Jayru (JSnaith's) 3D Trek
- Thread starter JSnaith
- Start date
Agreed, very much an improvement.
Thank you :-)
Thank you - although it's more akin to the original design ;-)
Thank you!Nice work.
Had a lovely message turn up today regarding the loss of work I had. :-)
I have, on here, restored almost everything that I lost, and added to it as well. But one project that I never finished has not seen the light of day again. There was a push (from me only) to rebuild the finished projects I lost, with those that were never finished being lost to the ether. Some of my ideas never saw the light of day - things like The Ark and Nemesis from the 1984 Transformers pilot episode are gone for good (they were being created as a Bridge Commander port, as was Talyn from Farscape). I don't mind losing them - I don't play Bridge Commander anymore, and... They were never finished, so what did I lose? Stuff like the Blake's 7 ships I rebuilt, and then some. The same with the Trek projects on here - I rebuilt the finished ships, and then added to it.
But...
There is one project I have not come back to; the USS Wolf. I never finished it, I wasn't ever half way through it. It was something I designed back in the late 1990's. I had a finished study model, that I textured and ported to Bridge Commander. But the proper 3ds Max mesh? Gone for good. All the images... Lost. Until today. Of all the ships I lost, this would be the easiest for me to have rebuilt, as I still have the paper designs I did. The perp smashed the physical drives and digital storage devices I had stuff on, but they left the paper stuff (and whilst it did mess with my head, my brain still has all the info as well). And there are folks out in cyberspace who had copies of the images I was generating.
So...
I need to finish the current project - the Luna Class off, and then... Then I need to think about what's next. I never finished the Wolf off. Maybe it's time to revisit it, and finish it. Something to think on.
Thanks for letting me waffle, more soon!
A quick look at the Wolf Class design (or Wolfe Class as it will now be known), which was named a real life person who helped design and shape her -
Yes, she was controversial when I posted the original on SciFi Meshes - two deflector bays, and angled nacelles that deploy out of the hull? What was I thinking... LOL. Our thinking was to do something different, and create Starfleet's first slipstream vessel after the knowledge acquired by the crew of USS Voyager. But... Yeah, I took some crap over it, that sucked the joy out of building the mesh.
The concept? A long range science ship, kitted out to explore and expand horizons with a prototype quantum slipstream drive to get it out to the far reaches of unknown space. Roughly 300 meters long, with a crew of a 150.
And the deployable nacelles -
This is, by the way, a very basic study model that I pulled from my memory of the project. With the hindsight of experience and having worked on numerous 3d models since there are a lot of things I would/will do differently. But I thought it would be nice to revisit this old gal.
What do you all think? Comments welcome. Oh, and if you hate the design... I don't want to know! lol
More soon.
Yes, she was controversial when I posted the original on SciFi Meshes - two deflector bays, and angled nacelles that deploy out of the hull? What was I thinking... LOL. Our thinking was to do something different, and create Starfleet's first slipstream vessel after the knowledge acquired by the crew of USS Voyager. But... Yeah, I took some crap over it, that sucked the joy out of building the mesh.
The concept? A long range science ship, kitted out to explore and expand horizons with a prototype quantum slipstream drive to get it out to the far reaches of unknown space. Roughly 300 meters long, with a crew of a 150.
And the deployable nacelles -
This is, by the way, a very basic study model that I pulled from my memory of the project. With the hindsight of experience and having worked on numerous 3d models since there are a lot of things I would/will do differently. But I thought it would be nice to revisit this old gal.
What do you all think? Comments welcome. Oh, and if you hate the design... I don't want to know! lol
More soon.
Looks interesting. The Wolfe's "deployable nacelles" feels a bit like the nuBattlestar Galactica with the flight pods that had to retract for FTL. I'd suggest instead to make the extending feature a variable depending on the speed of the ship. Standard warp it is fully extended and ludicrous warp it is tucked in (like an F-14 Tomcat). That way it doesn't have a useless mode like Voyager's nacelles. YMMV.
The nacelles are only deployed for warp, with them remaining tucked into the ship during impulse and slipstream. This ship was designed long before the remake of BSG. Not saying they copied us... Just that it pre-dates it, lol. The actual ship was inspired by the shape of a "dustbuster."
A more refined take -
Comments welcome, more soon :-)
It's not that I 'hate' it - it just doesn't sit right with my own personal tastes, or how I think Starfleet ship design flows and progresses.
