quote:
Originally posted by ColdSteel:
I'm just curious about what everyone's favorite and least favorite shipsets are (just the graphics).
My favorite shipset is the 'Dra'kol' custom shipset created by Don Phillips (Voidhawk) and Tampa_Gamer for the TDM Modpack. I just drool whenever I look at those ships. 
My least favorite is the original SE4 Terran shipset. It's just so 'blah' to me. Boxy and kind of square. Unsexy. Nothing wrong with it technically, mind you, but it just doesn't have the panache that some of the others do. We must do better for Mother Earth. I really like Hadrian's 'Federal Union' shipset so I renamed the graphic files and put them in the Terran directory of the TDM mod. Looks *sooo* much better.
Anyone else?
I think the quality of the SE IV default shipsets is very uneven. The Fazrah and the Ukra Tal have a couple of the plainest (as in undetailed), most unrealistic and uninspiring sets available. Many of the 'monochrome' shipsets produced by teenagers using PovRay are better!
On the other hand, some of the SE IV default shipsets are really good. The Amon Krie, the Cue Cappa, the Jraenar, the Norak sets are excellent! The Abbidon, the Phong, the Sergetti, and the Xiati are decent. The others like the Terrans and the Sallega are kinda boxy and not too 'sleek and dangerous' looking but not nearly as bad as the Fazrah and Ukra Tal sets. Even the 'green fur' shipset of the Drushocka is better. The Xi Chung is not as cool as an organic shipset ought to be but is also still much better than the Ukra Tal have.
Of the third-party shipsets I've seen, I'd have to divide them into two classes.
Derivative designs based on a SciFi show or movie, and
original designs. The derivatives are hard to judge. The movie/tv show they come from is going to heavily influence your opinion regardless of the quality of the shipset itself. And anyway, how much credit do you give to an artist for skillful video capture?
Or for seeing a ship in a movie or show and making a good copy in a modeling program?
Some of the Trek and B5 sets are nice, but that's more of a tribute to skill at copying than at design. Not that copying a design isn't a lot of work, too.
Some of the original shipsets are about as good as the best ones in the SE IV default sets, though. I like the Ixaris, for example. And the Cephalopeians are a cool 'novelty' design. I can't say I've seen any originals that I like as much as those four best SE IV defaults, though.
[ 01 April 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]