Topic: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....  (Read 21160 times)

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Offline Raven Night

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UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« on: September 19, 2006, 06:12:27 am »
Ok, changed the name on this one....originally it was the Douglass, then the Stingray, but decided that Falcon worked better for me. Basically, this is an extremely fast ship, warp and impulse. A little light on armor and shielding, reasonable on weaponry, basically a federation BOP of sorts. The ship's shape optimizes warp efficiency, allowing maximum warp speed even when cloaked. I was thinking it will be around the size of the Defiant, and is slightly less menuverable but is much faster....and can maintain that speed over long periods.

It is also a deep space patrol vessel, unlike the Defiant...removing the extra armor and shield generators gives up room for a full shuttlebay and storage for the long haul. It is one of the few long range high speed interceptors in the 3rd Fleet, with the ability to operate in deep space for months at a time without a starbase visit. Crew level is low, however.

Tell me what you think...this is a bit of a departure from my original concept, but I think this is more sleek. I fattened up the front of the nacelles a bit, and increased the swoop down grade of the hull to make the design more agressive. It will have both phaser cannons and phaser strips, but will only have one forward and one rear torp launcher.
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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2006, 06:23:12 am »
By the way, here is a scale pic....maybe a little bigger than the Defiant....perhaps around 140 to 150 meters?
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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2006, 06:50:12 am »
the shape is different yet pleasing. although i honestly think that its a bit over the top the defiant is supposed to be the only fed ship that can cloak, that and a deep space patrol vessal would normaly be no smaller than an Intepid (even that class had problems) the design itself is great but feds dont have BoP's.

I know you have your feds as a more agressive and more based on how we as a people are now but you might aswell slap the terran empire symbol on them and call them warmongers. but thats just my opinion.

Personaly i would have this as a more specalised science vessal say something that uses metaphasic shielding to a level not previously thought of something tht can fly directly into a plasma steam between stars or observe supanovas. unless you give it a more secondary scientific purpose the overly military purpose of the ship kinda makes "to seek out new life and civilisations.. to boldly go where no man has gone before" rather pointless for a eutopian civilisation.

I understand your point, but you must be unfamiliar with the Infinity storyline. All of the ships designed for Infinity are warships. Earth has been lost to the Borg. There is a war to liberate Earth, and the 3rd Fleet, or the Starfleet Marine Corps is reactivated to fight the good fight and save humanity. This ship is part of the Third Fleet, not Starfleet....though technically the SFMC is part of Starfleet, this fleet is directly controlled by the Federation council president (which happens to be Spock BTW) and is a fleet built for only one purpose....war. That is what the Infinity storyline is based on.

Before this, with the exception of its activation during the war with the Dominion and the Cardassian war, the fleet has been in mothballs, relegated to official parades and functions and advanced ship design. The SFMC had a hand in designing the Sov, Akira, Steamrunner, Saber and Prom, all advanced ships created to fight the Borg. The fleet is currently commanded by General Noonien Singh, and all ranks are enlisted ranks, not Starfleet ranks....Major, Colonel, General, etc. Almost all Third fleet vessels carry a contingent of Marines on board, and like our modern Marine Corps, the SFMC accepts all types of species, even those that are not members of the Federation, as long as they pledge loyalty to the Corps. There is much more to the story obviously, so I wont bore you with it, but suffice to say that all of my fed designs are warships....with the exception of once civilian transport ship I am working on. The storyline is set 10 years after the events in Nemesis, BTW.
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intermech

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2006, 07:46:19 am »
"Battlecruiser Operational"

Looks good. When the first render showed up I assumed it was a large ship and then was surprised to see how small it was. Because of the vertical proportion of its parts to the horizontal it makes it look like it should be larger. I would put it sovereign sized. Otherwise, maybe you could thicken the pylons, the neck (width wise), and the primary hull a little bit. Smaller starfleet ships (new ones anyway) always tend have a compact, mono-hull feel to them. This design as-is is mor sprawling giving the impression of vast size. And no matter what, you may want to shorten those warps between the pylon connection and the buzzard.

