I'd like to take a moment and give my compliments to the artist(s) responsible for the Avenger. While the lines of the Avenger aren't to everyone's taste, you can't argue that the Avenger model is one of the most finely detailed in game. The phaser arrays are clean and identifiable, the underside turret hard-points truly look like the multipurpose emitter they are, and the addition of the ablative armor animation is amazing. My favorite bit is the segmented deflector; when entering Red Alert, the vessel's ablative armor protects the outer sections, leaving just the center section exposed.
I hope that the Avenger's model is merely the beginning of a new level of detail to be put into the in-game ship models.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them." -Thomas Marrone
I wouldn't mind if this replaced the Typhoon Class Battleship NPCs. Those things are fugly.
I'd still like to see the Typhoon as a playable Dreadnought Carrier. Since they'd obviously have to scrap and replace the model, a huge ship styled similarly to this would would be very appropriate.
this thing looks like a lego set. Typhoon class please.
So true, I can imagine the design process.
Crytic Studios: we need a new ship design
30 minutes and a trip to the toy store, lego built design after many days of hard building
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I really like the design too. I only have two gripes with it: Too small, and the nacelles needed to be higher up, from the front the nacelles are behind the saucer.
Would also be nice to get the dark hull and windows available as maybe a c-store unlock on other ships. A galaxy and star cruiser would look great.
I think it would look much better if it had a more wide saucer. This would relocate the visual center of mass from the already bulky engineering hull/neck towards the saucer.
At least it would be a nice alternative, which would help the ship not look so tiny anymore IMO.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
I'm confident after seeing Voth and LoR concept art that the ship team has skill, but whoever is in charge of picking the final concept piece for modeling is blind as a bat.
The last fed ship I liked the overall design of was the Regent, before that probably the thunderchild class. I could count the number of Cryptic original fed designs I like on two hands.
I should give credit where it's due though. The nook shelter area on top of engineering hull looks cool and has a nice little tribute to TMP era design just like its superior sister the regent. The thin slit of blue lighting under the main glow is pretty cool too and every nacelle should have some sweet fins like the Avenger. The top of the saucer is probably the best area on the whole ship, the plating, phasers and colored areas all flow really well together. The dual deflectors look great and functional too. (considering deflectors have line of sight abilities in game and in canon too)
The main deflector is kind of cool but it just doesn't flow with the ship at all. You can tell that the dreadnaught class was really shoving its way into this design there, and that's probably the biggest problem with the ship over all. It's just screaming "look at all these layers" in exactly the same place the vengence did in JJ2. As much as I will love using this sort of reference work in my Connie tirades I still wish the JJ element was left out of the game because those ships are hideous from almost every angle. Blunt nacelles and a stubby hull are the two other criminal inspirations you can easily see.
The one thing the JJ Vengeance had going for it was the hard bend in the pylons. Unfortunately that went missing from the cryptic Avenger because they were probably getting close to lawsuit territory. Despite being bent, the Vengence pylons were stubby which made sure even some good ideas couldn't stop the ship from looking like junk. The Avenger pylons at least captured the spirit of the vengence pylons and look terrible too. Forward swept pylons are a crime only the Galaxy family really got away with. You can tell me that they work well with the over all motiff of a combat ship, but that just opens up another can of worms.
The Defiant, Steamrunner, and Galaxy class ships were all somewhat stubbly or compact. According to the designers the defiant and Steamrunner class ships both had primary roles in combat just like the Avenger. These designs looked great despite simplicity or bluntness because they were consistent and purpose built. The Defiant was a diamond from the top view which was fitting and balanced. The Defiant and Akira bridges both have enclaves protecting them from the sides, only the tipy top of the steamrunner bridge goes above its enclave. The Avenger tries to give its bridge module an enclave, but only partially succeeds in a manner that is purely speculative. The dual deflectors could have some protective purpose but their defensive qualities are only confirmed for being used in debris protection. In the game a deflector can heal things but what good is a repaired bridge after the crew has been vaporized? Putting the dual neck on the ship was another functional flaw, as far as we have been told dual necks were for slip stream travel enhancement. Exposing so much of the forward weaponrys components didn't make any sense either when that stuff is usually housed internally. jamming weapon power through the pylons and nacelles isn't lending itself to the idea of a tough combat ship either, on one pair of pylons they're throwing impulse power into the mix too.
The bulbous Avenger bridge area contrasts both the combatitive nature of the vessel and it's stubby angular hull qualities. It flows with the saucer well, but the saucer doesn't flow with anything else. The Galaxy was a successful design ideologically because it's spaghetti plate saucer clashed against forward movement and into the squishy remains of the design. The Intrepid class is probably the closest thing thing to what the Avenger tries to accomplish, it's got short nacelles, a stubby body and a long saucer. But on the Intrepid class everything is smooth, there is no neck, and the nacelles barely escape the ships silhouette.
These are the Voyages on the STO forum, the final frontier. Our continuing mission: to explore Pretentious Posts, to seek out new Overreactions and Misinformation , to boldly experience Cynicism like no man has before.......
They may not have credited it, but can you deny it shares a similar tapered hull profile, and engineering front hull angle, neck shape and nacelle configuration?
