this it the barge revision as presented a longer time ago. it is more in-scale with the other freelancer ships ( the current one is scaled down as one can see on the attached vanilla ships ).
the quality of that model is MUCH higher, especially when its about the skin/texture.
now that we have more barges flying around, it might be beneficial to have something of a better mesh quality. when it was presented some time ago, most ppl did not like the revision - but by then, the barge wasn t public and so i d ask again if that revision suits the ppl.
the entire ship still has a very disadvantagous shape - long, wide and many large extensions.
i d also like to know if the current concept ( stats ) are fine with the barge. - but here are the basic ideas again - which we must adhere to:
- BAD for trading and travelling
- durable but vulnerable
- minimum self defense, BUT it ought to be able to self defend
my suggestion:
- decrease shielding to actually freighter / fighter
- further increase the armour by two ( 3.200.000 base hitpoints ) but decrease the bats/bots significantly ( to maybe only 500/500
- change the 3 turrets to lvl8 gunboat turrets ( for anti bomber missiles )
Well, the model is nice, but do you know if it behaves the same way that the current Barge ? (is it equally hard to dock)
And about stats, this ship is not designed to defend itself. No need for 3m200k armor (more than a Battleship for a thing that is basically a giant cargo pod ?) or Gunboat turrets.
the original barge was meant to be a storage depot
we did all we could ( in reasonable terms ) to make it as little mobile as possible while maintaining a minimum mobility ( ability to fly system to system but make it a real pain )
the original barge was meant to be tough. due to being mostly unique or at least extremely special, it was meant to be rock hard - a winning price for a pirate ( not a single bomber ) but a huge "fleet" of organized pirates to take down, as the barge was meant to be THE focus point of large mining operations.
- armour currently is the highest of all mobs ( mobile objects )
- it is meant to at least support defenders hence my suggestion of GB missiles
think of the barge not only as a floating storage. it is a ship that is "as expensive as a battleship" - and cooperations must not loose such an investment - so they WILL slap armour on it.
there might also be plans to include processing of raw materials - which could give a barge a factory / refinary feature. making it even more valuable for large cooperations.
Gunboat missiles are interesting - but the bombers easily outrange them, even with SNACs. If you're going to harden it, might also want to slap a much heavier shield class on it then a transport class.
That said, I would appreciate the current model to lose those large spokes aft, and either relocate or shorten that fighter pad... Plenty of space along it's main hull for something like that (lose one of the pods, slap the dock in it's stead). With the size this craft is, those will cause problems when moving through certain lanes and systems. I'd also modify the engines to not be as wide, lose the second muzzle and pull them into the hull slightly - then add two more on the top, and a few more along the hull (mid and forward) to signify that it takes a lot of oomph to move a ship this size.
Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
Quote:the entire ship still has a very disadvantagous shape - long, wide and many large extensions.
Do these have roughly the same effect that the current Barge's extensions had? On the current Barge, you can just barely fit the thing through lanes and gates, if you're really careful about it. These new extensions look a bit bigger to me. Will then catch on any edges?
Quote:- decrease shielding to actually freighter / fighter
I'm not so sure about this. Sure, you'll be boosting the ship's armor up to incredible levels to compensate for it, but I still feel that this thing needs a transport shield. It just doesn't seem right to put such a low-class shield on the biggest moving thing in Sirius. After all, even the most powerful transport shield can be taken down rather quickly by the bombers and gunboats which are most likely to be attacking a Barge.
Quote:- change the 3 turrets to lvl8 gunboat turrets ( for anti bomber missiles )
The idea of having missile turrets on this thing... well, would be nice, but that's not for me to decide. But what do you mean by "the 3 turrets?" The current Barge appears to have 7 turret slots. Will this new one have only 3, or are you just suggesting that 3 of the 7 turrets be class 8?
And as for the model itself, my only issue is with the texture. It looks like it's going to have that "roughness" that most non-vanilla textures seem top have in-game. I'm sure there's some technical term for it, but I don't know how to explain it properly. On the current Barge, though, there are no such problems with the texture. It's just very... plain.
![[Image: barge.png]](http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc79/JinxTT/Ship%20Showcase/barge.png)
![[Image: just_a_signature_by_sjrarj-d63yjsx.png]](https://img00.deviantart.net/ca73/i/2013/123/e/a/just_a_signature_by_sjrarj-d63yjsx.png)
![[Image: 158aufs.jpg]](http://oi49.tinypic.com/158aufs.jpg)
![[Image: CCA0PJZ.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/CCA0PJZ.gif)
![[Image: Zukeenee2.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/cMA8ubJ.png)
