Racial ship aesthetics

[Canefox]

So far most of the ships we've seen in screenies seem to follow the old Argon/Teladi practical industrial look. Also the few capital ship shown seem to follow the Terran cream white hull plating and streamlined design. I wonder, since there's no word on if these ships are actually Terran/Argon/Teladi/anyone else, will each race retain their characteristic looks. The Boron with their green semi-organic ships, Teladi ships held together by chewing gum and duct tape rust buckets, Split hard angles crimson red and aggressive shapes, and so on and so on.

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

X2! Boron in X2!

The Dolphin for one. You could notice that thing a mile off.

[Mightysword]

Truth be told I never do get over the X3's design and how hormogenious they look. It almost seems like the dev had a creative lab or faced serious budget constraint when X3 was released, and they never get around to replace those models. In X2 I can tell a M1 and M2 of a race miles aways at a glance, X3 ... not so much:

- Argon: I still can't tell the Titan and Colossus apart most of the time.
- Split: samething.
- Teladi: samething.
- Boron: not as bad, but I wouldn't say too good either.
- Paranid: the only reason I can tell is because that extra leg the Zeus has that makes it part from the Odyseuss. But their super structure is almost identical.

And to rub salt to it, the TL looks way similar to the M1/M2. Before anyone starts pointing out certain things that differ them, yes I am aware of that, but the point is they're still too homogenous.

[Skillzfire]

Truth be told I never do get over the X3's design and how hormogenious they look. It almost seems like the dev had a creative lab or faced serious budget constraint when X3 was released, and they never get around to replace those models. In X2 I can tell a M1 and M2 of a race miles aways at a glance, X3 ... not so much:

- Argon: I still can't tell the Titan and Colossus apart most of the time.
- Split: samething.
- Teladi: samething.
- Boron: not as bad, but I wouldn't say too good either.
- Paranid: the only reason I can tell is because that extra leg the Zeus has that makes it part from the Odyseuss. But their super structure is almost identical.

And to rub salt to it, the TL looks way similar to the M1/M2. Before anyone starts pointing out certain things that differ them, yes I am aware of that, but the point is they're still too homogenous.

how can you mistake a condor for a Phoenix?

one is 2k long the other is 4k long

but i know what you meen they all looked to smiler the split where the worst offenders

[A5PECT]

In X2 I can tell a M1 and M2 of a race miles aways at a glance, X3 ... not so much:

I had the same problem with X2. Every single M5/4/3 had the same exact cockpit and fuselage, just with different wings attached. Same goes for the M6/TS/TP classes. In fact, if you look at all of the ships next to each other you'll notice how many generic components are shared between ships of a same class (I'm looking at TL's, mainly).

I like the X3 designs more because each one is a unique model in its own right (kitbashes for similar classes within a race notwithstanding).

[calmterror]

well if you look at it from a military stand point. it is cheaper and easier to build and design ships around common parts. look at the US navy. the Ticonderoga class cruiser, and the Arleigh Burke class destroyer share the same hull design as the Spruance class destroyer. or the German MEKO ships. all basically the same design just with different weapons and size with a few superstructure tweaks. plus say you have a titan rammed by another titan buckling the forward bulkheads. you can just cut it off and slam a new bow on. plus it is common to just take one design cut it in half put in a new midship and have a new longer larger ship.

[A5PECT]

well if you look at it from a military stand point. it is cheaper and easier to build and design ships around common parts. look at the US navy.

I agree when it comes to the X3-era M1 vs. M2 designs, but it's a little odd how TL's share the same design as the former two despite usually being a civilian ship. I suppose they could have started as military designs, and were then co-opted into civilian use.

In X2's case, it was more like an AH-64 being built from the same parts as a Mi-28. It makes no sense.

[calmterror]

well in X2 everything was kinda cartoonie.

[Canefox]

I sort of always rationalized it in my mind that TL's were striped down decommissioned carriers re-purposed for a civilian role. All the space that would have been used for fighter storage and high grade military hardware is taken out for more cargo space. It makes sense when you look at them. Aside from the Albatross, all the race TL's bare a stronger resemblance to their race carriers.

[calmterror]

well actually there are NO civilian ships in the X games. ALL ships are military. they all can mount weapons of some type.

[Saber15]

well actually there are NO civilian ships in the X games. ALL ships are military. they all can mount weapons of some type.

Goner Ranger and the Dolphin have no weapons.

[calmterror]

The dolphin mounts missiles and for the ranger yes it could be the ONLY civilian ship. but who uses it? only the goners who else any players? and they dont do anything but fly around. it would be kind of nice if there was more Ranger types that are civilian.

[Canefox]

Also all those explicitly named civilian ships zipping to and fro in sectors. All the traders are civilians, and you the player are pretty much a civilian, albet with ties to the various race militarilies due to the story line.

[StarTroll]

The dolphin mounts missiles and for the ranger yes it could be the ONLY civilian ship. but who uses it? only the goners who else any players? and they dont do anything but fly around. it would be kind of nice if there was more Ranger types that are civilian.

