 July 19, 2008 - 9:38am | Hey AZ, At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
 July 19, 2008 - 1:11pm | Not yet, but i should be able to work some up in the near future |
 July 21, 2008 - 7:18am | How does the ship land and take off from planets? |
 July 22, 2008 - 1:25am | Very carefully.... "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
August 5, 2008 - 3:15am | Vertically much like an assault scout (unfortunately even the SF canon is unclear and art is contradictory on weather or not AS actually land vertically even though a perpedicular deck layout is used). This particular ship design is modular and the 3d model lends itself well to either horizontal to thrust axis deck plans or perpendicular to thrust axis plans. In the perpendicular arrangement the ship being around HS4 would use its atomic drives for controlled descent and land on a pnuematic style landing strut plate that would lower from the bottom of the engineering section, re-inforced engine nacelles would add a little distribution of weight and increase the triangular base of gravity. An integrated cable anchor system would lock high tension support cables into the ground during landing to add additional support and would be ejected upon lift off. In a horizontal to axis design the ship would have several landing struts placed throughout the length of the hull for landing. In either case lower than earth grav would be the ideal landing conditions as the mass of the ship would play less of a impact. The vessel could also use a proposed water landing method discussed in the starship landing section in which case airbag style flotation devices would deploy throughout the length of the hull. A lot of different designs are supported by this 3d model. But, since SF canon really suggests perpendicular to axis deck layout I thought we would give it a twril and see what it would look like. We could always go with the soft-scifi tech of interita dampening and grav field manipulation and it could pretty much go anyway you like. |
July 22, 2008 - 5:28pm | The night shade is one of the smallest vessels in this configuration that I would even consider possible for planetside landing and take off. The UPF Daedalus is around HS 5 (HS is a little relative on the scale here as the artist who created the 3d meshes that I purchased didnt create these models for SF) and not capable of intentional planet landing in normal earthlike gravity conditions. (Im sure it could make a contolled and survivable controlled crash landing but would sustain substainial hull damage) So I am putting a best guess size conversion to SF Hull sizes and comparing function as well. The UPF Daedallus is comparative in size and function to a standard UPF Frigate. The model is a construction Kit so I can build anything from the engineering Section attached to a bridge. all the way up to a full sized battleship. Again a little imagination is in order as the actual models weren't designed for Star Frontiers but do fit the look of it quite nicely. On the scale sense they are quite a bit more bulky then SF ship designs but then again no one in the 3D Cgi is selling official Star Frontiers products because there is no money to be made in it for all the effort that goes in (THANK YOU SO MUCH WIZARDS FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT, NOT) So, please extend a little artistic license, use your imaginations, and i'll keep making art that you can use in your games. It all depends on how hard Sci-fi you want to interpret the art. If you want soft sci-fi explanations...well lets just say it has a horizontal deck configuration, has on board interia dampening, and lands and takes off VTOl style horizontally and hovers just off the ground on a anti-gravity repulsor type force field. Or we can go more hard style and state that it has landing struts, retro thrusters, and lands vertically nose up, and makes a whopping big scorch mark and blast crater that will piss off the neighbors and their lanscapers. Its up to you guys how you would like to play it, I just make the pictures. Keep gaming and enjoy the art |
July 23, 2008 - 4:28pm | Looks good AZ. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
 August 4, 2008 - 2:00pm | I like it. I think spaceships are the coolest part of any sf rpg. This one is dark and robust looking. Cool! |
August 5, 2008 - 5:28am | Thank you Spiralcat, I will be revisiting this project with new material soon, and have been busy working on projects for the Frontiersman Issue that is comming out this month. If you like the Night Shade visit the UPF Daedallus Project and feel free to leave comments or contribute to the story of the UPF Daedalus, its crew, and mission to find the pirate/terrorist Alexander Morad. Also more to come on that project too. Feel free to use any images of story lines from these projects in your games sessions. The above mentioned deck layout using a perpendicular to axis floor plan, as suggested by SF canon, is only a suggestion and the ship could also be layed out horizontally if that fits your game universe and technology better. Game-On and thank you very much for the comment |
August 4, 2008 - 11:36pm | Alternative horizontal to thrust axis "soft" sci-fi deck Layout for the UPF Nightshade |
August 5, 2008 - 5:18am | The Night Shade conducting an inter atmospheric assault pod drop |
August 5, 2008 - 5:24am | Closer view of the assault pod, lock and load please cross reference with the battle suit forum threads, this is a small one man pod that can be used atmospherically or in space. Larger pods are also used to drop single or multiple battlesuits into combat and protect them during the drop (This assualt pod is a stand alone unit not one of those types of units). |
August 5, 2008 - 7:45am | Interesting idea. Very mobile. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
August 5, 2008 - 8:02am | There is an engine and rcs thrusters on the bottom side of the pod |
August 5, 2008 - 8:54am | Does that work in atmosphere? At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
August 5, 2008 - 9:23am | I have no idea, lol, if I knew then I would build it and I would be rich and wouldnt be playing Sci-fi games, use your imagination, just like your avatar pic it floats on some kind of future technology thrusters, or maybe a helium bag, sorry I am not a scientist I really dont know I am simply speculating. You can use what ever means of propulsion you like in your game from a cloud of nan-ites to wind up spring to a giant sling shot, the only limits are your imagination. |
August 5, 2008 - 11:25am | Just wondering what you had in mind when you came up with it. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
August 6, 2008 - 6:19am | No worries, I just dont let myself get too bogged down with the how's and why's when making the art. I am always open for suggestion and welcome community interactions, explanations, and interpetations, of what they see in the art. I hope folks can use the images, stories, or ideas in their games, and I don't mind if someone comes up with a better explanation for why things work than the one I present (Thank you Terlobar for the many scientific explanations). Sometimes, when working with digital art you dont have the exact model or piece you want but you got something close that fits the build and may workout. For example I have nothing close to a Vrusk or Yaz to work with at this time no one is making any mesh models that look anything close enough to be usable. There are many times I visit the atomic rockets site (linked here at the SF site) to check my reasoning behind my artistic ideas with reality. Sometimes I am able to make a good compromise and come up with something pretty close to hard sci-fi. Other times, I have to just shake my head, suspend my disblief and dive head long into a wonderful fantasy Sci-fi piece that looks super cool but doesnt have a tangible shred of scientific proof to back it if its life depended on it. But I do take comfort in the fact that Jules Verne, though visionary, probably really wasnt sure how we would make technology that would take us 20000 leagues under the sea, to the moon and back, or to the center of the earth. And for the most part we have done just that inspired by the scientific wonders that appeared in the comic books and pulp fiction of our youth. If it werent for Star Trek the modern cellular flip fone, pda, and utra-slim computers may have never been given much more than a passing thought by nuts and bolts engineers. Sometimes the science doesnt work in favor of Sci-fi and sometimes Sci-fi works to mold scientific discovery so that life imitates art. FTL isn't real now, and tends to rattle the reason module of many science minded folks, but maybe a few hundred years from now we'll find away to traverse a worm hole, slow or reverse time by travelling close to a black hole, or discover the secrets of the universe that allow us to bend space time, learn the magic of anti-gravity, or extra dimensional travel to parallel universes, and we will look back on our science fiction and once again say......thank you. |
