JasonRocZ

As a support ship for a few missions in the series.....I'll be implementing a few Firekkan ships. I've been designing one of such ships a Medium Class fighter armed with 2 Tachyon, 2 Lasers and some type of missile pods....Tell me what you think? are there any design changes that anyone would think would be cool? Textures? Anything really....Only problem is that I can't really find much on the Firekkans....No logos, No flags....etc...I just know that they are birds. Any thoughts or info would be greatly appreciated. Does anyone thing that a Firekkan Fighter would look like this or something totally different? After I got finished with doing the model and the texturing.....It almost looks like a Su-27 in space....But again any design thoughts etc...is always welcome

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JasonRocZ

Actually I found a really good Firekkan Image...That shows some sort of design on the clothing of a Firekkan...Which was a image for a Firekkan Concept made by Geia Industries...Well I revamped the textures after I saw this...Check it out...And again if there's any thoughts post em up guys n gals.


P.S: The underbelly wasn't redone for a reason (Contrast)

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Kevin Caccamo

That looks really cool. It would be interesting to see it in-game.

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Dyret

Yeah, it looks great.

I've always imagined Firekkan ships to be a bit more "primitive" looking, though... Don't know why.

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Eder

It's a nice design, but too Present-Day-Airplane-In-Space to be Firekkan, IMHO. Not even the human designs in WC are that McDonnell-Douglas-ish.

I like the yellow engine intake things, though, definitely suits it better than using the standard human/kilrathi colors we all know.

I loved the Firekkan ship sketches from one of the cancelled attempts at WCO. Huge fragile looking wings and sleek cockpit/engine modules.

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JasonRocZ

Hmm Good point.....Let me see what I can do with the design, to make it a little less modern day and a lil more wierd..I always thought that after there was a alliance between Confed & Firekka that Confed might have helped them with certain designs and technologies to progress there race..

JasonRocZ

Also Eder do you have that sketch for that WC Online Ship I'm having a little trouble finding it.

Vinman

I always imagined that their fighters would look kind of like old-school strakha, with long pods on a stubby, straight or slightly curved wing. I like the design a lot, but it seems too blocky, too confed. I like the idea of a joint confed-firekkan design, but it'd be neater to see a fully-firekkan design. If you keep working with this design, you might try reducing the blocky elements and going for smoother, more aerodynamic shapes, like the central fuselage.

Death Angel

I like the peak-like front of the fighter and the red coloring - very nice.

I agree with Eder, the rest looks a little bit too human - maybe the wings could look more like bird wings and a more organic shape for the hull?

Mjr. Whoopass

I'm not sure how this tweak to that fighter would look, but it might be worth a try: I wonder if you could move the wings forward towards the cockpit, maybe have some 'feathered' wings or missile racks which get smaller as you go to the back of the fighter, and end it with a 'tail' of accelleration absorbers or something like that.

This might also make it resemble a propeller style WWI fighter. I thought it might work because the German "Albatross" fighter series from World War I looks like a bird. It might look weird, but then again it's an alien craft so that could be appropriate.

Also, I use to imagine a two or three man fighter would be a cool addition; maybe like "The Last Starfighter" movie's ship or something in between a fighter and corvette class. It could be called a gunboat/gunship class or something like that. There already are Broadswords and other several man bombers, but maybe this one could be focused on eliminating fighters. It could have powerful auto-tracking swiveling turret guns (like the Last Starfighter movie) to make up for lack of maneuverability and it could carry tons of missiles.

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Nomad Terror

I think making an avian race's spacecraft look like birds is a retarded idea. LOAF pointed out before that we don't drive around in people-shaped aircraft.

I don't think it's such a far stretch that a Firekkan space fighter would look similar to nowaday jet fighters. It's all about aerodynamics and that is a universal concept to any species that lives in a fluidic environment (like air).

While it is true that a space fighter does not need to look aerodynamic, you should imagine that like our space shuttle, other cultures would likely develop a design that works in space as well as in the atmosphere, if only for landing purposes.

The only thing I could suggest changing would be the cockpit, as an avian race might be more comfortable operating controls in a vertical "perched" position.

Even if you wanted to get away from the familiar look, making it look like a bird is not very realistic in the context.

JasonRocZ

Hmmmm so your suggesting that he's more or less standing up rather than sitting....That's actually a pretty interesting idea.

Mjr. Whoopass

Perhaps making a fighter look like a bird is a bad idea. I still wonder what it might look like to have wings that are more forward. A lot of fighters look similar to our earth jets, but none have a forward 'wing' shape more similar to propeller craft that I can think of other than the Wasp fighter.

