Introducing The United Star Axis

[Dr. Whammy]

A-5 Mirage

Affiliation: United Earth Governments
Manufacturers: Mockheed Lartin, Mikoyanov, Yangshen
Role: Light Interceptor.
Defense: 4,095 shields, Standard Armor plating.
Armament: high energy laser, guided missiles

This is a short range interceptor that went into production on Earth at the time the Star Axis left the solar system.
With a 3:1 thrust/mass ratio, the Mirage is noticeably faster than most Axis fighters but has significantly less armor. If encountered, caution is advised, as our intel reveals that the Mirage is equipped with a high energy laser that deals about 10,000 anti-shield damage at a 1.5 sector range.

 

[Calhoun]

A-5

 

[Dr. Whammy]

The Batman knows...


Yeah... While the United Star Axis is my own creation, the United Earth Governments are a parody of the United Nations. For the U.E.G., I'm going for a more traditional 20-21st century Earth ship style, so you may see a few 'familiar' designs pop in from time to time.

 

[StarWars1981]

What's with the F-8/F8U Crusader there?
Unless that's the actual Dassault Mirage 2000, which is hard to tell from this angle.
Yes, I'm a nerd. Get used to it. I have .
And yes, that does look like a fighter but with oversized engines. Fighter plane, that is. I guess I need a gunship design now lol, or antifighter frigate.

 

[Brokengauge]

Hey, Dr. Whammy, I've been curious about an aspect of your ships: what kind of RP elements, if any, do you incorporate into your designs?

Such as, what do you consider reasonable crew sizes? Do you go so far as to make sure you have enough " living space" in proportion to your duty stations? If you have duty stations, are they actual functional areas, or are they purely decoration?

Your ships are all very pretty, very functional, and I was wondering how much of the pretty went inside those ships, and if they actually managed to contribute to the functionality lol

 

[Dr. Whammy]

What's with the F-8/F8U Crusader there?
Unless that's the actual Dassault Mirage 2000, which is hard to tell from this angle.
Yes, I'm a nerd. Get used to it. I have .
And yes, that does look like a fighter but with oversized engines. Fighter plane, that is. I guess I need a gunship design now lol, or antifighter frigate.

My version of the Mirage was mostly influenced by the Mirage 2000, F-22 Raptor and the Robotech Super Valkyrie.
This design is meant to reflect that the UEG is just like any other modern day Earth military; reusing a familiar design that's been around for ages, putting bigger guns on it then calling it 'advanced'. This Mirage is meant to be a proven combat design as opposed to the less conventional designs of the Star Axis. Their conventionalism and our ingenuity tend to cancel each other out so that neither side has a clear advantage.
[doublepost=1485309694,1485307970][/doublepost]

Hey, Dr. Whammy, I've been curious about an aspect of your ships: what kind of RP elements, if any, do you incorporate into your designs?

Such as, what do you consider reasonable crew sizes? Do you go so far as to make sure you have enough " living space" in proportion to your duty stations? If you have duty stations, are they actual functional areas, or are they purely decoration?

Your ships are all very pretty, very functional, and I was wondering how much of the pretty went inside those ships, and if they actually managed to contribute to the functionality lol

My ships tend to be on the smaller side; roughly 100 meters in length, so to maximize survivability in a multi-player environment, I tend to fill the ship with combat systems (shields, power weapons etc).

My newest ships are designed to function as part of a fleet so combat effectiveness often takes priority over RP interiors but at a minimum, every ship I build has at least 2 air locks (usually USD with automatic doors) a small engine room, a core control room, a command bridge/observation deck and at least one main corridor running the majority of the length of the ship. The main corridor has what I call "false quarters" which are basically walls which use either slabs or color difference to give the appearance of doors to individual crew quarters. I usually shield my weapons computers with armor but support systems (salvagers, jammers, scanners) are often placed in duty stations. My jump drive computer is on the front of the "warp core" shown in the 3rd picture.

