Ship "look"

Potential issues

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say something about the ship design because if I don't, I'll regret it. Frankly, and this MIGHT have to do with the textures being out, but I tend to doubt it, I think the ships have WAAAY too much "stuff" on them. Also, and another poster recently said this, I don't think the "extras" are as cool as an idea as everyone may have first thought. By and large, the extras are HUGE, bigger than most of the actual components. If the idea is to be able to identify what a ship has just by looking at it, it's NOT gonna happen with some of the "bling" you can put on ships. Also, it looks silly. On to the actual designs WITHOUT bling. They look silly too. Some of them are good, and these are the "clean" designs that aren't full of excess stuff. It almost reminds me of those extra bits of metal on miniatures that you have to cut off...I want to say flak but that doesn't seem right.

Anyway, I think the ships need some help. They look weird...too many long flowy parts that just don't really work, especially with human ships. The ships need to look more like they did in GC1...or heck, ANY ship design seen in Star Wars, Star Trek, Homeworld, Babylon 5 (note that though Shadow ships have long flowy parts, they look like they SHOULD) or whatever.

Anyway, it's not a game breaker, but it's annoying. It's hard to tell what a ship is because all the parts get lost with all the extra stuff tacked on to them (and I don't mean the parts that you can add, even some basic hulls have too much extra stuff).

Am I alone in this? Anyone else have similar thoughts?
15,548 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
By and large, the extras are HUGE, bigger than most of the actual components. If the idea is to be able to identify what a ship has just by looking at it, it's NOT gonna happen with some of the "bling" you can put on ships.


Strange, bling being large certainly helps me to use it as a differentiater.

I agree a lot of the bling looks ridiculously large on the smaller ship models; perhaps a few more small pieces would help. That said, I imagine we'll like having these larger pieces available once the larger hulls are available.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree. It seems to me that an interstellar race could put its laser and torpedeo bays inside the hull instead of outside like a big target. i also think the armor shouldnt really be a little piece. it should be like a coat and the more you put on the denser or darker colored it gets. i also agree with the add-ons. personally, i never use them. if u click on the ship, you can see its stats. i would really like to see things inside of the hull instead of outside. maybe the laser or deflector could come out of the ship when you click on it or it attacks but it shouldnt always be there. the design of the alien ship hulls and add-ons are ok because they are alien adn are upposed to look a little different but shouldnt the human ships look more like the human style of building. also, a race should only be able to access its own style of hulls and add-ons.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
why can't they look big and bulky... like this?=P
Link
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Im not sur eif you noticed but theres a slider that allows you to DECREASE the size of those mduels or increase them (its right below the ship picture) just an fyi
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

That was actually one of Brads concerns too for the beta, but when the game goes gold (and around Beta4) there are going to be 5 styles of ship in the game, and ATM you're only seeing 2, both of which are very Alien in design.  The other 3 designs (one of which is the Human Style) are alot simpler.

Also, the ships make alot more sense with the textures on, but that'll have to wait 'till Beta 3 or 4 

As for the extra modules looking too big, be sure to play around with the slider Glavius talked about...it can effect the size of the components pretty drastically.

 

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why is it that aliens always have diffuclut work yet Humans don't... ITS A OUTRAGE!!! i think humans should learn from aliens and aliens learn from humans and learn their aggresivness and True Warmongering and humans kill each other and aliens don't.. it would be a good learning experince for everyone... and lots of dead ppl and ill be the leader in teh rampage.... hehe.... jk
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ahhhhhh, that makes a lot more sense. See, I thought the current ship style WAS the human style. It's totally alright for bizarre alien creatures to have weirdo ship designs, but they look really weird for humans. I am satisfied.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Its culture Realted and history cutlures Think Their "stuff" is True while other ppls "stuff" is bad. tats how it works for inteligent life and even less smart animals.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't think the "extras" are as cool as an idea as everyone may have first thought. By and large, the extras are HUGE, bigger than most of the actual components. If the idea is to be able to identify what a ship has just by looking at it, it's NOT gonna happen with some of the "bling" you can put on ships. Also, it looks silly. On to the actual designs WITHOUT bling. They look silly too. Some of them are good, and these are the "clean" designs that aren't full of excess stuff.

You are not alone. I found it hard to put "extras" on a model and end up with something that looks good. I didn't mess with the sizing slider yet, so maybe that helps. I think the ship design part of the game will need a lot of tweaking during the Beta cycles to make it easy to create good looking ships.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So THAT'S what that slider does! That should eliminate my bling sizing problems.