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Art of Command Ships

pwlaughingtrendypwlaughingtrendy Member Posts: 2,966 Arc User
edited February 2015 in Galactic News Network [PC]
Learn about how we designed and created the latest ships to leave drydock! We outline the process from bringing the Command Ships to life in our latest developer blog!

Check out the Command Ships get built from start to finish here!

~LaughingTrendy
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    riccardo171riccardo171 Member Posts: 1,802 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Gotta say, I love the Presidio,
    Concorde is mkay,
    but I can't stand looking at the Geneva, looks like the Avenger's ugly brother lol.
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    generalmocogeneralmoco Member Posts: 1,634
    edited February 2015
    Nifty... me like
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    riccardo171riccardo171 Member Posts: 1,802 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    oh one thing..

    you wrote "Presudio" when showing off the Fed ships.
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    christianmacchristianmac Member Posts: 359 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I like how they are not offensive powerhouses like some other ships. These are best in a support role helping your teammates and such.
    77TH FIGHTER SQUADRON
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    pwlaughingtrendypwlaughingtrendy Member Posts: 2,966 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Gotta say, I love the Presidio,
    Concorde is mkay,
    but I can't stand looking at the Geneva, looks like the Avenger's ugly brother lol.
    As far as factions go, my favorites are

    FED - Concorde. The ship seems beefy enough to live up to taking the demeanor of a Command Ship without sacrificing too much of the "original design."

    KDF - Klinzhai. The I like the almost "battering ram" front of the ship. It's definitely a unique design, but it really has grown on me.

    ROM - Baratan. The swooped head of the ship really embodies what they had mentioned about an almost "owl swooping in" design. One of the prettiest for me, hands down.
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    hyplhypl Member Posts: 3,719 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/arc/76/8b/768bd7911ccf727900ed9daee58e9ce91424401391.jpg

    Uh, this looks waaay better than what we actually got. Can we get this warbird in the future? :rolleyes:
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    pwlaughingtrendypwlaughingtrendy Member Posts: 2,966 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    oh one thing..

    you wrote "Presudio" when showing off the Fed ships.
    I laughed. :P

    I doubt they'll mind me changing it to say "Presidio"
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    antonine3258antonine3258 Member Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Love these sort of blogs, and seeing the design go through its sketch stages is always cool.
    Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker

    Member Access Denied Armada!

    My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
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    tarran61tarran61 Member Posts: 827 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    One word (Beautiful) I have purchased all three sets together, thanks to you and the team for all the hard work put into this, finely the Romulans have something that does not look like a fat chicken flying in space. I've taken out two of the 9, the Concorde on the Fed and the Vastam on the Rom toon. Loving it..

    Thanks to everyone again.
    Positive thoughts.
    NeAC.gif
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    riccardo171riccardo171 Member Posts: 1,802 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    As far as factions go, my favorites are

    FED - Concorde. The ship seems beefy enough to live up to taking the demeanor of a Command Ship without sacrificing too much of the "original design."

    KDF - Klinzhai. The I like the almost "battering ram" front of the ship. It's definitely a unique design, but it really has grown on me.

    ROM - Baratan. The swooped head of the ship really embodies what they had mentioned about an almost "owl swooping in" design. One of the prettiest for me, hands down.

    Concorde's too bulky imho. That's why I bought only the Presidio; it packs a punch, looks elegant and fast, lines are soft and easily recognizable.

    Vastam is my favorite of the romulan ones. Klingon... well, I've never been a fan of their ship designs.

    If you use Suppression Barrage III, it can take down players using forward DHC. Too bad Suppression is bugged and doesn't apply the debuff to accuracy effect. (details in bug report forum).
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    lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Great blog. Love how the art and design on the ships turned out. I currently run the Concorde with the nacelles and upper hull of the Geneva. Looks like a big, bulky command ship and that's exactly what I wanted.
    JWZrsUV.jpg
    Mine Trap Supporter
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    lordhavelocklordhavelock Member Posts: 2,248 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I really quite love these behind-the-curtain blogs. Thanks!

    I'm a fan of parts of the Fed Command Ships. What I mean is that the stock ships look just ok to me. They're good, nothing bad, but just ok. But I'm really quite happy with the kit-bashed possibilities and final result of the ship I made. It's so very graceful and it's overall "swept-back-wing-like-look" reminds me of some old car hood ornament. It occurs to me, I should have posted a screenshot...

    Anyway, my final result shows nods to the old Excel, Intrepid, and Vesta... it's really pretty awesome! So thanks for the customization on these new Command Ships. I hope it's a feature kept in future released ships.


    I haven't seen/noticed the KDF Command Ships in-game. I really do not like the "head" of the An’quat and Ty'Gokor classes. The former is too "triangle-y" for my tastes, the latter... I don't know what those "fins" protruding out front are all about. The Klinzhai front looks acceptable though. I could work with that.


    I like the Romulan ship designs in-general, but I have trouble with the scaling. For me, these VERY bird-shaped ships speak to fighters or smaller "Bird-of-Prey"-sized vessels, not huge ships of the line. Yeah, I know it's canon for big bird Romulan ships. It's just a personal issue I have. Anyway, I've got three Romulan characters who are happy to be in their D'deridex, Scimitar, and Khnial, so I think these are a pass for me, anyway.


