Little Personal Project

[Syf]

That I'm sure is not a problem. Majestic keeps plenty of different types of side projects ongoing. If one becomes "boring", then he just can switch to another... Like me

 

[StarBlade]

Hey Majestic,

You no doubt remember my Lost Era mod idea from that thread over at A2Files. If you're willing to throw in your lot with mine, I'd be happy to work with you on a TLE/TNG era mod. If you don't mind the company, that is.

 

[Majestic]

If you want to I am open I after all was going to let you use all the kitbashes I have done anyway, though it's a small mod (6-8 ships per race, per era) and not on the top of my list of priorities.

Also I currently only plan on doing the Federation, Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians.

 

[StarBlade]

That's fine with me. Too many races and it gets a bit out of hand. We could use Slider's Tholians with permission if there was really an express need for a fifth race. But I don't see it.

I'll pull some stuff together over the course of the next couple weeks and see what we can use. Just to be clear on the progression of tech:

Federation: Excelsior -> Galaxy
Klingons: K'Tinga -> Vor'cha
Romulans: Stormbird -> D'Deridex / Melak
Cardassians: Norin? -> Keldon

Let me know if that works.

 

[Majestic]

My idea was to have two era possibly three. I was going to focus on the two first that being:

2340 (Enterprise C) and 2360 (Early TNG). I wasn't planning on using any ships seen in DS9 or FC. In fact the Galaxy, Nebula, New Orleans etc where the ship types that were going to appear in TNG no Akiras, Steamrunners, Defiants etc.

My Lost Era was mainly going to be made up from Ambassador ships as my ultimate idea was to go back and do a TMP at a later date but I think I am going to scrap that idea and only the two eras (TLE and TNG) I plan on doing so I may include the Excelsior. I even have most of the TNG ships set up, all with similar looking textures.

It looks like we were both going into a similar direction. As for the Cardassians I was going to use some of my kitbashes from Achilles' Cardassian models to fill in the Lost era.

All in all if you want to merge our two ideas I am all for it.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

This sounds quite cool guys, I think it'd be awesome if you collaborated.

 

[StarBlade]

I wasn't planning on using any ships seen in DS9 or FC. In fact the Galaxy, Nebula, New Orleans etc where the ship types that were going to appear in TNG no Akiras, Steamrunners, Defiants etc.

No objection here. In fact, I'd argue that the Galaxy and Nebula classes should also be in keeping-- only the Phoenix-type or NX-type Nebs, and no Venture type Gals.

My Lost Era was mainly going to be made up from Ambassador ships as my ultimate idea was to go back and do a TMP at a later date but I think I am going to scrap that idea and only the two eras (TLE and TNG) I plan on doing so I may include the Excelsior. I even have most of the TNG ships set up, all with similar looking textures.

The Excelsior would be the standard cruiser of the era, without question. There's a lot of kitbashes out there for both the Excelsior and Ambassador, but I'd like to keep that to a minimum (Centaur, Excelsior refit and Curry/Shelley, then Ambassador, Apollo and Cardiff), with the Springfield and Cheyenne. Then the advanced stuff --the New Orleans, Galaxy and Nebula-- would be advanced research. The possibility of including the Miranda variants and Carolina class also exists. At least, those were my core classes for the Federation. Just because we can rely on an extensive array of kitbash material doesn't necessarily mean it'll offer much to the gaming audience....

Same is sadly true for the Romulans and Klingons. While I'd love to include multiple variants of different ships, I'd rather there were some visible, noticeable changes between the different vessels, even if they're made up of the same core stuff. Even a modified set of .TGA files which colour things slightly differently. This way we both work to the advantage of visual recognition from an adversary's point of view, and give 'em something to look at.

Curious about your opinion on including a sort of "R&D" program for the Federation, where they can build early models of the starships we know today to have been in design at the time. I was thinking if someone could put together an "early" version of the Intrepid or Sabre, or even the old Anomie class, they could then 'research' the pathfinder and build 'em-- with appropriate costs in resources and officers. After all, Starfleet has to do its R&D somehow....

Also curious about what kind of role you want to give ships such as the Constitution, Constellation, Akyazi and Oberth. They're mostly useless for combat purposes by that point in time. And the Niagara and Freedom class starships were never really intended for combat operations. (What they intended to use the "Frying Pan" class for, exactly, is beyond me.... tugboat?)

It looks like we were both going into a similar direction. As for the Cardassians I was going to use some of my kitbashes from Achilles' Cardassian models to fill in the Lost era.

I concur. Achilles is simply "the man to talk to" for quality Cardassian vessels. Nobody else tries as hard or does as well. Truth be told, I was eyeballing his Art of War I package mostly in the hopes of putting something together in a similar, but not necessarily identical, table of organization.

