My takeaway from SS vanilla graphics style is that David did something unique and a little risky. For some ships the style pays off well, for others not so well. It would be a pity to recommend that some ships should look more like spaceships and less like modern industrial art, but for a select few I think things could be improved.
Phase ships all have their hulls molded tightly around the phase coils. It works for Afflictor, which reminds me of the unholy union of a sports car and a candelabra. But not so well for the others.
Some have jarring styles, like the Astral's 'tentacle arms' not meshing with the overall awesome visuals of the flight decks. It could use more bulk. The Aurora is hurt by having its mounts randomly distributed all over and hiding much of the ship aesthetic. I had the Aurora and Wolf in mind when I suggested that ship sprites should be able to be drawn at least in part on top of weapon mounts / sprites. Imagine the noses of either ship drawn on top and the forward weapons underneath and their hardpoints invisible. Other ships appear a little flat, like Dominator. It has distinct boxing glove arms but instead of them appearing lower (or even higher) and differently shaded from the rest of the ship, it's all uniform, same color palette, on one plane.
For some new ships like Drover or Gremlin and to a lesser degree Harbinger, the opportunity for interesting shapes was passed up instead of, essentially, squares. These are also the only ones where I'd say things could be improved without having to get into an argument over style.
I think the Odyssey works quite well. It has distinct sphere emplacements, something that could even improve the Aurora IMO. The assymetrical ships would probably look better if there was *more* commitment to asymmetry and more pronounced bows, like Aurora's right hook or Gryphon's left hook. Sunder is super cute. Hammerhead is distinct. Conquest is a beast. Apogee is fine, I'd just beef the engine section up a bit.
