Thanks for the support everyone, that's a lot of positive feedback I'm getting! Great stuff.
Status update. Ze frigate line is allmost complete! The pace has slowed down a bit this week since I had some other obligations to focus on, but none the less one model and texture (minus final tweaking) is complete. I generally don't post screens untill I have a finalized version to show, but that's what concept sketches are for.
And the inevitable lore:
The Xin version of a colony ship, the Seeder Pod is very simple in design. Basically an organic sack of hardened tissue attached to the protective metal cap which also serves to support its four propulsion drives, the Pod is virtually defenseless. Not designed for hostile environments at all, even the lightest of attacks are likely to rupture it and send its cargo spilling into space. These vessels are produced in two ways by the Xin; they are either gestated at the Drone Assembly Base or in the gestation chambers of the Xin Ark Ship. Minuscule in size, they are also employed in an unique strategy for the alien race - since they can be produced relatively swiftly and are not difficult to grow, assemble and maintain, the Xin sometimes use them in swarms, hurtling in their dozens against enemy defences in the hope that one of them will come close enough to release its plasmid pods loaded with bioforming material, spores which upon landing rapidly evolve into a myriad of specialized organisms all designed to prepare the newly claimed world for the arrival of their spacebound masters.
What does all this mean? Well, the Pods can be built fast and cheap. That means a Xin player will have an option to spam them and thus try to circumvent planetary defenses and hostile fleets (provided the planet has already been cleansed) if they so desire. However, since they are quite slow and fragile, it would take an entire little fleet to get past a moderate defense force.
In effect, little is changed, except it gives the Xin player a chance to try colonization in a spectacular lemming manner.
I am toying with a concept of attaching a moderate "bombardment" ability to these ships. This would simulate the effect the spores would have on local population and biosphere. Think of it as a really slow bombardment method with immediate colonization at the end. This has to be tested though to see if it is a viable idea.
Also, the Ark Ship, the colonization capital ship of the Xin will be able to produce these buggers. The Ark Ship itself will NOT be able to colonize a planet directly. In effect it ain't over untill the Ark Ship sings. Even on the brink of triumph against the alien menace, given some time and a good hiding spot, the allmost-victors might suddenly face a whole armada of these pods spraying what amounts to vicious bio-weapons at one of their undefended worlds...
P.S.
Also of note, I (finally) realized the engine's ability to blend several materials over one object. Which is great. Because you really need that in order to make a realistic metal (actually any) surface. And while the Xin frigs are intentionally mirror-polished, their big ships are not. Not to mention the rust ridden Remnant, now that's going to need some blending...
