Yeah, I've modeled a bit, they are a pain. I've found that the best way to make a curve is to take a sphere/cylider (depending on which works best) delete extra polies that you don't need, then create a flat grid and use the weld tool to close gaps with the grid.

 The "weld edge" tool and the "weld point" tool.

 A good way, I find, to access these is to put them into a custom toolbar. To create a custom toolbar go to "View" at the top left of the UI. Then pick  "New Custom toolbar", a new empty toolbar should apear. Then go to "View" again then pick "Customize toolbar". In the pop up that apears go to "keyword filter" click the little down arrow and pick "Modeling" from the list. All the tools use for modeling are then available in the window. Then just click on the tools you want in your toolbar and drag them and drop them into your "New custom toolbar". Once you have the toolbar to your liking "right" click in a blank space in the custom toolbar and pick save, and give it a name and save it.

Also to access your toolbars after starting XSI go to "View" then to "toolbars" and pick your toolbar that you saved.

 Now about this mod you are making. Looks interesting, I like your ideas. I am currently working on something similar, although I am only building 1 extra capital for each race. Like you I'm trying to make my models look like they have a disign about them that would fit thier respective races. These capitals I'm going to introduce later in the game around tier 5-6 via a research prototype, as apposed to you creating research to improve them. I have done this using existing models in the game already, but like you am struggling with putting textures on my models. I'm paticularly interested to see how you indroduce this research to improve your caps.

 Anyhow best of luck with your mod.

   I'll keep reading the posts and help out if I can.

Edit; Hey do you guys use "rotoscope" to make your models off of drawings. I find this helpful getting curves done also. Infact I find it very difficult to model with out using it.

Okay, well... After some asking around, I figured out how to incorporate the research for the battleships.

The research will unlock a fifth, passive ability that will buff the ships.  I may ultimately create another one like it to give the carriers a much-needed buff as well, but for now, it is just for the battleships to allow them to counter destroyers.  The first upgrade will just be around tier 3 with the next at 5 and then again at 7 and 8.

Kol: Kol Mk. II/III/IV/V

Hull Increase: 20%/40%/60%/80%

Shield Increase: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Cooldown Decrease: 10%/20%/30%

AM Regeneration: .3/.7/1/1.3 PS

Radiance: Golden Radiance/Brilliant Radiance/Blinding Radiance/Apocalyptic Radiance

Hull Increase: 5%/10%/15%/20%

Shield Increase: 25%/50%/75%/100%

Mitigation Increase: 3%/7%/10%

Culture Repel Increase: .005/.01/.015/.02

Kortul: Kora'Tul/Koram'Tul/Koram'Tuel/Koram'Turel

Hull Increase: 15%/30%/45%/60%

Shield Increase: 15%/30%/45%/60%

Range Increase: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Damage Increase: 10%/20%/30%

In other words, Each faction has a 120% total increase in the combined parts of their health and each has some other buffs specific to that race.  (One of which is the same bonus gained from friendly culture)

These will likely have to be adjusted, but the point here is this: By themselves, Battleships do not scale with the fast scaling Destroyers.  To counteract this, research is created to buff the battleships to the point that their rivals would likely be in the game. It also gives a reason to get battleships, especially late game.  A level 10 Kol Mk V would have over seven thousand hull points, let alone the shields.  These ships are supposed to be made entirely for battle.  For this reason, they are getting these buffs.

At this point, BS's are weaker than support ships and dreadnoughts in many cases.  My answer: Why?  Dreadnoughts are a passible adversary as they focus their fire on a single target, but support ships?  This makes no sense.  BS's should, when brought to the battlefield make the opponent think about addressing them.  I don't want this turning into a "Super Caps" mod, and the above values will have to be nerfed, but for now, that is what they are...

nice work! glad to see you're still taking my ideas into consideration despite my absence =D

so, considering its the Vasari Lancer, i have an idea... you know how the Vasari Starbase is really two parts (the battle section up top with all the guns and the big bloody ballsack at the bottom) connected by some sort of energy vortex?