I look forward to seeing how it ends up.

Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2006, 08:30:58 am »
I could go larger, as I would rather keep the struts at thier current thickness. Perhaps intrepid size, or maybe a bit larger? I was hoping this would work as a smaller ship though...I saw it as a high speed scout. I could see if what you are saying is a problem, like the struts....they crawl all the way fore to the nose, but they are not thick enough for personell...only for jeffries tubes and turbolifts to the nacelles for maintenance. The primary hull is actually quite narrow, with only the forward primary hull and the dorsal bulge populated...the one exception is the hangar deck to the rear, which has a single hallway to it. This ship is very cramped, just like the Defiant.

As to the nacelles, they are forward mount, like on the Akira. The majority of the nacelle is forward of the pylon instead of behind it. So the length forward of the pylon is actually intentional.
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intermech

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2006, 09:58:14 am »
Yeah, I guess if you shortened the nacells, you would start getting a Klingon ship. Another thing that makes the ship look bigger is the size of the bridge. In looking at the render, I am assuming that that pad on the front is the bridge, if that is so, maybe if you made it larger to correspond closer to the size of the bridges on the other two vessels shown, it would help with the size perception of the ship.

Offline ModelsPlease

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #6 on: September 19, 2006, 10:57:36 am »
I would suggest at least as large as the Sabre or Nova class if not larger. I recommend this as a replacement for the Norway Class

Quote
the shape is different yet pleasing. although i honestly think that its a bit over the top the defiant is supposed to be the only fed ship that can cloak, that and a deep space patrol vessal would normaly be no smaller than an Intepid (even that class had problems) the design itself is great but feds dont have BoP's.

F_W's point makes some very valid about the cloak as well as with the issues faced by the Intrepid class due to it's lack of size as well, but the Feds do have one BoP (ST: III and IV)  ;D

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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2006, 02:33:09 pm »
well i didnt know the full Infinity storyline but it does make sence (although i dont see how the borg could assimilate earth in the weakened state after endgame and Voyager's "lets make the borg weaker so they are beatable so we can pump ratings")

MP As for the feds having BoP ST:3 and 4 it wasnt exactly a federation ship mearly commandered by a starfleet admiral (who had a warrent out for his arrest :P )

If your going to have a cloak on the ship you need to explain how the treaty of algeron was bypassed because right now i dont buy fed ships with cloaks seems too "fanboyish"

saying this i do really like the design and if your going to scale it to any size i say it should intrepid size as its a good medium size and gives room for the repair crews and the pilots aswell as having space for your mercs i mean marines :P

The Borg were not in a weakened state. The queen killed was another clone, the "Alpha" still lives...again, it is a long story. The complex was destroyed, but the borg did discover the transwarp conduit the Breen used to attack Earth and connected to it...Voila, instant invasion. It is all in the preamble to the story, Ill post the preamble if you want sometime.

There is an entire episode on the Treaty of Algeron. But before I tell you about the episode, let me post this canon info....

A secret amendment added to the treaty in 2371 allowed for the limited supervised use of at least one cloaking device on loan from the Romulans. Operation of the cloaking device was to be limited to the Gamma Quadrant. In return, the Romulans would receive all information the Federation obtained on the Defiant's voyages into the Gamma Quadrant, most importantly any information concerning the Dominion. As such, the USS Defiant was the only Federation ship to be permanently equipped with a cloaking device. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "Visionary")

As you can see, amendments can be made to the treaty with the Romulan's permission. The Romulans have ALWAYS allowed the SFMC to use cloaking technology if needed, but only approved by Romulans directly, and only if the SFMC fleet is active during a time of crisis, and that crisis warrants use of the device...the Romulans, in turn, are provided information on the fleet...its numbers, locations, personell, etc....and no cloaking ships can operate in Romulan territory. An amendment was added to allow the Infinity to operate in Romulan territory with a Romulan escort present. That is why the SFMC is deactivated when a war ends...according to the treaty, it cannot be active during times of peace. So, here are the rules...

