Star Trek Future Tense.... IS BACK!

[Archonon]

The Titan looks gorgeous Phantom, excellent textures!

I always preferred the campaign of Armada to the sequel personally, but I do like modding A2 more because of the new features the game introduced. Sigh, if only I could do campaigns with cgi cutscenes.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
At least some new missions can be made. Maybe someday someone could figure-out the cinematics.

As for the USS Titan, it looks fantastic! I agree about giving the ship a look more like the Soveregin class' Enterprise during Nemesis as it would fit the era nicely .

 

[Phantom]

Thanks for all the positive and welcoming comments guys, means a lot.

Well Sam has been dazzling you with his models so thought I'd show off one of mine

The Galaxy Class in FT was a very early model. Was blocky, texture was... meh and lacked the smoothness of the ship that I at the very least as I'm sure many others, grew up gazing at the beauty of the Next Generation.

So I've given the old girl a 30 year refit uplift. she'll keep her main features and not stretch too far away from the original whereas the original FT model was pretty much a complete departure.

Work on the saucer has been going on this evening, polygon target is within 2500-2800 range.

That's pretty much the top of the saucer done with the exclusion of the Bridge dome. The Galaxy hero unit "U.S.S. Challenger" which'll have LeVar Burton soundboard attached will feature the Saucer Separation to distinguish from other Galaxy Class ships to give it a USP.

The Saucer underside will be virtually untouched from the original Galaxy Class design - maybe a few astec changes on the texture but nothing major as I wanna keep faithful. Haven't decided on the "All Good Things..." canon yet. Though this would give reason as to why standard Galaxy Class ships wouldn't seperate (It's built into the drive and saucer from memory)

Like the original Galaxy, she'll have two nacelles not three even warp coils and all that - plus it'll save polygons!


Hope you enjoy

Adam,

 

[Phantom]

& the finished article before some light clean ups

 

[kjc733]

Not bad, I've been considering how I'd do something similar for a while now. The angular look of the Sovereign era is hard to reconcile with the curved Galaxy.
A couple of suggestions/comments:
- Will you be keeping the nacelle phaser array? While I deplore putting weapons on nacelles it does act as a go between the classic Galaxy and the All Good Things refit, plus they were seen in DS9.
- I suggest adding a couple of extra polygons to round out the nacelle walls a little. I'm presuming the Galaxy will be a higher end unit so you can probably get away with it. At the moment you've spent a lot on the saucer and deflector and it means the nacelles clash with the curves..
- Not sure I like the elongated nacelle on the side view. Sadly I don't have an answer to that yet (I'm desperately thinking how to apply my slipstream nacelles to a Galaxy).
- I'm now going to make a shameless self plug and ask if you've seen the mirror Galaxy I did a few years back? I'm going to post a few images in case it sparks off some ideas. Copy or ignore as you wish.

 

[Phantom]

Oo... I like the Bussards on your one I did add the phaser nacelle parts but with the modified grills on the top, thought it was asking for a warp core breach lol!

Think I'm gonna narrow the neck a little in the middle as it's a but chubby, and I know what you mean about the nacelles. I think it's cause I built them with a cylinder as a base rather than a sphere.. just playing with ideas atm

 

[Archonon]

Love the way the Galaxy looks Phantom. I don't see why the ship wouldn't have features that were shown in the unofficially named Galaxy-X.

Even though that version of the Galaxy was from an alternate universe and might have been just specific modifications made to the Enterprise, not a standard upgrade to all Galaxy ships, it is conceivable that at least some of those technologies could still be developed by Prime Starfleet.

Frankly, I've always just pretended that the "All Good Things..." variant of the Galaxy is the Venture Class refit that was done to the Galaxy during the Dominion War. Mainly because the "refit" made for these ships was nothing more than in name only. There was nothing visually different from the Galaxy class "USS Odyssey" to the Venture refit Galaxy ships that I could see to sell them being upgraded for combat against the Dominion. The Galaxy ships were now all of a sudden tanks in combat whereas the Odyssey folded like cheap paper during that initial engagement. But then I always chalk that up the absurd liberties that writers/showrunners take with hero ships; with the hero ship surviving an onslaught from exceedingly overpowered enemies while similar or stronger allied ships were torn to pieces nearly instantly by the same opponent. This happened so much in Star Trek, especially DS9 and Voyager.

