I've been focusing mainly on modelling lately so I thought I'd share a couple screenshots.

Here is the fixed up, redone Asgard Thor (Beliskner) model in game:

And here are some earlier build shots of the new Goa'uld Anubis model:

The new Anubis was actually completed before the improved Beliskner but I don't have any in-game screenshots of it yet and it's just using a flat color shade texture at this time.  I may go back and try to give the texture a little detail and then put some in-game shots of it up if it turns out ok.  The flat shaded model itself  turned out rather nicely in game though.  The final model also has some more detailing added to it that you don't see in these earlier shots.  Still, it gives you a pretty fair idea of what it looks like.

-dolynick

Thanks.  I was quite excited about the new Thor as I was making and it did turn out almost as nicely as I had hoped.  Speaking of which, has anyone noticed just how much better the Gungir model is in the last release than it used to be?  I personally think it's night and day compared to the pre-redone version but I'm not sure if any one really noticed yet.

I know the Shield Recharge ability on the Thor (and the Freya, since they are the same) is a little vague.  I can't do much about it since the engine just won't display the stat given the way it is set up to work and changing it will change the fundamental way in which the ability operates.  Basically the ability starts off giving 5 shield points back per second, at the cost of 5 antimatter per second.  As you increase the level of the ability the antimatter cost stays the same but the shield points restored per tick goes up to 7.5 and 10.  So yes, the ability does get 100% more effective at level 3.  Unfortunately, the AI autocast does not do a good job of using the ability so it requires a little micromanagement to be really useful.  The intended function of that ability is to allow the ships to recharge they're shields much more quickly between battles, although if you have lots of spare antimatter it can certainly be helpful during a fight as well.  The idea was that the Thor would get in a fight, either retreat or the enemy does, use the Recharge Shields ability and then re-engage with a (hopefully) much higher percentage of shield point recovery than the enemy.  Basically it's a battle of attrition winner meant to give them an edge mainly over successive engagements.

I don't particularly find the Thor "fragile" myself.  The Odin's Emergency Shields do work in game much better at keeping the ship in the fight much longer though if you're relying on autocast only.  The Thor does tend to burn up antimatter quicker due to it's ability set up but if you are actively managing the abilities and disable the autocast to concentrate on using Shield Recharge during a fight instead, then it should have some serious staying power much like the Odin.  Personally, the Thor is always my starting cap of choice with the Asgard too.  It's available right off the hop and it is very combat effective in my opinion, particularly in the early game.  Laser Barrage isn't the best ability, but it does give the ship a DPS boost and it allows the Thor to damage multiple ships.  We've already talked about Shield Recharge...  Defeat Shields is incredibly useful (and is the primary ability I focus on myself as it levels), particularly against any shield focused race like the Asgard or the Ori with they're high mitigations - and remains effective through the entire game (if not moreso with mitigation increases).  Defeat Shields is a deceptively powerful ability in a fleet engagement as it allows your fleet to do substantially more damage to the target while in effect but when it's just the Thor by itself the effect of the ability isn't quite as dramatic.  Lastly, Disintegration is always a useful ability when it can be used as it does pure hull damage and never suffers from mitigation losses.  Disintegration makes the Thor a great pairing with the Tyr class as well since Attenuation on the Tyr can do a little hull damage through the shields of the enemy and then allow the Thor to wallop it with the Disintegration damage right away - conceivably letting the two take down an enemy ship before the shields are anywhere near depleted.

Ultimately, the Odin is the more powerful ship from an outright toe to toe standpoint statistically and the Decimate Swarm ability is invaluable to the Asgard fleet when they get it but the Thor never becomes irrelevant because of a couple of it's abilities.  The Odin and it's abilities are also better suited to taking on a single large target whereas Laser Barrage gives the Thor the ability to engage multiple hostiles a bit better.  In the late game, I use the Thor to "soften" an enemy cap ship while the Odin pummels it and the Thor joins in with a nice amount of raw damage as well.  Personally, the Odin is my 2nd cap of choice and usually only when I can afford to build it and a Heimdall to go with it as I always deploy the two as a pair.  That pairing becomes the core of any later game fleets I might assemble because the two of them together can effectively neutralize the enemy fleet's strikecraft and that's always a major concern for the Asgard.

At any rate, that's my insight into the Asgard capital battleship fleet.  Of course you can use them however you wish but I thought filling in some of the finer points might be helpful in how you chose your fleet composition.

