Topic: What makes a starship look right?

[ModelsPlease]

I remember how much I disliked the Nebula when I first saw one.

She's now grown on me and is one of my favorites.

Starships have a way of doing that.   

Then you'll be happy to know that OutaLance is gonna do the 2 proto-nebs 
-MP

[AlchemistiD]

IMHO:

The imagination of the individual(s) who designed or modelled it.  Besides that:

Aesthetics, Functionality, and lineage.

[AUDACIOUS]

I agree big time. 

IMHO:

The imagination of the individual(s) who designed or modelled it.  Besides that:

Aesthetics, Functionality, and lineage.

[Scottish Andy]

I'd say what counts is proper proportion--giving a balanced look--but most importantly, logical design.

One of the things I cannot stand at all is bad kitbashing. People just sticking hull structures and odd shapes together with no rhyme or reason. There has to be a valid inside-perspective reason for putting a ship together, an actual ship design reason that Starfleet R&D engineers decided would help a ship perform its misson better. There also has to be a sense of aesthetics to it all. A TMP saucer, an amorphous blob of a secondary/extended hull, and some differently-placed TMP nacelles does not a starship make. (PS: Does anyone know which FASA design I'm referring to? No? I'm not surprised. That description grabbed a good 50% of all Fed designs, but I was referring to the Northampton class. Or the Andor class.)

As you may have noticed, my pet peeve is 99.98% of the FASA designs. It is all very well bashing away, but would you put a TMP nacelle in place of an Oberth's sensor pallet? The only decent FASA Fed designs are the Loknar and Larson.The Klinks do a bit better, but so many of their ships just don't look Klingon, and the Roms just look like LEGO ships.

Why do you think the SFB ships have been so successful? The original TOS designs have been TMPed, and the basic concepts pushed into Excelsior, Ambassador, Galaxy and Sovereign-style designs. This is because their SSDs required thoughtful placing of the interior components, which then dictated the external arrangement. Granted, they are simple designs, but that little black dress never goes out of style for a reason.

Thus, getting back to the original question and away from my rant, what makes a starship look good is an appreciation for what that ship is suposed to do, and working that into the basic race-specific design philosophy.
This is a Federation ship. It's a ship designed to patrol the spacelanes and protect shipping. It makes frequent stops at starbases and outposts, so it doesn't need to be long ranged. Mission duration can be planned for 2 years, max. It's a smaller ship, not a cruiser-type. It'll be fighting pirates and raiders, so it needs powerful weaponry, but not so much on the science--though, this being a Fed ship, there'll still be scientific facilities and versatile sensors. It doesn't need to be super-fast, since it's escorting merchants. Warp 7 is fine, 9 isn't needed. Limited science and short duration means smaller crew, moderate facilities.

We have a destroyer!

Proper design philosophy makes a ship look right.

Favourite canon ships: Constitution refit. Nothing looks as good, she's a classic. The Excesior grew on me and now I love her almost as much as the Consitution refit. The Ambassador is a beauty as well. The Sovereign merges the Intrepid with the Constitution refit and makes her look reeeeal good.
Other nice canon ships: the Miranda, Constellation, New Orleans, Nebula, Akira, Sabre.
Favourite non-canon ships: Akyazi, SFC FireHawk and SparrowHawk, SFC F5, Dizzy's Star Union. Can't think of any more off the top of my head.

[AUDACIOUS]

Wow..
that was well thought up and hard to disagree with but in my humblllle opinion..
Sometimes aesthetics rank with that "Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder" Qoute.

I'm speaking strickly as a modeler myself..

[Shadowfleet]

IM - I've been thinking about this thread for a week or so now and here are my favorites:

First for Star Trek, here's my Favorite ship for each race/hull:

Federation Cap Ship
Wicked Zombie's USS Titan – If there ever was a great design for the Titan – this was it. I modified mine slightly with the Galaxy Evo’s engines


Federation Shuttle
MarkyD's new Arrow Class Hopper - she's fast/dangerous and you know it with one glance. I want one in my garage.


Klingon Cap Ship
Raven's recently built M'aveq - original design and definitely something a Klingon would drive.


Haven't seen a Kink shuttle or fighter I could put in a favorite category yet.

Romulan Cap Ship - a lot have been built lately by Raven and Pepperman and they are awesome, but I’ve been dreaming of seeing this baby in game for a long time. It's an Atolm design.


Haven't seen a Rommie shuttle or fighter I could put in a favorite category yet, either.

Now I’ll branch out into other genre.

Favorite ship from another game, the Galaxy Class Freighter from Wing Commander Privateer – she’d make a great pirate shuttle – Hint ;-)


My Favorite Cap Ship from TV/movies – the original Battlestar Galactica. Sign me up; I’d love a tour on board the Galactica!


My favorite fighter from TV/movies – Buck Rogers Starfighter – I already turned her in the Mk 1 Warpfighter.


My Favorite Space Station – once again from Wing Commander Privateer – she’d look great in SFC too…


Interesting thread and it really y made me think. It was hard to narrow it down even this far. There’s been a lot of great work here lately and my favorites are expanding all the time.

Redneck out.

[Adonis]

My ones:

Star Trek (in order of writing per race):
Cannon:
Ent: Fed: the Warp Delta; Rommie: BoP; Klink: Raptor; Andorian: Kumari; and Vulcan designs (all)

TOS: Fed: Definetly the Connie and the Daedalus; Rommie: BoP; Klink: D-7

TMP: Fed: Connie refit, Excelsior/Ent-B, Miranda, Oberth (these two are a different basic design phylosophy than the Enterprise-line ships - saucer, neck, sec. hull), Constellation; Klink: D-7/A, BoP; Lyran and Hydran ships

TNG: Fed: Galaxy, Sovereign, Defiant, Akira, Norway, Sabre, Steamrunner, Nova, NX-01 Dauntless, Cheyenne, Freedom; Rommie: D'deridex, Norexan (Valdore); Klink: Vor'cha, Negh'var; Dominion ships; Reman Scimitar (ain't your casual ship, she's detailed like hell); Cardie: Hideki (nice shape)

Post-Nemesis: Wells class (wild shape), Aeon class

Non-cannon:

TMP: Fed: Atolm's JTK, WZ's Doohan and Relentless, Ulyssess, Joshua; Rommie: Firehawk

TNG: Fed: Dj Curtiss's Schumann, Supremus, Victory, WZ's Titan (both versions), LC's Titan, MayhemUK's Courageous, Queball's Repulse, Orus Class, Insignia class, Legacy class (Titan design), Andrew Probert's Ambassador study, BC2 Concord, Scorpions, Nebuchadnezzar; Rommie: Kerchan, Atolm's Falcata and Aen'Stelam, BC2 D'voridex and D'deridex

Star Wars:

Venator SD, X-wing, TIE interceptor, Grievus's Command ship, Mon Calamari cruiser

BSG:

Battlestar, Basestar, Viper fighters

Space Oddisey:

Leonov

The Last Starfighter:

Gunstar

Robotech:

SDF-1, VF-1J

Farscape:

Moya/Talin

Stargate:

Goa'uld Deathglider

Designs I despise: ST Fed Ambassador class (blocky!), SW Ep5-6 SD, SSD.

[AncientAngel]

Here is my example. New Reimaged look to match that inbetween Era from the Galactica's hull Design to the Pegasus.

[Magnum357]

Wow!  Thats a neat Battlestar Galactica Ship.  It really does look a lot like a Frigate/Escort Size Vessel for the new series.