    I will finally say that for all the Command ships, I love the "techiness"... The antenna, "awacs" discs, etc. Nice design thoughts, there.

    You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
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    kodachikunokodachikuno Member Posts: 6,020 Arc User1
    edited February 2015
    Im kinda 'meh' on the fed ships but I think they all look good and properly federation styled, but Im just not much of a fed fan.
    Some of the KDF sketches look a lot sexier than the final products, but with the exception of the 'bug head' I like those.
    Now the Romulan ones..... those were win, very very win.... my only request would be to USE SOME OF THOSE CAST OFF SKETCHES TO FLESH OUT OUR T2-T4 roster some :D
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    tucana66tucana66 Member Posts: 710 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I'm loving my FED Geneva command ship design.

    I'm still leveling my ROM on her Faeht, but I'm looking forward to flying the new ROM command ship designs.

    However, I'm still underwhelmed and unhappy with the KDF variety, especially the An'quat. Such potential for the KDF! It doesn't shine brightly like it could. For now, they remain in drydock, with the Mogh and Mat'ha as my go-to KDF ships. C'mon, guys... you can do better!
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    spockout1spockout1 Member Posts: 314 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Nice blog. I like the shoutout for the Hawkeye (not AWACS) in the Klingon design - spinning dome.

    However, I don't care for any of the designs really. All are too bulky imo. There's not a lot of personality in the ships. All the Fed ships look too similar, and I don't really care for the double-nacelle thing they've got going on. At least it looks better than the mini-nacelle ridiculousness going on with the Guardian cruiser. The Klingons, as usual, have the ugliest ships and even less personality than the Fed ships. Take a box, put some red lights on it and a bunch of angles - bam, Klingon something-or-other. I get very little of the D-7 style there. The Romulans are easy: make them look like birds, done.

    I guess we know they are command ships by the fact that they have an antenna cluster on top. Not exactly subtle. It gets the point across, but we're talking about futuristic ships here. Apart from the giant satellite dish-style deflector on the TOS Connie, there aren't really a lot of "obvious" antennas on most Federation ships. Think about the technology we have now and then project that to the year 2410 or even just take the late TNG series ships and think about how that technology would change. I doubt we'd see a lot of starships looking like a command Humvee with 85 antennas sticking out of it. We'd probably have a lot more blisters or pods for sensors and communications equipment than anything else.

    They just look too over the top and they don't really fit with the Trek aesthetic. I'm going to beat you over the head with the fact that these are command ships by putting antennas everywhere, rather than going the more subtle route and making them look like follow-ons to ships like the Galaxy or the D'Deridex.

    I know, I know. This game runs off of ship and lockbox key purchases. When we release the next gimmick it has to come in a new wrapper.
    "After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true. Except for a T5 Connie. That would be f*%#ing awesome." - Mr. Spock
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    myrnwynmyrnwyn Member Posts: 103 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Some of the high-res images of the Romulan ships are hooked up wrong, by the way.
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    krampaskrampas Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Very nice blog indeed!

    I'm always interested in "behind the scenes" formats, please continue!
    As for my own favourite, I must clearly say I'm a huge Concorde-class fan. To me it looks like a perfect mix of the gorgeous classic Excelsior and the modern-age flagship Odyssey with some new elements, for example the nacelles not being attached to the main body.

    The hull is a bit bulky, yes, but that's exactly the look I want for my command ship, full of technology and fighters ! :rolleyes:

    The other Fed designs are also quite good, altough not my taste: The Presidio is a bit too slim, the Geneva looks a bit too much like the Olympic...
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    reximuzreximuz Member Posts: 1,168 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Cool blog! Here is my Vastam kitbash.

    I love the Romulan concept art, with the wings that come down to have the nacells form a trimaran like feel, love to see that in some future Romulan ships. And even though I didn't like the swept back look of the Vastam wings that much personally, I like the idea if a narrower/longer design for a warbird, which was more common in a lot of non-canon designs, like the Starfleet Command 2 Light/Heavy cruisers, and with so many wide warbirds in STO, it's a nice change of pace.

    One thing I'd like to see in future blogs is how the ship classes are named, like what they mean or why they were chosen.
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    shpoksshpoks Member Posts: 6,967 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Like I said about the previous related blog, always nice to read about the design process and ideas behind our favourite toys in STO.

    The blog certainly revealed a lot of stuff to me, I think I apreciate the Klingon designs a bit more after this. I like the origins of the inspiration about them, especially the control tower inspiration from Nimitz carriers. I do like that rough, utalitarian look of Klingon ships. :D And that Ty'Gokor class is one sexy beast. Have to admit, they're kinda growing on me.

