Topic: Borg "BOBW" Type 1 Explorer released for conversion...see first post

[Raven Night]

Here is the finished Borg Explorer cube, the Type 1. It is a regeneration cube, meaning that the cube can regenerate damage very quickly. This cube has a focused mission of exploration and collection of material. It is weaker overall than other types of Borg cubes. Readme and pic below, link to the file sent to Modelsplease for conversion. Thanks to all for your input.

Side note...I will be creating a smaller cube based on this deisgn for a scout...it is how this cube starts it's life, as it is grown instead of assembled like other Borg cubes.

Readme is as follows...


****ADD NAME OF CONVERTER HERE****

Borg Type 1 Cube (Explorer)

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Thank you and enjoy.

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Owner : Borg
Class : Battleship (Capital ship)
Availability : Limited Deployment
In Service : 2150
Out of Service : n/a

Credits:
Concept: Raven Night
Model and textures: Raven Night
Hp's : ****ADD NAME HERE****
SFC 1 and SFC 2 EAW/OP Conversions : ****ADD NAME HERE****

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Little is known about the back history of this
vessel. It is unique among Borg cubes, in the
aspect that this cube has phenominal regenerative
capabilities. The entire cube and it's subsystems
are designed to regenerate quickly when damaged,
making the cube very difficult to destroy. The Borg
use this type of cube mainly as an exploration vessel,
so it is not as powerful as other cubes, though still
quite formidable. This cube's secondary mission is to
collect, or assimilate if you will, various materials
vital to the ship and to Borg development.

This vessel is one of the few Borg ships that is truly
grown, starting out as a much smaller 400 meter wide
scout. As time passes and the ship gathers resources,
it grows until it reaches a size of approximately 3km.

Shielding and weaponry is average for a Borg ship, but
it's regenerative design negates the normal Borg cube
weakness of a weak warp core. This ship carries
anywhere from 2000 to 5000 drones, has typical Borg
cube characteristics such as high menuverability,
high sustained warp speed capability, and transwarp
drive. The pulse disruptors on this ship, like most
Borg vessels, has almost no recharge time...meaning the
weapons seem to have an infinite power supply.

-------------

Length : 3000m
Decks : N/A
Crew : 4700
Weight: 25.36 MMT's
Max Warp: 9.99

Weapons
12 x Heavy long range quick charge pulse disruptors,
2 each cube face
8 x Torpedo tubes, quickload, lateral edges (1 each)
15000 torpedoes

NOTE: This cube should have shielding equal to 6
capital ships, with a very high repair or regeneration
rate on all systems. This ship should not have a weak
warp core. Also, if a cutting beam is available, one
should be placed on each lateral edge, replacing one
pulse disruptor each face.


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[Chris Johnson]

Fantastic work.  It looks very similar to the "Q Who?" [TNG]/"The Best of Both Worlds" [TNG] Borg Cube.  I have a question, however... Have you planned on a bit more variance in the textures on each side of the cube?

[Raven Night]

Yes, actually...and a good eye hehe.

I start with a base texture, see if it works, and then create variations for each side based on the single texture. It is what I did with the other cubes.

[intermech]

I am glad someone is exploring cube modelling thoroghly. The borg cube is one of those things that can be a 6 polygon model, or a million polygon model. Good work, have you considered simulating multiple layers using transparent portions of alpha maps?

[Overmind]

Nice Cube, Raven Night. Keep up the good work.

[Raven Night]

im not sure it looks flat lacks depth and looks way too balnd to be honest

this is my BOBW cube use it as an example to get depth right

Much better than mine...perhaps I should light up the orange accents as well...

[Overmind]

Keep it as it was.
The texture detail is very good and the color distribuition is very well-done.

[Chris Johnson]

I agree with Overmind.  FW's cube is nice, but you've done a nice scratch-built one that reminds me more of the "QW?"/"BoBW" cube more with the way it's done and perhaps the way the color lights are distributed so far.

[Raven Night]

Ok, here is what I will do then. I will release both, a more widely lit version and the less lit earlier version. Here is a pic of the original, and a pic of the new one. I still have to do some touch-ups on the texture edges on version two...and I think I might have overdone the illumination a bit, it is starting to look like the FC cube lol.

