KJCs Work

[Hellkite]

A very nice Vesta class you got going there Kjc

 

[Majestic]

Well I said a little as I wasn't sure in the earlier images, but that last image it's starting to shape up like a Vesta. Those novels are great, I'd also recommend the Voyager relaunch novels by Kristen Beyer, they are great and are in fact my favourite novel series currently.

 

[Zelph]

It's only been a couple of days Maj, don't feel bad.
Hmmm... well considering as it is supposed to be a Vesta, "a little" isn't the best start...
I've been eying the Vesta up for a while now, more so since I've read the Destiny and Typhon Pact series of books (for those that haven't READ THEM And seriously, Dax is now one of my favourite captains, it just works somehow). Anyway, I couldn't decide if it'd be easy or hard to build, so I gave it a try. It's both. I suspect that it'd be easy to build as a high poly ship because the design is all in the detail, which makes a low poly version difficult (approx 2k at the moment).

That's the Aventine's class right? It's been a year or two since I read the books.

Shaping up great man! I'm excited to see it realized.

 

[kjc733]

The Aventine is a Vesta, correct. I'm surprised that no one (as far as I can tell) has done one before seeing as it seems quite popular on STO and is, what I'd class as "Semi-Cannon".

I'm not sure quite what I'm going to do with it yet (after the mesh is built I mean). I may just release them as a mesh pack, or I may try texturing and releasing as a full mod, or may farm out to see if anyone else is interested in collaborating in the textures. In any case, first step is to finish up this variant, then have a think about a Flight II with the different pylon configuration.

And yes Maj, I'm just reading Homecoming at the moment. I wish I'd read the Voyagers before Destiny for continuity... oh well, perhaps I'll just have to read them again later

 

[Majestic]

Yeah I managed to find the Christie Golden books a couple of years back, one was a second hand one I think part 1 of homecoming but it was in such good condition it could be considered a new one. Once you hit full circle which was the first book by Kristen Beyer it really picks up and that book is designed to explain things that happen just before, during and after the Destiny books. Lets face it Voyager in destiny was more a foot note as the books were more about the Titan, Enterprise-E and Ezri's crews and ships.

I'd recommend you texture her up, so few new workable models and mods coming out these days and I do think this would be very popular to the fans.

 

[kjc733]

Another update following a truly frustrating weekend.
And just to note, I don't tend to use Boolians on meshes except for the finishing touches of detail (usually torpedo tubes and windows), it can make a mess of the mesh. But for some reason I was struggling with the deflector dishes on this one, and it seems to have worked reasonably well for a change.

 

[Majestic]

She sure is shaping up, I sure hope you texture this one.

 

[Hellkite]

I second that she is shaping up very nicely

 

[kjc733]

Thanks for the barrage of likes.
Due to popular demand I've been considering texturing it (and actually started on the basics despite not having finished the mesh).

 

[Rifraf]

It's looking very good and coming along nicely. You've got some fine talents there.

 

[Zelph]

Looking great there man!

 

[kjc733]

Minor progress update, no pics worth showing. Minor mesh modifications to the fantail to make it a bit more roundeder, some deletion of hidden polies (I'm estimating 2600 when she's done) and just finished the first uv mapping of the saucer hull (aka the easy bit).

 

[kjc733]

Another minor update amid the chaos of life. Just the bulk of the secondary hull to map now - it's been going easier than expected I just don't have the time!!!
Also have started on the base texture and collecting bits and pieces from the Righteous for reuse. Mr Rademaker has very helpfully put his Vesta colour pallet on his website, which should allow some good colour matching.
Attached pic shows the current base texture - no detail yet though, probably a job for this weekend if I get stuck indoors.

 

[Majestic]

Great work mate, she is shaping up nicely.

 

[Jetfreak]

A fine looking Vesta there kjc, nice progress!

I was initially unimpressed by the design's odd proportions but she tends to grow on you all the same. I guess the most off-putting part is the large deflector.

 

[kjc733]

A fine looking Vesta there kjc, nice progress!

I was initially unimpressed by the design's odd proportions but she tends to grow on you all the same. I guess the most off-putting part is the large deflector.

