Personally I think your ship looses a lot of it's character without the roll bar, just looks like an Excelsior clone without it. Think it looked much more interesting with that detail myself.
Personally I think your ship looses a lot of it's character without the roll bar, just looks like an Excelsior clone without it. Think it looked much more interesting with that detail myself.
I would have to disagree. With out the roll bar it is less awkward. The connection to the role bar and the nacelle were too abrupt. If you're going to keep the roll bar I'd design some mounts and not have it just protruding out of the side of a nacelle. Now it is an extension of Excelsior's platform design. The nacelles look more finished and perhaps more importantly they are not overshadowed by the Rollbar's massive form.
(The best part of the Quad arrangement of Trek ships is that each section has a well defined and prominent place. The saucer, the Star Drive and the Nacelles. Together they give a sense of size and stature especially in the TALL designs of the 23rd century)
Design CONS:
-The Shuttle door cut-out on the saucer seems Massive for a ship this size. Trek usually keeps a two deck size shuttle bay
-The cut-out on the rear of the saucer doesn't seem to have a purpose (and far too large)
-The pylons feed straight into the nacelles. They too need a mount (after all they are ejectable)
Design PROS
-By using the thicker Olympic style Star Drive you've avoided placing the Plasma Transfer Conduit down the spine of the Drive section removing the Excelsior/ Constitution design flaw quite adequately.
-The Top Dome has no windows and is a perfect command location for the bridge (something Trek never learns)
-All elements are soundly supported
Artistic Suggestions
I like where this is going but there are a lot of elements here trying to work together and it doesn't quite mesh yet. We have Oberth pylons and saucer, Intrepid like Impulse engines, Daedalus/Excelsior like stardrive, Excelsior like neck and completely unique nacelles. Ultimately there is nothing wrong with that but those parts fit those ships very well. Here I feel they need to be brought in line with each other. Like Interior design uses colors shapes and textures to pull a room together so too this ship could use some feature modification that could pull it together...LIKE...
The saucer is shapely but the Star Drive is angular. Give a hard edge to the bottom of the saucer to match the angular top of the Star Drive
The black strip you added to the port and starboard edges o the saucer gives the saucer a slimming effect. (Keep it) Extend it to the front with another segment with those tapered ends it a nice feature that helps your design stand out. In fact instead of that vent on the stardrive flanks you should put that saucer feature there to help pull it together.
While I like the nacelles, they don't fit the rest of the ship. The first nacelles fit the design better but these are more unique and pleasing to the eye. I like the bussard collector at the front. Perhaps do the same thing in the back of the nacelle and instead of tapered contours use tapered angles with a few round areas to match the stardrive and saucer(yeah easier said than done)
Yeah I'll get there I reckon. I'm still working on a few suggestions made, especially by Saquist. The side vents have now been replaced by lines that more closely resemble those on the side of the saucer in an effort to 'tie together' all of the components of the ship. I have to finish it soon tho, so the main parts of the ship will remain as they are and it'll just be a few of the surface details that'll change. A massive thank you goes out to everyone who's commented and critiqued.I really appreciate the feedback and have really tried my best to balance what I think looks good with all the other opinions. More updates soon! ;-)
Even as it was it's a design I'd enjoy seeing and playing in Bridge Commander. It would be one of the most unique ships there.
BC-Central.com would love to see this. When you're finished I'll post maybe one of the members will pick it up for the game.
Even as it was it's a design I'd enjoy seeing and playing in Bridge Commander. It would be one of the most unique ships there.
BC-Central.com would love to see this. When you're finished I'll post maybe one of the members will pick it up for the game.
Wow, that'd be truly amazing! Here's a quick update...my next steps will be to add the red/green beacons and the rest of the RCS thrusters and me thinks she'll be done for now. I might come back to her in a while and change some details. The prototype version with the rollbar is the USS Hyperion. This is the production version without the rollbar and I'm gonna name this one the USS Momentum.
Those nacelles look EXTREMELY sexy from the top rendering.
The tiny deflector looks great on the front as are those segments of sensors on the top of the saucer. The top profile of the ship is fantastic, sir. I never would have guessed the black strips alone the edge of the saucer would work THAT well. I like how the pylons flow into the front of the nacelle on the top view of the starboard nacelle.
I think the Oberth Saucer style was a great idea but you made it your own here.
Those nacelles look EXTREMELY sexy from the top rendering.
The tiny deflector looks great on the front as are those segments of sensors on the top of the saucer. The top profile of the ship is fantastic, sir. I never would have guessed the black strips alone the edge of the saucer would work THAT well. I like how the pylons flow into the front of the nacelle on the top view of the starboard nacelle.
I think the Oberth Saucer style was a great idea but you made it your own here.
Thanks Saquist, some of these improvements came from your suggestions so I'm really stoked that you like how it's turned out so far....
I dunno about the nacelles, they just seem..... off. Can't put my finger on it. Perhaps too alien to be Starfleet.
That's ok Bmused I get where you're coming from. I think you're missing the red bussard collectors that are usually found at the front of federation starship nacelles. However, this ship was meant to be a prototype for a new kind of ftl drive, so I pulled away from that design tradition and that's probably why it looks a but strange.
Ok I think this bird's just about done! I'm working on some fancy renderings but for now, here are the ortho's of the ship. I've re-done the RCS thrusters and added some little lights.
That's Starbase shot looks amazing. Been working on my own Space dock and it's easy because it's all circles but I still nothing about texturing. But I could really use some pointers on how you did the tapered secondary hull on Hyperion....
That's Starbase shot looks amazing. Been working on my own Space dock and it's easy because it's all circles but I still nothing about texturing. But I could really use some pointers on how you did the tapered secondary hull on Hyperion....
