Super Carrier (current WIP) image - Sins of the Prophets mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Needs more bevels

function over fashion.

I don't think it's too bad. However, I think the front part should lose the bottom protrusions and become "sharper".

Yeah. Needs to be sharper. Doesn't make me think super carrier.

You look at a knife and imagine them deploying strike craft then?

I'm genuinely curious, what do you people think carriers in space should look like?

a bit more streamlined and something that looks a bit less like a giant cuboid
great model though,its not like its the worst thing ever but it could've been a bit better

It should be wider in the mid section, to symbolise the transportation of troops, eg. fighters, bombers, shuttles, vehciles etc. But the wider mid section should be of slanted angles rather than boxy and a big but for a engine wouldn't hurt either.

Are you telling me that you can't take constructive criticism?
This is the only time that I can recall where the fans did not like one of the mods models.

It reminds us of a cargo ship because shipping containers are large, rectangular boxes. Which is essentially what this is.

You can choose to ignore us and keep the design, or revise/redo it. Isn't that the point of posting pictures? To show off progress and see what your fans think?

This is a joke, i'm sorry you took it seriously or as a sign that i can't take criticism.

Also this isn't my mod, i'm not part of the mod team, and as far as i know, you don't follow my mod.

"It reminds us of a cargo ship because shipping containers are large, rectangular boxes. Which is essentially what this is."

What the hell do you think shipping containers do?

I'll give you a hint: Hold things.

Now, what does a carrier do?

Hint: Hold strikecraft.

You do the math.

Why's this been downrated? He's right.

You have made me laugh my *** off, thank you. It's you and your team's mod, your ship, do what you like. I think a lot of ships are ugly, but its space for one, and the artists work too. Not just a model, it's an art. Now to stop licking your *** V3LO.....wait nice model

Honestly i'm not that big on this model, but i don't blame a_lleras, he's done a great job, i don't usually make concepts that are accurate enough for other people to model off because usually i'm the only one modelling them.

I still stand by my concept though, purely as a concept.

i actually want it to be the picture you scribbled on now, cause it's hilarious :D

But honestly, I don't see the problem with this model, a war isn't won with a fancy ship, a war is won with practicality... Saying the model is ugly is pointless, It's like saying "My turd is better than everyone Else's cause it has Diamonds 'N' S***!" ...... which would actually be pretty badass.... just sayin.

But My point is, Who gives a damn if the things ugly, as long as it does what it's supposed to do, then that should be that, and as stated in the above comment

""It reminds us of a cargo ship because shipping containers are large, rectangular boxes. Which is essentially what this is."

What the hell do you think shipping containers do?

I'll give you a hint: Hold things.

Now, what does a carrier do?

Hint: Hold strikecraft.

You do the math."

...... This

STOP HATIN, IT'S A PICTURE

Obviously you know nothing of the arts, V3lo. That's something you have to go to school for.

Plus your revised draft looks sooo much better than that turd you produced a while ago.

(trololo)

You've got the idea.

This is the UNSC's monster ship, it's supposed to be able to go toe to toe with Covenant capitals. The thing should strike fear, not please the eye, nor should it be a composition of the former and the latter like the Thanatos-class destroyer.

V3LO's hilarious infograph brings attention to the fact that one's preconceptions of a maritime aircraft carrier aren't valid in space, and perhaps that ALL UNSC SHIPS and indeed practically ALL ships in the Halo universe are to some extent, carriers. The canon is focused on ground warfare, we can't have everyone dying operating spaceships.

"This is the UNSC's monster ship, it's supposed to be able to go toe to toe with Covenant capitals."

To be honest, that's just stupid. Carriers in real life don't go toe to toe with destroyers. Instead, carriers are more of a control and command vessel that aid other ships and areas in the vicinity with information and air strikes. IMO carriers shouldn't be first line defense, especially in something like Halo where a ship this big would be thrown to waste in front of a Covenant armada, which is capable of destroying a Marathon class cruiser after a few plasma torpedoes. And before you say "it's bigger, has more guns and lots of armor," just remember that carriers are generally filled with lots of hangar space not just for fighters, but also ground vehicles for mass deployment much like the Spirit of Fire.

I don't imagine this ship sailing towards the enemy capitals of an enormous battle. I'm saying if one were to consider an ideal situation in which a Covenant capital ship and a supercarrier were engaging one another, the supercarrier would actually be able to contend by itself, which can be said of virtually no other UNSC ship.
We have the Athens-class carrier for such a support role, I don't think we should copy and paste the thing and make it heavier in every way to make the supercarrier (which is implicitly what you're suggesting in terms of unit roles), even though the name would imply as such at a cursory glance. If you think ship roles in Halo aren't already lacking clear distinction, and that nonfictional naval analogies are anything but tenuously applicable to Halo's naval paradigm, you're following the wrong science fiction franchise. Should we scrap the Orion-class battleship because battleships have become obsolete in reality? Should there even be a supercarrier, since they don't officially exist beyond colloquialism?

