Which is why one of the Warthog's (plane used by the military) supersonic, depleted uranium rounds can turn a tank inside out when they hit (and no, they aren't explosive or incendiary...).

I would like to clarify something though...  In the story, when reading from the Vas's point of view, it is said to be a scouting ship.  In other words, this ship was not built for combat.  It was made to colonize worlds and defend itself against militia...  In other words, it had a really thin hull and low power shields...  The point is, it wasn't too hard to kill...  Against a normal Egg, it would have punched through the shields, but would not have destroyed it.

actually Volt_Cruelerz, DU rounds are very unique.

Here's how they work-

Yes, the USAF's A-10 Thunderbolt II aka 'Warthog' fires it's DU 30x173mm NATO ammo at supersonic speeds. However, the other thing is that it fires extremely fast (~4200 rpm), and that DU is pyrophoric. It is also self-sharpening.

Here's what I mean- upon impact with a hard (like steel or composite ceramics) target, the DU will begin fracturing at the tip, in such a manner that it always remains pointed, allowing it KE (kinetic energy) to enable it to continue penetrating a target. Upon reaching the interior of a tank, the fragments of DU that have shed off of the slug, will IGNITE (emphasis) upon reaching air. If the fragments hit fuel lines, hydraulics, or ammunition, then big boom.

Why Big Boom? The DU fragments are on fire, and are extremely high temperature. This will 'cook off', ammo, by causing it to heat up so that the propellant ignites and discharges. Hydraulics are flammable, so if the hydraulics lines are severed, and squirt all over the interior, then everyone inside catches fire and you have a roasted tank crew. If it hits fuel, then it's a little obvious that there will be an explosion.

Also, Railgun that fires slugs at 0.5-0.6c (max 60% light speed) will have much greater range than the DU rounds on the A-10.

The penetration of the GAU-8A Avenger, the 30mm weapon mounted in the Warthog, is as follows- 69mm RHA steel @ 500 meters range, 38mm RHA steel at 1000 meters range. Also, the accuracy for the weapon is as follows- 80% of rounds fired at 1200m from a target will hit within a 6m radius (12m diameter).

I got this off of Wikipedia, so I'm pretty sure it's accurate.

Hmm... well, at any rate, I'm working on some stuff for this right now...

yeah, sorry for going off on a tangent, but I think that EVERYONE'S (emphasis) info should be accurate.

I think it's awesome that your mod thread has already got 4 whole pages, plus another that'll probably rapidly fill up.

well, thats cause we keep going off on tangents =P

right, so i have an idea for the Nolane Converter! (Advent Lancer) it came to me just before i fell asleep last night

the original idea calls for he ship to be massive (think 3-4 progenitors strapped together at the 'head' (fat bit at the top) in a star shape) but im sure we can make it smaller

so, im not sure if i want to do it with 3 or 4 arms, but, imagine a central fuselage, more or less cylindrical in shape. the fuselage itself would be a 'thin' (as in maybe 45% the diameter of the Astrom?) with a slight taper until just before the forward weapons bank, which will be a slightly swollen oval 'bubble' at the front of the fuselage. the bridge (not that it matters) would be located in or just below the base of the 12 o'clock arm.

then, you have 3 large arms (either straight-edged with 'pods' (imagine a medicine capsule) at the tips, or with a slight curve towards the front of the ship with some sort of evil looking weapons mount at the tip) mounted at 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock coming out perpendicular to the ship, and are about 1/3rd as long (front to back) at the base as 1/5th of the fuselage, and 90-100% as tall as the fuselage. the arms would have a slight taper to them as they get further out until they are about 50-75% as long as the base.

alternatively, the ship could have 4 arms, mounted at 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, and 10:30 respectively. the wings here would be slightly longer at the base, as the forward curve as the arms move further away from the ship is much, much greater, in that by the tip the arms are parrallel with the fuselage. the arms would still have the evil looking weapons mount im imagining... im pretty sure it comes from Star Trek or Farscape, ill have to find out which and post a picture

the drive section would be at the back of the fuselage where the arms and fuselage join.

there are 2 possibilities for the main weapon mount:

1. it is charged and fired from the 3 'pods' at the end of each arm, directly from the pod to the target, or,

2. it is charged and channelled into the forward weapons section, charge is built up and then released from this location directly at the target...

