[WIP] JaySuS Space Ships (5 + (2 x 1/2) ships) (1st version released!)

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 00:07

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[ external image ] Version 1.0
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as a small christmas present i release the mod for you all to enjoy and toy around with during the holidays

the ships are for sale at their respective shipyards and they should even be used by the AI, if not please tell me

in my opinion the ships are not overpowered

if you develope your own mod and would like to use these ships just send me a pm or contact me otherwise

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the mod contains the following ships:
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The Teladi Raven - M6
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The Raven class corvette was developed by the Teladi military wing to offer protection and serve as a reconnaisance vessel after severe flaws in the Osprey's design were discovered. Unlike the usual Teladi design the Raven is also relatively fast.

Tsululuki Miolus, the Raven's inventor, is known to have made a fortune with it's design and is now living on Ianumas Zuras in a villa build out of pure Nvidium.

The Raven is fast, well armed and offers enough cargo space to transport even the biggest space weed harvests.

The Pirate Bloodfang - M4
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The Bloodfang is a swift and deadly light fighter. Due to its versatility pirate clans have adopted it not long ago.

The Paranid Charon Vanguard - M3
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The Paranid Charon - M3
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The Charon is a rare breed of an offensive fighter craft, it wields few guns but those few can pack quite a punch. The Paranid Military developed the Charon as a heavy offensive fighter which if deployed in numbers can even take apart larger vessels. The Argon Defense Ministry is in uproar about the Paranid's cunning and wit to build such a ship in secret and that the Argon Military has been caught of guard once again.

The Argon Drifter - (combat) TP
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After realizing the need for a swift and secure shuttle the Argon commissioned the production of the Drifter Heavy Passenger Transport class. Due to its quite opulent shielding and armament the Drifter Shuttle can easily be regarded as a light corvette rather than a transport ship. It's great maneuverability and the protection it offers have won the Drifter a place in the hearts of many pilots.

Argon's Military High Command also made it a top priority that the new shuttle would be capable to fire boarding pods as to allow it to act as a fully fledged raiding unit for commando units who sometimes have to engage in guerilla warfare far behind enemy lines.

The Drifter was reportedly seen while performing in a wolf pack formation during test runs to take down even heavier targets. In that particular incident the "victim" destroyer, a Teladi Phoenix, was literally maimed by the heavy fire it was put under by three of the Drifter Shuttles whilst two others snug up behind the Phoenix's aft and fired their four, well placed boarding pods right into the command deck where the glorious argon special forces won just another victory in just another training excercise held together with the Boron Royal Fleet each yazura.

The Aldrin Autumn Rain (M3+++)
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The Aldrin Autumn Rain Raider (M3+++)
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Shortly after loosing contact to Terran space the colonists of Aldrin developed a heavy strike fighter which would allow them to sleep peacefully at night. The Autumn Rain was born and soon became famous for its exploits during hostile AI raids in which it prooved itself under heavy fire.
It is most famous for saving the lives of thousands of inhabitants of the remote Mining Outpost GM-7HJ where it singlehandedly took out 3 AI corvettes and smiled while doing so.

Due to the harsh environment Aldrin offeres the ship had to be fitted with heavy shielding to withstand the space dust aswell as a fast engine which allows it to travel between Aldrin stations in no time.

After the lost Aldrin colonies were rediscovered and diplomatic aswell as trade connections were established the Autumn Rain was refitted to be able to use commonwealth weapons as to give it the ability to scout into deep space and survive on its own over prolonged periods.

It's vast shielding, incredible speed and manouverabilty might astonish the usual commonwealth pilot but so will the pricetag.

credits:

egosoft for their game and base textures
doubleshadow for his amazing x3 mod manager and dbox2
deadlyda for his tutorial
killjaeden for some tips and developement critique aswell as his tutorials
killerog for the mission director script which i bluntly modified

the whole spieleabend crew for being such a funky bunch
me, the magnificent JaySuS that is

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see and explore the rest of the thread to read about their creation aswell as nice pics from different stages of the creation process

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---------------------------Former 1st post--------outdated-----------------

well well well well,

i always wanted to fly my ow ship in an x game since i never really like the awkward designs which were so fundamentally different from my beloved wing commander of old (with a few exception like the x2 teladi condor or osprey) and finally i had enough time on hand and the motivation to do so

hence i created the Teladi Raven,
i must admit that finding all the necessary info to create a ship is rather tideous, not much worse than in other games but still annoying, anyway, i finally, after about 24h of meddling and googling and forum craze, succeeded in most parts

here are two screenshots:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5237/test3sh.jpg
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3839/test2i.jpg

so far i have a working model with a blunt teladi plates texture, bump and specular map, two working turrets with 2 guns each, 10 main guns, a docking slot for up to one m3 fighter and 6 functioning engine emitters

the ship model has approximately 7000 polygons, together with the guns and turrets that sums up to 40k (lol)

i still need to create a final texture but depending on the performance of the model in zbrush that will be no problem

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stats atm:

M6
500 engine tunings for 306 max speed (to make upgrading the beast a bit more interesting and expensive)
2 double turrets
10 main guns
2000 cargo tunings up to 4000 (for lots of space weed)
1 external docking slot for a fighter up to M3
fires boarding pods (you know, i hate having my men drift through space never to reach their destination)

"The Raven class corvette was developed by the Teladi military wing to offer protection and serve as a reconnaisance vessel after severe flaws in the Osprey's design were discovered.