 

[Majestic]

No objection here. In fact, I'd argue that the Galaxy and Nebula classes should also be in keeping-- only the Phoenix-type or NX-type Nebs, and no Venture type Gals.

While no expert on TLE or TNG (being a TOS/TMP man myself) I am a little confused on what you mean. From my limited understanding and reading on various sites it came to my attention that the Galaxy was launched in 2362, with the Ent-D in 2364. I also read that the Nebula was launched in 2358. Considering there would be two era's in this mod (2340 and 2360) the second era can have Nebula's and Galaxy's. The Venture variant (which is the Galaxy seen in DS( with pahsers on tht nacelles correct?) would not appear at all.

The Excelsior would be the standard cruiser of the era, without question. There's a lot of kitbashes out there for both the Excelsior and Ambassador, but I'd like to keep that to a minimum (Centaur, Excelsior refit and Curry/Shelley, then Ambassador, Apollo and Cardiff), with the Springfield and Cheyenne. Then the advanced stuff --the New Orleans, Galaxy and Nebula-- would be advanced research. The possibility of including the Miranda variants and Carolina class also exists. At least, those were my core classes for the Federation. Just because we can rely on an extensive array of kitbash material doesn't necessarily mean it'll offer much to the gaming audience....

I agree the Excelsior and Carolina would both have a place in the TLE and TNG eras. I would like to see a Miranda in there two considering that even my the mid TNG they were still commonly seen.

Just to recap my idea was two era, each with the sme hull classifications with TNG having more advanced classes like the Cheyenne, New Orleans, Galaxy etc.

Same is sadly true for the Romulans and Klingons. While I'd love to include multiple variants of different ships, I'd rather there were some visible, noticeable changes between the different vessels, even if they're made up of the same core stuff. Even a modified set of .TGA files which colour things slightly differently. This way we both work to the advantage of visual recognition from an adversary's point of view, and give 'em something to look at.

I agree.

Curious about your opinion on including a sort of "R&D" program for the Federation, where they can build early models of the starships we know today to have been in design at the time. I was thinking if someone could put together an "early" version of the Intrepid or Sabre, or even the old Anomie class, they could then 'research' the pathfinder and build 'em-- with appropriate costs in resources and officers. After all, Starfleet has to do its R&D somehow....

If you can get the models I am open to it. Though I would say they wouldn't be buildable till the 2360 timeline as having an Intrepid in the 2340's well I sure you get the picture.

Also curious about what kind of role you want to give ships such as the Constitution, Constellation, Akyazi and Oberth. They're mostly useless for combat purposes by that point in time. And the Niagara and Freedom class starships were never really intended for combat operations. (What they intended to use the "Frying Pan" class for, exactly, is beyond me.... tugboat?)

I would say ships like the Conny would not be around at all. Constellation yes, Akyazi I would say no. Niagara and Freedom I kitbashed (full Ambassador version though).

I concur. Achilles is simply "the man to talk to" for quality Cardassian vessels. Nobody else tries as hard or does as well. Truth be told, I was eyeballing his Art of War I package mostly in the hopes of putting something together in a similar, but not necessarily identical, table of organization.

While I have the mods on my PC I haven't played AOW, simply to do with so much to do with the site lately I haven't had a chance along with trying to get the PAR material released.

But I know Achilles is actually including some of my kitbashes in his next mod and is actually adding lightmaps and hopefully I can get a copy of those textures to update the other kitbashes I made.

My idea for each race was two era, with identical hull types as listed below:

Frigate
Destroyer
Light Cruiser
Heavy Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Battleship

Reason why so few, is one I have never seen a reason to have large fleets, two models for the era are rare and three I planned it as a small side project not to distract too much from YY.

 

[Achilles]

I concur. Achilles is simply "the man to talk to" for quality Cardassian vessels. Nobody else tries as hard or does as well. Truth be told, I was eyeballing his Art of War I package mostly in the hopes of putting something together in a similar, but not necessarily identical, table of organization.

While I have the mods on my PC I haven't played AOW, simply to do with so much to do with the site lately I haven't had a chance along with trying to get the PAR material released.

But I know Achilles is actually including some of my kitbashes in his next mod and is actually adding lightmaps and hopefully I can get a copy of those textures to update the other kitbashes I made.

yeah I am slowly adding lightmaps to my back catalogue throughout the AOW releases, I did the Galor/Keldon the otherday, and the Romulan starbase with texture improvements.

As for using my stuff it is always free to all. I really dont care if you simply rip and entire race from AOW and put it in your mod (they'd get ripped apart by stock stuff though). I'm just glad people still use my old models.