That deflector is certainly very nice, but let me ask you a question. The outer wedges are held in place by the ring, and the center circle projects out from the dish... but how are the middle wedges held in place? I'd suggest making a "transparent aluminum" connector between the outer wedges and the middle ones. Just make a single piece, and texture the center of it as glass. I think you'll be surprised how much better it looks.
As for the impulse engines... the ones on the pylons look great. The one in the middle of the hull, not so much. It kind of looks like you've given the ship a bunghole. I'd suggest a different placement, or maybe a different shape... say, oval instead of round?
The 'Engine' in the centre is the Phaser Dome... Not an impulse engine... sorry for the confusion, decided to go for just two engine instead of three... Going to have the Warp Core ejection hatch and Cargo loading doors on the back to brake up that slab of hull plating...
Following the idea of the ship i have decided on a 'doughnut' bridge module as well. There will be large floor to roof windows at the front of the bridge and on the far side of the 'doughnut' will be the Ops/science room, these will have windows facing into the centre of the 'doughnut'... now that i have written i am not so sure about that last bit... but anyway.
The module is placed on deck one but it is directly under the 'Roll bar' Module and the main deflector and i feel is only open to attack if the ship is coming face on instead of the normal placement.
When designing a ship, I like to think about the design atheistic of the milieu, and then let form follow function. I rather like your toroid bridge, but make sure you put all the essential command functions in the front / center section. It's important for the Captain to be able to communicate with his officers, and for them to be able to communicate with each other, particularly in a crisis situation.
Also, when creating greeblies, don't just settle for creating a shape. What does the shape do? why is it shaped like that? Don't settle for textures that are just a color assigned to a surface. Right now, your "long range sensors" look like the trim on the uniform sleeves from TOS Galactica. Try making the 'sensor windows' a little bit translucent, or putting a bump map on them to rough them up, or make a grid pattern, or something, rather than just making them a different color.
You've got some great ideas here, and I don't want you to think that I hate this; I don't. I wouldn't waste time giving you this kind of feedback if I didn't think you showed promise. I'm just trying to help you move to that next level.
Thank you for the info/help, as i said Textures are my weakest point here... i kinda like easy shapes not only coz it is less of a headach but also coz they look right for me... I will play around with the bridge though...
a small update, a picture of the entire ship with an easy grey skin...
The Bridge module is my next update, i am going to play around a little more with it as i am not happy... (shocking i know )...
The Other image is Phaser and Projectile weapons that will be in the ship armoury.
I wanna thank the creator of the 'Guns' Topic, i forget their name and i can't find the topic right now so if anyone knows please put it up... I have used some of his work as i liked it, it is mixed in with my own...
All the stations are 'standing' consoles and stand about a meter high (i lost my ruler so i can't think straight yet...) it stands high enough for someone to stand at and work all comfy like...
Just so ya can get a scale the Turbo lifts are 3.5 meters across...
So were is what? I reason the front is on the bottom of the picture, as all stations face that direction. So where's the captains chair, or does he also have to stand? And what's the place in the back (? The upper area of the picture) for?
Currently reminds me a little bit to the bridge in mid Andromeda.
Okay so the Bridge has evolved a little more. Two pictures, one with locations and one with out...
And yeah Aresius, the idea of the standing consoles did come from Andromeda. I like the idea, although i haven't put them in each station does have a stool (like the one at Tactical and Operations on Voyager, can be used but can also be moved out the way.
You will notice i have a large Science Station, well the ship is a Science Ship after all...
Well, I also liked the overa bridge idea of Andromeda, thought I can imagine that a sience ship, where you use to sit for long periods due to scanning, reseraching, whatevering.
It's good for battle-ships (well, as good as it can be, being pressing into railings), but not for science ships. Btw, those rooms to the left and right of the science consoles. Are their stool-lockers? Thouht them to be turbolifts as well...
And what are those rectangulars on the lower end? Windows?
The Orange rectangles are windows yes, like the new trek film they have inbuilt 'HUDs' in them and so they work like a view screen as well.
The Triangles are... um... storage or book shelf or what ever they want to be... and yes i do see what your saying about Science vs Combat bridges, however i feel that on a ship like this, which i see being very active with shuttles, runabouts and probes in and our of the shuttle bay at all hours of the day that standing would be better. Plus Science ship or not Tactical is still important as are Ops and Engineering, if they are attacked while sitting around scanning stuff you don't want those officers to be relaxed? Do ya?!
The windows will have a blast shield that can lower into place, they also slope up and out.
I have updated the warp engines... the basic shape is done but i still have to work on the rollbar module.
