The aquatic ships have disappointed me

[Minuro]

I feel that aquatic ships could be much more visually interesting if the domes weren't necessarily blue. I already mentioned that the leaves of the plantoid ships do not necessarily have to be green, and that is a good thing that gives a lot of style to the shipset. I think that such a predominant blue component in aquatic ones negatively affects the aesthetics of the ship. I would find it much more beautiful if the color depended on the empire.

I love when you could customize the color of the ships, but in this shipset almost everything is blue.

 

[A2ch0n]

Well, the lights are of course customizable like on all ships. The blue elements are very fitting for a aquatic species because the ships are filled with water. What would you like for the water instead? Over all is "disapointing" the last word i would use for this increadible shipset. It's really well made and maybe the best set the art team ever delivered to us. And i for myself believed two weeks ago that not many things can beat the necroid shipset. I was obviously wrong!

 

[Minuro]

Well, the lights are of course customizable like on all ships. The blue elements are very fitting for a aquatic species because the ships are filled with water. What would you like for the water instead? Over all is "disapointing" the last word i would use for this increadible shipset. It's really well made and maybe the best set the art team ever delivered to us. And i for myself believed two weeks ago that not many things can beat the necroid shipset. I was obviously wrong!

The water is not blue, it is colorless.
And I also think that designers deserve our respect and all that, but the decision to put so much blue seems unsightly to me. I think it is difficult to match with almost any other color, and sometimes the empire color is barely noticeable.

 

[Pancakelord]

What would you like for the water instead?

Brawndo - Its got electrolytes!

More seriously, I think the OP raises a fair point - when looked at more generally - I feel like ships ought to have 2 colour channels. One for lighting/trim (as now) and one for 'body' - like tinting the metal hull on avians/fungoid ships, or water in aquatic ships, etc.

• Taken to the extreme you could also have a metallic/shine slider to control reflectivity, this would stretch the variability of the existing shipsets a bit further, though I doubt it'll happen as it likely means a thorough re-do of how the ship texture maps are setup (whilst this is doable now, it basically requires baking the shininess in to the normal map Photoshop - which is quite a bit of effort when you add up all the little textures).

 

[Minuro]

More seriously, I think the OP raises a fair point - when looked at more generally - I feel like ships ought to have 2 colour channels. One for lighting/trim (as now) and one for 'body' - like tinting the metal hull on avians/fungoid ships, or water in aquatic ships, etc.

• Taken to the extreme you could also have a metallic/shine slider to control reflectivity, this would stretch the variability of the existing shipsets a bit further, though I doubt it'll happen as it likely means a thorough re-do of how the ship texture maps are setup (whilst this is doable now, it basically requires baking the shininess in to the normal map Photoshop - which is quite a bit of effort when you add up all the little textures).

I appreciate the support, but I am not asking so much either. I just wish the blue wasn't mandatory, but depended on the empire color, just like with all other shipsets.
On the other hand, I agree with you. Ideally, the armor could be customized as well. I think that some ships are very dark and blend into the background of space.

 

[Zagreb 887]

I just feel that this new shipset is a bit lazy, looking like a fusion between humanoid and molluscoid. Since Nemesis I find new ships kinda dissapointing, worst thing being the crisis shipset, those ugly AF marauders ships...
There are so much better quality on the workshop, no worth it to spend money for 2 civics and recycled ships imho

 

[Mastikator]

The water is not blue, it is colorless.
And I also think that designers deserve our respect and all that, but the decision to put so much blue seems unsightly to me. I think it is difficult to match with almost any other color, and sometimes the empire color is barely noticeable.

Pure water is actually slightly blue.

Oceanic water is bluer and greener due to microorganisms in the water.

 

[Surimi]

Well, the lights are of course customizable like on all ships. The blue elements are very fitting for a aquatic species because the ships are filled with water. What would you like for the water instead?

Given that it's a high tech species, there's no reason why it has to be water.

