Hi there.
I have seen the "Adder" which was added in Gamma 2.0 and I must say I am a little disappointed. Not because I think the ship has been "rushed", is "lazy", or "ugly" as some people are saying. In fact, I rather like the ship itself. However, I have an issue with the name of this ship. This ship is not the Adder from previous games. Each of the other ships from previous games, the sidewinder, cobra, eagle, anaconda, etc, have maintained the same overall aesthetics of the original ships, while updating them to amazing, modern standards. The adder, however, has diverged so much from the original design that it is unrecognisable as an adder.
The hard lines of the original are replaced with a rounded ship, with almost no flat surfaces, or hard edges, other than the wings.
There are wings. The original models never had wings to speak of, though the description does mention folding wings, which are stowed for spaceflight.
In addition, the stubby "winglike" parts of the original were centred vertically, while these are at the very bottom of the ship.
The striking wedge nose of the original has been replaced by a rounded, bulbous nose.
The window has become much wider and taller. While I appreciate that the game must consider pilot visibility, it is totally different to the original adder.
I include here a few versions of the Adder from previous Elite games, and also ED concept art and in game assets.
ArcElite Data Card. This was a fancier version of the original 1984 version from the BBC micro, built for a more powerful computer. The main difference for the ship was the solid polygons and colour, it maintained the same shape.
It features here as the unfortunate victim in Frontier : Elite 2.
Then, in Frontier : First Encounters, it was updated graphically, remaining the same shape.
During the development of Elite : Dangerous, the adder was featured in the newsletter.
The newsletter stated that
Finally, in Elite : Dangerous, Gamma 2.0, a ship was released, named the adder.
As I am sure you can see, the images from ArcElite, FE2, FFE, and the ED concept art all feel aesthetically similar, while the release model of the Adder in Gamma 2 is rather different. Something happened during development of the ship, since the concept phase, which caused FDEV to radically change the design. I suspect the desired to fit the ship to the Zorgon Peterson design style, which I feel they have done. However, that's means that it is now radically different from the original adder.
What I would like is a simple name change. The ship itself is fine. I don't want it scrapped and redesigned, I don't want it removed. However, this ship does not look like an adder to players who have seen adders from previous games. It's not the same ship, and should not share the same name.
TL;DR
I would ask FDEV to Please change the name of the adder to something else. It looks like a new ship, and should have a new name.
Thanks to anyone who read my wall of text
I have seen the "Adder" which was added in Gamma 2.0 and I must say I am a little disappointed. Not because I think the ship has been "rushed", is "lazy", or "ugly" as some people are saying. In fact, I rather like the ship itself. However, I have an issue with the name of this ship. This ship is not the Adder from previous games. Each of the other ships from previous games, the sidewinder, cobra, eagle, anaconda, etc, have maintained the same overall aesthetics of the original ships, while updating them to amazing, modern standards. The adder, however, has diverged so much from the original design that it is unrecognisable as an adder.
The hard lines of the original are replaced with a rounded ship, with almost no flat surfaces, or hard edges, other than the wings.
There are wings. The original models never had wings to speak of, though the description does mention folding wings, which are stowed for spaceflight.
In addition, the stubby "winglike" parts of the original were centred vertically, while these are at the very bottom of the ship.
The striking wedge nose of the original has been replaced by a rounded, bulbous nose.
The window has become much wider and taller. While I appreciate that the game must consider pilot visibility, it is totally different to the original adder.
I include here a few versions of the Adder from previous Elite games, and also ED concept art and in game assets.
ArcElite Data Card. This was a fancier version of the original 1984 version from the BBC micro, built for a more powerful computer. The main difference for the ship was the solid polygons and colour, it maintained the same shape.
It features here as the unfortunate victim in Frontier : Elite 2.
[video=youtube;9UMIbdN0UFE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UMIbdN0UFE[/video]
Then, in Frontier : First Encounters, it was updated graphically, remaining the same shape.
During the development of Elite : Dangerous, the adder was featured in the newsletter.
The newsletter stated that
Finally, in Elite : Dangerous, Gamma 2.0, a ship was released, named the adder.
As I am sure you can see, the images from ArcElite, FE2, FFE, and the ED concept art all feel aesthetically similar, while the release model of the Adder in Gamma 2 is rather different. Something happened during development of the ship, since the concept phase, which caused FDEV to radically change the design. I suspect the desired to fit the ship to the Zorgon Peterson design style, which I feel they have done. However, that's means that it is now radically different from the original adder.
What I would like is a simple name change. The ship itself is fine. I don't want it scrapped and redesigned, I don't want it removed. However, this ship does not look like an adder to players who have seen adders from previous games. It's not the same ship, and should not share the same name.
TL;DR
I would ask FDEV to Please change the name of the adder to something else. It looks like a new ship, and should have a new name.
Thanks to anyone who read my wall of text
