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Released Corvette V.2

Yeah, I'm good at urging other people to do more work. This is a low priority project.
 
Funny you say "low priority", because right now it's my highest priority project. :p Not because it's the most important project per se, but because I want to finish it before moving on.
Still, I'll hold back on updating the stern galleries for now.
 
I'm just getting lazy, now. :cheeky I've borrowed the Rossiya's masts and resized them to fit the Corvette:

CorvetteV3_render2.jpg


I've managed to fit them almost exactly onto the shape of the old masts, so the existing locators should fit quite well.
Also notice the extra boat on deck, along with a flagpole and (hardly visible here) rudder hinges.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about renaming the "Light Frigate" and "Indiaman" to something more interesting.
Seeing as the stock Corvette was possibly (very loosely) based on the Russian 19th century frigate Aurora*, how does "Aurora class Frigate" sound?
As for the Indiaman, I reckon it should use the "Light East Indiaman" name, and the only other ship currently using it (NL_Batavia) should use the Amsterdam's name (Spiegelretourschip).

*Unfortunately it seems some Russians have forgotten to pay their bills, so the Shipmodel.ru site displaying the models of the Rossiya and Aurora is currently offline.
 
That is looking mighty detailed. Light East Indiaman works, but there was also a type called the fast merchantman. These were decommissioned frigates that had their guns, crew quarters and braces under the gun decks removed.
 
Armada said:
As for the Indiaman, I reckon it should use the "Light East Indiaman" name, and the only other ship currently using it (NL_Batavia) should use the Amsterdam's name (Spiegelretourschip).
Click to expand...
The real Batavia is more a Fleut (Fluit in Dutch) than a Spiegelretourschip. Of course our model is hardly accurate to the real one, but still...?
 
I can't find any reference to the existence of fast merchantmen as you describe them. :read

I understood Spiegelretourschip to be synonymous with East Indiaman, but perhaps not. Dutch Fluyt, then?
Or alternatively we could ditch the model for being so sub-par.

Nobody likes "Aurora class Frigate", then? :shrug
 
Armada said:
I can't find any reference to the existence of fast merchantmen as you describe them. :read
Click to expand...
I didn't describe ANY fast merchantmen. What do you mean??? :shock

Armada said:
I understood Spiegelretourschip to be synonymous with East Indiaman, but perhaps not. Dutch Fluyt, then?
Or alternatively we could ditch the model for being so sub-par.
Click to expand...
Hmm... according to Wikipedia, the Batavia WAS a "Spiegelretourschip". Strange. The real one looks just like a "fluyt" with her distinctive narrow and high stern.
See? Fleut:
Fluyt_model_side.jpg

Batavia:
Batavia_02.JPG
Technically, the term "spiegelretourschip" consists of "spiegel" and "retourschip". The latter part just refers to any ship that makes return journeys to the East Indies.
The "spiegel" part refers to the highly decorated stern of these types of ships, which is the something the Amsterdam is well known for as per this Wikipedia page.
I always found the Batavia's stern to be pretty sparse in comparison:
6103361241_ca7823f2f2_z.jpg
That is why I'd not be so quick to call her a "spiegelretourschip" when her design also so closely resembles a "fluyt".
I also never did like the "high and narrow" design of those ships from an aesthetic point of view. Much prefer the look of the Amsterdam! :whipa
Armada said:
Nobody likes "Aurora class Frigate", then? :shrug
Click to expand...
I've got no opinion on the matter. Sounds fair enough to me. :shrug
 
Pieter Boelen said:
I didn't describe ANY fast merchantmen. What do you mean??? :shock
Click to expand...
That was in reply to Hylie's post. I just couldn't be bothered to make it explicitly clear at the time.

I see what you mean about the Batavia looking like a fluyt. Part of me isn't convinced, but perhaps MK could elaborate.
In any case, our model hardly resembles the Batavia at all, or even a fluyt for that matter.
 
3 years ago they were called fast merchantmen here. I went looking and found a site describing the auctions where old navy ships were sold off. Some were in good condition and still had many years laft in them, while others "Had timbers so soft that one could dent them by pressing your thumb against it.". I have never been able to find that site again ...........
 
Armada said:
Still, I'll hold back on updating the stern galleries for now.
Click to expand...
When I said "for now", I meant a few days. I couldn't resist making at least some changes as an experiment... :cheeky

So here we are with what I hope is still recognisable as the original Corvette's stern, but tweaked to look a bit more clean and realistic:

CorvetteV3_render4.jpg


CorvetteV3_render3.jpg


All I've done here is extend the stern "galleries" so that they overhang the sides of the hull, and added some details to the surface, along with decorative supports beneath them.
As you can see, it still uses the stern portion of the bortoutcorvette1 texture, which I have painstakingly cleaned up and bump-mapped to show off its details more clearly. It was like removing several years' worth of dirt; just look at the fuzzy griffin decoration in comparison! Some parts had to be repositioned to fit the shape of the galleries properly, but this wasn't much hassle.
The gold coloured edges around the galleries might look out of place at first, but it fits in better with a mid eighteenth century vessel's ornate appearance.

What do you guys think, then? Does this new appearance appeal to you, or have I just ruined an old classic? :p
 
It certainly looks crisper. In this case older does not mean better. It would be pretty much impossible to ruin it.
 
Not bad, not bad at all! :woot
Does that mean you have to redo all the Corvette-based textures again though?
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Not bad, not bad at all! :woot
Does that mean you have to redo all the Corvette-based textures again though?
Click to expand...
I had already planned to rework the other textures (most will be subtle changes), and with this texture as a layered template, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
Seeing as this will take time, what I'll do is release each corvette separately once its texture has been modified, rather than releasing them together when they're all finished.
That way, if you decide to release Beta 2.4 before I finish all the textures, at least you'll have some of the updated models ready. ;)
 
Cheers. Not sure when I'll release Beta 2.4; there's no particular rush with it, but I do want to throw something out there some time soonish.
Maybe I can post a WIP version next week? But not until AFTER I've got a new battery for my mouse; it just died today and I don't have any spare here. :facepalm
 
Heads up: I'm pretty much finished with the model now, and will try to get it in game before the end of the week. I'll get some more pics tomorrow.

I'm just wondering about how the merchant version should be configured. Essentially, I have two options in mind.
The first is to go with the "fast merchantman" idea and remove all the guns from the main deck, plus the chasers, and only keep the eight guns on the upper deck, of the same max calibre as the navy ship.
The second is to only remove the chasers, and keep all the broadside guns, but of a lower max calibre (to lighten the load and ensure the ship is still fast when loaded with cargo).
So really it's a question of sacrificing the quantity or calibre of the guns. What do you guys think?
 
Awesome looking work Armada. Looking forward to seeing her in-game!
 
Armada said:
I'm just wondering about how the merchant version should be configured. Essentially, I have two options in mind.
[...]
So really it's a question of sacrificing the quantity or calibre of the guns. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
Does anyone know what they might have done in real life?
If we're going by space available, they should remove the guns from the lower decks to make room for cargo, but I can't see them doing that.
Removing cannons from the upper deck would lower the centre of gravity, which would be further lowered when cargo is loaded into the hold.
This could make the ship respond rather stiff to the waves. On the other hand, when the ship is not loaded,
it could help with maintaining some stability without having to take on too much ballast.

The main thing that I'd like to consider is to have the fast merchantmen visibly different from their navy counterparts.
Changing the calibre of the cannons is not going to do that. So by that reasoning, I'd say strip the cannons from her top deck.
At least that would allow players to see the idea of a stripped down navy ship. :shrug
 
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