[Mod] Yesteryears Updates

[Rifraf]

Nice roster Majestic. However, have you considered maybe just giving every ship reasonably similar sensor ranges? I never liked in stock how a tiny scout ship or even say just a smaller frigate/destroyer would have measurably stronger sensors for longer range detecting? Why wouldn't the premier battleship or cruiser of the time be equipped with the most sophisticated technology?

When I did my first personal mod I made all ships have about a 1000 sensor range because on screen ships could scan an entire sector. I realize from a game play perspective it makes sense to have differing smaller ranges and one lookout, but I wonder if it could be done in such a way that too much of the map isn't revealed at once, but also keeping it somewhat realistic? Just my thoughts

 

[kjc733]

Nice roster Majestic. However, have you considered maybe just giving every ship reasonably similar sensor ranges? I never liked in stock how a tiny scout ship or even say just a smaller frigate/destroyer would have measurably stronger sensors for longer range detecting? Why wouldn't the premier battleship or cruiser of the time be equipped with the most sophisticated technology?

Because the "premier battleship" may be designed to blast stuff and thus doesnt have space/power/configuration to mount specialist sensors. Different sensors have different capabilities and are useful for different things. True, they may all have a "long range sensor" but perhaps because of the aperture sizes they can't see anything smaller than a star on one ship but those of another ship can see the hammer dropped during an EVA. Maybe one ship has so much power diverted to weapons they don't have any to spare for sensors, and vis versa (*cough Oberth*). Or maybe one ship has a configuration that precludes the mounting of a new sensor, you just don't have somewhere to physically mount it and thus its easier to mount something else.

And who says that they would all have comparable technologies? In the various Navies today there are ships spanning 50 years in age. Yes the older ones would get refitted but even then they may have less capable technologies. So if your tiny scout is the most modern and designed to scan detail at long distances it will of course be able to see longer than a ten year old battlecruiser that only needs to see targets within weapons range (and why would it need to see further - it has scouts for that!).

Changing of sensor ranges is one of the first, and simplest, things to do to add "realism" to a mod.

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.
Maj, I'll try and think up some ideas, but your writeup seems to cover the bases nicely.

 

[Majestic]

Well gameplay is far more important to me than canon accuracy. It's great that some modders try and recreate things they see on the TV screen in-game, and I admire their dedication and attention to detail. However I am known for, well how to put it, doing my own thing and looking at canon as a rough guide.

I really want ships to have different purposes in game, unlike stock A2 where everyone builds Sovereigns and Negh'vars and that's all they need. I have built YY from the ground up to have obvious classes that work differently. Also I want to make it useful for late games to still have destroyers useful for example. Some designs like the frigate may not be useful late game unless you want to make a quick spam at an isolated under-armed enemy mining expansion.

An example of usefulness is the Miranda, we see it on-screen as a light/medium/survey cruiser in TWOK that kicks the poop out of the Enterprise and by TNG it's a transport ship doing milk runs and in DS9 it's canon fodder. But in YY I went with the standard cruiser classification, it's not the smallest cruiser, that's the Phobos, the Miranda is a workhorse with several different variants designed for different purposes. The stock Miranda is what you get when you unlock the class and from there you can decide what you want to unlock and upgrade. The Avenger is the predictable choice as it gives you added firepower and brings it closer to a heavy cruiser classification. However the Saratoga with it's expanded sensor range should not be over looked. Yes you could just build Abbe (AWAC) destroyers, but if you want something to survive longer and have a longer range the Saratoga is the answer.

If I gave all classes the exact same senor range, it would be Constitution's galore and there was really no point and a huge waste in time building and texturing all those other models.

 

[Rifraf]

Cool. I was just curious is all. I don't always take every aspect into account, but good explanations.

 

[Knight]

I like the sound of it. Makes for a more varied fleet, using other ships strengths to bolster weaknesses in other ships.
certainly beats the usual spam tactics that even fleet-ops itself can fall prey to

 

[Majestic]

Cool. I was just curious is all. I don't always take every aspect into account, but good explanations.

