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Ship Design Contest Entries
This is a thread to submit links to display your ship design contest entries. I know people posted links to the original thread, so I hope you don't mind pasting those links into this thread instead. I didn't want to clutter up the original thread because I felt it was more of a place to post suggestions or ask questions than to display entries. So this'll just make things easier.
I'm going to be submitting three entries for the contest: transport, bomber, and fighter. So far I don't have any of them done. But I have a concept of my transport up. It's still under revision and a lot still has to be done, but the overall forms are complete. It was made completely in illustrator with the help of guides and grids. I wish I had CAD to get super precise, but I guess this'll have to do.
Anyway, here's my concept for the transport ship. The text and orientation was completed at the last second, so it may appear sloppy. And sorry for the banners.
http://mmiski.tripod.com/
Anyway, here's my concept for the transport ship. The text and orientation was completed at the last second, so it may appear sloppy. And sorry for the banners.
http://mmiski.tripod.com/
We already have a lot of fighters. Everything in the game so far is a fighter. We need bigger ships.
I agree. I'd hate to see this game favor fighters 100% of the time. It sure seems that way now, but maybe it'll change. Anyway, that's why I'm working on three separate ship classes. I encourage everyone else who is entering the contest to do the same. Don't just stick to designing fighters.
I'm going to design two cruiser class ships...
hey why not ... here is the current version of my first entry ... :)
http://home.arcor.de/famscheffler/sd/lcv92/lcv92layout.jpg
there are higher res versions of the different views in that directory
and daron what's your definition of a cruiser? seems to be different in every game I've played.A freespace cruiser was roughly one third of the frig whereas a homeworld cruiser quite large :)
http://home.arcor.de/famscheffler/sd/lcv92/lcv92layout.jpg
there are higher res versions of the different views in that directory
and daron what's your definition of a cruiser? seems to be different in every game I've played.A freespace cruiser was roughly one third of the frig whereas a homeworld cruiser quite large :)
Webster's "Cruiser: \Cruis"er\, n. Specif.: (Nav.)
A warship less heavily armed and armored than a battle
ship, having great speed, and generally of from two thousand
to twelve thousand tons displacement."
US Navy: "Cruiser.... [A] large combat vessel with multiple target response capability."
The basic idea behind a cruiser is a ship which is heavily enough armed to destroy smaller ships, and fast enough to catch them. They lead task forces of smaller ships, and operate independently or in small groups as a hunter killer force to disrupt enemy transport. Over time, as large surface combat vessels became obselete cruisers evolved into multi-role vessels. The US Navy classifies a ship as a cruiser if it is designed to simultaneously engage multiple surface, subsurface, and air targets simultaneously.
Modern cruisers are up to about 180m in length with a displacement of about 9000 tons. As you can see from the dictionairy definition they've shrank a little from thier heyday. It's difficult to speculate what size or shape a spaced based 'cruiser' would take, but I prefer to think of them in the range of 360m with a mass of around 80000 tons.
A warship less heavily armed and armored than a battle
ship, having great speed, and generally of from two thousand
to twelve thousand tons displacement."
US Navy: "Cruiser.... [A] large combat vessel with multiple target response capability."
The basic idea behind a cruiser is a ship which is heavily enough armed to destroy smaller ships, and fast enough to catch them. They lead task forces of smaller ships, and operate independently or in small groups as a hunter killer force to disrupt enemy transport. Over time, as large surface combat vessels became obselete cruisers evolved into multi-role vessels. The US Navy classifies a ship as a cruiser if it is designed to simultaneously engage multiple surface, subsurface, and air targets simultaneously.
Modern cruisers are up to about 180m in length with a displacement of about 9000 tons. As you can see from the dictionairy definition they've shrank a little from thier heyday. It's difficult to speculate what size or shape a spaced based 'cruiser' would take, but I prefer to think of them in the range of 360m with a mass of around 80000 tons.
hehe lcv....
<off topic>
wow ... I took the chance to read up a little bit on warships and it seems like freespace got it quite right, except for the size( how was a crew supposed to fit into their cruiser? :)).
They even have the various classes:
Light Cruiser = Cain
Armoured Cruiser = Lilith
Battlecruiser = Rakshasa (sp.?)
</off topic>
wow ... I took the chance to read up a little bit on warships and it seems like freespace got it quite right, except for the size( how was a crew supposed to fit into their cruiser? :)).
They even have the various classes:
Light Cruiser = Cain
Armoured Cruiser = Lilith
Battlecruiser = Rakshasa (sp.?)
</off topic>
Update: http://mmiski.tripod.com/
My transport ship is nearly completed. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the engines, but everything else is looking good. Because of its distinct nose design and great capacity to hold cargo, I've dubbed the new transport ship... Pelican. It bears no relation to Halo's Pelican dropship. It just unintentionally turned out that way.
My website (if you can call it that) also now has two fighters concepts up. They're only top views so far. The overall design is subject to change as always, but the distinct shape of the wings will most likely be kept in its current form. I'm still debating whether it should have a tail fin to complement them. Decisions...
My transport ship is nearly completed. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the engines, but everything else is looking good. Because of its distinct nose design and great capacity to hold cargo, I've dubbed the new transport ship... Pelican. It bears no relation to Halo's Pelican dropship. It just unintentionally turned out that way.
