Since Crusade is likely to redo some of the faction system, I am procrastinating on finalizing my other mods for distribution. Between my own illness and the terminal illness of a family member, I've had a LOT of time to work on ship sets. Most of these have factions already for them. Some of these factions were inspired by factions from Steam (due credit will be given), some are right off Steam and will not come with a separate .faction sheet so you have to subscribe to the original author (I have contacted one owner, and he is ok with this, at least in one case). My plan is to give these the CFS treatment, with unique color schemes, interfaces, maybe even new materials, and, of course, the all-important shipset.
Here's a little preview. Some of these aren't the best images, sorry. I should note: I don't use much animation, mostly because my computer is limited. I subscribe to the Star Trek model of starships, with no turrets, almost hidden weapons, no rocket exhaust, etc. I also make no claim to being as creative as Gauntlet, nor as original as Seilore. And I seem to have this thing with Altarian and Thalan parts...
Obviously, these are just samples. I tend to do about 5-6 hulls per size.
1) The Caimanoid Conspiracy: this is my test race, and my baby. Their ships are based on a pistachio with one shell missing. These guys are super-paranoid, so they only use one engine. Why would you use two... unless you expect one to fail?
2) The Mirrion Symphony (Seilore's Faction, slightly modified). These guys are eyeless, so their ships are a neutral color (third images is correct color and material), and they have sensory tentacles like their owners. Their ships also have no windows, except those on culture starbases, where other races are expected to cohabitate.
3) The Dolph: another 'borrowed' race, but this one may not make the cut with the original owner. I see the race as kind of simple and doofy, so their ships are meant to look a little silly. However, I think I stretched the textures too much. I am in the process of adding an angular superstructure which might help balance the design. Maybe. They sure are ugly! The wings on the smaller ships flap slowly. Because blowfish.
4) The Ariowzen: their ships are black triangles. If you don't respect your planet, or if you help the Chthonian League ("The Lava Men"), Lord Kinbote will kidnap you. The black isn't great, and note that the image is altered so they show up better.
5) The Craiquin (name based on a Steam Faction) are a group from a Precursor Prison. They say they are Dread Lords, and they say the prison was theirs. Funny, though, they seem to have lost much of the Dread Lord's technology. But they try really hard to make their ships look like Dread Lord ships.
6) The Foresaken are kind of like the Craiquin, only possibly Arnorian. They appear to be a race of 'partly ascended' beings; they have one or two features of ascended races, like extreme intelligence, foreknowledge of some other factions, and the ability to form a glowing energy body when threatened or showing off. Their ships are kind of star-treky or generic. The small ones are very individualized, while larger ships are all of the same design. All have very small crews, as the Foresaken are few in number.
7) The Kzin (from a Steam contribution, although that was adapted from Larry Niven. The ship style is based on the Kzinti fleet from the old tabletop game Starfleet Battles. Note that the image is altered so they show up better.
8) The Psylax: a race of silicon-based amoeboids. Their ships look like their logo and the Starship Defiant from DS9, and they scintillate like Psylax skin. 'Nuff said.
9) Vic Vipers: No race yet, and too late of NoVVember, but this race follows the NNENN Rules for Vic Vipers as much as possible.
10) Guomini Harsinthar: No pictures. They use flying saucers.
11) Buck Rodgers: I'd like to do an old-school, rocket-ship set, but it isn't working too well.
12) Cruddy Style: I have a number of really ugly ships that were supposed to be Dolph until I realized they were a) too dumb, and Snathi ships are dumb enough. I'd like to revisit this.
13) The Chthonian League: Rock ships? THese are the arch-enemy of the Ariowzen.
14)
GRAB BAG) Everyone has boilerplate ships, I do too. But I don't want them to be human, so I'm still working on coming up with a new race with slightly different shapes within the angles-looks like a gun-antenna clusters-big-turrets genre that seems so very popular. The Chrome Cohesion is a Steam faction. The ball doesn't work perfectly, but my concept of them is that EVERY hull and base they have is a silver sphere. Too bad the model sucks. The bat things are a concept I haven't really developed.
