Opinions needed! new name for an old ship

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Opinions needed! new name for an old ship

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:32 pm

Hey folks

The recent technical achievements got my creative juices flowing again and, while even returning to working on the almost forgotten Blue Phantom campaign, I also went on to get some more work done in the various ships involved. One project I was eager to accomplish is the revision of the BX-800 Dragonfly heavy attack fighter.

Here's a reminder of how that thing in looks in its current version:


Now, for quite a while I've been somewhat unhappy with the design, for a number of reasons:
- Odd placement of the weaponry
- wing setup, while unintended, is too similar to the X-Wing
- Overall sice is too small for a heavy attack fighter / bomber

So I pretty much reimagined the whole damn thing. In the end I came up with a sort-of modular design with various possible wing and weaponry configurations, which looks somewhat like this:
bomber2.jpg
bomber4.jpg
bomber3.jpg
There are basically two versions, one(not shown above), where most weapons hang on the lower wings, which are static in place to replace either the Y-Wing or the missile boat(more on that below), the other, like you see in the pics, would carry heavy weapons and, using the B-Wing slot, have those lower wings fold in to cover the weaponry.

Here's a clean overview of all the variations:

Column 1: 4 small wings, Option for add. Turbolasers
-> Rows 1&2: Static Weapon mounts
--> Row 1: 4x lasers, 2x Ions, 2x6 Warheads (Replacing the Y-Wing or Toscan Fighter)
--> Row 2: 4x lasers, 2x Ions, 2x6 Warheads, 2x Turbolasers (Replacing the Toscan Fighter)
-> Rows 3&4: Foldable Weapon mounts (Replacing the B-Wing)
--> Row 3: 2x Turbolasers, 2x Ions, 2x6 Warheads
--> Row 4: 4x Turbolasers, 2x Ions 2x6 Warheads (Probably not gonna use this one, too powerful)

Column 2: 2 large wings, Option for add. Turbolasers or Warhead Launchers
-> Rows 1&2: Static Weapon mounts
--> Row 1: 4x lasers, 2x Ions, 2x6 Warheads, 2x4 Warheads (Replacing the Missile Boat, probably gonna strip some lasers/ions for balancing)
--> Row 2: 4x lasers, 2x Ions, 2x6 Warheads, 2x Turbolasers (Replacing the Toscan Fighter)
-> Rows 3&4: Foldable Weapon mounts (Replacing the B-Wing)
--> Row 3: 2x Turbolasers, 2x Ions, 2x4 Warheads
--> Row 4: 4x Turbolasers, 2x Ions 2x6 Warheads (Probably not gonna use this one, too powerful)

Now, while 90% of this is a totally new ship, I still intend to replace the former design with this.
HOWEVER I also have the feeling that the name "Dragonfly" isn't exactly fitting anymore, since this new design is more massive than its precursor. I've tried similar insect names but those don't seem to fit either - Bumblebee sounds somewhat cute, hornet is too fast (and also already taken by an 20th century USAF fighter jet)

So, what would you think? Any suggestions?
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Marcos_Edson
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Post by Marcos_Edson » Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:37 am

Whoa, these things look evil! :D The Wasp or Killer Bee names come to mind, as well Reaper. :)
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Will T
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Post by Will T » Mon Jul 27, 2015 2:04 pm

Love the new look, much more of a badass, heavy hitting weapons platform now.

My first thought on looking at the 2 large wing option was that looked quite a lot like a hovering bird of prey, so I was thinking of something like Kestrel, or Sparrowhawk for the name. Of course, a lot of raptors are already taken for real world aircraft, like Harrier, Peregrine and Osprey. And I guess it would better with the 4 wing version, and of course be more in keeping with the lineage, to keep the insect theme.

So there's the Hawkmoth as a sort of combination of the two ideas, or looking into badass names from the bee/wasp family you could go for something like the Beewolf, or even just base it off the broader name for the family in general: Vespid. Given the big, squat heavy hitter profile, I also wondered about going down the beetle route, but I don't think there's many names that really fit. Longhorn sounds kinda cool, but the actual insect doesn't really look anything like the ship. There's the Goliath beetle too, but Goliath probably suits a cap ship better.

I don't know, I still think Dragonfly works pretty well for the 4 wing version. Arguably moving the wings further forward kinda makes it look more like a dragonfly than the original did.
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Driftwood
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Post by Driftwood » Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:14 am

First off, the redesign looks great. Whole new look, yet one that stays true to the original vision.

And secondly, I think you should stick with Dragonfly for posterity. The name still fits.

I kinda like Vespid though as an alternative. Though instead of the yellowjacket-esque wasp I think of this:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tNtny6eLHf8/V ... vespid.PNG

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Jaeven
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Post by Jaeven » Sat Aug 01, 2015 2:04 pm

That ship looks awesome. My favorite version is probably the first version in column two. Those two warhead launchers on top give it an extremely menacing look.

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Sun Aug 09, 2015 1:16 am

Thanks fro all the feedback guys. I haven't fully decided yet since there were some very good ideas. I may actually go ahead and go with 2 or 3 different versions replacing all the aforementioned ships, like having various builds of the same same core vessel, which is what I also intend to do with teh Victory Mk2. On an OPTing basis I'm going to texture all the single modules so I can freely assemble the final "products" in the end.

For the big-winged version I kinda like the idea of a aeiral predator , coming to think of Falcon, Eagle or Raven. Either way, I'll keep you updated as I proceed.
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