well, why not do the same here? have the drive section with the flanking cannons out the back, have it taper to some sort of point, and then have the main gun/forward guns section taper out to what it looks like now?

atm, there is a sort of rounded section of hull just behind the gun, i would personally leave that and start the tapered effect from there, and continue it into the drive section just infront of those flat... idn, things, on the top and bottom of the drive section.

i do like this idea, but im not sure if it is possible with the sins engine... i cant think of any other ship, structure or ability that has moving parts within the model (for instance, gun turrets dont move, Kol Gauss cannon does not swivel to aim at targets etc etc). its a cool idea, but yeah, not sure if it is possible, or what kind of performance issues it will cause.

also, i have to agree that the curved tips part of the arms look very forced/unnatural/artificial etc. i know it is actually artificial, but i think it looks too... 'blunt' for lack of a better word...

and i know the design isnt finished, but where will the heavy pulse beam cannon be mounted? (for instance the Astrom Heavy Laser Cannon is located above the main railgun...)

as for flak on defense turrets, could be a good idea, except the TEC hangar (in Entrenchment) already has a similar flak weapon... so...

Conversely, i would love to see flak weapons on capital ships... i realise that there is a 3 weapon limit on ships... so, perhaps making it a 'passive ability' that only displays the visual effects (tracer fire, for example) when SC come within range. the ability could work as, say, a 20% chance to do 5 points damage per second? i can just imagine a Kol or Kortul or Progenitor flying around with tracer fire/phase missiles/lasers flying off in all directions while SC start dying around them. ooooh, shiver =P

and ive said it before, but ill say it again for the benefit of this thread, i think the ships in this mod should have the useFighterstyle enabled (so all ships will move around while fighting, rather than the static line formations present in unmodified versions. it would be very cool... though on second thoughts perhaps some ships should not have this enabled... Light Carriers and Carrier caps, as well as Lancers, for example, would be better off being static (as a moving lancer would be more likely to expose its flanks and therefore be destroyed quicker...), but as for the standard ships (LF,LRF,HC,Battleships etc etc) i think useFighterstyle would be great

p.s. is the model for the Astrom finished (aside from skinning)? i think it looks gorgeous (though i would make the exhaust vent/wing thing at the bottom of the ship a little shorter)

But my question is, if you had a couple of these ships, you get a bulldozer effect.  They have gained some damage, but sending three/four Kol Mk V's at your opponent would make them feeling like they are tearing down Mt. Everest by hand.  I just don't know...  Perhaps there should be research as well for the following ships:

Carrier: SC increase (would address current problems)/health

Support: AM regen

Colony: Movement

Dreadnought: Planet Bombing Damage

I don't mean exclusively these things, but at the end of it, BS's, Carriers, Destroyers would be king with Dreadnoughts and Lancers right behind them...

hmm... never thought about that... so I guess its kinda like putting drawings on a block of wood before you start...  Makes sense...

@Rezo:

Well, One time when I was messing with XSI, I actually created an exploded model, and the way the parts were, it looked absolutely awesome.  If I could create the Graphics thing connecting them it would be the most awesome looking ship in the game, but the particle effects would be the hardest thing to make... And I can't use PF...

Uh..  The astrom has some detail work that needs to be added, but I figured that people would be most interested in seeing a second ship rather than an upgraded first one...

Well, the Lancers, LRM's, Dreadnoughts and the like would be stationary, but I might just do that for the rest... I'd have to check its effects on gameplay and whatnot, but if it looks good, I'll add it...

Oh and what do you think of the battleship upgrades mentioned in the above post?

@Wiskey:

Well, LRM's are basically Light Lancers...  LRM<Lancer, P Bomber<Dreadnought, LF<Destroyer, HC<BS, Carrier<Car Cap.  So...

Thank you.  

Ehh... You couldn't do that... Just the way it works...  Besides, you can only have up to 20 nulls for something and you need 13 just for the weapons.  4 for abilities, and three for engines...  So... yeah...