"Should we scrap the Orion-class battleship because battleships have become obsolete in reality? Should there even be a supercarrier, since they don't officially exist beyond colloquialism?"

Though I appreciate your response, this made no sense what-so-ever. Battleships aren't obsolete in reality,they were all decommissioned due to peace time treaties. Also, the USS Enterprise is considered to be a Supercarrier.

Regardless, this is your mod to shape, but I still think a carrier should not be able to contend with a Covenant capital ship.

"Though I appreciate your response, this made no sense what-so-ever."
So you have no contention with the rest of my statement, only these last two rhetorical questions are nonsensical in your opinion?

"Battleships aren't obsolete in reality, they were all decommissioned due to peace time treaties."

Some relevant quotations:
"Even with their enormous firepower and protection, battleships were increasingly vulnerable to much smaller, cheaper ordnance and craft: initially the torpedo and the naval mine, and later aircraft and the guided missile. The growing range of naval engagements led to the aircraft carrier replacing the battleship as the leading capital ship during World War II, with the last battleship to be launched being HMS Vanguard in 1944. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War only for fire support purposes."

This rhetorical question was meant to illustrate the fact that following your criteria for accuracy would alter the UNSC in ways that are arguably, universally undesirable.

"Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons."
The point in my earlier comment is that the designation is arbitrary.

Those were Wikipedia quotes. If you'd like to follow up there are relevant citations.

The indistinct nature of ship roles in the Halo franchise has been a problem in development at other times, like when we were trying to choose a UNSC equivalent to the TEC Percheron Light Carrier, the Marathon has fulfilled its role, yet in canon the Marathon isn't classified as a carrier. Even frigates can hold detachments of Pelicans and ODSTs. Since this ship is necessarily non-canon, this is consequentially all speculation, and any argument for making the Thermopylae's role more distinguishable is particularly arbitrary.

The only factor to consider then is whether the role one proposes is appropriate, and I argue that the one you have proposed is not.

I see your point, but I must ask why you guys are trying to copy vanilla ships when you say you're making a total conversion mod. I just found it odd that you're trying to replace TEC ships rather than making up your own ship attributes.

Of course I could be taking that out of context, but just thought I'd ask.

Yeah I really meant it in terms of its role as a strikecraft carrier. The extent to which damage, hull and shield values have been changed, as well as the uniformity of many abilities among individual factions has left the game recognizable largely in interface only.

Ah okay. Anyways, you make pretty good points. Though when I think of combat, I think of it in terms of Halo: Homefront as Homeworld 2 is a completely different play mechanic than Sins and it's easy to forget that Sins is pretty generic in terms of attack styles and fleet engagements (not riffing by the way, just pointing out that gameplay in Sins seems to be roughly XY plane while HW2 is always XYZ plane and is more associated with being exclusively combat oriented like most other RTS while Sins is a colony builder expansive RTS by heart).

It's true Sins is limited in that way, and it definitely blends the 4X and RTS genres like other games rarely do. The comparison is lost on me though, I haven't played Homeworld 2.

I remember reading about a way to control z-axis movement in Sins in earlier versions that has since been removed, since it made mines unnecessary, and accurately so in my opinion.

You really should play Homeworld 2, it's a lot of fun but lacks all the in-depth stuff that Sins has to offer. Ideally, Homeworld 2 is just a simple combat RTS where you research what you want to blow up your enemy.

Anyways, this is completely off topic now. Long story short, I see your points, I agree that a super carrier should have enough armor to defend itself from Covenant attackers, but still believe it shouldn't be armored to the brim and should IMO only have things like PDWSs. But again, your mod, and I'm sure you guys have the right role picked out for it as I know ships in Sins are ability driven. Agree to disagree (on the other stuff). :)

Hadn't checked it out, I write off most games as too hardware intensive for me, but I didn't realize the specs were so low, might try it.

Yeah I was saying on the forums I think when people see "supercarrier" they just see "super spaceship." If I thought that the relationship between aircraft carriers and fictional spacefaring supercarriers was anything but slightly more than nominal, I would agree that the ship's role had been inappropriately defined.

I don't think it's just preconceptions of what carriers are today, but the general sci-fi rule that bigger = better and more advanced (which to the layman translates to "sleek")

A carrier in space has two role when every other ship is capable of launching single craft too - It carries enough of them to use as an offensive or defensive weapon on their own. That means most of the ship is going to be dedicated to launching, retrieving, mainting and managing hundreds of fighters and other small craft

The second is that it's the pack mule of the fleet, again when other combat ships in the fleet still have enough room to carry entire armoured battalions and deploy them, a carrier's role would be to carry entire invasion forces.

That's what this thing is, a giant modular carrier, carrying enough hardware and troops to take back an entire system. That's why it looks so blocky, most of it's superstructure is just made up of massive storage spaces.

If the Supercarriers role is to be able to "carry enough hardware and troops to take back an entire system" shouldn't it also fill the role of a colonizer ship. Seeing as how in Sins, "taking back" is just a fancier way of saying recolonizing.

That is gonna be the Phoenix-class's job