bretonian heavy transport

[Jinx]

its been some time ago that i received a request to think of a bretonian transport in the heavy or very large department. - at that time i could not really think of anything that suited the role.

this is what came to mind recently - a concept that is VERY close to the current generic transport but shares characteristics of bretonias love for rounder surfaces. ( bretonian designs are not THAT round - but this version would be a modern developement... )



this concept won t win a price for the very best innovation....

the concept is :

- a very vertical transport that offers a VAST target from the side, but a rather low profile from the front
- a modular design that can come with 1, 2 or 3 levels of crates/containers
- it ll have engines in the very back ( 2 ) aswell as in the front ( 4 )
- i imagine this transport to be well defended to make up for the large size from the sides ( maybe 10 turrets )
- a ship with such a large size in the verticals might cause problems docking / undocking.

so, whats the thoughts about a faction based transport that can carry 5k cargo anyway. - do we need another one for more variety within the high end transports? - is the concept flawed? ( too strong, too weak )

note, that is only a rough concept with little details - i won t texture it if there s no need for another transport anyway - and the train is at least still a generic FL design, so it ll be hard to match that quality of texuring and the richness of details.

---

Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Xing]

it's not very crustacean look unfortunately, despite being a good model..

---

[beander2]

THANK YOU JINX!

What about three rows of pods, two side-by-side where the top one is here and one centered below? Even four, perhaps? Then shorten the section coming down from the front? Something to make it look more solid - seems sort of fragile from the profile view.

Even with this, it's a marked improvement to what we have, and Gateway, for one, would be thrilled.

Thank you again - it's very nice, and considering it would be a later development, evolution of design (less crustacean) is easy to understand.

---

Sir Alisdair Buchanan, KBE ~ Gateway)Trafalgar

[Heartless]

nice...

the only thing I would improve is the space inbetween the cockpit area and the pods, there seems to be alot of empty space.

And the fishy-ness of Bretonia can always be smellier. XD

great model.

---

SwissScorch --> Heartless

[Shadow2336]

Looks good, but a little too fat at the end.

Perhaps 3 rows by 2 columns would work better?

I dunno. I'm not a design person.

---

Sir Michael Brown (BMM-Bristol(T)) - Bretonia Mining and Metals, Trader, Captain of the Bristol
Ensign John Thomas ([QCR]John.Thomas/[QCR]John_Thomas) - Queen Carina's Royal Fleet, Regular
Pilot Christopher "Chris" Armstrong (Armstrong) - Unioner pilot, Independant
Crewman Alexander Cooper (Bs|Alex.Cooper) - Order pilot, Black Squadron

[beander2]

And the fishy-ness of Bretonia can always be smellier. XD

Hmm - not so sure I'd go there.

Btw, what's the deal with fishy models and horse names?

---

Sir Alisdair Buchanan, KBE ~ Gateway)Trafalgar

[Unseelie]

I love it, I really do. Want one.
My thought on adding to the encrustation would be to add ridges to the top of the forward section, and perhaps adding a top plate (ridged of course) that covers the dorsal midsection.

---

[Jinx]

when i d add details - i d add "ribs" to the roof for sure - so it would get this strange "spine" feeling.
yes, its not fish like - cause i haven t made the actual cockpit area roundish. - about the space between the head and the actual cargo area - i m aware of it ( unfortunately ) and haven t found any placeholder that may be added there.

i may explain a bit more about the ships concept ( on paper )

- the thorn or beard ( or how you d call the thing below the cockpit ) is meant to be extendable. - in that version, its fully extended, but when the transport only carries one horizontal row of containers - it would be a short "beard"

- the concept about the engines is to make a transport that is hard to stop with a CD. - thats why it has 4 engines at the front ( on the head ) and two in the back. - for those that watched the menu screen closely..... - sometimes you see transports fly past. - they have their engines in the front AND the back. - a feature that ingame models do not have. - that has advantages about the CDs... a ship is ONLY CDed, when the CD catches ALL the engines in the blast - as long as at least one engine remains untouched, the ship is not CDed. ( thats why single engine ships are often more vulnerable - allthough its mostly just about the position of the engines anyway )
- the bridge / cockpit would become more bubble like ( bit like the clydesdale ) - but should feature two or three levels.
- since it would be meant to be a factionspecific transport - meant for heavy mining material - it could also feature the BMM emblem ( if it has any )

the idea behind the vertical design of the cargopods is to enable a fast loading and unloading - in contrast to the container transport ( kusari ) which has its containers arranged in a more complex pattern to keep it compact, just flying verticly onto a pile of containers to load them up should be much quicker while at the same time making sure that the ship keeps a very small profile from the front ( instead of the container transport of kusari, which is an evenly large target from all sides )
it cannot compete with the advanced train in terms of size - but i think that adding 10 turrets ( comparable to the container transport with its 12 ) makes up for it to create a highly defensive transport that can - if the gunner is good enough, repell occasional pirates with its firepower - while still being ( for reasons of balancing ) present an unmatched huge target from the sides.

since bretonia was mostly positive ( unselie being bretonia ) - i ll just add details and texture it - and it might be done by the end of the week ( lots of party in between with soccer and all .... )

@unselie: i finally made a promising concept of a bretonian HF / VHF - might post the first model soon. ( well - at least on the paper is looks good and still bretonian - time will tell if i ll manage to convert it to a 3d model )

---

Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Othman]

Its cockpit reminds me of the battle-cruiser class. Looks interesting.

---

On the uncharted lagoons of anguish, I sail with a canoe made of my sins.

[Unseelie]

Looks great...but, about the BMM specific...I'd like it to be a Bowex/BMM/HGL joint project, just to spread out who can use it...produced by BMM, because they've the biggest shipyards, but incorporating Bowex designs and HGL funding, or something....otherwise, making a transport that is so very specific, not to bretonia but only to BMM...

And, of course, I couldn't fly it. Which would upset me. Immensely.

---