Criss' Thread

[Criss]

Hello everyone. Time for a new ship showcase. Today it's the Scavenger Frigate! Sorry for being so late. I think instead I will simply try to post something once a week. I always forget to do it on Sundays.
So, here it is, the largest pirate ship we have so far. This thing is quite a monstrosity.

Something you may notice immediately is the shape. This frigate is in fact a captured derelict Trading Guild Frigate. The damage it has received and the changes the Scavengers have put in place leave it far from looking like the original.

Scavenger ships present a unique opportunity. With the damage, we can explore the ships inner workings and really get to see what drives these massive machines. We can see extensive damage to the port side engines and structure. Remnants of the structure hold whats left in place, as well as tacked on armor and support beams. This damage covers most of the ship, and there is hardly a region that is left un-modified.

You will notice the interior is much more dimly lit than the original. The lighting has been switched to a warmer color palette to directly contrast the Trading Guilds. The reactor of the vessel has been breached, however the ship still lives. Scavengers have even built a ramp into the room for easier access.

So how does the ship perform? With so much of the hull removed it is safe to say it will never fully stand up to the Trading Guild Frigate on it's own. The ship's entire bridge was destroyed, and so a new one is built on the port side, to the right of the above image. The forward structure made an excellent placement for a cannon however and so the Scavengers installed one there. Mounted above and below the bridge are smaller but sizable rapid fire cannons. On the starboard side there is an array of missile tubes that launch a small volley towards the enemy.

Overall the ship is quite a beast. The damage output is massive, yet due to it's lack of proper shielding and it's weakened structure, the ship is fairly weak. This is the approach we want to take Scavengers. We reconsidered their usage of armor, and while it makes sense, it may also be impractical. Instead we will moderately armor tank them, and save a full armor tank faction for later on.

Furthermore, the approach to the armor design on these vessels makes them fairly strong against missiles, yet weaker against cannon fire. We have yet to test this with heavy beam weapons, as we have not made a faction that uses them yet. Seeing how the Scavengers use plenty of missiles, this may come in handy should a few go astray and impact their comrades.

In the future it would be exciting to see full ship cross sections for more than just Scavenger hulls, something to look forward to whenever we start to heavily market the game. Next week we should have the naming convention down for the TG ships. If not there are plenty of other pirate ships we been working on that we can share. Thanks for reading!
[doublepost=1471395027,1471394249][/doublepost]Just throwing this out there, the first page has the new album added for scavenger builds, which you can view here:

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[Criss]

Greetings citizens!

Today we take a look at another Scavenger ship. This time it's the first Scout Craft for for their fleets.

The ship above is a conglomeration of various parts, resulting in a very strange and aggressive looking scout craft. Despite the harsh edges, this thing is pretty harmless, and only serves as a scout ship. The large structure making up the front half of the ship is a rigid structure housing an array of sensors and targeting systems.

The rest of the ship is made of salvaged materials from other vessels, and the signature engine designs that the Scavengers are known for.

There isn't much else to say about the vessel. There are still eight more Scavenger ships to reveal in the future. A lot of them should be completed very soon and so I might make up for some missed weeks by showing off a few at a time. If you have any feedback, leave it here! Thanks for reading.​

 

[Criss]

Greetings citizens. A new pirate ship is ready for it's showcase!
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Today I have the Scavenger Missile Boat. This ship is one of my favorites.

As you can see, it is quite literally rough around the edges. This ship was built around the power reactor of a much larger vessel. The Scavengers took this and added additional structures over time. The core is flanked by broken pieces of hull from a large wreck. Decks were lifted off other vessels and attached to rear of the ship. A few engines later and we have a fully equipped missile boat!

The Scavengers often fail at making truly symmetrical ships, but as you can see this ship is fairly balanced. Scavengers have attempted to replicate this type of design elsewhere, and for different purposes. This results in plenty of variants with clear differences.

Here we can see a bit of the battle damage this thing has endured. Building these ships are always a bit tough. The build needs to be roughened up quite a bit. By the time we are done adjusting aesthetics and interior space, there might not be enough room for systems. Anyone watching the streams can attest to this. In the end we hope to make each Scavenger vessel weaker than their TG counterparts, but result in fair chances when they go 2:1 or 3:1 with the enemy.

