The Syrtian War - Mod

[digdug]

Adventure main screen - something featuring hordes of Syrtian (ares) ships would be amazing but I'm flexible if the pic is good.

I fiddled a bit with Bryce and GIMP and I made this:

[Aury]

Visually great, but I noticed some canonically glaring problems.

...
First and foremost: all of the sandstorms are flying BACKWARDS.
And secondly, the chasm, phobos, deimos and tundra couldn't have existed yet. And even the cometfall is of dubious existance at that time period. I suppose more primative versions of the ships may have existed back them, but remember that the sandstorm was state-of-the-art back then; IIRC this was in the R1 shield's blurb or something. They would not have had a chasm chassis with, say, a particle weapon. They would have put the lightning cannons there, given their lower availability, would they not have?

[Prophet]

That's fantastic Digdug!!

... the chasm, phobos, deimos and tundra couldn't have existed yet. And even the cometfall is of dubious existance at that time period. I suppose more primative versions of the ships may have existed back them...

I'm not expecting to get a full set of fully rendered ships. I believe the Syrtis did have all those kinds of ships, but earlier versions. (It may not be a Phobos yet, but would resemble one)

I plan on using the vanilla ship resources so the pic might as well have them too.

I did a quick search for canon in the vanilla files and came up with this:

• Commonwealth medal of honor description = "The Commonwealth Medal of Honor is a square platinum plate
  micro-engraved with the names of those killed in the Syrtis bombing of Earth in 2243."
  
  Thermo cannon description = "Produced in great numbers in the Syrtis War, the cannon is now common
  throughout the Outer Realm. The cannon requires thermo cannon shells."
  
  Lightning cannon description = "During the Syrtis War the lightning cannons of the Orthodoxy were
  devastating to the Earth Fleet."

The description of the R1 says: "The R1 deflector was developed a few decades ago to protect Fleet ships against the powerful lightning cannons of the Ares Orthodoxy."


Having said all that, I would assume that the Thermo Cannons and Lightning Cannons would have only been used on the capital ships of the respective fleets. Certainly not the sandstorms, ronins, hornets etc.

[digdug]

First and foremost: all of the sandstorms are flying BACKWARDS.

aaaargh! .... yeah

ok, I'll fix that

About the ships, are you looking for some variants of the ares ?
sdw195 was making a phobos without the ares plasma cannon, that would probably go.

I can try to make something too

Visually great, but I noticed some canonically glaring problems.

ships have motion blur, and the planet has a glare for the atmosphere

[digdug]

fixed the picture, also, now is without motion blur

[sdw195]

About the ships, are you looking for some variants of the ares ?
sdw195 was making a phobos without the ares plasma cannon, that would probably go.

i will send you the model of that if you want (if i can find it ) a bit later today

[Atarlost]

The Phobos is one of the largest ships in space in the modern era and ships may not be built on that scale in the SW era. The Phobos is also a large spinal mount design and it is likely it was designed around the specific plasma cannon it carries. The Tundra would similarly have no equivalent without anything like the micronuke cannon, but the resource might be used for something.

I would expect to see the following Ares ships:

• a primitive Sandstorm with a clone of the EI particle beam
• a primitive Chasm with a primitive ion cannon (modern stats, but bulkier?)
• a primitive Cometfall with a lower damage Warhammer and no other ammo, and using a particle beam for its omni
• a primitive Deimos using something that is to the Mark III howitzer as the Hecates cannon is to the Fusionfire, and an omnified dual particle beam or lancer (the lancer must be very old to have reached the Xenophobes) I'd put this highest on the list of things that need new resources.

The Commonwealth would probably have:

• Ronin B and C models
• Something about the size of an Aurochs with multiple turreted Bushido thermocannons (same stats as modern) Possibly resize the Mikado?
• a primitive CSC, also with Bushido thermocannons
• Antares I freighters
• EI100 freigters

I think Earth would have Hornets, EI100ms, and Ronins in all models. The old EI100 brick resource might make a good makeshift weapons platform for Earth as well. Borers Is would be the resource collectors of course. The thing that looks the most like a space construction ship is the Ferian Miner, but it needs at least a recolor if not a rerender with different textures.

[Song]

There's also the possibility of modified Antares Is. The design features external mounts for cargo-holds/containers. Modifying them into crude support ships with limited bombardment ability would *in theory* be possible if you had nothing better.

[george moromisato]

There's also the possibility of modified Antares Is. The design features external mounts for cargo-holds/containers. Modifying them into crude support ships with limited bombardment ability would *in theory* be possible if you had nothing better.

BTW, the lore for the Antares I (in the Korolov stats screen) says that it is "...more than a hundred years old, built originally by the massive Polyarny Shipyards orbiting Ceres..."

More than 100 years means sometime between 2299 and 2319, so definitely post-war.

But perhaps the Antares was an evolution on an earlier design (it would have to be significantly different, otherwise it would have not been called the Antares I).

The Polyarny Shipyards are also post-war. In other notes they are included as one of the "Seven Wonders of Human Space" along with the New Victoria Arcology. Too big to have been built before the 2300s.

[george moromisato]

I would expect to see the following Ares ships:

• a primitive Sandstorm with a clone of the EI particle beam
• a primitive Chasm with a primitive ion cannon (modern stats, but bulkier?)
• a primitive Cometfall with a lower damage Warhammer and no other ammo, and using a particle beam for its omni
• a primitive Deimos using something that is to the Mark III howitzer as the Hecates cannon is to the Fusionfire, and an omnified dual particle beam or lancer (the lancer must be very old to have reached the Xenophobes) I'd put this highest on the list of things that need new resources.