Maybe it would have to be another faction besides Firekka since it might tend to make it look like a bird.. That itself could make sense since Firekkans may have a fairly new space program and are probably comfortable and lean towards the forms of their bodies when it comes to aerodynamics. Reference this to WCP, where some Nephilim ships look like fish or insects (the Barracuda for instance looks like a fish in space). Still, it seems making it that shape would encounter violent opposition from some wingfans.

I still like the gunship idea. The fighter you have right now does make a sleek fighter, and as mentioned before, it makes sense that it could be shaped like a fighter since it may be designed with atmospheric flight as a consideration.

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Mjr. Whoopass

I think referring the "Freedom Flight" book would be a good way to reference how they sit. I don't remember how they sat, but a 'perched' position could make sense. Also, if we look at how Firekkans are naturally inclined to fly, they could be laying on their stomach with their heads looking up towards the front of the craft (this would of course be similar to how a bird flies).

It's easy to theorize that Firekkan's may fly their fighters better when in their natural flight position even more so than straight up and down. In the "Freedom Flight" book, you can see that they have elaborate coreography and are use to complex maneuvers while flying in that position. We humans sit in our jets simply because we're use to referring to the world with our heads straight up and down whether sitting, running, or riding. If Firekkans are considered to be in their natural flying position, the cockpit could be fine as it is since it already looks extra long.

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JasonRocZ

Alright well worked on it a little bit more tell me what ya think.

P.S: I tried to reflect the cockpit seating a little bit better by enlarging the cockpit vertically

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Vinman

Oooh, I like this a lot, especially the intakes!

NinjaLA

this one is looking much better, very raptor-ish.

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Eder

Here you go:
http://www.wcnews.com/articles/art44.shtml

This particular image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wco06.jpg
The ships in that image are only labelled "Misc ship designs" instead of Confed/Border Worlds/Kilrathi like in every other image. They're also radically different from all the designs in the other images, which is why I think they might have been meant to be Firekkan.

There's a similar ship in another image here (the ship with "Jen" written on its wing): http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wco07.jpg
This picture is actually labelled "Border Worlds Fighters &..." (something else I can't make out), but this particular ship doesn't look much like the other ships seen in the same image.

Edit: Taking a closer look at it, this "Jen" ship actually reminds me of your new design in terms of overall layout, specially the front section... except it uses a lighter, more fragile looking frame, specially the wings... ends up looking like a bird's body (something more Star Trek than WC, come to think of it), while your design has a bulkier look.

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JasonRocZ

Actually I love the last image and I had something more along the lines of that...I was working on it at the job on off time. I'll see what I can conjure up on Monday

Michelle D

the top right one looks like a good perch type cockpit. Do you think Firekkans steer/pilot their ships with their feet? since most birds use them... although most birds don't also have pair of arms so maybe they steer/pilot the ships with all 4 limbs.

JasonRocZ

You can only imagine how they would be able to stay standing in an atmospheric G force pull.... it's like standing on a swing of some sort and trying to stand while G forces are exerted on you....what if it was the opposite...trying to stand while exerting Negative G forces you wouldn't be able to....but i guess in space it doesn't really matter haha

Kuhuna

Seems to me that they would lie on their bellies in a flying position, possibly manipulating the controls with their feathers (assuming they have feather; I think it mentions so in Freedom flight, but I'm not sure) as well as their hands and feet. This would be the most natural position for them; they wouldn't even have to think about moving extra controls (other than the throttle) - they could just feel their way along.

JasonRocZ

I did a total redesign based on one of the ships featured in http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wco07.jpg

I'll updated you guys at some point tonight... You guys and gals are gonna love it

JasonRocZ

Alright well I know I'm a little late in updating and said I was going todo it last night but.....Here it is...I've designated the name as "Helbraus" which was the design name that was going to be originally used in the Privateer Online gameplay as a Firekkan medium class fighter....I'm lookingto make this fighter super fast but without much shielding & armor...Here's the specs & total update on pictures below below. I'm thinking on still using the previous design perhaps as a heavy fighter.

Length: 19 meters
Mass: 14 metric tonnes
Max. Y/P/R: 90/120/120
Max. Velocity: 610
Max. Afterburn Velocity: 1680
Shields: 110 cm
Armor: 250 cm
Weapons: 2 laser
2 Meson
Rocket pod (2x10)
Heat Seeker (2x2)
Light Torpedo (1x1)
Jump Capable: Yes
Manufacturer: The FPA (Firekkan Planetary Alliance)


P.S: I based this design on both the image "Wco07" and also another sci-fi ship which someone may or may not recognize.... brownie points if you can tell me what ship I might've used to help build this model.

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JasonRocZ