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Author Topic: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]  (Read 2210795 times)

King Alfonzo

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6540 on: February 06, 2017, 09:28:45 PM »

Well,  inspired to do another kitbash - the Heavy Destroyer Wren.



3 medium ballistics in the turrets, 2 medium missiles in the hardpoints, 4 small energy.

System...? Maneuvering jets fits its tactical profile, but it would be rather boring. Any ideas?

Looks very similar to the old archer, except a bit quicker looking. Heck, make two of the ballistics into composites, give it ammo reforge, and you have a rather interesting alternative to the archer; it has more tactical flexibility, moves a bit quicker, more mounts, but it's profile is so god-damned wide that it'll catch just about every bullet, beam and missile going towards it. Can double as a suitably useful PD platform as well if armed with Tac lasers and flak cannons for added hilarity, making it a suitable all-round missile destroyer.

Maneuver jets, however, are probably the better bet for simplicity's sake.

Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6541 on: February 06, 2017, 10:01:06 PM »

Well,  inspired to do another kitbash - the Heavy Destroyer Wren.



3 medium ballistics in the turrets, 2 medium missiles in the hardpoints, 4 small energy.

System...? Maneuvering jets fits its tactical profile, but it would be rather boring. Any ideas?

Looks very similar to the old archer, except a bit quicker looking. Heck, make two of the ballistics into composites, give it ammo reforge, and you have a rather interesting alternative to the archer; it has more tactical flexibility, moves a bit quicker, more mounts, but it's profile is so god-damned wide that it'll catch just about every bullet, beam and missile going towards it. Can double as a suitably useful PD platform as well if armed with Tac lasers and flak cannons for added hilarity, making it a suitable all-round missile destroyer.

Maneuver jets, however, are probably the better bet for simplicity's sake.
*votes for the first option*
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Abyz

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6542 on: February 07, 2017, 09:25:06 AM »

The Wren looks very nice.
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Wyvern

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6543 on: February 07, 2017, 09:29:23 AM »

Did a bit of a wikipedia crawl on Wrens, and apparently they are noisy little birds that feed primarily on insects, spiders, etc.  So... I'd have to suggest giving it an up-scaled EMP generator.  Probably something with a significantly higher DPS and range than the Omen's system, but a much lower duration - something that won't give you a long-lasting shield against missiles, but will blast one wave of missiles / fighters out of the sky.

That'll also help with not making it obviously correct to install at least one flak cannon on the thing.  (Though it'd also make a flak-equipped version into a rather impressive escort vessel...)
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Thaago

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6544 on: February 07, 2017, 11:16:52 AM »

Thanks for the feedback!
I'm hesitant to make the turrets into composites, because I can't think of how to balance the flux stats. If the ship uses all 4 missiles then it has way too much flux for a missile boat, but if it uses only 2 missiles it won't have enough flux for main guns. Maybe pull the trick of having generous flux stats, but poor shield efficiency? Also, is 4 medium missile mounts excessive for a destroyer?

I really like the idea of having a emp wave blast out around the ship (mostly because its different from other systems)... maybe flavor is as a "Phasic Pulse Generator" (The Wren was fitted with an early, prototype phase space generator. While the generator failed completely in shifting the Wren into phase space, it succeeded in creating a violent phasic wavefront, disabling several of the scientific vessels present for the test. The prototype generator was kept as an anti missile/fighter system.) Long cooldown, uses flux, but potent.


...

nice looking bash. My personal gripe with this is that there's no apparent command bridge/observation deck. Now, ofc, ships don't need that stuff given sensors and whatnot, but imo ships just look kinda.... blind.... without them.

That and all vanilla ships have them, and you're obviously going for the vanilla midline look here

Right! Now that you've mentioned it I can't unsee the lack of bridge. I think I know where I want it, so I'll put that in later.
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Wyvern

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6545 on: February 07, 2017, 11:29:42 AM »

Four medium missile mounts is definitely excessive for a destroyer; imagine what would happen with, say, 3x sabot pod and a torpedo launcher.  Honestly, the mount selection you've already described (2x medium missile, 3x medium ballistic turret, 4x small energy turret) is very strong - I'd rate the Wren as being better armed than a Falcon class cruiser - and that's assuming that third medium ballistic can't fire forwards at all; if it can, then there's no question that it's better than a Falcon.

If anything, I'd swap the hardpoints to composite and make the turrets medium energy (though with low enough flux stats that mounting dual heavy blasters would be inadvisable, even if you skip out on mounting anything in the hardpoints.)
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Thaago

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6546 on: February 07, 2017, 12:57:20 PM »

I was actually going to have the 3rd turret be a 360 degree one... I originally wanted the firepower of the ship to be roughly equivalent to an enforcer (5x medium ballistics --> 3 medium ballistics +4 small energy is a downgrade, and then 2 of those small energies can't face front, while 4 small missiles --> 2 medium missiles is a decent upgrade). If the rear turret can't face front, then the ship has real problems in the pre-missile stage of a fight - slightly worse base firepower than a Hammerhead and no support system. (I consider the Hammerhead a Light Destroyer.)

