Dark Pirates ships - from online game

[rapierdragon]

I've been doing the ships from the online trading/piracy game called "Dark Pirates" (site: DarkPirates)

Free file hosting by Savefile.com is where you can download the models.

I don't use gluing tabs as I use clear tape. All my models are worked out using just my head, a calculator, and windows paint. My printer default-prints from windows paint at exactly 96 pixels per inch, so I can do pretty detailed sub-areas and fairly nice angles.

I aced "archetectual drafting" in high-school (or "secondary school" as some places call it... you know, grades 9-12). The pencil-on-paper part is really easy for me, it's the 3d-CAD I suck at. (partly cause I was raised "old school" at seeing the 3d objects in multiple-2d terms first.)

Cool trick: buy the 2-inch wide super-strength clear tape from a place like Zellers and "coat" one or both sides of all parts after printing but before cutting/scoring. Then score the folds with a rular, then cut out and fold. The result is a much stronger paper (almost bristol-board strong) with a far reduced chance of having the color run in future when cleaning dust off (protects against accidental spills too).

 

[gwssms]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

 

[rapierdragon]

huge update...

Lots of ships done.

Dark Pirates features 16 ships, ranging from the small starter ship, Meteor, to the huge warships, Stardragon and Dreadnought, to even their own super-ship, the Behemoth. The game is free, requires no downloads, but you may want to donate if you want to support it towards future updates.

Here you can see I've done a number of the ships.

Stardragon Dreadnought Behemoth
Oceanus Peacemaker
Meteor Nightshade Thunderfist

The parts just left of the Oceanus are the parts needed to convert it to another ship called the Conquerer. (the game artist was a bit lazy... Oceanus and Conquerer are 95% identical other than teh nose and a "U" shaped thing along its back/mid area... see s6300473.jpg for its alternate build).

SIZES

Meteor is appx 4" wide x 6" long x 1.5" tall ... other ships are "to scale" as they appear in game, so Behemoth is quite huge at 6" wide x 14" long x 5" tall. (game doesn't list ship sizes using feet/meters/etc)

Sorry I can't be more precise, but the game itself doesn't give ship sizes, so the best I was able to do was build one and then compare its graphics for length/width to calculate a relative size range.

FILES were hosted at savefile.com -- unfortunately its temp.down for server upgrades until 1.Nov.2009 or so. Which means if you want a ship you'll have to email me or message me here and provide an email that I can send a large zip file to.

ABOUT THE GAME

game site is: www.darkpirates.com

game type is: trading, space piracy, html based with some java
(combats are not animated) but pilots have 6 skill areas they can improve on, and there are multiple weapons/ammo.

game difficulty: Game is easy to learn, pretty much occurs in real-time, and offers automatic protection from combat if your ship's structure/damage rating is below 25% (so trading for lots of money becomes easy... just loose a battle or two and then don't repair your ship. There's no penalty for running around with the ship at 1%). There are missions you can do to earn "lab points" which can be used to buy upgrades to various items like the weapons, shields, and drive systems. Each ship has "base stats" which you can then modify to a degree by installing either shield or speed modules, selecting weapon type, ammo type, etc.

game languages include: english, russian, german, french, and a number of others I can't remember off-hand

P.S.
If you join, please refer them to a player on english server one (s1.darkpirates.com) known as DragonHierarchy (my name there). I don't really earn game credits or anything if you join, but we've been suffering a slump cause Game Forge hasn't had a good large update for it in a number of months). The game has only been online for about 2 years, and long-term daily players like me have started asking friends to join up (even if its short term) in the hopes of getting Game Forge to make a nice update with lots of new game features.

 

[ThunderChild]

Nice!

 

[the4ce]

Cool! But the link doesn't work...or the site is having a renovation.

 

[rapierdragon]

Yeah, savefile.com is down for server updates...

...they had been planning to do a gradual update/replace, but they had a major server crash with massive data loss, so they decided to go with the pain and chuck the old system and get the new one up and running all at once.

Savefile.com says their in the final stretch of the update. Last week they were saying they should be back up and running by Oct.31 or so.

If you can't wait, drop me an email and I'll email you the zips. 9 of 16 ships are done, and a new one, the Djinn, will prolly be done in the next two weeks (bringing it up to 10 of 16).

My email is: matsho@sympatico.ca.spam (drop that final .spam ... I just add it to block any email-seeking adware-spyware-spam-sending bots)

Or you can post your email here (or in a private mesage) ... you can do the same, stick a .spam into some part of it if you're worried about spam-bots.

 

[the4ce]

I think I will wait because I am working on another thing right now. If I will need them I will send you an e-mail.

Just curios, do you play OGame too?

 

[Kjev]

I will probably wait until they are finished. That way I will have time to put new ink in the printer.

 

[Millenniumfalsehood]

Does anyone else besides me think the ship at the top of the pictures looks a little too much like a Gunstar?

 

[Kjev]

Does anyone else besides me think the ship at the top of the pictures looks a little too much like a Gunstar?

I was thinking "Gunstar meets Lando Calrissian's Lady Luck."

 

[ThunderChild]

LOL! Those wings are a bit "Gunstarry" I'd say Gunstar meets Marquis Fighter...
Nice fleet RD

 

[Darth Windius]

I vote for Thunderchild

definitively, the ugly result of a Gunstar/Maquis raider marriagesign1sign1

Nevertheless, even if I don't know the Game, I appreciate the fleet :thumb::thumb:

But 'll wait for SaveFile a little, so maybe I'll got back my 2 months Platinum Account unusable fees :curse:

And so, maybe I'll got all the 16 at once:thumb::thumb::thumb:

Good job!!!!!

 

[rapierdragon]

Djinn almost there.... just a few tweaks left maybe in the upper-rear body area. ETA of the zip for download should be a day or two.

Underside

Landing legs (on paper attached to a plexi for support)...

Game shot with new engine-pods attached

Side view (showing off new engine-pods)

Rear view (enhaust ports on engine pods)

Engine pod attached with 1 side still open to allow for putting in of support blocks

 

[Millenniumfalsehood]

I am really looking forward to these. As cool as they are, I'll have to build up the entire fleet. Good work! :thumb:

 

[rapierdragon]

Djinn done

added a bit of a stripe and thickened a bit along the back over those small mid-body wings.

I'll try to email it to everyone who has already requested all the other ships... but if you don't see it in your email today then email me or leave a message here cause I may have missed you.

 

[rapierdragon]

IMPORTANT PRINTING NOTICE - win98 vs winXP

recently moved from win98se to winXP (due to a hardware issue)... learned that paint in XP prints VERY DIFFERENTLY from paint in win98se.

win98se

ex
screen set to: doesn't matter...
96x96 pixel square prints as 1 inch wide by 1 inch tall

compared to winXP (where screen resolution affects how paint program will print)

ex
screen set to: 1280 x 1024
96x96 pixel square prints as 15/16 inch wide by 14/16 inch tall (square ends up slightly off... larger prints such as a 300x300 pixel square end up even further off-square in size ... roughly 2.81 inch by 2.62 inch ... a clearly visible 1/10th inch difference, resulting in parts that don't fit right)

ex
screen set to: 1280 x 960
96x96 pixel square prints as 15/16 inch wide by 15/16 inch tall (actual square when print-out measured!)