two-dimensional ship designs

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
Urm no - most ordnance carries it's own oxidiser so it can be fired in an oxygen-depleted environment like your typical automatic weapon.

Elite's ship design and aesthetic makes sense, other universes have their own slant on things. We haven't seen all the ships yet, so you might prefer the Imperial side of things, but personally I think they are all great.

You can tell immediately that they are Elite ships.
 

Rolands

Rolands
I like my ships 100% realistic and functional, dont care about looks, i cant see it myself 95% of time anyway.
Sarcasm aside, stop with the, i want everything to be as realistic as possible mentality, you can have unique ships who can still fit into the damn little tiny station slot and if they are implemented in the game you dont have to fly them if you dont want to.
apollo_csm.jpg
 

Rashkam

Rashkam
You guys must remember one thing. Elite Dangerous is an excellent expansion from the original Elite which was produced back in 1984.

Please compare what the original ship designs to those produced now. They look very similar to me for some reason, but with a lot more detail. I wonder why!
 

bummer6

B
Rashkam said:
You guys must remember one thing. Elite Dangerous is an excellent expansion from the original Elite which was produced back in 1984.

Please compare what the original ship designs to those produced now. They look very similar to me for some reason, but with a lot more detail. I wonder why!
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So what you're saying is that ED should abide by the technical limitations of the original Elite's era? They couldn't make much more complicated silhouettes because they had VERY little to work with. Frontier doesn't have to copy the old Elite straight off, they can add things to it as well as modify things that need improving.

This is just speculation, but I also think the reason the original Elite has ships that looked the way they did is so the player could see which direction a ship was going and which way it was turned from afar. If you see a big, wide shape, you're looking at the bottom or top of a ship, if you see a narrow, flat shape, you're looking at something from the side, and to see which way it was going, just check which end is pointy.
 

Zenicetus

Zenicetus
Asp Explorer said:
Elite's ship design and aesthetic makes sense, other universes have their own slant on things. We haven't seen all the ships yet, so you might prefer the Imperial side of things, but personally I think they are all great.

You can tell immediately that they are Elite ships.
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Right, I think FDEV's "No" answer might have been partly based on practical issues like station gates and landing pads, but there is also a stylistic component. Elite has its own look. The classic cheese wedge of the Cobra is the most iconic, but you can see it in the other ships too. Fairly basic geometry without too many bits and pieces tacked on for show, unlike certain other space games currently in development (that make zero sense to me). Nice flat surfaces for paint jobs on the Sidewinder and the larger ships. And they're all at least plausible for atmospheric entry, which will be important later on.

I don't think we need drastically different looking ships like X-Wings and Tie Fighters and B-wings to make this an interesting space game. Besides, the less it looks like Star Wars and other sci-fi properties, the better it can stand alone as something unique.
 

Lobstris

Lobstris
bummer6 said:
So what you're saying is that ED should abide by the technical limitations of the original Elite's era? They couldn't make much more complicated silhouettes because they had VERY little to work with. Frontier doesn't have to copy the old Elite straight off, they can add things to it as well as modify things that need improving.
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They can, and based on some of the forthcoming imperial designs, will modify things, but some of us have waited 30 years for an update of the original Elite, and many of the original ships were and are design classics.

I'll take the 'cheese wedge' Cobra, Mamba, Krait and Sidewinder, or the 'flat shovel' of the Asp over the spindly, lumpy designs in that other big forthcoming space game any day of the week.

Zenicetus said:
I don't think we need drastically different looking ships like X-Wings and Tie Fighters and B-wings to make this an interesting space game. Besides, the less it looks like Star Wars and other sci-fi properties, the better it can stand alone as something unique.
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Heh. What was the best looking ship in Star Wars? That's right... the A-Wing, which would be right at home in Elite. :)

Above statement contains personal preference. It does not void your warranty or damage your statutory rights if you have a difference of opinion. It does however make you wrong. ;)
 
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KevinMillican

KevinMillican
Mike Evans said:
Nope :p
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LOL

All the pilotable ships need to land - so it would make no sense to have a top - down layout.

