Howard Day

Okay, I've started detailling the basic modules that Brad sent over for the medium station. It's pretty rough detailing right now, but it will become more refined. So - Right now, you've got your hexagon-shaped main connector - this is where the hangars, commodity exchanges and shipyards are attached (placeholder hangar there now) and the four fuel ports. ( show how much fuel the station has - a good indicator of how pricey it will be.
Specific areas I'm going to be attacking soon:
The detail around the 6 main connectors isn't what I'd like to see.
The top and bottom caps lack detail, antennae, turrets, and other small, but interesting things.
The cylindrical sides of the thing could use more detail... pipes and the like for the bottom section, and solar panels and the like for the top...
Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated!

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Plasteel Skull

Looks cool already -- even if not textured and without any extra add-ons. I've drawn some pictures of my ideas of scientifical and other stations and ships, so maybe when i'll scan this somehow at work i'll be able to post it. Howard, shall I post it on this thread then or begin a new one?

As to suggestions, the few I can give right now:

- I realize that this is already planned - to make those stations as much built from various segments as possible, so no two stations will look precisely the same. This gives a really good feel of realism.

- As you have already announced, that many details will be added to this model, you've left no space for other detailed suggestions (at least all the stuff you're planning to add will be added). So keep up the good work and post it as soon as possible for us -- salivating Pio fans -- to look at and discuss.

Howard Day

Plasteel Skull: I'd say go ahead and post 'em in here. I'm interested to see what you've come up with - no guarantees that we'll be able to use any of it, mind. :P

As for updates - I've got a couple. Here's where I'd like some specific feedback:
There are two types of module connectors attached - one has longer prongs than the other. Which would you guys prefer?
I'd think the shorter one, it tends to look more functional than the longer pronged one - but the longer one provides more silohette detail to the slots without modules. It also tends to make the station look a bit more sinister.
Any thoughts?

Howie

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Vinman

I really like this design, very functional, very simple, very wing commander

it might be a little bit off topic but I was just wondering if these ships and stations would feature blinking lights

Death

FWIW, I personally like the shorter prongs for the module attachment points. At the very least, considering that at some point the material had to come from somewhere, and the less that has to be moved (even with anti-grav and inertia manipulation like we know of in the WC universe), the cheaper the station will be. I can't really see the Landreich in general using any more industrial capacity than absolutely necessary to get the job done.

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Mincemeat

Personally I prefer the long prongs since they make the join more sturdy. If the prongs feel oversized it would give a relativelhy more low-tech look to them, which should fit the FLR theme?

Shere Khan

I vouch for the variant with the shorter prongs (or something evolved from it). the longer prongs are big enough to be noticed from a distance (as opposed to most of other minor detail), but not as solid as the rest of the silhouette. hence, they disrupt the feel of the station's scale.

(damn, it's hard enough to express design thoughts in my native Russian over a sketchpad, but in English over the internet it's much closer to a nightmare

I don't know, maybe if there wasn't two thin spikes for every section, but one appliance, a bit longer than your "short" variant and bulky enough to be on the same scale with the ridges above, maybe that would do the trick: giving a lo-tech enough look for Mincemeat while not compromising the silhouette for me

Plasteel Skull

It seems to me that the long ones look more fitting. Giving any logical reasoning to it i would say, that on the assumption, that the whole base will be spinning around its axis running through the main "pillar" part of the base there will be great centrifugal force involved (especially if further massive modules are attached to other prongs) witch in case of such a massive object would be really high. Of course it could be ignored (as far as WC era technologies applied with base construction are concerned) yet I just wanted to give some "scientifical" point to my own choice frankly based solely on my fancy .

BradMick

Man, I need to study at howards greeble university....wicked brother. very nice. I love how out of the insane simplicity of form I can put together, the insane detail you do.

Wicked brother.

Brad

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Plasteel Skull

That is very true. I also consider this to be very impressive and as one of our local proverbs says "The devil lurks in the details". It's not difficult to do i.e. some crazy, pseudo-sophisticated ship model which looks odd, but to make seemingly simple model and then trim it with a lots of details which really make it look great.

I'm not trying to kiss somebody's ass here though . Just expressing how much I appreciate what Howard and all other Pio guys are doing here.

BradMick

Heheh, I am a Pio guy.

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Plasteel Skull

I'm quite aware of that, Brad, so this applies also to you.

