Defiance's Eyecandy Thread

[NightBall06]

Hate is a bit strong, I just don't like it. One ship that I liked was the Dralthi from the movie.

The Dralthi movie-version is pretty cool.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

So I was playing around with the WCtoolbox and decided to try and make a WC1 mod. So I took my WCA bengal and converted it into a sprite sheet. It was a larger process than I originally thought but it is kinda fun to do this sort of messing around. Admittedly I stand on the shoulders of giants here. This would've been impossible without the work of @UnnamedCharacter on the WC toolbox and Goliath's sprite rendering script for Blender. So yeah, if anyone wants it I'm happy to share. I may end up doing a whole WCA pack at some point in the future.

 

[Klavs81]

Ok that's amazing.

 

[Wedge009]

How does the landing sequence look? WC1's Claw seems to have an open deck while it looks like the bow of the Academy TV's Claw is enclosed. Or is the landing sequence using its own bitmap and not the sprites we see in-flight?

 

[DefianceIndustries]

How does the landing sequence look? WC1's Claw seems to have an open deck while it looks like the bow of the Academy TV's Claw is enclosed. Or is the landing sequence using its own bitmap and not the sprites we see in-flight?

It still the original landing sequence. It uses a separate set of sprites for the landing. I haven't figured out where that is yet.

 

[ODVS]

That's absolutely gorgeous 😄

 

[Panther1.0]

I agree !

 

[wiese.hano]

One reason more for me to punch up the game with the easter sale on GOG.

 

[YCDTD]

"After the war, the boys over in R&D and Special Projects started slapping a cloaking device on anything with wings. They were obsessed with trying to close the gap between us and the fur balls; even after their disarmament at Torgo they still had a big lead on us in cloaking technology. So when we heard Douglas was shipping us a new model of Hellcat to test out we were a bit...skeptical is probably the best word for it. But when they brought us the first Black Cat we saw this was really the first step forward.

The cloak itself hadn't changed much, it was still a huge energy hog and it's heat dissipation curve still lagged way behind the Kilrathi's mid-line models, but the hull plating was something totally new. It was a brand new neoferro-carbon composite that absorbed incoming radar/lidar signals or simply reflected them off in a different direction. It could fly in a limited stealth mode even without a cloak engaged - and with the cloak active we were able to sneak up to the sensor nets along the Kat's border, tail a patrol or convoy, and zip away unseen. It was the first time we ever had anything like parity.

Unfortunately we couldn't do anything about the Hellcat's giant intakes and the big ol' engines, which really cut down on the Black Cat's stealth profile, the hull can only do so much. It was obvious to us then that we needed something new, even an Excalibur couldn't make full use of the new hull plating - and she was designed for a cloak out of the gate. So that's when Admiral Tolwyn stopped by my office and asked me to start drafting a new heavy fighter, something that was fast, mean, and could use the new hull and cloak to it's full potential..."


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Ahhhh...the Advanced Hellcats as mentioned in the WC4 novel. In my Head Canon they have an upgraded powerplant which allows them to sport dual Particle and Heavy Ion Cannon, with expanded weapons bays for a total of 8 missiles. Along with increased maneuverability and speed. It also laid the groundwork for the Bearcat.

These are real beauties Defiance.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

So I continue my playing around and started working on fighters. Fighters are different beasts a bit from the WC1 capships as they have to be scaled appropriately (if you render the sprite too large, they appear giant in the game) - My experiments yielded the best results at a 120x120 px render, then cropping the images down to less than 100 px on the long side. Unfortunately this causes the loss of some fine detail, but the result is pretty good. You also have to manually reposition the thruster exhaust sprites. The toolbox does a good job exporting everything into XML, but you have to open each image and establish the position by counting pixels. (it's exciting work believe me).


Hornet prior to repositioning the engine sprites


after.



At some point I'll write up a guide on how to do this. It's a time consuming process as there isn't alot of automation currently, so there's alot of cropping, saving, and using the repal function in the toolbox that has to be done manually. I think it takes about 3-4 hours to do a single sprite currently.

However if I were to do a complete pack I had some ideas as there isn't a 1-for-1 match between Academy and the game below are my thoughts, but feel free to weigh in if you feel differently:

WC1 Ship	WCA Replacement	Alternate
Bengal	Bengal	N/A
Drayman	Achilles Destroyer	Priv1 Drayman
Diligent	Byrd	Priv1 Drayman (not used above)
Exeter	Exemesh	Achilles Carrier
Hornet	Hornet (shown here)	WCA Epee, WCA Ferret
Scimitar	WCA Scimitar	N/A
Raptor	WCA Ferret? Hellcat?	???
Rapier	WCA Sabre	N/A
Salthi	Sartha	N/A
Dralthi	Dralthi	N/A
Krant	???	???
Gratha	WCA Jalkethi	N/A
Jalthi	Grikath	N/A
Bloodfang	???
Hhriss	???
Dorkir	Dorkir
Lumbari	??? (Dorkir)
Ralari	Ralar (Omni ship)	WCA Ralari (Defiance custom)
Fralthi	Fralthi
Snakeir	Ralar (Assuming use WCA Ralari above)	???
Sivar	Ras Agn Sivar

Just some thoughts, anyone with an opinion please feel free to weigh in (especially where gaps exist)

 

[DefianceIndustries]

While @Pedro is providing quality digital entertainment to the masses, I needed something to keep my skills sharp. So I revisited my WCP-ized version of the Excalibur. I decided to make it a demonstrator, similar to the Super Tomcat or the F-20 Tigershark in the real world. Designs that, for any number of reasons, were never purchased. In this case it's sort of a missing link between the F-103D's you see in Secret Ops, and the unseen Arena Wyvern variant.

