A question of scale...
almost 5 years ago – Fri, May 03, 2019 at 02:58:29 AM

So... despite many delays, public holidays and the like, I thought I was on track to get all the mini variants done today. Well, indeed I was... 

But I stuffed up.

And it is going to take time to fix...

The Stuff-Up

Basically, I had an old scale on the shuttles, what I thought was the correct 270 scale, was in fact, far from it. I fixed it with the 1.1 version, which was around 2/3 the scale of the ones shown below, and correct in proportion to the other ships... But for some insane reason, when I loaded in the parts for the variants, I have scaled them all to the wrong version of the 270...

Now it might seem like a simple fix, just scale it down to 66% and fix the OpenLOCK connections, but the problem is where the seams are between parts and the depth of the clips. Unfortunately, it means swapping out quite a bit of hull...

In the past, when I have appealed at least to the discord community the overwhelming consensus has been to delay releases so that everything is released at once, so I am going to follow that advice.

The Medical Bay

I have been in touch with Theo and it looks like we may have the medical bay ready to go today, so keep an eye out for the update. They will be in the common stretch goals.

Next Week's Schedule

Next week, I have the annual Trollywood Animation Festival (here in Trollhättan, Sweden) to attend. In fact, I am one of the organisers, and this will kill most of my working week next week. However, it might also put me in touch with the next person on my team, which will help expedite the next run of ships after delivery.

Consequently, the only thing I think is realistic to release are the fixed miniatures. The release will be Wednesday latest if it is happening, but either way there will be an update.

Beyond

After the festival, I should be home free in the following weeks to work on the rest of the deliveries. Bottlenecks will be the crew minis and second wave of variant minis. 

Easter in the Back Mirror
about 5 years ago – Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 01:16:08 AM

Sorry about the lack of updates over the long weekend. I was planning to do one yesterday, but also wanted to get out Habitation II to you guys and DriveThru has been experiencing difficulties with complimentary copies.

That problem has now been corrected, so let's look at where we stand!

Progress

Last week, I never even go to the minis. The Asymmetric Transport variant was stumping me. I was not pleased with the design, OpenLOCK curved tile templates were not fitting with the design I made, and I went through a plethora of drafts to deliver.

But...

I have now delivered. And this time, with a little more flexibility than intended.

Using a T-section, an alternate cockpit was added to the side of the ship, which is fully compatible with the regular OpenLOCK tiles already released. A front airlock was added where the old bridge used to be, and capping off the backside of the asymmetric cockpit.

But this design has some unintended benefits. So I have expanded the availability of the new parts to allow for cockpit mirroring on both sides... or even some whacky combinations...

With these parts, you can:

• Add cockpits to up to five locations
• Change the side sections into cargo pods
• Mirror the ship entirely, putting a cockpit in between them
• Extend the cockpit in its regular position out, adding additional airlocks or turret ports along the way.
• Daisy chain ships to create a makeshift floating space station

I have included a few extra parts to complete the set, and be warned that the parts might be a bit heavy when printed and many will need supports. It might be warranted to use glue if you intend to have large areas jutting out.

Finally, Habitation II is out. If you have it in your pledge, or as an add-on, and you have completed your survey, it should be already delivered to you. Holler if it is missing, but please do check your inboxes and junk folders. It should have come out this morning.

There are 29 files in all, included based and baseless versions of most things. The beds have been separated from the rooms to allow for modular layouts and also to allow optimal printing of bunks, etc.

Miniatures Next?

The miniature variants are next on the list. They are going to take a while. There are nine of them.

At the same time, I will fix the outstanding issues with the miniatures.

I don't anticipate being finished this week, so the next update will be next week. I also unfortunately am running a business, and will be somewhat inconvenienced by a day or so of book keeping for the first quarter, which along with Easter has led to a shorter week.

I apologise for the delays and inconveniences caused by myself and Drivethru. Hopefully, the next delivery is smoother.

