Underwhelmed by Imperial Shipset?

[Dahak]

Anyone else kinda underwhelmed by the Imperial ship set? I was hoping it would look better in game than in the release a while ago, but I find myself underwhelmed. It is just dark and blocky. It isn't particularly grand or imposing at all. When I imagine 'Imperial' ships I think of something both imposing and eye-catching.

The Star Wars Empire uses a fairly simple design aesthetic, but they couple that with that brilliant white paint on large ships. That white stands out against the black of space and makes sure no one misses their presence. It serves the proper imperial function of dominance and intimidation.

The 40K Imperium uses a clear functional design aesthetic (for the setting, dumb irl of course), and then they cover it in cathedrals and gold and color. They scream "Here I am and you best kneel". No one looks at an Imperial Cruiser (much less a Grand Cruiser or Battleship) and wonders for a second about the insane wealth and power of the society that produced that ship. Even ships painted black are still covered in gilding and iconography. Heck, even tiny (for 40K) escorts are decked out in flash.

In EVE, the Amarr Empire paints the entire ship gold. Again, they intentionally draw the eye and declare their wealth and power.

In Stellaris, they are just kinda hard to see. Nothing stands out about them at all. Just dark generic brutalist spaceship 7. There is no display of power or wealth or intimidation. The design would be fine for the all consuming hive mind or machine empire, but those are setups where the builders don't care about how it looks; only functionality. A Galactic Empire CARES about how they are perceived. They are trying to maintain political dominance of the galaxy and you don't do that by being invisible or generic. There were several excellent concepts shown with the concept art so I am just saddened that they went with generic dark.

[=Snappy=]

Good post.

Just drifting thru this forum. Mildly interested in this game on paper.

But since it's a paradox DLC fest, it's going to be a hard pass.

(N.B. "DLC fest" means something to you. But "paradox" also is a descriptive term. It means: do 50-60% of what a AAA game does, then release it and call it done.)

[Dahak]

Originally posted by =Snappy=:

Good post.

Just drifting thru this forum. Mildly interested in this game on paper.

But since it's a paradox DLC fest, it's going to be a hard pass.

(N.B. "DLC fest" means something to you. But "paradox" also is a descriptive term. It means: do 50-60% of what a AAA game does, then release it and call it done.)

Plenty of DLC, but it is still a great game and you don't need most of it. Utopia is required for a lot of mods, but most of it just adds features you may or may not want. The game itself is definitely a finished product too. There are some bugs after the launch of the new major patch, but the game is stable and well made.

[Pioxama]

Can't help but agree with you on the designs. When I played I was immediately underwhelmed by the bizarre, steampunky atmosphere Paradox was going with them. The colours are dreary, they don't exactly say anything, it doesn't intimidate, it just looks like a scrappy raider ship if it was cleaned up a little. Ships such as the colossus do give off the atmosphere of a domineering Empire, but the rest feel very uninspired and afraid to be too risky. Again, for a galactic empire that's clearly taking inspiration from Star Wars, having it incredibly steampunk-esque is a very bizarre creative decision.

[Crowbot]

I really liked the other shipsets they showed, but I guess this is nice for people that wanted the Borg meets Star Wars. I just hope those other ships sets make it into the game somehow.

[Bloodartist]

well it definitely doesn't look like I thought it would from all the preview behind the scenes videos. I'm not saying I dont like it, its just different than I expected. In the videos that I saw, it looked like it would be white and gold art deco style? Kind of a weird turnaround.

Ive wanted more "evil" looking ship sets for a while. So far there was pretty much only Avian, so I dont mind this at all.

Well, more ship sets and name lists is always good.

[Dahak]

Originally posted by Bloodartist:

well it definitely doesn't look like I thought it would from all the preview behind the scenes videos. I'm not saying I dont like it, its just different than I expected. In the videos that I saw, it looked like it would be white and gold art deco style? Kind of a weird turnaround.

Ive wanted more "evil" looking ship sets for a while. So far there was pretty much only Avian, so I dont mind this at all.

Well, more ship sets and name lists is always good.

I don't have any issues with more 'evil' ship designs at all. I'm just sad that what we got for Imperial, was generic evil rather than something that seems 'imperial'. Even in history Empires fancy up their expensive projects like ships to the limit of their financial ability and the functional needs of the vessel/structure.

[Wintermist]

Nah I actually really like that shipset :P

[=Snappy=]

Originally posted by Dahak:

Originally posted by =Snappy=:

Good post.

Just drifting thru this forum. Mildly interested in this game on paper.

But since it's a paradox DLC fest, it's going to be a hard pass.

