[Mod] Yesteryears Updates

[Majestic]

Mainly my imagination as the only stuff concerning the Cardassians before TNG is in novels set around the 2330-50's. An incident with the Klingons (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Betreka_Nebula_Incident) and the Federation-Cardassian war and that is it to my knowledge.

My idea for them will actually be their first contact with the Federation. It won't be a full on war, as that doesn't happen until the 2350/60's, this will more likely be a misunderstanding, boarder skirmish type incident. They have always been intended as a side event in the YY story as they aren't involved in the main events of YY but I have always liked Cardassian design and culture and always wanted to do a TMP version of them. But it will be an expansion faction along with the Tholians.

I am currently working on the Federation freighter, making it's textures then I'll hit the construction ship. With those two out of the way it will only leave 3 Federation ships left to do. I have already drafted up what I want the Klingons to be, and have a few designs that I think many who follow this mod may be interested in. I am rather excited about them myself.

---

Oh and YY won't include ENT in it's background. Originally I was going to but after much thought a couple of years back I decided to axe it as it doesn't really fit in with the storyline for YY. Plus I am doing a ENT mod anyway, plus I think of ENT as part of the AR trek timeline.

The reason for this is as follows:
29th century starfleet sends Captain Braxon from the 29th century back in time to stop Voyager from destroying the Sol system in the 29th century. Voyager resists and both Braxon and Voyager get thrown back to Earth's late 20th century. Ultimately Voyager stops a 20th century human from using Braxton's timeship to head to the 29th century and accidentally destroying it. Which causes a new timeline which ends up creating the temporal cold war which in-turn alters the past creating a different 22nd century. Due to this change and an advance in technology the 23rd and later centuries are drastically altered. Spock from the prime universe while engaged by Nero is thrown through a vortex into this alternative timeline. *This corrects a few misgivings of the new AR trek like how the Kelvin is vastly more advanced than one would expect before Nero's interference*

This isn't done because I hate the new movies, I quite enjoy them for the most part, it's done to explain both ENT and AR Trek, both of which don't really fit in with TNG. TOS etc.

YY is set in the prime timeline, and so ENT really doesn't fit in. A reason I decided to do an ENT mod as I really enjoyed that series and wanted to do something based on them as well. Though TCW is a side mod, done for fun when I want a break from YY, though it did go a bit further than I initially expected. So I plan to release the Earth faction for TCW then get the Fed and Klingons done for YY.

 

[Rifraf]

I like the sounds of it. It'll be interesting to see what kind of Cardassian designs you come up with that are pre-TNG and even TLE. I didn't watch but a couple of episodes of Enterprise. I just didn't care for it for some reason, but I do like the ENT era Klingon ships even if they kinda wreck the designs for the timeline.

 

[Cborg1700]

I can't wait to see this designs for the Cardassians, should be very interesting

When you put those events of ENT that way everything now makes sense.

 

[Majestic]

I like the sounds of it. It'll be interesting to see what kind of Cardassian designs you come up with that are pre-TNG and even TLE. I didn't watch but a couple of episodes of Enterprise. I just didn't care for it for some reason, but I do like the ENT era Klingon ships even if they kinda wreck the designs for the timeline.

You did yourself a injustice by not watching the series, one of my favourite series along with Voyager. I would highly recommend you grab the DVD sets and watch it, season 3 waas interesting and season 4 was great. A shame we didn't get season 5 was Shran was to become a permanent member of the Enterprise crew, the Kzinti were to come into it as bad guys and they were going to visit several TOS places for the first time.

I can't wait to see this designs for the Cardassians, should be very interesting

When you put those events of ENT that way everything now makes sense.

Thanks, I will be resurrecting some of the designs Syf did for Yesteryears the first time around, just making them a bit more primitive. It will be a lot of fun. But that is sometime off.

Well I got the Darwin class freighter finished and I will be starting the construction ship soon. After I get her done I might jump back to TCW and get the final models that need texturing finished and get a working beta of that mod going. I am still planning for an late 2013 release for her. Might make it a Christmas present.

 

[Cborg1700]

Can't wait to see the freighter and construction ships. Forgive my ignorance but have you begun any other races or is the feds the first one you have done?

 

[Majestic]

Can't wait to see the freighter and construction ships. Forgive my ignorance but have you begun any other races or is the feds the first one you have done?

I have finally gotten the construction ship to the point that I can actually start building the textures. Mapping her while not difficult was time consuming, a lot more than the freighter was but I expected as much. The reason I did the freighter first actually.

