The Centauri Republic

[EAS_Intrepid]

I will start with this party soon.

I have a Primus class already, but I am no way satisfied with that mesh, which basically means I will rebuild it.
Currently I am looking for a 3d high poly mesh as a reference, as there are no good drawings of the ship is available.
Celestia 3d addons proved to be of good quality and I can open them with 3ds Max and render top side and maybe front views as background images for Milkshape.

Expect something soon, I want to model something different than Narn ships/stations all the time :lol:

Now to the general concept of the Centauri:
They only use few ship classes, most of them based on the Primus class.
Available Primus upgrades/refits will be:

"VIP" Liner
- Downgraded weapons payload, faster engines. I still have to come up with a real in-game purpose of this ship
Battleship
- *THE* Primus we've seen on the show.
Bombardement cruiser
- Downgraded standard weapons payload, no lasers, but heavy mass drivers, when deployed.
Assault ship
- A completly refitted version of the Primus, different paint scheme - used to deploy a fast response team of Dilgar Mercenaries.


The Vorchan will not appear, as I think it is too modern for that era. But I will try to come up with two or three other Centauri designs.

Then there will be the inevitable non-combat designs. Brezebel class transport maybe (in a slighty older version) and the like.

A good part of the fleet is made up by Dilgar Mercenaries. The Centauri hired a lot of these, as they did not see the necessity to do the dirty work with their own royal hands.
Dilgar ships include:

Troop Transport
Light Cruiser
Dilgar Fighter
Dilgar Battleship (rare!)

And no, these won't be cheap. You will have to pay some amount for these forces. The Dilgar are a proud race.

Comments? Hints? Ideas?

[Rodglas]

Well the Vorchan is much older then you think, every ting I've seen places them about the 100 year old point by the time of the series.

AOG had several designs for older ships, but the facts are the Centuri fleet hasn't changed much in over a century. Mongoose publishing took over the line but has (at least for now) dicontinued production of minutures and remeoved all pics so you have to hunt a little for referance materials.

Rod

[EAS_Intrepid]

Well, could the Vorchan have been around in the years before the Dilgar Invasion?

[Rodglas]

Well, could the Vorchan have been around in the years before the Dilgar Invasion?

Yup, the Dilgar invaded something like in something like 2231, the series as you know takes place in 2250's/60's

The Vorchan design would have been still relatively young at that time-- maybe 60 years.

Rod

[EAS_Intrepid]

Well, I guess I include the Vorchan then.

[Majestic]

I look forward to seeing the Centauri, keep up the great work Intrepid. :clap:

[Atlantis]

Agreed. According to my sources, the Vorchan was introduced in 2160.

Again, once I get all my relevant information scanned in, Intrepid, it's all yours. =)

[EAS_Intrepid]

Here is a WIP of the Primus class:

http://www.majesticscificentral.com/forum/photopost/data/507/Primus1.jpg

http://www.majesticscificentral.com/forum/photopost/data/507/Primus2.jpg

It is around 2000 polygons. I am pondering what to do with the gun turrets...

Still missing are antennas, gun emplacements and some scaling tweaks and it needs to be poly-reduced.

[Majestic]

Looking awesome Intrepid, as for gun turrets, I have always though that for models in A2 it's better to have either half spheres for turrets or texture marks. It saves on pollies and considering the difficulity of having the weapon shot one particular way it's a better alternative in my view.

[EAS_Intrepid]

I thought of the solution to model basic turrets and restrict the firing arc, so it is not that obvious, especially in engagements where you are busy managing your fleet.

However, the Primus will have multi-targeting abilities with its "pulse" guns.

I must say, this is one of the B5 ships I am most proud of.... I just have to see how to start doing the texture maps.

[EAS_Intrepid]

An update on the standard Primus:

http://www.majesticscificentral.com/forum/photopost/data/507/Primus3.jpg

This is the first model that I want to try lightmaps on. I am still figuring out how these work with an A2 model.

[Majestic]

Looking awesome Intrepid, I love it. As for lightmaps, just add a alpha channel to the texture and delete the parts you want to glow (engines, windows etc) and when applying to a model, use the tab materialname_!default (or _!alpha) there are a few there. I also add !phong_ at the beginning to give phong lighting to the model.

[EAS_Intrepid]

It is that easy? Yay, thanks for the hint!

[Majestic]

You're welcome, and if you have difficulity I can help you through it or send you a model (MS3D) and textures that has lightmaps so you can see for yourself.

[Muad'Dib]

Wow that Primus looks beautiful Intrepid!

I know you can probably find out this information on the web, but I have a considerable amount of B5 Wars books which I offer as resources should you ever require information. I'll at least try to find any info you might want so just ask me any time.

[Avon]

Sweet Primus you got there. Looking really nice, great job:thumbsup:

[EAS_Intrepid]

A glimpse of the mesh I am working on at the moment:

http://www.majesticscificentral.com/forum/photopost/data/507/cbase1.jpg
Centauri Starbase

[Majestic]

Looking awesome Intrepid. :thumbsup:

[EAS_Intrepid]

Thanks!

I just have a question about the Vorchan?

Is it possible, that the Centauri tried to equip it with particle lasers just before the Dilgar War?
Of course all other weaponry could not be installed, the ship could also be slower than the usual standard Vorchan.

[Atlantis]

Possible yes, but i'd advise against it. The Vorchan is quite a small ship, with one heavy weapon, and its weapons suite is optimised for wolf-pack short-to-medium-range work. Start putting Battle Lasers on it and youre looking at a ship with one long-range weapon and not much else. Due to its laser it's not so good as close-in work (the Plasma Accelerator on the Vorchan is perfect for this job), and if you want a vessel that hangs back firing long-range laser fire, there are plenty of better choices (with more than one Battle Laser each).

Plus there's the fact that Battle Lasers are bigger than Plasma Accelerators. If you swap the Pl-Ac with the laser, then you'd need to get rid of at least one of the ship's two Twin Arrays too.

PS: That Marcanos is looking good! With textures (and lightmaps) this is going to look awesome! As does the Primus =)

[Muad'Dib]

I have never read of any Vorchn design variants attempt to mount any kind of beam technology. Even though the Vorchan is for the most part the centerpiece of the Centauri fleet it is more used for agility, speed and blitzkrieg hit and run attacks more than standard sustained frontline battles. They are used to strike fast and hard and then make a getaway before they are overpowered by the more heavier ships of the other main powers.

The only beam technology I ever heard of for Centuari ships was in the Secundus Battlecruiser I believe or a variation of the Primus. Some people allege they've seen Primus fire beams on the show but every episode I've scoured I always only see plasma/particle pulse weapons on Centauri ships.

I don't think Vorchans stay on a straight line long enough to fire beams anyway, they are always swooping and dodging and turning on dimes like flocks of birds wing to wing.

Even in the Lost Tales the Vorchans still used the same tried and true overwhelm tactics of rapid firing plasma pulse cannons and swarm numbers to fight the Warlocks. So I guess this works for them still even in the far off future from the timeline of this mod.