Oolite Bulletins

Wildeblood wrote:

(P.S. Pettiness is not spelt "pettyness".)

Pigs, you're right! Can't believe I missed that! Oops! *hangs head in shame...*

Ahm, very funny, ya'll. Back on topic. Anyone else want to take a crack at this?

(P.S. Wildeblood, you can PM me your commentary, but on this topic, I believe the appropriate term here is "put up or shut up". )

Wildeblood wrote:

The Millennium Falcon isn't symmetrical at all, and that dates from 1977.

Are you sure the Falcon isn't symmetrical? Symmetry is not a bad thing. If you flew an asymmetrical ship and viewed it externally while performing the usual flight maneuvers it might look a little odd, proportional of course to the degree of asymmetry. Imagine a ship that doesn't rotate about the Z and X axis or yaw about the Y. If symmetry is bad then all of my models would qualify since they are symmetrical about all three axis.

CaptSolo wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

The Millennium Falcon isn't symmetrical at all, and that dates from 1977.

Are you sure the Falcon isn't symmetrical?

I'm positive it isn't. I read some random site last night where some youngsters were slagging it off, "The cockpit isn't even in the middle!" But for people my age, i.e. old enough to remember the world pre-Star Wars, the asymmetry was a revelation. For me, that was Lucas's single best contribution to SF - prior to the Millennium Falcon every movie spaceship looked like an aeroplane, a rocket, or a flying saucer.

CaptSolo wrote:

Symmetry is not a bad thing. If you flew an asymmetrical ship and viewed it externally while performing the usual flight maneuvers it might look a little odd, proportional of course to the degree of asymmetry. Imagine a ship that doesn't rotate about the Z and X axis or yaw about the Y. If symmetry is bad then all of my models would qualify since they are symmetrical about all three axis.

I think you might have misunderstood me. I wasn't suggesting a ship should have its centre of balance or axes or rotation anywhere off-centre, or anything dopey like that.

Dragonfire wrote:

Cmdr Wyvern's Submission:

Cmdr Wyvern, I like your model. It reminds me of a souped up MEGA Pheonix. Amazing what can be done with salvaged parts, eh? I like! If it isn't chosen, perhaps it would make a good Pheonix mkII.

I do rather like it. Tho I'm also planning to try my hand at making a model myself...

Wildeblood wrote:

I'm positive it isn't. I read some random site last night where some youngsters were slagging it off, "The cockpit isn't even in the middle!" But for people my age, i.e. old enough to remember the world pre-Star Wars, the asymmetry was a revelation. For me, that was Lucas's single best contribution to SF - prior to the Millennium Falcon every movie spaceship looked like an aeroplane, a rocket, or a flying saucer.

I have to say, having the cockpit way off the axis of roll always struck me as a bit impractical. But then, I have a bias towards spinning stations. :-) Other than those, there’s very little reason to roll continuously; you just need to roll into alignment at the beginning of a docking approach. Aligning an off-axis ship with a dock would be somewhat harder, but not severely so with appropriate markings or HUD indications.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Cmdr Wyvern, I like your model. It reminds me of a souped up MEGA Pheonix. Amazing what can be done with salvaged parts, eh? I like! If it isn't chosen, perhaps it would make a good Pheonix mkII.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

Thargoid wrote:

Much as I hate to point it out, Wyvern's ship is very similar to the Sneak craft in TCAT (although that is a slightly simpler model, and more Thargoid-based).

I havn't seen the Sneak ship...yet. Must be a very sneaky ship indeed. I made the model from scratch, sans seeing anything similar except the Phoenix and Terrapin.

I'm thinking, for mine, making the wings actually appear ribbed and toothed (like on Cmdr Wyvern's avatar), and having the ship in loosely a "u" shape. Maybe even a couple of extensions from the top of the cabin that make it look horned?

Mauiby de Fug wrote:

Cmdr Wyvern's submission reminds me somewhat of Thargoids... That or it looks like a small agile bug-fighter to me. Not something that looks to me like an ominous warship.

Thargoid wrote:

Much as I hate to point it out, Wyvern's ship is very similar to the Sneak craft in TCAT (although that is a slightly simpler model, and more Thargoid-based).

That would explain it...

This is my first model, so my apologizes about it being a smidge rough. As of yet, it is unskinned.




If anyone has any ideas on how to improve it, they are more than welcome to take the .obj file and tweak the model to their heart's content. They can then submit it as their own design.
http://dancingword.net/oolite/wyverndf.obj

Wildeblood wrote:

Symmetry about more than two axes is reserved for bad guy spaceships. This is the equivalent of the outlaws wearing black hats in old westerns. Don't mess with tried and true methods. Find me a significant recent example where this isn't true. The best I can think of is Forbidden Planet, and that was a long time ago.

The Liberator from Blake's 7, and the Excalibur from Babylon 5/Crusade, are both symmetrical around three axes. Mind you, those series themselves were pretty criminal, so ...

My understanding of axes of symmetry must be odd compared to everybody else's. Can somebody explain why the Liberator is symmetrical in three axes? I can see if you split it length ways, nose to tail it would be symmetrical side to side, but not top to bottom...