Prototype Midway Design

Here you go...
callisto_preview2.png callisto_preview3.png callisto_preview4.png callisto_preview5.png callisto_preview6.png
 
Extremely cool. This was one of those meshes that we were not able to view before? Because I sure don't recall ever seeing it, and I thought I'd seen pretty much any meshe that worked in WCP/SO :).

It's not surprising, but still a bit sad that they cut this ship from the game. Obviously, with the Midway being a self-sufficient fleet-in-one, there was no need for any escort capships; presumably, there was also no time for them in the schedule, given that even the TCS Eisen never shows up in flight, in spite of its fighters being transferred to the Midway. But any time we encounter a ship that could have been in the game, there's always that feeling of loss - the universe could have been just a little bit richer. WCP seems to have had a couple of things like this. Even the Copernicus class science vessel that shows up in the intro, was also at least considered for a gameplay appearance, as did those little mining vessels, which of course we did eventually use in UE.

I wonder if there is any relationship between this one and the Plunkett cruiser. They don't resemble each other very much - really, there's very little resemblance at all - and yet, I can sorta imagine this ship evolving into the Plunkett, or perhaps both being initial drafts for a concept of a cruiser, and one of those concepts eventually getting the go-ahead for implementation into SO. Perhaps what we're seeing here is not a different ship that got cut, but simply a different, competing vision for what ended up being the Plunkett.
 
I was thinking it looked a tad more like the Murphy my own self. It has some similar features - a tall, narrow cross-sectional main hull with port-and-starboard engine pods. Move the engine pods aft and you practically have the Murphy. Perhaps this ship then would've been some kind of Murphy variant, maybe a heavy destroyer or something.

The other thing it reminds me of - if you squint your eyes a little - is a Drayman...

Either way, it'd make a handsome addition to Elegy. What are the overall x- y- and z- dimensions of the model?
 
Excellent...and now to guesstimate the scale......

You have the models for a few of the other craft, right? Including some of the ones that made it into the game, such as Cerberus? I wonder if there's a correlation.
 
Blender units are 1-for-1 to meters. So an object that is 18 BU long is 18 meters in WC world. So that makes the Callisto 595.52 meters long. I think Cerberus is 777 meters IIRC.
 
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I think the Callisto has much more of a WC4 feel than WCP. Probably due to the temporary textures on it, but the exposed hull framing is more reminiscent of a Tallahassee or Caernarvon (sp?). I think it looks like an evolution of a Tallahassee actually, similar bridge set up and placement, engine pods are more forward, but similarly designed, etc. Neat ship either way. If I get some time, it would be fun to put it in the MUP as an easter egg.
 
Doing the math, the BB is 11,978,040.829 m^3, comparable in bulk volume to the Ralatha, Tallahassee, Ralaxath, Fralthi-II and (very very maybe but probably not) the Veldor. A couple of cruisers and a couple of destroyers, so either a heavy destroyer or light cruiser designation would seem appropriate. Could easily be part of any of the aforementioned design families, say a bridge between the Tallahassee and Plunkett designs, or even the Southampton and Murphy designs. They do all have some similar design elements.
 
Wasn't this from when they wanted a capship for the losing series? It got replaced by a kit bashed comm array.
 
Wasn't this from when they wanted a capship for the losing series? It got replaced by a kit bashed comm array.

Looks like it! Kevin found this in the CALLISTO.IFF file, and the Comm Relay is Callisto Station in the losing track Hellespont System.
 
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Oh wow.
Somebody just must take more polygons and turn this into a proper model. Because one can.

Can I haz an obj plz?
 
Many years back, you referenced an "unknown hull" in callisto.iff. Was that something different or did you suppress the memory? :) https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/secret-ops-ship-catalogue.25850/
Wow! I guess I did suppress the memory :). Remarkably, further down in that thread, you can even see that we made the connection with that concept picture, with me saying that it must have been the cruiser from the concept. In spite of this, I have no recollection whatsoever of the ship, the conversation, or even... of producing that ship catalogue.

Edit: I just looked at the second page of that thread. Apparently, the thread was resurrected in early 2016, and there's me saying that I have no recollection whatsoever. Five months later, here I am again saying I have no recollection whatsoever. I'm starting to wonder about my memory.
 
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There are some more goodies in there too.

There's some Terrain, a Moon, Alien turret and of course this cruiser.

The cruiser is actually in two different files, it's also in cruiser.iff. Another interesting thing is the cruiser is rotated 90 degrees around the Y axis so it's not facing forward, a mystery.

If there's no objections: I've extracted most of the meshes (including different level of detail variants) and their image files to OBJ format, I could pack them up and make them available for all?
 
This is a funny thread. If this was a Doctor Who episode and everyone lost their memories of the Callisto yet evidence is intact of conversation you had about the Callisto......I would only guess that a great evil is behind this. ....
 
If there's no objections: I've extracted most of the meshes (including different level of detail variants) and their image files to OBJ format, I could pack them up and make them available for all?
Oh, dear, I absolutely must object to that, because... because... err...

...So, what I'm getting at, is, you know, there are no objections :).
 
Afrim Kosovrasti said:
This is a funny thread. If this was a Doctor Who episode and everyone lost their memories of the Callisto yet evidence is intact of conversation you had about the Callisto......I would only guess that a great evil is behind this. ....

Just another step towards the inevitable; a nursing home full of cranky old WingNuts arguing about the length of the dreadnaught :)
 
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