That, my good sir, is awesome. My reaction, after sober deliberation:
In summary: want.
I adore the superbly-tweaked trilateral symmetry. Who says a space station has to have an even number of major components, eh? Congratulations on busting the prejudice against odd numbers of big things aboard a hull!
You’re right on target concerning “less bulk”. The slimming-down effort really paid off. Nothing but admiration here, Ace. While delicate-looking space stations aren’t always what a scenario needs, this one is a winner.
Are you planning on building one (or more) of these for each of the eight official Great Powers? Because if you aren’t, I believe that you certainly should consider it.
At the moment, the only race I’m a bit iffy on is the Alliance, for two reasons: A) I’ve never been able to use them effectively, so they aren’t my favorite race; and B) I find their sprites hard to work with in Paint.net due to the lack of straight lines. But yeah, I kind of figured I’d slowly work my way through the races and see what jumped out at me. Fed and Rebel were the ones I already had glimmers of ideas for; we’ll see how the other six (seven, eventually) come along.
YAAAY!!!, if i have no delays, i will have finished the modified station for tomorrow, thanks a lot man. ^^
I have to say… same here, i just cannot do anything with the alliance, their hulls, shapes and textures are just too different to the others for adding even small parts to other ships of other races… seems like Praetorian Industries is not going to make any experimental design using alliance techs… sadly…
Well, those seem like an engine to me, (and its weird to see a space station with engines one opposite of another :p) but as i said it is great anyways.
One tip, u should “erase” or replace the windows spots, cuz those big windows make the space station a bit weird in terms of size -.-
Those windows don’t necessarily have to be erased. Let’s use our imagination a bit more. Imagine them as giant-size observation decks overlooking the station’s three internal docking ports for smaller craft.
Hell, even a ship design as old as the refitted version of USS Enterprise - first seen in 1979’s “Star Trek - The Motion Picture” clearly shows two rows of huge vertical windows looking out from the ship’s botanical department. Big windows on a sci-fi starship are hardly a new concept. A stationary base can easily afford to have even bigger ones than might be practical aboard any mobile vessel.
I agree they look kind of like engines, but part of the reason I put the big stabilizer vanes to either side is I think of them as giant particle accelerator-type weapons (the vanes are for focusing the containment field, or some similar technobabble). I’m actually thinking I may use that piece, scaled wayyyy down, as a turret for one upcoming mod or another. (Oh my, did I just imply more mod ideas/plans yet again?)
That’s pretty much my thinking as well, for a couple reasons: A) I like the idea of command areas with big walls of transparent material, maybe with screen technology worked in (for zomming/enhancement etc.), and B) I have a bad record with modifying the window spots on the existing sprites. (You all haven’t seen my efforts in that area, and you’re not going to. They’re really bad.)
If someone cares, i’m advancing slowly with the new station that uses as base the last creation of Ace, i have to say that i really like what i have done with the free spaces that are close to the huge windows. And i have changed the windows sections for a cooler set of hangars. The middle is another story, i’m trying to make 3 main holographic emmiters that projects the badge of PI Mod, atm all the attempts were unsuccesful.
Because my damage texture for the Federation Outpost has turned out so nice, I thought I would share:
If you’re asking why those two main power conduits have turned bright magenta, apparently that’s what happens to a Federation power conduit when you inflict heavy damage on its power regulator (the bullet-shaped piece in the four corners of the station core). I was as surprised as anyone!
From the small size of the various damage spots, you can conclude that either A) the station is surprisingly tough, or B) the guy making the damage texture isn’t really sure what he’s doing. I prefer explanation A).
No, the hull is very much a cruiser - the one in the screenshots is equipped with a ridiculous number of Fusion Beams and MWMs. But it’s not as overwhelmingly huge as I could make it - at the moment it’s a shade smaller than the lovely Lion-class dreadnought.
… At least that’s what the hull file tells me. Perhaps a slightly more comprehensive test is in order…
If all goes well, it will become obvious in very short order. If all goes less well, it will be a somewhat longer order. But my primary reasons for building a Federation space station are on the horizon (and if you want to be extremely detail-oriented, I’ve already dropped a subtle hint in my recent postings elsewhere in the modding forum).
Yeah, I just realized that. The frigate engine was artifact from the previous thingy in the design screen.
On another size-related note, I deployed the station alongside a Lion dreadnought, decided I didn’t like the comparison, and increased the station’s size so that it is now slightly larger than the Lion. Now I like the way it looks a little better.
A Station is not supossed to be stationary?? if it is not a station (u didnt “cut” out all the speed, just -40), where are the engines??
And y a negative cost bonus??? It should be the opossite, the station already has other bonuses (and the -speedbonus should not be counting as a bonus cuz it is a station), and with that number of slots, the bonus should be ++.
They’re on the underside where we can’t see them. I may increase the speed penalty; what I was trying to avoid was a situation where literally the only reason to stick in an engine was for the maps where it’s required. If you’re putting in an engine, you should get at least a little bang for your buck. Besides, as the old saying goes, “Pigs fly fine if you apply enough thrust.”
I started out with a positive cost bonus, I may put it back that way. As it is, the thing is huge and generally stationary (i.e., damn near anything will hit it); I’m not sure how much “it will beggar three planets to build it” it’ll take before it becomes unusable.
A stationary base can easily afford to have even bigger ones than might be practical aboard any mobile vessel.
I may increase the speed penalty; what I was trying to avoid was a situation where literally the 