Please, someone reply... There was a time when people would offer help and advice to people like me who don't have the skill of some of those greats here but nevertheless we try, this is a WIP thread right?
Interesting. I like the nacelles overall, but the sense of scale I get from them is that this is a pretty small ship. The sphere is an out-of-the-box idea and I like the concept. What, besides the deflector, is housed within it? Also, I don't know what it is about the saucer, but it just looks...off. Kind of like an afterthought.
The size of the ship is unknown at the moment, although i am think around the same size at the Ent-E in length. The sphere will house the primary science labs and maybe the bridge (torn between putting the bridge there and on the front of the primary) and many of the ships sensors. The Primary hull was the first thing i did, but is far from finished, however the side view makes me think i need to redo it and make it a little fatter, maybe more like a normal hull, but thats not finished yet... Hope that helps Juvat and thanks for the comments.
Okay so i played around with the primary hull a little. I have it a bit more profile but pulling the top and bottom out a little. Had to move the sphere down and forward some to account for the change in the shape of the hull. The hole in the centre, btw, is coz this is where the shuttle bays will be. So the shuttles will be protected in and out and the shuttle bays will be protected better than if they were on the outside of the hull; this of course will mean only the best pilots will be able to fly ina nd out while the ship is moving or in combat but thats okay...
Didn't like the Primary hull, i had always wanted the hole in the middle to be where the shuttlebays are so i created that. I am much happier with the result. I also managed to save over the file that had the warp engines and having given up trying to recreate them i played around and the images show both warp engines and a warp ring... I had intended to have one or the other but i kind like the idea of both of them, although maybe the ring will house other systems as well as warp engines.
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As for the impulse engines... the ones on the pylons look great. The one in the middle of the hull, not so much. It kind of looks like you've given the ship a bunghole. I'd suggest a different placement, or maybe a different shape... say, oval instead of round?
The module is placed on deck one but it is directly under the 'Roll bar' Module and the main deflector and i feel is only open to attack if the ship is coming face on instead of the normal placement.
Also, when creating greeblies, don't just settle for creating a shape. What does the shape do? why is it shaped like that? Don't settle for textures that are just a color assigned to a surface. Right now, your "long range sensors" look like the trim on the uniform sleeves from TOS Galactica. Try making the 'sensor windows' a little bit translucent, or putting a bump map on them to rough them up, or make a grid pattern, or something, rather than just making them a different color.
You've got some great ideas here, and I don't want you to think that I hate this; I don't. I wouldn't waste time giving you this kind of feedback if I didn't think you showed promise. I'm just trying to help you move to that next level.
No idea what i will work on next... The module i think... get a texture that looks right instead of the low poly one i have as a stand in...
The Bridge module is my next update, i am going to play around a little more with it as i am not happy... (shocking i know
The Other image is Phaser and Projectile weapons that will be in the ship armoury.
I wanna thank the creator of the 'Guns' Topic, i forget their name and i can't find the topic right now so if anyone knows please put it up... I have used some of his work as i liked it, it is mixed in with my own...
All the stations are 'standing' consoles and stand about a meter high (i lost my ruler so i can't think straight yet...) it stands high enough for someone to stand at and work all comfy like...
Just so ya can get a scale the Turbo lifts are 3.5 meters across...
Currently reminds me a little bit to the bridge in mid Andromeda.
And yeah Aresius, the idea of the standing consoles did come from Andromeda. I like the idea, although i haven't put them in each station does have a stool (like the one at Tactical and Operations on Voyager, can be used but can also be moved out the way.
You will notice i have a large Science Station, well the ship is a Science Ship after all...
It's good for battle-ships (well, as good as it can be, being pressing into railings), but not for science ships. Btw, those rooms to the left and right of the science consoles. Are their stool-lockers? Thouht them to be turbolifts as well...
And what are those rectangulars on the lower end? Windows?
The Triangles are... um... storage or book shelf or what ever they want to be... and yes i do see what your saying about Science vs Combat bridges, however i feel that on a ship like this, which i see being very active with shuttles, runabouts and probes in and our of the shuttle bay at all hours of the day that standing would be better. Plus Science ship or not Tactical is still important as are Ops and Engineering, if they are attacked while sitting around scanning stuff you don't want those officers to be relaxed? Do ya?!
The windows will have a blast shield that can lower into place, they also slope up and out.
Please, someone reply... There was a time when people would offer help and advice to people like me who don't have the skill of some of those greats here but nevertheless we try, this is a WIP thread right?
I hope someone replies soon, i am going mad!