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3DAskold cruiser from the Small Magellan Cloud
jack cloudy0
Posts: 0Member
The Askold is a ship from a 'Infinite Space', a DS-game that came over from Japan recently to America and Europe. While the game is a love-it or hate-it affair, I think it's pretty nice. (except the voice-acting. Good lords, everyone sounds bored out their skulls!) In the game itself, it's employed by the largest power in the Small Magellan Cloud and also available to the player. Anyway, enough miscellaneous out of universe background.
Like all ships, the main piece of the Askold is the Inflaton inverter. Though it is never said exactly what it is, it seems to be somewhat similar to the Bergenholm from the Lensman universe. Without it, ships are restricted to innertial propulsion which itself is suggested to be what we use in real-life, complete with slingshotting between planets. In other words, without it, you're practically dead in the water. With it, ships can go faster than light, although the speeds involved are hilariously inconsistent. The intro mentions ten c, ingame a mention is made of 200c. Oh, and then there is the fleet that expects to do 2 million lightyears in 300 hours, without using voidgates, the only other method of travel.
I really don't know what I'm rambling about here, so let's move on.
I will not vouch for accuracy. This is for three reasons.
('1: All my references are from the game itself. This means a small screen which makes it hard to make out most detail. There is a database function that allows me to see the ships up-close (awesome!), but I don't have any control over the constantly moving camera there, which still makes it a bit hard to figure out the relative size of pieces. There is also a 2-dimensional schematic which is used in the game for placing modules in a way that makes me think of tetris. Since the Askold is one of the few (perhaps even the only) ship in the game without a visible bridge, the schematic is the only way to find its location. Too bad the schematic is at odds with the 3-d model at times. Oh, and I'm not very good at this.
('2: There are some oddities with the design itself. Such as the fact that it has three big weapons on top in the case of the 3-d model. They are also functional in-game, although they count as one hardpoint. So far so good. But if you look at the schematic the bridge is located right behind the barrels, which suggests that it has the hardware for three big weapons running right through it which frankly, sounds rather silly.
It also has a catapult for launching fighters, despite the fact that I don't remember it ever launching fighters in cutscenes. Maybe that's a difference between the Civilian variant and the military one, dunno. But like the bridge, said catapult is located right behind what looks like the ship's retros. (the part has got the exact same glow and shape as the engines anyway). Regardless, reason 2 leads to reason 3->
('3: I'm taking massive artistic liberties with it. I think that the ships' performance are altered in the name of balance or simply system limitations anyway. The bow-lasers? Yeah, in-game the Askold only has three weapon hard-points total, despite visual appearances to the contrary, none of which are on the bow (well, there are two hanging below the bow). And it's not the worst one in that regard. Plenty of ships appear to be firing lasers from thin air beside the ship.
So about the model. As I've already mentioned, I'm taking artistic liberties. The biggest part of liberty has already been taken by turning what looked like a group of glowy laser-bits on the bow into actual lenses. I've also decided to make the big cylinder thing into the Inflaton Inverter. We never see that bit of tech so it is as good a place as any. The schematic says it is potential hangar-space, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to bring fighters up to the catapult from there so whatever.
From the neck, I can start building the next part of hull holding the engines, the bridge and invisible catapult. I'll also have to resize the Inflaton Inverter. I think it's a bit too fat right now. But that will become easier when I have the part of hull it is hooked up to.
Like all ships, the main piece of the Askold is the Inflaton inverter. Though it is never said exactly what it is, it seems to be somewhat similar to the Bergenholm from the Lensman universe. Without it, ships are restricted to innertial propulsion which itself is suggested to be what we use in real-life, complete with slingshotting between planets. In other words, without it, you're practically dead in the water. With it, ships can go faster than light, although the speeds involved are hilariously inconsistent. The intro mentions ten c, ingame a mention is made of 200c. Oh, and then there is the fleet that expects to do 2 million lightyears in 300 hours, without using voidgates, the only other method of travel.
I really don't know what I'm rambling about here, so let's move on.
I will not vouch for accuracy. This is for three reasons.
('1: All my references are from the game itself. This means a small screen which makes it hard to make out most detail. There is a database function that allows me to see the ships up-close (awesome!), but I don't have any control over the constantly moving camera there, which still makes it a bit hard to figure out the relative size of pieces. There is also a 2-dimensional schematic which is used in the game for placing modules in a way that makes me think of tetris. Since the Askold is one of the few (perhaps even the only) ship in the game without a visible bridge, the schematic is the only way to find its location. Too bad the schematic is at odds with the 3-d model at times. Oh, and I'm not very good at this.