 

[Phantom]

Voyager was a tough little ship

Although true, it survived a Generations-esk assault from the Equinox and survived... maybe Borg luck or a half asleep tactical officer hitting the wrong places...

I'm thinking with revisions the Galaxy Class is complete

Was still debating the canon, but the model is now breaching the 3000 polygon mark which is a little more than expected but, think she looks cool and as long as you don't have an ancient RAM stick or 200 on the screen, should still be nice and smooth to run

The nacelles have been completely rebuilt, and adopted the bussards too with the image above and the Sovereign for a bit of lineage without going too crazy and away from the original design. Was going to put the Venture pod on the engines, but what engineer thought it clever to stick a high powered particle weapon on a fusion reactor lol!

Also tweaked the neck a little too so it's less chubby and more streamlined

 

[TUB_Husker]

The ship look very nice. i like the top of the saucer and the impulse engines!
Have you used the same template, because one Galaxy variant from me looks a bit similar:

But your ship looks better, because of specific difference (saucer, Nacelles, neck and deflector) to the galaxy

 

[Phantom]

I hadn't seen that model to be honest with you, looks cool. Was planning to merge some Sovie elements onto her like the original FT version, but keep the schemes more honest to the original

 

[kjc733]

I've never been a fan of the Sovereign style saucer impulse engines but other than that I think this Galaxy looks great. I can't wait to see it textured.
What's the cutout in the aft of the saucer? Is it a forth shuttlebay?

 

[Phantom]

Was planning to build up an observation platform and the square window things behind the shuttle bay


Ad'

 

[Archonon]

Very nice Phantom, the changes do represent a little visible technological advancement but still maintains the ship undeniably Galaxy. Love it.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

The ship look very nice. i like the top of the saucer and the impulse engines!
Have you used the same template, because one Galaxy variant from me looks a bit similar:
View attachment 15119
But your ship looks better, because of specific difference (saucer, Nacelles, neck and deflector) to the galaxy

That explains why it looks very familiar (which what was changed). That said, changing out the impulse engines as I hear they are prefabricated units with something more powerful is logical and updating the Bussard collectors with the Sovy is also logical.

 

[Phantom]

Sorry for the lack of updates, but have a work in progress bit of eye candy in relation to the majestic Galaxy Class:

Top of the saucer and a the tail end of the star drive is done, just need to work on the bulk of the stardrive which'll lead into the bottom of the saucer section to complete the ship once the sides of the saucer has been textured

Hoping you like

Ad'

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Your Galaxy came out nice. Definitely combines some of my most favorite post-nemesis designs for the Galaxy class.

 

[Majestic]

Loving the look of that Galaxy Phantom, awesome to see you're back at it. I'd love to play some nostalgia A1 again with FT.

 

[Phantom]

Thought I'd post a Galaxy sized update, been a busy week so mainly been tweaking texture elements and touching up areas. Hope you enjoy! I'm warming to her quickly

Feedback welcome

 

[kjc733]

Not bad at all, can't wait to see what sovereign features you apply to the secondary hull.
Still not a fan of the massive impulse engines on the saucer. I think they need something to add definition because at the moment they are just big blocks of red.
I'd also suggest toning the windows down on the back of the neck. It's almost completely white, you need some more grey space in there.

 

[Epytron_Omega]

In case none of you follow me on DA, here is some other work that I completed for the mod. Currently working on something very hush hush, but I will share it all with you when the time is right.

Federation Mining Station

Federation Freighter

Federation Sensor Station

 

[Majestic]

Wow awesome work EO. I haven't been on DA forever then again I barely get time to be on here too lol.
Love the station designs you've come up with they're like futuristic versions of my TMP designs love them.

