Elite / Frontier Visual concepts? A little photoshopping

[Steve O B Have]

Found a couple of images that struck a chord with E4 imagery in mind.

Imagine flying to a planet, entering an atmosphere, and flying past or towards this:

From The Outsider

Then landing your ship in front of it:

A little photoshopping of an Outsider image

Entering a ship museum and wandering around looking at the old Cobra Mk2s or 3s, seeing a genuine pirate Mamba?

 

[Steve O B Have]

Some other images that struck a chord:

Imagine walking around in this!?!?! From www.abalakin.de

Thargoid planet?

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Those are some nice pictures there, although the picture that you thought as the Thargoid planet, I could see it as somewhere in Achenar. Especially with the similarity to Corsucant.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Those are some nice pictures there, although the picture that you thought as the Thargoid planet, I could see it as somewhere in Achenar. Especially with the similarity to Corsucant.

Heh, you are far more familiar with the game star systems than I am I envisage some dark brooding constantly twilight Bladerunner-esq type planet for the Thargoids with big tall spindley buildings, somehow translating the insectoid mindset to architecture.

Could you imagine the scale of that space station and flying an approach to it? I dunno, there is something about the idea of being dwarfed by ingame objects that arent planets and that you can actually interact with in some way that appeals...

 

[Bounder]

Cool pics. The scales in Outsider look truly groundbreaking. It makes GTA seem like toytown. I'm remembering gossip about being able to "destroy an entire city". Imagine the pure, evil glee of that...

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Heh, you are far more familiar with the game star systems than I am I envisage some dark brooding constantly twilight Bladerunner-esq type planet for the Thargoids with big tall spindley buildings, somehow translating the insectoid mindset to architecture.

I actually cheated and did a quick Google search for the name of the system as I had a case of brain freeze

Could you imagine the scale of that space station and flying an approach to it? I dunno, there is something about the idea of being dwarfed by ingame objects that arent planets and that you can actually interact with in some way that appeals...

Most definitely. Although, I sort of think that the taurus space stations should be bigger. Given that they would have to sit in geostationary orbit, and therefore the number of spots available is limited*, they would have to big to justify their existence.

*I recall from my A level Physics that there is a finite number of places where geostationary orbit can occur, I think it is about a dozen or so. Maybe someone with a better knowledge of astrophysics could confirm? (Mr Braben?!)

 

[Steve O B Have]

Most definitely. Although, I sort of think that the taurus space stations should be bigger. Given that they would have to sit in geostationary orbit, and therefore the number of spots available is limited*, they would have to big to justify their existence.

*I recall from my A level Physics that there is a finite number of places where geostationary orbit can occur, I think it is about a dozen or so. Maybe someone with a better knowledge of astrophysics could confirm? (Mr Braben?!)

I cheated as well - Wikipedia -

Geostationary orbits can only be achieved very close to the ring 35,786 km directly above the equator. In practice this means that all geostationary satellites have to exist on this ring, which poses problems for satellites that will be decommissioned at the end of their service life (e.g. when they run out of thruster fuel). Such satellites will either continue to be used in inclined orbits (where the orbital track appears to follow a figure-of-eight loop centred on the Equator) or be raised to a "graveyard" disposal orbit.

While a geostationary orbit should hold a satellite in fixed position above the equator, orbital perturbations cause slow but steady drift away from the geostationary location. Satellites correct for these effects with station keeping manoeuvres. In the absence of servicing missions, consumption of thruster propellant for station keeping places a limitation on the lifetime of a satellite.

Apparently it is similar to but not entirely the same as geosynchronous orbit - LINKY

 

[Steve O B Have]

I was always a huge fan of these stations:

and was quite unhappy when they turned into these:

 

[VR jefranklin18]

It's so long since I have played Frontier or FFE that I can't remember what movement either of them had.

The second one looks as if it could achieve artificial gravity through rotation, although I imagine at cost (ie it would not be essentially 'free' like geostationary, which is a huge generalisation). The first one however does not look like that is the case. I assume each node is a living environment, but they wouldn't actually have much space on board.

So the second is a more logical design, IMO.

 

[Steve O B Have]

It's so long since I have played Frontier or FFE that I can't remember what movement either of them had.

The second one looks as if it could achieve artificial gravity through rotation, although I imagine at cost (ie it would not be essentially 'free' like geostationary, which is a huge generalisation). The first one however does not look like that is the case. I assume each node is a living environment, but they wouldn't actually have much space on board.

So the second is a more logical design, IMO.

Bah to logic - the first is way cooler... - anyways - middle pod is 0G docking and the outer pods rotate and thus generate Gs...

The thing that I always wondered was, once you were docked, where do all the ships and your ship dissappear off to? Wooo tardis spacestation

 

[Steve O B Have]

What the thargoids might look like? Maybe a combination? Kind of a preying mantis/wasp/scorpion?

Babylon 5s - Shadows:

From Kaena The Prophecy - http://www.cg3d.org/

 

[VR jefranklin18]

The thing that I always wondered was, once you were docked, where do all the ships and your ship dissappear off to? Wooo tardis spacestation

You never got the sorry, we're full message? I got it all the time.

 

[Steve O B Have]

You never got the sorry, we're full message? I got it all the time.

Yeah of course, just sit there and engage Stardreamer... But that aside where did they park all the Panther clippers and the "ships for sale"? I know it is being pedantic, but it's something that I'd like to not wonder about. I think it'd be cool to fly into a huge docking bay and see lots of other ships.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Yeah of course, just sit there and engage Stardreamer... But that aside where did they park all the Panther clippers and the "ships for sale"? I know it is being pedantic, but it's something that I'd like to not wonder about. I think it'd be cool to fly into a huge docking bay and see lots of other ships.

Most times a Panther blows up when you tried dock with a spacestation. Once you were flying over a certain size, it was probably best to stick to starports.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Following on the visual concepts thread - mostly because I like pictures

I found this interesting link to the top 11 SCIFI Ships of all time, some that I agree with others not so much. I think that either the shuttle from 2001 Space Odyssey or the Discovery should've been in there.

http://www.ugo.com/channels/filmtv/features/eleven/spaceships/default.asp