Design the Next Enterprise

[Dukhat]

Your ship will be in the same situation as the Titan. Its a fan-designed ship that won an official contest. I would say a great many fans consider the Titan a "canon" ship - or as close as you can get without actually appearing on screen.

Unfortunately, there's a difference between Sean's Titan and Adam's Ent-F, and it's a pretty major one. When Sean won the contest, Pocket Books used the exact design Sean came up with. For this Ent-F contest, what Cryptic eventually produces will probably only bear a superficial resemblance to Adam's design (which is one of the reasons why I didn't particularly care for this contest, no matter who won. Why call it the "design the next Enterprise contest" when you're really only giving Cryptic an idea, so that they can design the ship? I can understand about needing to make a few tweaks to an existing design, but it seems like they're going to do most of the designing past Adam's initial concept.)

 

[Tiberion1701]

Well, Cryptic may have needed to push things along for their production schedule, but that doesn't mean that their version would be the definitive "official" E-F - especially if Ithecreations gets his own vision for the ship out there ahead of Cryptic.

CBS or a book publisher could easily choose to come back to the winning designer and use his version in other publications.

Besides, Cryptic is usually pretty reasonable about these sorts of things, so there's a good chance they'll do it right. Their current ship artist is a good guy and has done a lot of work to fix the heinous acts earlier artists had laid on us. So I image he'd be eager to honor the artists wishes if he can.

Personally, I'd like Cryptic to reach out and get more design work from Adam now, before they show us their version.

 

[sojourner]

^How have the ships changed since the game first came out? Did they get rid of that hideous gunmetal coloring?

 

[Tiberion1701]

Well they have always had multiple materials that you could select from on most of their ships, and they have updated those a few times as well as fixing a ton of model errors. The classic trek colors were there, but not always the default one.

I'm not sure any place has a collection of high-detail models posted, the ones in the screenshots are usually the older versions. You can see the variety of ships on this mondo ship chart, though. The newest ship (Oberth) has a pretty nice amount of details (its the Grissom version from STIII, but the white "Pegasus" version, though)


Its still not perfect and never will be because of how the game is built, for instance they didn't think they could apply the proper aztec patterns without a re-code of their graphic engine. But still, the overall polish on the ships is much better.

Btw, I went ahead and started a thread urging Cryptic to come back and work with Mr. Ihle before they release the ship, if anyone else posts over there some more input would be great:

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=215050

 

[Dac]

^How have the ships changed since the game first came out? Did they get rid of that hideous gunmetal coloring?

They've certainly improved some models - most noticeably the Galaxy class. While the neck is still a tad wonky, the saucer rim isnt two decks thick anymore. I think the Sovereign has seen some improvements too.

 

[Tiberion1701]

He (Capnlogan) re-did the Intrepid, Defiant, and Luna as well. Luna got some pretty major changes, including all new geometry around the deflector.

Not that they're done. Sadly, Cryptic only has one ship artist currently, so he stays pretty busy.

 

[Titan Designer]

He (Capnlogan) re-did the Intrepid, Defiant, and Luna as well. Luna got some pretty major changes, including all new geometry around the deflector.

Not that they're done. Sadly, Cryptic only has one ship artist currently, so he stays pretty busy.

The Luna in the Game is still not perfect by any means. They Changed the Sensor pod to have a deflector in it which it doesn't. The Escape pods are off. The detailing on the front corners of the saucer are wrong. I know they have to use low poly models, but all they needed to do is ask Ellery or myself and we would of provided I res pictures of Ellery's mesh. It has come along way from what it first looked like, but is still a bit of from Ellery's model that he did for the cover and for Gene Rizzardi for the 6ft Model. God know I would be more than happy to let them use a few of my other designs for the game if they asked, but so far I can't even get a response from them regaurding my entry into the contest and why it didn't make it into the top 25. Hell I would love to even do concept character designs for them as well for that matter. Okay off the soap box I go... and back on topic.

Dac you have been doing a wonderful job on Adam's design, and I can't wait to see what you do next with my design as well.

 

[sojourner]

Wow, yeah, the art is as horrible as I remember. Looking at that ship chart one thing strikes me. It looks a lot like the art style of the ships from the old FASA pen and paper game.

 

[Kaiser]

Well they have always had multiple materials that you could select from on most of their ships, and they have updated those a few times as well as fixing a ton of model errors. The classic trek colors were there, but not always the default one.

I'm not sure any place has a collection of high-detail models posted, the ones in the screenshots are usually the older versions. You can see the variety of ships on this mondo ship chart, though. The newest ship (Oberth) has a pretty nice amount of details (its the Grissom version from STIII, but the white "Pegasus" version, though)


Its still not perfect and never will be because of how the game is built, for instance they didn't think they could apply the proper aztec patterns without a re-code of their graphic engine. But still, the overall polish on the ships is much better.

