Agreed about the core, I have been debating on widening out the rear section and putting a cover over it. I have been debating on taking a crack at updating Hummel-o-War's designs, but I think I may get gacked for it. The Drone Base, how we love to mod thee. My Landing Pad started it's life as the Akua Drone Base.
Awww! I haven't seen those for a while! Especialy with the Galaxy it was a nightmare to get proportions right. But it was very fun and satisfying to build nevertheless. I just wish there where some more building blocks to fill the gaps (especially the rear neck and the saucer) It's nice some ppl. like them!
Thanks ... I am a huge Star trek fan well a huge SCI FI tv show fan period. When I see ships like yours I geek out for a minute. lol This is why I play games like empyrion more than any other game because when you have players that can build ships like the Galaxy class then why do you need to play other Space games?
SoulChateau has been importing a number of 3D models into Empyrion. There's a bunch of stuff from Trek, Star Wars, EvE online, and BSG. There's a model for DS9, a cylon raider, the Abaddon, the Nyx, the Galactica(old and new) and he's going to import the original series Cylon basestar for me. I may have squeed. There's enough material there to keep me busy for months. He even has a Death Star model which I'm seriously tempted to turn into Unicron. I found an .stl file for the Space Battleship Yamato. I may ask him to import that next. @Neal you should check out the Voyager and Galaxy class models he has up.
I finished my rebuild of the Astro Shuttle and uploaded it to the workshop. I also left a note on the original authors page and linked his ship in the description. It turned out wider than the original, and I could not find a way to cover the warp core that did not look horrid. But I think it turned out Ok, and I learned quite a bit about dealing with curved blocks while working on it.
OMG those ships are gorgeous! (thanks btw!) His models are almost perfect in shape and execution! They are far superior than ANYTHING i have ever made, it is almost embarrassing. Seriously compared to each other, mine look like childrens doodle. (In case you're wondering, the left one is mine... ) This guy must be a genious, i have no idea how he did reach such a high grade of resemblance to the original ships. That's a complete mystery to me. One thing is for sure, i'll never going to try making a Star Trek ship again. The only thing that makes me wonder is why are they not scaled properly (Intrepid is almost the size of the Galaxy class).
He didn't build them by hand. He's importing 3d models directly into the game using some software/programming/script wizardry. All he needs is the .stl file and he runs it through some script and turns it into an Empyrion blueprint. I think he can adjust the size as he's made SV and CV versions of the same ship. http://steamcommunity.com/app/383120/discussions/8/343786195673053843/
BTW i uploaded the Europa Class Battlecruiser i've been working on lately. It's part of the Omaga Outpost fleet and a pure battleship.
Definitely. He might even be able to refine the process further. That kind of stuff is beyond my ability but I'm glad he's doing it. I've been wanting to build several of those ships but I wasn't even going to attempt it because of the size and complexity of some of them. The Nyx carrier alone would have taken a couple months at least. I'm going to finish up my current projects and then start in on that Cylon raider. Hell I might not even wait.
So do you think, it is still worth building stuff ourselves if it's possible to import models with this kind of accuracy?
It's a fair question. There's a certain satisfaction to be had from building something from scratch. You can point to that and say "I made that". On the other I look at those ships and I can't resist the idea of making stuff from them. Of course I'll have to add a disclaimer that it was built using an imported 3d template but I don't think most players will care. They just want cool stuff to play with. If all you build are replicas and want to be recognized for the work you do then yeah I can see how this would put a damper on that. I think it's still worth building stuff ourselves. Not everything is available to be imported and there's still an art to adapting replicas even if you're using a template like these. It's still going to be a huge amount of work to clean up those models and turn them into something useful. Personal ability can play a large role in how it turns out and different people can have different interpretations and ideas on how to bring it to life. The Millennium Falcon SV I did was based heavily on someone else's work. They never finished it and I disagreed with some of their aesthetic choices so I took their design and put my own spin on it. You could always turn it into something unique too. For instance he uploaded a Death Star model but I'm thinking it could be turned into Unicron. Your creations are fantastic Neal. Don't sell yourself short on that. You've been branching out lately and coming up with some pretty nice stuff. The Raumkreuzer is clearly influenced by Star Trek designs but it's something unique and amazing. And I love a number of the ships you've made(The Miranda, Nebula, and Vor'cha especially). You do good work. I'd hate to see you give up on it. The important thing is whether you're still having fun or not.
Well, as cool as that method is - I think its nowhere near hand built ships. I mean the basic shape is there and its "correct". But the problem is that it tries to be too correct - and by using different blocks that would work together better you would probably get much better overall appearance even though some angles might not be as close to the original. So I don't see it as end-all-be-all building method but rather a good starting point.
Yeah at best these are a good approximation but the script doesn't do well at smoothing out the design and there's a lot of leftover clutter. As you say a good starting point but they're still going to take a lot of work to clean up.
Planning and then building or just go on building because i'm inspired by something amazing is what's the fun to me. But i see the advantage of having a premade shape that is almost perfect in its proportions to work with. Although it would take away half the fun for me. I'm curious to see if it establishes itself. Nah, i see myself as a petty beginner, compared to some really creative master builders on the workshop and here on the forums. But thanks! I see you point. Personally i would find it even more difficult to work with a premade ships hull, especially when it's as complex as the shape of a Galaxy Class for instance.
I've been asking for a while was it possible to import models into this game. I'm glad someone finally found away to do it. Did he say how he is doing it?
We had this same debate in Starmade and I think both ways are cool. I don't usually build ships from SCI FI Tv shows because there are soo many other really talented people that can do it right. SO I just play with their builds when I am in Star trek or some other TV show mood but I've seen people build certain TV ships by hand that looked better than the imported version in games like Starmade. The thing about building from a model is that most people can tell you used a model so they will expect perfection since you're using a model. Building by hand will always be more interesting in my opinion because it's something you created... In games like Star made and Space Engineers you have more original builds than you do models. I think it's room for both but I haven't seen a game like Empyrion where you see more imported model than you do original builds. Most people that buy these games to create their own ships.