EU ships you like

Darth Culator · Post by **Darth Culator** » 2006-10-28 11:02pm

Jade Falcon wrote:What does everyone think of the concept of 'Uglies', fighter ships made fom pieces of other ships.

One of the dumbest ideas in SW. The amount of engineering that would realistically required to build a ship in the first place is staggering. The idea of taking radically different parts and welding them together is just retarded.

Have you ever seen such a thing happen in the real world? Rarely, and even then every class of vehicle has certain rules for its design and function. "Uglies" just don't work.

Whose idea were they, anyway? I know they're prevalent in Stackpole's stuff, but did he use them first?

000 · Post by **000** » 2006-10-29 01:43am

I believe Roger MacBride Allen was the first to use uglies in a narrative, although they might have been a WEG creation. I'd have to check.

Jade Falcon · Post by **Jade Falcon** » 2006-10-29 11:40am

Uglies appeared in the Pirates and Privateers WEG book, but I believe they appeared in a novel first.

Golan III · Post by **Golan III** » 2006-11-18 05:21am

I remember reading about them first in the Corellia trilogy.

IMO they're a cop-out, a lack of creativity on the author's part. An X-wing with TIE fighter solar panels instead of s-foils? Come on. No reason to merge these parts together...

...so many other craft to choose from - from Z-95s to R-41s to Cloakshape Fighters to T-Wings to...

I do wish more authors played the games, like Stackpole did. I remember being slightly pissed when an author (might have been McBride) said starfighter lasers were "turbolasers" - not even close. Laser cannon or blasters, yeah, but turbolasers are capitol ship weaponry.

My faves are the TIE Avenger/Advanced, B-Wing (without the stupid-ass revolving cockpit idea), Imperator, Deadnaught, Executor, Strike, Assault Frigate, Lambda shuttle, and Missile Boat. Assault Gunboat wasn't too bad either.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2006-11-18 01:22pm

The Assault Frigate from Star Wars Rebellion is pretty nice. I know they're mentioned elsewhere, but I like the way they were represented in the game.

I don't know what's up with the picture of one at the SW databank, but damn does it look weird. Maybe it's just my monitor though.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2006-11-18 02:59pm

B-Wing (without the stupid-ass revolving cockpit idea)

Um...that's in the movies. I don't know what a B-wing would even look like without the revolving cockpit, that's a fairly integral point of the design.

Although I have heard verbal descriptions of B-wings dogfighting that indicate that the cockpit revolves all the time in maneuvers. That never happens in any visual description, probably because it makes very little sense. If anything, it would decrease the pilot's awareness of the position of his craft and serve as a distraction.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2006-11-18 03:27pm

In terms of big ships, it has to be the Vengeance. It's an Executor-sized SSD that doesn't seem to be designed just to one-up the Executor. That, and it just looks excellent.

Golan III · Post by **Golan III** » 2006-11-18 04:01pm

Anguirus wrote:Although I have heard verbal descriptions of B-wings dogfighting that indicate that the cockpit revolves all the time in maneuvers. That never happens in any visual description, probably because it makes very little sense. If anything, it would decrease the pilot's awareness of the position of his craft and serve as a distraction.

Exactly - it's a gimmick made up by Joe Johnston or Ralph McQuarrie or Nilo Rodis-Jamaero, to separate their new creation from the pack. I think it's shape alone separates it...but anyways IMO the gimmick is of limited usefulness.

In the X-Wing PC games, where the B-Wing is modeled, the cockpit is fixed - the only rotating it does is when the s-foils open and close, since it lands on its "side". I prefer that concept.

I have a Lucasfilm Archives book for both Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and on page 119 there's a B-wing conceptual sketch, probably by Joe Johnston, that I really like. The main difference is that cockpit is more angular on the exterior, instead of rounded...

I also liked Ralph McQuarries initial concepts for the X-Wing, one is the cover for the "Art of Star Wars" book, and you can see that eventually that concept became the Z-95, minus the pivoting s-foils.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2006-11-20 03:37am

I like Kyle Katarn's first ship, the Moldy Crow. Classified as a light courier, it seems like just the sort of thing that might be just affordable enough for one or two people to use to travel the galaxy and see lots of different worlds, while doing a little trading and transportation to cover overhead. Still nimble enough, though.
That's what I'd like if I was suddenly dropped in the middle of the Star Wars galaxy.

Well, the Ebon Hawk might be a better choice in that respect then. You can live in it, and carry more cargo.

Major Maxillary · Post by **Major Maxillary** » 2006-11-21 07:21pm

My favorite would have to be the strike cruiser.

small, unassuming, and very adaptable.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2006-11-21 09:45pm

Major Maxillary wrote:My favorite would have to be the strike cruiser.

small, unassuming, and very adaptable.

I like this version of the Strike Cruiser.

Skylon · Post by **Skylon** » 2006-11-21 10:30pm

The TIE Defender.

Largely due to the joy of flying around and kicking ass with it in the old TIE Fighter PC game.

Xess · Post by **Xess** » 2006-11-22 06:48pm

I too really live the KOTOR ships. The Sith fighters and the Ravager are my favorites. Though the Republic Hammerheads are great too.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-11-22 10:01pm

Xess wrote:I too really live the KOTOR ships. The Sith fighters and the Ravager are my favorites. Though the Republic Hammerheads are great too.