('2: There are some oddities with the design itself. Such as the fact that it has three big weapons on top in the case of the 3-d model. They are also functional in-game, although they count as one hardpoint. So far so good. But if you look at the schematic the bridge is located right behind the barrels, which suggests that it has the hardware for three big weapons running right through it which frankly, sounds rather silly.
It also has a catapult for launching fighters, despite the fact that I don't remember it ever launching fighters in cutscenes. Maybe that's a difference between the Civilian variant and the military one, dunno. But like the bridge, said catapult is located right behind what looks like the ship's retros. (the part has got the exact same glow and shape as the engines anyway). Regardless, reason 2 leads to reason 3->
('3: I'm taking massive artistic liberties with it. I think that the ships' performance are altered in the name of balance or simply system limitations anyway. The bow-lasers? Yeah, in-game the Askold only has three weapon hard-points total, despite visual appearances to the contrary, none of which are on the bow (well, there are two hanging below the bow). And it's not the worst one in that regard. Plenty of ships appear to be firing lasers from thin air beside the ship.
So about the model. As I've already mentioned, I'm taking artistic liberties. The biggest part of liberty has already been taken by turning what looked like a group of glowy laser-bits on the bow into actual lenses. I've also decided to make the big cylinder thing into the Inflaton Inverter. We never see that bit of tech so it is as good a place as any. The schematic says it is potential hangar-space, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to bring fighters up to the catapult from there so whatever.
From the neck, I can start building the next part of hull holding the engines, the bridge and invisible catapult. I'll also have to resize the Inflaton Inverter. I think it's a bit too fat right now. But that will become easier when I have the part of hull it is hooked up to.
Post edited by jack cloudy on
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Nice work.
Ahem, I somehow managed to tear myself away from the liquid metal planet Iserlohn and did a bit more work on the Askold. And yeah, there is some definite similarities between the Askold and the federation vessels from legend of the Galactic Heroes. It's all in the bow I think. The same semi-cylinder bristling with laserlenses on the front, followed by a somewhat thinner neck.
I blocked out the next bit of hull, leaving only the engines and some minor detail before I can start with making up my own detail. One thing I like about the Askold, and most early-game ships, is the fact that they feature what definitely looks like radiation-fins to me. Sure, they're rather small and their positioning is poor at best, but just seeing them in a universe that otherwise ignores physics as far as possible is a rare thing. Unfortunately, late-game ships don't have them. That could be because of higher-tech, or because they're just bigger and needed the polygons elsewhere.
Anyway, the Askold has got a bunch of fins, most of which I haven't added yet. The underside of the neck has tiny rectangular ones, and there will be about six more grouped around the stern. Speaking of the stern, I haven't built the main engine yet but I did think a bit more about the apparant retros. First of all, I'm still not sure they are retros. They're half-obscured by bits of Askold which is never a good thing for starters and for second, they're at just about the right height for the catapult. So perhaps they're the opening to a hideously bright hangar?
And just because I like to ramble, some more words on the Askolds supposed ability to carry fighters. Frankly, I think that potential is wasted. It simply can't carry as much fighters as a dedicated carrier can (8 vs...20? I never tried an early carrier. Top-of-the-line ones carry 60 though, but that's in the large Magellanic cloud) and the space taken up by the hangar means you're sacrificing a good portion of its own spaceworthiness in the lines of firepower, shielding, livingspace etc., just for a small number of underpowered fighters that's barely enough to scratch the paint.
Now back to the retros/possible catapult. I'm not sure if calling them a catapult is right either. Because like with the retros, there are bits of Askold in the way. Hmm...I'll think about it some more I guess.
The other problem are the top-side guns. As I said earlier, the blueprint would have them run through the bridge, unless the external barrel is really the entire gun. Weird. I should really mentally move the bridge and stop thinking about it. Or at least make an external lookout. That's one other thing I like about ships in Infinite Space. A remarkable lack of brightly lit windows. Sure, you've got the traditional exposed bridge, but barring the rare exception, that's all the glass you've got.