The Federation is the first race. However back a few years ago Syf and I did other races but never released them as we decided to revamp the mod, bring it onto the FO platform and improve everything. So while you could go through this section and find old images, many of the designs, especially the non-Fed factions have changed. Thankfully the Klingons who will be up after the Fed won't take as long as unlike the Federation where every model is mine, I will be using some existing models for the Klingons just re-texturing them which will cut my modelling in like half.

As soon as the construction ship is done I can post images of her and the freighter if you like.

Oh and you can also find some of the older YY images on my deviantart profile and on the moddb YY profile. Links below:

http://majestic-msfc.deviantart.com/gallery/40626369
http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-armada-ii-yesteryears

 

[Cborg1700]

It's nice to have diverse ship designs unlike we saw in the movies. Granted they were on a budget but now we can put our imagination to work. Your designs are simply awesome. I can't wait to see what you will do for the other races. To heck with cannon, these designs are way better.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks, all the ships I have posted in this thread so far have been either canon from the movies, or designs from games or by other fans (Akyazi). There is so much good material for the Federation one doesn't need to come up with anything new here. I however went my own way with the Lexington (which I have yet to texture) as I wasn't a fan of the one from the game Klingon Academy. I also made up my own freighter and construction ship.

You will kind that the stations will all be unique. I originally was going to go with the Starbase 375 type (like FO and many other mods do) but recently have decided to go with something a little more unique and original. I like unique and original and I think the stations will be the real gems of the Federation for YY.

I went to bed early last night, well I shut the PC down early last night as I was buggered then stayed up watching escape to the country on 7 mate and so I didn't go to bed until my usual time anyway so I haven't finished my construction ship but I did make good progress on it last night, did the saucer, the bay doors and a few other outlines for the hull. Today I am looking at finishing her off. After that is done I'll probably see about getting more of TCW models finished for my late 2013 release.

Decided to update rather than make a new post.

This afternoon/evening I decided to go back over a few models just to touch up the textures or mesh. Slight edits the whole lot look no more than an hour. This was my second run through on the already textured models. This is done to make sure they all fit together.


Detroyat - removed the additional structure under the bridge to bring it more inline with the other destroyers.


Akyazi - Fixed the registry error and added the red lines on top of the saucer to match the other ships.


Oberth- Gave it single barrel phaser emitters, considering it's only a light scout not meant for combat.


Constellation - added the red lines on top of the saucer to match the other ships.


Okinawa - Fixed window sizes to match the other ships.


Constitution - added the red lines on top of the saucer to match the other ships

 

[Rifraf]

Those look great. I really like the Detroyat. I've been familiar with your name from FF and AFC all these years, but never really took the time to look at any of your work so I browsed through your personal work in the downloads and the pictures you have in them and everything looks very nice that you've done in the past. You and the others here who model and texture have such talent. I really kick myself for never taking the time to learn all those years ago how to do what you all do.

It amazes me when I ask a question or someone else does and see Cabal or Dvatrek or whoever just bang something out quick as an example like it's nothing. Cudos to you all

 

[Cborg1700]

Those look great. I really like the Detroyat. I've been familiar with your name from FF and AFC all these years, but never really took the time to look at any of your work so I browsed through your personal work in the downloads and the pictures you have in them and everything looks very nice that you've done in the past. You and the others here who model and texture have such talent. I really kick myself for never taking the time to learn all those years ago how to do what you all do.

It amazes me when I ask a question or someone else does and see Cabal or Dvatrek or whoever just bang something out quick as an example like it's nothing. Cudos to you all

I could not agree more.

I've always had a soft spot for the Constitution Class. It saddens me that it was never included in other trek series besides TOS. It does amaze me that the community has continued to imagine what the Constitution Class would look like in the 24 century, and STO has included it along with variants of the ship. The imagination of this community is amazing.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Rifraf, it look me many years of kitbashing before I decided I wanted to learn to do the real thing. It just hit me one day that I wanted to learn and had such motivation that I just did it. A few years later the same thing with texturing, I wanted to learn had the drive and bang. I must say my work has only improved since then, the YY models have the highest quality of textures I have done, with perhaps the exception of my later BSG models.

I have been in the community (starting at AFC) in 2001, though my early years was just making mods (odf work, putting ship A into mod b) etc. It really wasn't until 2007 that I started my kitbashing career and 2008 my modelling career.

Anyway, I have some important news, the constructor and freighter was finished yesterday. The freighter was done first and was actually the ship I was going to do before the Ulysses and Okinawa but things have a way of jumping in front. The constructor I finished yesterday. It was a bit of a challenge, more so with just how long it took with mapping as I had to map certain parts of the doors separate as if I merged them I was in trouble and some parts would've had to be deleted and re-made.

