Katchoo's Shipset Thread (aka the ungodly slow DoGa guy).

[Fyron]

Now lets all convince Fyron to use Worldships in his Adamant Mod so we can all get good milage out of the picture

Would be the first such effort... *runs away to Adamant Mod thread*

[dogscoff]

Ok Katchoo. I'm hoping to blitz my current graphical obligations this weekend, so you might get a picture or three then=-)

I was reading your descriptions down there, and it seems you missed out the neo-standard troop sizes. They give you a bit more range, and allow you go from single humanoid to giant sea-monster a little more smoothly

For example, would you want the infantry to be a single flying slaver in search of a host (ie the race pic)?

I was thinking more along the lines of the inantry pic being the "thin humanoid alien" you described (I was thinking an armed human, but a "grey" would also work) with a zombie-like expression and a slaver perched very visibly on top of the head.

For small troop you could use a Hulkish creature, since most shipsets equate small troop with a light tank or one-man mecha. Big, ugly, surly-looking and relying more on natural weaponry than technological ones.

For medium troop you'd have a larger creature. Maybe some sort of rhinocerous-size/ shape with some armour and weapons mounted on its back. At this scale, the slaver would probably be only just visible on top of the host, but by now the player would get the idea and assume it was there.

Large troop could be some kind of T-rex beastie. Big teeth etc, maybe a few armaments and/or cybernetics.

That leaves huge troop for your giant monster. Which sounds to me like an excuse to spend all night watching my entire rubber-Godzilla flick collection back to back. (I'd still like to know why Rodan sounds like a jet engine when he flies)

[ July 02, 2003, 09:54: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[Raging Deadstar]

That worldship is amazing!!! i'm impressed!

The dreadnought's look great too! I eagerly await the final few additions for this race

[Katchoo]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Ok Katchoo. I'm hoping to blitz my current graphical obligations this weekend, so you might get a picture or three then=-)

I was reading your descriptions down there, and it seems you missed out the neo-standard troop sizes. They give you a bit more range, and allow you go from single humanoid to giant sea-monster a little more smoothly

Initially the Neo-Standard images were going to come out in a 2nd/expanded Version of PT Shipset, but the N-S images are comming out better (and faster) than I thought, so they'll definetly be ready in time to be released with the standard pics.

It's amazing what you can get done when you don't have writers/creators block

For example, would you want the infantry to be a single flying slaver in search of a host (ie the race pic)?

I was thinking more along the lines of the inantry pic being the "thin humanoid alien" you described (I was thinking an armed human, but a "grey" would also work) with a zombie-like expression and a slaver perched very visibly on top of the head.

This works! The only alteration would be to have the Trapper itself flying just above the slave, instead of sitting on him. One Trapper can control multiple slaves, so a slightly higher vantage point gives the trapper a better view of his "herd".

The alien can be grey if you've got something in mind. I just don't want the typical big-eyed grey alien every associates with Roswell. These Slaves are cannon fodder and don't get treated well. At least not as well as the more impressive slaves (bigger Troops).

For small troop you could use a Hulkish creature, since most shipsets equate small troop with a light tank or one-man mecha. Big, ugly, surly-looking and relying more on natural weaponry than technological ones.

Sounds good.

For medium troop you'd have a larger creature. Maybe some sort of rhinocerous-size/ shape with some armour and weapons mounted on its back. At this scale, the slaver would probably be only just visible on top of the host, but by now the player would get the idea and assume it was there.

Cool. Maybe have one of the aliens from the Infantry Troops riding it? The Trapper shouldn't be very visible in comparison with this beast, considering the Trappers are much larger than your average bat.

Large troop could be some kind of T-rex beastie. Big teeth etc, maybe a few armaments and/or cybernetics.

Sounds good.

That leaves huge troop for your giant monster. Which sounds to me like an excuse to spend all night watching my entire rubber-Godzilla flick collection back to back. (I'd still like to know why Rodan sounds like a jet engine when he flies)

Just make sure you don't draw any Godzilla-like offspring in the picture aswell. Godzookee *sp?* isn't welcome here

Whatever you can come up with would be marvellous, Dogscoff! Go hog wild with your imagination (as you always do)

[Katchoo]

BUMP!

*cough*cough*cough*

Ugh, this thread hasn't been updated in so long that the dust is evolving into a sentient life form bent on the destruction of man through the use of Pizza Traps. Wait a sec-

Anyhoo, bumping this thread for Cirvol, who inquired about the set and my modeling tools.