So, what do you think?
Well this is quite the collection!
Its a little hard to judge fairly from 2d images alone, and from the top down view for me (I'm always rotating things lol).
But I definitely like the Vic Vipers, the Psylax, Caimanoid, and Mirrion.
I think all of these do a very good job of mixing "organic" parts with the inorganic. The triangle ship images are simply not visible for me to judge.
The dreadlord-y race would be best in my opinion by dropping the tentacles, its using too many mixes of tech, organic (but shell-like) and smooth (not shell like).
I'm also wondering if the engines are generally consistent amongst the ships, to me, consistency of command modules, engines, and weapons really keeps a set tight and have identity. Looks like they mostly do.
The Kzin... I just don't like how "top heavy" the hulls look. The fronts don't transition very well into their mid sections/rears... they also seem really inconsistent in command sections, so they bug me.
I really like the first set the most, they are really consistent and awesome... the only thing I think you could add, is something like wings for additional armaments on the large and huges or some such.
Hope this is useful, loving the ships, and I look forward to downloading these!
I like the ships of the 1st and 2nd faction most.
Those are some badass shipsets. You really got their style distinctive yet made ships different enough to have their own personality. That is hard to pull off, and I feel you did it really well!
The Caimanoids are my favorite. I love how such a weird source of inspiration could pull something so awesome.
Thank you all for all of the encouragement!
The triangle ship images are simply not visible for me to judge.
I considered redoing them in grey so you could see them, and then I realized they are just a bunch of black triangles with three white lights at the corners. They are mostly there as an X-Files homage. I'll go pretty far for an homage...
Agreed, to some extent. I may try to do some test shots without the really long thin tentacles (thin tentacles are rarely used in the ships, mostly just in the bases). The short tentacle/horns... it is hard to do a Dread Lord copy without something to imitate the big horn/tentacle/cone things. The other ships in this set are more varied, and I think there is a more smooth transformation over the whole group. I will play with these and see if there is something better.
For the record, the clumsy mix of organic and smooth was a deliberate choice. I'm not sure it worked in this case. I wanted to show that the Craiquin were on the right track, they just don't have the all tech or all the smarts to make a full Dread Lord ship. They aren't exactly wannabes, they have some material. Again, I'll play with it a little and see what I can do. I really appreciate the feedback!
I hope so! I try to minimize the number of pieces and styles I use too, to keep things consistent. Unfortunately, since scaling is a little arbitrary, you can't really be sure a piece will be the same size, even on ships of the same size. I find command modules the hardest to make work... and getting windows in general to make sense can be difficult too. It would be nice if you had the option to turn off the windows or surface patterns on specific pieces! I find engine lights very annoying in this respect, especially when they are inconsistent (the Krynn 'light panel' that has 'engine'-colored lights comes to mind), and I get sick of having to cover up the engine lights on every other piece.
As part of the ship theme, I find engine choice is very important, and you really have to be sure you maintain a consistent scale change so that big ships have bigger engines, even with the scaling problem noted above. This was difficult with the Psylax, because their engines are ridiculously small and get proportionally smaller as the ships get bigger.
They are by no means complete. The shape is a StarFleet Battles thing... their ships are very blocky, very phallic, and they have tiny engines (by Star Trek standards). The command sections ARE inconsistent, and I will try to fix that! Thank you! Maybe I should go with a more 'inspired by' style than a direct port of the original.
I wish I had put some 3-views of the Caimanoid ships in. I'll try to come up with one at some point... or just send you one. They are actually much more interesting from other angles.
The huge Caimanoid ships each have a full starship inside them, most of them are the big hulls from GC2, with wings and all that, but that is all on the inside. Some kind of sponson to carry weapons past the carapace might be interesting. I'm not sure how to make it look, but I'll see what I can do.
