[WIP] Homeworld II Ship Modding

[Straxus]

These look great Intrepid!
I installed HW2 but have not had much opportunity to play it much.
Out of curiosity what is the ideal poly count for ship models in HW2?

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Thank you Straxus.

Hm, I'd have to do some researching to answer your question for the max polycount.

On another note: I am a procrastinator, I know...

HOW the fighter is added, is something that you have to figure out yourself, sorry, but at the moment I don't have the time or eagerness to write a tutorial for that, especially because there are good tutorials on the net.
Search for "Homeworld 2 tutorials" and you will find documents about how to add ships to hw2.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Hello.

I have an own design for a Soviet Fighter: the Su-22K. It fits more into the bomber role, but maybe one could make a good space interdiction fighter out of here.
I did not plan a "Soviet" side for the universe the other units in this thread are from. It is a refitted design from Modern Space Combat.

Spoiler:

An a little frigate and refinery design:

Spoiler:

One the left is frigate for multi role purposes. It has two light turrets and a medium range experimental laser. Her spaceframe from a class of Refinery ships (right). Those ships have a bay to house 4 resource collectors. The collectors can dock with the ship to unload gathered resources.
The frigate has the dock replaced with a heavily armored ammunition store. The command deck has also been moved deep into the ship, to provide maximum shelter.

I still have to fix some shading issues and then I will start making textures.

 

[Starfox1701]

Very nice I like

 

[Adm_Z]

Awesome! can't wait to download them when the mod is finished.

 

[Amateur]

Have to echo these, I love what I am seeing here

That fighter's ace; looks a little like some form of gunship with all those missile pods.

Looking forward to see it clash with the '16

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

A small update.

Here are the basic textures for the frigate. Still to be added are hull details and aztec patterns all over the hull.

Spoiler:

In a nod to a certain superb starship class, I call her Hyperion.

 

[Majestic]

Nice Hyperion, it reminds me of a ship you did sometime ago, Cortion? or something like that.

 

[Starfox1701]

Is that a gun mussal on the front:Y?

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Nice Hyperion, it reminds me of a ship you did sometime ago, Cortion? or something like that.

Corona class, yeah. I guess I will try to get her into HW2 at some time, too.

Is that a gun mussal on the front:Y?

It is. A 1st Generation laser cannon.

Spoiler:

And the main armament of the Hyperion: The MPTG-4 (Multi Purpose Turret Gun).

Spoiler:

Since the Hyperion is design to be capable to conduct police actions a smaller bore and ammunitions are used to disable target ships rather than to destroy them.
The MPTG-4 is a deadly weapon though, since it can fire it's ammunition at high rates.

Spoiler:

 

[Amateur]

Liking it!

Are you planning for the turret to be on a gimbal mesh so that it actually turns and whatnot?

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Are you planning for the turret to be on a gimbal mesh so that it actually turns and whatnot?

Indeed.

Spoiler:

I just have to find a good fire animation for it. Maybe the one from the Hiigaran destroyer.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Finally, I have a design that fills the "Corvette" slot:

The SA-30 Swordfish. It is not really a bomber, not a pure interceptor nor a multi-role fighter. It's main mission is to engage small to medium sized warships from a long range. It can be used for fighter intediction, but not for close combat. It's low maneuverability is the biggest disadvantage of the Swordfish.

Spoiler:

The SA-30 is a "1st Generation" starfighter with it's first flight being about twenty two years ago. It was the first space fighter that proved to be somewhat rugged and easy to maintain. At the beginning of the SA-30s service life there was no threat from any sort of fighter craft, aside personell and cargo shuttles that had been refitted to utilize smaller scale weapons.

Spoiler:

Many pilots that now fly the newer F/A-16 Tigershark have started their carreers on the SA-20.
Current version operated by both Terani Armed Forces and Zion Defense Fleet Fighter Corps: Locke SA-30E Block12.

Spoiler:

The model is heavily inspired by the MIG 343 "Foxhound" from the Sci-Meshes user "Coolhand". Hat's off to an awesome design.

 

[Adm_Z]

all I can say is wow... It kinda resembles the fighter from the starfox series.

Looks awesome man. All these homeworld 2 mods make my really wish a2's engine didn't fail so miserably.

 

[Starfox1701]

Cockpit seems a bit small compaired to the other fighter but otherwise a great model

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Thanks guys.

Ingame!

Spoiler:

 

[Amateur]

Awesome!

You've gave me some ideas for corvette's now, I was struggling to think what could fulfil those roles

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Thank you, Amateur. I look forward to what you'll come up with.


The Zion Defense Fleet pilots fly this:

Spoiler:

My first attempt to create camouflage patterns with GIMP. Kinda worked, lol.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

An addition to the Zion Defence Forces, Star Corps.

Spoiler:

The Kir'yati is class of frigates with twenty units built already. They have a crew of about 200 sailors and twenty officers.

Spoiler:

She is smaller than most frigates. Armed with a Terani manufactured modified MPTG-4 turret gun and a single rail gun barrel.
The Kir'yati fits perfectly in the Zion Star Corps' doctrine of quick strikes and retreats. In a recent Zion/Terani excersize the Kir'yati outran the Terani Hyperion frigate.

Spoiler:

Basis for the Kir'yati design is a line of civilian starships of which the first unit had been laid on keel thirty years ago.
However, the frigate is quite a modern and up-to-date vessel. In fighter interdiction she would need the assistance of either SA-30 Swordfish or F/A-16 Tigershark fighters. All of her weapons are meant for anti-frigate and anti-capital warfare.