Btw, I went ahead and started a thread urging Cryptic to come back and work with Mr. Ihle before they release the ship, if anyone else posts over there some more input would be great:

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=215050

Thanks for posting that ship chart is there ones for Klingon or Romulan or other?

 

[Kaiser]

I am actually still working on my design. Think I may have a masochistic streak. Anyway, here it is so far. I find that it looks best using the classic camera angles and pretty poor in 3view. The last image is a little practice at lighting part of the ship and doing a phaser effect in the rendering engine. (basically a semi-translucent tube with an emitter running the length of it).

Nice design and backround

 

[sojourner]

^Thanks, the starfield is from NASA. The "infographic" was made in about 10 minutes using Inkscape.

 

[Psi'a Meese]

While I'm not a 3D artist in any way, shape or form, I have been known to draw space-scapes and my own idea's for a starship once in a great while. So I understand the emotion attached to everything we (generally speaking) do. It's only natural for artists to be attached to their work. To even bother submitting something to such contests is a serious test of character. Win or lose. That said, I didn't care much for how the contest was interpreted either. It would have gone a long way to have called it, Inspire the Next Enterprise. Which is far more accurate to the goals of the contest and the future of the winning submission. It may have softened the attachment to something destined to be re-interpreted by another artist.

That said, nicely done on the updated art for the winning concept art. I like the ring idea.

 

[Tiberion1701]

Thanks for posting that ship chart is there ones for Klingon or Romulan or other?

Sure, that chart is by Spidermitch, and its currently used on the STO Wiki site for their Ship Tiers page; There is a Klingon version as well. You can find the latest versions of them here: http://www.stowiki.org/Starship_tier_chart. Note: For those unfamilar with the STO setting, the Klingons have conquered/subjugated the Gorn, Orions, and Nausicaans, and thus their ships are a part of the KDF faction


No Romulan version yet, because Romulans are still an NPC faction in STO (its the next planned playable faction, sometime in the next year or two) and there are currently only 3 or 4 Romulan ships that the NPCs use; The D'deridex, the Valdore (from Nemesis, called the Mogai-class), and a 25th century upgrade of the old Romulan BOP, the Scimitar as their dreadnaught, and a couple of small fighter craft.

 

[Kaiser]

Thanks for posting that ship chart is there ones for Klingon or Romulan or other?

Sure, that chart is by Spidermitch, and its currently used on the STO Wiki site for their Ship Tiers page; There is a Klingon version as well. You can find the latest versions of them here: http://www.stowiki.org/Starship_tier_chart. Note: For those unfamilar with the STO setting, the Klingons have conquered/subjugated the Gorn, Orions, and Nausicaans, and thus their ships are a part of the KDF faction


No Romulan version yet, because Romulans are still an NPC faction in STO (its the next planned playable faction, sometime in the next year or two) and there are currently only 3 or 4 Romulan ships that the NPCs use; The D'deridex, the Valdore (from Nemesis, called the Mogai-class), and a 25th century upgrade of the old Romulan BOP, the Scimitar as their dreadnaught, and a couple of small fighter craft.

Thanks! alot of those Klingon ships look awesome

 

[StarTreklover]

Ok, since so many have told me I am in the same company as the men who have designed all the enterprises up til now and I have heard that this ship will be considered canon. I have to ask is this true? Is it canon??? I myself would think not as it is not being seen on screen.

Canon is really only the shows and the movies, so until the day comes they decide to use your design there then no. There are some that will argue there are different levels of canon, but the fact is the shows and movies are what 90% of Star Treks fans recognize, so there you go.

Some people mistakenly think that anything that has the Star Trek name attached to it is canon because CBS/Paramount had to approve it, but that obviously isnt true:

ExampleA

ExampleB

Novels, comics, and video games are all based on canon, but are not actually canon themselves.

 

[publiusr]

(It's also why, even though I have a "future Enterprise" design I've done, I chose not to present it to this contest!)

Now now, Cary. Don't be a tease.

Okay, since a couple of people have mentioned this to me, I guess I'll show what I'd done.

Mind you, this is waaaay too "advanced" to be the 1701-F anyway. It's probably post-J, really... so maybe I should call it the "Enterprise L."

The ship is designed as the first true intergalactic explorer. As such, it is just HUGE, intended to survive and keep the crew sane even if they never make it home. It also has new/modified propulsion systems.