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Thanks again to everyone. I am having a bad week, and it helped to get some positive constructive criticism. And it was nice to hear other people like my weird Caimanoid ships. I was expecting them to be really unpopular.
Anyway, let's hope StarDock gets the shipset thing together. I was looking through the ships on Steam (I never bothered, because I can design ONE ship), and there are some lovely ships on there. I actually just started a new shipset inspired by the Beyuran Nova ships.
For those interested, this is one I'm working on that is based loosely on the Beyuran Nova shipset from Steam... I may contact the author to be sure this is cool. Those ships have a 3-way gyroscope in the center, but when viewed from the side, it just looks like they have a big paddlewheel. So these are basically paddlewheel starships. The front is supposed to look like a wet-navy ship, and the wheel turns.
Anyway, these are very stereotyped. I'm not sure I like the Tiny hull, and the Huge hull doesn't have enough engine mass, but there are first drafts that were done yesterday. These may end up having turrets, unlike most of my designs.
Love these... especially the Large... agree though, that the tiny doesn't quite work... maybe make it a more traditional fighter? Or are your ships never that "scale" and that tiny is like a destroyer?
The "tiny" hull became the scout. Fighters lack the paddle wheel, and some have only one engine. They are all long and thin, like the front of that tiny in the picture (one of them actually is just the front and rear of the scout without the wheel). I figured you'd dig those X engines on the Large... Huge may get them too. Also, one or two antennae will probably crop up on the other ships as well. These are much more complex than most designs I do, so the process is moving slower than usual (and life is constantly intervening).
Again, credit to InkySquid for the original inspiration. I may use a squid-like faction in homage. The squid/crabs were going to be my saucer faction (ala Dr. Zoidberg and his people) but I have a cool mushroom graphic that would make sense in a saucer-shaped ship.
And five minutes after I add a new race and ship set, I find out Gauntlet used the pic already. Back to the Gimp...
FYI: When Crusade happens I may or may not use the conventional upload (except for the sets for other people's civs). Some of my civs have things that may not be supported. For example, the Craiquin have a custom star (!).
After looking at the new Civilization interface, I may try to do as many of these on Steam as I can. At least one (The Foresaken) will probably become a minor race. Unless they include a minor race interface, I feel those are more important than majors right now, since there won't be a good variety on steam (I want to reach maybe fifty, including Gauntlet's, the originals, the GCII minors, and my own. It gets old fast, coming up with reasons why a race is confined to one system.
Ok, I am working, in between other mods, on this as a civ pack. The Crusade tools are simply not enough. I'm having trouble getting the shipyard to work, but when that is done, I will be spending part of my vacation on these. These will be done in small batches. You will note that, unlike Gauntlet, I am far from original. So far, the line-up is (in approximate release order):
Still awaiting work are the saucer fungus race, a couple classic sci-fi styles, the paddlewheel race (see above), Dr. Zoidberg's race from Futurama, at least one paasitic race, a bird-ship race, a plant race, a race with ships based on Polynesian outrigger canoes, the fake-Dolph (see above, need new name, new backstory, and, thanks to Gauntlet, a new race picture), etc. I will be learning how to automate this process, possibly with a Perl script. Again, I plan full compatibility with Gauntlet's mod.
cool
I seem to spam my own threads. I forgot to mention:
Lots of nice work General.
I am sort of a minimalist, and not a huge fan of organic ships, so obviously some appeal to me more than others. The old saw about women getting dressed, is to keep adding on until perfect, and then remove at least one thing, (less is more). Most of yours would be improved for me by the removal of some tentacles/appendages.
The Dolph set made me think of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy film. It would fit in nicely there.
I love the Beyuran set and also the Grab Bag and the Vic Viper. Of the organics, I like the Psylax best.