The freighter I named the Darwin (not sure if that will stick yet) and the constructor the Caldwell, the name is permanent and this is why. Named after a friends brother, who I also considered a friend, who died of bowel cancer back in 2004-5. He was given 6 months to live but died a week later and was more concerned with his family and how they would cope than the fact he was going to die. He was also the first person that I knew well that died and so hit me hard.

Here are the images:



After I completed the freighter I went back to TCW but discovered that my ENT mojo hasn't returned yet. Which is a pain as I only have 4 stations to texture and 3 ships to map and texture. So rather than sit there trying to force myself (I learnt in the past that is a fruitless endeavour) I will continue on with the YY models. It's a shame really as I am so close to finishing TCW. As after the Earth faction I probably won't do a lot on that mod, focusing on YY instead. I just hope my ENT motivation comes back so I can meet my 2013 deadline. I would only need probably 2 weeks with the motivation there to finish the mod off and release it.

So with that I started looking at the Excelsior last night, I realized I will probably need to lower her nacelles poly count a little, together they make up close to 2k in poly's so I will try and get them down a bit before I look at texturing her. There are also a few other spots I will look at lowering the count without reducing too much of the quality on the model. It's currently almost 6k and if I can get her down to 5K I would be happy considering she is a big gun and won't have a huge amount built. But she is the 3rd last ship I need to do for the Federation, the others being the Battleship and Command Cruiser.

 

[Cborg1700]

Those ships are awesome. I am sorry to hear about your friend. It is a fitting tribute to name one of your ships after him.

I understand how hard it is to go from one thing to another, you forget how to do it and so forth but I have learned that once you get your mojo back you get better because of what you have learned. That's just from my personal experience.

Looking good.

 

[Majestic]

Thank you CBorg. He was the first in a series of people I knew who died in the span of a few years. A guy I did my apprenticeship died in a car crash a couple of years later (the day after I did a foreign order aka steel job for his personal use) and another person I worked with hang himself not long after, who I also talked to the day before and spoke a bit to him and got to know him a little. I also learnt that a couple of years after that a guy who was like an on/off friend (bullied me a bit, but overall wasn't that bad of a person) got killed in a car crash as well. It's all part of life I suppose, but it was all unexpected and all happened very close together.

I am glad you like the ships. My aim was to go for the modular route. I thought of just having the one unit and having different pods but I decided I wanted two different classes for the Federation. The Klingons will use old warships refitted for utility use and as for the Romulans I am thinking of only having the one class with different pods and I'll probably do the same with the Gorn. Those the last two (Romulans and Gorn) are just ideas for now and not final. I got a fair way to go before I deal with them.

One of my other aims for the mod is to have each race different but as balance as I can with my abilities. So with that in mind each race is going to have some unique things about them. Since I am only looking at the Federation and Klingons currently, I can say station wise there are a few unique ideas I have for them. Especially in regards to stations. Both factions will have a couple of unique stations that serve a distinct purpose.

As for the Excelsior I found lowering the nacelles wasn't worth the loss in quality so I removed the excess poly's that I could from other areas and decided that would do. So I got her down a couple of hundred poly's and now preparing her for texture mapping. Considering she is the 3rd most powerful unit, you won't see a heap of them built, plus she is new technology and so looking at it from an in-universe view point, Starfleet probably hasn't fielded many of them yet.

 

[Cborg1700]

Would your plan for the Romulans include Klingon designed ships? We know from TOS that they were using D7 cruisers and SFC expanded on this by creating the K-series of ships.

I realize that this is all in the preliminary stages but it's something to think about.

 

[Majestic]

Would your plan for the Romulans include Klingon designed ships? We know from TOS that they were using D7 cruisers and SFC expanded on this by creating the K-series of ships.

I realize that this is all in the preliminary stages but it's something to think about.

By the time Yesteryears starts, the Romulans have had Klingon ships for over 20 years, closer to 30. My views on the matter is that the Romulans never liked using them but needed the technology they provided. Such as matter-antimatter reactors, more advanced warp-drive etc, but they always viewed them as enemy ships. I have thought about this for a while (well a few years on and off) and my current aim for the Romulan designs is to show a missing generation of ships, so they'll have traits of the older Romulan BOP, Klingon ships and you'll see early influences of the warbird shape seen in TNG.

I think they'll be one of the more difficult factions to get right in terms of ships. I do plan to have (at this time, may change) a Romulan designed D7. It will have the general shape of the D7 but be entirely Romulan built, using their own style. I plan to do the Romulans after the Klingons and I think I'll enjoy working on them more than the Federation and Klingons.