Now I have this new plan. It was probably an eventuality really, but I thought it would be neat. Most of us have probably seen cross section imagery at some point in the past. I have a Star Wars cross sections book on a shelf behind me. I think it is an excellent way to show off the game. It also gives me an opportunity to come up with very specific names and parts for the ships. Whether this will be in the game as official lore is yet to be seen, but once these ships start rolling out I figure it would be a great way to showcase what StarMade is capable of. The first one will probably be the TG frigate. What do you guys think? Anyway, thanks for reading!​

 

[kiddan]

Criss , I hope your lore gets somewhere in-game, it works real well and makes the ships so much more interesting!

A cross-section would be something I'd be interested in seeing. It would also be a good opportunity to show new players some tactics for building their ships!

 

[Criss]

A cross-section would be something I'd be interested in seeing. It would also be a good opportunity to show new players some tactics for building their ships!

Well I might have to clean things up quite a bit just so it isn't confusing to look at.

 

[Nauvran]

snip

Ew exposed powerlines :u
A bit more serious, I cant help but feel that those wingy bits feels out of place since, of what I can see, none of the other Scav ships have things that severely broken and ripped apart. Otherwise I love the ship, front part kinda reminds me of a hotrod for some reason.

 

[HorribleHedgehog]

Cross-sections sound awesome. What kind of systems is the missile boat equipped with?

 

[Criss]

Cross-sections sound awesome. What kind of systems is the missile boat equipped with?

Missile beam pierce iirc. Aside from that is has JD and scanners.

none of the other Scav ships have things that severely broken and ripped apart

It is sorta tough on the small scale since I need a structure, and a broken ship in the same package. The variation is also welcome, since these guys are stealing from everyone. It will be easier to convey broken hulls on the frigate size and larger.

 

[Nauvran]

Missile beam pierce iirc. Aside from that is has JD and scanners.


It is sorta tough on the small scale since I need a structure, and a broken ship in the same package. The variation is also welcome, since these guys are stealing from everyone. It will be easier to convey broken hulls on the frigate size and larger.

I just feel like those wings are a bit too cluttered :u. Might just be me.

 

[Jake_Lancia]

I just feel like those wings are a bit too cluttered :u. Might just be me.

Yeah it's just you :P

 

[AtraUnam]

I like the front 'wings' but not the little back wings. Also missile/beam/pierce? our little dev is finally growing up!

 

[Madman198237]

Why wings? Surely the scavs would've rotated those 90 degrees to act more as armor/spaced armor/missile repellant than wings? Surely they, as drifters (Pun intended) in the vacuum of space, realize that wings are useless bits of fluff?

 

[Nauvran]

Why wings? Surely the scavs would've rotated those 90 degrees to act more as armor/spaced armor/missile repellant than wings? Surely they, as drifters (Pun intended) in the vacuum of space, realize that wings are useless bits of fluff?

45 degress would look cooler and would fit in more methinks :u

 

[Madman198237]

Whatever. Either way---protection, functionality, not appearance. The Scavs (obviously) want nothing but function.

 

[Criss]

realize that wings are useless bits of fluff

How do you know they aren't some sort of meta lore based component? We don't have systems for everything. It could serve some purpose that isn't really defined by anything in our game.

 

[Top 4ce]

How do you know they aren't some sort of meta lore based component? We don't have systems for everything. It could serve some purpose that isn't really defined by anything in our game.

When in doubt, they're cooling fins/radiators.

 

[Madman198237]

I'd put my cooling fins and radiators like TIE fighter radiators/solar panels---good for stopping missiles from getting me, for at least one hit.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Meh, the official factions fleets are aesthetics first, function second tbh. They're there because they look interesting.

 

[Criss]

Hello all. Time for another ship showcase. Today one of the cooler Scavenger ships. This would be the ring-fighter as we've been calling it.

The ship is one of the more bizarre vessels the Scavengers have produced. The ring structure holds most of the systems of the ship. A large cannon is fitted to the port side.

As you can see, the cockpit is built into the engine nacelle of a Trading Guild Patrol Ship. Heavily modified of course.

This ship is built for speed primarily. This makes it a relatively weak ship, in both offense and defense. There are variations of the vessel that dedicate more system space to warp drives, or even overdrive modules.

The original goal of the Scavengers was to build speedy armored ships. As we started work on these vessels, we found it increasingly harder to do this. The build philosophies don't help either, as it leaves little room for system space on just about every vessel. As such we have had to go for more mediocre builds, that don't excel in more than one or two areas. That being said, these ships are still turning out to be deadly in larger groups.

That's all for the moment. I might post some more this week. The ships are starting to pile up. The Scavenger fleet is coming along well, and we have about 16 ships planned for the moment. We also have to discuss plans regarding the old station updates so there is lots to cover. Thanks for reading!

 

[Lecic]

You filled in most of the doughnut hole? :C