Alliance art style

[RearAdmiralZill]

Am I the only one who dislikes (put mildly) the art direction Alliance is taking for boats? The only one I feel that looks remotely ok and believable is the Magnate. I'm so used to skirmish look and feel that Alliance looks way too sci-fi for me personally. That or the skirmish ships really need a visual refresh to compensate. Opinion of course and I'm curious of everyone's.

[Naoura]

I can agree. The one I kind of dislike, overall, is the Angleans. The Angleans are full Decopunk, and nowhere near enough Steam or Diesel, though I will say that the Anglean Frigate is absolutely beautiful, and I wish we'd have gotten that rather than the Corsair... *shudders* The Corsair... just... ugh.

I will disagree on you for the Stormbreaker. That is a very, very pretty cross on Steam and Dieselpunk, and the Crusader is a wonderful Steampunk craft, though I do think the balloons need to be a bit larger. The "train" look is close enough to regular Steampunk for my tastes.

[Byron Cavendish]

Im with ya zill. To me the only ship that is only worth a dam visually and playstyle-wise is the magnate. The rest are all a various combinations of 1 heavy gun, with 1-2 light guns. Visually the rest don't make sense from an airship POV, and don't fit any vague definition of steampunk. The worst of them all is the Anglean one.

[Unarmed Civilian]

The Chaladon ships have absurd, feathery-looking decorations in the back instead of the metal fan designs like on the Squid and Goldfish, which I think look better.

The Baronie ships are strange looking mostly because of the small balloons. If their balloons were larger, encompassing more of the hull and making them more zeppelin-esque, they would be much more believable. As it stands, they look like they must be using extremely lightweight construction (which I believe, given how squishy the Crusader is), or are heavier-than-air airships and use some vertical propulsion to assist flight (see Mobula's front fan-thingies). That said, it's still somewhat believable and at least it's pretty.

The Anglean ships look absolutely insane. In my opinion they should've gone with the Spire's more dieselpunk style (lots of black metal with wood and metal screens used in flooring, vertical construction and decoration, pointy bits like something ripped out of a factory). Instead they went with teslapunk, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a really cool if somewhat niche aesthetic, between dieselpunk and raypunk based more on the World War 2 era, submarines, fighter planes, battleships, and of course arcing electricity. However the way they've done it takes the Baronie ship problem up to eleven. They don't look like they should be able to float. The best way to resolve this would probably be complete overhaul of the balloons. As it stands, the balloons don't look nearly big enough to hold those things up, and the ships' thick metal construction doesn't help.

The Mercantile ship would be fine, but that spinny thing is based on the design of perpetual motion machines, which makes me want to rip it off and go after the shipwright who put it there. It's probably why the ship moves so slow thanks to that pointlessly wasted energy.

The arashi ship looks alright, though the balloons are a bit small in my opinion. It would look more floaty if some of the multiple balloons were just merged into one big one, as larger balloons generate more lift per amount of mass used in the balloon than multiple small balloons (has to do with minimizing surface area, like water drops, bubbles and party balloons).


In general with these designs it looks like they tried to move away from dieselpunk.

[HamsterIV]

Aesthetically I think the skirmish ships convey a post apocalypse survivor mentality. There is a lot of recycled material and unpainted surfaces. There are many dents and scratches to indicate the ships have been in service for a long time. The alliance ships tend to be cleaner and newer looking, often with unnecessary embellishments. I think they are supposed to portray the rise of more powerful nation states who have the resources to spend on paint and in the baronies case stained glass and book shelves. I think the contrast is intentional to show how the world is evolving from scattered tribes fighting over scavenging rights to more complex societies. Part of the problem is we spent 4 years as scavengers and it feel comfortable with the aesthetic.

My main beef with the new ships is they feel harder to crew with 4 people. They have more fire power but are also physically bigger, forcing longer runs between components and guns. With the target rich environment of PVE it feels it takes longer for my 2ndary guns to become active while my engineers are doing low intensity repairs.