Agreed, my first thought was she looked like one of those guppy sharks with a giant gaping mouth. The excessively swept nacelle pylons don't help either. But what can I say, she grows on you...

 

[CABAL]

But what can I say, she grows on you...

She certainly does. Great work, KJC.

 

[kjc733]

and of course a spot of colour makes a heck of a lot of difference

 

[Majestic]

Yes textures can either make or break a mesh. The best mesh can look terrible without a good paint job. It's one of my tricks at turning out good looking models, it's all in my finger painting skills.

Nice work as always mate, looking forward to seeing this one textured.

 

[Hellkite]

and of course a spot of colour makes a heck of a lot of difference

The marking on the Vesta is one of the things that makes this class pop and ties the over all ship together in her overall looks

Well done Kjc

 

[kjc733]

The marking on the Vesta is one of the things that makes this class pop and ties the over all ship together in her overall looks

It's also the thing that makes me wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew!!
Anyway, another minor update, including first look at the deflector.
Looking at the original design, there's supposed to be some form of triangular structure holding the central element of the dish in place - I haven't decided if I'm going to texture or model it yet.

EDIT - I thought it may also be interesting to slap my A2 base Tau'ri texture on my old Daedalus mesh... I may have to revisit this...

 

[Majestic]

It's also the thing that makes me wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew!!

Mate do what I do when I texture my models, map them to a plain texture then focus on one part at a time. I usually focus on the largest parts first like the saucer and as it starts to complete it gives me more motivation to continue. I am entirely sure you're quite capable of completing this mesh and making it look great.

 

[kjc733]

I decided to do something a bit different today - so I broke out the A2 CD, dug around my old custom mod, and re-added the Goa'uld race along with my own AIPs to my Stargate experimental build. Sadly the Tau'ri didn't get off the starting block for some reason (grr wibble!) but after a few false starts the snakes did very well. As I hadn't balanced my Wraith against the Goa'uld mod I was curious to see how it'd work out. I was actually pleasantly surprised.
So I set out an ambush and my numerically superior force did well against the technologically superior Goa'uld. Unfortunately I'd missed a build up of enemy reinforcements and it became a massacre for the Wraith...
Next job, rebuild the Earth AIPs.

(And yes there has been a bit more progress on the Vesta, but nothing worth showing...)

And I got the Earth AIP working (for some reason it didn't like the stock pulse turret in the AIP!).
As a first glance Earth and Wraith again seem rather balanced in terms of firepower. Earth ships have a range edge with their missile, but the Wraith can bring down the shields with massed pulse fire at close range. In a 1v1 between a Daedalus and Super Hive, they slug it out for a bit with the Hive coming out on top. Which is what we'd expect, especially when I forgot to put the Asgard weapons on the 304...

 

[Hellkite]

Really well done KJC

 

[Majestic]

Nice battle you have going there KJC.

 

[kjc733]

Thank you. The thing to note is that to get to this stage the only thing I've done is allocate ships to shipyards and create some AIPs. Otherwise it's just three mod packs on the interweb on a stock build.
Anyways, this mornings experiment was the big one, trying to throw a three way fight between the Tauri (AI Med), the Goa'uld (AI Med) and Wraith (me, because I haven't done that AIP yet ).
It was far more difficult to arrange than I had expected, neither AIs seemed interested in fighting. I ended up waiting until both sides were mining next to each other and sent in a few darts to attack both - even then the response was limited.
Eventually I managed to get the Goa'uld to attack the Tau'ri base and I threw in a few hive ships for fun. It seemed a bit of a stalemate, every time one of the AIs got an advantage they'd break off and attack my base! But then no one ever said the A2 AI was smart!
So, concept proved and thats enough computery stuff this weekend (the suns finally come out )

 

[kjc733]

Well after my diversion last week, its back to the Vesta. I've finished mapping the rest of the hull and I've even converted the mesh to ms3d so I don't have to keep passing textures from laptop to pc... in short, no more excuses for procrastination!
So a small texture update.

 

[Hellkite]

Good progress Kjc keep it up

 

[Zelph]

She's a beauty man! Keep up the great work!

 

[Majestic]

She is shaping up nicely I see you're putting in the location of everything before you do your aztec pattern and the finer details.