Request Battletech Dropship

[Brycesv1]

Has/is anyone made/making a dropship from the battletech books? they had the ability to launch from a jumpship sitting at the azimuth of a star (with ion engines) and accelerate constantly halfway to its target planet, then it would turn around and decelerate for the other half before making a blunt reentry. on average one could carry ~500 tons of cargo. including people, vehicles, aircraft/spacecraft.

i dont think anything like this exists already on orbithangar and so i am willing to do some research on dimensions and make a mesh/texture if someone else could help with coding (i know almost nothing about coding). it would be cool to have a large UCGO compatible dropship. who knows. if it turns out well i could model a jumpship for use with msss.

thoughts? questions? comments? people to tell me to forget it?

 

[mc_]

Any pictures of subj?

 

[Urwumpe]

Look here for an example:

http://www.classicbattletech.com/[email protected]

 

[mc_]

I see three ships there. Which one of them?

 

[Urwumpe]

I see three ships there. Which one of them?

Ahem... the spherical ones are spherical drop ships, the long cylindrical vehicles are jump ships.

There are actually seven ships in the image:

- four Mammoth class cargo drop ships (four engine pods at the sides)
- A Overload drop ship (large, egg shaped, usually military transport, but also civilian cargo versions exist).
- The jump ship in the foreground is a Star Lord class (can transport six drop ships in total).
- The jump ship in the background is a Invader class (can transport three drop ships).

 

[mc_]

So, there is two different dropship types.

 

[Urwumpe]

So, there is two different dropship types.

Actually much more. You have spherical and "aerodynamic" drop ships, but eventually about known 30-40 different drop ship classes in the whole BattleTech history (Could count them, but I am too lazy).

 

[Andy44]

Well, Urwumpe, sooner or later we're going to have to do this project. I remember you started a project thread for this over a year ago and we let it slide. Next time I visit my family I will dig out the wooden model of a Leopard class dropship I built back in the 90s for tabletop B-Tech wargames and post some pics on here.

I can do a mesh...

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah, looks like it will pop up often enough... Maybe I can do a generic BattleTech-physics spacecraft DLL without any graphics attached during the next days.

 

[Andy44]

The source material doesn't give much info about the flight characteristics of a Leopard, but I'm assuming it flies pretty much like a shuttle orbiter on re-entry.

For landings and takeoffs, though, it looks like it needs a very high landing speed and a long runway. Plus it must have hoverjets of some sort for landing on various bodies and unprepared landing zones, so maybe the hoverjets are used to reduce landing and takeoff roll.

It's a fantasy vehicle, after all, so I guess you've got a lot of room to work.

 

[Urwumpe]

The source material doesn't give much info about the flight characteristics of a Leopard, but I'm assuming it flies pretty much like a shuttle orbiter on re-entry.

For landings and takeoffs, though, it looks like it needs a very high landing speed and a long runway. Plus it must have hoverjets of some sort for landing on various bodies and unprepared landing zones, so maybe the hoverjets are used to reduce landing and takeoff roll.

It's a fantasy vehicle, after all, so I guess you've got a lot of room to work.

Well, you can turn the table top rules into distances traveled and curve radii. The Leopard would be much worse than a Shuttle in terms of turning radius.

It would be best if you could just plug the BattleTech numbers into a DLL and get a vessel...would then make balancing and such easier.

 

[Brycesv1]

the spherical dropships dont use a runway. they burn their engines straight down through the atmosphere and land tail-sitter style

 

[Urwumpe]

the spherical dropships dont use a runway. they burn their engines straight down through the atmosphere and land tail-sitter style

Yes, but there are also winged ones, like the famous Leopard drop ship. Aerodynamic drop ships also have hover engines in general, but there are exceptions. And aerodynamic drop ships need quite serious runway lengths... AFAIR 2.5 km without any pilot tricks.

 

[Andy44]

Would be cool to retrofit a real space shuttle as a DropShip. I imagine you could fit one light Mech in the payload bay, a 25-ton Locust perhaps. What's cool is Sputnik's DynaSoar has a mini DropShip scenario using space marines with Douglas Paracone personal re-entry equipment!

 

[Brycesv1]

Would be cool to retrofit a real space shuttle as a DropShip. I imagine you could fit one light Mech in the payload bay, a 25-ton Locust perhaps. What's cool is Sputnik's DynaSoar has a mini DropShip scenario using space marines with Douglas Paracone personal re-entry equipment!

i think a locust is too wide for the shuttle but a wasp could fit.

i just downloaded blender and i love it. i am having a hard time figuring it out though. i have to "un-learn" everything i knew from rhino3d but from what iv gotten the hang of, its much better. i cant wait to start working on my own dropship meshes.

does anyone know how to rotate along a horizontal axis by default. num4 and num6 are too jerky for my tastes and i hate having the whole image reorienting itself awkwardly when i use the mmb

 

[Hielor]

i think a locust is too wide for the shuttle but a wasp could fit.

i just downloaded blender and i love it. i am having a hard time figuring it out though. i have to "un-learn" everything i knew from rhino3d but from what iv gotten the hang of, its much better. i cant wait to start working on my own dropship meshes.

does anyone know how to rotate along a horizontal axis by default. num4 and num6 are too jerky for my tastes and i hate having the whole image reorienting itself awkwardly when i use the mmb

*cough* wings3d *cough*

 

[Brycesv1]

your link is broken

 

[Hielor]

your link is broken

So it was. That was odd.

Anyway, I'd suggest trying Wings3D to see if it meets your needs--the learning curve is rather shallower than for Blender, and there's a direct exporter to Orbiter's .msh format.

 

[Brycesv1]

no need. iv been playing around with modeling for a while, the only thing that was bothering me about blender was the camera witch i fixed the way i want it. i like how blender is so complex and can do so much while still remaining simple and user friendly (once you figure it out). iv already made a few meshes for a different personal project.

 

[Urwumpe]

I can make some scans from the Battletech source books tomorrow, if somebody is interested. Would maybe be helpful for the people who want to make meshes.

Personally, I think support for skinning/logos/registration codes/names in the generic DLL would be a feature to shoot for, any further wishes?

For the reference table-top rules for fitting the Orbiter models to, I would suggest using AeroTech2... first of all, because I have it and second because I like it best of the available rule systems. Call me subjective.

Weapons and damage models should also be included, but that would be a major work item.

For the drop ships, we could include UMMU/UCGO support easily. The maximum crew size of a drop ship is 50.

My personal plan is so far, to first do the spherical (zero-lift) drop ships and then do the aerodynamic drop ships as extension.

This would mean the Leopard would be secondary in the beginning, but software design would be more logical as trying to cover both classes of drop ships at the same time.

If I would do a selection of drop ships for the software development side, I would go like that:

First batch:
Union
Overlord

Second batch:
Leopard
Leopard CV

Third batch:
Union-C
Broadsword
Fortress
Avenger

etc...

BTW: The biggest jump ship crew size is 45...also in the UMMU range.

The warships reach 700 and more...good that we don't yet plan to make them right?