Heck, it could be air, or some other gas. Short of deep sea creatures with pressure issues, aquatic astronauts would probably be fine moving around weightlessly in a gas medium just like human astronauts do, provided they had some kind of appendages to pull themselves around. Unless they were air breathers like dolphins, they'd need some kind of breathing device to pass water over their gills (or whatever they used to breathe) and possibly some sprinklers or humidifiers to keep their skins moist, but there would also be a lot of advantages even for an aquatic species to using gas as an atmospheric medium instead of liquid. It would save a lot of weight, for example.

They'd need to have a liquid-filled room which the crew could go to during high-G manoeuvres, but you wouldn't necessarily need to fill the whole spaceship with liquid.

That said, I don't mind the blue. The same issue is present in several ship (particularly lithoids) and while it is quite extreme here, the ships themselves are really nice.

 

[Minuro]

Pure water is actually slightly blue.

Oceanic water is bluer and greener due to microorganisms in the water.

I would not define the tone of the shipset as "slightly blue", but "hard blue".
And of course, the water can be of many different colors thanks to the microorganisms: red, yellowish, green...
If we start with the "scientific" debate (which I think is pointless) there is no reason why the water must necessarily be blue. It could be of any color.

 

[Empire of Terra Nova]

Well, the lights are of course customizable like on all ships. The blue elements are very fitting for a aquatic species because the ships are filled with water. What would you like for the water instead? Over all is "disapointing" the last word i would use for this increadible shipset. It's really well made and maybe the best set the art team ever delivered to us. And i for myself believed two weeks ago that not many things can beat the necroid shipset. I was obviously wrong!

it's not just the water (which is transparent, btw.), it's the details and all the pointy and square-edged stuff that makes them look like a silly humanoid ship filled with blue liquid

those ships must have been built underwater, even more so: on sea ground. taking the pressure and thus high abrasion to matter into account, the hull design has to be more smooth

they should have taken a look at, for example, the ship design of minbari

or at actual creatures that are living deep seas (preferably with a shell/exo skeleton)

 

[Mastikator]

I would not define the tone of the shipset as "slightly blue", but "hard blue".
And of course, the water can be of many different colors thanks to the microorganisms: red, yellowish, green...
If we start with the "scientific" debate (which I think is pointless) there is no reason why the water must necessarily be blue. It could be of any color.

No but seriously, pure water is blue, not colorless like you said. If the shields are supposed to represent water then that is a fine color.

I do agree that choosing your own color for other glowy bits on a ship set would be cool. I have no strong feelings about the aquatic one though.

 

[A2ch0n]

it's not just the water (which is transparent, btw.), it's the details and all the pointy and square-edged stuff that makes them look like a silly humanoid ship filled with blue liquid

I think it's a bit based in the Star Trek Xindi Aquatics ships. Those are filled with water and it was shown as a blueish color. Of course it's transparent without reflection but in case of style i really like the blue coloration. I always liked the humanoid ships and maybe there are some similarities to the aquatics but they are more than unique enough. If you compare that, you could match them with almost all shipsets i think.

Over all it's always personal taste. And so it's hard to argue. My original question to the OP was about how to replace the "water" elements in his opinion. I absolutely like them how they are now

 

[Empire of Terra Nova]

I think it's a bit based in the Star Trek Xindi Aquatics ships. Those are filled with water and it was shown as a blueish color. Of course it's transparent without reflection but in case of style i really like the blue coloration. I always liked the humanoid ships and maybe there are some similarities to the aquatics but they are more than unique enough. If you compare that, you could match them with almost all shipsets i think.

Over all it's always personal taste. And so it's hard to argue. My original question to the OP was about how to replace the "water" elements in his opinion. I absolutely like them how they are now

it's fine to like humanoid shipsets. you don't need to buy a new dlc to pick them, though. they're already ingame

and no, stellaris' aquatic ships are not based on the aquatic ships of xindi. this is how they look like:

the liquid is not even blue-ish

 

[Me_]

Ehh, what's really disappointing is that 90% of the portraits are humanoids. There are almost as humanoid as the humanoid portraits and more humanoid than most portrait groups.