(so basically, we would have a beam effect coming from each pod into the front weapons section, then the super charged beam emanating from the FWS straight to the target)

Standard forward weaponry could/would be mounted in the forward weapons section, though mounting them on the arms may be move visually appealing.

flanking weaponry is a bit of a problem atm, as the arms would get in the way... unless we mount them on the tips of the arms (in the 4-arm configuration) or on top (close to the base) of the 4 and 8 o'clock arms, and then on the sides of the fuselage towards the front (in the 3-arm configuration).

it needs work methinks... the 3 arm configuration (in my mind) looks awesome, though the 4-arm configurarion matches the advent style a bit more, and still looks awesome.

still working on research... does anyone have ideas for what exactly they would like on the tree? like what sort of upgrades (weapons, defense, what topics in particular) etc?

I like the idea and the 3A one would look cooler, but the 4A would be easier to do...  I'll try the 3A one though...  Perhaps have the arms at 12, 4, and 8 while the weapon banks would be at 2, 6, and 10.  (the one at 6 would be forward facing and would hold the forward guns...

I think this would look cool...  As far as the superweapon goes, it would look best if the arms contained a ball of energy that then fired...

As far as research goes, the necessary things are:

Carrier and BS upgrades (Mk. II-V)

Flak Turrets (like normal turrets only they spray flak all over the place)

Some other things too...

Something I wanted to avoid, but may ultimately be incorporated would be additional races...  The book I am writing, The Dawn War, speaks of some "races" if you wished to call them that...  Incorporating them would require extremely vast amounts of work and time that we don't have, so unless we get a big team, it would be unlikely...  All the same, I'll put them down...

Extuli: Elite, genetically advanced offshoot of humanity.  Technically, they are Homo extuli.  At one point, this race ruled humanity in an empire.  Volt Cruelerz is one eighth extuli.

Playstyle: Though few in number, the high level of discipline of Extuli soldiers causes allegiance to be higher than any other race.  In addition, all ships are far more expensive, but are also far more powerful than their counterparts in other races.  They focus heavily on extraordinarily powerful ships including the battleship, "The Emperor's Crown" and the lancer "Emperor's Scepter."  In small numbers, they are a force to be reckoned with, but in large numbers, they are unstoppable.

G-Class: Also referred to as the Storm.  A race of sentient robots that ended the Extuli reign over humanity.  Designed by a brilliant scientist and made to be perfect, a criminal organization reprogrammed them before they went into mass production and once there were billions of them, these robots launched the Holocaust, a period of three hundred years in which more than 60 billion people died.

Playstyle: Quantity over quality is the name of the game here.  Their ships can be mass produced and can easily overwhelm opponents with far greater numbers.  Through a system that inhibits the use of credits, this race is very vulnerable to hired pirates and has no use for the Black Market.

United Human Republic: After the fall of the Extuli-run Human Empire, the scientist who designed the G-Class created a new government which pulled all resources together and the likes of which, he was the president.  Through a long battle of attrition, this was victorious over the G-Class...

Playstyle: Allegiance is a hard thing to come by as people are just starting to pick up the pieces of the civil war.  This race focuses extremely heavily on research and without the research in the "Labs of Xavios" (the ship upgrade research tree), this race has no ability to defend itself.  To win against them, you have to rush because late-game, they will win.  Researches here are more expensive, but have far higher buffs than normal.  This race is also good at creating an efficient economy with TP's at tier III.

Z-Class: Though the exact origins of this robotic race are unknown, it is known to be led by a Z-128.  Known to be highly dangerous, this appears to be an advanced version of the robots that caused the Holocaust.

Playstyle: Learning from the G-Class's mistakes, Z-128 began by building robotic mercenaries to join the rebels in the civil war.  Once the rebels were put down, launched a campaign, but did hire humans to do his work for him.  He had no use for credits, but the pirates did, so he found a use for them.  This class has almost no economy to speak of, but has Embargo like abilities on many of its ships, allowing it to passively sap resources from enemies.