For capital ships it would not make sense either - you just end up with multiple floors for no reason (assuming there is some sort of living space structure to a large ship without gravity)

The only place where top - down design makes sense is on earth where there is limited building space, ie. Skyscrapers, and I really don't want to fly one of those ;)
 

Rolands

Rolands
Again, ED can have classic cheese wedge type ships and other design ship, for <heaven's> sake its not like people are asking to take away your 30 year old cobra, we can have both and it WONT hurt the game it can only improve it by appealing to more people.
 
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hobblygobbly

hobblygobbly
I'd like to see more vertical designs but as Mike Evans outlined, no. :(

Off topic: Ahh, the EVE Oracle, one of my favourite scifi ship designs, reminds me of some odd alien ship from a bad scifi anime. It's the ship I've lost the most in EVE. :p
 

Maxim Jameson

Maxim Jameson
KevinMillican said:
LOL... For capital ships it would not make sense either - you just end up with multiple floors for no reason (assuming there is some sort of living space structure to a large ship without gravity)...
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Look at the Imperial capital ship with rotating ring..

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Anarch157a

Anarch157a
Mike Evans said:
Nope :p
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Don't you mean "Nope, Chuck Testa!" ?

Problem with most of those non-flat designs is that they're completely unbalanced and asymmetric, with thrusters off of their centers of mass, they're not even laterally symmetric, which means placing maneuvering jets is a nightmare at best.

There's a reason ships of all kinds have at least bi-lateral symmetry, it is to avoid creating torque when the engines are on. As any pilot who flies airplanes with more two or more engines. If one stops the airplane starts pulling towards the side of the busted engine.

Now, imagine that in space...

And the Hauler is anything but flat.
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
bummer6 said:
I've noticed a trend with pretty much all of the ships in Elite... They're very flat, as if they were all designed with a top-down perspective in mind. All of the ships so far are wide and flat, so I'd like to see some long, slender designs, or maybe a ship with a vertical posture like the B-wing from Star Wars, or Boba Fett's Slave-1. It's a minor complaint since I love the designs of Elite, I just think they're getting repetitive. Anyone agree with me?

EDIT: thought I'd include some examples of spaceships with a taller design.
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CCS_B-wing.jpg


Jango_version_Slave_1.jpg


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Nightmare1.jpg
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I see what you mean and I agree to a certain extent.
Many of the most beautiful Homeworld capitals and frigates also have a less flat, more tall vertical but at the same time long hull design. The Vaygr and Taiidan ships are great lookers. It would be great for variation to see some of those hull types.
It should be no problem to get them through the docking slot. You just roll until you fit through :). It's space you know.

I do love the Elite ship designs very much, but it would be great to also see some hull designs that stem from different basic design principles.

And if the players don't get to fly them then it would be great to see some military destroyers and frigates with those hull designs. They won't be docking inside a station anyway.

The Sulaco from Aliens is a good example. It is an extraordinary beautiful ship design. One of my all time favorites.
 
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bummer6

B
Alright, I can see you're taking my examples of the extremes a bit too literally... I thought you might discuss your way to a compromise, but most of you fail to see beyond the examples I explicitly mentioned. So let me add another, less extreme example.

Shuttle-CHRON.jpg


Three wings pointing in different directions for a very interesting silhouette, just as tall as it is wide, can very easily land and can fold it's wings, just as recognizable from the side, top, front or back. Please tell me what makes this design so outlandish and unpractical.
 

Zenicetus

Zenicetus
Iskariot said:
I do love the Elite ship designs very much, but it would be great to also see some hull designs that stem from different basic design principles.
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Well, we haven't seen any of the Imperial ships yet (except the teaser for the Courier bridge). Take a look at the following link:

http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Ships/ships.html

There are some non-cheese-wedge designs there, like the Imperial Courier, Imperial Trader, and Imperial Explorer, and some other interesting things like the Merlin and Osprey fighters. The current designs are paying homage to some of these earlier low-poly models, and if that trend continues, I think some of the upcoming ships (especially the Imperials) will have a very different look.
 
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