Mandal Motors Protectorate "Fang" Starfighter

This is the place for chit chat! Everything goes even Star Trek! Just make sure to buy the Moderator a drink!
Post Reply

Mandal Motors Protectorate "Fang" Starfighter

User avatar
Driftwood
Admiral (Moderator)
Posts: 2174
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Driftwood » Sat Jan 05, 2019 3:11 am

After a couple months of work off and on with this model, and much collaboration with DTM we are proud to present to you the Protectorate Starfighter!
FangFighter_Imm1.jpg
For the moment you can Download it at my page, and hopefully soon on DTM's page.
The Fang fighter—also known as the Protectorate starfighter—was a fast and incredibly agile Mandalorian starfighter that was custom-built for fighter combat by the MandalMotors company. Favored by the elite pilots of the Concord Dawn Protectorate, who leveraged the vessel's narrow attack profile and pivot wing technology to achieve unmatched agility. Fang fighters were well suited to executing deadly head-on charges such as the Concordia Face Off maneuver. Fang fighters were armed with a hidden torpedo launcher, that allowed a pilot to surprise their quarry with a deadly salvo, and a pair of forward-mounted laser cannons.

A fast[2] and highly maneuverable starfighter,[7] the Fang fighter was designed and manufactured by MandalMotors,[1] a prominent Mandalorian starship company[8]headquartered in Mandalore's capital city of Keldabe.[9] Possessed of a frame that was considered elegant yet aggressive in design, the Fang fighter had a thin, angular silhouette and a cranked-delta platform that gave the vessel an unmistakable profile. The fighter's fuselage took the form of a small, elongated hexagon with a low-profile canopy that covered the vessel's midship-mounted cockpit; the starfighter's aft section was dominated by a single, large, high-output ion engine. Two articulated S-foil wings were mounted to the fighter's fuselage, each capable of rotating and able to be raised or lowered, and possessed of a large, additional ion engine. The Fang fighter featured a sophisticated vectored thrust system, advanced flight controls, and automated vernier thrusters.[1]

Fang fighters could accommodate a single pilot,[5] with no room for other passengers, and enough consumables for a standard day. They possessed an array of close range sensors, a Class Two hyperdrive, and an onboard navigation computer. The Fang fighter's S-foil wings house the majority of the starfighter's weapon systems, comprised of a pair of forward-mounted laser cannons. Just forward of the cockpit, mounted in the fighter's underside, was a retractable torpedo launcher that carried a single proton torpedo, offering the vessel a degree of tactical flexibility.[1] The hidden launcher allowed a pilot to launch a devastating salvo before their quarry realized the vessel was carrying ordnance.[3]Fang fighters typically cost 120,000.[1]

The Fang fighter was custom-built for starfighter combat.[2] The vessel's narrow attack profile[6] and pivot wing technology could be used to achieve unmatched agility,[7] making the Fang fighter well suited to executing deadly head-on charges such as the Concordia Face Off maneuver.[6]

Fang fighters were first introduced to Star Wars canon in "The Protector of Concord Dawn," the thirteenth episode of the Star Wars Rebels animated television series' second season, premiering January 27, 2016.[13] Later that same year, Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game released the Protectorate Starfighter Expansion Pack, introducing the fighter to the original Star Wars Legends continuity.[2] The Star Wars: Edge of the Empire roleplaying game supplement, No Disintegrations, provided further information on the Fang fighter when it was released on February 2, 2017.[1]
This one is somewhat of a long explanation of this project beyond the norm. Usually my posts are "I used Warb's stuff and made a new derivative opt, shower me with mostly undeserved praise and boost my ego." blah blah at best, perhaps with "I had to significantly remodel portions of the original model, in the case of the Pelta because the guy who modified the original literally ruined Warb's model". But this one is a bit different.

I sat on this project since probably October of last year after a fair few failed attempts and several iterations and overhauls of the original models and textures. I scratch built a model, it was pretty low detail. I was sent a model to base my works on but it was too low detailed across the board to use as is and I wasn't able to adapt it to a point I'd be comfortable releasing it as a derivative work, but it did provide a sorely needed 360 degree reference piece. So I quit modding forever. (Okay fine I worked on other stuff instead.)

Time passed.

Then I realized that this fighter is too iconic to leave out for potential use with any Rebels themed ship packs, so I asked DTM for help since I figured if anybody would be interested in taking over a half baked Rebels themed ship he would be. And he was. (Yay!) So DTM picked up where I left off with my hot mess of deranged references and base model and rebuilt everything from the ground up.

