.com.unity Forums - The Terrans

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- - The Terrans (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=22176)

Yeah, I'm none too happy with the explosion either. The probelm with it is twofold: 1) I don't have a really decent explosion texture. 2) I haven't gotten around to moddelling a Venduu Cruiser, so I have no ship model to put in the middle of the explosion.

How about random blackened shapes? The original design is pretty much irrelevant at this point http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Teh design is neat, but for some reason the structure connecting the two giant side panels and the under-slung turrets seem flattened and distorted.

If you're referring to the Destroyer pic, I think that's actually the reflection of the connecting structure. Attached is a more traditional view of the Terran Destroyer.

are these going to be downlodable?

Actually, I don't like the guns being so visible. These images have to serve for any sort of ship at that size class. So what sesne do those guns make if you build a missile-only ship? Not to mention that the concept for various types of beam weapons might require very different 'emitter' configurations than those rather obvious tubes sticking out the front. It would be smarter to not have obvious guns like that.

No, I was actualy talking about the structure itself and the turrets mounted under them. To me, they simply lack the 'girth' - if you will - that would support the metal plates.

Sefta Aruna: Yes, I am working towards having a complete, downloadable shipset sometime in the future. Don't know when it'll be done though, since I only found the time to work on them since I was sick and off work. Now that I'm better it'll probably take me quite a while to get em finished off.

Baron Munchausen: In principle, I would agree with you about the guns. However, keep in mind that the shipset is being built according to very well established guidelines that unfortunately were not created with SE in mind. And the Galaxy of Fire Terran ships' most prominant feature has always been their guns. While most GoF races conceal their guns internally, the Terrans revel in their reputation as the most fearsome warriors in the Galaxy, and place their weapons on open display as a challenge to any who might oppose them.

Klvino [ORB]: I see where you're coming from, and I may actually go back and lengthen the struts to make them look a bit more heavy-duty. Keep in mind though, that a considerable amount of Terran ships' hulls are composed of a substance called Ultramantium, whose strength-to-weight ratio makes titanium seem like tinfoil.
From the Galaxy of Fire Encyclopedia (and mostly from memory too!): "Ultramantium, and the composition thereof, is a closely guarded secret of the Terran Federation. It is such an incredibly strong, durable substance that in order to construct with it, solid pieces of ultramantium must be forged with pockets of a dense carbon-fibre 'mesh' where the piece is to be joined to another. This makes it extremely difficult to work with, and in fact most of the ultramantium in a Terran ship's design is concentrated in the two or more massive shields that typifies Terran design...."

If memory serves the article continues in depth about the costs associated with ultramantium construction, and why those costs prohibit Terrans from building their entire ships out of it and so forth but I don't remember that part so well, and it's not terribly relavent anyway.

As for the shipset itself, I've got the LC sketched out, and hopefully will get it rendered tomorrow, along with hopefully the Cruiser as well, if I managed to get it sketched during a quiet moment at work tomorrow...

What is this Galaxy of Fire?
SE5 or SE3?

Neither, actually. The Galaxy of Fire was a BBS that existed before the internet (or at least before the internet in it's present form). The BBS hosted a rudimentary multi-player strategy game along with a forum where players would 'role-play' their empire between the daily turns. Like most BBS's it is now defunct, unfortunately.
But on the upside, I got the Cruiser done! The Vengeance-class Cruiser was the Last of her line, before the radical re-think that resulted in the new design of the heaviest Terran ships.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...an_Cruiser.jpg