Use corvettes. Corvettes are quick, small, and inexpensive.

Let the prowlers be a support crusier

Prowlers are much to small to be Cruisers. But yeah I think I might actually do that; have Mako-Class Corvettes as the cheap scouts and Prowlers as a sort of Special Warfare vessel. I need to find a way, if any, to implement stealth.

For stealth, you could make it so the enemy doesn't see any sort of Icon. Like when you're zoomed out, you'll see friendly and hostile ship icons. But with the prowler the enemy wont see any icon. Aswell make it so there's no "Incoming ships" message when the prowler is phasing in. AND, make it so AI's don't fire at it or even acknowledge it's existance until it attacks them. And lastly, make it so it doesn't attack unless specificly told to.

All of those would make it a good stealth vessel, and would stay true to the UNSC's stealth capabilities. I mean they didn't have like active camo on their ships, so the prowlers could be spotted by the naked eye, just no sensors or anything.

I'm trying to figure out a way to make Prowlers undetectable but I'm not sure fi that can be done with the tools we have right now. If anyone does know how to do this, please tell me now!

I think the Vasari have a stealth thing going ( I THINK ). Its in the tech tree for scouts I think again.... So you should check that out that might help.

The Vasari's cloak doesn't fit the Prowler, my way would be the best way to go. The enemy wouldn't know it's there unless they actually spot it. And as an added bonus, it's all easily done. (Well maybe not easy, but I know you can tell the game whether or not to go "Incoming ships" or what kind of icon to display, simply don't give it an icon)

Colt556 Your working on models for the mod? show some pictures.

Colt, not putting an icon in would just make it not have an icon. The AI would still know its there and would attack it like any other ship and it would appear in the fleet list of ships in that system.

You know how the Radiance has animosity? Well try to reverse and combine it with phasic cloaking, but reduce restrictions of phasic cloaking(can't move/regenerate/use any other ability). Make the antimatter usage very small(0.1 per second). For human opponents it would be meaningless without removing icons and incoming ship messages.

Here is a quick little lineart I did for the concept I had for the Prowler.



I know it isn't boxy like most other UNSC craft. But I figured ONI would be more advanced than the rest of the UNSC so they would use sleeker looking designs.

Toxin, I'm not making any models, what gave you that idea?

And Acolyte, I know that, that's why the no icon was but one suggestion, and it was geared towards player v player (Kinda hard to tell a ship is at your planet if there's no icon). That's why I suggested you altered the code, to make it so AI's wont attack it unless it attacks them (Perfectly doable, it's halfway done ingame anyways, with the cloak n whatnot). Those suggestions, coupled with the no "incoming ships" message when it phase jumps, would make it a bitch to find.

Acolyte, have you ever seen any of those stealth planes? Personally I think that the Prowler should look something like that, thin, no bulk whatsoever. I know there is all that electronic equipment and whatnot, but I think it should be thinner and more agile-looking than most UNSC ships.

P.S. I know its just a concept. Just throwing in a little constructive criticism.

Thomas actually I did modle it after stealth aircraft. That is the side profile. From head-on or top-down it is sleek. Think of it looking like a knife. Let me work on the other views really quickly and get them um.

Something similar if not slimmer than this:

Just a quick note looking at The Fall of Reach
The destroyer iroquois is equiped with
2 MAC guns
26 oversized archer missile pod
3 shiva warheads
2 times the weight of any frigate but only 7 meters longer
no single ship fighters
2 meters of titanium A battle plate

Some other things from reading the passage of keys in the first battle of sigma octanus 4 that i thought would add to this. Make it so that the nuke ability creates a new unattackable unit that has a detonation ability (if thats possible) for further micro managing.

Other notes:
nukes cant penetrate shield but they do disable them
1 mac round can remove shields of frigates and perhaps destoryers
1 mac round can kill or extreamly wound a frigate
90 archer missiles dont deal enough damage to lower the shields of a frigate
1 mac round from a UNSC frigate can damage a cov frigate through its shields, a second shot will again damage it but not destory it! (contrary to what was said before perhaps MAC cannon power IS different amongst different sized ships)
Covenant frigates have one plasma torpedo launcher which could be an ability just like the MAC for UNSC (i say this so you can give them normal pulse lasers AND plasma which will have a burn sorta like the current incindeary shells ability)
If a human ever controls a covenant ship (considering if they have a smart AI) weapon systems should be stronger. (based on first strike, cortana alters teh use of the magnetic coils to shoot a lance of plasma rather then a torpedo)
Instead of bombardment perhaps show drop ships heading towards the planet (phantoms/spirits and pelicans respectfully)
Another possible ship option would be agricultural support ships for the covenant http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Agricultural_Support_Ship
Used for food and supplies as well as "hunting" grounds for elites and or brutes.
Another point of interest http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Covenant_Air_Artillery
Cut from the Halo RTS but might look interesting as a space defence for the covenant.
Another http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/UNSC_shield_ship
All the info given suggests a troop transport, but given its name maybe something more? Something to think about for a support unit.
Dont forget that prowlers have 2 pulse lasers! (its odd i know but entirely true)
Halcyon-class Cruiser's are NOT armed the same as the pillar of autumn!!! They are actually rather outdated, the pillar of autumn was majorly refitted. While the hull would still be great as would some of the point defences the MAC is one shot only and the ship only has 6 archer missile pods as well as 8-10 fighter/bombers!