My interiors are sometimes considered "sloppy" by those who don't like to leave system blocks showing but given the size of my ships, I'd have to challenge them to break the 2 million power soft cap on a 100-120 meter, 8000 mass ship and still have room to walk around, and hide the system blocks.

Interestingly enough, before I joined multi-player, I had a very interesting PVP/RP hybrid; The ASC Challenger.
This thing was my pride and joy for 2 years. At 100 meters and 8000 mass, it had a full medical bay, a small comms room, a piloting crew station in the front, elevators leading to the lower deck, 3 small fighter bays and the all-powerful "Starburst Cannon"...

The Challenger can hold its own against pirates but it would be easily outgunned by virtually any dedicated PVP ship. I've since retired it in favor of the Pathfinder; the newest version of which has more than triple the shielding, and quadruple the firepower for the same size/mass.

 

[Brokengauge]

My version of the Mirage was mostly influenced by the Mirage 2000, F-22 Raptor and the Robotech Super Valkyrie.
This design is meant to reflect that the UEG is just like any other modern day Earth military; reusing a familiar design that's been around for ages, putting bigger guns on it then calling it 'advanced'. This Mirage is meant to be a proven combat design as opposed to the less conventional designs of the Star Axis. Their conventionalism and our ingenuity tend to cancel each other out so that neither side has a clear advantage.
[doublepost=1485309694,1485307970][/doublepost]
My ships tend to be on the smaller side; roughly 100 meters in length, so to maximize survivability in a multi-player environment, I tend to fill the ship with combat systems (shields, power weapons etc).

My newest ships are designed to function as part of a fleet so combat effectiveness often takes priority over RP interiors but at a minimum, every ship I build has at least 2 air locks (usually USD with automatic doors) a small engine room, a core control room, a command bridge/observation deck and at least one main corridor running the majority of the length of the ship. The main corridor has what I call "false quarters" which are basically walls which use either slabs or color difference to give the appearance of doors to individual crew quarters. I usually shield my weapons computers with armor but support systems (salvagers, jammers, scanners) are often placed in duty stations. My jump drive computer is on the front of the "warp core" shown in the 3rd picture.
View attachment 37437 View attachment 37439 View attachment 37440
My interiors are sometimes considered "sloppy" by those who don't like to leave system blocks showing but given the size of my ships, I'd have to challenge them to break the 2 million power soft cap on a 100-120 meter, 8000 mass ship and still have room to walk around, and hide the system blocks.

Interestingly enough, before I joined multi-player, I had a very interesting PVP/RP hybrid; The ASC Challenger.
This thing was my pride and joy for 2 years. At 100 meters and 8000 mass, it had a full medical bay, small comms room a piloting crew station in the front, elevators to lead to the lower deck, 3 small fighter bays and the all-powerful "Starburst Cannon"...
View attachment 37444 View attachment 37446 View attachment 37445 View attachment 37447 View attachment 37442 View attachment 37443
The Challenger can hold its own against pirates but it would be easily outgunned by virtually any dedicated PVP ship. I've since retired it in favor of the Pathfinder; the newest version of which has more than triple the shielding, and quadruple the firepower for the same size/mass.
View attachment 37448

I see. I'm primarily an RP type guy, though I can appreciate pure function.

From what I've gathered so far, my own weapons layouts seem a bit...insane. and not the smart, scary type of insane. More like, pants on head while wielding a knife type of insane.

Still, your stuff looks really good, and seems like it's all well thought out and designed, especially that lancer of yours (oh god, I hope I'm remembering that name right...). I look forward to more screenshots!

Also, that asc challenger looks sweet! Even if it is a bit aged lol. Did you evver post interior shots of it?

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I see. I'm primarily an RP type guy, though I can appreciate pure function.

From what I've gathered so far, my own weapons layouts seem a bit...insane. and not the smart, scary type of insane. More like, pants on head while wielding a knife type of insane.

Still, your stuff looks really good, and seems like it's all well thought out and designed, especially that lancer of yours (oh god, I hope I'm remembering that name right...). I look forward to more screenshots!