No problem mate, always happy to answer question or jive reasons why I do certain things.

I like the sound of it. Makes for a more varied fleet, using other ships strengths to bolster weaknesses in other ships.
certainly beats the usual spam tactics that even fleet-ops itself can fall prey to

Thanks, I am trying to have a varied fleet as much as possible. While undoubtedly heavy cruisers will make the bulk of your fighting forces in Yesteryears I am trying to think of ways to keep other classes useful.

 

[Majestic]

Qa'Pla' warriors of the Empire.

Today we have another new vessel for the Empire, the I'rexa class scout.

An old FASA design, I have found it difficult to find much information on her. No background information at all, only size and stats. So doing my own thing as usual I came up with something. This design dates back to the Klingon-Romulan alliance which in YY it was an alliance that lasted 10 years from the mid 2250's till the mid-late 2260's. The I'rexa like several other designs were part of a joint effort to produce a new fleet for both Empire's in an eventual invasion of the Federation.

However the Klingon's knew the Romulans could not be trusted and insisted that the development and all plans pertaining to the class' in part of this project be developed on a mutual installation. When the Romulan's betrayed the Empire, the Klingons were ready and killed all Romulans on the base and kept the plans for themselves, something the Romulans till this day are still quite upset about. However the entire reason behind the alliance for the Romulans was to get better power generation so really they can't complain too much.

This model is mostly a stock Star Trek Legacy one, I did some poly reduction removing some extrude holes and I rebuilt the nacelles using my K'tinga ones as a template. She ended up at 2568 poly's so pretty good and is pretty close to the same poly count as the Oberth hence I didn't go any further with the poly reduction. I also removed the fore torpedo launcher as scouts don't have them in Yesteryears only some basic energy weapons.

Well here is the I'rexa:



Also the compassion with my version and the stock Legacy version that Jetfreak and I released a few years back:



Some in-game screenshots:

 

[Rifraf]

I have to say that those red lights in the windows look very sharp. I don't recall a mod off hand that uses non-white lights. That looks really good and gives it a whole new menacing look.

 

[Jetfreak]

She's a fine ship I'll give her that. The I'rexa always was one of the ships that deserved a second look. Thumbs up all around Maj, but to be honest she really struck me as a TLE-era unit, 2310's at least. That being said, the textures came out great, sure there are sacrifices with detail, but that's always part of artistic license. So no complaints here.

 

[Terradyhne]

nice L'Rexa you have there but its to much build after that Legacy one, for my taste.
I don't know if you want this but here is a link to the FASA info and fan site, with all those FASA Star Trek designs and the info for them, that have been released: http://home.comcast.net/~ststcsolda/

 

[Majestic]

I have to say that those red lights in the windows look very sharp. I don't recall a mod off hand that uses non-white lights. That looks really good and gives it a whole new menacing look.

Thanks Rifraf that was my aim. While they are sort of good guys in this mod, I still what that TMP era bad guy feel about them.

She's a fine ship I'll give her that. The I'rexa always was one of the ships that deserved a second look. Thumbs up all around Maj, but to be honest she really struck me as a TLE-era unit, 2310's at least. That being said, the textures came out great, sure there are sacrifices with detail, but that's always part of artistic license. So no complaints here.

Thanks I think.

In some ways she has more detail in places and in others the Legacy textures have more detail. I think I spent way too much time on her to be honest, way more than the K'tinga and she is only the scout.

Since Yesteryears still hasn't got a solid year of when it is set, it might end up being close to 2310. I don't want to set it too close to the Khitomer Accords, but not too far away either. In the past 7 years I have used various years such as 2295, 2298, 2303 etc.