Oh . . .lol

No ship in the entire USNC has 2 mac guns the mac guns on every ship Run the line up and down the WHOLE DAMN SHIP. If you read the thing about the Destroyer it says the (2) next to mac cannons meaning it can shoot 2 shells at once. Look at this link to see all about the USNC navy and the ships they had (note its not all the Usnc ships its the ones known of). http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Navy on this next link go down and youll see covenant ships. http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Covenant . also acolyte i love the look for the Prowler.

An error in your post Maico, is that Covenant ships have more then one torpedo tube. Infact they have several. Many of the ships don't specify on how many exactly, but some say "2+" which means they have atleast two, probably more. Furthermore, plasma torpedo's move at 150,000 kilometers per second, and were guided by the tube that fired them. So ingame they should track ships really well. It said only small nimble ships at extreme ranges could dodge a plasma torpedo, or if they traveled towards the torpedo tube at an odd angle.

It further said that a plasma torpedo volley was the covenants opening attack against a UNSC fleet. And finally, it said that if the ship that fired the torpedo was destroyed, the torpedo would no longer track it's target, as it wasn't being directed by the ship. So if you could do that ingame, have all torpedo's stop tracking and just fly at a straight angle once the ship is dead, that'd rock.

Wrong. Look at the citation for the article....

"What those critics forgot that a UNSC Destroyer sported 2 MAC guns, 26 oversized Archer missile pods and 3 nuclear warheads. Only seven meters longer than a frigate. No single ship fighters. Almost as heavy than 2 frigates combined mass.
--Halo: The Fall of Reach page 139"

The did in fact have TWO MAC cannons.

Owned

For a destroyer design, I'm thinking you should just take the frigate, but load it up with armor. Like that fork, cover up the gap with thick armor, and beef the rest of it up. Since it said it looked like a frigate but with more armor.

After some looking around I actually found a concept image that I think would be a good base to modify for the UNSC Destroyer. Here's the link

Its the same mod that I found concept art of their Prowler and heavily based my design on aswell. They also have a battleship idea that might be well suited to evening out the Capital ships the Covenant have.

Also, after looking at the shield ship I think it would be a really good ship to use as the colonizing ship used by the UNSC. I was looking for a way the UNSC could colonize without the use of the huge Colony Ship and the Shield Ships looks like it could serve this purpose very well.

To be honest, I think you should just use the colony ship. It allready has a very detailed picture (Spirit under fire, from halo wars) and it simply looks badass. You could even make a military version, that would be like the Akkan (A cap ship that can fight, but colonize aswell). I'll have to look into what the shield ship looks like though, it may look better then the colony ship.

Edit: I found this http://www.moddb.com/mods/9722/halo-homefront/images/69920/unsc-destroyer#imagebox it's a more detailed view I think, as the sketch is kind of hard to see. Maybe it can help give you ideas? A merger of the sketch and this one?

Double edit: I just realized something with the UNSC frigate. The top of the fork angles down, it protudes above the main body while the bottem fork is in line with the body. So that means the MAC should fire from the bottem fork, not the top like it does in the game. The bottem fork means the MAC coil could run the length of the ship, while the top halves that, drasticly reducing power. For logics sake, you should make the MAC fire from the bottem fork, as it makes more sense, and is in line with other UNSC ships (The mac coil running the length of the ship).

Colt it is far to big to be used as the ONLY way for the UNSC to colonize worlds. they need a smaller ship capable of doing it aswell.

I've seen that model and it is absolutly fugly! I like the concept sketch way better even though the fron end of the ship need to me remodeled.

Well, like I said you could merge them. However I must insist (lol, insist....) that you use the front of the model. It's absolutely perfect for a destroyer (As it resembles a frigate, AND has two MAC's, while that sketch doesn't even have a MAC). Personally, I think if you merged the front of the model, with the body of the sketch, that'd make one hell of a destroyer.