Obviously, the design is lacking in detail... this was just a general "how things go together" and "scale" model. If you click on the links to the images, you'll see my 1701 model alongside it... though you'll need to look closely! This ship, from tip of the "dual saucer" to the aft end of the slipstream nacelle spires is 4.2 miles long.

I started off playing with the idea of "the game" but abandoned that and just tried things I've always wanted to do in starship design. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I think it works as a 26 or 27th century intragalactic explorer.

Each of the two "secondary hulls" contains sensors, massive cargo bays, power generation, and some of the propulsion system (what would be considered "warp drive" by TNG standards, without the slipstream nacelles which make it far, far faster than "warp drive" would ever allow). They also contain massive "parkland/agricultural" facilities in their cores.

The saucer is actually two "bowls stacked together, with a core in the middle and interconnects at several locations along the sides. The saucer decks are actually circumferential rings, so that each side is just rowed with areas which can become windows. The inner side is more like looking out across an incredible cityscape than anything else you might think of. All the docking bays are on the inside of this cavity, by the way.

Since the ship is in various configurations of decks, the "lifts" are actually spherical shapes, and they reorient as they enter new areas of the ship. There are also intership transporters, though these are mainly used for emergency purposes.

That is a great look. Something to think about. If you make the lower secondary Hull more full, and flatten the upper hull as a super throughdeck carrier hull, with a layered saucer, it might look even more imposing.

 

[Noname Given]

Hi guys, have to say I wish I could say I was as happy as I was when I got the first emails, but the backlash from my win has basically took the fun out of it. I know I was CLEARLY not the fan favorite, that has been made perfectly clear here and on other sites. That being said, i did a quicky rendering nothing special just a little clean up of the concept sketch I created. This is the last art of the Enterprise F I am going to do seeing as it does nothing but cause such harsh feelings. I am curious to see how close I got to what Cryptic is going to do with it. Now I have a pretty thick skin, I have been doing art and design as a profession for 15 years and I must be doing something right because my work can be seen at Disney World, Universal Studios, on television, in magazines and on DVD, but I hate to say it but this got to me. I have to say I have lost contracts and had people actually slam doors in my face and never once did I cry about it. I am going to walk away from this proud but saddened by the reactions. I would like to put this whole scenario behind me. To those who liked the idea I came up with I thank you for the support. All I ask is please don't ask me to do anymore with this design, as far as I am concerned the Enterprise F was just one more thing I have done, and I am moving on.

^^^^
Simply put, I like the above, quite a bit. I'm also sorry that the whole experience wasn't more positive for you. I think it juist goes to show how ridiculous some Star Trek 'fans' can be; and how they feel some sense of ridiculous entitlement; or further that they 'know what's Trek' and like to spout their opions as if the always speak for the 'fanbase at large'.

If Cryptic used the above as the final design, and put the ship up on the C-Store, I'd purchase it.

Anyhow, when all is said and done, and the final version is in the game; I hope YOU like what Cryptic did with your base design.

Lastly, remember - Those that don't care for something are WAY more likely to express their views then someone who feels the same thing is fine.

IMO (and for what it's worth from someone who's been watching Star Trek firsst run since 1969) - You did a very good job overall.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

CapnLogan talked a bit about the Enterprise-F, and even asked to see other work posted about it, links to the other design work by Ihlecreations were provided to him:

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3537485#post3537485

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3537751#post3537751

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3537786#post3537786

 

[Tiberion1701]

From This post:

I'm tellin ya folks! You're gonna be blown away. I want to get some pics out to the community sooooooon!

Seeing this 3d rendering here from the original artist is inspiring, but I gotta say the design I'm going with looks more like the sketch and less like this rendering. That might make you say 'oh god that's awful' but I assure you, the model is far more elegant and streamlined in 3d than you would imagine from the 2d sketch.



ON another note, does anyone else have any variations posted up anywhere? I'd love to see some other 3d takes on the 2d design

(emphasis mine)

Not the greatest of news, IMO. Going to be disappointing to have 2 versions of the ship.

Maybe I just being naive about the scruples of the Community (talking about the Trek community as a whole, and not the STO one) but isn't it likely that people are more likely to embrace the winner's version of the ship, than one from STO - at least if they differ enough to be noticeable?

Or is this something only I care about?

 

[Ihlecreations]

Tiberion, there will be only one version, the work I have done since winning is not useless but is not going to dictate the final design, Cryptic has creative control over it now and I am ok with that, I read the rules and knew what I was getting into by entering, now if I can be ok with what Capnlogan does with the finished design, i would hope you would be as well.

BTW I have registered at the STO forums but I cannot post for some reason, but I did send Logan a message letting him know I would love to give any feed back if necessary.