Update - 1 October

[Amateur]

Me again :D

Well not much to update (you've probably all seen the two textured ships in the 'Republic Model Thread') but here goes -

What I've done recently -

Messed about with GUI and found them complicated
Continued to mess around with them and started to learn the basics
Designed a button set for the Republic


And that's about it. On a side note, I recently saw the Malevolence for the first time and two thoughts went through my head - Ohh, nice and arghh, I'm gonna have to model that!

So I'm making that this weekend. If you don't hear from me then I'm struggling with it still :)

That's it for today's update then, see you later!

[Dan1025]

Yeah GUIs can be tricky, there are a few modders around who're pretty great with them (I'm certainly not one of them lol) so ask around if you need help.

The Malevolence is a cool design, but a complicated one so I wish you the best of luck lol :)

[Majestic]

Hey Amateur, I've made a few in my time for both Parallels and Yesteryears.

I can if you think it will help you send some your way along with my updated templates. :wink:

[Amateur]

Hey Amateur, I've made a few in my time for both Parallels and Yesteryears.

I can if you think it will help you send some your way along with my updated templates. :wink:

I would appreciate that very much, thanks :)

Anyways, the Malevolence. She's a big ship so there's a few things different between her and the other ships in the mod -


She'll probably have a poly count over the limit I set of two thousand five hundred - there's just so many curves on her and she's quite eye-catching so I can't really use the chamfered box trick...
To offset this, I'm considering making it a 'hero' ship - with punishing resource and techtree requirements. When using the FLOPS patch, I could also restrict the number build-able. I intend to do this.
She won't be scaled to canon. Armada just can't handle ships that big. She'll still be huge - she just won't dwarf the Venator's as much :D


Any other thoughts on keeping her balanced will be helpful. Bottom line, it's a complex shape that needs the polies, but I don't really want to cause lag by having more than two of these at once.

At the same time, the triangles of the Republic will be a substantial amount of polygons lower - so they could offset some of the drain.

I'll still use every trick I know to keep her count down; but I'm not optimistic.

[Majestic]

I think you are going in the right direction by restricting the build limit to 1 or 2. Especially considering the complex design of the ship.

Also the costs of building one of these being high is another added benefit and the techtree requirements is another good idea meaning that you can't build one until late in the game. I really honestly think that there isn't much more one can do with the ship to keep it balanced with the poly count.

Some designs are just so hard to keep down with the poly counts, I have looked at several designs over the years and thought, how on earth am I going to get that ship below 2000 and keep a reasonable amount of quality in the model? It's just sometimes required (as much as I hate to admit it) to have them at higher poly counts. But again there is like going to far like having a Defiant (Star Trek) at 6000 when there are good ones that are 1200.

I say what you are planning is probably the best and only real solution to getting what you want. :thumbsup:

[Amateur]

I think you are going in the right direction by restricting the build limit to 1 or 2. Especially considering the complex design of the ship.

Also the costs of building one of these being high is another added benefit and the techtree requirements is another good idea meaning that you can't build one until late in the game. I really honestly think that there isn't much more one can do with the ship to keep it balanced with the poly count.

Some designs are just so hard to keep down with the poly counts, I have looked at several designs over the years and thought, how on earth am I going to get that ship below 2000 and keep a reasonable amount of quality in the model? It's just sometimes required (as much as I hate to admit it) to have them at higher poly counts. But again there is like going to far like having a Defiant (Star Trek) at 6000 when there are good ones that are 1200.

I say what you are planning is probably the best and only real solution to getting what you want. :thumbsup:

I know what you mean. Some ships need the polies; but for an RTS like this one there isn't really a need for modelled details. The engine can't cast shadows on the ships themselves and most of the time the camera will be too far out to see anything; so there really is no need.

Oh, and the idea is that she'll be the strongest ship available to the CIS - so very late game. In fact, you might not even get one - it depends on how the early and mid-game goes.

And a pic.

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/Amateur04/th_Malevolence.jpg (http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/Amateur04/?action=view&current=Malevolence.jpg)

Currently she's at 2724 polies - but I still need to add the engines and some other bits. I hope she'll be below 3500; but there are a lot of polies in cylinders...

[Majestic]

Looking awesome Amateur, you're one talented modeller. :clap:

[Dan1025]

Looks great so far! :)

[Katala]

looking good Amateur! :thumbsup: