Topic: USS Equilibrium WIP (Read 4871 times)

Mr_Tricorder · « **on:** December 20, 2005, 03:09:19 pm »

This is a design by calamity_si that he has posted here http://trekshipsofthefuture.blogspot.com/. I started working on a mesh to fit the design a few hours ago, and here's what I have so far.

OlBuzzard · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2005, 03:14:47 pm »

would it be inappropriate to round off the leading edge to the primary hull ... looks just a bit too "pointy".

I am curious to see the rest of the ship as it is completed !

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2005, 03:24:26 pm »

I matched it up as best as I could to the diagrams. It does look really pointy in my renders, but I think it's supposed to be that way. Here are the diagrams that calamity_si made.

CaptainTombs · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2005, 03:24:53 pm »

like i said in the other thread kick ass, cant wait to see her with clothing on tho lol

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2005, 03:04:10 pm »

I've done some more work on this one. I mapped the diagrams onto the model to give a better idea of what it's supposed to look like.

Adonis · « **Reply #5 on:** December 21, 2005, 04:51:16 pm »

Really an original design, has the complete feel of a slipstream ship too.

Magnum357 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 21, 2005, 05:12:51 pm »

I thought the Federation hasn't developed Slipstream, at least not yet.

Starforce2 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 21, 2005, 05:34:29 pm »

well, surely post voyager they will, they have the data and a test run to work with. Structualy Voyager cannot ever do it again however.

calamity_si · « **Reply #8 on:** December 22, 2005, 04:38:10 am »

Hi there,

Geez, Mr_Tricorder, the Equilibrium is looking really great! You're unbelievably talented, man!! I've been reading some comments some of you have made and just wanted to clear up some points. Firstly, the Equilibrium is a ship based 50 years in the future, beyond the latest Trek series/movies. Therefore, I wanted to go completely original with the design and some of it's concepts. By then, I figured that Starfleet would have perfected the Slipstream drive and a few other special features never seen on current starships.

Mr_Tricorder, you were asking about the weapons package? Well, I've come up with a great original idea to match an orginal ship. I'm so bored of phasers and torpedo systems on ALL fed ships, and I was inspired by some of the future technology that Admiral Janeway came home with in the finale of Voyager 'Endgame'. Notably, I was fascinated with the concept of the 'Ablative Shielding' (In case anybody doesn't know what this is, it's essentially a bunch of replicator panels on the ship, creating a hard shell instead of the standard energy shield). Then I had a thought...

If they can replicate shielding onto the hull, why not weapons? Therefore, for the Equilibrium I have come up with an entirely new defensive system. I call it M.A.R.S.

It stands for Muti. Assault. Replication. System

Essentially it's a bunch of panels on the surface of the ship that can replicate a variety of weapons at will. I really didn't want the smooth lines of the hull to be ruined by 'phaser strips' or 'torpedo tubes'. Therefore I propose a series of 'darkened' panels which would replicate torpedo tubes, huge cannons, disruptors, whatever.

Starforce2 · « **Reply #9 on:** December 22, 2005, 05:20:44 am »

interesting indeed. Probably something similar to the borg. I doubt they ahve armories, they probably build the torpedoes they need shortly before they fire..

Mackie · « **Reply #10 on:** December 22, 2005, 05:40:28 am »

I love it!

calamity_si · « **Reply #11 on:** December 22, 2005, 06:51:15 am »

Cheers for the encouragement fellas!

Thought I'd modify one of Mr_Tricorder's amazing renders to illustrate how the M.A.R.S system would look on the ship.

CaptainTombs · « **Reply #12 on:** December 22, 2005, 08:18:32 am »

kick ass love it

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #13 on:** December 22, 2005, 10:38:11 pm »

Sounds great. I love it. It's very innovative.

I'm visiting family for the holidays right now and probably won't be home until Tuesday. My internet acces will be limited since not all of my relatives have internet access and I'll be traveling from house to house for the next few days.

calamity_si · « **Reply #14 on:** December 23, 2005, 01:49:53 am »

Cool. Weeell, I suppose even Star Trek has to make way for Xmas! Happy Holidays Mr_Tricorder and the rest of you. Can't wait to see more of your work in the new year!