I did a Kzin faction for Steam with that image (there could be others) and I would gladly adopt your ship set if they were stripped of most of the appendages.
The forsaken remind me a little of a toned down version of the Q Continuum.
Many many thanks! I've been discouraged recently, and the boost helps more than you know!
I totally get that. I'm not sure I will follow that 'rule' this time, but I am going to bear that in mind, because it is GREAT advice (for people too). Minimalist styles are easier to make, and I have more fun cranking out a shipset than sweating every detail. I think one of the big differences between me and Gauntlet (not the most humble comparison) is that I am much more of a minimalist. I like to take one shape or just a few simple rules and vary them You may like the Mycronoss better. If I get a chance, I'll post some pics.
Hahahahaahahaaha! Thank you, that makes me irrationally happy. Of course, they will stop being "the Dolph." I decided not to tread on Seilore's factions despite permission. He (/she) needs to have room to be creative. Like with the Mirrion, Seilore will get credit and have full endorsement to use any and all parts of the pack. Those ships are giving me a lot of problems, but I want to make them work, just because they look so silly.
Wow, Someone liked the grab-bag! I think the angular ships will be used for a parasitic species that took over someone human-like. Angular-Sulaco/ Leonev/ Earth Force ships are so common, it is difficult to justify more. The birdy ships will be their own thing... someday. Lots of work ahead before that. Right now I'm concentrating on window-dressing mods for stars and planets. The Vipers proved popular; but I'm not surprised. Every November, the whole on-line Lego community makes them and has a big 'Novvember' ViperFest. The Lego company even started making them.
As an aside, I don't mean to pick nits, but please be sure to describe them as "fake Beyuran." I am really worried about stepping on InkySquid's toes. Too many of my ships, factions (as you well know), and mods were inspired or motivated by others, and I really don't want anyone feeling ripped-off. Cross-pollination of ideas is a great aspect of our community, but in science we are bound to a rigid code of attributing even the slightest inkling of an idea, and I think that approach will help our community maintain its very relaxed, cooperative attitude. I have greatly benefited from that attitude, myself.
Many thanks on the Psylax. They have proven much more popular than I expected. I thought they were overly-simple, even banal, but I love making them! Mostly, i just like the shiny. Shiny makes me happy.
Yeah, I always wanted to do the Kzin, so when I saw your contribution, I took your faction apart, re-researched all the background (my Known Space experience is more with the novels, not the short stories), and generally tried to make it my own. I re-cut-out the graphic from that maquette and fixed them: you'll notice my version has 'bat-ears' and a rat tail. I wanted to fix the ribbing to be a lattice, but that was too much effort. You will be welcome to use my version, and the ships! I'll have the ship set in the pack, so stripping off the appendages (courtesy of Starfleet Battles) won't be too hard to do. And, of course, you will get credit for being the first to post a Kzin race and for using the pic. I meant to contact you for permission to use the logo and the patriarch name (I couldn't find either anywhere, but I assume they are correct).
Now that an (EXCELLENT) picture has been posted, I fully intend to do the Moties, with an accurate home system and a ship style (such as it can be done). More authors to contact, and I have to re-read the book. Reading takes me a long time...
Bingo! They are going to be cybernetic, though... Too few of them to have a civilization without robots. Citizens will be glowing people-things, though.
Thanks again for the feedback!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the reply, I enjoyed it.
As for Gauntlet's and your diverse work. I really admire it. Creativity is not my long suit and if I created 6 ship sets, the first comment would usually be, "Well damn, they all look the same".
I appreciate your feelings on using someone's stuff, I feel the same way. Personally I don't have any strong feelings about my little things. I didn't spend days on any of them and I did them just for fun. I am fine being mentioned or not. Consider my permission granted for anything that I have submitted.
Thank you, that make things a little easier when it comes time to 'publish.'