So yeah, I've planted the six radiators at the stern and the engine-block, not much else. The 'fins/wings/whatevers' that sit on the engine-block are featureless in-game. But since I think they're supposed to do something fancy with the exhaust, I've added ribbing and trashcanlids. Then engines tehmselves are right now exactly what they are in-game, a featureless (well, except for the glow) polygon. But that's kinda boring so I'm thinking about planting a set of thrusters within the cavity. Speaking of thrusters, I need to plant some small ones all over the hull for rotational and decelleration purposes. I've already decided on a place for the 'real' retros, namely the four small protrusions on each side of the bow. They're as good a place as any and I've already occupied the big blocks with dishes.
And while I'm at it, I might want to make a list of required features.
1: Hatches large enough for a dozen people to storm through at once. Boarding gets kinda messy and futile if you're using one-man airlocks after all.
2: Do something interesting with the guns topside. Ridges, pipes, something to break up the monotony of a featureless cylinder
3:AA-guns. None of the hardpoints on the model correspond with the AA animation (despite the fact that they take up one of the two small hardpoints.) and even if they did, being only able to fire forward sucks when dealing with fighterswarms. Two (top and bottom) should do the trick. I can use the visible aa-turret on a battleship for references (even if it's from a different nation, the two are neighbours so I don't care)
4: anything else I can think of.
By the way, Iserlohn is no planet, it's a starbase. Think of it as a death-star like base (after all, the Thors Hammer has a slightly similar activation sequence).
I also noticed that most of anime based spaceship tend to favor forward guns.
That said, some of the more advanced nations prefer to put their guns in big ol turrets (more of a Yamato influence there, if I have to make a guess). And then there is one ship whose sole purpose in life is to get inside the enemies' formation and let rip with broadsides (and up/down-sides.) Incidentally, that one minimizes its target-profile during approach by looking more like a rocket, albeit a blocky one.
Moving back on track, I have messed around some more for about half an hour and got the basic AA-turret done. I couldn't get a good angle on the battleship, so I decided to instead use the small image in the weapon shop instead. Now that I look at it, I see that I forgot to put something behind the lens but other than that, I'm happy with it. Some more detail is required but it is a good start. And as I already said, I placed two of them. I prefer not to break up the Askold's lines too much with turrets, so I'll just assume they compensate with better accuracy rather than dozens of turrets. And as a final treat, I wanted to see how the Askold looks in an orthogonal view. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get some breakfast in my stomach.
Oh wait, one last thing. I just found out about the existence of an artbook. So I ordered it. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see just how far off the mark I am. It will be a while before it lands on my doorstep anyway and I don't plan to stop just to wait for it.
The idea behind the details of the topside guns is cooling mostly. I decided I needed something to set them apart from the slightly smaller ones integrated into the bow, so massive waste heat seemed like a good way to start. Now I've got this idea of mounting valves on it so it can spray impressive amounts of superheated coolant fluid when firing. Might be cool, might suck big time, I won't know till I try.
The thrusters are...I don't know what they are. Most likely not chemical rockets like we use, but something more elegant. I at first had 3*6 of them in each engineblock, and about 237 more polies on each individual one, but that ended up killing my processor so I erased some details and settled for less but bigger ones. This has also shown me I need to think about meaningfull detail more, or start hiding stuff I'm not working on.
So yeah, I got the book and it is pretty neat. Sure, the pictures are quite a bit smaller than I'd hoped but there is still plenty of detail visible. I've tried to scan the half a page containing the Askold for the purpose of comparisons. In the book, the general method is to put a concept drawing on the left (multiple angles if available), and then the in-game model on the right. Accompanying it is a little bit of text I can't read. Most ships only have one or two black-and-white drawings, about four or so are unfortunate enough to have only the in-game model and some of the lucky ones (including the Askold, whee!) are in colour. I only got part of the in-game model in the scan. Sorry, but jamming the whole book into the scanner is impossible and I don't want to actually rip out an entire page just so I can make one proper scan.
Now how accurate have I been? Actually, surprisingly accurate. Though mine is a lot blockier than the concept art and has some exaggerated features and some very unneeded detail, it does match up better than I'd thought it would. I'll try to implement some of the details from the concept art though I am sticking with my maneouvring thrusters. Cutscenes show big flames when turning, so I'll have bloody big flamethrowers for turning dangit!...Though maybe I could do both. An armoured cover for when the thrusters are not in use, perhaps?