Anthony Scott · « **Reply #15 on:** December 23, 2005, 03:03:33 pm »

for once, a feddie my munchkin likes...so do I...very nice design, resembles the Sr-71..one of my favourite planes!

Let me know when it is available...

Btw..I have liked all the newest Fed ships coming off the lines these days and am following the conversion in progress of the missouri.

Just wanted to clear up the above statement.

Semper Fi, Carry On

Antivyrus · « **Reply #16 on:** December 29, 2005, 08:28:19 pm »

BUMP

for up date

calamity_si · « **Reply #17 on:** December 30, 2005, 12:12:48 am »

Yeah, I've been waiting for Mr_Tricorder to finish up his Xmas festivities and get back to work! LOL! Just kidding! Would be nice to see some more detailed views. I've been well busy myself as of late, and now that I've submitted the original plans for the ship I'm not sure of what else I can do. Let me know if there's anything else I can contribute though...

ModelsPlease · « **Reply #18 on:** January 01, 2006, 12:41:30 pm »

Quote from: calamity_si on December 30, 2005, 12:12:48 am

Yeah, I've been waiting for Mr_Tricorder to finish up his Xmas festivities and get back to work! LOL! Just kidding! Would be nice to see some more detailed views. I've been well busy myself as of late, and now that I've submitted the original plans for the ship I'm not sure of what else I can do. Let me know if there's anything else I can contribute though...

More Romie designs

-MP

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #19 on:** January 02, 2006, 06:20:54 pm »

Sorry I haven't been doing much work on this one recently. I've been distracted by Civilization IV (Excellent game! It's much better than Civ III and Civ II, which was previously my favorite of the Civ games). I plan on doing some touch-up work on the mesh tonight and then start on experimenting with textures.

calamity_si · « **Reply #20 on:** January 03, 2006, 02:43:33 am »

Great to hear Mr_Tricorder! Really can't wait to see more mate.

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #21 on:** January 05, 2006, 10:47:40 pm »

Sorry I haven't done much work on this lately, but I think I've come up with a pretty good hull texture. Let me know what you think. I've also reworked several parts of the model to better fit the pictures.

calamity_si · « **Reply #22 on:** January 06, 2006, 06:54:16 am »

(Dribbles) WHOA!

That looks GREAT! I'd like to see the grid lines on it a little darker but she's really coming along nicely! I love the Aztec pattern. Can't wait to see what the underside looks like! I've got another guy working on a mesh of this same ship on Scifi meshes.com, so you've got some competition now! Great work so far...

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #23 on:** January 06, 2006, 09:07:34 am »

It would be interesting to see how he does the textures.

How do you want the markings to look? Should they look similar to traditional Starfleet markings, or did you have something different in mind?

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #24 on:** January 06, 2006, 03:23:40 pm »

Here's a little more work on the hull textures. I made the gridlines more pronounced. Is the color good, or do you think it's too purple?

calamity_si · « **Reply #25 on:** January 07, 2006, 10:25:12 am »

No, I like the purple. And for the markings, I'd like to see the traditional twin red 'go faster' stripes leading up to the StaFleet delta sign replaced by the same twin stripes but in a metallic blue colour. For the S/F delta sign itself, I'd like to see the future version shown here:

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #26 on:** January 07, 2006, 11:52:58 am »

That's a 29th century Starfleet insignia. I think it would look good with this ship, but it seems a little out of place since this is supposed to be a mid 25th century ship. I was thinking something closer to the "All Good Things" insignia, but not the same, since this is supposed to be from several years after the "All Good Things"/"End Game" period. I like the blue streaks idea. It would really fit this ship.

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #27 on:** January 07, 2006, 10:19:44 pm »

That could work. I'll have to experiment and see what looks good.

calamity_si · « **Reply #28 on:** January 08, 2006, 03:05:19 am »

Yeah, that's a good idea. Or perhaps 'hollow' out the silver portion so that it's just a silver outline rather than a 'filled in' silver delta? Just a thought...

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #29 on:** January 08, 2006, 04:56:30 pm »

Here's an update. I've pretty much finished with the basic textures for the top side of the ship for now. I haven't done anything with the bottom side yet.