-dolynick

I meant that I had redone the model for the Gungir itself.  Its far better edged now and has a far better texture job on it and it's actually fewer polygons to boot.  I didn't change anything about the ship as far as stats go.

Yes, I've noticed that behavior as well.  I'm not sure what the best way to attempt to correct the behaviour would be though.  It really shouldn't happen like that.  It's worse on the Heimdall as the ship actually pauses when it uses the ability and slows it down to an annoying degree.  In both cases, they autocast constantly too which they shouldn't (and are set not too...).  It's a bug that I have been aware of but don't have a decent solution to yet.

This is certainly possible with little problem.  I will consider it as Laser Barrage does not do that much damage anyways.

-dolynick

Nice tip!  I wasn't aware of that UseTime option.  I'll definitely give that a look.

-dolynick

It's a limit of how abilities must work on capital ships as opposed to Frigates.  The hidden 5th slot for capship abilities must be passive and one level only otherwise the player can do some ship screwing up stuff (like trying to assign levels to it at ship level up).  That means that I cannot apply the research to the Impenetrability on capships and that they only have one level.  On the flip side, they start with it with no research required.

In my private build version for the 1.03 versions I have modified the values of Impenetrability on both capships and frigates.  It's now 90% on caps and 0/30/60/90% on frigates depending the research.

Essentially, capships get full Impenetrability for free by default now.  I'm ok with this since, well, they are caps.

-dolynick

Unfortunately I don't think Dewing12 sent me the source files for the model and all I have is the finished mesh.  That makes it trickier to get into XSI to redo it nicely.  That's why I never changed the textures from how they arrived originally.  It is possible but given the nature of that project it's definitely lower on the priority list as I might possibly end up starting again from scratch on it.

I would rather concentrate on new models for ships that don't have anything custom yet.  The Beliskner and Gungnir were exceptions because the models actually threw errors in Sins due to some vertex issues so I just re-UV and textured them while I was correcting it.  I may retex a few other models too that I did a particularly poor job on the first time around (Odin, possibly the Ancient ships but those are a lot more complex, the Apophis needs a re-UV mapping badly as well).  I do have a few donated Asgard models that I haven't used yet (the Daniel Jackson being one of them) that I think would be time better spent than redoing the Tyr.  I would also like to get more models in for the Ori and those I'll be making from scratch (not as big a job as the Soveriegn was hopefully) as I've had some basic shapes in mind for a few of those for a while and if I don't get on it I may forget what I had planned.

My next immediate project will either be a remapping of the Odin or touching up the new Anubis textures.  Touching up the Anubis textures will probably mean adjustments to all the Goa'uld textures so there is some consistency across their fleet too.  I would also really like to get a Jan'Tak model in game since I think the non-firing issue may be model related but I had a setback there as the source model for it seems to be corrupt.

-dolynick

Just wondering, will the Anubis ship be bigger now, cause in the show, at least, it dwarfed all the other Goa'uld ships.

ok, thanks, just wondering. Yeah, i do have to agree about the fleet formation issues with large groups of large ships.

I was referring to the original xsi source project for the Tyr model you sent.  Even the pre-converted .xsi would be more workable than trying to get the .mesh back into XSI.

As for the software I'm using, it's still XSI Mod Tool, not even the newer Autodesk version (although I'm tempted to switch as the XSI package is a little buggy).  The Beliskner model isn't new, just a fixed up and remapped version of the original that's been in the mod for some time.  The Anubis is new though.  I found a really nice 140k poly model out on the 'net and then I used it as a blueprint for generating my own, lower poly geometry for it (about 20k triangles, 6k post conversion).

-dolynick

Any new pics for the new models???

Could you consider giving the later stages of the laser barrage lower cooldown time, that way multiple thors would look awesome fighting large fleets with their increased range and faster casting.

Have you thought up any new abilities for the monjlir?

Yes, I am aware of the issue.  Another poster recently pointed me to a wiki that had some very useful info on AIUseTime and Autocast options that I was not previously aware of.  Those should allow me to better tailor the behavior of most of those problem abilities where OnlyInCombat, etc doesn't seem to work properly.  The build version of the mod is using some of the new options and it does seem to be working much, much better now.  Thanks for taking the time to report it though Eternal.

-dolynick