1) Only the Infinity is allowed a permanent cloak installed. All other cloaking systems have to be temporary, so they can be uninstalled when the ship is mothballed or stored.
2) Only the Infinity is allowed to operate in Romulan space, with an escort. All other cloak-capable ships must remain outside the Neutral Zone.
3) The Romulan Empire must be provided information on all ships that have cloaks installed, thier locations, and thier personell. They must approve of the cloak use for every ship when it is commisioned.
4) The SFMC must be active only in a time of war or extreme crisis. It must be deactivated when the crisis abates.
5) The devices cannot be modified soas to make the ships undetectable by Romulans.
6) No Starfleet personell can operate 3rd Fleet vessels, nor can they use 3rd Fleet technology. The Third fleet must remain under control of the President of the Federation Council.

This is not the only tech that the 3rd Fleet can use due to treaties that the main fleet cannot. Drones is another example....At Khitomer, the Federation banned the use of drones, but the Klingons, Gorn and the Third Fleet were allowed limited use. The SFMC still uses drones in combat, though the regular fleet hasnt used them in years.

Fighters were banned after the war with Cardassia ended. The huge stockpile of Federation and Cardassian fighters were destroyed....but the 2nd Order and the Third fleet were allowed to keep thier fighters for use in emergencies. Fighters inflicted over 70 percent of the fatalities and 75 percent of the losses in that war. (this is why you dont see the Hudon type ships in the Cardassian fleet, or the Ark Royal type ships in the Federation fleet...no fighters, no need for them. There are carriers however in the 2nd order and the Third fleet).

The Parmel treaty with the Gorn limited the use of Transporters as a weapon to warships only. Transporter bombs are equipped on most SFMC vessels.

There is a universal ban on mines. All of the major powers signed the treaty. The loophole was weapons platforms, which the Cardassians continued to produce, and the Dominion never signed the treaty of course....the use of mines to protect the wormhole was actually a violation of the treaty, but all that signed agreed it was necessary. All treaty participants recieved the location of the mines...except Cardassia, of course.

3rd Fleet vessels also carry Marines, use sensor damping cloaks, wild weasel and suicide carts (shuttles rigged with EM or explosives), grenades, micro-photon personals (very large single shot personell torp launchers) and phaser cannons (hand held repeater cannons) and plasma shock generators (to disable ships), all items that are not used generally by the main fleet for quite some time now.

Just a long heads up on some of the tech the Marines use that is not used by Starfleet. Note how quite alot of it is in SFC...the fleet used most of it at one time, depite thier mission of peace....but decided later to stop using it or treaties forbid it. Only the Marine Corps continues to use such items.

Starfleet intelligence has actually attempted to spy on the SFMC, to no avail...or asked them to provide cloaking tech for a covert mission, also denied. So, SI had to resort to developing the technology on thier own....and got caught, of course.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2006, 02:56:19 pm by Raven Night »
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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2006, 10:19:31 am »
Ok, here is the latest on the Falcon...I have removed the errors in the nacelles, I still have the main hull and weapons errors to contend with. Then the mesh will be clean and ready for textures.

As you can see, I did more sculpting, arcing up the nacelle strut edges a bit to make them flow a little better, reshaped the bridge, and added mounted weapons on the struts, the nose and the chin/aft torpedo launchers. I might pass on phaser strips all together and just go with mounted weapons....this would make the ship harder to use in combat, but it is rediculously menuverable, so it shouldnt be too much of a problem to aim the ship at your target. This ship can run circles around most ships. Hit and run is the name of the game here.

I think the basic mesh assembly is finished. I wanted to post some pics to show the flow of the design, so here you go. Note, the two hanger deck doors to the aft quarter of the ship.

This ship has one torp fore, one aft, one medium single cannon and a medium long range cannon on each of the struts, and two light cannons port and starboard fore on the lateral edge of the saucer. The dual cannons in the nose are quickload.