Everything for the Psycho Trappers is done. Dogscoff is just putting together the Troop pics for me (which look mah-velous).

When I release the PT set i'll be unveiling a new central Homepage for all my sets, as well as sprucing up the existing Preview Pages for my 2 sets to make them look more spiffendicoulous.

As for my next adventure? I'm nailing down some models to update Fyron's War Fleet set from SE3. I'm also playing around with something else which, if it ever sees the light of day, would likely get me permenantly institutionalized.

Anyhoo, i'm off to read my new Sports Illustrated Mag.

Cheers!

/Katchoo looks around to see if David Gervais heard that, and quickly runs away in case he did/

[Cirvol]

thx katchoo

im really interested if you've played with rhinoceros?

also, since you did your excellent baseship in bryce, would you think of doing a whole shipset in bryce? what are the advantages?

i really do like your shipset a lot... i planned on making a similar shipset (without such huge engines mind you i am having problems dreaming up different designs for the different sizes without making them look tooo similar

[Katchoo]

Originally posted by Cirvol:
thx katchoo

im really interested if you've played with rhinoceros?

I've got Rhinoceros installed but I haven't been able to get into it. If i'm going to switch over to another program to produce models compatible with Starfury & SEV, then it'll likely be 3ds Max, which is the first program other than DoGa & Bryce to keep my attention span long enough to get into it.

also, since you did your excellent baseship in bryce, would you think of doing a whole shipset in bryce? what are the advantages?

Well, the first and big disadvantage to doing ships in Bryce would be the inablility to create models in Direct X format. If there's a converter which can transform Bryce Models to Direct X then I would probably take modelling in Bryce more seriously.

For whatever reason my mind is actually able to grasp the controls and options avaiable in Bryce, whereas in other graphic programs my short attention span gets the better of me (3ds Max being the only other exception).

Advantages to using Bryce? Lots of ways to maniuplate shapes, at least in ways that are obvious to me. The layout of the tools and such in Bryce are more unique than they are in other programs, which all tend to have the same look to them. This unique layout appeals to me for some reason...

Anyhoo, Bryce is also primarilly designed for creating landscapes, so if you want to draw rocks and rivers and jungles, then Bryce is the way to go.

The Worldship for the PT set wasen't any major work of science. Basically it's a simple sphere using a stock texture that I just changed colors to suit the PT Race better. If you guys are thinking I put the individual points of light on there then you're nuts I did, however, put all the lights on the PT Ships on individually, so I guess i'm back to being nuts

i really do like your shipset a lot... i planned on making a similar shipset (without such huge engines mind you i am having problems dreaming up different designs for the different sizes without making them look tooo similar

With the PT Ships I started out with the Escort (or Frigate. I can't remember which now). I then did something I haden't done for my first shipset in DoGa: I made each Ship model %25-%50 larger than the Ship below it. It's hard to see this change of size when looking at the in-game pictures, but it is present. When I do release the PT set i'm going to also make the DoGa (and probably the Direct X) models available for download, so you'll be able to put the Escort up against the Crusier and see just how much the Cruiser over-shadows it.

Why did I bring this up? I found that multiplying each subsequent Class of Ship helped in the design process. For example, take the Escort, copy & blow it up by %50, put it next to the original Escort, and think of what changes would come about if someone built a ship that big. For the PT, after blowing (in size) up each new ship, i'd delete everything except the engines. I'd change the look of the engines around a bit just to make them look different from the previous Ship, then i'd join the 2 engines together, build up the middle of the hull up out to where the Bridge should be, and then start detailing the whole thing. When finished, i'd copy and blow up the new Ship by another %50 percent and start the same process over again.

When designing I like to find one thing that should be consistant throughout the whole set. In the PT's case, it was the engines. Everything evolves from the giant glowing green engines, and it's turned into the visual trademark for the set. For your Ships, work on building one Ship at first. When it's done look for something about it that you'd like to become a distinguishing feature of the set, and let it grow from there.

Remember, take your time. Don't feel rushed. Just because Atrocities can pump out one amazing Ship after another so quickly doesn't mean you have to do the same. I'm convinced Atrocities is some-sort of cyborg born out of the Big Blue supercomputers that IBM develops, so we can't hope to compete with him