Tosh's concepts

[jeff matsuda]

four quick sketches of Aeran capital ships

[Dee Bingo]

Hey dood, these look pretty awesome. Are you referencing specific ships or just concepting from pure imagination? Some of the designs seem a bit more segmented than what Aeran aesthetics would dictate......I'm eager to follow your designs though, these are some nice designs! :)

[alanlei]

looking good. im liking the bottom one the most.
when are you going to start modeling?

[jeff matsuda]

to alan
i gotta get the concept approved first before i can get it started

other than that i have here a finalized concept sketch of Anaxander Capital ship.

[DireDM]

Hey it's Chris here. Been a long time, so I'm re-reading the concepts and design sheets before jumping in with you guys. Nice to see some quick concepts go to model sheets.

We talked about doing a lot of reserach on the current rts space games as we start to modularize the meshes, and make some great tileable textures. Please post any reference on techniques and examples as we start the high detail normals, spec, bumps, and glow maps that will make these look awesome.

I like the scale and window size so far. The overall shape is solid. Will post more soon after reading up.

Welcome again.

Later,
Platz

[jeff matsuda]

So i managed to conform my design to the aesthetics of
the aeran race. it was perilous, but i did it. i think
if there needs to be any adjustments or design
changes please lemme know.
tosh

[kohldude]

I don't know what information you were or were not given, or by whom, but there is already an approved design for the Anaxander.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/vegastrike/kohl_aeran_Anaxander01_8_5.jpg

The first few designs in the beginning of the thread are great, really great, but they don't fit the Aeran style at all. They could be moved to another race and would probably work well unchanged (that is, assuming Jack thinks so). They have too many "hollow" or "disjointed" shell pieces, while the Aeran style is to go unibody without looking like a bunch of parts making up a whole. The first and fourth ones almost resemble a design similar to the Sol Bianca (anime OVA).

They do have some good organic plane changes and tiered/layered areas on their hulls, but in general they're just too far from the Aeran aesthetics to make much comment on.



The most recent one is indeed getting closer to the visuals of the Aeran Ascendancy, but it isn't all the way there yet. I would extend the length of the rose thorns, shrink the size of the rear section and/or increase the size of the front section to make it a more uniform "diameter" down the entire length of the ship. It also seems to be very lacking in weapons and maneuvering and deceleration thrusters/engines, and is very bilaterally symmetric, whereas the Aeran prefer symmetries that are multiple of 3 since they themselves are hexapods (and have 3 fingers per hand).



But as I said, since there is already an Anaxander, I would suggest that you read the Aeran fleet makeup page (http://www.7kelvin.com/portfolios/Aeran-Ascendancy-portfolio/fleet-makeup) and look through the descriptions of other Aeran vessels and possibly adapt your third design to one of them. (Some of them have more thorough descriptions than others.)



In general I suggest that you closely read through the Aeran style guide (http://www.7kelvin.com/files/Aeran_style_guide2.pdf?attredirects=0), associated text (https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWzzC2bo-2FxZGd6cnJ3cl84Z3p6cHB2ZjU&hl=en), and these two threads:
http://www.gamestepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3912
http://www.gamestepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4031

You should also skim through the Vega Strike Universe Lore (http://www.cse.ucsd.edu/%7Ejsampson/VSU.pdf) and the game design doc (http://www.cse.ucsd.edu/%7Ejsampson/ColdestSea.pdf) (although there is some redundancy between the two). Of course, the sections you'll be most interested in are the Aeran ones.

Basically everything on the resource page. http://www.7kelvin.com/portfolios/theresourcelist

Pay close attention to Jack's (http://www.gamestepper.com/forums/member.php?u=3011) posts in the above two linked threads as they are long and informative, but more importantly, he is the one who comes up with the descriptions for all of the spacecraft and equipment (they're his brain child), so see what he agrees and disagrees with. Unfortunately he is busy writing his dissertation right now as I recall, so he isn't available much to give feedback here at the moment. Regardless, you might try sending him a PM.


And finally, you should read through this:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/

It might possibly destroy your love for all things science fiction, but it tells of the harsh realities of what it would really be like to design spacecraft. Vega Strike isn't quite this hardcore about realism in design, but it does take a lot of science from reality, like needing balanced mass, needing thrusters pointed in all directions, the realities of heat radiating in space, material strengths, etc.

Common misconceptions (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3at.html).

[Smi7h1sH3r3 808]

so no, this is not the anaxander, but rather the Anaxandridas. as the Anaxander was the first of the Aeran race ships, before the Rlaan wars, ships following the construction of the Anaxander are evolutions of it. There are some issues with them, however they follow most of the aesthetics of the Aeran race.

[jeff matsuda]

so im gonna read through the docs and the suggested reading material
and redesign as close to the aesthetics as possible.
tosh