Its is fast, well armed and offers enough cargo space to transport even the biggest space weed harvests."

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questions:

1.
how are copyright issues usually handled in the x univers? im asking because as of now i have packed that ship in that 3 ship mod with the thanatos, normandy and lusca, is it common courtesy to ask for permission like in other games or is it more or less use and give credit around here?

2.
for glow maps, do i just put them into the "self illumination" slot of a 3dmax material?

3.
how do i import animated props like the radar dish? dbox2 always reports an error

4.
where do i find and how do i import items like those lights some ships have?

5.
why does dbox2 always export my scene files with a "1" keyframe whereas a "-1" would be needed?

6.
is there a way to add more passenger seats to my ship whilst retaining the ability to dock at any station and carry a fighter? (TPs cant carry fighters, M1s cant dock, TMs only have 5 seats if i remember correctly)

7.
any ideas, tips, help and so on regarding, stats, background, ingame placement, model, etc are welcome

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if this ship works out smoothely in the end (and 24h of mezzeling are reall not that crazy if i remember for example landscaping in fallout3) i will probably create some more ships... well if im not extremely busy opening fan mail and decorating my room with the bras i get in these mails that is of course

@deadlyDA if you read this,
do you know what happened to shadowtekDOTnet?

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 00:24

heh... why does it look familiar? the model... looks similar to SG SG1 ships for Earth

killerog · Post by **killerog** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 00:25

Only got time to ask answer question 1, but is it my 3 in 1 mod you are using ? As i currently have permission to use those 3 ships in that mod.

If it is the best way to do this would be you giving me permission to add your model to to that pack.

Edit:: answer to question 2 is yes.

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 00:47

@requiem
mmh, never watched SG that much, but now that you say it lol... there is a resemblance to that carrier thing though much smaller

, however to me it looks more like that fighter from wing commander 3 imo, but well its a popular design i guess

i made about 10 different drafts for a ship that would please me ranging from stuff like the x2 cerberus to star treks bird of prey until i finally settled for this one here, inspirations came from all directions

@killrog
yup it is indeed your mod i use as a base atm

i guess once its done (texture *sigh*) it would really be best if you could fit it in somehow, what files would you need to do so? just the scene, texture and body files plus some stat wishes from my side? or anything else? would be really neat if you could do that

,
oh it would need to be sold somewhere too obviously and maybe hand the ships to some npcs aswell through the jobs.txt so we can capture them...

killerog · Post by **killerog** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 00:56

When you are done with it just pm me a link to the combine mod (or link to to it if its on its own) and i will take the files i need. Eg. scene file, tfiles ect.

I will also add your ship to the MD code that puts it in the shipyard of the race of your choice.

Killjaeden · Post by **Killjaeden** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 01:38

the ship model has approximately 7000 polygons, together with the guns and turrets that sums up to

with that size i recommend to triple the amount of polys...
create hullpanels, pipes, and all that teladi stuff. Details is the key.
Otherwise it looks a bit boring.
You can copy a few pieces from other teladi ships if you don't know what to do (osprey has some nice parts that you could add) if you want it to be teladi.

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Sun, 29. Nov 09, 02:01

@killrog
roger that

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@killjaeden
ive modelled some props as you may see a lil better on the pic below:

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/7462/corvettec.jpg

but its true that this would be a tad plain and therefore i wanted to run the model through an extensive zbrush session to add more detail like screws, groves, pipes and so on since hullpanels and other details which wont be visible in the outlining shape can be done with bump maps without being noticeable as textures which is what im doing now, here is a test image from my panelling:

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7735/panelstest.jpg

i found it rather astonishing that egos designers actually modelled much of that stuff instead of just putting it in the texture, their models are basicly quite good but the amount of polies is rather extraordinary imo and could have been drasticly reduced that way,

nevertheless ill take your advise down to heart and add some more pipes and stuff

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oh and i have another question

how do i use LOD models? do i simply name them myshipname_LOD or somin and then export them as bodies and in the scene?

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Mon, 30. Nov 09, 01:49

had some trouble with zbrushs performance (1h for an AO map of every tiny piece, like those fins ontop lol) and then also with my tablet (never let a hillbilly use your tablet!) which in the end took all joy of sculpting from me until i can upgrade my computer and buy a new tablet *grrrummmel*

hence i simply juggled a texture together out of vanilla ones

also added a few more props, not many but enough imo

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stats:

cargo: 2000-3000
speed: 5-255 m/s (500 upgrades)
price: roughly 1,25 times the osprey
shielding: 4x200mj

can use boarding pods
10 main guns
2 turrets à 2 guns (up and down)
1 docking slot for fighters up to M3

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im compiling a rar for killrog now so he can put it in that 3 in 1 mod...