I also agree with KJC on the Galaxy neck Phantom, some harder areas on the neck would help a lot as it looks out of place with the saucer.

 

[Phantom]

Tweaked the neck removing about 20% of the windows to reveal more grey:

This better?

 

[Phantom]

Thought I'd post some more WIP pics, she's almost done, just got to finish off the star drive and add the registry details and emblems

Adam,

 

[Archonon]

I definitely think the Galaxy looks better. As was brought up by others, I am curious as to why the impulse engines on the saucer are so big? Is the red on the top of the saucer supposed to represent exhaust glow? Right now they look like superheated sections in the structure as opposed to an engine exhaust.

Nevertheless, the Galaxy is a beauty. Excellent work Phantom.

And EO, those stations are a marvel. Can't wait to see them fully skinned.

 

[kjc733]

The neck looks better but I still think you could do with thinning out the windows a bit more. I don't see that area as residential (although that is my opinion).
The upper saucer looks a bit sparse, but I can't put my finger on why.
Have you considered re imagining the Captains Yacht?
I'm liking the secondary hull textures so far. They really do look like an evolution of the Galaxy hull with techniques in place from the Sovereign era.

 

[CABAL]

As was brought up by others, I am curious as to why the impulse engines on the saucer are so big? Is the red on the top of the saucer supposed to represent exhaust glow? Right now they look like superheated sections in the structure as opposed to an engine exhaust.

I'd guess it's either to match the Sovereign's impulse engines or to make them more visible from the game's usual top-down view.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I'd suggest adding some non-window details to the upper saucer, the lack of it is probably why it seems so sparse.

Also, try to make the neck of the galaxy have a similar window density to the rim of the upper saucer. The saucer's windows look great.

As far as the impulse engines, you might want to add something that will break up the solid block of red a bit, like a strip of black that separates the upper and rear portions of the impulse engine, or add more detail to the top. I like how the impulse engines look for the most part, they just need a little more detail

EDIT: Also, the sovereign bits on the top look a little too jagged for my taste. The rest of the Galaxy has smooth, flowing lines, but the sharp edges of that portion don't go well with the overall shape. I'd suggest finding something a little smoother. I know jagged panels are kind of the way every galaxy refit beyond the all good things refit have gone, but it can ruin the look of the ship if you're not careful

 

[Majestic]

I think once the registry goes in it will be less sparse on the saucer top.
For the back neck I would make the raise spine a dark grey like the rest of the top saucer dark grey parts just to make it match a little better.

Always difficult re imagining a classic design. I hate doing them myself for this very reason.

Still a great design heading in the right direction and is clearly what I could imagine a post Nemesis Galaxy (or Galaxy re-run) would look like.

 

[kjc733]

I think once the registry goes in it will be less sparse on the saucer top.

That would be it!

Always difficult re imagining a classic design.

This! If we all seem overly negative I'm sorry, that is not the intent. You are redesigning a ship that is (almost) as iconic as the original Connie. Many Trek fans grew up (although some never did ) seeing this ship every week and so know what they expect to see when they look at it. What you are building will always look "wrong" because of that. However, you are doing a great job and have gone the right way about doing it, subtly pushing elements that are also familiar to us whilst not changing the essence of what makes it a Galaxy. This is probably the reason the saucer impulse drives are getting attention - it isn't a subtle change.

 

[Phantom]

I completely appreciate the feedback

I grew up watching Star Trek the Next Generation, (Still remember shaking a fist at the TV when the BBC aired Best of Both Worlds part 1 and then proceeded the week after to show Encounter at Farpoint Part 1 - not amused!) it's why I'm taking a long time reinventing the wheel so to speak. So don't feel bad for the comments!

Have taken the spine on board and have increased the darkness by 60% so it's the same shade as the darker plates on the saucer (not the Sov armor plate) and I've shrunk the impulse on one side to play with the idea. What do you guys think?

I'm just greatful the comments are constructive and not armed with pitch forks like JJprise ha!