An Update!

BradMick

Vice Admiral
Well, I decided i'd had enough of studying and sat down to begin work on Pioneers first base. Now, Howard hasn't seen this as he is on vacation in a land as far from computers as he can possibly be, but I don't think he'll have to many objections to the overall design. We have a really good back and forth submission/approval process for everything designed and modeled. So, who knows, this right here is a refueling station. the launch bay arrangement is meant to allow the maximum of ships to enter and exit. There isn't much to these stations. The only locations a player will be able to visit (again this is tentative) aboard these stations will be the hanger deck to refuel, and then the bar, and maybe some guild offices or a landreich office. So, here's the shots. This represents all of about thirty minutes of work, so its very early yet. I'll be detailing the interior of the hanger bay and then the bar as well.

So, thoughts and what not, let em roll.

BradMick
 
I presume that the refueling stations will also allow you to make repairs to your ship if you have the money? Will they also sell missiles, or are you stuck with what you've got till you can reach a bigger base?
 
Here's an updated shot before I head to bed. Will see about gettin more done tommorrow. Also, the red box's are 6 ft tall.
 
..or just refer to it as "Pioneer"?

Will the station have a gigantic Monolith Burger sign sticking out of it? ;)
monolithship.gif
 
Well, the idea is that ships just land and take off here, so having a lot of runway and deck space is what you want. There's not a ton of crew aboard, its needs being met by the section on top of the landing bay. The fuel is stored externally as well, so the other grouping of crew qaurters are located in the bottom of the station. It's all turn around area, get the ship down, refuel it, get the ship out.

BradMick
 
Maj.Striker said:
Looks really good however seems a little mis-sized to me? Seems like all runway and not enough base?

I got the same impression.

BradMick said:
Well, the idea is that ships just land and take off here, so having a lot of runway and deck space is what you want. There's not a ton of crew aboard, its needs being met by the section on top of the landing bay. The fuel is stored externally as well, so the other grouping of crew qaurters are located in the bottom of the station. It's all turn around area, get the ship down, refuel it, get the ship out.

BradMick said:
the fuel base is purely a gas stop.

Why have a flight deck at all? If the only function of this facility is to refuel ships, then it doesn't seem like there's any need to even land. A giant tank or set of tanks with a series of docking ports would seem to be more efficient.
 
What types of stations are you planning to introduce in Pioneer - the standard set from privateer (Refueling, Mining, Military and maybe one civillian like New Constantinople) - or are you going to come with something new? I.e.: customs base (kind of military object), secret asmuggling and pirate bases (hidden in asteroid belts and nebulas maybe), scientific/telemetric bases - that are close for example to some strange objects like abnormal stars, black holes, jump points etc., space production facilities/docks, space casinos and abandoned stations. Will the particular stations of the same function be different from each other in some details?
 
Its the same formula as Privateer with regards to bases, except that with this addition. The reason for having the ability to land here, is so the player can get a new contract, or save. Or just be able to take a break, and thinking about it now, I don't think having some repair facilities aboard would be a bad idea. Gas up and Repair, then go.

also, here's a quick shot with some wildcats sitting on deck...they're the old wildcats, but...yeah, anyway, for better scale.

BradMick
 
ChrisReid said:
Why have a flight deck at all? If the only function of this facility is to refuel ships, then it doesn't seem like there's any need to even land. A giant tank or set of tanks with a series of docking ports would seem to be more efficient.

It sounds more like a truckstop than a gas station if you want a real world analogy. If it were simply for refueling, why does it need to even be a station. Take WC2 for example where refueling is done just by docking with a tanker.
 
Uhhh, I think this thing is very much at odds with the setting you guys chose for Pioneer. The Landreich doesn't have the economy to support this monstrosity (which, as near as I can figure out, is more like an international airport terminal in terms of internal space than like a truckstop).

Also, it seems like this facility offers hundreds of docking spaces for fighters... but it doesn't seem to offer any docking spaces at all for capships. Which makes it somewhat like a truckstop that only services motorbikes :).

Small fuelling stations sound like a good addition, given the limited fuel range you guys are planning... but small is the key word. Remember, the Landreich is a backwater. The various colonies probably have less than a few million population each - some of them probably have populations counted in the thousands, not even millions. How exactly would a facility this huge find enough traffic to make itself even viable?

BTW, what are the exact dimensions of this thing anyway? The man-sized blobs give us a sense of scale, but width and height in metres would be even better :p.
 
1280ft across, and 915ft tall, each bay opening is 64 feet tall. Those are exact dimensions, so in meters about 390 across. I guess this could always be Pioneers refinery base. I'd imagine its gotta be about the size of Privateers refinery, but without definate dimensions, kind of hard to say.
 
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