In the meantime, I encourage you to join our communities on Facebook or Discord, as there are a ton of great prints and paint jobs from our backers to see.

Until next week!

Hard Points, Warp and Stretch Variants, and Collector Updates
about 5 years ago – Sat, Apr 13, 2019 at 02:14:50 AM

Another bygone week behind us, but it has been a productive one! For once I got all my goals for the week completed, although there is a slight delay on the Habitation II release (looking to do it on Sunday), but the hard points, Warp Shuttle and Stretch Scout are all released and ready for download if you login to your library on DriveThruRPG.com

Lets take a look at what we have!

First up this week we have the Hard Points! This common stretch goal provides alternative parts for the Shuttle, Scout and Transport, that allow the placement of forward-mounted weapons.

The scout ship's gotten a wrack of three weapon points to clip where the sensors otherwise go, and you could always place a single cannon there instead.

The transport has three slots per side, and you can centre large weapons, or double up, so it allows for a few combos.

For those without Turret Pack I, only the standard laser cannon is available. For those who do, the product has been updated (along with smoother turret chassi) for compatibility, and the weapons are found in the /Weapons/Type III folder.

This one was fairly straight forward, but fun to work on.

The hull detailing did a lot, and it should print well standing up, and hopefully snap into place with minimal instability.

This was the big one this week, because not only did I have to make the parts to allow for the ship to stretch in sections, I also needed to make it compatible with the cargo version.

Well... needed and needed, you guys are worth it, so I did it. So it should look good with either version.

A few additional details:

• You can (in theory) infinitely stretch the ship
• There is a version compatible with the cargo variant, although it has no turret
• I have added some additional channels in the parts to in the future allow for some stability rods to be inserted
• There is a new part for the top of the turret access if you don't want to make it an autoturret
• The crawlspace is narrower 

Hopefully this is a pretty complete and expandable solution.

Collector Updates & Missing Files

It seems some kind of unknown error has led to early Collector backers not getting access to the actual base ships. Today, I resent the drivethru links to all backers who got their deliveries on the 12th and 13th of March, and hopefully this resolves the issue.

I am very sorry for this error, and hopefully no one will be having issues after this.

If you do find you are missing files (at any pledge level):

• Ensure that the item in question has actually been released - so far, we have released the base ships, base miniatures, and all stretch goals through to the Stretch Scout Ship variant. Everything else is still in progress and delivery will probably not be concluded until the end of May.
• Double Check your pledge - a few people have misunderstood the campaign-exclusive add-ons and thought they came in their pledge.
• Check "My Library" on Drivethrurpg.com - most of the files cannot be found in the 2nd Dynasty catalogue as they are hidden
• Contact me via DM on KS, or via Backerkit - I don't mind people posting issues in the comments, but I can't see the email address of the account in question. Also, this is better for your own privacy.

Next Week's Schedule

Next week is a short week because of Easter (as is the one after).

• Asymetric Transport Variant - this one I am not too happy with the design, so I might do two variants, one as originally displayed, and one where the cockpit is essentially mirrored.
• Miniature Variants I - this is going to take a ton of time, from past experience, but will include the corrections needed to the minis.
• Possibly the Medical Bay from Theo.

I don't honestly think I will get any farther than this, and to be honest, the minis may take a lot longer. We shall have to see.

Anyway, you can probably expect a small update on Sunday with Habitation II, else on Monday. Talk to you then!

Delayed Update
about 5 years ago – Mon, Apr 08, 2019 at 03:49:29 PM

Sorry everyone for the delayed update. I was actually ready to go yesterday, but some bug with Kickstarter refused to take images, and I don't believe in posting updates without them if I can help it!

If I am honest, I am still not quite well, I am functional and able to work, but still mildly sick with what feels like my second or even third back to back cold. Nevertheless, three out of four items were completed on the list this past week, let's take a look at them and this week's schedule.