I mean the styling is similar weapon ports, armour that deploys over vunarable areas is very similar, but the profile and shape are just not the same, Vengence is thinner, much more spread out, where avenger is squat and bulky
The Vengence has much taller and wider pylons, with no tapering along the back of the neck to the stern like the Avenger, instead a sharp angle change
Also where the contest entry and the Avenger model share egg shaped saucers sitting ontop of a neck which melds smoothly into the secondary hull, the Vengence has a Circular saucer attached by a clearly defined neck more akin to a constitution vessel
These are the Voyages on the STO forum, the final frontier. Our continuing mission: to explore Pretentious Posts, to seek out new Overreactions and Misinformation , to boldly experience Cynicism like no man has before.......
They may not have credited it, but can you deny it shares a similar tapered hull profile, and engineering front hull angle, neck shape and nacelle configuration?
I mean the styling is similar weapon ports, armour that deploys over vunarable areas is very similar, but the profile and shape are just not the same, Vengence is thinner, much more spread out, where avenger is squat and bulky
The Vengence has much taller and wider pylons, with no tapering along the back of the neck to the stern like the Avenger, instead a sharp angle change
Also where the contest entry and the Avenger model share egg shaped saucers sitting ontop of a neck which melds smoothly into the secondary hull, the Vengence has a Circular saucer attached by a clearly defined neck more akin to a constitution vessel
It shares some similar qualities with the design but those qualities are shared with a lot of ships. I'm not seeing any similarities in weapon hard points. Il believe you when they change the name back, give the artist credit, and delete the blog where they talk about designing the whole ship.
Haven't gotten an Avenger yet.... but I've already got plans (for eventually, we're talking 'Cryptic Soon' even) for what I've dubbed 'The Hundred Dollar Ship'...
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid." -- Q, TNG: "Q-Who?"
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
Haven't gotten an Avenger yet.... but I've already got plans (for eventually, we're talking 'Cryptic Soon' even) for what I've dubbed 'The Hundred Dollar Ship'...
I was on the fence, I kinda liked the design but felt the secondary hull was too clunky.
Actually flying it finally won me over. It is truly a battlecruiser.
To be honest, i don't like the egg shaped saucers Cryptics designers have come up with since the odyssey.
For the Avenger i would have preferred if we would have got some alternatives like the T5 Heavy Cruiser has. A additional ellipse shaped saucer would have been a nice alternative for the very small and narrow looking saucer of the Avenger IMO.
To be honest i really miss the lack of options new ships Cryptic releases. The ship designer always was one of my favourite things to experiment with in STO, but Cryptic decided to just pop out more and more different ships witout giving them any options to speak of. Sad really.
EDIT:
A Steamrunner like saucer (maybe even a bit wider) would be really cool for the avenger IMO.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
Bought one a few days ago using my Crystaline Entity Project payouts
Loving it, there are a few features not to my taste like the Pylon attaching too far forward of the nacelle
However I am loving the Deflector , the design is simply fantastic, not just for the Red Alert change when the Glowing sections go dark leaving the centre active, i just love the way its mounted to the hull, the way in which its set into the hull looks great to me
These are the Voyages on the STO forum, the final frontier. Our continuing mission: to explore Pretentious Posts, to seek out new Overreactions and Misinformation , to boldly experience Cynicism like no man has before.......
Comments
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
The armor covering up the windows and field grilles is a great little detail, btw.
My character Tsin'xing
Nouveau riche LTS member
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
I'd still like to see the Typhoon as a playable Dreadnought Carrier. Since they'd obviously have to scrap and replace the model, a huge ship styled similarly to this would would be very appropriate.
So true, I can imagine the design process.
Crytic Studios: we need a new ship design
30 minutes and a trip to the toy store, lego built design after many days of hard building
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Would also be nice to get the dark hull and windows available as maybe a c-store unlock on other ships. A galaxy and star cruiser would look great.
I think it looks hot as hell. That is with the Borg Assimilated Set.
You Forgot the Hulk! :P
*Picard and the Avengers facepalm*
[/SIGPIC]
At least it would be a nice alternative, which would help the ship not look so tiny anymore IMO.
The last fed ship I liked the overall design of was the Regent, before that probably the thunderchild class. I could count the number of Cryptic original fed designs I like on two hands.
I should give credit where it's due though. The nook shelter area on top of engineering hull looks cool and has a nice little tribute to TMP era design just like its superior sister the regent. The thin slit of blue lighting under the main glow is pretty cool too and every nacelle should have some sweet fins like the Avenger. The top of the saucer is probably the best area on the whole ship, the plating, phasers and colored areas all flow really well together. The dual deflectors look great and functional too. (considering deflectors have line of sight abilities in game and in canon too)
The main deflector is kind of cool but it just doesn't flow with the ship at all. You can tell that the dreadnaught class was really shoving its way into this design there, and that's probably the biggest problem with the ship over all. It's just screaming "look at all these layers" in exactly the same place the vengence did in JJ2. As much as I will love using this sort of reference work in my Connie tirades I still wish the JJ element was left out of the game because those ships are hideous from almost every angle. Blunt nacelles and a stubby hull are the two other criminal inspirations you can easily see.
