like Hapans, Ssi-ruuk and Vong but reference material on those is pretty scarce.

I think you are giving SE4 a great sendoff with all of your excellent sets. Keep it up! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Kana]

Well I could point you to a few SFB shipsets I would like to have made...? I mean if your 'really bored'...

Kana

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Think up the wackiest ship design you can. Then, make it work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Slick]

Maybe you could think about making some components.

[Ragnarok-X]

Well, why dont you do a nice babylon 5 set ? Shadows could use one, as well as almost every other race. Im doing my best, but it still quite consuming to do coding and graphics http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

While we are at it, wont it be possible to somehow convert doga made shipsets to the mentioned X format ? If now, which free modeler supports .x ? It seems even my 3dsmax 5.1 cant export into X.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

That's becuase X is unknown, so naturally it's hard to write a converter.

[Atrocities]

Converting is the easy part. Mapping the textures and reducing the polygon size is the hard part.

To make just a small federation ship under 1000 polygon would be one UGLY ship. No rounded edges at all. Rounded edges drive up the polygon count.

I can make ths ships into parts then run them through a parts program but even then they are still high. THe lowest I have been able to get even the lowest of my models down to is around 4k Poloygons.

I will fiddle around with a Shadow set next. No promises but I will try. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Randallw]

I was thinking about making a new cylon set. So will DoGA be no use when we need 3D sets for SEV?.

[Captain Kwok]

Randallw said:
I was thinking about making a new cylon set. So will DoGA be no use when we need 3D sets for SEV?.

Doga can export to .x, but the models have really high polygon counts, which is not good. Lots of work would have to be done on each model to make it SE:V friendly.

[Nodachi]

Atrocities posted:

To make just a small federation ship under 1000 polygon would be one UGLY ship. No rounded edges at all. Rounded edges drive up the polygon count.



I disagree, sir. Take a look at some of the user created models for ST Armada 2. Quite a few of them were right around the 1000 polies mark. I think that when dealing with low poly modeling your textures have to spot-on to make the model look good.

Speaking of low poly modeling, have you checked out the latest version of Milkshape 3d? http://www.milkshape3d.com/ They released a new version just the other day.

[Ragnarok-X]

Well, i think i read SE5 will display static models as well, so we could still use the "old" SE4 sets. Poly count aint that big of a problem imho. The Brakiri ships i posted looked quite ugly, but they had a poly count of 2000-4000. This sounds alot for a shipset so ugly, but in fact i used alot of highest-grade "ball" objects, which feature several hundreds polys by themself.
The Vree saucer for example uses a merely 600 polygons and looks pretty good imho. I doubt SE5 will be able to display glow zones though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[AgentZero]

Heh, well if we're talking about 1000 poly models for them to work in SE5, it looks like most of my shipsets are out. Terran Battlecruiser has already reached 150,000polys and it's not even done yet!

[Fyron]

Ragnarok-X said:
I doubt SE5 will be able to display glow zones though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Starfury has some glow support...

[Atrocities]

The lower the poly count per ship, the more ship you can have in a scene.

[Captain Kwok]

The key to keeping low poly counts is to ensure your long boxy sections and slopes use the fewest polys as possible (they'll still look reasonable) while using the savings to splurge a bit on cylindrical and saucer shapes.

[Atrocities]

The shortest distance between two points is a strait line. Same goes for ploygon counts. *shrug* Not my worry. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Atrocities]

Slick said:
Maybe you could think about making some components.



I have already made over a 120 + components and such. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I could make more, and most likely will. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[ZeroAdunn]

BSG shipset, all the way!

[Imperious_Leader]

I'd love to see someone do a really good cylon set http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I think AT or someone else did already.

[mac5732]

AT how about a ship set for the "Bugs" in Death's Ground and the Shiva Option, could also make some for the various races that are in the story, ie the bat/birds, the tabbies, the Gorm, etc (Gorm would be interesting because of their description of high gravity etc. have fun and enjoy yourself http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[RudyHuxtable]

My first choice would be Star Wars shipsets because the old Rebellion game left me wanting something better. I believe in you, AT!

Or you could do something totally crazy and do something based on Star Trek. That's a universe we see so little of in 4X games. Who wouldn't want to be Benjamin Sisko or Neelix every night? Why not do that one next, AT?