[ShadedExalt]

The Corsair is really cool, but doesn't fit the art style very well.  Balloons should be bigger all around, except the Magnate, which should have some of those orbs consolidated.

[Echoez]

I personally enjoy the variety in the art style, despite some of the more outrageous designs (the Shrike is a bit too feather covered..)

The contrast between the PvP mercenary ships and actual faction ships is very visible and proper if you ask me. It wouldn't make sense for the Barony ships to look rusty and put together from scraps, just like it wouldn't make sense for an Arashi ship to look pretty and solid with vibrant red paint on it. It all depents on how they go forward with them from now on.

Nailing the distinction between the various factions is the most important bit for me and I think they did it so far. I kinda wish we would get faction-styled regular ships as well. We got a lot of big warships, hoping to see some smaller faction ships as well, probably similarly designed to the PvE enemies.

Also I want that Maxim-machinegun Gatling the bots have, can I has?

[Naoura]

Only after we finally get the Hotchkiss gun after the eternity it was suggested from.

[Byron Cavendish]

I personally enjoy the variety in the art style, despite some of the more outrageous designs (the Shrike is a bit too feather covered..)

The contrast between the PvP mercenary ships and actual faction ships is very visible and proper if you ask me. It wouldn't make sense for the Barony ships to look rusty and put together from scraps, just like it wouldn't make sense for an Arashi ship to look pretty and solid with vibrant red paint on it. It all depents on how they go forward with them from now on.

Nailing the distinction between the various factions is the most important bit for me and I think they did it so far. I kinda wish we would get faction-styled regular ships as well. We got a lot of big warships, hoping to see some smaller faction ships as well, probably similarly designed to the PvE enemies.

Also I want that Maxim-machinegun Gatling the bots have, can I has?

The worst part of the shrike is definitely the balloon. Have any of you just stared at it for a while? Its balloon is so comically small, I just can't look at it without face palming.

The feathers probably wouldn't look so ridiculous if it had a balloon to match their size, like the concept art .



I can't fathom why lord tim went so far from the source material. 

[SteamBrains]

^That's an axil but this does bring up some fun conversations. I think to understand the art style you need to understand the faction. The goi website has some decent faction summaries you should check out here http://gunsoficarus.com/world/factions/ (I have read through all of the lore I could find for work on a... Side project   )  the whole thing with Angela is that they are super advanced, and since alliance is the new wave of ships the factions have come out with, it makes since that Angela has the most technologically advanced. I would stil argue that the Angela is deiseloun I and not deco, judging that diesel is during a war such as this one and there just aren't as many reference images that matched with deco for me. With corsairs and the Titan by their side, the anglean republic shall rule the skies of firnfield! As for Chaladon, I agree a bit the feathers are sometimes a bit much. Their faction is a nut job though, they will slaughter villages if their balance is not fulfilled. Crusader is wonderful, glad someone else thought it looked like a train  I always have mine named "mobula train." keep your eyes peeled for the bonefish too! It's kinda a rumor right now but it's somewhere out there. Maybe implemented soon?

[Byron Cavendish]

Oh comon!

The faction section of the website hasn't been updated since 2013, maybe earlier. I've begged Howard and Matt to update, I've pleaded the case that you need a constantly updated website with the relevant information. So don't throw the website in here. Wanna understand Alliance ships? MUSE should update the website, because those articles were written before the SPIRE CAME OUT! Especially when not even all the faction pages were finished, especially Angela. I saw someone else ask Eric on a fireside years ago to at least finish updating them so they could see Anglea's full information. He condescendingly laughed, and said "lore takes work, I'll get to it when I get to it".

Is that a different Chaladon ship than the player Chaladon ship? Maybe, I'll take your word it for it. I don't know, because the website doesn't tell me. It doesn't have any information on Alliance. I had to get the concept art years ago and apply it where I could. All I know is: that looks a lot like the Chaladon ship in-game, except better in every way. With an appropriate sized balloon.

