Design Principles

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #15

Welcome to EVE. This is a game about spaceships. The ship models that you may find look great are actually very... limited in their usefulness. The ships that are okay-ish in their looks are mediocre or don't really have a role. The ugliest ships... now they are the ones you are looking for!

So, in today's post, we take a moment and reflect on the design principles, especially regarding graphics, at CCP. First of all, we need to understand how aesthetics in EVE work. The main driver beyond how ships, stations and other stuff is depicted is that there are well defined graphical styles for each race, function, and technology level. Seeing that EVE is an eight year old game - she carries herself really well despite the fact mind you - the graphical styles too begin to show some change. The most noticeable examples are the Amarr ship models. To have a good comparison, you can look at the old Maller model versus the recently updated one. Or you can put it beside say, an Armageddon. The difference is subtle, yet the impact on syle is huge! The new design is much more akin to the Legion (the most recently introduced Amarr ship) than the old doctrine. Speaking of which, let's go through stlyes by race.

First off, the much featured Gallente ships. These ought to be robust maschines with rounded curves and sometimes alien layout. They have a tendency to sport a generic body concept with many limps, sometimes wings. They tend to be sort of symmetrical, except the odd sideweighted ship. Some parts are inherited over the ship line, for example all drone ships (even the Proteus with the drone subsystem) have these dial-like drone control links embedded in their hull. The Gallente ship designs seem to be fairly consistent, with the Hyperion and Nyx hulls standing somewhat out, but there are many more ships from the other races that are far-flung from the original style compared to them. Station and structure design tend to try and represent something organic, though most of the time with little success.

Caldari build flying boxes that are best described as polarizing. Most of their ships and buildings are percieved by either cool-looking futuristic or eye-hurtingly ugly by the audience. They also tend to attach special systems right outside their ships. Iconic examples are the Cormorant, Caracal, Drake, Raven. Station design is very similar. By looking at the creations of Caldari industry, maschines come to mind as opposed to the Federation's organic-looking style. This concept looks as if it hasn't really chcanged over the years, the recently introduced ships are well within it. It's worth to mention that the updated model for the Scorpion is much more detailed and thus falls a bit farther from utter 'caldariness', but I don't think the new direction it's pointing will be much more different than the one we are used to.

Amarr ships were introduced as ones that try to dominate the view. Their strong curves, clear forms ought to intimidate and demand respect. This leads Amarr designers to create ships that loosely resemble birds, and their structures usually sport rings, spires and wing-like forms as well. Their most recognitive trait is the golden plating that covers the whole ship, barring some unexposed surfaces. Now, this is where a noticeable shift has begun to take place. The newer releases exhibit a move away from the golden plate towards a darker, more insect-like form. New Amarr ships look like they have been stripped of some of their plating, their curves distrupted by some emersions. This new design is a bit disturbing because eventually, when all ships will have gone through the model overhaul, they may end up being entirely different and unimposing.

The Minmatar have arguably gone trough a change gradually, as their ships improved. The first designs were looking much like Earth's current space equipment covered in rust. Duct tape and chewing gum that barely held together. Then as the technology progressed, ships that sport a solid, reliable look like the Maelstrom, Nidhoggur and Loki became dominant. There have been no model overhauls yet for the Minmatar ships, so I cannot say if that's for the better or the worse. The principles we talk here about are too an iconic part of EVE that must be kept.

Functional styles also differ greatly as the ships grow in size. The what looks great has actually crap stats must be tied into this principle. See, each race has specifics that shine only in given situations. Seeing that EVE is comprised of many different situations, one may find that one craft with its bonuses and attributes set in stone, it can not perform the way it could. Take the Hyperion for example. If you take a look at the hull design, you imagine something that rams into the castle gates cannons roaring, tearing down everything around it. Now, dear reader, that is not the case. The Hyperion will not ram into any castle gate, because the statistics of its fitting suggests a loadout that is cursed to sit still due to the speed loss from armour tanking. The Hyperion is frowned upon because its layout prevents it from living up to the expectations one might have from such a ship. The tradeoffs are too high in most cases. There are, of course, exceptions from this rule. Some ships do look good while being awesome stats wise. I imagine most capsuleers would want to kill me for this, but take the Raven for example. If you look at it, it is a bulky ship that is slow, sits there unmovable, and pounds away at its opponents with unrelenting fury. Now, it does that doesn't it? I grew to like it because there is beauty in functionality and simplicity. A Raven is a statement of that. It's strong, safe, reliable.

Technology level design principles are interesting because they essentially are no more than new paintjobs with the occasional supplements of a wing or hardpoint here and there, yet they still manage to create the impression that some ships are totally different from the ones they inherited their hull from. And surprise, surprise - they usually are. I don't want to spend much discussing them right now - they pose a significan improvement over the looks of their T1 counterparts.

So. CCP is rewamping all ship graphics, and the most troubling part in this is that I'm not sure if there's a filter on how far they can move from the original looks. Because that is what EVE is like. Sinister, rusty, dangerous.

Sessym out.