If there was a use for the Goner ranger it would be Xenon sector scouting.

[CutterJohn1]

Likely will never happen, but I'd reeeeeaaally love it if one day that old trope of 'faction styling' goes away. All those races aren't going to be continually reinventing the wheel. They've been in contact for a while. Hey, look what they're doing.. thats a good idea, lets copy that. Then another side copies them, and it just repeats. There will be multinational corporations building ships for a diverse pool of buyers, cooperative projects between nations to build ships.. Things would tend to start looking similar after a while. Not to mention simple cases of convergent design.. Sometimes there really is one best way of doing things.

Of course, when the races have completely different needs/requirements, things will start being different. Khaak drones are disposable, so the fighters they fly will reflect that. Xenon have no meatbags to keep alive, and that too will be reflected. Races that have never been in contact with each other will have quite different design sensibilities, and may have taken alternate solutions to the same problem.

The A-10, B-2, and F-22 were all designed by the same faction. If any sci fi game tried to implement ships of such disparate designs into a single faction would be considered a lack of design focus. Each of those aircraft would belong to a different faction, and every single weapon, vehicle, armor, space station, missile, etc, etc, etc, would share the overall design sensibility of one of them.. "Well obviously that cell phone is Boron, since it shares the same green coloring and skin like plating that battleships have!"

Why is this done? Dunno. My theory is they needed a method of easily distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys without captioning on old TV shows, and it just caught on because it was more neat and orderly than reality, which can be quite chaotic.


What would a ship produced by an Paranid corporation owned by a Teladi Conglomerate based in Split territory for labor and tax purposes, that was designed by an Argonian whose mom was a naturalized Aldrin citizen and who went to design school on Terra look like?

[A5PECT]

If every race had the same exact design philosophy, would they really be separate races (as far as the player is concerned)? The entire design scheme for race ships is to make each one unique.

Given the scope of the backstory, I'd say that there is probably a lot of shared technology and ship designs in the X-universe.

But when it comes to the game, it's important for the player to be able to understand the game visually. Races are used in this respect to represent different aspects of gameplay. If I see a Split-looking ship, I can associate gameplay mechanics with it:

It's probably fast. If I start a fight with it, I better make sure I can finish it because I can't outrun it.

It's probably well-armed. I should try to kill it quickly so it can't bring its firepower to bear.

It's probably low-shielded. Taking it out quickly won't be a problem.

Admittedly, tying these ideas to an entire alien species is overgeneralizing. It would be nice if X games had a few "inter-species" ship designs in between the race-oriented ones. I'd say corporations in Terran Conflict take steps towards this, but the implementation isn't wholly developed (see OTAS).

Also, if two groups hate each other enough, they will refuse to use their rival's designs (see The Cold War).

[mark_a_condren]

What would a ship produced by an Paranid corporation owned by a Teladi Conglomerate based in Split territory for labor and tax purposes, that was designed by an Argonian whose mom was a naturalized Aldrin citizen and who went to design school on Terra look like?

This?

MarCon

[Canefox]

As shallow as it may seem, how cool a ship looks does indeed factor into my buying decision for a ship. Like you'll almost never see me flying a Paranid ship in X3TC as I both dislike the Paranid and dislike their ships (Deimos and Hyperion aside). Typically I almost always buy from the Argon and Terrans, and occasionally the Split when looking for new ships.

[Mightysword]

Likely will never happen, but I'd reeeeeaaally love it if one day that old trope of 'faction styling' goes away. All those races aren't going to be continually reinventing the wheel. They've been in contact for a while. Hey, look what they're doing.. thats a good idea, lets copy that. Then another side copies them, and it just repeats. There will be multinational corporations building ships for a diverse pool of buyers, cooperative projects between nations to build ships.. Things would tend to start looking similar after a while. Not to mention simple cases of convergent design.. Sometimes there really is one best way of doing things.

Well even if it's true, it makes for a boring visual. We're talking about sci-fi here, and look at most if not all the series out there, Star Trek, Star War, even in anime series like Gundam, all sides have distinct design. That's part of the novelty.

The A-10, B-2, and F-22 were all designed by the same faction. If any sci fi game tried to implement ships of such disparate designs into a single faction would be considered a lack of design focus.

Eh, I am not sure what you're talking about here. Even though they're all designed by the US, those are 3 distinct designs for 3 distinct role, Close Air Support/Bombing/Air Superiority respectively, of course they looks different. They are no less different then why a faction M3/M6/M8 all looks different in X. If you want to compare, at least pick designs that fulfilled the same purpose, and the variety is indeed there in real life even when we're all human. Look at the Mig/Sukhoi from Russia, the EF/Tornado/Mirage from Euro, and the F-X/A-X from the US, they all looks distinctively different.

[Xeroeth]

Well I on the other hand would like to see some organic technology there. Maybe something similiar to Zerg race from Starcraft ? In previous X games boron technology looked like "semi organic", but wouldn't be nice to see new agressor race like this ?