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Xindi Narcine & Unfortunate Ship Visual Design Trends
astrorobla
Member Posts: 144 Arc User
The Xindi Aquatic ship was by far my favorite vessel in Season 3 of Enterprise, and I am delighted that it has been introduced to STO.
That said, while it is generally an attractive ship, I find it falls significantly short of the original IP version in a way that has plagued most of Cryptic's recent ship designs: lack of complex curves.
For the Narcine, specifically one of the most beautiful aspects of the vessel is the graceful swoop of the wings, suggestive of fins flowing through water. For instance:
http://www.ditl.org/Images/X/XindiAquaticShip2.jpg
http://www.ditl.org/Images/X/XindiAquaticShip1.jpg
In the lockbox ship, however, these lovely wings have been nearly flattened to a 2D structure:
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/arc/b7/fe/b7fe33aa16ece74c751473516e1306691405531904.png
While Cryptic seldom goes back to fix released ship geometry, I hope against hope they would revisit this to add in a little more swoop to these fins.
However, I do see this as a larger design issue I've found in many recent ships, where complex curvatures have been dropped in favor of sharp, featureless straight edges; recently the Avenger is probably the worst offender.
Since the Odyssey class, which was a lot of work to get into game, Fed ships in particular have suffered from having far too many straight edges, without the subtlety of curvature found in the IP in general. The Galaxy, Intrepid, Defiant, and Soverign are all noteworthy for the beautiful complexity of compound curves throughout the frames and nacelles.
With other sci-fi MMOs on the way investing tremendously in ship design, I would hope STO would invest time in giving us some of the most elegantly designed ships both on and off the original IP.
That said, while it is generally an attractive ship, I find it falls significantly short of the original IP version in a way that has plagued most of Cryptic's recent ship designs: lack of complex curves.
For the Narcine, specifically one of the most beautiful aspects of the vessel is the graceful swoop of the wings, suggestive of fins flowing through water. For instance:
http://www.ditl.org/Images/X/XindiAquaticShip2.jpg
http://www.ditl.org/Images/X/XindiAquaticShip1.jpg
In the lockbox ship, however, these lovely wings have been nearly flattened to a 2D structure:
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/arc/b7/fe/b7fe33aa16ece74c751473516e1306691405531904.png
While Cryptic seldom goes back to fix released ship geometry, I hope against hope they would revisit this to add in a little more swoop to these fins.
However, I do see this as a larger design issue I've found in many recent ships, where complex curvatures have been dropped in favor of sharp, featureless straight edges; recently the Avenger is probably the worst offender.
Since the Odyssey class, which was a lot of work to get into game, Fed ships in particular have suffered from having far too many straight edges, without the subtlety of curvature found in the IP in general. The Galaxy, Intrepid, Defiant, and Soverign are all noteworthy for the beautiful complexity of compound curves throughout the frames and nacelles.
With other sci-fi MMOs on the way investing tremendously in ship design, I would hope STO would invest time in giving us some of the most elegantly designed ships both on and off the original IP.
Now a top-rated spotlight mission!
Post edited by astrorobla on
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for once I'd like to see an Ent era ship style, just once.
I doubt the Aquatics would have changed their ship styles over the last few hundred years, especially the way they come to conclusions. why would this one be so narrow?
As the ship in game is also smaller, I like to pretend it's not the previously seen class of ship. Just the basic shape being carried over on newer generations of vessels.
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
The Xindi Escort also isn't a particularly beautiful ship or close to the ENT original.
actually it was more heavily influenced by Seaquest DSV, least that's what Rademaker said in his notes about it.
but yea the ship in game is considerably smaller, waaay too small to launch frigates.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
I think he even said it was an Homage to SeaQuest.
They are clearly capable of modeling complex curvatures: look at the Odyssey, even the Galaxy, and Nicor (for a recent example). Likewise the Romulan IP ships have lovely complex curves that were mostly abandoned in the original designs of the Dhelan and even Ar'Kif: look at how terribly plain the rear view is on this one:
http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/sto.gamepedia.com/d/db/Arkala.jpg
So clearly the geometry is not the limiting factor in ships. These are design choices. Sadly in the case of this ship drawn directly from the IP they left out one of the most elegant design elements!
Perhaps they could add that back in as a geometry choice in a future update (yes, I'm dreaming, but it's good to have dreams!)?
It is small, but this one from Cryptic really shows how terribly flat the design is:
Flat Narcine Image
I mean, look at the ships they've built over the years. Galaxy, Sovereign, Intrepid and a few others look terrible. The trend continues with Nova-class ships, scaled down Jemmy dreads, etc. Neghvar looks terrible, and Voth ships look bloated.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's highly unlikely the ship will be corrected to look like its onscreen counterpart.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
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I didnt remember the Aquatic ship from the show, but yep.. it looks far better on the show
Or the Undine ship, "That's a enemy ship. Crew let's blow up the enemy!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeQRlovYSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wivplBVrxeM
If you are willing to take the time, I would gladly accept a critique of how the Reptillian ship is not close to the ENT original.
33.33% of the STO Ship Art team.
100% of the new guys on the STO Ship Art team.
So yeah , a bit more "beef" in the correct places would be nice to shake that anorectic feeling .
I actually found the Reptilian ship to be more like it's show counterpart .
What are your thoughts about the feedback on the Xindi Narcine model ?