New; Mars Mod Units (04/02/05)

[Smoking mirror]

just a few, I want most of the units in the first scenario to be Infantry (with the idea that most of them will be transported from place to place using civilian rovers).

There will be one or two mostly specialised military units, such as a missile launcher artillery and a converted civilian tank. There will also be a generalised rover unit used exclusivly for scouting.

 

[Goldflash]

Sounds good. Don't forget that the AI can't figure out land transports.

 

[Smoking mirror]

It's OK, They are not going to be transported by a land transport unit. The extra movement will be factored in to thier stats, In the early years you wouldn't be able to make any journeys by foot. You would be baked by radiation, trudging through a near vacumm of frozen air with no way to go to the toilet, I think you'd get about 5-7KMs before you had to turn back.

Lightly armed units will be able to move faster because it takes less time to load & unload thier equipment and supplies from the rovers.

I've finished the Jet plane, I'll post it in a minute or two. The default for the air units is going to be a landed plane & I've included two small bomb explosion animations.

 

[Ozymandias]

@vbraun -- I like the plane although I wonder how it would look with canards (small wings well forward of the main wings to give extra lift in the thin Martian atmosphere).

Best,

Oz

 

[vbraun]

Heres a little update. Hopefully the wings look better. I'm not convinced by the tail. Any suggestions?

 

[Ozymandias]

Heres a little update. Hopefully the wings look better. I'm not convinced by the tail. Any suggestions?

IMHO it looks fine, tail included.

-Oz

 

[flamescreen]

The tail looks to be placed bellow the backburner(if that's how you call that), upper would be more logical, IMO. If you've done it already(assuming it's a different version of the latest plane), it still looks fine. Just input you asked for.

 

[Smoking mirror]

Looking good so far, I like the cannards, they would allow you to change the flow of air over the entire wing, and so give a great deal of control, even in thin atmosphere.

With the tail, how about if you lifted it above the forward wing using some fins mounted on the wing itself? That would leave room for the engine to mounted in the main body of the plane. That way you could make it a rocket plane...
However, if you want to make another turbo jet you will need to find a good way of mounting some extrnal engines.

Heres a prety rough example of what I mean, I think you should keep the overall light-weight look though, this preview is too chunky and blocky;

 

[Smoking mirror]

Of course you may want to ignore all advice and carry on with it in your own way, it's your vision after all. Thats what I usualy do, Ha! what do other people know? Philistines!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I'd imagine planes would be very useful on Mars with the lower gravity. That would mean they could take off easier. Also, heavier, larger aircraft designs on Mars would be possible, since the higher gravity of earth wouldn't be present. It would be interesting to see what you come up with for later eras Smoke..

I'd imagine Zepplins could also find a use on Mars(preferable of some new non-exploding design don't want an extra-terrestrial heidenburg)

 

[the100thballoon]

(preferable of some new non-exploding design don't want an extra-terrestrial heidenburg)

It would give new meaning to "the shot heard 'round the world."

 

[Smoking mirror]

According to Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars trilogy balloons, dirigibles, and zeplins would be especialy usefull on mars. They have extra lift because of the low gravity, and don't burst in to flames when damaged because of the low amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere (fans of flamethrowers and fire bombs take note; No fire on Mars- at least until later in the games). The real problem is direction, with the thin air and high winds it is difficult to make a balloon go anywhere but where the wind wants it to go.

I guess rocket engines would be good, but propellors won't be so useful. With propellors they will need big blades and lots of them, perhaps ten on each rotor in sets of five counter rotating hubs. Actualy somewhat like the assembly inside a jetengine, the only advantage to a propellor would be less fuel consumption. Heres what a propellor for a zeplin on mars may look like;

Actualy that would look quite good at the back of a plane as an impeller, driving the craft forward, you could even have a real wing behind it...

 

[vbraun]

I think I got the tail right. Also I added a cockpit window and engines (not yet completed).

Take a note: It probably won't look this good in game becasue I'll be using a diffrant rendering engine. (So I don't have to wait 5,000 hours for it to render all of it. )

 

[the100thballoon]

very very nice, vbraun!

 

[Ozymandias]

What the100thballoon said.

-Oz

 

[flamescreen]

Hell, if i was a pilot, I'd love to drive one of those babies!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

That is one weird-looking propeller...

 

[Smoking mirror]

Looking good Vbraun!

 

[aaglo]

That's a funky looking dirigible
And a funky looking plane - altough shouldn't the wings be larger due to the thin atmosphere?

 

[Bjornlo]

I'm not an aerodymics expert, but I think the wings would need to be a little more forward... or the canards a bit larger. As is, it looks like it would be hard to keep the craft from going nosedown. I would guess that moving both the canards & wings forward and increasing the wing surface area a little would (if it were real) give it better flight characteristics.
Every unit takes some artistic license. So, my comments are not a criticism. I like it. It has incredibly smooth lines. It is very pretty.
So what is this new renderer you're using?