Borderworlds Transport & Train v1.0 - 23 August

[Lythrilux]

I thought it was meant to replace the BWT

aerelm said in the OP it could be either. Personally, I think an addition to the existing line would be better than a replacement.

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[Skorak]

I have a different suggestion. How about using this as a replacement and making one that's stretched with more cargo pods to be the bigger one? Like the trains

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[aerelm]

What's the difference between using pre-existing vanilla texture tiles and handpainting textures?

Using tiles or UV maps each have their own pros and cons. Tiles were far more favorable back when Freelancer came out only because of hardware limitations of the time, as it could save up on a lot of memory and increase performance, but that's no longer a concern and not having tiled textures on the model wouldn't cause any performance issues on any PC newer than 2010-ish.

Tiles generally save up on texture file size (which still wouldn't be that big a concern for Disco, since FL engine only uses a single diffuse layer and that makes the texture files quite light no matter what) and make it easier to fill larger surfaces, but at the same time, using tiles makes it considerably harder to manage seams and stretches over more complex geometry, and also ends up looking either bland or rather repetitive (unless the person doing textures is extremely good at using tiles, which I'm not). So, by handpainting the textures instead, it just allows the entire texture to be seamless and avoid any stretches with little effort, and also allows for more flexibility when adding details to the texture, so it wouldn't look repetitive esp. on larger models. Depending on the model and the intended textured look, tiles could considerably speed up the texturing process and save a lot of time, but other than that, don't really offer that much advantage (not any more at least, since we've moved past the dark ages of having to fit each game on a single CD).

I'll still be using existing vanilla textures as the base, to keep the look consistent with the rest of the mod, but that bit was more of a technical detail in case anyone comes across the model and wonders how I'm gonna avoid seams or breaks on some particular geometry or whatnot, i.e. "don't worry, I'm not gonna try and tile across there".

[aerelm]

I have a different suggestion. How about using this as a replacement and making one that's stretched with more cargo pods to be the bigger one? Like the trains

If this model is well-received, turning it into a full transport line is definitely a possibility.

Extending this one to fit 2 more pods and get a 4.3k-ish range stat would be quite easy to do, and I'm already toying around with some ideas for a Ragnar-like ship that uses an interchangeable cargo pod, so that one could be shoehorned into the same line too.

[Jack_Henderson]

Oh! More transports! Please please... we need more transport love! <3 <3 <3 <3

[aerelm]

v0.2 is up.
Refined the block-in and changed the main surfaces a bit to make room for enough turrets (more turrets than the current version to compensate for the slightly larger size).

Still extremely early WIP, and the nose is placeholder.

[Sand-Viper]

I think my favorite part of this model so far is the fact that it uses the interchangeable cargo pods that vanilla trains use. It allows the player that extra layer of flavor in terms of ship appearance to further make it their own. It also makes sense for the purpose of quickly loading and off-loading entire cargo pods on any given station to get the ship itself moving while dock workers deal with offloading the pods even after the transport is gone.

Additionally, the giant pair of struts running along the top-mid portion of the ship are neat. They also let the player see the pods from the top-down perspective (I'd also imagine slam-dunking a SNAC-shot between those rails and watching a pod blow off being immensely satisfying, even though the ship itself wouldn't take damage). I'm looking forward to progress updates!

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The Gaelic Wyvern Inn
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[Swallow]

Looks good.
Also welcome back.

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FL MOD(EL)MAKING: TOOLS, RESOURCES, TUTORIALS AND MY SHIPS (OLD)

I am on discord: Roal-Yr#5994, I don't log on forum more than a few times a year.

I am not making ships for FL anymore, I am making my own space game instead:
https://github.com/roalyr/GDTLancer
https://roal-yr.itch.io/gdtlancer
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5HQB...cdH45LZgjj

[Stefan]

I was never a fan of the round-pipe-thingie on top of the BTW - but this new one seems pretty cool already.
The replaceable cargo pods thingie is just extra sprinkles.

[sasapinjic]

Looking nice , cant wait to see it finished .