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capnmanx
Member Posts: 1,452 Arc User
OK, I've whined about it in a few places now; so I figure I should probably say what exactly it is that I don't like about the ship model shown in Dev Blog 9, rather than continue pointlessly griping.
Overall, I dislike how the ship appears to have been starved for a few weeks somewhere between concept and implementation. The original image made it look like an absolute beast; powerful, aggressive, and tough. Now it just looks frail. I can't even say it looks particularly elegant (and thinking it wasn't elegant enough is the only reason I can come up with to have made those changes), because with those wide shoulders, but skinny overall build, it just seems gawky and ungainly.
That, and the silver feathering (which I was very fond of) looks like a bunch of decorative stickers; like those fake bullet holes 'fun Dads' used to put on their cars.
I absolutely adore the concept art for the Valdore. It's my desktop wallpaper, and has featured in every Romulan themed daydream I've had since the teaser site launched (which is... uh, quite a few
). I'm begging you devs please revisit the design.
- The 'shoulders' on this thing are freaking huge. Setting the main hull aside, it looks like an upside down T'varo; mainly because of those.
- Those vents or intakes (that I was quite convinced were going to be hangars
) sitting above the 'shoulders' are pretty ugly. Combined with the large expanse of flat surface in front of them, they are also boring to look at. In the concept art, they blended perfectly into the hull, instead of just sitting on top of it (actually, in two different ways, since the wings in the concept art didn't quite match). - The nacelles look too skinny and delicate. I liked the bulk of the ones in the concept art; they gave the ship a sense of power.
- The silver 'feathering' on the wings looks all wrong. They don't really fit the shape of the wings, and they look odd starting so abruptly then ending only halfway along the wing surface. The concept pic had them starting right up against the 'shoulders', with those tail fins seeming to run right over them. They also covered most of the length of the wings. And they were set into the hull, not just stuck on top of it (makes them look like an after thought). Finally, it doesn't look very metallic; I thought it was just the lighting at first, but on second look, there do seem to be metallic surfaces on the ship, just not on the wings.
- This might have just been a perspective trick, but the gun pods did not look that wide in the concept art; it kinda looked like the gun barrels were stacked on top of each other, rather than sitting side by side. The nacelles they attach to also looked a little more vertical.
- Those... mandibles, or whatever you'd call them, don't look... finished, I guess. This might just be the angle of the shot, but they just look stuck on, rather than blending into the 'head' of the ship. I'd kind of imagined the ship's bow looking a bit like the Romulan Runabout (sort of a Corinthian helmet/Cylon Centurion look).
- The shape of the wings seems dull; appearing to lack the sharp forward hook at the end that gave them such a aggressive look in the concept art.
Overall, I dislike how the ship appears to have been starved for a few weeks somewhere between concept and implementation. The original image made it look like an absolute beast; powerful, aggressive, and tough. Now it just looks frail. I can't even say it looks particularly elegant (and thinking it wasn't elegant enough is the only reason I can come up with to have made those changes), because with those wide shoulders, but skinny overall build, it just seems gawky and ungainly.
That, and the silver feathering (which I was very fond of) looks like a bunch of decorative stickers; like those fake bullet holes 'fun Dads' used to put on their cars.
I absolutely adore the concept art for the Valdore. It's my desktop wallpaper, and has featured in every Romulan themed daydream I've had since the teaser site launched (which is... uh, quite a few
). I'm begging you devs please revisit the design. 
Post edited by capnmanx on
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The 'mandibles' looked properly incorporated into the design because the 'head' section of the ship only ran as far back along the neck as they did (on anything besides the top surface anyway). This made them seem parts of it, rather than decorative additions to it.
Really, in the original image, the ship looked like it had the standard 'beaky' bow common to Romulan ships, and had just had part of the armour plate peeled a bit back to make a space for the deflector (or whatever that thing is). The head of the model from the dev blog looks more like an insect to my eyes (a mantis or something maybe).
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at the moment the concept art does look better, and it is both meatier, looks more aggressive and the colour scheme/textures are nicer.
Now its almost impossible to make in game art look as good as concept art, you just have so much more freedom (even more so if the parts can mix and match which means you have to make sure it matches with the existing skinny model), but it does look like it needs some improvements, assuming those improvement are not already coming. so i will wait and see.
I'll most likely do that myself, both with the Mogai and the D'deridex. Not necessarily because I don't like the new skins, but because I'm a purist who loves the canon designs.
I think you are missing the point. its not a case of people saying 'I hate the valdor' its 'I love the concept art, but the art has not turned out how I wanted'.
Ideally people want to use it, and they may still. It just does not look as impressive as the artwork suggests (if it is indeed finished).
Just so.
It's less concern about what I will be flying, and more about the depressing certainty that knowledge of what I could have been flying is going to haunt me whenever I load up my Romulan character after LoR launch (should the pic in the dev blog turn out to be the finished product).
Okay, I can see that. Unfortunately, concept art is usually just a "rough draft" of how things will eventually turn out. Look at some of the concept art for various canon ships. Some of that artwork is pretty awesome, and occasionally looks even better than what they ended up with (in my opinion).
Keep in mind though that what is currently on Tribble is not necessarily the finished product. The Ha'apax model is on tribble right now, but it's literally just the model itself and hull texture. There's no windows or accents of any kind. The Haakona model isn't even ON tribble yet, nor is the D'hael model. So it's entirely possible that all of the refit models are still WIP's.
I'll just have to see what the Ha'apax will look like finished. I expect that one will be billed as a saucer sep type, with the large attached Auxiliary Craft filling the role of a separated saucer or assault craft, even better if the do it like an MVAE with you being able to choice which section to command
I was delighted upon seeing Which means no Romulans flying around in Odysseys and Bortaques, Thank you Cryptic.
We'll just have to wait and see if they come up with enough designs to satisfy every Romulan's dietary requirements.
But the original concept art is awesome!
Cryptic, please rething about giving the Valdore a more "concept art like" model.
Please, it may be the thing that will decice whenever I'll buy it or not
Maybe it's just the angle of the shot, maybe it's changes to the model, I don't know; but it does look a little better in this one.
The gun pods and nacelles appear closer to the concept art in the new pic. Some of the big issues (for me) remain though. The wing feathering (which looks like an after-thought), the huge shoulders (which make the hull look too skinny and the wings look saggy), and the design of the head (which looks like a bullet train wearing ice skates), do not appear any different.
Honestly, I kind of miss the angular and metallic leading edge to the wings too; they just shouldn't look that 'organic'.
Speaking of organic, is it just me or does it look like it's covered in alligator skin instead of armour?
Anyway, I renew my appeal to Cryptic's talented ship artists. Please bring that gorgeous concept to life; I've never been as excited about a ship as I was about that.