    P.S. Who do I have to nag now in order to get one of those Klingon concept designs made into game as well? :D
    HQroeLu.jpg
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    mosul33mosul33 Member Posts: 836 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Thanks for the nice blog.
    I allways enjoy reading these blogs that give a sneak peak into the creation process.
    hypl wrote: »
    http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/arc/76/8b/768bd7911ccf727900ed9daee58e9ce91424401391.jpg

    Uh, this looks waaay better than what we actually got. Can we get this warbird in the future? :rolleyes:

    I know right... That ship looks cool indeed. Maybe becouse of the downed wings. But like how the final ships ended aswell.
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    dave18193dave18193 Member Posts: 416 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I'm not decieved swallrus, I know how you really got the fed side versions.

    The excelsior and prometheus got hitched, and nine months later three little intrusction disks were sent to the nearest shipyard by the USS Stork.

    Dont try and take credit for the magic of ship to ship romance dudes.

    All jokes aside, love the looks of the presidio and concorde. Geneva not so much, nacelles look like they got squashed but you can't win em all.
    Got a cat? Have 10 minutes to help someone make the best degree dissertation of all time?

    Then please fill out my dissertation survey on feline attachment, it'd be a massive help (-:

    https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/87XKSGH
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    toivatoiva Member Posts: 3,276 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Now that was a very nice blog.

    I really liked the concepts in high-res pics, as well as high-res images of the final products. (As already mentioned, the Romulan high-res shots' links are hooked up wrong.)


    What saddens me though is how pretty much all of the initial KDF sketches look better than the 3 final ships. Particularly the heads on them all look good compared with the triangle, the forklift and the flat greanade (by far the best of the three offerings).
    TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class.
    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!
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    captz1ppcaptz1pp Member Posts: 931 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I think Fed concept sketch 4 and 33 look re-usable for later, 4 looks like an Oberth refit, and 33 could be made into a post-ENT Tellarite ship.
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    jarenriccarjarenriccar Member Posts: 248 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    the first thing i thought when i saw the KDF ships was "An'quat....I'm thinking rename it An'SQuat, it looks kinda squished"

    but nice job, i'll enjoy seeing these around the quadrant
    27507930894_3855d74146_o.jpg


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    bradhadbradhad Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    the FED ships have what looks like an array of upscaled pieces of other ships (the geneva class basically looks like a larger, updated excelsior) which would make for interesting customisation options for those who bought all three.
    the Romulan ships look simply gorgeous, though I was never fond of the reverse-tapering wings from the scimitar variants and thus the deihu- but that's just personal opinion.the KDF again on the whole look gorgeous, but to me the an'quat looks a bit too much like a last minute, rush job with little to none of the flair of the other two designs- but this also is my opinion.

    overall some good additions to the ship lineup. thumbs up to the design team.

    (EDIT: spell-checks)
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    themetalstickmanthemetalstickman Member Posts: 1,010 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I've gotta say, I still don't like the An'Quat, but the other two have grown on me. And with a good kitbash, they look really good

    I like the Fed ships apart from the long tail. They remind me of a cross between the Oberth and Excelsior, plus whatever the saucer section looks like.

    And as usual, the Romulan ships are fantastic. I like that they are somewhat of a breakaway from the Imperial ship design architecture.
    Og12TbC.jpg

    Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.

    I dare you to do better.
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    xmiysisxmiysis Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Nice blog. Always interesting to see the development of new ships.
    IMO #26, 27 & 34 look also very promising for a cruiser.

    And PLEASE... please, please please... use the fed-sketch #16 for the next new fed-escort (which will hopefully come around in the near future).
    That design looks pretty cool. :cool:
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    natemarineauxnatemarineaux Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    Really enjoyed the article! Really amazing artwork. Thank you for sharing your process, everything looks great!
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    ssbn655ssbn655 Member Posts: 1,894 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    I still cannot get over how bad seriously bad looking the Klingon command ships are. They look like Gorn not Klingon at all. It is a shame really. There are carry throughs of the Federation Oddesy, and Battle Cruiser in the Federation designs and the Romulan ships are just drop dead beautiful they really carry the cues from all the other Romulan ships and show the evolution of the "species". And these are just wonderful and due have the feel of inspring a fleet to carry the battle to victory. On the other hand the Klingon ships look like you turned a 5 year old loose with a set of lego blocks and Fisher Price build a blocks. No design heritage from ANY previous Klingon ship no dna from the Matha, Torkhat, Bortasqu, D-7, or Mogh which all show a thread of the same DNA in them. Seriously the Mogh was such a stunning design I have to ask what happened? Sure Klingon players are not a huge faction but we are deserving of better then what you have passed off as "Command" ships to us. I was going to buy the entire 3 faction set but when I saw what the Klingon command ships looked like I decided to buy only a few ships for just my Fed and Rom charecters.
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    captz1ppcaptz1pp Member Posts: 931 Arc User
    edited February 2015
    xmiysis wrote: »
    Nice blog. Always interesting to see the development of new ships.
    IMO #26, 27 & 34 look also very promising for a cruiser.

    And PLEASE... please, please please... use the fed-sketch #16 for the next new fed-escort (which will hopefully come around in the near future).
    That design looks pretty cool. :cool:

    16?, that's just a cross between a Streamrunner class and a Tempest class, isn't it?
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