I hate the Ebon Hawk's exterior. It's interior is nice enough, but on the outside it's fugly.

Dark Primus · Post by **Dark Primus** » 2006-12-03 07:18pm

RogueIce wrote:The Assault Frigate from Star Wars Rebellion is pretty nice. I know they're mentioned elsewhere, but I like the way they were represented in the game.

I don't know what's up with the picture of one at the SW databank, but damn does it look weird. Maybe it's just my monitor though.

I prefer the ones seen in the comics.

Darth Tanner · Post by **Darth Tanner** » 2006-12-04 09:00am

I love the Titan Heavy Cruiser and Tyrant Missile Cruiser although I've never seen them outside of Homeworld 2 Warlords mod.

Does anyone know what works they appears in? It's not just a Dark Empire random ship is it?

Also runner up prizes for the Republic Dreadnaught, Nebulon Ranger (despite its crap engine array) and the CSA Marauder Corvette.

Oh and I never really understood how the Rebellion were expected to perform such massive retrofitting to dreadnaughts to turn them into assault frigates. Just the exterior work seems very intensive for an organisation that shouldn’t have access to much in the way of shipbuilding facilities.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2006-12-04 12:46pm

Stofsk wrote: I hate the Ebon Hawk's exterior. It's interior is nice enough, but on the outside it's fugly.

As much as I love the Ebon Hawk, I'm forced to agree. It's like the Millenium Falcon in that respect; the exterior is quite aesthetically unpleasing, at least till one gets used to it and starts to love it.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2006-12-04 12:57pm

Cykeisme wrote:
Stofsk wrote: I hate the Ebon Hawk's exterior. It's interior is nice enough, but on the outside it's fugly.
As much as I love the Ebon Hawk, I'm forced to agree. It's like the Millenium Falcon in that respect; the exterior is quite aesthetically unpleasing, at least till one gets used to it and starts to love it.

I never have. I cheered when it went squish on Malachor.
Of course, it had to survive.. *grumbles*

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2006-12-04 03:31pm

Darth Tanner wrote:I love the Titan Heavy Cruiser and Tyrant Missile Cruiser although I've never seen them outside of Homeworld 2 Warlords mod.

Does anyone know what works they appears in? It's not just a Dark Empire random ship is it?

The Titan seems to be derived from This DE design. Lame article-name, I know, but it's provisional only.

The Tyrant doesn't seem to fit any readily visiable DE design, but I think that's where they got it, too.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-12-04 04:23pm

Cykeisme wrote:
Stofsk wrote:I hate the Ebon Hawk's exterior. It's interior is nice enough, but on the outside it's fugly.
As much as I love the Ebon Hawk, I'm forced to agree. It's like the Millenium Falcon in that respect; the exterior is quite aesthetically unpleasing, at least till one gets used to it and starts to love it.

No way, the Millenium Falcon actually does look much better than the Ebon Hawk. It has a sleeker shape while at the same time it looks beat up and held together by duct tape - which is exactly the sort of personality it was meant to have.

The Ebon Hawk on the other hand doesn't look sleek, it looks awkward and ungainly, which belies its role - it's meant to be a smuggler's courier ship.

Cao Cao wrote:I never have. I cheered when it went squish on Malachor.
Of course, it had to survive.. *grumbles*

Malachor was retarded. Literally, the game up to that point was awesome - even the Ravager was pretty cool. Then you get to Malachor and it's big wtf time. The Ebon Hawk crashlanding on the planet, then inexplicably coming out of nowhere at the end was what threw me off. They decide to have a crashland for no real reason, and for reasons I don't remember being told about, you're the only one who can walk around afterwards. Mira (or Hanharr) have their bit at the end, but only you can enter the Trayus Academy. Man, Malachor was a big letdown to an otherwise kickass game.

Hopefully the restoration project will fix this part of the game.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2006-12-04 06:38pm

Stofsk wrote:Malachor was retarded. Literally, the game up to that point was awesome - even the Ravager was pretty cool. Then you get to Malachor and it's big wtf time. The Ebon Hawk crashlanding on the planet, then inexplicably coming out of nowhere at the end was what threw me off. They decide to have a crashland for no real reason, and for reasons I don't remember being told about, you're the only one who can walk around afterwards. Mira (or Hanharr) have their bit at the end, but only you can enter the Trayus Academy. Man, Malachor was a big letdown to an otherwise kickass game.

Hopefully the restoration project will fix this part of the game.

Yeah. That part was awful. Screw Lucasarts for making them rush it.

Might be considered a spoiler:
I heard the lines for Atton's death scene on Malachor a while back - it was quite good. It sucks that it never made it into the game.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2006-12-04 07:07pm

Knife wrote:I like this version of the Strike Cruiser.

What is that from?

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-12-04 07:11pm

Galvatron wrote:
Knife wrote:I like this version of the Strike Cruiser.
What is that from?

Especially as it looks NOTHING like the Strike Cruiser from the computer games/RPG sourcebooks.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2006-12-04 07:16pm

I know. It looks better.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2006-12-04 07:52pm

Galvatron wrote:
Knife wrote:I like this version of the Strike Cruiser.
What is that from?

Looks like something from a Dark Horse book to be honest.