Dan1025
Every Mods Biggest Fan :P
- Joined
- 31 Jan 2007
- Messages
- 1,883
- Age
- 33
Some time ago, I posted a thread over on FF showing my gradual building of the Suliban Helix, along with a few other ships & stations. I’ve been working on it on and off for a while now, and I’ve made enough progress with both units and general ideas that I’m going to tentatively call this a full race mod.
I use the word ‘tentatively’ because whether or not this gets released as a full race depends upon me finding someone who can put a Suliban GUI together for me, along with a few other minor details that I’ll bring up as the mod progresses. If I can’t find someone to help out with the parts of this that I can’t do, I’ll simply release all my Suliban work as a large pack, so either way they will be up for download.
I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to update this mod, with my return to university I have a lot less free time, but modding is a fun hobby and I will do as much as I can whenever I have the time.
---------------------------------------------------------
First, here’s the back story on the Suliban featured in this mod:
---------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so the basic idea behind this race is ‘strength in numbers’, Suliban ships (particularly the smaller Cell Ships) will be very easy to destroy, and do very little damage on their own, however in large numbers they are a considerable threat. Basically, think of them like bees - on their own or in small numbers, they are easily managed, but in a swarm they’re far more dangerous.
Some information about how the Suliban will play:
- Smaller ships will be quick and cheap to build, but will do very little damage and will be easy to destroy.
- Larger ships (cruisers, assault ships e.t.c), will be less common than the smaller cell ships.
- They will not have dozens of ship classes or station types, their fleet is built on numbers, not diversity (a single ship class can fill many roles).
- They will not have access to battleships or super weapons, you will need to use stealth and swarm tactics to prevail late-game.
- The majority of their stations will be mobile; a few exceptions will be made (turrets being one example).
- You will be given a single unit at the start - a Helix - you cannot build more Helixes (smaller Outposts take the place of the usual Starbase).
- A lot of their techtree will be dependant on the Helix, so if it is destroyed you will lose the ability to build certain ships & stations, as well as access to certain weapons & technology.
- Any station capable of movement will only be able to do so slowly (think 8472 Mother, but a little faster).
- Almost all their units will have cloaking capability, combat ships will always have access to it, stations will have to research it, and non-combat ships will not have it at all.
- Every unit, with a few exceptions (construction ship, freighters and a few others) will have weapons of some description (stations included); they will of course vary in strength and type (pulses, phasers e.t.c).
Possible feature - they have the ability to detach the various ships from the central cores/superstructures of their space stations (like the Helix in ‘Broken Bow‘).
I’m sure there’ll be more points I think up as the mod progresses, but that‘s what I have so far.
---------------------------------------------------------
This is a list of units that the Suliban will have, green means completed (model & texture, since nothing’s hardpointed yet), blue means partially completed (model/design only), and red means not started yet:
- Note that this list may very well change as I come up with more ideas for the mod -
Stations:
Helix (command base & starting unit)
Outpost (buildable base)
Processing Station (mining station)
Shipyard (shipyard)
Listening Post (sensor array)
Pulse Mine (basic/pulse turret)
Research Facility (research station)
Orbital Extractor (orbital mining station)
Trading Post (trading station)
Particle Mine (advanced/beam turret)
Ships:
Construction Vessel (construction ship)
Resource Freighter (mining ship)
Cargo Freighter (cargo ship)
Salvage Vessel (repair ship)
Colony Vessel (colony ship)
Cell Ship - Class I (scout, basic defence/attack ship)
Cell Ship - Class II (scout, escort, basic defence/attack ship)
Cell Ship - Class III (scout, escort, basic defence/attack ship)
Long Cell Ship - Class I (scout, patrol, escort, defence/attack ship)
Long Cell Ship - Class II (scout, patrol, escort, defence/attack ship)
Heavy Cell Ship (destroyer, light/medium attack ship)
Assault Pod (cruiser, assault ship, medium/heavy attack ship)
Cruiser (cruiser, heavy attack ship)
---------------------------------------------------------
Well whether you’ve just read all that or not (I’m hoping so but it’s up to you lol), I hope you’ll follow the mod and offer your thoughts & opinions.
Now then, enough of the wall of text, on to the pics:
All taken in MS3D since I haven’t started hardpointing and putting things ingame yet.
I’ll be posting more soon, so stay tuned
I use the word ‘tentatively’ because whether or not this gets released as a full race depends upon me finding someone who can put a Suliban GUI together for me, along with a few other minor details that I’ll bring up as the mod progresses. If I can’t find someone to help out with the parts of this that I can’t do, I’ll simply release all my Suliban work as a large pack, so either way they will be up for download.
I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to update this mod, with my return to university I have a lot less free time, but modding is a fun hobby and I will do as much as I can whenever I have the time.
---------------------------------------------------------
First, here’s the back story on the Suliban featured in this mod:
In the late 24th century, the various powers of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants became embroiled in a war against a powerful and ruthless enemy known as The Dominion. The war devastated the Cardassian Union, left the Klingon and Romulan Empires in disarray, and ensured that Starfleet would be occupied with peacekeeping, humanitarian, and patrol duties for years to come.