Also, that asc challenger looks sweet! Even if it is a bit aged lol. Did you evver post interior shots of it?

I can definitely side with your point of view, as still enjoy RP. Unfortunately, my experience is that RP factions tend to get curb stomped in multi-player by people who thirst for PVP even if it's not a fair fight. I find that to deter bullies, I have no choice but to make ships that are somewhat PVP-ish in design then mass produce them. This seems to help me keep the peace; given that my samller ships make it hard to judge my faction's true strength.

One time, I even performed a sort of "diplomatic intervention" that ended a war between an ally and another faction who attacked them. There may have been something about the rather polite message I sent them; asking for peace. ...or it could have been the fact that I had a metric fuck-ton of decently armed frigates awaiting combat orders that persuaded them to sign a peace treaty.

When I'm not playing ambassador or being an industrial juggernaut, I tend to show off my RP side in my bases...


Thank you for all your compliments. It means a lot that others can appreciate my work. If you want, I might be able to help you add some more firepower to your RP builds. There's always room for more dakka.

Also, that Lancer class is probably one of the most powerful ships I've built under 8000 mass. As hard as it hits, I was happy to get it to look like anything besides a death brick.

 

[Brokengauge]

I can definitely side with your point of view, as still enjoy RP. Unfortunately, my experience is that RP factions tend to get curb stomped in multi-player by people who thirst for PVP even if it's not a fair fight. I find that to deter bullies, I have no choice but to make ships that are somewhat PVP-ish in design then mass produce them. This seems to help me keep the peace; given that my samller ships make it hard to judge my faction's true strength.

One time, I even performed a sort of "diplomatic intervention" that ended a war between an ally and another faction who attacked them. There may have been something about the rather polite message I sent them; asking for peace. ...or it could have been the fact that I had a metric fuck-ton of decently armed frigates awaiting combat orders that persuaded them to sign a peace treaty.

When I'm not playing ambassador or being an industrial juggernaut, I tend to show off my RP side in my bases...
View attachment 37450 View attachment 37451 View attachment 37452 View attachment 37454 View attachment 37456 View attachment 37457 View attachment 37458 View attachment 37459 View attachment 37460

Thank you for all your compliments. It means a lot that others can appreciate my work. If you want, I might be able to help you add some more firepower to your RP builds. There's always room for more dakka.

Also, that Lancer class is probably one of the most powerful ships I've built under 8000 mass. As hard as it hits, I was happy to get it to look like anything besides a death brick.

Yeah, I saw the detail you put in to those stations. Very impressive!

There's only 1 person I play with, and I know him IRL lol. Trying to get more buddies together and start my own server, but I'm mainly focusing on filling out my fleet roles. Haven't had to deal with an arms race, but if I had (or will) then I'd probably go the route you've gone too. Except I'd probably do it poorly compared to what you've accomplished lol.

I may take you up on your offer, but I do actually enjoy experimenting with what is the most effective per build. Also, I have a lot of empty space around my weapons, because I can't help but think about maintenence space lol. I'm afraid any attempt to seriously increase my firepower would result in headaches lol.

Maybe I should start making PvP variants.... Pull out all the logic and nice stuff, and cram pack every empty space with something useful...

 

[Dr. Whammy]

United Star Axis Fleet Command has issued a temporary suspension of all ship production, pending Schine's decision on their proposed power system overhaul.

I'm half irked and half intrigued... If they do this right, I may be able to bring back the ASC Challenger as a MK2 version and update the Pathfinder series to MK7. If they do it wrong... worse... If we use it wrong, it will be like Narendra III all over again.

Patience Whammy.... Patience...

 

[greatmatt]

United Star Axis Fleet Command has issued a temporary suspension of all ship production, pending Schine's decision on their proposed power system overhaul.

I'm half irked and half intrigued... If they do this right, I may be able to bring back the ASC Challenger as a MK2 version and update the Pathfinder series to MK7. If they do it wrong... worse... If we use it wrong, it will be like Narendra III all over again.

Patience Whammy.... Patience...

