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[Xalendi]

Ok...here's the latest version of my ship:

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Details:
Name: Storm Mk III
Class: Heavy Cruiser
Armament: 2x starboard pd beams, 2x port pd beams, 4x heavy beam turrets, 4x aft pd beams, built in bow megalaser
Armour: Heavy
Shields: Weak
Speed: Moderate

[MesoTroniK]

Xalendi, that is a looking really nice and a massive improvement over the last version!

It would look a lot nicer with custom turret mounts though in my opinion, those vanilla ones really clash with the design.

And another thought that occurs to me is the fact that those running lights on it are static and part of the sprite itself. It might look better if instead they were removed and put on the ship as decorative weapons and they could be animated and blinking. Here is a .gif showing blinkers next to the fighter bays of my Irithia class (ignore all the other things going on, feeling to lazy to record it again without the Repulsor field firing off).

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[Xalendi]

Thanks for the idea! Blinking lights would be nice. Not sure how to go about making custom mounts. My last attempt was...poor.

[MesoTroniK]

Custom mounts can be challenging to make look good I had issues with it for a while also, but I found a method that at least looks good on my Exigency ships. Vanilla and most mod weapon mounts are on top of the sprite or at least level with it. Instead I made mine sunken into the vessel and then packed that recess with greeble, I think it looks pretty cool like the weapons are dropped into a socket or something

[Xalendi]

That could be interesting, thanks.

[Lcu]

In my opinion the easiest way to make custom mounts is by making them in Battleships Forever. I've tried it once and it looks good as a missile mount IMO.

[Okim]

Spoiler

XLE Salamander-class Prototype Phase Drone Carrier.



Drone pods are on the tail. Phase generators are on the wings (those silver tubing and vents) and are going to glow bright green-yellow. Six antennas on the frontal wings are transponders for drone controllers.

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[Debido]

Why have a LOOOOOONG weapon, when you can charge up your projectile/beam in a Synchrotron like the CERN Large Hadron Collidor?

[xenoargh]

It'd be way cooler if it was a spiral; IRL particle accelerators used for weapons research are that way or are linear.  Unlike CERN, the objective is not particle collisions within the accelerator at the target point, after all, but ejecting the accelerated particles into space.

Anyhow, other than that kind of nerd-quibbling, I'm curious to see how well that translates to typical scales, unless you're really intending to field a weapon that's larger than a lot of cruisers

[Debido]

You mean a spiral type Cyclotron? I had a look at that, but doesn't seem to be able to get to energies like the CERN. I mean the biggest problem with having a Synchrotron is if you built it in space, and had two objects/plasma streams being energised in counter rotating directions - your ship start to get shaken to pieces on the longitudinal axis of the weapon. I think you'd need at least 4 discrete objects/plasma streams in 2 different vacuum tubes to prevent torque or lat/long forces - then to avoid any forces on 'firing' all for would have to fire 90 degrees out of phase from each other.

A spiral type would probably look a bit cooler though. You thinking of something like this as a base design? (not my render)

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http://www.nevis.columbia.edu/daedalus/Pictures/stacked_cyclotron.gif

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As for scaling, I'm not sure where it stands as yet, it's far too large to fit in the inventory screen for starters. I'm still thinking about the ship it's going to be mounted on. I'd like some kind of artillery ship...though honestly Starsector combat does not lend itself to artillery in the known sense as typically artillery has plunging firing, whilst SS projectiles go in a straight line.

I've done some test firing from the onslaught hull with a custom hullmod...it looks...silly...aside from the obvious colour mismatch.

[MShadowy]

Hah, finally had some more time to work on the Elysium redo; this is probably reasonably final as far as the design goes, but it needs so clean up and sharpening around the edges and the like.

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[Xalendi]

I like it. The stripes look good. But it don't half remind me of an upended covvie plasma rifle...

[NITROtbomb]

no you didn't...

[Debido]

I like it. The stripes look good. But it don't half remind me of an upended covvie plasma rifle...

I have to agree it does have 'that' look to it. Not that there is anything wrong with it, still awesome.

[HELMUT]

I'm surprised MShadowy, did you lowered the color saturation compared to other SHI ships? It feels... Different. Other than this, great sprite.