Next up will probably be the freighter as it's the design I am currently working on.

nice L'Rexa you have there but its to much build after that Legacy one, for my taste.
I don't know if you want this but here is a link to the FASA info and fan site, with all those FASA Star Trek designs and the info for them, that have been released: http://home.comcast.net/~ststcsolda/

Thanks, tbh there isn't much difference between the Legacy and FASA I'rexa. I also looked at the model you did for SFC3 while working on this design. The dual nacelle thing wasn't in the Legacy version (it has the single like FASA) and it was something I did when exporting the Legacy design as I simply don't like single nacelle designs.

Also thank you for the link it was the one I used to get dimensions and such for the I'rexa.

 

[Terradyhne]

Next up will probably be the freighter as it's the design I am currently working on.

Thanks, tbh there isn't much difference between the Legacy and FASA I'rexa. I also looked at the model you did for SFC3 while working on this design. The dual nacelle thing wasn't in the Legacy version (it has the single like FASA) and it was something I did when exporting the Legacy design as I simply don't like single nacelle designs.

Also thank you for the link it was the one I used to get dimensions and such for the I'rexa.

want to see what you come up with for the Klingon Freighter design.

ok, don't like the most klingon designs they had in Legacy (don't like the whole Legacy game that much), especially their designs of the FASA ships, with the Ravenous BC as exception.

 

[Majestic]

want to see what you come up with for the Klingon Freighter design.

ok, don't like the most klingon designs they had in Legacy (don't like the whole Legacy game that much), especially their designs of the FASA ships, with the Ravenous BC as exception.

I do agree with you, was never fond of Legacy either and the reuse and rename of many FASA designs often out of era (like TOS Romulan FASA designs for the ENT era) was just lazy and poor taste in my opinion. I am using a few Legacy designs however, although modified to fit my own tastes. I will also be using a modified Ravenous, I am looking at it as either the battleship or dreadnought. Many of the Legacy models I need to poly reduce to work better in Armada-FO. While their poly count is fine for FO, I find that since I am remapping and re-texturing them a poly reduction with rebuilding parts won't hurt.

I hope not to disappoint with the freighter. I still have a bit of modelling work to do on it, about a 1/3rd of the model is only a quick mock-up to make sure it would work the way I envisioned it before committing the time to model it correctly.

 

[Majestic]

A little something I did yeaterday and finished off today.

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/115/a/9/constitution_layout_by_majestic_msfc-d7fz2dm.png

Well after a solid day of work, and getting the idea of Chiletrek here is my Yesteryears spec sheet. Starting with everyone's favourite the classic Constitution class in it's refit glory.

This is the second of two spec sheet layouts I did. The first didn't have the feel I wanted and was closer to my ENT spec sheets which to be honest were only about an hour or so worth of work. I wanted the Yesteryears one to feel as if you're looking on a computer screen on the ships bringing up the data on the different classes. Having constructed this one, it means I'll be doing other race specific versions in the future as well.

This will probably be the only one I'll release for now, until Jetfreak decides to make some more renders with my models.

Anyway enjoy, I put more time than I wanted into this one and I might end up refining it some more in the near future.

As always everything is mine expect the renders which were done by our very own Jetfreak.

 

[Majestic]

Just wanted to drop into this thread and say I will be taking a small break from Yesteryears. Mainly due to spending two long hard weeks on the revamp, some days were like 12-14 hours straight. I kind of need a break from doing what I feel I should be doing from what I want to do just for fun.

The other reason is I have another website to build, thankfully I am using a html/css template that I created for another site and will be modifying it for this use, which saves me a whole lot of work, which I am pleased about.

Lastly I have dozens of designs/models that are either completed (just needing to be hardpointed) or just needing texturing that I have done over the years that I would like to finish up and release here on MSFC. SOme of these date back to 2010, so 3-4 years old, some are even 5 years. So for the next month I will be focusing on this. The added bonus of this is they will be released here on MSFC for you all to use, and will give me a break from Trek for the time being so when I do return I will have added motivation to nail those stations down. I might even sneak in a Yesteryears station during this just to mix things up a little.

 

[Knight]

Take a break and come back refreshedfella, we look forward to seeing what comes out of it!!