 

[Cborg1700]

The Romulans are a fascinating race, it is a cross between Humans (peaceful and scientific) and Klingons (arrogant and warlike). I do see your reasoning of the YY Timeline regarding the K-series however you can't do the TOS/TMP Romulans without the D7 battlecruiser, whether it is Klingon or Romulan Designed. maybe something like "The romulan military was impressed by the design that they decided to build a new ship based on the D7, etc etc".

Just throwing some ideas out there.

 

[Majestic]

No problem mate, I am always open to ideas an suggestions from the community.

The Romulans will be a challenge, more so in stations than the ships. I already have an idea of how I want their ships to look like.

An update, I have the Excelsior almost finished being mapped, it was tricky and no doubt I'll have to remap some parts during the texture process due to texture stretch that I can't see at the moment. This one will probably take some time to texture, being a canon design I always take a little longer to try and get it as close as I can to what we saw on TV.

 

[Majestic]

"Would you look at that!"
"My friends, the great experiment: The Excelsior. Ready for trial runs."
"She's supposed to have transwarp drive."
"Aye. And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon."
"Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant."



Yes that's right as you can see the mighty Excelsior is now done. This one took me a whole day just to map. She was the last of the canon Federation designs, and I am quite proud of her despite her imperfections. I know we artist's are our own biggest critics.

I was actually considering not doing her, and procrastinated on doing her for quite some time, even more so than I did with the Miranda. But a TMP mod without an Excelsior is like not having a Miranda or Constitution. So I bit my lip and got stuck in on her and quite happy now that I did. Along the way I figured out a different way to add more detail easily to parts of the texture so I'll probably be going back through my other ships and adjusting the textures to match.

As usual I hit google for a variety of references and was surprised by the lack of clear images of the Excelsior and so I had to use other artist's images (CGI models etc) to texture this. So it probably isn't as accurate I would like, but it works and fits in with my other models which is the main thing.

I have also uploaded some larger images of the textured ship for your viewing pleasure.



Only two Federation ships left, the command cruiser and battleship. I haven't decided upon a final design for the battleship, tossing up between a few designs. I also need to do some re-designing on the command cruiser so that might take a little time, or I might go with a completely different design not sure yet. So this will probably be my last ship completed for a while. Hopefully next week I can get those two designs done and then start on the stations.

 

[Knight]

Epic. She's a good looking ship Maj!

 

[Rifraf]

That looks great Majestic. One of my favorite ships that always stands the test of time. I wouldn't think you could do a TMP mod without her. I really like the look of the fed's you've done. Simple, clean looks that have like a classic elegance to them.

 

[Cborg1700]

Looking good on the Excelsior, can't wait to see what you will do with the renaming two ships. A question though, will you do a E-B/Lakota variant of the Excelsior or leave that alone?

 

[Majestic]

Epic. She's a good looking ship Maj!

Thanks Knight, your support is always appreciated.

That looks great Majestic. One of my favorite ships that always stands the test of time. I wouldn't think you could do a TMP mod without her. I really like the look of the fed's you've done. Simple, clean looks that have like a classic elegance to them.

Yeah those were my thoughts, so I did her. The Excelsior is also one of my favourites, never a fan of her use as a simple courier in TNG though.

Looking good on the Excelsior, can't wait to see what you will do with the renaming two ships. A question though, will you do a E-B/Lakota variant of the Excelsior or leave that alone?

Ah the Excelsior with breast implants. Probably not but I did make sure to leave enough room on the texture for that possibility. In my views the Excelsior is still new, the variant even more so and so not many are in service and even less given to rookie commanders like us.

 

[Jetfreak]

A very honest rendition Maj, one bona fide effort for sure!

I also agree on the Enterprise-B variant, it was introduced in the 2290's I think. Pretty funny how the protrusions on the stardrive led to the death of Jim Kirk.

 

[Cborg1700]

I still can't figure out why they didn't just do a reg excelsior for the E-B. I mean what was the motivation for it, to have this one ship stand out from everyone else?

 

[Majestic]

A very honest rendition Maj, one bona fide effort for sure!

I also agree on the Enterprise-B variant, it was introduced in the 2290's I think. Pretty funny how the protrusions on the stardrive led to the death of Jim Kirk.

2293 to be exact, not long after Khitomer. 23rd century Trek fan here.

Thanks mate, you're my inspiration for getting this one as close as possible after our work together on your previous Excelsior project.

I still can't figure out why they didn't just do a reg excelsior for the E-B. I mean what was the motivation for it, to have this one ship stand out from everyone else?

It was a studio thing, back then they were still using physical models and they didn't want to have to damage the original filming model so by adding the additions it meant they could damage the additions without damaging the original model underneath.