Hey dude, no need to stop your builds because of the *possible* power changes at least not for quite some time... The devs are still considering the possibility of changing and until they have everything ready for a full release it'll take a LONG time like all big updates. So please don't stop your awesome stuff just because of that.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I posted anything. Real life can really be a pain. The truth is, power update or not, I really don't want to wait on Schine. I estimate roughly 60-75% of my ships can be adapted to any power system the can come up with and my stations are large enough to adapt as well.

So without further adieu, here's a Star Axis prototype station weapon series.

These component structures are designed to be a deterrent against attacks against our stations and outposts. Theoretically, they could be installed on a planet but given their massive size and weight, I'm not about to piss off the admins trying to find out.
The cannon variant does a ridiculously high amount of burst damage to shields at a steady pace and will cut a deep hole through solid advanced armor. The guided plasma variant fires 'volitile, super heated energy bursts' for heavy system damage. Both units are self-powered and can engage targets at extreme range. Plans are underway to design a mobile combat spacecraft capable of fielding multiple HARD units.

H.A.R.D. unit. (Heavy Automated Regional Defense unit).

Estimated Mass per unit: 6000
Dimensions: length; 43m, width; 43m, height; 38m
Defense: 377,000 shield, Advanced armor
Armament: Long range Quad-burst Ion Cannon
Alternate Armament: Plasma Arc Weapon; gravimetric guidance.

 

[Brokengauge]

Glad to see you back at it!

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Space dock extension for the Mobile Command System.

As you may remember, the Mobile Command System is basically a giant ship with Death-Star-like tendencies, posing as a city, posing as a space station. This allows me to relocate my entire faction in the event of an emergency, local resource depletion or strategy shift. The downside; because it uses a ship core, the MCS does not have the ability to use home base protection or fit station specific structures without the use of what I call "anchor stations".

Adhering to the old PVP meta of "bigger is better", I was originally going to build an even larger MCS (seen in the background) then slap another shipyard anchor-station inside it, but to be honest, I REALLY didn't feel like sorting through all the bounding box issues that are inherent in this style of base construction.

Spoiler

This is the previous incarnation. It may look cool but it becomes a lag-fest nightmare if anything enters its bounding box. 170 entities crammed in a 350 x 900 x 500 meter area... plus an anchor-station... plus multiple spacecraft; averaging 20-40 entities each...

It was spawned in multi-player only once. Any attempt to dock or undock a ship caused all players across the entire server to experience 5 digit pings until the ship either docked or cleared the base's bounding box.

So I took a page out of classic Star Craft; using the Terrans' tendency to build 'add-ons' for their structures.

When the Mobile Command System docks to this facility, it creates a nearly seamless transition between the MCS docking bay and the space dock. Now I have a massive increase in real estate with all the capabilities of a true station. This is a work in progress but I like the way it's turning out so far.

The 'light cruiser' inside the dry-dock is a prototype support unit that was put on hold when my Lancer class proved to be much more bad ass than I anticipated. I'll likely refit the design when the new power system comes out.

 

[Brokengauge]

Absolutely impressive, as always!

 

[Dr. Whammy]

So... being the symmetry addict that I am, I decided to make the station attachment into a double bay system. I sealed the areas where the MCS connects with logic controlled force fields and then went to town on the city. Now I have two shipyards and enough docking points for 12 decent sized ships (or over 40 Pathfinder sized ships if I pack it tight).

The entire assembly is now roughly 900 meters long and easily the largest structure I've made in StarMade. Next up will be more detailing, some interior work and finishing the air locks.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Digging through my files, I discovered a blast from the past...

This dropship was part of my Volcov fleet submission. It never saw the light of day because... life...



It was meant to accompany and protect the larger industrial mining craft.

 

[Reilly Reese]

#Refit

 

[JinM]

The small houses with the blue lights on your station extension are an awesome idea. And I am sitting here making a small port extender so I have more USD to dock.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

#Refit

The station extension, the Mobile Command System or the ships?

Spoiler

yes...