[Project] Cataclysm 2nd

[Aesaar]

Well done. Looks like you're getting the hang of 3d modeling. Look forward to see what you can do with your other designs.

[Norsehound]

Texturing this will be something else though :\

I might fiddle more with the basic model, but at least I have concrete geometry and not distorted sketches for a reference

[tadamir]

Nice to see the sketches come to life some more, I've always admired the way you've made the designs 'realistic' in the sense of thinking about thrust and engine positioning, all the logical stuff.

[Shraa Elohim]

I have to agree there. It's one thing to draw a space ship, but it's something entirely different when it looks workable - the kind that you could send to a space agency to have appraised on its realism and get a positive answer back. Norse, you're skilled at storywriting, art, and three-dee modelling - what can't you do?

By the way, those engines are really giving me Red Dwarf vibes.

[Norsehound]

I was wondering when someone would make that connection Both are big and stumpy starships... and ironically both are mining vessels :\

If it wasn't in so many pieces I would have included the 'canon' Kuun-lan for a side-by-side comparison! Unfortunately I haven't set the time or attention aside yet to assemble all the bits just for that. Still, I have a file elsewhere that scaled the ship in comparison with the Taiidan Mothership... from which all of the components used to build this vessel came from. The largest modules -should- have been the mission modules... everything else (like the spine) is assembled in sections and brought together.

And for a final thought for my post... because of the component nature of these Explorers, they are not rated for serious combat... and the crews know this. They will never refer to their ships as 'warships'....

...though they will happily agree that, like every Taiidani no matter what walk of life, they are warriors.

Shraa: thanks for the compliments. I just wish these skills could help me to net a job (which I really need atm, this is just more stuff that goes into my portfolio).

[TaiidanTomcat]

A wonderful utilitarian look. I like it very much

[Daryl Froggy]

I only found this thread yesterday but I love just about everything I've seen here... I'm also kinda sad that this idea is on a back burner on low but that is not my call.

I am aware that you have decided that Somtaaw will most likely not have Ion Cannons in C2nd however I had an idea involving Ion Cannon(s) and Laser Cannon(s) on your destroyers that sounds, at least to me, like it might have a surprising punch.

For this to work you would need at least one Ion Cannon and one Laser Cannon on your Destroyer (DD) and they would have to be perfectly synchronized, which may involve a Command Frigate. First you fire the Laser Cannon; which as I understand it from one of your earlier posts penetrates hulls very well, maybe even completely going through some of the smaller capital ships but doesn't make a very large hole. Now directly after you have fired the Laser, less than the blink of an eye, you will fire the Ion Cannon directly at the same point where your Laser Cannon just finished making its lovely little hole.

I believe the result of this double teaming will be massive Ion Cannon damage across multiple interior decks of the target vessel and if you get a lucky shot a one hit kill. Unfortunately due to the nature of Laser Cannons it will be a while before you can do a follow up shot of this magnitude.


Anyway that was just my idea.

Again I love the re-imagining of the Kuun-Lan and Somtaaw, I hope you find an interest in it again soon.

[Railgunner2160]

Good God!!! Awesome work, though I've seen a mod that used a similar design scheme for the Explorer class. It's long since dead, But maybe you'll end up making a mod out of this!! Any chance that this model will have a siege cannon module??

[Norsehound]

Perhaps someday in the future some kind of gameplay could be generated out of this. Everything's here, but I don't have much technical knowledge or patience to embark on the long-term total mod creation process.

I'm aware of that ship, it was inspired by the design in this thread (though IIRC, the team on ModDB failed to credit me for it).

Part of the reason I made this...ahm... proposal? was to get away from what I saw as silly toys that Cataclysm introduced. The Death Star module was one of them, so I thought it was unlikely that this Kuun-Lan would be mounting one.

It's hard to say when inspiration will strike me again to return to my Homeworld stuff... I'm still disappointed in Relic's abandonment of the Homeworld IP. However, next month is September, which is when Homeworld was first released and coincidentally when my Homeworld fandom returns. My head is presently in Dune, which could be a segway back into Homeworld (by means of desert planets). This could change of course if Relic took an interest in their Homeworld things again. I don't see it happening though.

[Homdax]

Sorry, cant make heads or tails of that design, Norse. Care to elaborate on the details?

[Norsehound]

If you'd elaborate on which ship you were talking about, I could elaborate on the details of it

[Homdax]

Sorry, Kuun-Lan Taiidan. The images in post #404.
I am having a hard time seeing any Kuun-Lan influence but for a vague triangular look. Which may be influenced by the launch bay but hardly by the rest of the ship.

This is the fully equipped and built Battle Kuun-Lan (Siege cannon missing):


And this is the mining vessel pre any modifications :



I cant see any of it in your model, but then again, maybe I should not?

[Norsehound]

The Taiidan Kuun-Lan took modularity to the extreme. The whole ship is made up of parts that are no bigger than the size of a Taiidan Carrier, to make it obvious that it was assembled in parts by the mothership. There are two hangars (one as a module on the spine, another from the command module, just as the Kushan version), and there is a rotating section (The taiidan version is much more elaborate than the Kushan one, with greenhouses as well). The spine of the ship is in two parts, both connected to the hub that rotated with the greenhouse.

What I drew was, as I saw it, a Taiidan approach to the same vessel. Practical, utilitarian, and direct. It also came with a few features the Kushan version lacked (An Ion-motor for long-distance cruising, an emergency module in case things went wrong, and redundant hyperspace cores to allow the ship up to three successive jumps). Utimately three were constructed, though the last one (Teer-Gig) got the short end on supplies and did not have all its intended mission modules finished (its greenhouse was also in three sections instead of four like the sisters).

[Homdax]

K, thanks. Nice explanation. I guess I have some issues with some approaches to Taiidan design. Looks very boxy, but, as you point out, modular and efficient.