(N.B. "DLC fest" means something to you. But "paradox" also is a descriptive term. It means: do 50-60% of what a AAA game does, then release it and call it done.)

Plenty of DLC, but it is still a great game and you don't need most of it. Utopia is required for a lot of mods, but most of it just adds features you may or may not want. The game itself is definitely a finished product too. There are some bugs after the launch of the new major patch, but the game is stable and well made.

Thanks for the input. I don't skip DLC; that's just now how I roll. It's all or nothing. Cosmetics excepted.

But as for the paradox comment .. yeah I bought EU3 a long time ago on the promise of what looked like it was going to be a new 4x friendship but that game has a crash-inducing bug which was never addressed and honestly soured me on paradox forever. (BTW of course it's not about the $. It's about the time sweat and tears poured into the game.)

In the intervening time, paradox has done little if anything to change my opinion that they area a company which releases games which look cool but actually aren't. The term "second-rate" was created for efforts like theirs.

kinda just reskins of the same morass of numbers. decent ideas poorly executed.

stellaris gets thumbs up from misc. circles which is why I even stopped in here, but then I remember "oh yeah it's paradox" and .. sry but no.

ty for the informative response and hope u enjoy, tho.

(what does the "end-game" of this look like? Stellaris "game of the year edition" (all DLCs), USD$30 or under, you might meet me in the galaxy some day. but i'm not gambling on paradox any more.)

[Jynn]

some are underwhelming, some are pretty neat

the science ship with its rotating arms and flashing lightning is pretty interesting

as for the game itself, stellaris is probably one of my favorites, but i know theree are others out there who despise it so i dunno

[Dahak]

Originally posted by =Snappy=:

Originally posted by Dahak:

Plenty of DLC, but it is still a great game and you don't need most of it. Utopia is required for a lot of mods, but most of it just adds features you may or may not want. The game itself is definitely a finished product too. There are some bugs after the launch of the new major patch, but the game is stable and well made.

Thanks for the input. I don't skip DLC; that's just now how I roll. It's all or nothing. Cosmetics excepted.

But as for the paradox comment .. yeah I bought EU3 a long time ago on the promise of what looked like it was going to be a new 4x friendship but that game has a crash-inducing bug which was never addressed and honestly soured me on paradox forever. (BTW of course it's not about the $. It's about the time sweat and tears poured into the game.)

In the intervening time, paradox has done little if anything to change my opinion that they area a company which releases games which look cool but actually aren't. The term "second-rate" was created for efforts like theirs.

kinda just reskins of the same morass of numbers. decent ideas poorly executed.

stellaris gets thumbs up from misc. circles which is why I even stopped in here, but then I remember "oh yeah it's paradox" and .. sry but no.

ty for the informative response and hope u enjoy, tho.

(what does the "end-game" of this look like? Stellaris "game of the year edition" (all DLCs), USD$30 or under, you might meet me in the galaxy some day. but i'm not gambling on paradox any more.)

End-game is the weakest aspect of the game imo. The default map layouts tend to make giant doomfleets the way to go. Maybe keep a couple of smaller reaction forces back, but mostly just have a giant doomfleet with bigger numbers than your enemies' doomfleet. Making the map more open with the hyperlane slider reduces that issue greatly though. Less chokepoints means more room for maneuver. If you play the game with a role in mind that weakness isn't nearly so bad either. I haven't gotten far in nemisis yet, but I am wondering if the AI reacts better to a snowballed aggressive empire now.

[=Snappy=]

Well i meant for me, the 'end game' of whether i will actually buy this game or not. :)

But since u mention it, yeah end-game of 4x is a pet peeve. I have yet to meet the game whose UI keeps progress with the fact that your empire has grown multiplicatively. (to be fair i mostly play CIV. a little ES1.) And all these activities that seemed fun and important when you had a 10-unit army are now the bane of fun as you try to move your massive forces into position to just wrap this cursed game up while one AI tries to hide the space-farm! :)

[Dahak]

Agree 100%. Scaling is the worst part of every 4X I have ever played. They are either designed for the massive late game empire and just play themselves at the beginning or they turn into a morass of tedious micro at the end game. Stellaris is better than many at that imo, but that is all going to be subjective. Distant Stars does some interesting things in that regard, but the fact that it is capable of playing itself makes it hard to get invested.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Underwhelming?
Nah.
Its outright bad.

[Fulgrim]

Are the nemesis ships bugged or do they actually look like pirate rust buckets?

[Dahak]

I wouldn't call them bad, but I wouldn't really pick them as Imperial. Look fine for a devouring swarm or exterminator machines though. Might work for pirates too