Took a crap-ton to motivate myself to do some art again; especially since I've had quite a lull of work, and a lack of funds to upkeep my morale. But besides my work issues (regarding sending applications out and communication-minded ("MUST KEEP CONTACT WITHIN 24 HOURS") clients being unresponsive as ever in a rather ironic twist (2 months waiting on a job with a deadline in less than a week, and still no word from them, for any of us dozens who applied to said job (at least 40-odd applicants, no interviews, no hires, for any of us dozens. I mean, what the hell?))), I've finally managed to get off my ass, and hire myself to do some engineering work on my ship for an hour or two.
My progress so far:
-Chassis is about 25% done
-Decided to build progressively, adding as I go, instead of sequentially (chassis, then piping/wiring, then equipment and hull portions, etc.).
=Along with chassis frame, I'm also applying the skin of the ship as I move on to better guide my progress.
-Barrel for the beam cannon/railgun/coil-gun (whichever) is made.
=Dao-Cannon, main unit, still needs to be built (fires both holy and unholy energy; as well as firing in Yin-Yang fashion yielding a nuclear effect on targets, eviscerating angels and demons alike as well).
=Makes use of the beam cannon/railgun/coil-gun barrel, and dimensional prisms for the secondary fire.
=Dao-Cannon's Secondary firing measure (homing energy projectiles/beams) still needs to be established and hooked up as well.
-Primary (Lower) Bridge is more or less setup (needs much more work, but at least I got the pilot's seat installed)
=Upper and lower accessways have been established. Now needs hallways installed, and associated rooms and Captain's Quarters.
-Fore Tuning-Fork chassis frame is in the works.
-4D-μ (4-Dimensional Manipulator Unit; to re-direct fire, or fuck with physics, or jump planets without traveling through space) has yet to be constructed, dimensionally split, and then mounted onto the ship (just to fuck with engineers, especially when reverse-engineering the technology, or to figure out how a split wheel still spins completely).
We've got a hell of a distance to go on this megaproject, but I at least made some progress. I've been regarding my old 3d model for reference, especially for scaling things properly, relative to one another (like resizing the gun barrel, and ensuring the dimensions of the bridge were right).
EDIT:
Unlike many other ships I've seen built in Minecraft, this sucker's not going to be hollow. I'm putting in as much effort in this as I did with Bloodfist; engineering it to be as convincingly built as possible (pulling as much BS-engineering as I can get away with, using command blocks and the like as possible). Minus the 300+ casualties. Sure, I could build this in Space Engineers instead, and have something we can actually fly (let's say the 4D-μ generates the atmosphere (siphoning other sources, while generating a Klein-containment field (Basically, the ship uses a Klein bottle to keep itself in good form atmospherically; especially in rather hostile environments, ranging from toxic environments to the vacuum of space or de/re-synching within solid matter (like hiding literally under ground, yet not within a cave system. I mean it; IN the ground, sharing the same space as solid matter, sans displacement.)) and gravity manipulation (this is an airship, after all, not a spaceship; although there has been a recent 'Planets Update')), but I don't feel like learning a whole new game's system, plus, my computer's not exactly up-to-date for that kind of game, even on basic/crap settings. I'm sticking with what I know.
EDIT EDIT:
Some story based on the ship: Kudos to the Excalibur's 4D-μ, extra-dimensional beings had to hit the crew of the ship with some new combat laws, exclusive to anyone that has a lucid/conscious understanding of extra-dimensional physics (forget the math and science, and use your imagination), and application, or shall I be more precise and say blatant abuse, of them. And for the
Mark-II's (AKA-Quis ut Deus; named after St. Michael's sword) 7D-μ, which is a whole 'nother can of worms there; involving elder gods of all kinds of religions and the like having some issues with the crew and regulate even stricter rules involving Infinite (Im)Probability and (Un)Reality Manipulations and Chronos--Kairos Temporality Manipulations, and abusing those laws for recreational purposes (forget abusing infinite probability for wars and the like; have a bunch of highly imaginative and rather child-like/childish peaceful screwballs like myself and the crew of the Excalibur (Mk. II) at the helm of something that ultimately powerful, and we can give anything/everything/nothing a massive headache. I can't help but to play the
Freakazoid theme whenever I think of this. And I guess, regarding an AI controlling such a device: Something, something, next thing the crew knows, their personal-AI/crew member becomes a literal Deus Ex Machina 'Virtual God(dess)' (and (part of) the ship itself), and the pantheon of gods (and flying spaghetti monsters) now have a new pain-in-the-ass/smartass joining their ranks. Remember kids, be careful when you uplink your AIs to extra-dimensional (magical) machines. And for the story, at least the crew didn't have to worry about the AI going SHODAN/Skynet on them; I mean, what's the point when you can navigate infinite probability/reality?