Initially I was going to add these images to the fun little fiction I put together, but I'm not really that crazy. Well, ok maybe I am. So we have the launch tube test from the TCS Mistral Sea circa 2683, an initial flight test image with an Excal D circa 2682, and images taken of F-103 EX #7 in its forever home aboard the TCS Victory museum (along with Tensabarriers of the future (tm)) in 2701. As always enjoy, and C&C welcome.

 

[L.I.F.]

That's one gorgeous fighter, DI! The twin-seater cockpit reminds me of the RL Super Hornet's. It seems to be a bit longer than the regular Excalibur, in a way that makes me think it would be a pretty interesting frame for a bomber in-universe. The FB-22 to Excalibur's F-22. A fighter I think a lot of Wingnuts would love to fly.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

That's one gorgeous fighter, DI! The twin-seater cockpit reminds me of the RL Super Hornet's. It seems to be a bit longer than the regular Excalibur, in a way that makes me think it would be a pretty interesting frame for a bomber in-universe. The FB-22 to Excalibur's F-22. A fighter I think a lot of Wingnuts would love to fly.

Mien Gott! You live and breathe! Glad you're back.

Yeah it's about 1 meter longer, it looks longer than the D model because it isn't as tall, the engine nacelles are swept back a bit more and the main gun pod was moved forward so the neck isn't as long. The tandem canopy gives it that illusion as well.

It's basically an F-14, a fleet defender whose job is to engage bombers at range but is good in a dogfight. it's slightly less of a multirole fighter than the Vampire. At least in the head canon anyway.

 

[L.I.F.]

Mien Gott! You live and breathe! Glad you're back.

Yeah it's about 1 meter longer, it looks longer than the D model because it isn't as tall, the engine nacelles are swept back a bit more and the main gun pod was moved forward so the neck isn't as long. The tandem canopy gives it that illusion as well.

It's basically an F-14, a fleet defender whose job is to engage bombers at range but is good in a dogfight. it's slightly less of a multirole fighter than the Vampire. At least in the head canon anyway.

Heh heh, you bet I'm alive, more lurking than anything else at the moment, but I'd definitely be glad to get back in the action if you want to see the craft alive in either of the mods. :-P

Though, our headcanons differ a bit, the tandem canopy makes me think about a light bomber role, à la Thunderbolt (my first idea was the Sabre bomber loadout, but then, Sabre carries quite a lot of torpedoes, moreso than Excalibur would), which, to be honest, the original Excalibur should actually be able to be as well, since they managed to replace 6 of the missiles with a Temblor Bomb without performance loss. It'd definitely wouldn't be up to par with a Shrike, in the Prophecy-era as far as firepower goes, but one might find the use for a really fast and nimble fighter with a single torpedo.

For a fleet defender role, I guess this twin-seater of yours could have enlarged missile bays for longer-range IMREC like in the second half of Prophecy, or even dedicated "Phoenix-like" missiles. The cockpit's shape, though, definitely reminds me of F/A-18F's, as it feels slightly unnatural due to the original fighter being designed around a single-seater, while F-14's cockpit was twin-seater from the beginning and looks more natural on it, if you see what I mean. Your cockpit does have the look of a single-seater redesigned as a twin, which fits very well the intended lore, IMO.

 

[YCDTD]

While @Pedro is providing quality digital entertainment to the masses, I needed something to keep my skills sharp. So I revisited my WCP-ized version of the Excalibur. I decided to make it a demonstrator, similar to the Super Tomcat or the F-20 Tigershark in the real world. Designs that, for any number of reasons, were never purchased. In this case it's sort of a missing link between the F-103D's you see in Secret Ops, and the unseen Arena Wyvern variant.

Initially I was going to add these images to the fun little fiction I put together, but I'm not really that crazy. Well, ok maybe I am. So we have the launch tube test from the TCS Mistral Sea circa 2683, an initial flight test image with an Excal D circa 2682, and images taken of F-103 EX #7 in its forever home aboard the TCS Victory museum (along with Tensabarriers of the future (tm)) in 2701. As always enjoy, and C&C welcome.

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🤤

 

[YCDTD]

Black Lance Dragon next please!

 

[L.I.F.]

Black Lance Dragon next please!

He already made one:

 

[YCDTD]

Overall, I really like the Dragon - but the wings always looked out of place. Too Kilrathi-like.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

Overall, I really like the Dragon - but the wings always looked out of place. Too Kilrathi-like.

It looks too much like Klingon Bird of Prey for my taste. But I did another version for the remake, check out wcrespace.com under the media section for the turntable.

 

[L.I.F.]

It looks too much like Klingon Bird of Prey for my taste. But I did another version for the remake, check out wcrespace.com under the media section for the turntable.

The wings seem much wider than in the previous model. Not gonna lie: I'm in love with this. Like the F-35C is much less ugly than the A and B version thanks to its wider wings, it makes one hell of a good effect on Dragon.