[Naoura]

Agreed Byron. The only faction that has any actual fleshed out lore is the Mercantile Guild. Hence why I joined them, plus, money, sooo.

"Lore Takes work". Please. I can come up with an entire history and culture of a completely fictional race that eveolved from goddamned squids. You're building off of a Steam/Diesel/Teslapunk reality. If you're so low on manpower that you can't flesh out the lore well enough to at least cover the holes the players poke into it, hire some new people. Like, seriously. Balance it enough so that you have stability between the players, and then try and get a little more in the way of manpower. Part timers if you have to. Just something.

And yeah, the Axii is the ship you fight when you fight the Chaladonians, it's their close-range ship.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Rest assured, there will be no feathers in the GOIO VN

Yeah I've never been a fan of those feathers either.

Actually thinking about our roster, there will be lots of either concept ideas, new variants on top of a solid design, or just a heavily modified base model. Our approach was more: "What would these things actually look like if used by everyday people in the world?" Less loads of new designs, more personalizing. Warlord A may not have access to an entire shipyard but he is capable of scavenging or hijacking ships, what would his fleet look like? What does everyday, non combat oriented ships look like. We tease one in our previews with that background. All started with a concept idea around a galleon sized vessel that doesn't have guns all over it. More the big rigs of the skies.

Anglean ships have morphed quite a bit since the original concepts. Original concepts had them looking more Chaladonian, but with kind of a black pearl ghost ship look. Very menacing. The new designs, while so-so at times, aren't outside of the lore for Anglea. Anglea has all the tech. Lots of the old cities/etc are under the ice, which they dig up. Chaladon would be next or on par in tech but I'd say it's kind of a, Republic vs Empire approach. Chaladon tries to bring a lot of form to function or just tries to dress up too much, whereas Anglea is straight up sterile cold function.

[Naoura]

I like that question, Squid, and I kind of think the Arashi meet that pretty well. Look at the Junker, that's a perfect pick-up of the skies if you were to strip some guns off and remove the bottom level ramp. Take a cargo net and tie it up around the bow portion and you've got a good cargo hold.

That's kind of why I'm eager to see what they come up with for the Arashi. If they are planning to make at least 2 ships per faction (Which I think they should if you're supposed to grind for it), I wouldn't mind seeing something very similar to a Mob/Junk with heavies. Something built as one of the only "Heavy" ships of the Arashi line.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

I like that question, Squid, and I kind of think the Arashi meet that pretty well. Look at the Junker, that's a perfect pick-up of the skies if you were to strip some guns off and remove the bottom level ramp. Take a cargo net and tie it up around the bow portion and you've got a good cargo hold.

That's kind of why I'm eager to see what they come up with for the Arashi. If they are planning to make at least 2 ships per faction (Which I think they should if you're supposed to grind for it), I wouldn't mind seeing something very similar to a Mob/Junk with heavies. Something built as one of the only "Heavy" ships of the Arashi line.

Yep, you're nailing it. For game purpose reasons, Muse will likely want distinct ships. Imagine if Muse shipped a heavily modified Junker...most folks would be raising a fuss about how lazy they are and how they want new ships. If Adventure mode had been funded, maybe. But that just isn't happening with either PVE or PVP game modes.

But world purposes, I doubt we'd see loads of unique designs for every culture. Even in modern times here, there are designs that just work and are used or sold and reused from military to military. Just look at the F-16 alone. Even going back to WWI, planes were not always made with a singular nation in mind.

Plus we'd have more non combat oriented designs just like today. So while armored car is a symbol of precious cargo, some merchants would likely opt to use non armed/armored vessels as a ruse to carry things discretely. Then there would be passenger transports. I doubt everyone would want to arrive at the end of their journey covered in dust or soot. Especially those who must attend to business or state affairs.

The people of the world aren't stupid. Someone would look at plane cockpits and figure to do similar with an airship. Even if it isn't pressurized, it would create a market for people not wanting to look like a dust monster when arriving at port.