Odds are, we will never get around to this, but if we do, it would be cool...  I'm just being hypothetical here...

Very interesting Volt.

It reminds me of some additional races I'm thinking of doing for my 'The Legions' mod.

These are-

The Xyphos Hegemony- little is known of the Xyphos Hegemony, but it is believed by the Ancients of Zol (another     race) that they created the Necros Mechanicum.

The Sanguinus (SANG-GWEEN-US) Empire- essentially space vampires

The Necros Mechanicum- these are the killer-destructo-robots of the mod

The Empire of Egron Rising- coldly logical aliens bent on exterminating all to dominate all

and maybe some others that I can't think of yet.

you are certainly correct, its alot of work to make new races. i definitly think we should get this bit done first then move on to expansions...

i do have to say about your races idea, Volt...

1. all 4 of the races seem very... similar... as in, youve got advanced humans... then youve got killer robots... then youve got killer humans... then youve got advanced robots...

2. at least 2 of the races dont have much use for an economy... well... thats a game mechanic that would be very difficult to remove from gameplay...

however, the Extuli and some combination of Z- and G-classes could be good... perhaps we could create them as subfactions of each race? so, Advent have Extuli, TEC have robots, and Vasari have Vulcans? =P

no seriously, subfactions would be a good idea, it would cut the work required almost in half, as most of the coding/modelling etc would already have been done, so...

anyway, i posted in another thread an idea for scuttling planets:

i think it could be a nice thing to implement, though i dont think it would have that much influence on gameplay...

I know... I was just being hypothetical... 

As far as a lack of credits, I have figured out how to do that...  The Z-Class would work, but the Storm would be harder...

As far as Subraces goes, Extuli are almost advent like (minus the ESP) in both culture and military.  If we knocked out the storm, then the UHR could be the subrace of TEC and then the Z's/Tempest (another name for it) could be a race all their own...

If this was the case, the SB's would be as follows...

Extuli-Emperor's Throne

A rather traditional starbase with the ability to act as a massive culture-beacon.  It also increases the damage and mitigation of nearby ships, though it has little armament itself.  Because all its abilities augment the fleet, it would be able to move to keep the fleet in range of its abilities.  Though by far the weakest by itself, it becomes an unstoppable force--or rather turns the fleet into an unstoppable force--when used in conjunction with a fleet.

Tempest-Multiplier

Think giant ship factory.  Only with minimal armament, this can manufacture massive amounts of strike craft, frigates, and capitals quickly.  Unable to move, this SB is however capable to create an army at a moment's notice.  If the user has any fleet points left, attacking one is most unwise as a fleet, equal to your own, can be manufactured in mere minutes.  Disabling it however can stop the onslaught of enemies it will send forth.

UHR-Xavios

With minimal assistance in the form of SC's or abilities such as the Throne offers, this is however the most powerful SB in the game when it comes to holding its own.  By far the most expensive in both time and money, this is extremely impractical to be used as an offensive tool.  Once built in your gravity well however, you may consider that planet to be indefinitely yours.  The size of an average Terran planet and disguised to look like one, this giant machine is immobile but has a range encompassing nearly the entire gravity well.  Provoking one is unwise as its massive and seemingly infinite banks of weapons can shred entire fleets.  Only a truly massive fleet and an enemy starbase would put a dent in the armor.  The recommended form of destruction of this battle station is the self destruct feature of the TEC base.  Though not enough to kill it, it will damage it greatly and make it possible for a large fleet to destroy it.

Once again, I was just being hypothetical about what we could ultimately do...

So i was thinking about a new cap ship class

the best name i have for it so far is the "Ship of the Line"

this is my idea to sort of incorporate the popular idea of a Flagship or Admiral's ship into the Mod. Naturally, this will be a very late game, incredibly expensive ship with lots of research pre-requisites (such as researching every permutation of at least 2 different Capital Ships). It would be very slow but with AMAZING firepower.

