[Request] Assistance needed for never-before-done meshes

[Nathanius]

G'day all!

I am looking for talented people interested in creating any number of the ships/textures in the following list for the Star Trek: Continuum mod. There is no active modeller or texturer on the team at the moment and everything that has gone into the mod since our last release has been generously donated from all corners of the online modding community. Members here like Majestic and JetFreak have also been kind enough to give permission for their existing work to be used as well!

For all ships source images and other resources are available as per Ex Astris or the partially completed model and textures in MS3D and obj formats

Any assistance would be immensely appreciated as we're wanting to do a release in February before Homeworld Remastered comes out and a final release with a full shiplist shortly after that before we turn our attention to converting everything to the remastered game and then on to a story campaign!

TNG ERA
1. Finish texturing the Romulan Stalker fighter by Dark_Sentinel

2. Finish texturing the Romulan Predator bomber by Dark_Sentinel

ENT ERA
1. Vulcan fighter

2. Vulcan Vah'Klas class ship

3. Vulcan Sh'Ran class ship

4. Vulcan D'kyr class ship (with MVAM auxiliary craft)

5. Andorian destroyer (based on Valakian ship apparently)

6. Tellarite Warship (based on Arkonian Warship below)

7. Klingon fighter

8. Klingon K'toch bomber

9. Romulan fighter (similar to this Matt Jeffries design, but more tubular to match the Warbird)

10. Retexturing of the Romulan warbird (we had to cobble a texture together for the interim)

11. Romulan Dreadnought (there is a mostly completed mesh for this)

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I might be able to take a crack at completing the Romulan fighters. Was interested in these back when I did the Invasion Revamp but thought the models might be too complex for me to model myself.

 

[Jetfreak]

I think Aad Moerman released a Tellarite ship a few years back in A2files. That Klingon fighter also looks suspiciously familiar to the stock Klingon work bee for A2 - maybe its based on that concept art!

For the rest of the models you're probably on your own. Maybe check the stuff in BCFiles or Battleclinic? Most of them are long shots (obscure races especially), and some compromise may be in order.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

You might also want to check for the Xindi Arboreal ship from ENT as it's based on the same stock model as the Arkonian and Tellarite ships.

 

[Nathanius]

@dvatreknerd314 :
Thank you! That would be very helpful
How would I be able to get the current source files to you?

I'll check that out too, I can modify a mesh and move a texture about but I can't create anything from scratch

@Jetfreak :
We were lucky enough to have Aad Moerman give us blanket permission for use of his meshes, it was like finding a goldmine! His work is all through our mod now, including the Tellarite and Andorian ships that he did. They were original designs though, not the Kumari and Tellarite Warship seen in the show.

We've already scoured the internet for models... BCfiles, A2files, Legacyfiles, Battleclinic, Foundation 3d, etc etc etc... We've gotten a lot further than we thought we would (the TOS Romulans and the ENT Romulans were what we feared the worst for, but the TOS Klingons had the least decent ships!). Just have these last few holes to fill!

 

[Hellkite]

IF a Klingon fighter like this were made would it meet you needs​

 

[Nathanius]

@Hellkite

That's... really close to the concept drawing! It would definitely fill in a gap that we have now, I would put it at the TOS era for the Klingons if I had access to it, paired with this as a bomber:

 

[Hellkite]

It is one of my original works from my Shipyard located on this site but it only a concept drawing at this point. Sadly it has not been modeled in anyway, but there maybe a way to have it done if "the right people and they know who they are LOL " help out I'd be happy to let you use it

 

[kjc733]

What sort of polycounts are you looking for? I'll confess, it's been a long time since I dusted off either of my Homeworld discs (and that was purely for the BSG mod!)

I'd swear that I had a D'Kyr in one of my personal A2 installs - are you sure there isn't one out there?

 

[Nathanius]

@Hellkite :
Well, if you can make it so... it'll be put to good use

@kjc733 :
Polycounts for an "acceptable" mesh is around 10,000 triangles I think, but we have some ships in the mod (with no ill effect) up to about 25,000 triangles. Suffice it to say, if it will look good and work in Armada 2 then it will look good and work in Homeworld 2 as well!

There are D'kyr models out there, there's a basic looking one on BCfiles which we will ask if we can use if a better looking model can't be sourced and I have a far-too-many-poly model that I can use if I can just figure out how to get 3Ds Max to shrink it down or LOD it. Nothing strictly acceptable at the moment though

 

[kjc733]

It one of my originals works from my Shipyard located on this site but it only a concept drawing at this point. Sadly it has not been modeled in anyway, but there maybe a way to have it done if "the right people and they know who they are LOL " help out I'd be happy to let you use it

You mean something like this...
Some artistic interpretation was required, but I think he captures the spirit of the original.
(less than two hours... that's how we do a speed build people!)

 

[Hellkite]

That it dose Kjc , well done

 

[kjc733]

I aim to please, now it's time for dinner.
I did have a few problems though... I kept making it look like a Hammerhead!!!

 

[Nathanius]

@kjc733 :

Woo! That's one sexy Klingon fighter

 

[Hellkite]

I can report that the Klingon fighter is now in the most capable hand of Jetfreak for texturing

 

[Nathanius]

@Hellkite :
That's wonderful

@Jetfreak :
You know, those two ENT Era Romulan ships at the bottom of the list are fully done and just need texturing... would I be able to convince you to do those? It's not a hugely complicated texture and I have photos from the physical model that was used to make them

 

[Jetfreak]

Any help is good Nathanius, I'm thinking of using the textures from Legacy as a head start. It shouldn't be too difficult to re purpose them for the new ENT ships. Also I may ask, who modeled them?