This ship has only about 2/3 of the firepower and 1/2 of the armor of the Defiant, but is 25 percent faster and 15 percent more menuverable....the second most menuverable mainline starship in the fleet. Like I said earlier, it can maintain those speeds, unlike other ships in this class, and can operate in deep space, making it an ideal scout. Shielding on this vessel is also anemic. She is a good match for a brel class BOP, but anything above that, and it is best to run or outmenuver.

Enjoy.
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Offline ModelsPlease

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2006, 02:59:19 pm »
Very nice, I'll be standing bye for ya when she's ready  ;)

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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2006, 11:39:52 am »
Ok, I made a few shape changes, nothing major, and I might try my hand at texturing this one first....I'm a bit reticent about doing the textures, as I have never done Feds before. I suppose I should just get to it and see how they turn out.
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Offline ModelsPlease

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2006, 04:00:53 pm »
Ok, I made a few shape changes, nothing major, and I might try my hand at texturing this one first....I'm a bit reticent about doing the textures, as I have never done Feds before. I suppose I should just get to it and see how they turn out.

Yeah go for it  ;)

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Offline Fedman NCC-3758

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2006, 06:12:53 pm »

Yowsa!!

Those Fed ships are lookin kinda ......... sinister.   8) :thumbsup:


Say Raven, has Paramount ever been in touch with you?  ;D

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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #13 on: September 26, 2006, 05:55:55 am »

Yowsa!!

Those Fed ships are lookin kinda ......... sinister.   8) :thumbsup:


Say Raven, has Paramount ever been in touch with you?  ;D



Well, I have a few regulars on MSN I chat with. Thanks for the kudos.

Here is a pic of the nacelles. Yes, its junk, but its my first attempt at fed textures....be gentle. I wanted to create a cell-like cover for the buzzard, somethink like honeycomb. Also, I am using a generic Sovereign pattern right now for the hull, I will put in more specific details on the nacelle and the rest of the ship later. Let me know what you think sofar.

One small irritating problem I have at the moment is with glows. I have figured out that using a greyed out texture as the base diffuse, and a color texture as the glow seems to work well (when the lights flicker in BC, or the warp engines die, the glows die out that way). My problem is that the glows seem to brighten the texture, though, causing a red texture to get a whitish hue and turn pink...if I tone down the glow or the color, then the glows are subdued, which is just as bad.

So my question is this...should I ignore the render and leave the glows full force, perhaps to have someone fix them when converting to SFC, or is there another way to fix this problem?

Also, is hull shinyness important? I can add a shine, but I dont know if SFC supports it....I'm pretty sure that BC does.
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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #14 on: September 26, 2006, 09:42:47 am »
Made some changes...changed the color hues in the honeycomb to give it a more sinister edge, and also added the honeycomb armor lattice over the warp plasma vent.
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Offline ModelsPlease

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #15 on: September 26, 2006, 10:54:19 am »
Now THAT is a great start indeed  :)

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Offline Centurus

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #16 on: September 26, 2006, 11:59:55 pm »
RAVEN!!!!!  I'M SENDING YOU MY CLEANING BILL!!!!   ;D ;D ;D ;D  Now them engines are looking so mighty sexy.  Textures are beautiful, mesh is detailed.   ;D ;D ;D ;D

Just plain sexy!!!
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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #17 on: September 29, 2006, 01:41:48 pm »
I'm glad you like it. I'm working on the hull textures at the moment. I'm trying a few different things, this is my favored set sofar.....
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Offline Raven Night

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2006, 04:34:03 am »
You Lied to us when you said you didnt know how to do fed textures raven these are pretty nice and clean already keep it up

Thats awfly nice of you, but I feel like they suck lollies. I can do much better....I might try and redo the texture set.

At any rate, if I dont redo them, I will get better at it over time. I probably should try for a more generic texture first....a Sov set is pretty tough to emulate without it looking cartoony.
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Offline Fedman NCC-3758

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Re: UFOP Falcon class scout WIP.....
« Reply #19 on: October 01, 2006, 07:13:33 am »

He didn't lie.

As Spock would say, "An omission".


The Star Spangled Banner bring hither,
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May the wreaths they have won never wither,
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