Topic: Tholia drafts... HELP!!

[Brezgonne]

I'm almost at my wits end trying to make this stupid sphere look nice. Soo... I'm going to post a composite of all the drafts so far with the hope that you guys can give me some suggestions or ideas.

[Brezgonne]

n2

[Brezgonne]

n3

[Red_Green]

Whoa these look awesome.

[markyd]

I like them all... my fave is n2 top left!!!! 

[Chris Johnson]

I don't have a favorite, I'm in awe... It'll take me a while to think about it rationally and figuring out the Tholians for myself... I like 'em all!

[Brezgonne]

This is what happens when I get frustrated. I end up with 11-12 models that all work in SFC and I still have most of them.

Do you guys want me to keep saving all the draft models even If I personally don't like them?

[Brezgonne]

That reminds me.... did you guys want this? Re-hardpointed planets

I made them like last month and forgot I had them. They'll serve as a good test of the SFC-U file system to.

[Dizzy]

You know which one I like Brez. Needs more colored crystals tho.

[Brezgonne]

Ya ya... you like the sea urchin one.

[FoaS_XC]

Number 2, Upper Left
OR
Number 3, Lower Left.

[Reverend]

I like n3 bottom ones... but, they are all very cool!!

what is the SFC-U system?

[Rod ONeal]

Nice work! 

I like n1(?) top left because it looks like it's surrounded by web, like Thol bases are, and n2 top left because it just looks real good.

[Brezgonne]

You guys are allowed to say what you don't like about them. It's hard for me to improve on them if I don't know what you guys don't like.

Also, if you think that a certain set of parts on one version would look better with parts from others, lemme know.

[FoaS_XC]

okay, ill list what i dont really like about them, but even though, they all rule.

1)
Upper Left) Im not really a fan of the color, not big on orange
Upper Right) I actually kinda like this one. Something about the outter shell seems off
Lower Left) Its kinda dull
Lower Right) The colors are neat, as is the idea, but it comes across more as a living thing - it doesnt seem very practical for a homeworld/station-thing
2)
Upper Left) I Like this one
Upper Right) This one looks more like a space station
Lower Left) The Repeating textures kinda turn me off to it
Lower Right) same as Upper right
3)
Upper Left) Interesting Concept...are the two sections split apart? - if so, i think i like this one too
Upper Right) Too disorganized...again, doesnt seem practical as a homeworld
Lower Left) I like this one
Lower Right) it seems a little too jumbled on the inside, maybe a little less on the crystal core/conduits.

But I LOVE the direction this is going.

[Chris Johnson]

I don't know what not to like.  But I will help choose the best one in my view, but it'd take thought.  Perhaps to help, could you tell me the ones you like, Brez?  Since you're the expert at Tholians, I figured I'd choose within your taste. *shrug*

[Brezgonne]

I don't really like any of them. It's why they are all drafts and why I have like 12 versions hehe

Yes, I'll save the drafts and include them in the zip file so you guys can pick and choose what you use.

[Julin Eurthyr]

Set #1, bottom left world, is the closest to Tholia's "Dyson sphere" in design.  The one beef I have with that world is the texture.

No offense, but it looks like one or 2 "squares" of a texture-pattern repeated multiple times in a "band" pattern across the surface, looking like a mechanical Jupiter...

Somehow, and I think the colors you've chosen are influencing this, I see Tholia being a cross between a Borg ship and the Death Star.

I know it's a hard thing for me to explain verbally, trying to get the various "repeating" patterns of piping the Borg use "squished" and re-edited into a full-planet "random" texture to represent Tholia's surface... Come to think of it, the textures on set #3, bottom right (the one that has a crystalline center spiking out to metal strips) comes close, perhaps darken it up and add a few crystalline spikes etc. to pipe ends etc...

The Crystaline masses don't do it for me.  Mainly because they don't have that spherical "planet" look to them.  While it doesn't sound "original", making Tholia with crystalline "faceted" land masses in seas of magma might work, especially if you can find ways to make the planet luminescent, slightly brighter than a planet but not quite as bright as a sun...

You can even use color / textures to represent different aspects of crystalline life...

[Klingon Fanatic]

  I like picture number one lower left hand corner as, it actually looks like a Dyson sphere. Now, perhaps you could make it so we could fly inside of it a la Moonraker's Earth Space dock (i.e., the ST: III spacestation).

While your on the topic od crystalline urchins, do you have the time to make a new crystalline entity?

Thank you fro sharing these.

Qapla!

KF

[Chris Johnson]

You could demonstrate Tholian web tech around the planet, Brez.  An deadly yellow-orange grid to enemies... I like the more-crystalline ones though, they seem more unique and not your average generic Trek species.  Something crystalline and speaks Tholian to the world, and many do that.  Some, although doesen't does so as much, seem like a nice concept.  I hope my two cents helps, Brez.

[Dizzy]

Julin, there is a new developing science in crystal microgravity that explores what happens to crystals in low to no gravity. STS 107 was coming down with a rather large experiment about it, but I guess we will have to wait till the next time.

You can look up on the net all sorts of cool things about this stuff. Apparently, Crystals that are grown in zero-G have zero flaws and zero sedimentation compared to earth grown crystals. True crystals (pure) can be grown only in space. The kinds of crystals that have zero sedimentation (and a myriad of other benefits to science) have scientists drooling from jewelry makers, medical practitioners, laser scientists and space materials scientists just to name a few.