At this point I pretty much went into balancing the stats and trying to make it function and stay true to the on screen depictions in rebels, as well as the stats and role as defined by FFG's Tabletop X-Wing game, using the basis of those stats as the basis for mine. As a result, the Fang is both a challenging, yet enjoyable fighter to fly as it is as maneuverable as an A-Wing, can run lasers at max charge without losing a significant amount of speed due to the overcharged generator. Lasers for days?! Doesn't that make the ship overpowered? Well, no actually it isn't as you have no shields. Canon wise the Fang Fighter has no shield generator, and all that is standing between you and certain destruction is crafty flying and a 40 +/- RU hull. Given the design philosophy of the fighter the Fang is a jouster. Low profile cross section and high speed it's intended for head to head dogfights that only aces like Fenn Rau survive.

DTM finished up his side of things and I discovered a couple unexpected last minute issues related to mesh order and classification we both initially missed (twice at this point) and I had to completely change the pilot model to what you are presented with here today as I realized the pilot model didn't fit the aesthetic anymore, which actually turns out to be a significant upgrade and a blessing in disguise since it looks much better! But DTM and I had to opt the entire thing again as of last night because of the last minute changes.

Long story short, much thanks goes to DTM and his patience as if it wasn't for him we wouldn't have this model today.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

User avatar
Darksaber
Vice Admiral
Posts: 10931
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2000 12:01 am
Contact:

Post by Darksaber » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:45 am

Nice work DTM lol

Just a quick observation

The Cockpits

Textures messed up a bit, the FG textures are on the craft but the FG's don't work, the wing just use a single texture Tex00035 when they should be using Tex00000, Tex00001, Tex00002, Tex00003

Plus the gun textures are messed up, they use the same Tex00035, then on the exterior and base they use two different textures
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
- John Lydgate

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait....
Darksaber's X-Wing Station

User avatar
Driftwood
Admiral (Moderator)
Posts: 2174
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Driftwood » Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:17 pm

Huh, that's weird. Okay, well I've gone and fixed the texture assignments and re-uploaded the files.

User avatar
Darksaber
Vice Admiral
Posts: 10931
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2000 12:01 am
Contact:

Post by Darksaber » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:04 pm

Ok yes you've fixed it, but now you have two sets of the same FG textures, the 1st set are 512x512 and the 2nd set are 1024x1024
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
- John Lydgate

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait....
Darksaber's X-Wing Station

User avatar
Driftwood
Admiral (Moderator)
Posts: 2174
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Driftwood » Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:33 pm

Okay, I figured out what happened. Should be fixed with the 1024x1024 textures, no duplicates.

User avatar
Oldcode
Rebel Alliance
Posts: 490
Joined: Fri May 18, 2001 11:01 pm

Post by Oldcode » Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:15 am

That's pretty cool Driftwood! :D

Does that wing thing spin around as it flies?

User avatar
Driftwood
Admiral (Moderator)
Posts: 2174
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Driftwood » Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:19 pm

Oldcode wrote:
Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:15 am
That's pretty cool Driftwood! :D

Does that wing thing spin around as it flies?
Unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to make that viable for player craft since it would require animating via the pilot head rotation hook. Which means the meshes will always rotate, even in the hangar which would cause quite a few problems. In theory we could make a second base opt that could be hooked in on a per mission basis under say the name AIFangFighter.opt with a separate pilot rotation ini. Though we havent tested that yet to see if it will work as intended. I'll look into it.

User avatar
JeremyaFr
XWAU Member
Posts: 3922
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 5:52 pm
Contact:

Post by JeremyaFr » Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:55 am

Good work

User avatar
Phoenix Leader
Rebel Alliance
Posts: 437
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:20 pm

Post by Phoenix Leader » Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:07 am

Nice craft.
can run lasers at max charge without losing a significant amount of speed due to the overcharged generator.
What about applying the same charge/speed management system of the TIE Bomber?
I mean the 1/16 base speed decrement/increment mechanic instead of the usual 1/8.


40 RU is a really heavy hull since the Xg-1 Star Wing Assault Gunboat is only rated 28 RU.

CIDlord_1973
Cadet 2nd Class
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2017 10:07 pm

Post by CIDlord_1973 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:16 am

Yesss, i was waiting for this ship.
I don't care about wing rotation, the ship is cool anyway.
TY

technomage
Cadet 4th Class
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 8:10 pm

Post by technomage » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:14 pm

Great Model Driftwood. I thought I would mention that the download link in your shipyard for the Orbital Station points to the Raider Corvette file instead.

User avatar
Driftwood
Admiral (Moderator)
Posts: 2174
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Driftwood » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:13 pm

Thanks, I havent technically released thst yet so I probably used the raider page as template and forgot to unlink file.

Also, approximately 40ru us canon PL, based off the only official stats I have access to, and has been balanced accordingly. Slowing down the rate of fire is counter intuitive to what is demonstrated on screen and again via official stats so, wah.

User avatar
XDragon
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 119
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:01 am
Contact:

Post by XDragon » Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:41 pm

I want to say thank you for this, and the Decimator...I've been looking forward to that ship n XWA
Founder of Z3R0 (Zero Command)
https://xdragon2688.wixsite.com/z3ro/

Post Reply