I have a flimsy and poorly thought out point to make, but that hasn't stopped me before, eh?
I don't really see the point of making it a Molly ship, or a replacement for a BS Advanced - the former because there just aint enough scope for the thing to be used what with the Mollys being stuck out in a corner all by their lonesomes. No self respecting Irish rip off space faction would contemplate something so futuristic and sleek. And the latter because, well, it's a zoner ship, and what's the bloody point. Being a zoner is like being a merc, without the guns and reckless attitude to health and safety.
I thought the Harvesters would acutually be something more chunky and crude (like the lunchbox) but what do I know. Kinda looks like one of those squidy things in the Matrix. BUT as the ships are chewing up folk and making em into an olive oil substitute, then the compariosn is probably okay. Maybe it's the skin that isn't right - too clean.
Is it difficult to have ships included? Can they be removed later? The Harvesters have a pretty unique identity. How likely is it to be incorporated if the game is going to run on servers where the faction isn't present?
Of course I say all this with stunning disregard for the work Jinx put into it; well done. How do you do this? Do you tell people that in your spare time you design ships for imaginary space robot races that like people smoothies? I bet you get all the hot chicks.:unsure:
haha - funny - no.... but yes... thinking about shipdesigns is some sort of sparetime activity. - you know... before disco - i often made sketches on little yellow papers while working in the university ( students job to archive stuff - rather boring ... ) - with the discovery of modelling sorfware, i was finally able to make my thoughts actually hit the 3d.
so - to make a model - it starts with a box - and 30 min later, it looks like that - can t tell you how... i just add stuff here and there and then they re done. - the real work is texturing them ( hardpointing isn t too much work, especially when its replacement hardpointing )
well - more to the point. - it appears as if its not gonne be a rheinland pirate cruiser replace - so i ll hardpoint two variants and submit them with a suggestion. - one will be using the corsair dreadnaught hardpoints - since its in the game but not used.... the other will use the corsair huntress hardpoints.
both ships could be replaced easily - furthermore, i am working on a replacement of the kushan VHF ( the one sold in kappa/gammu ) - a fighter that should be a replace for the bugged VHF ( due to its strange hitbox ) - once done, both ships are submitted to igiss - and will await his judgement.
one problem i see with such designs is that.... the longevity of playerfactions isn t too great - unless they are heavily based on the vanilla NPC factions ( the =CR= runs well - but thats an exception so far ) ... when the harvesters die out apruptly or slowly - such a design would become useless as no faction ( not even zoners ) couls possibly fly such a thing.
the concept is indeed to be the "ancient" shape of what the zoner juggernaut ( new version ) is supposed to be derived from - however distantly. - but the juggernaut is still the most alien ship the zoners should fly i guess.
but all that are concerns that are not based on anything and are just that - concerns. - only time will tell how the factions will prosper or die.
edit: about the texture... yes it looks clean and cold. - but an organic looking texture needs to be really really good to look convincing - or it looks utterly cheap. - i tried to use nomad .xml but failed doing it, - they wouldn t show up ingame - so i have up on that. - tried to convert them.... still no luck. - so there we are... these are generic FL textures, even if the "metal" texture isn t really used much on FL models. - any other texture wouldn t look good on it - it had to be a clean and smooth one, not something tiled as a liner / generic faction based shiphull skin. - i also tried custom textures, but it wouldn t look very convincing.
about the power of the ship - its really small - comparable to one of the smaller destroyers - it could be made rather agile ( if its armour was reduced to make up for it ) - when its a huntress replace, it would have up to 12 turrets. - i ll make sure that they cannot fire into every direction though.
about the hitbox - both, the nomad BB and the bretonian battleship hitbox fit well over it - the nomad BB would have these three spikes - but would cover the shape pretty well - the bretonian battleship would miss some of the lower parts of the ship - but would cover the whole hull perfectly well.
while testflying, the rheinland pirate cruisers agility felt OK ( that thing is quite agile - imo ) - since its easy to get it through asteroids - it might loose some of the strafing abilities.
On a side note I found an Outcast Dreadnought today... and while it was in the Alaska cloud and It was hard to see it looked very similar to this...
Perhaps someone could look into it?
Tiberius Walker, putting flames out and being awesome since Apr 13 2008
[8/17/2008 5:56:46 PM] Aaron (Boss/Jurgen) says: Can't bring myself to say it... Looks like you get the LABC, I've seen what you can do in one
Walker (Albert Wint): I can has win? --- Epyon the Bored: You can haz win. --- [1:18:00 PM] Chris (Niezck) says: I love you <3
[5:55:53 PM] Raisu says: Walker pwned both Battleships(LNS-Texas LNS-Arizona) - [5:55:57 PM] Raisu says: in a cruiser Tiberius Walker, spreading mayhem, destruction, and Spamming Flood since Oct 22 2008
[9:08:25 AM] Gurjiv (Frozen) says: I hope someone gives you AIDs.
[7:15:17 PM] Dylan (Ximen) says: Walker... you have no idea how much fail you bring into this world...
[8:05:08 AM] Ross (SevereTrinity) says: Screw you for making me install FL again
[10:51IE AM] Epyon the Bored says: My god if I ever meet you I am going to strangle you. Tiberius Walker, being better then you since April 30, 2009 â¢
We will remember - We do not Forget - We do not Forgive
Ok here is the first draft of the info card for this ship.
I could use folks suggestions to make this info more informative in the least amount of space possible.
THis is at least at this point the minimum data to get the point accross I think. Keep in mind this is not how it is supposed to be balanced this is flavor text.
Harvester AP chassis.
The Harvester AP chassis was designed by the FTGW intellect as a culmination of past Daam Kavosh designs and the innumerable minds syphoned during the many harvest from across Surius. The Harvester AP chassis, purpose is to; independently or swarmed, to overpower all but the most advanced or prepared foes, consume the targeted vessels and crew then safely transport the harvest to a location were data siphoning and nano deconstruction may occur. The design due to the need to operate independently required a well rounded approach. Offering the Harvesters medium armor, maneuverability, with a focus on power production and larger than normal cargo space. Not requiring life support, crew quarters, artificial gravity, or even passage ways for persons to move within. The chassis has few pieces of technology not encountered on other ships such as nanite vats and micro factories with each internal machine acting more like an organ than a separate system. With the exception of internal systems the Harvester is a solid metal structure with small cavities for the biological neural synaptic curcitry found interconnected to all systems aboard the ship. This chassis is not a ship intended for a human crew. This chassis is the body and face that the machine has given its awareness, conceived of the alien AIs stolen thoughts.
i have submitted the model with a brief description and an explanation - you might want to mail the ID to igiss - so he has as much information about it as possible.