So... take a stretch of the imagination and move a tad bit away from the been-there-done-that 'magma' tholians to 'crystaline' tholians. They grow their ships, mb? That could be the whole theme of this new fleet Brez is doing.

Afaic, those Tholian bases based off of a Dysons sphere is ridiculous. You cant move something like that. There is supposed to be a sun inside of it. It's a bit too much of a stretch to imagine tholians associated with something like that. When I think base or home planet for the thols, if crystal is the theme, then we go with a crystal looking home grown variety.

Anything else doesnt 'fit'.

If you guys want dysons sphere, or a tholian base that looks like magma, Brez has already made those models.

This is a new direction for thols, one that I welcome, and one that I feel better suits them for how I imagine them being. If you want a steel plated hull, or a coppertone finish, go shop in the Lyran or Klingon shipyards and bring along your favorite can of paint. But if you want something alien. Something new and unique that isnt from this galaxy, then go with Brez's new Crystalline mod. But thats just me.

[FoaS_XC]

I agree dizzy - i think something new needs to be done and this is right for the Tholians.

[Reverend]

same here.... Dyson Sphere concept is interesting, possibly feasible, but a crystalline motif is far more unusual and exciting, definately. I play Tholians a lot in my own mod, just because the yare the underdog, and they are so darned interesting!

Fantastic work Brezgonne!!!!

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

I agree 100% with Dizzy, I like the crystaline models as they just make a whole lot of sense, are in the Tholian character, and plain look the best of all the models.

It must have been an extremely talanted mind that thought up that concept......

I would like to see you add some of that nice blue from the outside of the hollow world mixed in with the green and see what that looks like.

P.S.  Brez, feel free to buzz me on MSN anytime for this type of project, I didn't miss playing on Squad Commander one bit, as I found our brainstorming twice as fun and 10 times as interesting.  I got some other ideas as well, if your amazing talanet can put form to some of these ideas we could knock the socks off alot of people.

[Julin Eurthyr]

I ain't saying anywhere that Brez (or any modeler for that matter) is limited to making only 1 "Tholia".

Dyson sphere Tholia for the SFB-themed fleet, Crystalline Tholia for his Crystal fleet...

It's just that, to me, none of the Crystalline designs clicked as a homeworld (or colony or whatever) for the Tholians...


And for the record, I would think that whoever has the technology to build a Dyson sphere probably knows a trick or 2 to make it movable...

[Dizzy]

And for the record, I would think that whoever has the technology to build a Dyson sphere probably knows a trick or 2 to make it movable...

And for the record, even the smallest of suns are immovable due to simply: mass. Silly froggy! Dont forget to include the mass of the sphere that would at least need to be on or outside the orbit of Mercury.

Things of this size are simply not moveable with any kind of warp drive. A Crystal planet/base, however, could start small and have grown larger along the journey...

[Julin Eurthyr]

Stars aren't so massive that they are immobile.

While I can't recall the exact speeds, and I don't think anyone has been able to accurately measure them, our own star, the Sun, is currently in orbit around the Galactic center, on a vector radiating away from the big bang...

Granted, it might take a tremendous amount of power to generate the thrust necessary to move that much mass, a race that has the capacity to build a Dyson sphere just might have the means to generate enough power to move that much mass.

And anyway, who's to say exactly how it moved?  For all we know, someone got real creative with artificial gravity fields, and used them to pull the world much like warp drive bubbles travel with a starship.

Oh, and while I'm thinking of this, why don't you try a crystalline dyson sphere hull texture there Brez?  Who says that the sphere has to be built, what if it were grown from the space crystals Dizzy's getting so fond of...

[Dizzy]

Oh, and while I'm thinking of this, why don't you try a crystalline dyson sphere hull texture there Brez?  Who says that the sphere has to be built, what if it were grown from the space crystals Dizzy's getting so fond of...

Welcome aboard the Crystaline Brick Road!

[USS Mariner]

Sorry to be the first bad apple, but to me, none of these look good at all. They just don't say "planet" to me, more like "spherical Tholian Base gone whacko." I'd always expect Tholia to be some kind of magma world, with large flat plateaus and canyons with rivers of lava. Crystaline formations and cities would gleam in the sunlight, and light the dark side of the planet like beacons on a runway. It should look very very hot, as it's stated in ENT "Future Tense" that the Tholians are indeed a "hot planet" race. I think the idea was fan born anyway, so it works for SFB too.

[FoaS_XC]

Sorry to be the first bad apple, but to me, none of these look good at all. They just don't say "planet" to me, more like "spherical Tholian Base gone whacko." I'd always expect Tholia to be some kind of magma world, with large flat plateaus and canyons with rivers of lava. Crystaline formations and cities would gleam in the sunlight, and light the dark side of the planet like beacons on a runway. It should look very very hot, as it's stated in ENT "Future Tense" that the Tholians are indeed a "hot planet" race. I think the idea was fan born anyway, so it works for SFB too.

I would agree with you normally, but not in this case. The tholians are from another galaxy - one that they left in exile and brought a Dyson Sphere with them. Now i think your idea would work for the homeworld back at their home galaxy, but not here.

I was just playing around in 3d Max, and i came up with an idea: a sphere of triangular facets with a space between each facet. On the outside each facet is one color of crystal (lets say green for the sake of argument. Next there is a lattice work between each facet, along the outside of the sphere. Then a crystaline core and a single beam going from the core to each facet. The Lattice work and core would be blue, the inside of the facets would be worldlike.

[SSCF-LeRoy]

The upper lefthand draft of n3 would make a bang-up Tholian homeworld