The Commonwealth would probably have:

• Ronin B and C models
• Something about the size of an Aurochs with multiple turreted Bushido thermocannons (same stats as modern) Possibly resize the Mikado?
• a primitive CSC, also with Bushido thermocannons
• Antares I freighters
• EI100 freigters

I think Earth would have Hornets, EI100ms, and Ronins in all models. The old EI100 brick resource might make a good makeshift weapons platform for Earth as well. Borers Is would be the resource collectors of course. The thing that looks the most like a space construction ship is the Ferian Miner, but it needs at least a recolor if not a rerender with different textures.

I like this. A few more ideas:

[*]The current generation of Ares ship are (mostly) named after natural forces and features of Mars (there is much nostalgia for the planet that they were forced to leave). There are a couple of options for the naming of the Syrtis War-era ships: (1) the Syrtis people feel like pioneers: taming, terraforming, and settling an entire world. Perhaps the ships have those kinds of names: conquest, triumph, victory. (2) Or perhaps the Syrtis are very ordered and scientific. In that case, perhaps their ship names are more practical: SG05 (Syrtis Gunship 05), SM03 (Syrtis Missile Ship 03), SC01 (Syrtis Cruiser 01), etc. (3) Or perhaps we should work out more about their culture and pick names related to that (open to suggestions).

[*]It might be interesting to think of some ship classes that were evolutionary dead-ends. For example, perhaps a crude platform that has a bunch of tethered gunships, designed only to provide life-support for the pilots. Or perhaps some decoy ships designed to fool the enemy.

[*]We should also remember things like: scanning platforms, hospital ships, troop carriers (for invading stations), landers, anti-missile ships, fuel ships, supply ships, etc.

[*]I think the proto-Chasm should be an experimental ship. Perhaps the ion cannon is large and does not have adequate armor (requiring heavy escort); or perhaps it requires a refueling ship near by.

[*]Instead of carriers, how about mobile bases. Essentially, the Syrtis would have slow-moving bases that hold supplies, fuel, ammo, and repair equipment.

[*]Earth forces might not have carriers either--perhaps they rely on stationary bases spread all over the system. [Not sure about this, though.]

[*]I think the Ronins are appropriate for Earth forces, but I also think there can be other classes. Perhaps a slower, well-armored class. I also like the idea of the Aurochs-like ship with thermocannons; these would be pretty rare, I would think, but very powerful. Maybe instead of a CSC, an early dreadnought-like ship that is heavily armed and armored.

[*]Also, Earth's forces are really an combination of three different powers: North Atlantic Union (major corporations: EI and NAMI); Asian Pacific Directorate (major corporation: Pacific Defense); and United African States (ships are built by the government).

[Ttech]

Where does Earth go to within the Gate system? Where goes the Earth gate go to? And also it would be pretty awesome to make use of some of those extra ships dvalin made. Though I don't know how that fits in.

[Aury]

Nice 1111th post!

I like the dead ends idea; this is the first /real/ war for these groups. (Gene crisis arms buildup doesn't count, as they were not actually used IIRC). One good example of a dead end is the Hornet; Actually, not a total dead-end in TSB, with the Collective experiment which made successful use of tiny mass produced ships (although they did it right with automation).

I also think that CSCs would not have cropped up until after the bombing of mars; that was when the conflict became inter-system, and carriers would have been necessary. These would be TSB generation 1 carriers.

I like the proto-chasm idea.

And using stations instead of carriers for Earth forces.

Also there would be a large number of UAS ships probably in-line graphically with the remnants of their product lines we see today (given they are long-defunct and they are mostly in use by outlaws now given how affordable they are)

[Prophet]

All this info is golden!

The player will only have access to a very limited selection of ships and they will be higher up in the research tree. I'm not saying this is all that existed at that time, but its all we need for the mod at this point.
I'm running with the idea that the Earth fleet was wiped out and the shipyards destroyed. Thus no ships available for the player until you can manufacture your own.

I like the ideas regarding the Syrtis but as I was thinking about nomenclature, I thought the player (being an earth native) would have their own names for the ares ships, much like the allied forces had nicknames for the luftwaffe. Perhaps the Syrtis engineers that design the ships get to name them? ie: "The Moromisato Gunship"

I REALLY like the ideas about unique/obsolete ships that could be used as mini bosses and/or mission objectives.

[*]Instead of carriers, how about mobile bases. Essentially, the Syrtis would have slow-moving bases that hold supplies, fuel, ammo, and repair equipment.

[*]Earth forces might not have carriers either--perhaps they rely on stationary bases spread all over the system. [Not sure about this, though.]

These ideas fit in perfectly! Each mission could be the player moving to a new base or strategic position and must defend and eventually destroy the Syrtian Mobile Base in that part of the solar system. There could be some meaning behind the number and names of the bases and each one could have some unique ability/weakness. (Is this too cliche?)

[Drako Slyith]

[*]Instead of carriers, how about mobile bases. Essentially, the Syrtis would have slow-moving bases that hold supplies, fuel, ammo, and repair equipment.

[*]Earth forces might not have carriers either--perhaps they rely on stationary bases spread all over the system. [Not sure about this, though.]

These ideas fit in perfectly! Each mission could be the player moving to a new base or strategic position and must defend and eventually destroy the Syrtian Mobile Base in that part of the solar system. There could be some meaning behind the number and names of the bases and each one could have some unique ability/weakness. (Is this too cliche?)

I don't think its cliche. And either way, it fits the tower defense strategy and forces the player to diversify their defense. In most tower defense games, the biggest problem is that you can just use one kind of turret and win the entire game.

[digdug]

example of cursor, tell me if it's ok and it's similar to what you had in mind.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/720869/test%20cursor.png

[EDIT]
I rendered the cursor ship
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/720869/cursor.zip