Seriously, tho. I think a fun universe would be Frank Herbert's Dune, but just the IDEA of the amount of work for that makes my head hurt so I'd never ask anyone to try it.

[Fyron]

RudyHuxtable said:
Or you could do something totally crazy and do something based on Star Trek. That's a universe we see so little of in 4X games. Who wouldn't want to be Benjamin Sisko or Neelix every night? Why not do that one next, AT?

Hasn't he made enough Star Trek sets already? I say enough! AT, let your creativity soar! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Nodachi]

How about a set based on real military hardware? WWII era ships and planes would be interesting.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Make yourself a vanilla milkshake with some rootbeer. It's better than it sounds. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[RudyHuxtable]

Shut up Fyron! Stop being reasonable! Make Star Trek stuff, AT! Now I say!

How about the Lion King? You can have the Great Hyena Hegemony against the Simba's Protectorate? Then you can have the Scar Continuum.

Or better yet: West Side Story! The Jets and the Sharks in space!

Better Still: A cartoon universe! The cast of the Mr. T cartoon squares off against Underdog and Grape Ape! Big huge purple battle cruisers! Then Mighty Mouse is his own fleet and Snoopy rules over a massive Federation of sentient , intelligent spotted beagles... oh the possibilities are endless.

Marvel vs. DC vs. Image vs. Dark Horse vs. Archie vs. Marmaduke vs. Family Circle!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

vs. Brunswick - the only interesting evil bunny in webcomics. http://brunswick.keenspace.com/

Correction - The rabbit is named Fitz. The rat is Brunswick.

[Suicide Junkie]

How about a Tau'ri set to go with the Goauld set?

Lots of room to explore, with a mix of current-ish military tech and the Prometheus to build around for captial ships.

[Fyron]

Then you could do the Asgard next! It would be wonderful. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[NullAshton]

Asgard ships might be cool.

[Gandalf Parker]

Visit sites that make masks or aliens. We can use more aliens. There are some great race portraits out there.

Load the WingDings font and type them all into a ray trace program. See what heppns when you add skins. Something might jump out as a cool ship

Maybe a kitchen appliance store. Add skins to those and see what they look like

a web site for "themes" might spur thoughts also.

Or something like the budk site (fancy knives, swords, etc). Some of the fantasy stuff looks like war ships

[Iron Giant]

RudyHuxtable said:
My first choice would be Star Wars shipsets because the old Rebellion game left me wanting something better.



http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starwarsrts/index.html

Who knows? It could be good, it could fall on its face...

[Caduceus]

The battlestar galactica website at scifi has a group of ships that could be used as models.

[RudyHuxtable]

Iron Giant said:

RudyHuxtable said:
My first choice would be Star Wars shipsets because the old Rebellion game left me wanting something better.



http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starwarsrts/index.html

Who knows? It could be good, it could fall on its face...



NO part of me has faith that this concept will work. It's basically Star Wars Battlegrounds but with nicer graphics as far as I'm concerned.

Battlefront is weak, Jedi Academy was weak, Rebellion stunk, KOTOR II farted refried beans at the end...

It would seem the George Lucas syndrome of mediocre creativity has rubbed off on everyone else. I haven't been happy with a SW game except for KOTOR.

[TurinTurambar]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
That's becuase X is unknown, so naturally it's hard to write a converter.



Either nobody caught that little bit of Narf-wit, or no one else thought it was funny.

I found it extremely humorous.

Turin

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[ZeroAdunn]

BSG shipset....

[Atrocities]

A BSG set huh? That would be kinda cool to have a few variations on the Battlestars. But what would a battlestar be? A carrier or a dreadnought? Since all BSG ships seem to be carrier based ships, what would carriers look like? See my dilima. The Galactica would most likely have to be a carrier or at least a battleship. But ships before her may or may not have flight decks. Its the whole flight deck thing that has be confused.

And the cylons, what the hell can we do there? My mind just hits a futhering wall on that one. I will try to breech it, but no promesis.

[ZeroAdunn]

BSG shipset would be fairly easy, battlestar: Heavy Carrier.

Carrier: Similar to battlestar only with the hanger deck a part of the main hull, the main hull would be shorter.

Light carrier: Single deck right down the center with engines on either side.

For the escort - dreadnought, similar designe just replace the hanger decks with weapons pods of some sort.