While half the galaxy was busy rebuilding, an enemy no one had encountered for centuries saw their opportunity to spread out and claim new territory once again. For more than 200 years, the Suliban had been silent, hiding in isolated and inhospitable regions, building ships, space stations, and even new Helixes. Since the end of the Temporal Cold War and the death of the Cabal leader Silik, the Suliban had been on their own, cut off from their mysterious benefactor from the future, and faced with enemy threats from all sides.
It was decided that they should retreat to the various concealment zones they had established around their Helixes in order to plan their next move. Over the next 2 centuries, the Suliban gathered resources and established outposts in far flung areas of space where no other species were present. They traded small amounts of information about their advanced 28th century inspired technology to various races and minor powers in exchange for additional raw materials, supplies, and even intelligence on the other races.
When the Dominion War ended, the Suliban saw the opportunity they had been waiting for, and they began to leave their hiding places and prepared for conflict. They began by annexing systems on the outer edge of the other races territory, knowing that it would take time before the weakened powers noticed the incursions. By the time the various powers noticed the Suliban presence, they had already lost control of several systems each. Attempts to retake them were foiled by the presence of massive Suliban fleets, and heavily armed space stations seemingly capable of moving through space to counter any attempts by the other races to retake their territory.
Once entrenched at various points in the Alpha & Beta Quadrants, the Suliban moved their new Helixes out of hiding, and projected their power forwards from more than a dozen large staging grounds. The advanced technology given to them by their benefactor from the future, combined with the sheer number of cell ships and other combat vessels the Suliban had built over the centuries gave them enough of an edge to meet the larger warships of other races in combat, and despite taking heavy losses, the Suliban became a grave threat to the security of half the known galaxy.
---------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so the basic idea behind this race is ‘strength in numbers’, Suliban ships (particularly the smaller Cell Ships) will be very easy to destroy, and do very little damage on their own, however in large numbers they are a considerable threat. Basically, think of them like bees - on their own or in small numbers, they are easily managed, but in a swarm they’re far more dangerous.
Some information about how the Suliban will play:
- Smaller ships will be quick and cheap to build, but will do very little damage and will be easy to destroy.
- Larger ships (cruisers, assault ships e.t.c), will be less common than the smaller cell ships.
- They will not have dozens of ship classes or station types, their fleet is built on numbers, not diversity (a single ship class can fill many roles).
- They will not have access to battleships or super weapons, you will need to use stealth and swarm tactics to prevail late-game.
- The majority of their stations will be mobile; a few exceptions will be made (turrets being one example).
- You will be given a single unit at the start - a Helix - you cannot build more Helixes (smaller Outposts take the place of the usual Starbase).
- A lot of their techtree will be dependant on the Helix, so if it is destroyed you will lose the ability to build certain ships & stations, as well as access to certain weapons & technology.
- Any station capable of movement will only be able to do so slowly (think 8472 Mother, but a little faster).
- Almost all their units will have cloaking capability, combat ships will always have access to it, stations will have to research it, and non-combat ships will not have it at all.
- Every unit, with a few exceptions (construction ship, freighters and a few others) will have weapons of some description (stations included); they will of course vary in strength and type (pulses, phasers e.t.c).
Possible feature - they have the ability to detach the various ships from the central cores/superstructures of their space stations (like the Helix in ‘Broken Bow‘).
I’m sure there’ll be more points I think up as the mod progresses, but that‘s what I have so far.
---------------------------------------------------------
This is a list of units that the Suliban will have, green means completed (model & texture, since nothing’s hardpointed yet), blue means partially completed (model/design only), and red means not started yet:
- Note that this list may very well change as I come up with more ideas for the mod -
Stations:
Helix (command base & starting unit)
Outpost (buildable base)
Processing Station (mining station)
Shipyard (shipyard)
Listening Post (sensor array)
Pulse Mine (basic/pulse turret)
Research Facility (research station)
Orbital Extractor (orbital mining station)
Trading Post (trading station)
Particle Mine (advanced/beam turret)
Ships:
Construction Vessel (construction ship)
Resource Freighter (mining ship)
Cargo Freighter (cargo ship)
Salvage Vessel (repair ship)
Colony Vessel (colony ship)
Cell Ship - Class I (scout, basic defence/attack ship)
Cell Ship - Class II (scout, escort, basic defence/attack ship)
Cell Ship - Class III (scout, escort, basic defence/attack ship)
Long Cell Ship - Class I (scout, patrol, escort, defence/attack ship)
Long Cell Ship - Class II (scout, patrol, escort, defence/attack ship)
Heavy Cell Ship (destroyer, light/medium attack ship)
Assault Pod (cruiser, assault ship, medium/heavy attack ship)
Cruiser (cruiser, heavy attack ship)
---------------------------------------------------------
Well whether you’ve just read all that or not (I’m hoping so but it’s up to you lol), I hope you’ll follow the mod and offer your thoughts & opinions.
Now then, enough of the wall of text, on to the pics:
All taken in MS3D since I haven’t started hardpointing and putting things ingame yet.
I’ll be posting more soon, so stay tuned