Nice render there, the lighting really sets it off well. Great work.
I still feel the warp nacelles are still the weakest part of this design, and could perhaps use a little more development, but other than that? Really nice design.
Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I get that the nacelles are not popular with some of you, maybe I'll go back to them some time in the future...but for now, here's some more rendered beauty shots.
You gonna fix that lighting like I mentioned on deviantart?
Maybee...but for now I've got other things up my sleeve. Like this shot for example...for all those that preferred the ship with it's rollbar/pod arrangement!
Yeah and more recently I reviewed it after learning abit more about Sketchup but I trying to excercise more control over the conturs...for instance Excelsiors secondary hull isn't a perfect lengthening and squashing of the sphere. It's a bit more irregular and I'm using a photomatch to capture that effect but when it comes to turning that into a surface that conturs both to the top deck and to it's profile...That's lot more difficult.
I'm trying some of these Loft pluggins right now...
Maybe it's just of matter of learning it's petpeeves.
Posts
I would have to disagree. With out the roll bar it is less awkward. The connection to the role bar and the nacelle were too abrupt. If you're going to keep the roll bar I'd design some mounts and not have it just protruding out of the side of a nacelle. Now it is an extension of Excelsior's platform design. The nacelles look more finished and perhaps more importantly they are not overshadowed by the Rollbar's massive form.
(The best part of the Quad arrangement of Trek ships is that each section has a well defined and prominent place. The saucer, the Star Drive and the Nacelles. Together they give a sense of size and stature especially in the TALL designs of the 23rd century)
Design CONS:
-The Shuttle door cut-out on the saucer seems Massive for a ship this size. Trek usually keeps a two deck size shuttle bay
-The cut-out on the rear of the saucer doesn't seem to have a purpose (and far too large)
-The pylons feed straight into the nacelles. They too need a mount (after all they are ejectable)
Design PROS
-By using the thicker Olympic style Star Drive you've avoided placing the Plasma Transfer Conduit down the spine of the Drive section removing the Excelsior/ Constitution design flaw quite adequately.
-The Top Dome has no windows and is a perfect command location for the bridge (something Trek never learns)
-All elements are soundly supported
Artistic Suggestions
I like where this is going but there are a lot of elements here trying to work together and it doesn't quite mesh yet. We have Oberth pylons and saucer, Intrepid like Impulse engines, Daedalus/Excelsior like stardrive, Excelsior like neck and completely unique nacelles. Ultimately there is nothing wrong with that but those parts fit those ships very well. Here I feel they need to be brought in line with each other. Like Interior design uses colors shapes and textures to pull a room together so too this ship could use some feature modification that could pull it together...LIKE...
The saucer is shapely but the Star Drive is angular. Give a hard edge to the bottom of the saucer to match the angular top of the Star Drive
The black strip you added to the port and starboard edges o the saucer gives the saucer a slimming effect. (Keep it) Extend it to the front with another segment with those tapered ends it a nice feature that helps your design stand out. In fact instead of that vent on the stardrive flanks you should put that saucer feature there to help pull it together.
While I like the nacelles, they don't fit the rest of the ship. The first nacelles fit the design better but these are more unique and pleasing to the eye. I like the bussard collector at the front. Perhaps do the same thing in the back of the nacelle and instead of tapered contours use tapered angles with a few round areas to match the stardrive and saucer(yeah easier said than done)
BC-Central.com would love to see this. When you're finished I'll post maybe one of the members will pick it up for the game.
Wow, that'd be truly amazing! Here's a quick update...my next steps will be to add the red/green beacons and the rest of the RCS thrusters and me thinks she'll be done for now. I might come back to her in a while and change some details. The prototype version with the rollbar is the USS Hyperion. This is the production version without the rollbar and I'm gonna name this one the USS Momentum.
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I'm almost at the finish line with this model! Just need to re-position the RCS thrusters and add some greeblies and she's all done.:thumb:
The tiny deflector looks great on the front as are those segments of sensors on the top of the saucer. The top profile of the ship is fantastic, sir. I never would have guessed the black strips alone the edge of the saucer would work THAT well. I like how the pylons flow into the front of the nacelle on the top view of the starboard nacelle.
I think the Oberth Saucer style was a great idea but you made it your own here.
Thanks Saquist, some of these improvements came from your suggestions so I'm really stoked that you like how it's turned out so far....
That's ok Bmused I get where you're coming from. I think you're missing the red bussard collectors that are usually found at the front of federation starship nacelles. However, this ship was meant to be a prototype for a new kind of ftl drive, so I pulled away from that design tradition and that's probably why it looks a but strange.
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You asked me about this back in 2010 and I provided you with a little tutorial about this topic. See the link here and I think you might find it useful...again. lol!
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?76722-The-USS-Excelsior-NX-2000/page2
I still feel the warp nacelles are still the weakest part of this design, and could perhaps use a little more development, but other than that? Really nice design.
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Exactly. And...you'll never make everyone happy. If you're happy with it then leave it.
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Maybee...but for now I've got other things up my sleeve. Like this shot for example...for all those that preferred the ship with it's rollbar/pod arrangement!
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Cheers mate, I've got some other shots here that I wanted too Angie as weLLC.
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Yeah and more recently I reviewed it after learning abit more about Sketchup but I trying to excercise more control over the conturs...for instance Excelsiors secondary hull isn't a perfect lengthening and squashing of the sphere. It's a bit more irregular and I'm using a photomatch to capture that effect but when it comes to turning that into a surface that conturs both to the top deck and to it's profile...That's lot more difficult.
I'm trying some of these Loft pluggins right now...
Maybe it's just of matter of learning it's petpeeves.