First up was the bus shuttle variant. This was a bit tricky, making the parts still compatible, but I am pleased with the result.

The bus shuttle can be found in the latest download of the Space Shuttle Alpha in the variants folder.

If I revisit this one in the future, I would consider scaling up the wing add-on to have more powerful engines and be maybe 25% larger. I have done experiments with this, but ran out of time.

Next we have the Patrol Boat variant of the scout ship, which involved adding side turret ports and a forward turret port. These ports all can also be used if you have Turret Pack III for adding airlocks.

The overall shape did not require too much refining. I included two versions for the forward turret, one with a turret ring built into the nose, and the other, a rougher, clip-based ring which will connect the same way as the forward sensor.

The latter is kinda ugly, but has the benefit of fitting to existing prints.

Finally, we have the transport upper deck variant, which adds a nice second, smaller deck above the midsection of the ship.

As you can see, we have significantly altered the look to have some side view windows and a forward view port. Hopefully, this does not upset anyone, but I feel the changes were worth it.

You could potentially add a secondary cockpit, captain's cabin, observation lounge, workshop, storage area or the like - I have demonstrated just a small bunk room, but with all my tiles, there are plenty of possible combinations (such as partitioning withe walls and a door). Not all of the back ladder well area is ceiling height however - so just be aware. This was done to preserve the aesthetic.

Also, as you might notice, an turret port is present. I will probably have to do a version t hat is capped for those not wishing to put a turret there.

Schedule For The Coming Week

So, hard points are up next, although we might put aside a day or so this week to do some minor fixes that have been pointed out in past releases. Lets look at what is planned below, and the challenges I can identify so far:

• Hardpoints (all ships) (shuttle complete, 3 of 7 weapons complete [Turret Pack I])
• Warp Nacelle Shuttle (should be straight forward, but may require some slight redesign)
• Stretch Scout Variant (involves interior, but should be quicker than the cargo variant)

If we have time:

• Asymetric Bridge Transport variant
• Habitation II (Theo is half done, possible delivery this week)

Beyond this, we have Easter coming up next week, which means less days of productivity in the following two weeks.

I will do another update at the weekend.

Cargo Fun and Turret Guns
about 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 08:38:25 PM

This has been a big week... 

It turns out, redesigning 70% of the lower part of a ship that took me more than four months to make takes more time than one would think! 

Why you ask? Well, basically, the cargo variant of the scout ship is the most labour-intensive of the variants because the whole floor is integrated, and because it is a lower section, more attention to detail was needed...

But it is here! 

The changes affect well over half the ship, and double the storage capacity, and add an additional crawlspace under the living quarters.

You might also notice a new improvement - a serviceable lift/elevator! This can be now prototyped for the transport as well. Speaking of which...

Transport Gunship

The transport gunship is also ready for release. This was smaller in scope, since it only involved three new parts, with a fairly simple addition. The look is slightly more integrated for the top and bottom turrets, which will also be useful for future updates with the larger turrets.

Getting some more guns on this bad lady is now a possibility... and speaking of guns...

Turrets Pack I

Theo delivered today with Turrets Pack I. We might revisit the pack in the future to increase the fidelity of the turret chassi. In any case, it should be coming soon to your inbox if it was included with your pledge or add-ons.

Ironing Out The Bugs

There are a few known issues that still need to be sorted out, notably the minis missing stand holes, a hangar piece which is not manifold/complex, and the missing parts of the winged shuttle I forgot about (bulbous sections). Rest assured we will be getting to this shortly.

Next Week's Delivery Goals

We got behind this week thanks to the cargo ship, so I am hoping to tackle the following next week:

• Bus Shuttle Variant
• Patrol Scout Variant
• Transport Upper Deck Variant
• Hard Points
• Habitation II (Theo, could take longer, but aiming for Friday)
• (fixes/bugs listed above)

Now if you don't mind... I'm gonna crack open a cold one...

Here's to next week's update!

Happy printing.