[ZeroAdunn]

Or for that matter, you could just make the smaller ships (escort - cruiser or so) based on various ships seen in the ragtag fleet.

[Atrocities]

That brings up another problem. Should a BSG set be based on a rag tag fleet, we have enough ships, or should it be a stand alone pre-cylon cytastrophy set?

[RudyHuxtable]

Aliens vs. Predator vs. Weyland-Yutani and the Colonial Marines

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Anything vs. Dahak.

Just make a planatoid with a three-headed dragon insignia and a bunch of explosions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[RudyHuxtable]

Xena vs. Hercules vs. Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

[TurinTurambar]

Atrocities said:
A BSG set huh? That would be kinda cool to have a few variations on the Battlestars. But what would a battlestar be? A carrier or a dreadnought? Since all BSG ships seem to be carrier based ships, what would carriers look like? See my dilima. The Galactica would most likely have to be a carrier or at least a battleship. But ships before her may or may not have flight decks. Its the whole flight deck thing that has be confused.



Hey, call me nutty... but that sounds PERFECT for SJ's new Carrier Battles Mod!

Turin

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Vs. "I am Dr. Emile Corday, an old friend of the family, just arrived from London."

[RudyHuxtable]

Hey speaking of mods and shipsets. What ever happened to the Star Wars Mod Andres Lescano was working on? Is it still supported/worked on?

Sorry, AT, I know this is kinda off topic, but I didn't think it was important enough to warrant a new thread.

Shoot me.

[Riesig_Bar]

AT I would be interested in a BSG set. I have been watching it. I am old enough to remember the original. I am also old enough to remember the original Star Trek seris.

I have tried doing some designs but wasn't happy. I just got DOGAL3. And will try it.

I did find a SW Imperial set here:

http://www.tescosamoa.com/Shipsets/html/RaceDirectoryr-t.php

There were also a Colonial and cyclon set. But I haven't checked them out.

[Kana]

TurinTurambar said:

Atrocities said:
A BSG set huh? That would be kinda cool to have a few variations on the Battlestars. But what would a battlestar be? A carrier or a dreadnought? Since all BSG ships seem to be carrier based ships, what would carriers look like? See my dilima. The Galactica would most likely have to be a carrier or at least a battleship. But ships before her may or may not have flight decks. Its the whole flight deck thing that has be confused.



Hey, call me nutty... but that sounds PERFECT for SJ's new Carrier Battles Mod!

Turin



Agreed...these would be good fit for the Carrier Battles Mod...

Kana

[Atrocities]

Thanks Riesig_Bar, I know these sets and the folks who made them. They were the cutting edge must have sets when they came but have fallen to the way side over the years.

When I make a set for myself I usually do it because I want to use it in my SP games. If I get board or plan to make the set public I will often post an image or two on the forum to draw in comments.

I spent the first six months of last year working on the STM and the summer months making six new sets, five of which have not been released yet as they are for the Tournament. The sixth was set was made but I lost the models in a freak PC hic-up. I then started working on the STM again and revamped all of the exsisting sets that I had made. I ended the year with three or four new sets, not including the all new Star Trek sets.

I started this year off by finishing a couple of non star trek sets, and by making four Federation ship sets. (Pending the creation of troop images the sets will be released out side of the mod for general use if any wants to download them.)

Any ways I go through creative spurts and try and making what I think are cool looking ship sets. I do it because its relaxing and kinda neat to see things come together.

I don't know yet what I will do, I would like to make a few new components for the STM before the 28th and have them added to the image mod, but I might not. Then again I might get a creative spurt and kick out a ship set or two when I fall into one of those sleepless nights. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif We will just have to see. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Sivran]

You should make....
A set of Earth & Beyond shipsets for the Jenquai, Terrans, and Progens. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[massmanfun]

There is always the White Comet Empire from Starblazers("da da dada da da dada....We're off, in outer space...").

[Atrocities]

I have already made one Starblazer set, I guess I could put the Comet Empire in the que as well.

The Earth and Beyond series was only on Fox for a few months. I never did see any of the bad guy ships. I only saw the warhamer and I think one bad guy ones. They had these light lazer mines. Most deadly and devious things they were.

[CNCRaymond]

Definately a BSG set. Cylon set to be specific.