Today we answer the age old question: What if, instead of a piece of gaudy jewellery, the Dark Lord Sauron poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life into... A SPACE SHIP?!?
I give you, "Battleship: Barad Dur"
I must say, I am very proud of how well this build turned out, so I'm going to pretend you all care and ramble on at length all about it. Wall of text to follow:
Aesthetics:
So, I think this is definitely the best looking build I have finished to date. I usually struggle with surface detailing, but this one turned out really nice. In addition to taking inspiration from the Barad Dur tower in the films, I borrowed some details from the Black Gate and Sauron's armor. Unfortunately, there is no fully finished interior, just a tunnel to the core illuminated with lava, though the view from the core is pretty cool:
The area around the base of the tower and the lava thrusters is supposed to look like bedrock that clung to the tower's foundation as it ripped free of Middle Earth and blasted off into space. I'm not very good at asymmetrical building, so it doesn't look quite as "natural" as I'd have liked but still better than I'd hoped.
Systems:
Battleship: Barad Dur, as the flagship of the Dark Lord Sauron, is, of course, fully combat capable.
Weapons:
Its primary weapon is "The Gaze of the Great Eye;" a 5 barrel machine-gun array with explosives enhancement.
This is backed up by no less than four "Eruption of Mount Doom" broadside weapons; high-yield nuclear torpedoes with integral decoys.
In addition, Barad Dur is equipped with four "Towers of the Black Gate;" AI-controlled, forward firing, long range beam turrets with explosive enhancement. (Yes, the four towers surrounding the central body are actually big turrets! I'm very, very proud of how kick-a** looking they turned out.)
Finally, there are four "Wraith" guns; low profile point defense turrets with very broad arcs of fire.
There were originally also four externally docked "Nazgul" fighter-craft, but certain air traffic control issues made them more of a hassle than an asset, so they were scrapped.
Defense:
Shields are a bit weaker than I prefer or intended, but a 60% Ion Defense helps to mitigate that. Insanely well armored for a ship this size, since the entire hull and most of the detailing is all Advanced armor blocks (I liked the look of it better than plain hull).
There is, of course, "The One Ring;" a cloaker and radar jammer.
Other:
Barad Dur is also outfitted with a scanner and jump drive.
Barad Dur also features a surprising amount of thrust for such a high-mass ship, but be aware, it will draw 1mill e/s to achieve that thrust!
The interior is accessed through small blast doors at the base of the main body on any side, leading into a cave network that allows access to core tunnel as well as the AI modules of the four tower turrets.
So, there you have it; Battleship: Barad Dur, flagship of the Dark Lord Sauron and the interstellar conquest armada of Mordor.
Please download, play around with, explore, and battle with it, and let me know what you think!
I give you, "Battleship: Barad Dur"
I must say, I am very proud of how well this build turned out, so I'm going to pretend you all care and ramble on at length all about it. Wall of text to follow:
Aesthetics:
So, I think this is definitely the best looking build I have finished to date. I usually struggle with surface detailing, but this one turned out really nice. In addition to taking inspiration from the Barad Dur tower in the films, I borrowed some details from the Black Gate and Sauron's armor. Unfortunately, there is no fully finished interior, just a tunnel to the core illuminated with lava, though the view from the core is pretty cool:
The area around the base of the tower and the lava thrusters is supposed to look like bedrock that clung to the tower's foundation as it ripped free of Middle Earth and blasted off into space. I'm not very good at asymmetrical building, so it doesn't look quite as "natural" as I'd have liked but still better than I'd hoped.
Systems:
Battleship: Barad Dur, as the flagship of the Dark Lord Sauron, is, of course, fully combat capable.
Weapons:
Its primary weapon is "The Gaze of the Great Eye;" a 5 barrel machine-gun array with explosives enhancement.
This is backed up by no less than four "Eruption of Mount Doom" broadside weapons; high-yield nuclear torpedoes with integral decoys.
In addition, Barad Dur is equipped with four "Towers of the Black Gate;" AI-controlled, forward firing, long range beam turrets with explosive enhancement. (Yes, the four towers surrounding the central body are actually big turrets! I'm very, very proud of how kick-a** looking they turned out.)
Finally, there are four "Wraith" guns; low profile point defense turrets with very broad arcs of fire.
There were originally also four externally docked "Nazgul" fighter-craft, but certain air traffic control issues made them more of a hassle than an asset, so they were scrapped.
Defense:
Shields are a bit weaker than I prefer or intended, but a 60% Ion Defense helps to mitigate that. Insanely well armored for a ship this size, since the entire hull and most of the detailing is all Advanced armor blocks (I liked the look of it better than plain hull).
There is, of course, "The One Ring;" a cloaker and radar jammer.
Other:
Barad Dur is also outfitted with a scanner and jump drive.
Barad Dur also features a surprising amount of thrust for such a high-mass ship, but be aware, it will draw 1mill e/s to achieve that thrust!
The interior is accessed through small blast doors at the base of the main body on any side, leading into a cave network that allows access to core tunnel as well as the AI modules of the four tower turrets.
So, there you have it; Battleship: Barad Dur, flagship of the Dark Lord Sauron and the interstellar conquest armada of Mordor.
Please download, play around with, explore, and battle with it, and let me know what you think!