 

[Terradyhne]

Just wanted to drop into this thread and say I will be taking a small break from Yesteryears. Mainly due to spending two long hard weeks on the revamp, some days were like 12-14 hours straight. I kind of need a break from doing what I feel I should be doing from what I want to do just for fun.

The other reason is I have another website to build, thankfully I am using a html/css template that I created for another site and will be modifying it for this use, which saves me a whole lot of work, which I am pleased about.

Lastly I have dozens of designs/models that are either completed (just needing to be hardpointed) or just needing texturing that I have done over the years that I would like to finish up and release here on MSFC. SOme of these date back to 2010, so 3-4 years old, some are even 5 years. So for the next month I will be focusing on this. The added bonus of this is they will be released here on MSFC for you all to use, and will give me a break from Trek for the time being so when I do return I will have added motivation to nail those stations down. I might even sneak in a Yesteryears station during this just to mix things up a little.

yeah take your break, you deserve it for your work with the revamp of this site and exhausting yourself doesn't help annyone.

 

[Majestic]

Thank you both. Doing something a little different would be a welcome change. I'm itching to release something and Yesteryears is still a bit off. Still highly determined to get this mod done, and done right, but doing some smaller releases is always fun to do as well.

 

[Sqweloookle]

I wanna play Yesteryears already!!! Please tell me you are somewhere near release? lol

 

[Majestic]

I have 4 fed stations left to texture Darklight, then the coding and graphics. 2 of the stations I have had difficulty mapping correctly however while working on the site I did have an idea on how to do it. Something I plan to try soon.

The federation part of Yesteryears will be out sometime this year, hopefully before September. While Syf has returned he has a lot on but has said he will look at helping out soon, hopefully once things slow down a bit for him. He showed me his schedule and it doesn't leave much time to eat and sleep.

I also got another modeler on board who said he can help with the Cardassians and Kzinti however he works for a professional gaming company and thus is rather busy as well.

I might also look at opening the team of Yesteryears up for some coders/balancers to help me in that regard soon.

 

[Syf]

What? Eat and sleep! These things you speak of are a strange concept to me. Please explain the function of what you mention.

You take your break then we'll see what we can get done.

 

[Sqweloookle]

LOL
Nice one Syf!

I am a patient being, (sorry been listening to Star Wars Audiobooks and they always use that to not discriminate any characteristic, lol).
*rubs hands together in anticipation* Yesteryears, muahahahahaha *eye twitchs*

 

[Syf]

After the release of the Federation part, then maybe we can see about releasing the *this has been edited for your protection* and then we can finally get to releasing *this too has been edited for your protection*.

 

[Sqweloookle]

Again nice one!

 

[Cborg1700]

It's nice to hear that you will be taking a break for a bit. I can't wait to see what you come up with when you get back.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks @Cborg1700

I am eager to get the Federation side of YY done. Taking a break however I think is required otherwise I might not get it done at all. Being burnt out is never a good thing as it usually takes longer to get back on the band wagon.

I might do some Klingon designs in the intern, just to mix things up and after the Federation side is done and in your hands I might look at doing a couple of factions at once just to mix things up.

 

[Rifraf]

I see you snuck in your pre-release for download. Nice. I'm curious about something though, you have a colony ship in there and you can't colonize in FO. Am I missing something?

 

[Majestic]

I see you snuck in your pre-release for download. Nice. I'm curious about something though, you have a colony ship in there and you can't colonize in FO. Am I missing something?

That pre-release pack was the models made for A2 version of Yesteryears, back before we went to FO.

 

[Shadow]

Have a question... are the wireframes in this mod similar to stock armada 2 wireframes or are they full ships?

 

[Majestic]

Have a question... are the wireframes in this mod similar to stock armada 2 wireframes or are they full ships?

The wireframes of this mod, when I get to that will be just like Fleet Ops, considering the mod is being built on that platform/mod rather than the outdated stock game.