Much better.

By John Sickels (Johnsickels) on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 09:04 pm: Edit

Much much better.

Strakes generate a quantum-flux subspace bypass pocket that amplifies the efficiency of the normal warp bubble by some 20 percent. (I just made that up)

By David Bostwick (Zarquon) on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 09:33 pm: Edit

New design looks much better, but I would also prefer them to be proportioned like ones shown on the Kzinti model.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 11:16 pm: Edit

I agree that the shortened strakes work much better.


Perhaps the strakes themselves could be said to contain some of the added "X-stuff" which would not appear as distinct system boxes on the SSD: such as additional shield generators, more sensors and scanners, and added hardware support for advanced fire control systems. This would be in order to help support things like the stronger (and faster to replenish) X-shields, the X-EW effect, X-Aegis, the X-minesweeper functionality, and so on.

In other words, stuff which was too difficult to "pack" into a first-generation X-ship otherwise - yet which might leave the door ajar for a more integrated approach with X2-ships if/when their time arrives.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 11:37 pm: Edit

The Federation short Strakes are fine, no need to make them look anymore like the Kzinti ones.

By John Williams (Johndw) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 01:46 pm: Edit

Love the short strakes

By Kurt Byanski (Kurtski) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 01:52 pm: Edit

The slightly shorter strakes look good to me too. Thank you for the adjustment!

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 01:54 pm: Edit

What would a federation DDX look like

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Between the microgravity tides and igniting the atmosphere, it was decided it would be better for everyone to put the new meta-material bus bars on the outside of the ship.

While the transporter buffers could (usually) repair the disassembled crew members, the constant need to repaint incinerated rooms was deemed to be unsustainable in a war zone. (Each gallon of paint delivered by priority transport displaced a gallon of Romulan Ale.)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 05:53 pm: Edit

Will says this should be the final version. If you do not agree, speak quickly. I will be mostly gone until Monday.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 06:00 pm: Edit

Looks fine to me, much better than the first version.


Garth L. Getgen

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 06:53 pm: Edit

I will be adding the Federation CX to the collection list, all good.

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 07:30 pm: Edit

Still think the strakes could be the height of the Kzinti ones, but I get the feeling I'm going to start getting shouted at!

Will, in case you think I don't appreciate your hard work, nice design interpretation on the Adam Turner original.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 08:37 pm: Edit

Referencing the usual suspects lineup of images posted 10 FEB

What about stretching these new warp engines slightly to match the CF in length?

Just a thought.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 08:37 pm: Edit

The detail on the sides of the Fed strakes is currently as small as is practical for reliable printing in the ADB menu of materials.

To make the strakes the same height as the Kzinti strakes would mean either eliminating the detail on their sides, or making it raised (which would make them effectively identical to the Kzinti).

No features doesn't say "uber tech kewl" and I think painters will want something to paint and not just a featureless slab.

I'm not a fan of "every empires' strakes look the same" and tried to keep the Fed strakes in the stylistic theme they were proposed with, just much shorter.

---

I want to make something clear -
My marching orders were to make the Fed CX look "uber tech kewl", that it had to include strakes (which are the definition of an x-ship), and that it had to be visually distinctive as an x-ship from 6 feet away.

It is an ADB product and they decide what the direction is and what is acceptable or not.

I did many sketches and concepts of strakes before even sending the first renderings to ADB for consideration. Some alternative configurations I proposed for where to put strakes were requested to be combined as the direction to go down.

In trying to abide the direction I was given, tall, winglike strakes met the criteria and was what was proposed.

The form the strakes eventually evolved to changed. From the beginning, there were different interpretations of what "strakes" means and what that means when extrapolating a rectangle in line-art into a 3D feature on a ship.

I come from an aviation background. If you say "strakes" to me, I think winglet type features, like what the F-16 fighter jet has under its rear end. There are other interpretations, like the long, short, ribs along the length of a boat.

There have also been misunderstandings about printability - the rule of thumb is:
tall and thin = hard, especially if it catilevers out at an angle
tall and fat = tricky if it's at an angle, but do-able
short and fat = easy-peesy

The strakes evolved from tall and fat to increasingly short and fat, as the understanding of restrictions in the design direction were relaxed. Steve Zamboni was not operating under a flawed understanding of the design direction when he did his Kzinti or Tholian strakes.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 08:42 pm: Edit

Lawrence -

Why?

The engines on the CF are longer, because they are more-powerful ("fast") versions of the same basic technology as the ship on tv.

The X-tech engines produce more juice because they're much more advanced. Making them bigger goes against the intent and won't add anything to make them look "different".

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 08:50 pm: Edit

Sure I get that but I think they also produce more than even the CF, correct? so it could be both. Also no one said that it couldn’t be an upgraded version of a CF engine and maybe we never knew.

Warp
Bigger warp
Cooler tech?
Bigger and cooler tech?

I suppose if there is a CFX then we’d need the bigger and cooler.

Also it was the “what’s a DDX look like” that had me thinking maybe the warp should be a touch longer as well.

Artist rendition, so I was just askin...It looks really great, good work my friend!

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 11:27 pm: Edit

The Tholian Strakes could look different to the Kzinti ones, perhaps change the detail of the 4 cooling/engine/scanner bumps along each side of the Strake.

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 01:15 am: Edit

I do plan on differentiating the strakes by empire. I made them as close to the Federation design as I could in size and shape so we'd all be on the same page of the discussion, I just sunk them much deeper into the hull than Will did on my first pass. Think of it as a strake iceberg.

(My first attempt at recessed strake greebles to match the Feds' failed the print check, so innies became outies. I didn't expect the bumps to stay as they were once imperial differentiation begins.)

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 02:44 am: Edit

To get the details to pass print-checks as innies required a lot (a *lot*) of draft-angle on the upper and lower faces of the inset.

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 12:47 pm: Edit

The angled Tholian strakes in particular had issues - the two on the lower wings passed fine even as innies, while the exact same model on the vertical fin was covered in wall thickness failures.

The Kzinti strakes can probably flip to innies, but I have the feeling the Tholian version will need to be reshaped (faceted) to ensure the checker is happy from all angles.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 12:49 pm: Edit

I hope we might eventually get to see wallpaper-sized colour art based on the version 3 model shown above, akin to how Xander Fulton was able to turn Sandrine's Starline 2500 3D model renders into the kind of art shown on this page, and on the cover of Captain's Log #45.

Now to (try to) wait patiently to see how much farther down the line the Fed GSX and HWX might be!

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 01:01 pm: Edit

Those would depend on Xander Fulton wanting to do them.

By Aaron Staley (Awwwdrat) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 07:51 pm: Edit

Just print the stupid things already. Had no idea what strakes where until this thread. I thought they were just panels (from top views) like everything else. I think they are downright ugly. Strakes destroy the good look of the engines. Its too much for no good benefit. Keep in mind, most people who agree with me dont dare speak up because they dont want to get banned, yelled at, harrassed by insufferable kiss a**es, etc. I have gotten several private emails from folks who agree but cant seem to get them to post. (I wonder why). I would re-examine this issue if I was you. This is a foolish decision. Stubborn for the sake of stubborn. My opinion. Cant believe this has advanced this far.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 09:07 pm: Edit

No one has had a post deleted. We haven't banned anyone in ages. And I try quite hard to make sure that no one gets yelled at or harassed on this BBS.

If a person's account vanished because of the software glitch in December, all they had to do was re-register and they could post.