Vitik Class: Agesipolis

[BoredSpy]

Noticed that the Agesipolis is on the list to receive a new model. Assuming this is still the case I have some questions regarding the desired image.

Firstly I've noticed that Yrilan (Anaxidamus) is rather different than the other small Aera craft which appear to have a "molded", or organic, look to them.

Both the Vark (Agasicles), and The Yavok (Leonidas) also appear to be constructed with harder angles and more of a "boxy" construction.

[1] Is the organic to chiseled transition between small and heavy Aera craft intentional?

[2] Just how old is the Venerable Agesipolis?

[3] What particular features would you like to see highlighted on this carrier?

[jackS]

Noticed that the Agesipolis is on the list to receive a new model. Assuming this is still the case I have some questions regarding the desired image.

<snip>

[1] Is the organic to chiseled transition between small and heavy Aera craft intentional?

Not intentional. See discussions relative to remaking the Agasicles.

[2] Just how old is the Venerable Agesipolis?

At this point, I'm going to say ~60 years, give or take.

[3] What particular features would you like to see highlighted on this carrier?

While it's capable of servicing and berthing a wide range of Aeran interceptors, fighters, bombers, support vessels, and corvettes (facilities for larger vessels being admittedly much more limited), the two key reasons for the continued use of this class of vessels are the transport of vast quantities of materiel (use as 'self-contained' supply train/mobile base) and carrier functionality for specialized in-system attack craft. While, as mentioned, it can service and berth all of the Aeran small craft, the interstellar capable vessels utilize the Agesipolis more as a mobile supply and service depot than as a carrier, especially during non-jump interstellar flight actions.

The vessel mounts a large number of weapon emplacements, but none particularly large, and the majority of mounts are defensively oriented.

The vessel was not ostentatiously designed - it is elegant, but functional in impementation.

Rough textual sketch:

The ship is mainly cylindrical in nature, roughly 6 km long and 2 km wide. The rearmost section is full width, and possessed of minimal features, with variations in diameter including a rearward taper and some slight banding. Moving forward from the drive area, there are three hoods (one could envision them as similar in appearance to bullets cut in half, embedded into the hull, and hollowed out, but they're obviously more seamlessly integrated than that would suggest) covering three radially located flight decks. The hoods open forward. Offset 60 degrees and fore of most of the length of the preceeding hoods, three more hoods open facing front over three more flight decks, again radially located. Proceeding forward from there, there is a flat, relatively featureless stretch followed by a slight narrowing on both the port and starboard sides towards the opening of a very large hangar bay. The vertical distance remains undiminished. Indeed, a structure, not unlike in form to what one could expect from building the something vaguely 'I' shaped out of 5 large piles of sand, the center larger than any of the other 4 extrudes from both top and bottom. Each prominence is a set of 5 weapon emplacements. The vessel then resumes normal diameter after the hanger bay. There is again a featureless expanse, followed by 6 hoods over 6 radially oriented flight decks, opening aft. Continuing past the end of the hoods, the vessel maintains diameter for a while, this being a large storage region. Fore of this brief unfeatured expanse, the vessel starts to taper slightly, and the and support struts for the frontal docking spars attach to the hull, then, fore of that, the 6 frontal docking spars themselves depart the hull, extending out ~1.6 km radially outward from the vessel. The vessel terminates in 6 retro thrust emplacements and the central hub of additional docking spar support, offshoots from said structure wandering back between each pair of retro thrusters to connect to the docking spars.

[BoredSpy]

You lost me around the "I" shaped out of piles of sand. I spent a while trying to figure it out and figured I should probably just ask. Is it possible for some clarification on this section of the ship and the placement of the large hanger in this vicinity?

Thanks again.

[jackS]

You lost me around the "I" shaped out of piles of sand. I spent a while trying to figure it out and figured I should probably just ask. Is it possible for some clarification on this section of the ship and the placement of the large hanger in this vicinity?

Thanks again.

Sure. Sorry for the delay.

Here's a quick, late-night (i.e. "remarkably poor") sketch (top down, although bottom up should be the same). Perhaps saying I-shaped was less accurate than saying "dog-bone" shaped (assuming a fat middle to a bone) but.. the sand part was to denote how the sides would slope and merge together. The top is mesa-like rather than contuing in the conical fashion though (the better to mount the weapons on). For scaling and placement, use the above text description (where possible, given how brief and rambling it is) and not the drawing. Consider the drawing a caricature in some sense of the actual vessel, designed to make the parts of it that aren't just a tube more pronounced than actually described. The large hangars are the scribbles on the sides. The hoods should be less pronounced, but I wanted them to be visible as hoods. I'll try to take the time to do a proper sketch, but this is what I could cook up while taking a break from debugging a research tool I'm hacking at.

Again, apologies for not being more responsive. I do try to eventually respond to everything, but my latency has been rather indeterminate of late.

[Zeog]

I updated the Wiki with your description and background information.
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... Agesipolis

I hope you don't mind, that I linked your sketch.

[pyramid]

Sharing chuck's improved concept image of the Agesipolis here, still subject to jackS' comments.

This is the concept art that's given:



[...] come up with something that resembles the concept, like,

[chuck_starchaser]

Good job of putting info together, Pyramid; I didn't have the benefit of the above descriptions. By the way, I PM'd JackS with some questions. He confirmed for me that indeed the right end was the front and the left end the back. He said that the important thing about the sketch was the individual elements rather than exact shape or proportions. He mentioned that the tubes at the front were retro thrusters, rather than the "launch tubes" I was guessing, and suggested that any work on the Agesipolis be postponed until a) he has time to revisit the specifications and b) the shaders/art pipeline mature a bit. Not a bad idea, considering it will probably take a lot of sub-mesh, sub-bfxm or whatever to get this ship look its size. Aeran construction being keen on appearing non-modular, yet needing tons of detail to make the ship look big implies working in sculpt mode and subdividing, then sculpting and subdividing again, through several stages; which would probably end up at over a million polygons at top LOD, which again implies that the different parts of the ship had better LoD separately.
It seems I was seeing double, when looking at the sketch; those front and back landing bays were supposed to come in 3's; not in 6's. I'll make a new rough mesh tonight, just for the hell of it.

[chuck_starchaser]

Alright, here's another crack:







Well, it seems to me now the frontal hoods ought to be higher, as they ought to span 6 decks, as opposed to 3 for the rear ones. Oh well. And I wasn't sure what "docking spars" were; I thought it was for small ships to dock at, but maybe it's what the carrier itself docks with? I'm also mixed up with the description of the central part. I thought the "piles of sand" were weapons emplacements, but then JackS was talking about hangars kind of together with it, and of a narrowing of the hull? So, I didn't even try to do anything with the mid section yet.