To be honest, being a film with a larger budget you'd think they could have just made a new Excelsior model to damage and not had to make those silly hull extensions I like to call breast implants. Did you know that the extra impulse engines were original supposed to be addition shuttlebays but a mis-communication within the studio made them impulse engines instead.

On my model I realized after I went to bed the other night after posting it here I forgot to polarize the aztec on the saucer, something I plan to do shortly.

 

[Rifraf]

I never liked the "implants" as you call them Majestic. I thought they just didn't fit well and I never liked the additional impulse engines either. They both looked really cheesy. I suppose in theory more engines could provide additional impulse speeds and help with maneuverability, but additional shuttle bays would have been a much better implementation. We could have had fighter wings shown on screen perhaps all those years ago.

Are you going to lighten the warp nacelle grilles any like they are on and functioning or leave them darker like in your pics?

 

[Majestic]

I never liked the "implants" as you call them Majestic. I thought they just didn't fit well and I never liked the additional impulse engines either. They both looked really cheesy. I suppose in theory more engines could provide additional impulse speeds and help with maneuverability, but additional shuttle bays would have been a much better implementation. We could have had fighter wings shown on screen perhaps all those years ago.

Yeah, though I think fighters go against the mentality of Starfleet, even 23rd century Starfleet and so the Federation won't use carriers. Additional shuttlebays to me would allow more mission orientated shuttles and allow for a larger evac limit.

I did make (though probably won't use) a re-designed Centaur which uses the Ent-B additional impulse engines as it's main engines. In place of where the Excelsior engines are is the shuttlebay. Let me see if I can find an image....

Ah here we are.



It will probably appear in the campaign if or when or do it. If I never do a campaign they might appear as a map unit. Or maybe I might expand the fleets down the road and add additional units and this one would be one of the Federation's additions.

Why did I do a Centaur re-design?

The original was a quick and dirty kitbash of the Excelsior and Miranda kits available in the 1990's at supermarket and hobby shops. It was meant to be only on screen for a few seconds. But the scale is all wrong. It has like the largest bridge in the history of Trek as it was meant to be of a similar size to the Miranda. So this is my own version to bring it more in line with what I think it should have looked like.

Are you going to lighten the warp nacelle grilles any like they are on and functioning or leave them darker like in your pics?

Well the thing is, the top of the Excelsior nacelles I am using as the grills. I know they aren't but I think it's a bit silly having the cut-out on the top of the nacelle without them serving a function. I am using what is traditionally the grill as the bussard collector. I mean TOS and TNG ships have them, where are they on TMP ships? So my guess is the black grills on TMP ships are the collectors. I know it's not canon what I did with the Excelsior, but YY isn't exactly canon nor am I. I like to do my own thing and it doesn't stop anyone editing the texture after release and fixing it to be canon if they like. It should also not break compatibility for online either.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I can see about the updates appearing here much quicker than in DA, hehehe . But since I have been busy I have not even been able to update my gallery much at all.

I love what you did with the Excelsior class!.

Keep it up!

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Chile, I know some may not like the small change I did to the Excelsior but then they probably won't like YY too much either as it doesn't fully follow canon. But then again what 23rd century mod does?

Well before the Bushfire incident started to cause us concern with it approaching our area, I did a lot of work on the new command cruiser, it's not ready yet but I have almost finished it's modelling with just the shuttlebay left. It will fit between the Constellation and Excelsior on the fleet listing and will be a more support cruiser than a combat one. This design is of my own making, taking inspiration from several sources.

I tried a couple of designs (even modeled one right to competition before scrapping it as a CC), I even hit google and searched through my files (unfortunately I lost a lot of good design with a HD crash about 12 months ago) to find a design that would work and in the end did my own thing.

Provided everything goes ok with the bushfires, it stops, heads in another direction or if we're lucky we get a heap of torrential rain, I should have it finished in a couple of days. After which only the battleship is left and then the stations.

 

[CABAL]

Well the thing is, the top of the Excelsior nacelles I am using as the grills. I know they aren't but I think it's a bit silly having the cut-out on the top of the nacelle without them serving a function. I am using what is traditionally the grill as the bussard collector. I mean TOS and TNG ships have them, where are they on TMP ships? So my guess is the black grills on TMP ships are the collectors. I know it's not canon what I did with the Excelsior, but YY isn't exactly canon nor am I. I like to do my own thing and it doesn't stop anyone editing the texture after release and fixing it to be canon if they like. It should also not break compatibility for online either.

There are at least two different official nacelle designs for the Excelsior anyway and refits are pretty common on all classes. This pic even seems to indicate a variant with the nacelles you're using.