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #30 on:** January 09, 2006, 10:01:06 pm »

I've finished tweaking the mesh and mapping out some basic textures and am ready to start coming up with some details. Here is what it looks like now. I've added a meshsmooth modifier as well.

calamity_si · « **Reply #31 on:** January 10, 2006, 08:34:23 am »

Whoa! That's looking absolutely class! I especially like the look of the blue deflector grid. That's come out pretty much exactly as I first imagined it to be. I'd love to see some more detail done in terms of windows / ports but she's looking really sweet. I don't have time to do it now, because I'm now logged on in a hostel, but when I'm next online, I'll update these beauty pics onto my website, full credits given of course. I'm wondering what else I can do as the designer in terms of what else I can post for this ship. It looks as though the outside of the ship is pretty much finished, so I might start doing some more sketches of the bridge etc from different angles. Perhaps even a new kind of computer interface...?

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #32 on:** January 10, 2006, 11:16:15 am »

There are still plenty of details left for the outside, which I could use your help in designing. There are certain details that any Federation ship of any era needs unless it was specifically not ment to have them.

Warp Nacelles (check)
Impulse Engines (check)
Bridge (check)
Shuttle Bay (I'm calling the little indenture near the rear of the underside of the hull the shuttle bay for now. Let me know if you planned on having it somewhere else.)
Weapons (We already decided on M.A.R.S.)
Markings
Windows (I need a better idea of scale first)
Lights

I'm not too clear on where you intend for the shuttle bay to be. Where I have it now makes it seem small and inefficient with a lot of wasted space since the bottom of the ship is curved and gets wider as you go up, meaning that the shuttle bay would have a very narrow floor and a very wide ceiling.

I also need to get a better sense of scale. How big is it compared to a Galaxy or Sovereign class?

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #33 on:** January 11, 2006, 12:53:10 pm »

I've started work on the M.A.R.S. textures. What do you think?

ModelsPlease · « **Reply #34 on:** January 11, 2006, 01:54:44 pm »

Kinda looks like a mesh grill from a car.

calamity_si · « **Reply #35 on:** January 13, 2006, 02:34:47 am »

Okay great. I can see the MARS system is going to be tricky... Essentially I wanted to create panels on the ship that blend in with the surface contours. I didn't want the panels to be 'raised' plates or panels that looked like they had been bolted on, like Voyager's Ablative Shielding panels.

As for the actual pattern on them, me thinks I'll have to redesign it a bit. I'm trying to achieve something like a solar panel on a car with that kinda 'tinted' colour to it...something like this?

Okay my credit's running low...catcha laters!

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #36 on:** January 13, 2006, 11:14:07 am »

I've made them sort of blue and I'll try playing around with the illuminaton map to see if I can get that tinted feel.

ModelsPlease · « **Reply #37 on:** January 13, 2006, 05:09:49 pm »

Well, how about reccessing it , that would eliminate that "bolted on appearance". Perhaps panels slide back to reveal the weapon when in combat abd are closed during normal opperations ? Just an idea

PS BTW this area I circled would make a great deflector dish design. Perhaps not on this ship, but for future ideas

calamity_si · « **Reply #38 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:02:42 pm »

LOL Good call with that nav deflector idea. We'll save that one for another day, eh? As for the MARS panel, sorry to keep mucking you about on the details on it but I think I've FINALLY come up with a surface pattern that'll look great and solve all of our problems with this...I've got one word for ya....HEXAGONS! An interlocking hexgon design like honeycomb would, I think, give the right kinda detail we need.

As for the colour of it, stick with the dark blue/black as before or how about trying a copper/gold sheen? I'm thinking of the same colour as those mini-solar panels you find on calculators... I tried finding a picture to demonstrate what I'm on about and this picture shown below shows the exact gold/copper tone that I'd like to use:

I know you probably think I'm being a bit anal about all this and maybe a bit too precise but honestly, try it out and I'm sure you'll agree that the results will look great!

I've tried doing a quick demo of the shape of the MARS panel itself and the colour scheme. In your version, just 'curve' the shape of the panel to match the hull contour and fill in the copper tone colour with hexagons and you'll have what I'm after.

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Topic: USS Equilibrium WIP (Read 4871 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Topic: USS Equilibrium WIP (Read 4871 times)