The two deflector bays - to me - really disrupt the flow of the sleekness that the design had. They kind of make it very 'fish-like', giving the appearance of fins, and with that visible bridge 'bump' (or so I'm assuming), it feels like it should be a lot smaller, between the Defiant and Nova classes.
It almost has a kind of 'primitiveness' that makes me think it was a pre-NX design, between humans copying Vulcan ring-nacelles and switching back to Cochrane's original design approach.
On the plus side, I do like the sleekness as mentioned, and its dart-like profile, and the squared-off angled nacelles remind me of the Interceptor-class and other fan-designs.
Intrigued to see where this eventually ends up, design wise.
The two deflector bays - to me - really disrupt the flow of the sleekness that the design had. They kind of make it very 'fish-like', giving the appearance of fins, and with that visible bridge 'bump' (or so I'm assuming), it feels like it should be a lot smaller, between the Defiant and Nova classes.
It almost has a kind of 'primitiveness' that makes me think it was a pre-NX design, between humans copying Vulcan ring-nacelles and switching back to Cochrane's original design approach.
On the plus side, I do like the sleekness as mentioned, and its dart-like profile, and the squared-off angled nacelles remind me of the Interceptor-class and other fan-designs.
Intrigued to see where this eventually ends up, design wise.
Cool, I didn't know when you had came up with the design. I'm not sure why the nacelles would need to be tucked in while at impulse. Does it need to waste time to extend in order to go to warp and then retract back for slipstream? Or can it go straight to slipstream from impulse?
I like it. It's good that is deviates a bit from standard Starfleet design yet still is recognizable. In the novels, Slipstream capable ships had a slightly different profile to be able to maintain a proper corridor. So I'm ok with that.
Also like the idea of deployable nacelles!
Keep this up, I want to see where it goes.
Also like the idea of deployable nacelles!
Keep this up, I want to see where it goes.
I haven't got the study model right yet, I need to tweak it a bit - beef it up vertically to match the deck size on the Intrepid Class and then move some things around. If memory serves, the ship should have a total of 15 decks. I'm using my TMP deck scale, so that's throwing me off at the mo. I'll sort it
The idea behind it was that this was Starfleet's prototype slipstream design, therefore the hull was shaped differently to accommodate the way that worked. I believe I caved to pressure last time and changed the upper bay to be a very large senser array. I might play with things a little, but as far as we know slipstream was focused through the deflector dish, not the nacelles, hence the need for two.
Yes, it has a very aquatic feel to it. But it was named for it's real life co-designer Chris Wolf, so Wolf Class it is (I have been asked to keep it that way). I personally would be tempted to call it Mako Class (after a slim shark) or even Irrawaddy Class (after a type of dolphin). Their was a lot of back history attached to the class and design - that has been lost (except for what Chris may still have). So I'm having to draw on memory and some pending returned images :-) I'll play around with it a bit more today. I can say with certainty that the design was supposed to be post Voyager (so circa 2378).
Slipsteam is focused through the deflector dishes, so the nacelles aren't used during that. There was a good reason to tuck them into the hull when not in used, but I'll admit I need to go through the old WIP thread on Sci-Fi Meshes and see what I can lift from there, and see what Chris has to hand re info, and troll my own memory. The ship was paper designed back in 1998, and variable geometry nacelles were a thing back then.
Thank you! I've got some time, so I'll be playing with the study model today and seeing what I can come up with.
Thank you all, more soon!
So...
After a chat with a few people a decision has been made about the Wolf Class. Specifically the class name - Wolf is being dropped in favour of Mako. The class, moving forward will now be known as the Mako Class - named for the fastest shark. And yes, this ship will have teeth :-)
I'm getting back some of the old renders of this ship which will help in moving forward. And I do plan to move forward with this one rather than the Luna/Titan. Why? This one is mine, and I will have a lot more freedom to do something different. Yes, it's an older design (circa 1997), but it's one I really do owe to myself. And it will be the last of the "lost projects" to be done. I hope that doesn't put people off from this thread - yes, I know the design is controversial, but what the heck - why not? I've been playing by the rules since I opened this thread up and started sharing work and designs. It's time... To do something different.
Yes, I know the rules of Star Trek ship design as pertains to Starfleet ships;
This will not be a one-to-one recreation of the former ship. I have learned a lot about building stuff in 3D since I started. I'm moving the date this class entered service to post Sovereign and Luna - hence the new registry number NCC-86176 a jump from the previous 76176. I'm going to list the new enter service date as 2385. The now dubbed Mako Class will remain a slipstream prototype, and lean more to science than combat. But she will be able to hold her own if the need arises. Yes, the nacelles will remain angled and deploy for use during warp. The class prototype, the USS Mako NX-86100, will already be in service at the time this ship launches and have proved itself. This iteration will be the USS Horizon NCC-86176.