My website (if you can call it that) also now has two fighters concepts up. They're only top views so far. The overall design is subject to change as always, but the distinct shape of the wings will most likely be kept in its current form. I'm still debating whether it should have a tail fin to complement them. Decisions...
I appreciate the aesthetics of the avionics on the current vulture and your designs, Arolte. They are quite pleasing to the eye but are totally unnecessary in Vendetta.
Besides the lack of atmospheric flying, they introduce the stress problems that the Vulture experiences (wing bug).
If there is to be a vehicle 20-30m wide, maybe make it useful space for cargo/ammo storage or battery/turret placement.
I hope you take this as constructive criticism and not as any kind of put-down.
Besides the lack of atmospheric flying, they introduce the stress problems that the Vulture experiences (wing bug).
If there is to be a vehicle 20-30m wide, maybe make it useful space for cargo/ammo storage or battery/turret placement.
I hope you take this as constructive criticism and not as any kind of put-down.
It's funny that you mention that, RelayeR, because I've been criticized for the same thing by my best friend. I have this personal belief that all spaceships should have atmospheric travel capabilities. Whereas my friend argues that wings make spaceships highly inefficient for combat due to increased mass etc. So why have 'em, right?
To me wings guarantee safety. If you ever have to crash land on a planet, those wings can save your life. Also remember that part of the objective with these wars is to claim planets for your nation. You can't just take over the space around the planet and claim that planet to be yours. You're going to need to go down into that planet eventually, and having those air/space fighters can serve as a real advantage for when you have to send troops down. Think of them as today's amphibious vehicles. Lastly, wings can help store weapons and munitions. If there were to be an explosion caused by a direct hit to any of the weapon ports, you'll only lose your wing rather than your entire ship. It isolates the damage greatly, as opposed to having everything packed together in a wingless design.
I can understand that they can be useless in a space environment. Ideally, yes, a wingless design would be most efficient for space combat. But realistically you're going to have to deal with planets, as well as several safety factors. Both arguments have valid points which I respect. As for Vendetta, I can see now that Waylon is steering away from the wingless spaceship designs. If the new special ships are any indication as to how the game's future ships will look like, we probably won't see any winged spaceships anymore. I think Waylon did a good job of creating some cool looking wingless spaceships though. I do however hope they won't all be gone.
As you said, wings offer some level of aesthetic to spaceship design. They don't have to be big. They can be in a delta shape like the Hornet, or as tiny stubs like on the Warthog. I like these two ships in particular for that reason. I'm not a big fan of star trek-esque wacky designs. I think there should always be some subtle references as to where all these spaceships originated from (modern day aircraft). Successful designs often do that.
To me wings guarantee safety. If you ever have to crash land on a planet, those wings can save your life. Also remember that part of the objective with these wars is to claim planets for your nation. You can't just take over the space around the planet and claim that planet to be yours. You're going to need to go down into that planet eventually, and having those air/space fighters can serve as a real advantage for when you have to send troops down. Think of them as today's amphibious vehicles. Lastly, wings can help store weapons and munitions. If there were to be an explosion caused by a direct hit to any of the weapon ports, you'll only lose your wing rather than your entire ship. It isolates the damage greatly, as opposed to having everything packed together in a wingless design.
I can understand that they can be useless in a space environment. Ideally, yes, a wingless design would be most efficient for space combat. But realistically you're going to have to deal with planets, as well as several safety factors. Both arguments have valid points which I respect. As for Vendetta, I can see now that Waylon is steering away from the wingless spaceship designs. If the new special ships are any indication as to how the game's future ships will look like, we probably won't see any winged spaceships anymore. I think Waylon did a good job of creating some cool looking wingless spaceships though. I do however hope they won't all be gone.
As you said, wings offer some level of aesthetic to spaceship design. They don't have to be big. They can be in a delta shape like the Hornet, or as tiny stubs like on the Warthog. I like these two ships in particular for that reason. I'm not a big fan of star trek-esque wacky designs. I think there should always be some subtle references as to where all these spaceships originated from (modern day aircraft). Successful designs often do that.
I'm all with arolte on this one. (For different reasons)
I think that once there are space vessels designed for space combat that are built in space they won't have any resemblance to current aircraft. Both being able to withstand planet fall and then take off again are really specialized difficult tasks which would make any combat craft capable of such a maneuver significantly worse at fighting. I would expect smaller escape craft or transports for ferrying people two and from planets.
That being said the Vendetta ships are able to apply full non-turbo thrust in a full 360x180 degree sphere. Any ship which had engines to do this would probably look pretty ugly. So screw realism and make them look interesting.
I think that once there are space vessels designed for space combat that are built in space they won't have any resemblance to current aircraft. Both being able to withstand planet fall and then take off again are really specialized difficult tasks which would make any combat craft capable of such a maneuver significantly worse at fighting. I would expect smaller escape craft or transports for ferrying people two and from planets.
That being said the Vendetta ships are able to apply full non-turbo thrust in a full 360x180 degree sphere. Any ship which had engines to do this would probably look pretty ugly. So screw realism and make them look interesting.
It's quite simple really. As we developed space capable crafts, we just simply replaced the air-combustion engines with ion engines on our crafts. Adventually, since this was fairly easy to do, we packed the wings with vital electronics, such as sensors. A sensor farther away from the engine will get less interference, and stop the human activests from complaining about risk of cancer.