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Mon, 30. Nov 09, 02:38

Once you get it out of beta, send me a copy as well so it can go in the merge mod.

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Mon, 30. Nov 09, 23:53

@apricot
i can send you the version ive sent to killrog aswell

which is the one you see on the screens, that one is "ok" i guess...
whats that merge mod you mentioned anyway?

however i just toyed around with the model a bit more (which of course makes all the mapping, texturing and getting ingame void lol) and am quite unsure right now on how to proceed,
shall i work on this one a bit more?
and if so what could need a change or what would be an good addition?
or shall i just start on another ship? and if so what kind of ship?

the below screenshots are from my latest changes to the model, still im only at 10k polies without vanilla props like turrets...

does anyone know a good info source/ tutorial for internal docking btw?

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some drafts i still have floating around if you dudes and duettes think i should start on another ship, maybe somin is down in there that would be neat to have in x3, mind these are just drafts for shapefinding and not final ships:

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Killjaeden · Post by **Killjaeden** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 00:19

how do i use LOD models? do i simply name them myshipname_LOD or somin and then export them as bodies and in the scene?

In X you have 2 different types of body-related files

The first - Body file (.bod or .bob)
One single Mesh with a name (e.g. MyMesh)
+ LOD (MyMesh_1; MyMesh_2; ...)
the higher the number the lower the polycount
ships have 3 LODs + mainmesh

no animated parts in bodies (there is an exception but it's rather complicated and nothing you couldn't do with the combination of body and scene)

second - Scenefile
arranges different parts to a model
animations possible

shall i work on this one a bit more?

i would suggest to do it.
Some more details (some plates can also be modeled in, take a look at split ships to see what i mean)
And of course textures because those vanilla are only good if you have much smaller parts instead of one big.

Dockingpoints:
It's not hard if you know how the game handles 'functional models' (- laserdummies, turretdummies, dockingdummies,...)
Maybe you could take a look at my custom turret tutorial to get an idea

For docking you have to make a new entry in the Components.txt and in the Dummies.txt
Good idea is to import the vanilla hangarmodel (objects\stations\docks\dockcarrier_scene)
You will notice that this is a scene with bodyfiles in it.

Take the B565 (or something like this) part into your model and copy the frame-settings. then build your model (export as bodyfile, not animated) and merge it into a scene file including animation + the B565 part.

Bit rough explanation but i hope it helps.

€dit:
BTW design 10 of your collection looks like a nice VIP-TP

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 01:34

The merge mod is an attempt to bring together all the smaller mods that people want to use together, into a single mod with no conflicts.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=2979003

As original ships, yours would be welcome in it, and it gives people the chance to use yours with other peoples, which isnt possible with separate ship mods.

Theres no point in sending anything to me until its a finished mod, with no plans for any changes. Once its complete, I'll include it, but not while its still in development.

If there is a particular story involved with a ship, I can include a game start for it as well if your interested in defining it.

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 03:07

well then, ill keep adding detail even if the prospect of having to map it sound like sheer horror

@killjaeden
thanks for the tips, very much appreciated

@apricot
a gamestart sounds great, however i dont have the slightest clue on how to create one, i assume you wanted to take that part?

i can write up a short story and name some stats the player should get then though

ok here are the newest wip shots, im at 12k polies now, changed the tiny back fins to evil looking real fins, added some more plating stuff and some props (pipes at engines, an engine thing beneath the cockpit, etc), added turret ports and gave the living quarters some windowframes.
ill probably have to add some more props at the front next to the cockpit and on the lower section where all that pipe stuff is, any ideas are welcome as usual

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apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 03:13

I've done starts already for several of the new ships added. So adding another one is easy. All I need is the ship id, what should be on it, money, race ranks, if plot or not, and what to be seen on the starts menu screen about the character.

Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 04:03

I keep getting an awesome image of that ship with a 4-6 gun broadside, on those little wings...

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 04:43

huh? what d'you mean? you think those fins are going to get shot off? no way... too fast

JaySuS · Post by **JaySuS** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 05:52

and 3 more shots for your pleasure

i guess ill move on to mapping now *shivers*

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Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 07:06

no, i mean on the left/right wing area thingies, where you have engines/front guns mounted..

vampirecosmonaut · Post by **vampirecosmonaut** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 07:38

This is looking very nice. I like the style, it is very Wing Commander.
My favorite ship in Privateer was the Orion.

I'd really like to see you build a M2 class ship in the same vein.
There's an immense amount of M6 and M7 ships, but it feels like there's few M2 choices.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Tue, 1. Dec 09, 07:45

On that note, I'd like an M2 with the full number of allowable guns. 12 in each turrent position. front, back, top, bottom, left, right. Built for speed and sheer hitting power !