Howard Day

Okay - more goodies. I've been working on the hangar a bit - let me know what you think.

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Ijuin

Nice. What's the scale? Are those little boxes inside the hangar supposed to be human-sized?

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BradMick

yup. 6ft tall blocks.

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Howard Day

Yeah - I'm not too certain about the scale of the thing. Seems a bit too...large to be a backwater outpost. I just don't know. I'd welcome any feedback on this subject, though - Now's the time - before I get to the texturing.

BradMick

Well, i'd imagine it should be able to hold at least 2 (no more than) Hydras with enough room for them to turn around and face out for launch. Or two of whatever our biggest ship is, I thinkt he Hydra is the more spread out of the ones we've got. See how much room there is, or reduce the size by maybe 10 - 20%?

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Cardinal

The design looks outstanding. It seems like a less advanced version of the refineries in Privateer (in terms of size and scope, definitely NOT detail!) That probably meshes well with Pioneer, as it's supposed to be a WC1 version of Privateer.

In terms of size, I'm eyeballing that the station's a little over 200 meters from top to bottom. That's probably the right size. You'd probably want it to be about 75-100% larger than a Drayman, but about 20-25% smaller than capital ships such as an Exeter, and at most half the size (perhaps less) of a Bengal-class carrier. As for the hangar, I agree with BradMick's suggestion.

One last thing: You mentioned commodity exchanges and shipyards earlier. What other modules do you have planned?

AD

As it is the wild frontier, I imagine some of these might be like those motels in the middle of nowhere in the desert with tiny scummy rooms and a disgusting restaurant, and maybe a bar. So maybe there will be a "motel" module full of scummy little rooms with tiny cots in them and a holovid viewer. If a mining operation is happening nearby it would be perfect for a base of operations for exploratory survey teams and workers.

Around here, there is currently alot of mining exploration and every summer, crews invade all the little hick towns on the back roads and fill up divy little motels. Unless there's some kind of established mine they don't usually bother setting up their own camp.

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Howard Day

You know what? that's a great idea...
So here are the modules I have planned to work on:
Hydroponics, Shipyard, Commodity Dealer, Refinery, Weapons platform, Hangar, Large Hangar, Ship dealer (separate from a shipyard - that's used for major repairs), Bulk Storage, Supplimentary Housing, and more if I can think of them.
But back to the idea. Originally the modules were just going to be the things that locked into the 6 sides of the station itself - but how about this - we make the top and bottom of the stations separate modules as well? That way we can do the Glass-domed stations from the Privateer era as well as the sort of thing we have now. That would also let us change the profiles of the stations - bake them long and spindley, or short and stocky.
I really like this idea, and I await the feedback from you guys on it.

Vinman

What, if anything, are you using as a reference? I'm wondering if bases like Talos or the UBW stations in WC4 could provide some inspiration for some doodads like spinning radar dishes or lots of spindly arms and girders and things like that on larger stations

I really like the idea about swappable top sections, that would keep things simple but add a lot of variety

I say go for it!

Plasteel Skull

It's medium civilian station, isn't it? You can always add some more modules, enlarge it a little bit then rename to "large civilian station" and do some smaller ones (medium, small -- if any) with different design and size.

Plasteel Skull

You can add:
- power reactor module (completely inhabitable yet equipped with sort of a power reactor -- enabling the station to exist without any solar panels -- which, if hit well, would make the station do a big booom)

- entartainment module of sorts. I won't come with precise discription, but hey -- people always love some fun -- right?

- some "telemetry" module intent on monitoring ships comming in and out from some jump point, working probably like one big customs scanning center (especially in systems in Confederation's neighbourhood)

The glass dome modules and other stuff like this always adds some effect to the stations look but since it gives a feel of station being rather expensive and advanced (at least to me) you could maybe restrict it only to selected few largest and richest stations.

BradMick

The only thing with all those modules is coming up with the interiors and making them all work in a way that makes them make sense, i'd have to say that's a lot of work that is best spent after the project has been released. Commodity, Ship Dealer, the Offices (Merc, Merchant, Confed, Landreich), Weapons should be about the focus right now. Anything else like I said is a 'down the road' type deal.

BradMick

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Magnum

It seems to me that things like that are integral to the station anyway. Certainly, they can be modeled to add detail, but they don't need to have the level of player interactivity as the hangar, etc. and they don't have the same effect on what you can do at the station.