[Chris Johnson]

Although I'm no expert on model and texture-making, I'd like to fill in two more cents.

RN's cube is still good enough for a game that, although supports models that was built on thousands of polygons, really had ships built for hundreds of those polygons and decently-good textures, at least for that year it was made.  And if you truely want depth in a borg cube, why not model in general or for another game that would either except the transparency of textures and build a cube that is actually multiple cubes of multiple sizes, starting with a small one and going bigger with different textures to add depth?  Or actually make a cube-looking model that isn't a simple cube, but a cube built out of chips or pipes to make it techy-looking, like the real studio-built borg models?  Wouldn't depth be accomplished there?  I don't think it's truely possible to build depth into the cube.  And depth might make the textures look weak and/or tachy, FW.  But that's my two cents.  And this coming from a person that's more wishing of nostalgia; one who'd wish he'd have all his older SFC1 mods still ranging from simply-oversized starbases to all the newships mods and other retextures of stock mods (to which I got the former and some of the latter), etc.

I guess it's just an agreement to disagree for the reason of taste, FW. *shrug* By the way Raven, I like the different lights on the newer BoBW cube.  Not a bad idea at all.  And while FW gives you tips, please don't rid yourself of these textures.  Not everybody dislikes them.

[Raven Night]

Well, it's just my opinion, but if we go for wow looks, FW's cube looks best IMO....the cubes I am making are more geared toward multiple cubes on screen...6 polys, 512 textures, etc. The problem I have found is this....distance and impression.

From a distance, textures like those I make look best IMO. However, up close they only look passable, whereas FW's cubes look fantastic up close, but odd at a distance, as do all canon cubes that do not have real depth. It is the photo phenominon in effect...

If you draw a box texture onto a cube, set it at a distance, the fuzzyness and over saturation make it look real to the eye...take a photo of a crate and slap it on it, and it looks wierd at a distance...the opposite is true up close. I think that is what is happening here.

At any rate, it wouldnt hurt for me to learn how to use layering to add depth in the textures, but a word to the wise...I use Paint Shop Pro exclusively. I have no interest in learning or using Photoshop, as thier licence price is rediculous (7500 for ten licences, I can buy them cheaper individually) whereas PSP is only 550 for the same amount of licences, and has almost the same power....we will stick with PSP for now.

[Overmind]

The lighted one looks almost like the damaged version of the previous one.
With a little extra work, that can be the damaged texture.

[yochenhsieh]

Excuse me, but I remembered that Atrahasis did a BoBW Cube before...
http://www.geocities.com/atrahasis1/borg_bob.html
...pic & file links are all broken.

[Raven Night]

I see what you are saying...it is not the textures you have a problem with, it is the lack of depth in the model. I could actually easilly fix that. perhaps I will make two versions with an offset set of textures to better emulate depth...it is important to make the textures first so you know where you need to add depth in the model.

Case in point...your model uses the same texture too much. Having depth does not discount the monotony of a single texture. The best combination is a texture dedicated to one side of the model, followed by cutting vertices to create caverns where needed that are matched to each texture.

[Raven Night]

Oh, I get what you are saying. I do that too, of course...one map and put certain polys on certain spots on the map. I got you.

Is that the same texture on the side though? And if so, is that just the way they made the cube? The same on all sides?

[Overmind]

Is the initial BOBW cube going to be a SFC 3 model ?

[Raven Night]

Normally, Modelsplease is nice enough to convert my models first, so they usually come in SFC2 and OP flavors I presume. Later, another modder picks them up and converts them for SFC3...forgive me for forgetting the name of the SFC3 converter.

Finally, Starforce does the BC conversion, after griping about how much he hates the design

[Raven Night]

Ok, I tried another approach, tell me what you think...I might have gone overboard with the orange blobies.....I put up one with them subdued, and one with no orange highlights.

This is a single 1024 map btw....let me know which one you think works the best.

I still have the originals of course.

[Raven Night]

Bump for the update.

[Darkseid]

I can't wait to get the FC Cube.

[Raven Night]

It will probably be the next one I put out for conversion...I just have to work on the light maps and combine them into one 1024 map.