so - thats the 5 ships that Xing most recently presented. - i hardpointed them, sized them to what i think is appropriate and gave those that are no direct replacements plenty of weaponhardpoints to be on the safe side.
the following images show the ships ingame along with a brief description of the hardpoints i set for them.
Spatial
since its a direct replace, the hardpoints and weapons are of course all the same. - the model is mirrowed though - so the wing is now on the other side than the original model ( hope its not a biggie ) - since i was not able ( or rather willing ) to make a transparent cockpit, i have added a solid "glas" texture. the problem is still the same that was mentioned with the original model, xing made. - the canopy is too large compared to other ships... aside from that, the ship runs fine )
Viper mk1
this is another direct replace of the current model. - hardpoints are fully identical. - again, i have replaced the canopy with a solid one ( sorry about that ) - i forgot to add a third engine in the .ini when i was testing.... but there is a third hardpoint for the third engine... so no worries.
the turret is firing backwards only of course and has a 180 fire arc backwards.
problems:
- i forgot to limit the rotation of 2 guns ( will be fixed )
- the thruster causes a problem with the model ( fixed already )
Grizzly
now that is the first non replace. - since it features a "slit" instead of a classical engine ( much like some homeworld ships ) - i have placed 10 engine effects close to each other. - i d suggest the BW ( white fire ) engine effect as it blends better into one another than the liberty engine effect. - either way, its a lot of fire spilling out of that ships back.
the ship itself is not much bigger than the rhino - but a lot heavier armed... if we want it to be like that. it has hardpoints for:
- 4 weapons with a tigher forward fire arc
- 4 turrets
- 2 CM ( if its recon - i thought why not add 2 CM droppers to ensure it an easier escape )
- 2 minedropper ( fun )
- 1 torpedo/CD
those are NOT the stats - its just the hardpoints that i added! - if it really got all those weapons, it would be a mean little bugger, cause the rhino ( and so the grizzly ) are not exactly large. - but if its supposed to be a highest tech shuttle for the LSF... i wouldn t really see a problem with those hardpoints. - it would be THE pirating freighter.... if it wasn t a cloakable LSF shuttle haha.
oh, and i added a hardpoint for a cloak ( fun ) - but that ll be unused of course.
Liberty upholder bomber
the liberty upholder is NOT hardpointed as a replacement for the havoc. - i have sized it to around avenger size and i gave it 4 weapons ( standard ) and 2 turrets that cover the a side each and the backwards arc. ( that means that when it is flying a VERY tight turn, - one turret might add its weaponfire )
Paladin bretonian heavy fighter
this fighter is hardpointed just like the default heavy fighter. - nothing special about it... except the torpedo launcher, which can rotate a full 360 degrees ( but its mounted on the roof - a bit exposed for enemy blast damage )
the greatest problem i had with that ship was that i - again - wasn t able to make it a transparent cockpit. - as you can see, the effect is not really spoiled by using solid textures - but it decreases the models quality significantly, cause the canopy is such a dominant element of the ship.
size comparison charts
3d comparison chart ( old new )
front comparison chart ( new old )
side comparison chart ( new old ) - not too easy to see - the red ones are the old ones, the white ones are the new ones.
edit: did i mention its pretty cool to be the first one that has taken these ships into space?:D
low qual pics? - hm - i can check if i can get better ones - but the ones i made are meant to show certain things most of all. like where the hardpoints are or where the torpedos launch from....
the grizzly. - it has an exhaust slit - the engine "glow" is too large for the ship right now ( but i haven t edited any ini for that ) - the best result would be not to add a real engine effect, but rather an engine glow ( consisting of resized running lights ( hornet ) )
and well... i wrote why the canopy is not really visible most of the time. - its a solid grey / blue texture used on the windows of the FL ships that have no transparency. - i told xing that i would not be willing to make them transparent. - so thats the compromise for now.
he is free to ask someone else to hardpoint the ships and retexture them WITH transparency. - but that would not be me then. so far, the ships are at least ready to be submitted. ( the pictures do not always show all the hardpoints used - i usually have a lot more running lights attached and headlights and glow effects - but for testing purpose i have just replaced the most similar ship with them ( including the ini of the replacement ship )
well, xing will get the models and can fix what he does not like himself, i think .
again - if we want "glas" on the cockpits.... someone else has to do it. doom wrote up a tutorial - which is fine, but i don t feel like doing that stuff at the moment - if someone else wants to try it, i am sure xing will send you the models to have a go. - the major goal for now was to finalize the models for now. - a glas cockpit is a nice thing - but does not really add much. - most of the time, the only one that can see the difference is the player himself in turret view ( which, i admit is quite an important reason why it should be glas ( and i agree it "should" be ) - but other players will not see the difference whatsoever )
that means that it was not explicitly declared to be a "replace" but rather an "addition" as a military version of a liberty bomber - as opposed to the civilian version of the liberty bomber ( havoc ).
so i have added turrets to it ( which the havoc does not have ). it also means that the havoc will probably stay in the game along with the new bomber. - but thats not up to me. - if its a replace, igiss can simply lock the 2 turrets and make it a direct replace. - the hardpoints are ( for that purpose ) named exactly like the havocs HPs. so - everything s up to igiss when it comes to that ship.
but replacing the havoc would mean to replace a model that legenation has made for this mod......
i can just "guess" there - being as large as an avenger, its one of the "larger" bombers - but it does still look sleek and fast. - so it might be a large, but agile bomber ( like the BHG bomber ) - but that is just my personal feeling about it.
the torpedotubes are quite narrow and centered ( like the rheinland bomber ) ... that makes firing them in a pass a bit easier than when they are mounted in the wingtips ( praetorian ). - furthermore, the bomber is rather large from the top, but offers a very small profile from the front - it feels as small as the rheinland bomber ( well - a little bigger... maybe it feels a bit like the Taidan )
all in all, this bomber is very similar to the rheinland bomber - but a lot larger... so from a feeling, i d say - stats like the BHG bomber would be just fine.
in no way its comparable to the red catamaran, which is almost 3 times smaller AND has a forward firing turret.
edit: the upholder "feels" very nice when flying it. - the ship is thin and does not really obscure the view. - the weapons and torpedos are in easy to use places - it just feels like a good ship. ( in contrast to the paladin, which feels like its REALLY a large target..... come to that.... it IS a really large target )