Straight from Development: Ship Creation

Greetings Everyone,

For this Straight from Development we are featuring the development process for ships, in particular, the Mercury Light Cruiser.

The Mercury Light Cruiser is a very distinctive and recognizable ship in Space Wars. It has a sleek flat profile with fins like a GT car and a conning tower in the aft section. Then there is the most distinctive feature of its bulbus hammerhead shaped forward hull. So, how did this ship come into existence?

The Mercury like any military hardware came into existence from a utilitarian approach. It was designed around the technical requirements instead of being designed with a specific look in mind:
Engine:

• SIWIHD-3x2

Weapons:

• SIWPB-3Ax4
• SIWPW-2A

With just this information Liquin_3rd was given free artistic reign to come up with ship concepts. In this early stage of concept design the artist made several rough sketches that were then given to the designer, Vesuvius_SWIE. With these sketches in hand, Vesuvius_SWIE decided which one best fit the intent of the ship and provided feedback on areas that needed revision.



The artist then takes the feedback from the designer and creates a detailed concept drawing of the ship.



This detailed concept drawing gives more accurate dimensions of the ship and is used as the template for sculpting the base polygonal model. With the model made it is once again shipped off to the designer for review and comments. Revisions are then made to the model and in this case it is handed off to Tricky115 to texture. The back and forth between Art and design continues until we get the final asset of the Mercury.



Questions about the Mercury are welcomed and make sure to support the Space Wars Kickstarter which just launched.

 

Gorgeous looking ship.

 

Though the design direction may very from ship to ship the process for each one is very similar. Lets see how another recognizable ship, the Halifax, evolved from it's initial concept art. Can you guess which one of these four became what is now the Halifax Missile Frigate?



Stay tuned to see which concept became the Halifax.

 

C became the Halifax

 

You are correct.

Next up is the template concept.

 

I'm glad I've now seen that. When I first saw the design on the Kickstarter, I loved the concept, but thought that the two large pods on the back were the missile systems.

 

One of the great things about the Halifax is the intimidation factor for its size. We can definitely understand why one might think that those engine nacelles could be considered as missile pods that is part of the intent.

 

Lets take a look at what the finished Halifax Missile Frigate looks in contrast with the template.

 

The ship looks it should be on the set of Deep Space Nine

 

For those whom are excited about the Halifax Missile Frigate, we have one more image for you of what it would look like to have this ship docked in your Shipyard.

 

To not leave our first preview ship high and dry we also have one of the Mercury Light Cruiser.

 

I love the look of both ships, but their performance leads me elsewhere.