If destroyed, it causes a massive loss in fleet effectiveness: damage output reduced, refire rate reduced, AM/Hull/Shield regen reduced, speed reduced, Phase Jump charge up rate increased by 150%. If an enemy Ship of the Line is destroyed, all non-allied ships could get a 1-5% bonus in all the above mentioned nerfs.

oh, and Ships of the Line cannot seige planets (fire nukes etc at planets)

Atm im still tossing up between what abilities (if any) the ship should have, or if i want it to level up like a cap ship or a starbase, or something new entirely. BUT i do have basic model, armament/ability and lore ideas.

TEC: "Victory Class" Ship of the Line: The 'Victory Class' was inspired by research into ancient history, when humans would fight for wealth, for country and for freedom. The height of the darkness that was our violent past.

The 'Victory' has been built from the ground up, the embodiment of all Humanity's greatest scientific acheivements... and homage to our darkest nightmares. A tribute to all the destructive potential Humanity as a species can deliver, forged by the rage and sadness of all that has been lost, and fuelled by desperation after decades of war against not one, but two unrelenting, xenocidal empires.

The Victory is an iconic vessl. At twice the size of a Kol, it is an imposing sight no matter where you are in the battle.

Armaments:

(Fore)
2x Linked Beam Cannons (4)
2x Linked Heavy Pulse Laser Cannons (3)

(Port/Starboard)
2 Medium Missile Batteries
3 Medium AutoCannon Batteries

(Aft)
2x Linked Heavy Pulse Laser Cannons (2)
2 Heavy Pulse Laser Batteries

(Note: Pulse Laser Cannons are different to Pulse Laser Batteries. PLC's are seen mounted on the Kol Battleship next to the hangar, while PLB's are seen on all other TEC ships equipped with Laser Weaponry)

Abilities:

ECM: A Powerful Suite of Electronic Counter-Measures on-board the Victory interferre with enemy weapons guidance and targetting. 20% damage reduction to all enemy ships within a radius of 4000 (?)

To Victory!: Increases Regen and Damage output of owned and allied (?) ships by <Insert number here>. Also increases owned ship speed by <insert number here>. Both buffs have a range of 4000 (?) units  (Passive Ability)

Astrom Ion Cannon MkII: The Victory deploys an extreme range, extreme damage Astrom Ion Cannon, similar to the one deployed on the Astrom Lancer, but super-charged with power straight from the ships engines. Designed to cause massive damage to extremely large ships, it is considered one of the only weapons known to man that can concieveable counter another 'Ship of the Line'.

This is the general idea of how i want the ship, but with some differences... id model it myself but dont have the software so rather than try to explain it porly with words ill jsut use the below image for reference.

So, first off, the Meson Bolt Cannon will be mounted at the very bottom of the ship on that extrusion below Comm. Array (the tower at the top of the ship).

The Linked Beam Cannons will be mounted on the port and starboard sides of the 'prow' of the ship (the very front that looks sorta like an axe blade), as well as sticking out of the front of the winglets at the front of the ship. Each bank of 2 Beam Cannons will be able to engage a seperate target.
The forward three 2x Linked Pulse Laser Cannons will be mounted on the top of the prow, and beneath the winglets, respectively.

The 4 Port/Starboard Missile Batteries (2 to a side) will be mounted in the center of the ship (halfway between front and back and top and bottom)

The 3 Port/Starboard AutoCannon Batteries will be mounted at the back of the winglets, at the bottom of the ship under the Comm. Array (the tower at the top of the ship) and in the center of the section in front of the drive section.

The two Aft 2x Linked Pulse Laser Cannons will be mounted on the flat surface behind the Comm Array, and the flat surface between the Meson Bolt Cannon mount and the drive section.

The 2 Aft Laser Batteries will be mounted on the Port and Starboard sides of the flat surface where the lower Aft Laser Battery is mounted.

 (Note: its getting kinda late here, ive spent most of the day doing research and brainstorming... to the point that i actually ran out of time to write it all down. So, ill write in point form the next to ship details with some basic modelling/weapons layout info, and ill come back with abilities and lore tomorrow.)