I bet Gauntlet would have a good laugh at this too. Sometimes you just make ships that look alike. Sometimes you pegged what you want and you just change the weapons. Heck, sometimes the weapons aren't visible. My 'Forsaken' faction has one, maybe two hull designs for the larger ships. It fits the faction. Sometimes, just HAVING a ship set that looks different is good enough!
Yeah.... I definitely make ships that look alike!
Generally, being human beings, and generally being susceptible to comparing space navy to ocean navy, we are all very commonly making ships long... when really there is no reason they shouldn't be wide, tall, whatever...
And then yeah... unless you have a real passion for playing a particular race, I think its difficult to build tons of unique variants... its also entirely believable, that for purposes of construction efficiency, that ships would use fairly standardized forms and hull designs, and modular weaponry.
It is part of the fun; that's why it is a ship STYLE. Figuring out the 'rules' of the style is part off the fun. I remember someone lecturing me about having common command modules once... an it was dead on. If the ships don't follow a set of "rules," they won't make sense. Happens all the time in Sci Fi:
etc.
There are a lot of sci fi reasons, many of which I don't have a full grasp on, as to why ships should be certain shapes. GCIII has sufficient technology that they are mostly moot. Although I still say you should always take the spin off the ship before going into battle!.
Frogboy complains about this. I don't see it. Most of the built-in designs look pretty equant to me, if a little flat. Yours come out more cylindrical, andthe longer ones are usually done in the style of a sci fi faction (the Minbari, the Narn). I like tall, actually, but it is hard to do. I think you get that going once in a while, and it looks good.
It happens all the time today: the Tornado ADF and GCR use the same airframe for different missions, the Spruance- and Ticonderoga classes used the same hull for different missions and weaponry, the Russian Armata series of armored vehicles will use a common chassis.
In fact, rather than having different ships for different weapons, it might make more sense to have "age of expansion," age of war," and "age of ascension" designs, so you could show technological growth in the navy. Maybe in GCIV.
Space allows you a lot of latitude in choosing the shape of a ship. I like to think that any civ in their first few hundred years in space will use very utilitarian designs. Of course their species will prejudice the design but there will probably be wings on any ship designed to fly in atmosphere no wings on any ship meant to remain in space. When a species has been in space for many hundreds of years, I can imagine the styles becoming more lavish/decadent and of course the possibility of living ships is always a possibility.
I can't really design ships because of a bug in the game, so I've been working on planet mods. However, if anyone wants to see, here are the Mykronoss. Sorry the pics are sloppy and not the prettiest... This is as far as I got before it got too hard to make ships. The cargo hull is probably more like what the final coloration will be. Note that the medium and large hulls are reversed... D'oH!
Just an update:
This faction pack may be released initially with very few new ship styles. The actual number of civs will be 40 (!), so I think it is obvious why the ship styles will take longer. It will be completely compatible with the GRM (in fact, the GRM will be necessary for many factions), and will use Gauntlet's four-traits-per-race system. I have substantially upped my game regarding leader images. All civs will have citizen portraits, most should have at least the bare minimum custom dialogue (the ones you can access directly from the editor), and some will have unique star systems. I will continue to work on the ship styles. I have at least one new one that is a doozie!
The goal right now is to permit a new player to get the GRM and GRPR (General Pants' Race Pack), and have about 80 civs to use immediately. I have tried to spread around the traits and come up with unique descriptions based on biology, history, and anthropology for each civilization, within the limits of the small text spaces we are allowed.
What bug stops you from designing ships?
The menus won't scroll down all the way, so I can't access all parts. I have a work-around, but it is difficult to use.
Eighty, actually. I spent much of what little free time I've had recently making citizen portraits. I found a really good repository of truly alien-looking alien pictures, and I went a little crazy. Basically, I plan to use the reverse approach to what Gauntlet does: bring out the civs first, then the ship styles.
Again, this should be fully compatible with my other mods, and with the GRM.
That plus the 320 I have will make a nice number.
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