 

[Starfox1701]

Good work and nice backstory.

 

[Amateur]

Liking the style you're going with here, very industrial.

Is it going to be standard that ships have one big gun facing forward? So they all act like Ion frigates in stock?

 

[Majestic]

That's some very nice work and beautiful texturing work Intrepid. Kudos to you!

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Thank you!

That's some very nice work and beautiful texturing work Intrepid. Kudos to you!

Thanks. As much as you are getting better and better at modeling ships my textur making abilities also make a few steps forwards.

In the beginning I build the mesh, then I do a side view render and use the output image to begin working on the textures. It kind of works and as of now, I am quite happy with the results.

Is it going to be standard that ships have one big gun facing forward? So they all act like Ion frigates in stock?

This one (the Kir'yati) would act like the stock Ion figate, but it is not a standard that a ship has one main gun. Usually the ships have turreted weapons to have a broader angle of fire without the need to "face" the target.
Here I just wanted to give a smaller ship a mean and effective ship-killer weapon.



I think the most difficult task is to design bases and shipyards... a huge moving ship that can pump out destroyers just is not feasible in the setting of my universe...

Spoiler: Terani Fleet

 

[Amateur]

Nice looking fleet you've got yourself there

An idea about ships, what about having them hyperspace in? I know that it's possible, as the stock yard does it, so having a wee look through the files may help

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Nice looking fleet you've got yourself there

An idea about ships, what about having them hyperspace in? I know that it's possible, as the stock yard does it, so having a wee look through the files may help

Yeah, I guess I'll be doing that. In order for the unit to hyper space in, the "shipyard" just lacks a dock path for the dockfamily the ship has ("fighter, corvette, capital, super_cap" etc).

Some more thoughts:
First of all: mankind is, after 500 years of spaceflight, still new in space. FTL is a costly thing. And if you are cut off from homeworld and you basically have to build a society and civilization on your own, it takes some timeto develop really advanced ship systems.

I want to emphasize on tactics using smaller units. A Sparta or a Phalanx warship are quite heavy units, expensive in operating and only a few exist. There will be a low unit cap number for these two units.
A Phalanx missile cruiser is a devastating tool against stations and larger ships (larger frigates and up) but will have a hard time getting to target - for example - the Kir'yati class. It is also nearly defenseless against Swordfish-attacks without a fighter and/or frigate screen.
Two or three frigates (depending on the type of the vessels) can not only outrun, but also outfight a destroyer.

I do not want any "insanely powerful" ships that cannot be really countered but by an other ship of that size (like the vanilla Battlecruiser). A frigate task force with additional support units can mean serious business.

And missiles will be targetable. Especially those big strategic ones that a Phalanx fires.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

I reworked the F/A-16 a bit. Adding a missile weapon hardpoint, nav-lights, correcting a few smoothing errors and reworking the texture a bit.
On the texture part is still have to do some tweaking to make the team stripe look a bit better (as you see, the color is more of a pink than the supposed red *shudders*).

The yellow lights on each "pylon" are part of the Active Target Tracking System ATTS. It is a tracking and telemetry system to be used as guidance aid for the bord gun and the tracking missiles. The missiles (AIM-20 "Viper") are guided by a system that combines radar data, EM signatures and the ATTS uplink. The missile can even find it's target, when two of the three tracking methods are impossible (system destroyed or jammed).
The ATTS has the additional function so serve as a space-borne LANTIRN system.

The SA-30E Swordfish uses a similar system, even though it expands to data uplinks from other units.
Additionally to its Gatling bord cannon and the regular AIM-20 missile, the SA-30E has a payload of several ASO-131 "Harpoon" anti-ship/station missiles.
Because the Swordfish has a limited sensor range a scout force can be used to attack targets that are beyond the "visual range" (in space warfare dimensions). The scout (usually a Tariq class SWAC) moves to a position from where they have a clear "view" on the target. The target data is sent to the Swordfish fighter and uploaded into the targeting computer. The pilot moves the SA-30 into an ideal firing position while the Weapons System officer confirms that the target data is now stored in the missile's computer. The missile is now ready and is then released.
Now the SWAC ship will send all of the gathered target data directly to the missile, taking direct control of the ordnance.
For a more secret approach, a commando team can also install a tracking device on the target ship/station or mark it with a device similar to the ATTS from outside.

 

[Majestic]

Beautiful work Intrepid, I am liking the designs and feel you are giving them. I also like the idea you have with the game, restricting the big guns and having the player rely more on smaller destroyer and frigate type units.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Beautiful work Intrepid, I am liking the designs and feel you are giving them. I also like the idea you have with the game, restricting the big guns and having the player rely more on smaller destroyer and frigate type units.

Yeah, I always like a good destroyer battle in HW2, so I wanted to recreate that - just on a smaller scale.

On another note: I have implemented an explosion damage script. Don't let your fighters get too close to an exploding space station

--

I decided to give the Terani units a new look, texture wise. Instead of giving the ships grey hull paneling, I wanted a more "NASA-like" feel for the Terani vessels.

This is the result of my design experiment:

Spoiler:

EDIT:
Hyperion refit finished In the background you see the mining carrier in the older colour scheme.

Spoiler:

 

[Starfox1701]

At a glance the sifferences are reall suttle.

 

[Amateur]

I like the brighter colour, and the heat plates (?) around the edges

Mining carrier is nice too.