Oolite Bulletins

Yep.. Dizzy is biting the bullet, and venturing into OXP land.

I have a concept in mind for a somewhat revolutionary OXP. Most of it I think I can handle, (although I'm sure I'll be asking plenty of questions -some dumb, no doubt- along the way)

What I don't have the time (learning curves being what they are) and creativity for, is ship design and texturing. At this stage I envision needing 2, perhaps 3, new ship designs. I'm not sure if I can really describe what I'm after very well, but I'm looking for something with a very flowing, organic, inspired-by-nature feel to it. (Ideally, this would extend to their names, as well) They should also (visually speaking) clearly share a common heritage, as in design philosophy, inspiration, and what-have-you.

Size/performance-wise, one would be intended to be roughly on a par with a Police Viper, another a rough match for a Cobra Mk III. I'm undecided on a 3rd ship at this stage. (Edit: if I do go with a 3rd ship, most likely it would be a blockade-runner of some description. I should also mention that I'd prefer a look that isn't overtly aggressive. Culturally speaking, beauty is more important to this civilisation than a threatening posture.)

Also, these ships will be of non-GalCop origin, and I have a backstory already planned for them.

If any ship-builders have something that might suit floating around unused, or would be interested in creating something from scratch, I'd love to hear from you.

What about the many, many ships that have been released in the last couple of months? There should be three which form a set of some sort, and perhaps their creator(s) would be happy to have put them to some good use...

I don't recall any that really grabbed me, but then, that was before inspiration struck.. I'll go take another look-see. In the same vein, if you're one of the designers Commander McLane referred to, and think some of your creations might suit, don't be shy about singing out!

CaptSolo's  Copperhead is a nice compact ship (and it has some canon behind it).

El Viejo wrote:

CaptSolo's  Copperhead is a nice compact ship (and it has some canon behind it).

Agreed, Solo's ships generally have a really nice Elitey "feel" IMO.

Not bad at all.. but the backstory would clash.. and I forgot to mention that these would be of non-GalCop origin. I'll go add that to the specification.

I have a couple abandoned Wings models. Abandoned not because I tired of them or modeling no longer was fun. No, I just could not justify the time spent on these projects. One is a fairly large craft that I had dubbed the "Digudi Royal Cruiser". The backstory had to do with the feudal royal houses on Diqudi, a planet in galaxy three. The other craft is a remake of SimonB's Cat Mk II, which I always thought has great lines. I would guess it is about the size of a viper. It is approximately 50x18x70 meters. I cut down on the poly count and generally reshaped it somewhat so it wouldn't look exactly like his. I had started designing gun subents for it when work was halted. I would say that both could meet the criteria you listed.

I would be willing to unwrap the models to produce the UV images but perhaps someone else would offer to do the texturing.

That was fast! Speak of the Captain, and here he is.. Most definitely interested! Do you have any screenshots of them?

Diziet Sma wrote:

Culturally speaking, beauty is more important to this civilisation than a threatening posture.

If you want aesthetically-pleasing ships, you'll have to describe what you imagine better, then challenge the shipwrights!

True.. I'll have to sleep on that, and see what inspiration develops.

One micro-nap later... curves. What I'd really like is curves. 'Tis a pity RustiSwordz is MIA. He seemed to specialise in them. Didn't I see somebody who was doing work involving a lot of smoothing recently? Can't recall the thread.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Do you have any screenshots of them?

This was going to be the Diqudi Royal Cruiser. The projection on top was imagined as royal quarters and throne room.


And this is my remake of SimonB's Cat Mark II. I had thought of several names for it.


If you are interested and have some design changes you would like done, let me know. That part is easy.

Ooooooohhh.. I like those! Very much.

The more I look at them, the more I think they'd be perfect.. I think about the only thing I'd like to change would be some additional polys to the wings on the Cruiser, to make them a bit more rounded and disc-like in appearance.

CaptSolo wrote:

This was going to be the Diqudi Royal Cruiser.

Nice. Feel free to donate that to the Explorers' Club ship set, if Diziet Sma's proposal doesn't come to pass.

Dizzie, I like the 'organic' idea and it's time to have a change from my 'usual' style, so if you want any texturing done...