The one thing the JJ Vengeance had going for it was the hard bend in the pylons. Unfortunately that went missing from the cryptic Avenger because they were probably getting close to lawsuit territory. Despite being bent, the Vengence pylons were stubby which made sure even some good ideas couldn't stop the ship from looking like junk. The Avenger pylons at least captured the spirit of the vengence pylons and look terrible too. Forward swept pylons are a crime only the Galaxy family really got away with. You can tell me that they work well with the over all motiff of a combat ship, but that just opens up another can of worms.
The Defiant, Steamrunner, and Galaxy class ships were all somewhat stubbly or compact. According to the designers the defiant and Steamrunner class ships both had primary roles in combat just like the Avenger. These designs looked great despite simplicity or bluntness because they were consistent and purpose built. The Defiant was a diamond from the top view which was fitting and balanced. The Defiant and Akira bridges both have enclaves protecting them from the sides, only the tipy top of the steamrunner bridge goes above its enclave. The Avenger tries to give its bridge module an enclave, but only partially succeeds in a manner that is purely speculative. The dual deflectors could have some protective purpose but their defensive qualities are only confirmed for being used in debris protection. In the game a deflector can heal things but what good is a repaired bridge after the crew has been vaporized? Putting the dual neck on the ship was another functional flaw, as far as we have been told dual necks were for slip stream travel enhancement. Exposing so much of the forward weaponrys components didn't make any sense either when that stuff is usually housed internally. jamming weapon power through the pylons and nacelles isn't lending itself to the idea of a tough combat ship either, on one pair of pylons they're throwing impulse power into the mix too.
The bulbous Avenger bridge area contrasts both the combatitive nature of the vessel and it's stubby angular hull qualities. It flows with the saucer well, but the saucer doesn't flow with anything else. The Galaxy was a successful design ideologically because it's spaghetti plate saucer clashed against forward movement and into the squishy remains of the design. The Intrepid class is probably the closest thing thing to what the Avenger tries to accomplish, it's got short nacelles, a stubby body and a long saucer. But on the Intrepid class everything is smooth, there is no neck, and the nacelles barely escape the ships silhouette.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCJZ5FBJ9bFaZ6yAFiNpZiRQ/featured?view_as=subscriber
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/CaptainCidStorm
http://img.trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/STO_DTNE_2nd_place_news.jpg
http://trekmovie.com/2011/05/05/sto-update-design-new-enterprise-winner-revealed-section-31-uniforms/
When they released the vet ship they gave the contest entry participant credit for the design.
They didn't do that for this ship and they stole the name of another ship to make it sound similar to the vengence.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCJZ5FBJ9bFaZ6yAFiNpZiRQ/featured?view_as=subscriber
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/CaptainCidStorm
So remarkably similar when viewed side by side that it seems a might bit more than coincidence, they certainly look more alike than the Avenger does to the Vengance, which had a Ring saucer and completely different Profile
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130526085618/startrek/images/thumb/a/ab/Uss_vengenace.jpg/275px-Uss_vengenace.jpg
I mean the styling is similar weapon ports, armour that deploys over vunarable areas is very similar, but the profile and shape are just not the same, Vengence is thinner, much more spread out, where avenger is squat and bulky
The Vengence has much taller and wider pylons, with no tapering along the back of the neck to the stern like the Avenger, instead a sharp angle change
Also where the contest entry and the Avenger model share egg shaped saucers sitting ontop of a neck which melds smoothly into the secondary hull, the Vengence has a Circular saucer attached by a clearly defined neck more akin to a constitution vessel
It shares some similar qualities with the design but those qualities are shared with a lot of ships. I'm not seeing any similarities in weapon hard points. Il believe you when they change the name back, give the artist credit, and delete the blog where they talk about designing the whole ship.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCJZ5FBJ9bFaZ6yAFiNpZiRQ/featured?view_as=subscriber
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/CaptainCidStorm
Zab Judah
Daym, That's a fine TRIBBLE ship
I will.
DeltaFox
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
+ Temporal Warfare bits and pieces.
::: makes note to post image of his own Avenger-class tomorrow ....
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
I was on the fence, I kinda liked the design but felt the secondary hull was too clunky.
Actually flying it finally won me over. It is truly a battlecruiser.
For the Avenger i would have preferred if we would have got some alternatives like the T5 Heavy Cruiser has. A additional ellipse shaped saucer would have been a nice alternative for the very small and narrow looking saucer of the Avenger IMO.
To be honest i really miss the lack of options new ships Cryptic releases. The ship designer always was one of my favourite things to experiment with in STO, but Cryptic decided to just pop out more and more different ships witout giving them any options to speak of. Sad really.
EDIT:
A Steamrunner like saucer (maybe even a bit wider) would be really cool for the avenger IMO.
Loving it, there are a few features not to my taste like the Pylon attaching too far forward of the nacelle
However I am loving the Deflector , the design is simply fantastic, not just for the Red Alert change when the Glowing sections go dark leaving the centre active, i just love the way its mounted to the hull, the way in which its set into the hull looks great to me