 

[Nathanius]

That would be fantastic @Jetfreak ! Thank you!

They were modelled by Dark_Sentinel, he's been a good contributor for the mod with some never-before-done ships but the Romulans have never been able to capture his attention for long (He did the fighters that @dvatreknerd314 offered to finish too!). His thing has always been Cardassians.

The Legacy textures from the TOS pack that you did with Majestic would indeed be an excellent starting point, I also have photos of the original model that was done of the ENT Warbird from Doug Drexler and the texture for it that was cobbled together by my right hand man on the mod. The Dreadnought was only finished this morning! It's been UV'd and has an occlusion map.

How would I get the source files to you?

 

[Rifraf]

Things are really coming together. Nice work everyone. I remember about a year and a half ago I came across your mod on Moddb and seeing all the sample videos of game play and effects convinced me to buy HW2. I played through it to get an idea what it was all about and then tried your mod.

I loved everything you'd done so far and always check back for progress updates. Keep it up

 

[Nathanius]

Thanks @Rifraf !

With the help from @dvatreknerd314 and @Jetfreak there is quite literally only 9 ships missing from our canon ship list for the mod! We will forge ahead with a release with or without them though (actually, we can do an "ok" placeholder for the Sh'Ran class using the Surak class, and we have a way-too-high-poly D'kyr class that I might be able to bring down to a usable size...)

Also, if you guys are interested, I got permission from Dark_Sentinel for his models to be released on MSFC for ST:A2 after the new version of the Continuum mod is released! With his name in the ReadMe file of course

 

[Hellkite]

Nathanius what ship do you have replacing the Pride of Hiigara?? And if you have not pick one out yet I have a ideal candidate all ready made

Spoiler: candidate

http://www.msfc.com.au/community/index.php?resources/seraphim-class.135/

with the
Role(s)

• 
  
  
  • Flagship
  • Shipyard / construction space born platforms
  • Carrier
  • Mobile refinery
  • Colony ship

Seraphim was meant to be Starfleet's premier extragalactic starship by build establish a foothold outside our galaxy

2019 m she is a Federation mothership with all the functions of the Pride of Hiigara

 

[Nathanius]

We haven't strictly replaced the Pride of Hiigara actually Hellkite, and we're too far down the development path to change that up now for that admittedly gorgeous example of Starfleet engineering, if you've not played the earlier versions of the mod then let me explain

We have three game modes, Outpost, Flagship and Full Fleet.

The Outpost game mode is meant to be reminiscent of the Star Trek: Armada experience except we've only got Outposts and Shipyards for most of the eras and races, there aren't that many turrets and other stations out there to fully flesh this out yet, we're hoping to expand on this later.

The Flagship game mode follows in the style of Homeworld 2, you get your Flagship at the beginning of the match and it can "call in" other ships but you're not stuck in one location. Given that we have randomly generated maps this can result in a very interesting hunt through nebulas and dust clouds in all directions. We've used the Enterprise for the Federation flagship in each era and a mix of ships for the Klingons and Romulans.

The Full Fleet mode is essentially the Quick Battle mode, you get a full fleet and you throw the fleets together to watch all the pretty explosions

 

[Hellkite]

I understand like I said just a candidate

 

[Nathanius]

I see!

Nice signature by the way, very post-post-modern

 

[Hellkite]

Thanks

It's my

Spoiler: Aeon Fighter

Aeon Fighter

long range fighter

Construction Dates "" 2415 - ""

Crew: 1
Pilot

Speed
Cruising Velocity: Warp 9
Maximum Velocity: Warp 9.5
Emergency Velocity: Warp 9.7 (for 11 hours)

Dimensions
Length: 15. metres
Width: 15.1 metres
Height: 3.56 metres
Decks: 1

Armament:

1 :Micro-Quantum Torpedoes Launchers
4: Wing hard points

Phasers
7: Type IIc Pulse Phaser Cannon

Defensive Systems:
2 Ablative Armour generators
Auto-Modulating Metaphasic Shields
Deflector dish

Hull
parametallic hull plating, a tetraburnium alloy hull

Model by
Adm_Z

Textures by
Jetfreak

Design by
Hellkite

It's the Seraphim's pirmary type of fighter

 

[Nathanius]

I swapped out our placeholder for the untextured Romulan ENT era dreadnought so that I could work on the main weapon for it, a MAC kindly donated from the Halo Homefront mod by 880zero. I think it's coming along pretty nicely

Thought you guys might like a screenshot or two!

 

[Rifraf]

Those look great. I think the explosions/effects look so awesome in HW2. I wish A2/FO could have them look so good.

 

[CABAL]

Those look great. I think the explosions/effects look so awesome in HW2. I wish A2/FO could have them look so good.

I've always liked how well HW2's graphics have held up. Most games from that time look horribly outdated now.

 

[Nathanius]

I've always liked how well HW2's graphics have held up. Most games from that time look horribly outdated now.

Actually, there's only two items of stock graphics being used in those screenshots, the missiles and the debris flakes you can see in the bottom right on the second screenshot. The old FX from HW2 itself look much more cartoonie

Glad you guys like it! If all the stars align I'm hoping to do the new release trailer up next weekend and release it the week after that! It's a big surprise to the community at large though, I've only kept you guys in the loop because you're helping, so don't spread that too far just in case we miss the deadline

 

[CABAL]

Actually, there's only two items of stock graphics being used in those screenshots, the missiles and the debris flakes you can see in the bottom right on the second screenshot. The old FX from HW2 itself look much more cartoonie

I know. I have Homeworld 2, myself. Still, the stock graphics do hold up much better than Morrowind, released the year before, or Halo 2, released the year after. I think part of it has to do with the lighting model.