Advent: "Ascendance" Persecutor: Frustrated by the continued failure of The Unity to exact their revenge on the Trader Emergency Coalition, and running out of resources on which to survive and maintain a war effort, The Advent turned to desperate measures. Venturing into science even their most radical scientists considered taboo and unethical, The Advent used genetic manipulation and psychic suggestion to create the most horrific creature The Unity had never dreamed about. Fundamentally flawed physically, with a mind tortured by images, thoughts and impulses that would drive any living creature to madness, this being, this... baby girl, died 17 agonising hours after being created, along with a number of the Psi Adepts used to ply her mind. But not before she gave The Advent the answer to their problem, for in those few long hours of existence, she had envisioned a craft that would scour the galaxy clean of all life unworthy to be a part of The Unity. She had given them: The Persecutor

Armaments:

(Fore)
4 Heavy Plasma Cannons
4 Heavy Pulse Laser Batteries

(Port/Starboard)
2 Psionic Surge Generators (the one on the Advent Starbase)
4 Medium Beam Cannons

(Aft)
2 Psionic Surge Generators
4 Heavy Pulse Laser Batteries

Abilities:

(I have ideas but im falling asleep, so ill write them in detail later. atm, just suffice it to say they are all passive abilities bar one just like the Victory)

The ship would look like a cross-section of a mushroom if you cut it down the middle. the front of the ship would be the 'stalk' of the mushroom and the drive section and 'wings' would be the 'cup' of the mushroom (the top bit). the 'prow' of the ship would look like a horses hoof (closest thing i can think of), maintaining a rounded triangular shape until it reaches the back of the ship where the engines are located and the wings sprout out, coming around in an arc towards the front of the ship, finishing in a flat surface parallel to the main hull.

(Fore)
Forward Plasma Cannons would be mounted on the flat surface of the wings parallel to the main hull, while the forward lasers would be built into the nose of the ship itself.

(Port/Starboard)
Port/Starboard Psionic Surge Generators and Beam Cannons would be built into the main hull of the ship, in front of where the wings begin to shadow the hull.

(Aft)
Aft Laser Cannons would be built into the hull at the back of the ship, a little bit wider than the width of the main hull. Aft Psionic Surge Generators would be built in to the top and bottom of the Main hull, in the center, simply aimed backwards.

ASoL Cannon (Anti-Ship Of the Line): will be mounted on a similar surface under the nose of the ship.

Vasari: "Vasurak" Harbinger:

i was thinking something that really embodies vasari aggression and oppresive nature and the tactic of instilling ear into their enemies or whatnot, so first i came up with something like this:

its more the fact that it has those funky pylon/arm things all over the place. i know its nothing like what the Vasai have atm, but i dont think it would be a stretch... anyway, the above design was just my first inspiration. i remember i knew anothe scary as all hell ship:

as if you WOULDNT shit yourself, faint, wake up, dance around like a crazy person, slap the guy next to you, and then run like a little girl after you saw that ship coming after you...

so, im definitly not saying lets make that model, cause thats plaigarism, and it looks WAY too complicated for Volt to model, but im definitly thinking something like that would fit the Vasari style...

anyway, i had a few other ideas but im seriously crashing here so ill be back on tomoz and ill finish this post then

Awesome!

I like both the Vasari ship pics and would love to see both in Sins. For the Advent may I sugest a design similar to [spoiler alert] the alien ships at the end of the movie Knowing (will try to find a picture if you havent seen the movie).

ive seen it... not sure if that will fit with Advent style... if i remember correctly, those alien ships look alot like the Narada right? (the romulan mining ship in Star Trek)

Sorry, I've been gone...  At any rate, I like the SoL's...  My thing is though, could they be balanced?  They would be cool and whatnot, but could they be balanced with the rest of the game.  Aside from that, they wouldn't live very long as the highest level cap is always the first ship to die.  This concept would only be amplified by the increased power of it.  Perhaps, if you took the health/shields/damage of a level 10 cap, you could use that as their level one and have them scale so by the end, they are about 2.25 times more powerful than a level 10 cap.