Lets see, a comparing the Falcon to the Wren: 2 Medium Ballistics + 2 Medium energy + 2 small missile ---> 3 Medium Ballistics + 2 Medium missiles (both have 4 small energies in the same configuration). Same mount "number", but medium missiles and medium ballistics are somewhat better than medium energy.

The Wren is supposed to be a Heavy Destroyer - its bigger than any of the vanilla destroyers, and only slightly smaller than a Vulture Fast Cruiser from S&W pack. I think I'm ok with a heavy destroyer being armed a little better than a Falcon - its going to have less range and no mobility system, and perhaps lesser flux stats, armor, and hull.
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Harmful Mechanic

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6547 on: February 07, 2017, 05:17:25 PM »

I agree with making at least the wing turrets med energies - it seems pretty fundamental that on destroyer/cruiser midline ships, ballistic = hardpoint, most of the time. And the exceptions (Heron, Gryphon) only have one. Enforcers are, if anything an example of what not to do, not a standard to match, especially not for midline.

Triple med energy + double med composite is actually really strong, if you assume beams in the wing turrets, HBL in the 360ยบ turret, and Burst PD in the smalls. Easily better than a Falcon; I'd consider making it a cruiser, given the size of the sprite and the level of firepower it can potentially have. A unique active missile jammer or support drone system could make it a viable but distinct line destroyer.
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Thaago

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6548 on: February 07, 2017, 07:06:40 PM »

I think the sprite was too cruiserlike for what I had in mind, so I made a series of variations. The purple atrocity is the phase pulse generate itself, though I'm seriously thinking its too gaudy (on the other hand, gimp has a beautiful tool for making textured spheres).




2 ballistics, 2 composites for those forwards hardpoints? Not good enough flux stats to support 4 ballistics so the outfitter needs to make some choices.

The last is different enough from the original I might make them 2 different ships? I dunno. Thoughts?


[Edit]
And another pass at the Goshawk, currently a light destroyer. The central mount is a small missile.


And another, as a heavy frigate. I think this is my favorite for the Goshawk. 2x Medium ballistics plus a system to support them, 3x small energy.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2017, 08:54:33 PM by Thaago »
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Wyvern

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6549 on: February 08, 2017, 08:54:46 AM »

Hm.  On the one hand, the new Wren is going to be clumsy as anything to fly - it's got the Hammerhead's problem of overly-spread-out ballistic mounts, only worse.  On the other hand, it's still got some very serious forward firepower for a destroyer, so maybe being a bit clumsy to fly is just part of how it's balanced.  Alternatively, you could do something weird with it - make, say, the left two hardpoints as medium ballistic, and the right two as 1x composite 1x missile?  That'd look all sorts of awkward with the asymmetry, but would likely be a lot easier to fly and use effectively.

I'm also not convinced that "Not good enough flux stats to support 4 ballistics" is a good balancing point - most ballistics are pretty cheap, flux-wise, and for a ship like this I'd likely leave small energy slots empty rather than go light on its main guns.  On the other hand, "Not good enough flux stats to support 4x HVD" is absolutely a good point to aim for.

As for sprite, I'd be inclined to vote for the extended engine module of the #1 variation, with the shortened wings of the #3 variation.  And I'd leave the purple out of the base sprite; use a plain off-white sphere (like the bridge but sans windows) and have a purple glow layer as part of the ship system's activation, maybe?

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mendonca

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6550 on: February 09, 2017, 01:06:38 PM »

Figuring it out ...


'Final' Image
Spoiler
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"I'm doing it, I'm making them purple! No one can stop me!"

King Alfonzo

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6551 on: February 09, 2017, 02:59:37 PM »

Looks good! It could use a smidge of glare on the nearest sign and a bit more colour on the closer, more defined areas, but otherwise it's really good. Is this going to be the new picture for the ASP homeworld?

mendonca

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6552 on: February 09, 2017, 10:40:08 PM »

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it - and yeah it's for ASP :)

By 'more colour' - do you mean 'more saturated colours', or a bit of variation in colours - i.e. try and bring out some greens or blues or whatever (but not all same brown) in say the 'upper' parts of the buildings?
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"I'm doing it, I'm making them purple! No one can stop me!"

King Alfonzo

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6553 on: February 09, 2017, 11:22:04 PM »

I'd say more saturation and lightglow just on and around the closest sign (The 'as'), and a little bit more variety in colour moving further away, like maybe one or two lights with the hue slightly tweaked towards green or purple or white to add some variety to the light scene.

FasterThanSleepyfish

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Re: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed]
« Reply #6554 on: February 10, 2017, 01:04:44 AM »

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it - and yeah it's for ASP :)

By 'more colour' - do you mean 'more saturated colours', or a bit of variation in colours - i.e. try and bring out some greens or blues or whatever (but not all same brown) in say the 'upper' parts of the buildings?

I think it's *very* brown, like mecca/sandstone buildings turned cyberpunk or something. With ASP ships being light blue and such, I'd assume there'd be something similar in the buildings - but hey, it's pretty good for a flying city scene otherwise. Painting pixel ships is far different from that concept-art grand-scale bizness.
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