Stellar is making new ships; the future of SL's Space Ship Collection looks promising!
Thynome Vector is the shop owned by Stellar (taliblue) and the one responsible for our iconic Guardian that is always seen docked at the Outpost.
Today, I got to chat more with Stellar. It was was initially just a "how are you doing" and an inquiry about one of their pre-irl-problems ships, a roomy cargo ship. Vixen was looking for an alternative to a housing pod, and my mind went to that ship in particular.
She said that while sadly the old ship was not going to be made available to purchase again, she was working on several ships that would fit what we were looking for, but that it would be a few months before they would be finished.
We got to chatting, saying that I was excited to see what she was going to come up with, and talked of how beloved the Guardian was to TI.
After I had mentioned that the new Guardian III was not only docked and Mana-fied at the Synthetic Union, but that Synthe had also bought one and modded it to her liking, Stellar wanted to come to Serenity Station and the Outpost to see what modifications we had done to her new ship, the Guardian III.
She mentioned that she enjoyed seeing the ships being modified, and that she made them modular and modifiable on purpose, making sure that if someone wanted more guns, all they would need to do is link another onto it and reset the ship's scripts, or if someone wanted to change the numbers on the ship, just click them and it'll be made easy! I re-arranged the outside of my ship considerably, re-coloring and re-texturing it in places, removing most of the guns (save for a few that may be needed to defend or to deal with debris) and moved around several features, whereas Synthe went full force and retextured the entire thing with an animated texture that Stellar enjoyed, and added a large gun mount atop the sensor array mount.
But the fun didn't end there. After passing along a question from Synthe who was off-sim regarding Stellar's planned "Battle Cruiser" (450LI, 170m long, 60m wide) she asked if we would like to see some of the ships she is working on. Of course, I said yes!
Now, mind you, these are works in progress, and they are not textured or finished, but this first one had me super excited, as it is a Battletech "Leopard" Dropship, large enough for mechas!
She said that she has a group of friends who love to RP as Battletech mechwarriors, and this was originally a personal project for their RP, but felt that it wouldnt have much use in SL. But look at the size of the inside of the mech bay!
I could EASILY use this as an entire station's worth of features. Just imagine putting housing pods, or shops, or fighter ships, or even small and medium sized RS ships in here! It's a long-haul freighter's wet dream! And his is just the middle section!
It's about twice the width of a Guardian III, and has 4 large mech doors into the cargo bay. At the front there you can see a hatch; that has an extending docking tube to make it easy to dock at a station! (hint hint, i am totally buying one of these when they are available)
The forward section has several rooms too, it looked like it had all the amenities of a Guardian III and a nice bridge layout. I can't wait to see this one when it's done and get my hands on it!
She talked about several other ships she is working on, many that were not quite ready to be viewed, and a few that were too big to res without causing problems for the station, but another that she was able to show is her personal ship, and her current main project she has been working on for the past 2 years; the Trinary.
It is a very organic design, which turned into the Guardian after redesigns. As this is a ship that she is building for herself, she said she aimed for it to feel more 'organic,' leading to the smooth curves and welcoming layout inside.
While at first it may look alot like a Guardian, as you cam around it, it's design very much becomes it's own.
The back engines flow into the hull, and the back hatch is paired with an upper opening hatch similar to the Guardian IIIs.
The bridge feels more like a yacht, with its split-level floor and navigation map in the center. And the panoramic view unobstructed by support pillars! -chefs kiss-
The outer hull is angled gently in many places, helping to give a feeling that this would be right at home in the ocean.
And don't you worry; it's still armed! Three large turrets on top, right where Anaconda pilots like 'em. There's plans for missile pods on the hull above the bridge as well!
Overall the ship feels like it would be right at home docked beside a Guardian, while not being confused for one, and is sure to appeal to the sci-fi fans who prefer there ships to have less hard angles and more gentle curves!
I will follow up with her later to see if I can get a scoop on this "Battle Cruiser" project, as she seemed quite excited for it, and her aforementioned other projects coming out!
-Mana Takakura
Professional Ship-Oogler
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