Got m'Tiger!

[*cat]

Phew, they're rare! I've parked my blue feline rump in that exquisitely stitched leather seat, and it feels g o o o d!
I'd spent a long time saving up, even switching to an unarmed l-crate for some serious fundraising, then I despaired of ever finding a Tiger for sale.
Interestingly, is the Tiger mk1 any relation to the Tiger in another version of Elite, or is it all Asp re-make?
It's good to be able to start the hyperspace sequence as soon as I leave the station and know I'll be out of range by the end of the 15 seconds!

[Commander McLane]

It's good to be able to start the hyperspace sequence as soon as I leave the station and know I'll be out of range by the end of the 15 seconds!

As long as the station doesn't happen to be a Torus, of course.

Otherwise: Congratulations for getting your ship of choice. Enjoy it! (Until you see the shadow of my Imperial Courier closing in like a hungry vulture, which will be the last thing you see. )

EDIT: BTW, nice avatar. Although it somehow looks more like a Wraith from EVN than like a Tiger.

[*cat]

Darn! So that one I took out the other day wasn't you?
In fact, almost as soon as I got it, I launched to find a fugitive Tiger mk1 floating around, so they're even rarer now!
Actually, I've never seen an Imperial Courier for sale at all, unless that's the ship that makes the "view ships for sale" window not work.

[cybertiger]

Phew, they're rare! I've parked my blue feline rump in that exquisitely stitched leather seat, and it feels g o o o d!
I'd spent a long time saving up, even switching to an unarmed l-crate for some serious fundraising, then I despaired of ever finding a Tiger for sale.
Interestingly, is the Tiger mk1 any relation to the Tiger in another version of Elite, or is it all Asp re-make?
It's good to be able to start the hyperspace sequence as soon as I leave the station and know I'll be out of range by the end of the 15 seconds!

I made it up, someone else did a very good job of writing a back story for the ship. From memory I just designed the ship shape how I wanted it (losely based on a Cylon fighter from battlestar galactica), played around until I found the right settings to be 'uber' and still playable (which happened to be similar to an Asp), then I slapped an enormous price tag on it and made it only available in TL 14 worlds

Sheesh, I've been away so long my login on these boards had expired.

[*cat]

Cylon fighter? I though it was a croissant!
With all these tougher assailants, hard-head missiles etc, I'm trying to make m'self a "super-tiger", for my own personal use of course. It's an expensive beast to keep though - 8000cr overhauls are twice what my SuperCobra cost.
Thanks for your work on it, and good luck with the multi-player effort; it's been requested ad-nauseum. For me, I think I'll stick to (easier) computer-controlled assailants.

[cybertiger]

Might make a sequel to the Tiger.

the Cheetah.

Instead of an all around uber ship I was planning to make it specialised in cargo hauling, so more carrying capacity, faster but much less agile. Of course I was planning to remove the ability to have any weapon on the front / side mountings, and leave only a rear mounted laser.

Here's a sneak preview of the model:



Still got to paint it and do the ship's stats though, wish I could employ littlebear to write a nice backstory, he did a wonderful job on the tiger. (And I hate creative writing, I'm not very arty).

Also I have to work out how to convert it into .dat again, last time I ended up writing my own java program to do it (which I've long since lost, this was years ago...).

[Kaks]

There's a python based obj2dat converter in trunk/tools/meshConverters/ so as long as you can export to obj, you're safe - unless you really enjoy rewriting a converter...

[cybertiger]

There's a python based obj2dat converter in trunk/tools/meshConverters/ so as long as you can export to obj, you're safe - unless you really enjoy rewriting a converter...

I managed to get it working this time around, I use blender 3d for my modeling, the converter script can't quite handle the .obj blender generates unless you change the export options.

[JensAyton]

I’m having a hard time reconciling “cheetah” and “specialised in cargo hauling” here. :-)

[Killer Wolf]

bit like calling that caravan model "swift" etc

[cybertiger]

I’m having a hard time reconciling “cheetah” and “specialised in cargo hauling” here.

Basically imagine what happens if you stripped down a Boa Cruiser to nothing but minimal manuvering thrusters and a rear laser, then went about strapping 8 massive engines onto the back. It's called a Cheetah because Cyber Systems Inc. use feline names for their ships, and for a cargo hauler it's ridiculously fast (though very hard to fly due to lack of manuverability).

Still haven't painted her up, at the moment, she flies like a brick. I've hit at least two space stations just because it takes that long to slow down from when the jump drive gets mass locked (I made acceleration / deceleration quite slow).

Parking is kinda fun, I get the feeling she just fits inside the docking bay.

By the way, I found a bug. You cannot have only a rear laser and no front laser on player models, this is part of the whole market code which has several comments along the lines of "this is awful". I could have the player version being laser-less, and the npc version having a rear laser for now. To compensate I could add a couple of missile slots for Quirium Cascade Mines.

As an aside I've realised just how awful my ship config for the Tiger was, I'll clean it up a bit so they don't spawn all over the place, or at least those that spawn as traders or escorts do not behave like pirates. I'll add in some external views at the same time, they didn't exist back when I did the original version.

[Captain Hesperus]

I’m having a hard time reconciling “cheetah” and “specialised in cargo hauling” here.

Basically imagine what happens if you stripped down a Boa Cruiser to nothing but minimal manuvering thrusters and a rear laser, then went about strapping 8 massive engines onto the back. It's called a Cheetah because Cyber Systems Inc. use feline names for their ships, and for a cargo hauler it's ridiculously fast (though very hard to fly due to lack of manuverability).

If you want a big heavy feline, go with Lion. It also matches up with an F:E2 ship.

Captain Hesperus

[Cmdr. Maegil]

As I see it, that's a blockade runner, a smuggler, or both; in any case it wouldn't be something the authorities would look kindly at.

If you're making it that fast, don't go for Boa size - it'll be the über freighter if you do. I think a reduced Python might be a better base.

[Disembodied]

People* will call it the Fatcat no matter what official name you give it...


*Well, me, at least.

[Ramirez]

Like the ideas for the Cheetah. A ship doesn't have to be uber to make it interesting - filling a particular niche and coming up with a good backstory is all part of the fun.

It won't work for the player version but for NPCs a plasma turret would seem a suitable defensive weapon for a large, slow ship. If you want to keep the military edge you could say it's a troop ship or something.