Another "WIP," USS Essex LHD-2

[aarque 11]

Here are some screens from my latest project. USS Essex is the centerpiece, but it is really a compilation of modern US Naval vessels. I'll upload the whole "fleet" soon, probably this weekend. Just a head's up, Essex isn't really flyable, especially at night, but if you can manage to get your aircraft into position at one frame-per-second, you can get some awesome screen shots - and besides, your system might be better than mine.

Here are the shots:

Here are some of the other ships, USS Independence:

 

And LCS-1, USS Freedom:

 

 You can even practice the rescue when, after the botched Iran hostage extraction, an Oliver-Hazard Perry frigate turned into the wind so a stricken MH-53 could land on the helo deck in order to repair it's refuel probe:

 

I just have a few more details to fix up before this package is ready.

[1mikel151 71]

Very cool, especially like the LCS-1, USS Freedom.

 

Drivable, scenery object or AI with AIcarriers?

[aarque 11]

AI Carriers with hard deck. I toyed with the idea of porting Essex as a static spawnable, but what would be the fun of that. This way, you can park it by Cyprus (or wherever) and play with those sorts of scenarios. It's nice to see the fleet all laid out, you have Essex, the two LCS, two Oliver-Hazard Perry's, a Ticonderoga class cruiser (Lake Champlain) and and an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer (Fitzgerald). Frame rates only drop dramatically when you get in close to Essex, a shame really.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I put a lot of time into LCS-1.

[uhntissbaby111 58]

This is really cool! I'm actually in the Navy and have a couple of buddies that got sent over to the LCS program. My rate in the Navy will eventually all go to LCS. Good work!

[aarque 11]

Nice. The Navy's excitement over the LCS program is something I wanted to bring to FSX. While the Independence has some spectacular flat water performance, Freedom seems especially "corsair-like" to me; as if the military studied the best of what makes piracy possible, then turned it against the pirates.

An interesting rumor about Freedom's new paint is that the scheme was designed by the crew, as opposed to experts trained in the art of camouflage. Who or what does anything visually nowadays anyway; but one of the more obvious clues that the "camo" is actually cosmetic and not functional are the four black mounds that cover some very sooty exhaust ports:

[aarque 11]

Ok, I have started the upload, the package should be available tomorrow. Apologies for the delay, I took the time to add a static and a flyable UAV: