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[David]

Blog post here. (See how I wrecked a perfectly good Heron carrier as I tried to capture a screenshot!)

[MesoTroniK]

Those new ship designs are really nice.

[ValkyriaL]

I still believe you got the "Heron" name from my mod i WON'T LET GO OF THAT BELIEF!

Anyway, really nice looking, and finally some new ships to take apart!

[David]

I still believe you got the "Heron" name from my mod i WON'T LET GO OF THAT BELIEF!

Anyway, really nice looking, and finally some new ships to take apart!

Sorry to say, haven't played your mod though have glanced briefly at most of the big ones. The Heron name is an extension of the "Hawk" and "Eagle" line of naming after birds. Was going to try to use some other bird of prey for this one, but we already used all the really good names and I think the feeling was that something a touch less vicious might suggest you should not use the Heron on the front line of combat like, ahem, some people.

Much thanks, looking forward to see what y'all do with 'em!

[ValkyriaL]

Ah yeah i asked you for advice on how to perfectly shade one of my super-caps didn't i?

[Sundog]

Looking forward to trying out the Monitor and it's new park-somewhere-and-hold-the-line philosophy.

[FasterThanSleepyfish]

I am hyperventilating right now! *Gasp*

[Thaago]

Looks very nice! I'm looking forward to seeing the 'not so good' ships (aka civilian grade) in fleets. Its always bugged me how everyone seems to have access to the high tech good stuff ;P.

[xenoargh]

Aww, was hoping the Monitor would have a Large Universal and be just a terrific brick otherwise

Anyhow, great job on these; I love the Heron and I think the Cerebus will be a great hit with players who want uber-Hounds

The Shuttle, though.  It's always felt fat and I'm not sure that adding a third gun will do much besides hide the sprite- honestly, the problem with that ship is stats-related (it's too slow, doesn't manuever fast enough, and has a pretty worthless System).

Instead of sticking another turret on it, which makes it essentially the same as the Hermes, I'd rather see its form suggest more speed and be zippier stats-wise- a flimsy vessel that survives by out-running, not out-gunning.  Maybe something like this?



Oh, and lastly, on color.  As the Factions get a little more sorted out, I think it's going to be more important that they have a definite scheme.

When I think "Hegemony", I think the brown/red/gray of Onslaughts and Enforcers, as opposed to the slightly redder palette of the Pirates (although I feel like they're sharing too many ships atm and if nothing else, need some palette-changed versions to be more differentiated).  

The off-white shades I think of as Independent colors and blues are Tri-Tachyon.  I've never thought of the gray ships like the Eagle as "Hegemony" ships; they've always screamed, "placeholder art".

I know we don't have Independents any more or they're being retconned or whatever, but frankly, I can't think of them as "Diktat" yet because the Diktat is very formless as a faction atm, other than their beautiful System.  

I'd like to see variations on the ships' paint jobs that gives the Factions a more uniform feeling, just like you'd expect in the real world.  It's the one aspect of "form following function" in the art that never quite feels right- either paint is a functional element (radar-absorptive or whatnot) and we'd expect rigid control of it across surfaces and materials (like stealth craft today) or it's just paint and it's space, where you're not going to ever be close enough to target things visually, so why not have bold, nationalistic livery on military craft.  I guess that's just me, though

[Dri]

Fascinating read and yummy teasers! I thank you for taking the time to type it all up.

The new ships look great and I wonder if you intend to "go over" the other ships and smooth them out to match this new design philosophy you have for Starsector's ship sprites. (more subtle shading, more curves, less "greeble" noise) I do remember hearing in the distant past that you wanted to give the Talon's some TLC...

EDIT: Upon closer inspection the Heron appears to be rather small... a 10-15% increase in size would be about right in my opinion.

[FasterThanSleepyfish]

Speaking of ships, are there any new weapon assets coming up? Space shotguns, or perhaps that unused missile sprite (hydra?) in the /missiles folder? Anything? (I am a fan of mini autopulses, btw!)

[c plus one]

hi! just created an account, and what do i find but something equally new to comment upon. David, that was a very interesting as well as informative blog entry - thank you. i'm glad that you're making a significant push towards fleshing-out the mostly empty lore. the new ship sprites are also a treat for the eye. looking forward to adding them to my fleet soon.

[HELMUT]

David, i wondered: are you taking inspirations from some of the mods around here? I found the Heron to be pretty similar looking to Kadur's Theocracy mod's ships. Not saying it's a bad thing, far from it! Even if it's just an alpha, Starsector's modding community already pooped an awful lot of ships, which some of them even rivaling quality with your own (shots fired!) so it wouldn't be surprising if the modding section was a source of inspiration for you.

Also, while you commented about pixels noise on your ships, will you eventually rework some of the currently implemented ships? Right now i'm thinking about the Venture, when you look in the modding section, there is actually very few Venture kitbash due to the big amount of pixel noise on this ship, making it fuzzier than the other vanilla ships. Perhaps smoothing it a bit in the future when you'll have some free time?

Otherwise, my favorite is without a doubt the Monitor with its smooth curves ans the wheel thingy on the front. The fatty Cerberus looks goofy, i like it, a bit like a hound who have eaten too many supplies.

Oh, and some lore, always good to take.

[Erick Doe]

I think since a lot of those ships are kitbashed from David's own original work, and David is basing some of his work around his earlier ships, it only stands to reason that there are going to be similarities.

I'm happy that 'mediocre' ships are getting some attention (i.e. the shuttles and hound-like Cerberus).

[Gothars]

Heron #1 simply doesn’t scream “Hegemony” to me

This is confusing, the Hegemony doesn't use any of the midline ships the Heron is derived from. Why would it need to scream "Hegemony"?
The ship looks fantastic by the way.

And I'm looking forward to testing out the Monitor

Instead of sticking another turret on it, which makes it essentially the same as the Hermes, I'd rather see its form suggest more speed and be zippier stats-wise- a flimsy vessel that survives by out-running, not out-gunning.  Maybe something like this?

I think that's a very good idea! A winged Mercury could even have atmospheric capabilities as further lore-distinction.

When I think "Hegemony", I think the brown/red/gray of Onslaughts and Enforcers, as opposed to the slightly redder palette of the Pirates (although I feel like they're sharing too many ships atm and if nothing else, need some palette-changed versions to be more differentiated). 

Mh, the color palette is determined by the era the ship design stems from. I think it would make sense for pirates not to have any uniform palette or ship-pool, they should use whatever they can get their hands on. They are not an unified faction after all. I would't mind to see the occasional Aurora in the hands of a rich pirate lord.

And maybe, once all the faction symbols are done, at least some of the bigger sprites could receive faction specific versions with their symbol painted on?