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[C. Shawn Smith]

Sorry I've been silent lately ... lots of other stuff going on in RL.  I'm surprised this forum isn't a bit more active with ideas and designs.

I've been toying with what vehicles (including planes, boats, etc) should look like within the game.  Obviously, a Cessna isn't a realistic design after the mothership (the most technologically advanced human creation) has apparently been in space for possibly centuries.

So, what should the mothership's vehicles look like?  My main imagining at the moment is geared toward the ground-to-space shuttle to the mothership and back.  I've been looking at a LOT of scifi stuff recently, as well as more current versions (like the privateering efforts of Virgin) of shuttles.

And not only that, what about cockpit computers, etc?

Should there be the very cliched hovercraft-style cars?

*EDIT* GAME assets, not DEMO assets, just for clarification

[C. Shawn Smith]

Imagine something like this landing on a beach in Outerra

Yes, I'm a RDM/BSG fanboy!

[RaikoRaufoss]

Maybe something modeled off the Delta Flyer or E-wing?

[C. Shawn Smith]

Heh, the one scifi show I didn't even consider was Voyager.  Delta Flyer is a good start.  I like the organic look of it as opposed to the hard-lines of the E-wing or Raptor.

Was consider sort of a mash-up between something like that and something like Space Ship Two (Virgin Galactic):

[SpaceFlight]

I think a spaceship looking a bit like the Space Ship Two (Virgin Galactic)
that cshawnsmith mentioned would be cool.
It looks futuristic and is yet realistic.
Additionally, I was looking at the "Orbiter" site and they have this ship among others:



It looks interesting too imo.

[ZeosPantera]

I always liked the firefly roughness of ships. Well the rebel/transport ones at least. Nothing too slick. We should be down there as miners and developers. Not Rich Playboys.

[cameni]

So, what should the mothership's vehicles look like?  My main imagining at the moment is geared toward the ground-to-space shuttle to the mothership and back.  I've been looking at a LOT of scifi stuff recently, as well as more current versions (like the privateering efforts of Virgin) of shuttles.

The Colony Pod, as we are calling the ship that will detach from the Mothership (there should be vast numbers of them attached), will be probably only able to land on the planet in a chosen place, but it won't be able to go back. It should carry a number of devices and some default vehicles used to establish a base. Apart form the basic separator/replicator/generator blocks and an all-terrain vehicle it should include also an aerial exploration vehicle, a kind of ultralight aircraft. Basically, the stuff we've got already

From the game play point of view, space shuttle vehicles should come later as the technology evolves and the required resources are gathered (some precious metals that need upgraded facilities to be produced). Maybe they should be visible initially as vehicles that are delivering stuff to and from the Mothership. In that case I'm inclined towards the "firefly roughness" ^^

[ZeosPantera]

I wonder If Joss Wedon would be upset if we just used the Firefly model. Seems like the perfect vessel with its massive cargo bay and overall big-ness it could act as shelter and storage once the Separator, Replicator and Generator are unloaded. Sort of like a huge Winnebago that parks somewhere and rednecks set up shop around it.



Presumably we don't have the "fuel" to move ships that large around freely so having it just land and forcing the crew to start gathering resources seems like a great way to ground everyone for a while.

If the ship is large enough it could house some advanced tech like the road builder program and maybe it could be used as a massive map room where detailed "scans" of the ground can be accessed. Showing where you may look for minerals and resources around the landing zone. This all seems logical to me. Even earth isn't a home without a place to hang your hat.

[cameni]

Yes, we are aiming for this to be logical and plausible. The whole Colony Pod should ground and unfold the modules, becoming a center of the future base that will grow around it. Given that these ships were designed to colonize alien planets, I was thinking that they could bore themselves into ground and then start semiautomatically building underground living quarters directly below. You'd want to protect the people from alien microbes until they can adapt, and even though this is Earth, it's logical that the modules would behave the same way. After all, nobody knows what happened to the civilization here

I wonder if some creative soul here can come up with the design for such a module that will be able both to fly through atmosphere from space, to land on the planet safely, unfolding the structures and become the (possibly underground) heart of the base or city that could later grow around it.

The pod can be reassembled upon the grounding, some parts used for landing it could become used elsewhere, like turbines in the generator ..

[Kridian]

I always liked the ship from the 5th Element film:

[C. Shawn Smith]

The Colony Pod, as we are calling the ship that will detach from the Mothership (there should be vast numbers of them attached), will be probably only able to land on the planet in a chosen place, but it won't be able to go back. It should carry a number of devices and some default vehicles used to establish a base. Apart form the basic separator/replicator/generator blocks and an all-terrain vehicle it should include also an aerial exploration vehicle, a kind of ultralight aircraft. Basically, the stuff we've got already
From the game play point of view, space shuttle vehicles should come later as the technology evolves and the required resources are gathered (some precious metals that need upgraded facilities to be produced). Maybe they should be visible initially as vehicles that are delivering stuff to and from the Mothership. In that case I'm inclined towards the "firefly roughness" ^^

Yeah, I was just talking shuttles, not the pods.  The one thing I never considered though was that the mothership probably wouldn't have anything to return to it in storage.  So I can see that should come later.

I only watched a few episodes of Firefly (been meaning to try it out again though), so I'm not too familiar with it other than the ship itself.  I think something like that could be modeled effectively and easily though, without totally stealing from the design.

As for the:

I wonder if some creative soul here can come up with the design for such a module that will be able both to fly through atmosphere from space, to land on the planet safely, unfolding the structures and become the (possibly underground) heart of the base or city that could later grow around it.

I can probably come up with a concept drawing in the next few weeks of some of the stages of a Colony Pod ... don't know how good they'll be since it's been about 5 years since I picked up a pencil to do any serious art, but I'll at least give it a whirl.  I like the idea of it boring into the earth to create an underground complex .... Very cool

[necro]

Cool if you make a three sided concept could i model this ship. And as you surely know: the better the concept, the better the model  could you show me scetches of your work please?

[C. Shawn Smith]

Everything I have online is very very old.  I haven't done anything recently due to lack of time and a needy son .  But everything I do have is online at my website: www.cshawnsmith.com

Some of it is more than 15 years old, back when I was still learning the trade.  The more recent stuff is a lot better.  There's a few 3d models in my Digital Gallery as well ... I once tried modeling an X-Wing and TIE-fighter back before the release of Star Wars Galaxies, in hopes of doing a cool animation with it for my website.  Just never got around to finishing it once the game released  

*Edit* Warning, some content not suitable for younger audiences

[necro]

yah nice works. Cant await some concepts. I did a concept for an orbiter some weeks ago. But i didnt finished the model due the lack of motivation ^^ And the model was also unhandable.
http://www.blendpolis.de/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=31749

[C. Shawn Smith]

Cool model.  What software package do you use?  

Something like that model could be an advanced cargo hauler for Earth-to-Mothership resources.  Heh, with slight modification to the under-carriage, it could also be a cool looking water-craft or submarine (more likely the latter).

From previous conversations with Cameni, the design of the Colony Pods are roughly hexagonal like a beehive when viewed from above, in order to maximize space when attached to the mothership.  The size of the cargo pods is actually quite large, on the order of a small "town" (I can't remember if we settled on the number of personnel in each one or not, but I remember numbers thrown around on the order of 1000 people inside and about 1000 of the Pods attached to the mothership ... but my numbers are probably off by a factor of 10 ... I'll have to go back through my notes to check).  I ran through some basic sketching yesterday, but wasn't happy with anything.  I've been away from the pencil for too long .  But at least I have a bit of direction.