At any rate, Has anyone seen the movie Serenity?  I was watching it the other day and the Alliance ships in there gave me some awesome ideas for the advent ships...

yeah, I saw that movie, it was awesome. I think that there's a prequel/sequel miniseries or something that went straight to DVD. I saw prequel/sequel because I'm not sure which it is.

Serenity is based off the TV show Firefly that was on Fox a while ago.

A little, its all crystaly and less scary. and the spikes are at the top. Also there are less spikes and it looks adventy.

Yep, firefly...  Unfortunately, it was canceled due to an argument between the director and Fox.  

At any rate, could you post a pic of them?  Google is being weird right now...

Looks really nice, i love reading the backstory to your ideas Volt. It never ceases to amaze me how many creative and imaginative people are there in the SINS community. Certainly looking foward to this mod.

Also, for some reason reading about the TEC weapon reminded me of the MAC cannons that were added to the ships in the Halo books. Either way, cool stuff!

Thank you.

Well, I can assure you, that it has nothing to do with Halo... I haven't played the games (in campaign that is) nor have I read the books.

Lol im sorry i didnt mean to imply that it was taken from halo from my last post. I look foward to more of the backstory to the ships if you continue to add to it.

pfft, what do you think this is? a video game? of course it cant be balanced... =P

jks, yeah, that sounds good... the more i think about it the more i think purchasing upgrades like a starbase is the best way to go. i mean, im playing a game with the Distant Stars Mod, and i just watched a decently sized med-large fleet get decimated by a single upgraded starbase with 4 hosikos (who, btw i dont think were really doing all that much repairing). naturally the upgrades would be insanely expensive, and i think there should be a choice of more health/shields/armor etc, passive abilities, SC capacity? and maybe some sort of weapon boost (more weapon mounts/types? so that when fully upgraded they would be in the configuration in the post above). perhaps a mobile Phase Jump Inhibitor as well... Vasari could also have a unique Phase Stabiliser ability... Advent could have a unique Project Shields (ala Guardian Cruisers) ability, and TEC ... idn, is it possible to create an ability that would record what ships are in a fleet, and, when losses are taken, create a replacement ship automatically? otherwise, im sure some sort of Flux field (ala Dunov Battlecruiser) could be used.

im wondering if we want a super ability or not... im thinking not considering how powerful their standard weapons will be, and plus SC and abilities... im also thinking of built in flak weapons but that depends...

as for balance vs other ships, they could be suceptible to Destroyers, Battleships and Lancers, as well as that super-cannon that would be VERY effective vs SotLs and less effective (yet still effective) vs other ships. the idea of the "super-cannon" is that it is effective vs Sotls, but has such a high AM cost and cooldown time that you would be stupid to use it against anything less than a Cap ship... and even then...

as for survivability... even focus-firing, an armor/shields upgraded SB takes ages to take down unless you bring a fair few Assault Cruisers... so unless we allow ACs to target SotLs... perhaps at 45-55% the effeciency with which they destroy structures?... i dont think they will fall to FF-ing too quickly, especially with fleet support. they would definitly be more of a one-ship navy than a Battleship, but by no means able to destroy a large fleet single handedly.

i havent seen Serenity in ages, but yeah, some great ship designs there... which one did you have in mind?

Hmm...  True...  I just want to make sure things are balanced.  The problem with super-caps historically (and I know from personal modding experience) is that they are either too weak and worthless, or they can singlehandedly change the outcome of the game...  I just want to make sure that someone comes up with something to prevent this...

I don't believe that it is possible to make a new armor class, but if that is possible, we could give this armor class to the starbases (rather than the normal "very-heavy" that they have now) and supercaps...  I'll have to check...

Well, they had better have some truly potent support abilities...