The study model is now complete and locked down, and I'm going to start detail work today -
Anyway, sorry to have bored you all. More later :-)
After a chat with a few people a decision has been made about the Wolf Class. Specifically the class name - Wolf is being dropped in favour of Mako. The class, moving forward will now be known as the Mako Class - named for the fastest shark. And yes, this ship will have teeth :-)
I'm getting back some of the old renders of this ship which will help in moving forward. And I do plan to move forward with this one rather than the Luna/Titan. Why? This one is mine, and I will have a lot more freedom to do something different. Yes, it's an older design (circa 1997), but it's one I really do owe to myself. And it will be the last of the "lost projects" to be done. I hope that doesn't put people off from this thread - yes, I know the design is controversial, but what the heck - why not? I've been playing by the rules since I opened this thread up and started sharing work and designs. It's time... To do something different.
Yes, I know the rules of Star Trek ship design as pertains to Starfleet ships;
- The Bridge should always been on deck 1.
- Nacelles should be in pairs.
- Nacelles should have a clear line of sight to each other.
- Bussard Collectors should have a clear line of sight.
This will not be a one-to-one recreation of the former ship. I have learned a lot about building stuff in 3D since I started. I'm moving the date this class entered service to post Sovereign and Luna - hence the new registry number NCC-86176 a jump from the previous 76176. I'm going to list the new enter service date as 2385. The now dubbed Mako Class will remain a slipstream prototype, and lean more to science than combat. But she will be able to hold her own if the need arises. Yes, the nacelles will remain angled and deploy for use during warp. The class prototype, the USS Mako NX-86100, will already be in service at the time this ship launches and have proved itself. This iteration will be the USS Horizon NCC-86176.
The study model is now complete and locked down, and I'm going to start detail work today -
Anyway, sorry to have bored you all. More later :-)
The only complaint I had with the Mako was the angled nacelles but you've already fixed that. I like the shape and the organic look fits with TNG/Voyager before Starfleet started gearing up for war. And even then they still slipped some of those organic shapes in.
Those nacelles needed some love from me, and are still angled. But I've added some curves and the like to bring it more inline with the rest of the hull.
I still have access to the old WIP threads, and it's interesting seeing what problems peeps had with the design in the past; the biggest bugbear for people being the size of the nacelles. The Intrepid Class proved you didn't need big long thick nacelles to go fast. It was what was inside and how they were used that made the difference. Now I come to think about it, it was mainly men who complained about the length, girth and size of the nacelles. Go figure, lol.
The back history for the Horizon was/is that the nacelles are angled to change the warp field shape, meaning the ship can hold higher speeds with a lower power cost. It was experimental. Them deploying out from the hull was inspired by Voyager and also the way Talyn changed shape to jump in Farscape. Chris and I drafted some ideas for new technologies that Starfleet could be playing with after Voyager got home in 2378. Slipstream was just one of those ideas, and there would be more than one ship design (like the Vesta) playing around with getting that working. We finished all the paper designs for the Horizon back in 2002, and really embraced the idea that Voyager brought some new ideas home. Unfortunately the Horizon club disbanded before Chris could build a 3d model based on the original design (which was very angular). I took over trying to bring it to life, and made the design more curved.
The benefit of building a ship for the 2380's is that era has passed in Trek, Picard brought us into the very early 25th Century. I'm not worried about the fact that the Titan-A didn't display any of that tech, because it wasn't built with those ideas in mind. Prodigy gave us the new USS Dauntless and USS Protostar, each having an additional FTL drive that was faster than warp. Those ships are official so I have to take them into consideration with this project. Post-war Starfleet was playing around with new technology. So the Mako Class isn't that far a stretch.
The bridge not being on deck 1... Piff. It's visible, and could in theory still be swapped out. The nacelles are paired. No, they don't have full line of sight to each other. But then, that's the same for the Defiant, Danube, Nebula, Delta Flyer and most shuttle craft. No the Bussard Collectors don't have clear line of sight. but then, that's the same for the Ambassador, Intrepid, Excelsior. Two deflectors? There is no rule about that. And a lot of ships sported hefty secondary deflector dishes.
The design works... It just works in a different way. That's ok.
Well hopefully you didn't take the weakest idea from Voyager (waiting for the nacelles to fold up to go to warp). Also, ignore those "starship rules". They never were strictly adhered to. It looks good. Keep it going
