Second post for text.
So this game really revived my Star Wars craze, mostly because I've always adored Star Destroyers as spaceships. So I figured it was time to create my own no mod Star Destroyers.
The first one I built was actually Imperial I.
I was focused on the general shape, but I also wanted something at least a little Star Wars lore friendly. The reason Star Destroyers are wedged shape is so they can bring all their weapons to bare and focus on a target directly off their bow. They aren't broadside ships. 😛
Being the first Star Destroyer though, it came with some teething issues. The guns have a clearance problem, with some shots being blocked by the shape of the ship. The thrusters all pointing in one direction except for some very few cut into the hull are a huge problem. These ships easily get stuck in fleet combat situations.
Also, the super structure I painted on and cut into the hull with structure lines doesn't look amazing, but it's alright.
Imperial II was meant to fix a lot of the flaws of Imperial I.
Bigger guns and more missiles meant the ship was designed to stay far away from it's target and not fight at close range. Not unlike the true purpose of the Imperial II's design. Also with more engines pointing in more directions, it wasn't so prone to getting entangled and stuck, but it still has that problem a bit.
Victory was next, and I mostly made it because I wanted a missile support ship, plus I wanted to try and improve the shape of the Star Destroyers I was making to be more proper to Star Wars proportions (trim that fat!) In this design, I also improved my design of the bridge section, and the cutting of the hull with structure and internal engines actually makes the bridge show up pretty nicely on the icon display!
Can't have Star Destroyers without a Super Star Destroyer, so Lusankya was next.
I think 'Lusankya' is just a wicked cool name of a canon SSD, so I went with that. Without mods though, the ship can only be so big, so it's definitely not to scale to the other Imperials we have here. But it's as long as it can be, and packed with a good balance of firepower.
I also really enjoy the price tag on it (2 3 4 5), it's the kind of number you see someone use as a combination on their luggage.
Being so large though, frontal focus firepower was out of the question. Lusankya had to become a broadside ship. But with the AI operating in proper fleets in Bounty Hunter mode, this was actually a boon. Having a ship that can engage multiple enemies on more than one side is fantastic, and very visually pleasing to behold. By this point, I felt I perfected the Star Destroyer bridge cut out, and it shows through very cleanly both in the green ship icon and also on the painted ship hull.
Last but certainly not least we have the Sovereign. With this ship, I wanted the best possible combat design, not really caring much for trying to stick to any proper Star Wars principles. So cutting three blocks for internal engines makes this huge 2.2m beast pretty quick, and ridiculously maneuverable. It fixes Lusankya's problem of a vulnerable rear by replacing several engines with rear facing shields, and as you can see in the image above, I even put little structure dots into the bridge so they sort of show up on the green ship icon as the domes that are essential to Star Destroyer appearances. Sensor rooms for the actual ship appearance, and structure holes for the ship icon.
To celebrate these designs, I even commissioned an artist, whose great work you can see in the first post. Nice sexy alien Imperial Officer and an awesome Star Destroyer in space, now that's art!
Hope you liked these designs, and if you play with them let me know what you think of them. The smaller three aren't very good combat designs, but Lusankya and Sovereign are very powerful and well designed combat vessels for the mechanics of Cosmoteer, easily able to take on a whole fleet of Built-In ships that far outweigh and outvalue them!