As for the one I was thinking of, this is the only pic I could find of it, but I'll keep looking...  Its just a pic of the bridge though, but if you've seen the movie, you may remember what the rest of the ship looks like...

http://forums.filefront.com/attachments/sw-eaw-modding-mapping-editing/47285d1141830627-serenity-firefly-mod-operative-ship_.jpg

i found this pic of most of the alliance fleet... you are talking about the fat one right above the Serenity's engine, right?

i agree with you... VERY cool

i also saw this ship... the one in the back with the big ass gun on the back looks sweet advent super cap/lancer?

i also found this pic, i believe its from some sort of Serenity RPG... some nice designs here... remember, ultimately we want to create those three new races/subfactions, so keep an open mind.

and, by definition, a Super-Cap would and should have an apparent and obvious effect on any battle. i mean, just the passive buffs for your ships and penalties against your enemies alone would tip a battle. but you are right, it needs to be balanced, as does everything. the massive costs of researching, purchasing and upgrading alone would stop you building them too early. as for combat... there are all sorts of things, a few i mentioned in a previous post.

also... at first i figured we would only allow one to be built... but the more i think about it i think a limit of 3 would be better... of course, research would be required to build more ships.

lastly, ive been playing the Distant Stars Mod recently... there are alot of good ideas in that mod, (ive only played TEC as of yet, but...) such as Electronic Warfare Bombers (disrupt targetting and engines, i think) for all cap ships and hangar defenses, Elite Fighters and Bombers for Sova Carriers, more planet types and research to colonise gas giants etc. If the makers of DS wouldnt mind, there are alot of things we could and should incorporate into our mod.

so... tell me tell me, do you have any new eye candy (aka model design work) in a state for us to look at?

to be honest we have been watching you guys as well

we agree you have some interesting ideas and would not mind sharing

I will let Nacey and Ue_Carbon know and we will see about working something out

ps try the EWS bombers for the Vasari with a Maraduar in your fleet. No fleet can run from you then

 Muhahahahah!

Yes.  That is what I'm talking about.

No, I haven't got anything yet, but I'll start modeling the Eyron today (based on the alliance ship above)

As for the Nolane, I would like to use that design with the gun in the back...  Very long and would fit the description of lancer quite nicely.

A data trade would be nice and now I really want to download that mod...  (I want those bombers!)

Something else I was thinking of, perhaps there could be a "Boarding Party" ship that is like the ships in battlefront that can land in enemy hangers and you can spawn from them.  In sins, this would be a new SC that would "land" inside the enemy ship and would launch attacks from inside.  This would cause a DoT and would disable assorted things like engines, phase jump, etc.  Now, the SC would of course be destroyed so it wouldn't just go out and disable entire fleets...

Anyways, for the code...  The squad would only have one ship in it.  It would be heavily armed (full banks of weapons) and armored (400 hull or so) to defend itself against enemy ships.  The armor class would be light, thus making it susceptible to fighters and interceptors (really want to put them in here).  It would have a "Board Enemy Vessel" ability that would allow it to board enemy capitals (only).  It would fly into them and in the code would have a self-destruct function like martydom.  At this point, they would instill their target with a DoT and would (if I can figure out how) every 20 seconds or so, receive another deactivation.  First it would likely be the ability to rebuild SC's.  Next, would be the phase drive.  Next would be the engines.  Then, abilities.  Last, but not least: all weapons.  Now, every 20 seconds, another one would be added, but because of the ship's repair crews, each debuff would only last for 40 seconds.  That way, you get two debuffs at a time.  It should be remembered that the DoT is still going on.

As for the Troop Transporter ship that would launch boarding parties, it would have little hull/shield but would have 3 SC squads.  As well as the Boarding Party SC, it would have Repair Crew SC that would target friendly ships and would have the reverse effect.

Another thing I just thought of (now that I'm thinking about SC) is the game ORB.  Awesome game and one of the first good space RTS's.  Anyways, there is an SC in there called the Marksman.  It fires long range torpedoes at enemies and has a limited supply of "Hull Masher" torpedoes that live up to their name.

In sins, these would fulfill the "heavy bomber" ship concept.  The squads would normally have long range torpedoes, but would have the ability to temporarily activate AM torpedoes, thus draining AM from their reserve to make their weapons far more powerful.

I don't know...  Just some ideas...

Another thing that just crossed my mind is