 

[Minuro]

Ehh, what's really disappointing is that 90% of the portraits are humanoids. There are almost as humanoid as the humanoid portraits and more humanoid than most portrait groups.

Please, don't deviate the topic.

 

[Me_]

Please, don't deviate the topic.

Fine. On topic: I disagree. The blue gives it a clearly distinguishable look. Most shipsets are seen from a significant distance and the finer details don't really stand out, but a definite colour makes it more notable to see that they are indeed a single design.

 

[Quinzal]

I disagree. If you look at a few of the shipsets, no matter what color your pick for your empire, they still retain a general color scheme:

Arthropoid. Despite the empire color being green, the rest of the ship other than the lights is decidedly not green.

Avian. While not immediately visible in this picture, the Avian ships will always have a blue-ish sheen no matter what color the lights are.

Fungoid. Again, not immediately visible because of the empire color choice in this picture, but Fungoid ships will always have green accents and effects. Namely, Fungoid ships and stations will occasionally fart out big green clouds, and the bright green surveying beam pretty much made it impossible for me personally to use this shipset for anything other than a bright green empire.

The only shipsets that are truly neutral and change the most depending on the empire color are probably Mammalian (big gray boxes with the lights being their only notable feature), Reptilian (probably the best in this regard because the ship paint details also change color), and Lithoid (for obvious reasons). And while I'm not saying that this is necessarily a good thing, it's at least the artists being consistent.

Also, if you look at it from an evolutionary standpoint, the skies of ocean worlds are blue, which means that aquatic eyes would have evolved to use that blue light. Maybe it doesn't seem as blue to a walking dolphin man.

 

[Minuro]

I disagree. If you look at a few of the shipsets, no matter what color your pick for your empire, they still retain a general color scheme:

View attachment 771972
Arthropoid. Despite the empire color being green, the rest of the ship other than the lights is decidedly not green.

View attachment 771973
Avian. While not immediately visible in this picture, the Avian ships will always have a blue-ish sheen no matter what color the lights are.

View attachment 771974
Fungoid. Again, not immediately visible because of the empire color choice in this picture, but Fungoid ships will always have green accents and effects. Namely, Fungoid ships and stations will occasionally fart out big green clouds, and the bright green surveying beam pretty much made it impossible for me personally to use this shipset for anything other than a bright green empire.

The only shipsets that are truly neutral and change the most depending on the empire color are probably Mammalian (big gray boxes with the lights being their only notable feature), Reptilian (probably the best in this regard because the ship paint details also change color), and Lithoid (for obvious reasons). And while I'm not saying that this is necessarily a good thing, it's at least the artists being consistent.

Also, if you look at it from an evolutionary standpoint, the skies of ocean worlds are blue, which means that aquatic eyes would have evolved to use that blue light. Maybe it doesn't seem as blue to a walking dolphin man.

Thanks for providing those examples, what I don't understand is how you state just the opposite of the obvious: In all ship designs, there is a background color that is subtle or neutral, such as brown, black or gray, while the color of the empire, stands out more than the rest because it is brighter and more alive.

On the contrary, bright blue eats away everything else and determine the design completely. It is not easy combine the red color for example, while with fungoid or aviaroid metal, it does stand out and fit well.

 

[Minuro]

Fine. On topic: I disagree. The blue gives it a clearly distinguishable look. Most shipsets are seen from a significant distance and the finer details don't really stand out, but a definite colour makes it more notable to see that they are indeed a single design.

According to that reasoning, would a blue humanoid ship look indistinguishable to aquatic ones because they have the same color?

I think the color blue is not what makes the design different, but the shapes and placement of those colors. In fact, the neutral colors in the shipsets are what allow you to combine them with the empire color that you want, and still look good.