Adding the same small open room under each ship with stairs and teleporting in it would have been enough for the Armstrong moment. You just need to leave the ship by yourself for the Armstrong moment, no need to have the whole ship interior.
Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12
- Thread starter Yaffle
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After the not ED ship, the not Eve Online ship, the not Millennium Falcon and the not X-Wing, we have the not exotic vertical ship from NMS? This is painful to watch given the resources CIG have. Unfortunately the art direction in SC is basically the reflection of the tropes Chris likes or remembers. Dune? Sure. Star Wars? Yes. Blade Runner? Da. Mix it up and sprinkle everything with a thick shower of Wing Commander. It is regurgitation squared.I was just looking up which Star-Warsian ships they hadn't done yet, as a ship sale is clearly needed, and stumbled on this...
Apparently it's supposed to do this:
A long range exploration science vessel, which can be used via the fleet oversight mechanic from the giant modular science vessel.
If any of those things existed.
But for now it's just a silly cigar craft you can boop about in looking a bit Star-Warsian.
(Only $85. Bargain!)
In general, the SC universe has no personality on its own, contrary even to Wing Commander. The theatrically feline Kilrathi were at least distinctive and memorable. Would you say the same about the space Vandals or the space Chinese from SC?
They could do so much better with the talent they have and the number of artists they hired. Sometimes you can see the potential in ship designs like Talon or in larger UEE units, but otherwise there is nothing about the SC universe that says "this is definitely from the SC universe".
It does have a bit of Orokin flair. That white and gold. Sorry - can't let go of this. It mesmerises me.
Speaking of which - Warframe has made its mark developing a very unique and distict artstyle. As did NMS in a way. I kinda agree that it's not enough to copy existing designs and reuse them. Sci Fi tends to gravitate on certain futuristic art visions. For what's it worth I consider Lynch's Dune a masterpiece in remaking and creating a very unique artistic concept. Stunning, really. Few games and movies achieve this, but it pays to have good artists. That includes sound and music. Warframe's composer did exceptional work. As did ED's sound designers.
Quoting from the best ship designs in the history of visionary art and then iterating to fit their game world? If that’s wrong I don’t want to be right.
If I don't make mistake, the vertical ships Reliant serie exist since before the NMS release. Do you find painful to watch NMS copying SC ?
Do you find painful to watch The Mandalorian using the shape of the Drake Cutlass for the Razorcrest ?
For me it's not, because whatever plausible shape of ship you create, you'll will always find a game, comic book, movie, etc that have done it before.
You can do that, but it still needs to be original. In any case it's always better to come up with your own design to avoid déjà-vu.
If your grandmother is your wife I think receiving a christmas theme sweater is the least of your concerns
I understood it as 2 distinct persons.If your grandmother is your wife I think receiving a christmas theme sweater is the least of your concerns
Oh yes we could go there. Explain me what's the enormous problem with this helmet. CIG will be sued by somebody ?
The incredibly obvious riding on another IP's popularity?
But it's more that it undercuts your comical claim that the Mandalorian is copying Star Citizen
(Given Star Wars is regularly cited by Chris as an inspiration for his work, and SC designers have strayed as close to the classic IP as they dare, this is doubly comical
)
Signed: Ryan Archer
The incredibly obvious shape of barbutes helmets ?
I looove the helmet. Its so big and shiny!
None of these shapes are "plausible" in any way, especially for spaceships entering atmosphere. Basically in S-F in general there are no "plausible" ships, unless a franchise wants to put more focus on it, like The Expanse does. Otherwise it is all about art direction and assumed aesthetics. The visual language.
And this is the big part of the lack of personality of SC's universe. It has nothing screaming "this is SC". It screams S-F tropes, but nothing on its own. Wing Commander had feline Kilrathi and their ships (lost in the movie). Star Wars has a collection of obviously iconic designs. Star Trek as well. Mass Effect has its retro-futuristic lines, the ubiquitous font and arching shapes, plus aliens that have personality, even if they repeat existing tropes. Blade Runner is a rain-soaked, neon dystopia that spawned an entire visual sub-genre. Dead Space has body horror, markers and everything looking like high-tech industrial nightmare. The Expanse has no-nonsense spaceship design that deals with real-world physics. Homeworld has colors, shapes and music of a mystical space desert journey that put it visually in a league of its own.
What is a distinct, striking element of the SC universe? Eclipse, Talon and larger UEE ships? Maybe?
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When it does not establish enough footing on its own, only quotes remain.
The Cutlass was concepted by Jim Martin and has not done any work on Star Wars, he did work on Star Trek DS9 however, and is credited with the USS Defiant.
Ryan Church worked on Star Wars movies and series including The Mandalorian, I don't believe he has done any concept work for SC since the project started since the ships he is credited with are the Bengal, Idris, Retaliator, Aurora and the Constellation and its snub. That's nearly a decade ago.
Edit: Ryan Church, not Ryan Archer.
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Speaking of ripping off ideas...
If you’re doodling in your sketchbook trying to invent an entirely new visual language for a yet-to-be-imagined fully thought through sci fi world; yes, maybe.
But if you’re building out a vaguely familiar pop-cultural game world that you want people to not think too hard about but nonetheless believe in and be inspired by, which has things like space marines and laser pistols with recoil and detachable clips, suits with giant shoulder pads and front plates that look like abs, ancient aliens invading in big round organic ships, plasma shotguns and MEN and WOMEN and LAVIAN BRANDY and “engineers” who talk about “brain stuff” with the same cadence as millennials on tiktok; then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with referencing shapes and designs which bring their own sense of culturally understood visual presence along with them.
I mean, that’s why basically every sci fi ship (Elite included) has wing-ey shapes and a cockpit and looks like an airplane or part of an airplane even though none of that design language is appropriate to envisioning real space flight that far into the future.
These shapes have a recognizable front and a back and little fiddly bits which intuitively mean things to people when they get shot off or damaged and so that’s how it works. And when it doesn’t look like that, it looks like either a robotic fish or a robotic bird, (see most anime ships, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jupiter Rising, etc), because those shapes have immediately recognizable fronts and backs and little fiddly bits which intuitively mean things to viewers when they get shot off or catch fire.
Otherwise you end up with stuff like “Flight of the Navigator” or The Starship of the Imagination from “Cosmos,” which are cool and appropriate for what they are, while also being nothing anyone playing videogames wants to fly.
The last three significant ships to come
into the Elite Dangerous universe were the Chieftain, the Krait, and the Mamba. All of the major excited effusive compliments around these three ships were NOT that they were original, but how much they resembled other things.
The Chieftain was complimented for Looking Like A Star Citizen Ship, and/or for looking like The Pelican from Halo or the dropship from Aliens.
This was especially emotionally important to people at the time. A major point of contention/embarrassment between ED/SC fanboys was “EUUOUGH DO YOU HAVNE ANY SHIPS WHICH DONT LOOK LIKE CHEESE WDGES ?? hurrdurr. ED white knights were actually upset about this enough that The Chieftain made them happy the same way
The big excitement around the Krait, apart from it being a revival of one of the classic 1984 vector shapes, was that it looked and felt kind of like the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars. And the Mamba was praised for resembling something like a modern sports car crossed with a speed boat. Everything about these designs traded on looking similar to some other universally agreed-upon “cool thing”.
Whaddya think: in real life, does Richard Branson have a cooler looking space ship, or are you more of a Bezos fan? Which one would you want to see imported into a video game? If you chose the flying -tube: I respect your integrity, but I don’t want you designing my videogames.
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