Cultural Influence on Ship Design

[VirtualCube]

I've been playing Stellaris since the launch and one thing that always bugged me was the lack of variety in term of the look of ships. Most of the time, I feel that the appearance of my ships doesn't quite suit the idea that I have of my species. I propose that the design of the ships shouldn't be dependant on phenotypes, but rather on the culture (or dominating ethos) of a given species.

These designs would be combinable to permit a maximum variety of ship styles.

*Note : I haven't found anything that could fit with the Authoritarian and Egalitarian ethos

I started from the principle that fanatic ethos would not play a part in the designs.

I have calculated that a total of 19 different combination would be possible without the Autoritarian and Egalitarian ethos and a grand total of 54 if we find something which would represent them in term of ship design.

Add to that a tool to choose a primary and secondary color, plus a tertiary for the lights/windows on the ship, and you are garanteed to see unique ships in each games.

 

[SevenSerpents]

And lock me into the style of ship based off my ethos choices? No. Not to mention that this system would completely trash a portion of what some people, myself included, bought from the Plantoids pack. I sure as hell wouldn't have forked over the money for it if it was just portraits and no ships.

 

[VirtualCube]

And lock me into the style of ship based off my ethos choices? No. Not to mention that this system would completely trash a portion of what some people, myself included, bought from the Plantoids pack. I sure as hell wouldn't have forked over the money for it if it was just portraits and no ships.

I'm sure you could always select a phenotype-based ship, if that's what you'd want.

 

[SevenSerpents]

I'm sure you could always select a phenotype-based ship, if that's what you'd want.

Then I'd be way down for it, as ethic-based ships have been something I've wanted for a long time. Originally I wanted government-based ships, but since those are going out the window with banks it seems Ethos are the only path left. I could see the hive mind ships looking really weird.

 

[VirtualCube]

Then I'd be way down for it, as ethic-based ships have been something I've wanted for a long time. Originally I wanted government-based ships, but since those are going out the window with banks it seems Ethos are the only path left. I could see the hive mind ships looking really weird.

I forgot about the Hive Mind! I have something quite organic in mind, like a cross between the Prethoryn and the Fungoid ships.

 

[Pharo212]

I'm sure you could always select a phenotype-based ship, if that's what you'd want.

It'd be impossibly hard, art wise, but I think the ideal situation would be both? Like, you get plantoid ships, but then you also have a difference between Xenophobe Militarist Plantoid designs (thornier, spiky and angular edges) or like Spiritualist Pacifist ones, who might be a bit more flowered?

 

[Elfwind]

I've been playing Stellaris since the launch and one thing that always bugged me was the lack of variety in term of the look of ships. Most of the time, I feel that the appearance of my ships doesn't quite suit the idea that I have of my species. I propose that the design of the ships shouldn't be dependant on phenotypes, but rather on the culture (or dominating ethos) of a given species.

These designs would be combinable to permit a maximum variety of ship styles.

*Note : I haven't found anything that could fit with the Authoritarian and Egalitarian ethos

I started from the principle that fanatic ethos would not play a part in the designs.

I have calculated that a total of 19 different combination would be possible without the Autoritarian and Egalitarian ethos and a grand total of 54 if we find something which would represent them in term of ship design.

Add to that a tool to choose a primary and secondary color, plus a tertiary for the lights/windows on the ship, and you are garanteed to see unique ships in each games.

Authoritarian should have a tower bridge (Think star destroyers or venators from star wars) and Egalitarian's bridge should be based into the spacecraft (like modern star destroyers from force awakens)

Oh and allow us to change shipsets, especially since ascension stuff is coming out. I'd love to see ship design evolve as we change ethos and grow in technological and industrial power till we are using fallen empire style ships.

 

[Sibericus]

Like the phenotype designs, but additional ship designs based on our ideas of ethos could be cool as well. Although restricting them to ethos would be as boring as restricting phenotype ships and cities to their own specific phenotype. Just think about how funny it would be if the pacifistic, egalitarian xenophiles had the most menacing looking ship styles.

 

[TwiceAHuman]

Authoritarian/Egalitarian define Elitism level, defining how "Impirial" the ships should look. Probably bunch of gold or something. The diffirence between spiritualistic arnament is that the later is more... Meaningful and rather ideological than rich, while Elitism is all about PUT A CHUNK OF GOLD ON TOP OF IT ALL.

 

[Ikael]

Sounds like a cool idea to me!

Autoritarian: Huge empire emblems, very prominent control towers, multi-levelled / pyramidesque shapes
Egalitarian: Less visible empire emblems, rounded command bridges (a la Star Trek), symetrical designs
Hivemind: Fractal patterns, variations based on each different phenotype

 

[Zergash]

Maybe change the colors to make them a bit darker or lighter depending on authoritan / egalitarian - or change the amount of different colors on the models...

 

[Avalon8782]

Maybe phenotypes are the starting point, and the ethos modifies the designs? I admit that it would probably be a whole lot of work, but I'd probably be willing to pay for such an art upgrade.

 

[CocoCincinnati]

Just because I'm a xenophobe doesn't mean I don't like nice views of the stars on my ships.

I wouldn't mind seeing more variety in ship designs but it's kind of an impossible task. With dozens and dozens of empires possible each play through, it would take too many resources to really make all ships seem unique, the way the species do. It could be done, but they would have to take time away from something else. That doesn't mean they shouldn't consider releasing new ship graphic packs in the future though.

As for this idea, it's interesting but I think I like the existing way a bit better. Either would be fine as long as I could still pick whatever I wanted though.

 

[Emraldis]

I feel like rather than windows (which is hard to convey sometimes) xenophobes vs xenophiles should have less sensor dishes/antennae vs more sensor dishes/antennae.

 

[ranma100]

A warship should not have any windows. They are just weak spots in the hull. Beside that, what are you going to do? Stick your head out and look for road signs?

 

[Kat Tsun]

A warship should not have any windows. They are just weak spots in the hull. Beside that, what are you going to do? Stick your head out and look for road signs?

Behold, windows!

Spoiler

Since Space Is An Ocean(TM), spaceships should have windows. All of them have windows IRL anyway. Even battle starships like the Space Shuttle and Dyna-Soar.

 

[faljen_isus]

good glory, this is a good idea!

not that i agree with what should be put where, but i like the overall premise quite a bit

for me xenophobic empires should have a more aggressive and menacing style while xenophilic to have a more neutral aspect to accommodate everyone and noone at the same time (think romulan design vs federation design)

as for the angular design... the current mammalian design i find awful and have never once played it

 

[Arkangilos]

I'm not a fan unless you can personally override it.

 

[Emraldis]

I feel like the best way to do this, would be to have the default ship sets be the "base state" for the ships, and then modify them by ethos additions. With an option to just use the base state ofc.

 

[WhiteWeasel]

It's a fantastic idea on paper, but boy, that is going to be a lot of modeling, texturing, animating and a lot of developer resources to flesh out a feature like this. And then having to do that all over again with each "Style" (Fungoid, mammilian, etc...) of ship, that is a lot of permutations to do.