Haha, yeah, I uh...took a few design cues from Homeworld 2... I regret nothing! I'm still contemplating whether or not I want to make a full mod out of this or not. I have enough ships modeled to make up a new race, and if I do I plan to mix elements of Homeworld 2 gameplay (namely the ships building other ships concept) with SoaSE gameplay. The ships are also meant to be low-poly, while still carrying some feeling of weight and size to them.

See, it kind of looks like the game auto-smoothed it. The effect seems to be most noticeable around the back section, and the mid-top section. Is that just a result of the skybox lighting? Either way, it looks good in-game.

The model is very well done, if I were to try an optimize some polys, I might save 10, which is excellent. Some in SOA I saved over 50%.

You should join me here https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/438121

I made a Karan_Sjet log in so I could either pass this mod on or have others add to the op pages. I like to keep the OP short and quick jumps to info. I have a pile of models ready as well and just wanted to get the assets out there to share with others. Now I am just getting all the races added into all 4 versions, along with planets and bonuses, music is done, voices for 1 race are done using real military fighter chatter.

I dont think I have the time to take on another full mod, at least until SOA is complete. Tons of work yet for me there as well.

I will get a shield for you and add some running lights today.

You know, I never really paid that much attention to that. To me, it looks almost the same as it does in the XSI render window.

Here is the model with no texture, using hard edges for some areas:

A Homeworld 2 assets pack? Cool. Not sure if I could help with much though, if that's what you're asking. Seeing as how I can't use XSI.

I'm sure modelling is not your only modding knowledge, even if it is, I would love to use your models. But for now, all the races are just copies. 2 copies of tec, 2 psi, and 2 vasari with renamed ship and structure entities to attach the models.

EDIT: Get Teamviewer and I will send you my code and you can add your hard edges working my desktop

EDIT 2: Ship and Shield meshes done. I PMed you the link. 

Well, I can do coding. But it has been a long time since I've really modded anything (at least six months). I've just now gotten back into it, so I should be back up to speed in no time. I only have vanilla sins and Entrenchment though, no Rebellion.

Actually, it looks just fine in-game with soft (or what looks like soft) edges. One question though, do you think it would look better with a gray/white color scheme instead of the obviously progenitor green/white/red/grey?

That is personal choice, I would easily leave that choice to the skinner. Maybe do one ship in both and make a post asking others, do a poll.

I actually like the HW colour scheme. This one is next in game.
This is a render in XSI when I learned to add lighting to the scene. The windows is the -da but the running lights, emblem, engines and hangars are all added lights.

For the HW mod, I am actually starting with org, keeping texts of changes that get ported up. Want all versions as close as possible, at least till all assets are in.

I am still contemplating adding hard edges and testing, it will add more kb to each model though.

EDIT:
Got this beast in-game yesterday if you want it.

HIIG_Frigate_Transport_Bishop 

It's not that I don't like the HW color scheme, I just think it looks too similar to the progenitors.

Oh yeah, you've just reminded me of something. I have a pack of Homeworld 2 models in .OBJ format with all the textures and whatnot, I load them in wings3d just to see what kind of modeling techniques they used on them. It appears that instead of using hard edges, they just sliced every single polygon into its own object. I just thought that that was interesting and I am wondering what it would look like in SoaSE.

Do the lights stay in when you convert to .MESH?

The objs are actually just the way the model is exported. It makes a cluster from every UV section which is bad (like seems in sewing). I weld all the points till there is no more blue lines (double edges) save the open unseen area that's inside the model. This is the only way to get a proper tangent map without days of work, and it saves loads of memory space.

SoaSE planet mesh import large.
Looks like crap until you weld the seems on the UV import 

No, but it give a real good idea of where to add white to the -da light channel. I mostly wanted for web page and shrink down for in-game buttons.

 
another XSI render

hmmm, it seems someone sucked all the juice from my dropbox 

moving a bunch of images to Image Shack