As far as the research goes, only the BS's and Carriers would get super-buffed...  Everything else would just receive a slight buff with the Destroyers and Lancers getting nothing as they are "too new" to have research performed to improve experimental ships...

So...  For the carriers, their upgrades would run parallel to the BS upgrades and would give those ships a purpose for once...  That means that the upgrades are as follows:

Kol: Kol Mk. II/III/IV/V

Hull Increase: 20%/40%/60%/80%

Shield Increase: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Cooldown Decrease: 10%/20%/30%

AM Regeneration: .3/.7/1/1.3 PS

Radiance: Golden Radiance/Brilliant Radiance/Blinding Radiance/Apocalyptic Radiance

Hull Increase: 5%/10%/15%/20%

Shield Increase: 25%/50%/75%/100%

Mitigation Increase: 3%/7%/10%

Culture Repel Increase: .005/.01/.015/.02

Kortul: Kora'Tul/Koram'Tul/Koram'Tuel/Koram'Turel

Hull Increase: 15%/30%/45%/60%

Shield Increase: 15%/30%/45%/60%

Range Increase: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Damage Increase: 10%/20%/30%

Sova: Sova Mk. II/III/IV/V

Hull Increase: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Shield Increase: 5%/10%/15%/20%

Damage Increase: 20%/40%/60%/80%

SC Increase Per Squad: 1/2/3/4

Halcyon: Golden Halcyon/Magnificent Halcyon/Holy Halcyon/Halcyon Magistrate

Hull Increase: 5%/10%/15%/20%

Shield Increase: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Damage Increase: 25%/50%/75%/100%

SC Increase Per Squad: 2/3/4/5

Skrirantra: Skiran'Trae/Skirans'Trae/Skiran'Traen/Skiran'Tralen

Hull Increase: 7.5%/15%/22.5%/30%

Shield Increase: 7.5%/15%/22.5%/30%

Yeah... I don't like it either...

Well, I was just saying that they would only progress from the previous upgrade...  Kol Mk II,III,IV,V are all different subjects and that is the name of each respective one.  I suppose I could have the Kol run along with the armor upgrades and have those as prerequisites, but that would be unfair as I could not do that with the other races.

I know, but ehh... I don't play entrenchment, so once I get that, I may be able to do it, I'm saying that the way it is in vanilla, you can't do it...  Long story...

I know what you mean, just can't do it in vanilla... Maybe I can in Entrenchment...

Uhh... No it wasn't linked, but there was a RoF upgrade...

I know, and I'd prefer to do that, but atm, I can't...

And Which would you like best? (level 10)

Kol Mk. V

Sova Mk. V

Apocalyptic Radiance

Halcyon Magistrate

Kuram'Turel

Skiran'Tralen

The carriers would have more SC so they would be worth it for once and the Skiran'Tralen would be twice its original power because of the doubled SC amounts.  I'm personally leaning towards the Kol Mk. V or Kuram'Turel...

94%..  Yeah, I wasn't thinking that it would go quite that high, but with Active Harmo and culture bonuses, it could make a difference...  With just AH, it goes up to 72% and then even with culture, it wouldn't go up all that high...

okay... Well, I'll make sure to check the code when I get a chance...  Thanks for the advice though.

I was just asking which one you guys like..  Just an opinion thing...

Yes... we as in me...  I know...  Only six ships are going to be modeled and there are going to be numerous other things that only make small differences, so it won't be all that hard...

Except that you created the thread that spawned this idea...  Hence the reason for your name in "Special Thanks"

And could you come up with some sort of comment of something so we can have something to discuss?

Lancers

The astrom will be about the same size as the Akkan and Destroyers are capitals...  They will be slightly smaller than the BS of that race.

As for the Vas lancer, it will be about the size of... the Vulkoras...

The Advent Lancer will be about the same as the Radiance. (I don't know what I'm doing for this one...)

Destroyers:

Gartel: I know what I'm doing here...

Eyron: No idea here either...

Kramrock: I have an idea for this one...  It will look rather fragile which would make sense since it will have the least health.  It will be covered in various flanges which are all covered in guns...