Why not let the community design new ships?

[mr.WHO]

In X4 ships now have a lot more constraints and parameters to consider. Especially the whole walkable cockpit area (for ai and players), docking ports and weapon hardpoints. (including all the details of the collision hulls)
So converting an older model would only work if it somehow precisely fits into an existing ships layout, where basically replacing the outer fuselages design could be possible.
But just taking some ship and "putting" it into the game would certainly just make it unusable unless there is a lot of detailed work on getting the walkable areas and equipment hardpoints working.

Bottom line: it takes way more than just artistic skill to get new ships working in the game now.

The best approach would be to alter existing ships visually...

it might be true for fighters, but X-Rebirth capships can be ported easily - see the moding forum where there are already two mods porting XR ships.

[Tomonor]

In X3TC/AP, many of the new ships are ported and polished versions from the XTended/XTC mods.

i cant let that stand cant speak for XTM ships in TC, but the XTC ships in the mod are more polished than their ports in AP... i think the addition of the ships came in as an afterthought in AP's development at the last minute. Or it was just really rushed development for some reason or another. No idea.

I haven't played AP, so I wouldn't know - I've just saw the XTC ships utilized in AP and presumed that they would be on par of quality that the ships are that were ported from XTM (which seeming went through quality control).

It's a real shame but the ship designs in X4 are really letting the game down at this point. I think the whole modular thing works really well on stations but ships need a drastic rethink simply due to their size.

Rebirth ship designs were absolutely amazing and each faction felt unique but with a specific design goal. X3 had the same feeling, as Killjaeden has mentioned above. Rebirth also had destroyable hardpoints but the ship models felt a lot bigger than in X4. I don't really understand why the ships are so small in X4, or the turrets are so big compared to the ships. Scaling needs a serious looking at.

This is just a matter of opinion. For instance, I simply can't stand the Rebirth designs except for some. X3 ships were okay for the most part, but some of them felt out of place from the X-universe atmosphere.

I think X4's ship designs are pretty spot-on. Once again, not saying that I wouldn't be welcoming the older designs ported here, but these do work as canon for me.

[Damocles_]

Docking point and "modules" (in the form of turrets) where already necessary on X3 ships. And also XR ships, even more modules on those. So nothing changed there. The "constraints and parameters" is what they decided themself that they needed or wanted it.

Nobody and nothing forced them having rooms to walk around in, inside even the smallest ships. X2 had immersive cockpits. Didnt need walking around for it to have the effect of immersion.
Nothing forced them to have visible modules for everything, and nobody dictated the size of them to be so large as it is. The modules could have easily been partially internal on some or every ship. And also designed in a way that they dont look like parasites on a host. The paranid capitals look like they are plagued with ticks...
They decided that they must have the seemless transition, and that you have to walk up to the seat and also to a teleporter chamber.
They decided that each ship class must be able to dock one class smaller than itself. They decided the stubby form factors/ dimension limits of the ships, and also the interior space to be significantly larger than what it would need to be in order to function (esp. crucial for small ships).
They decided that instead of a much more compact docking collar for 'simple' docks between medium and small ships they instead have to land on a gigantic pad so you can climb out of the "side door" of your landed fighter ship (on top of another in space...). The huge modules and the gigantic cockpits, as well as the strict adherence to their (apparently) very box-like ship dimension limit is the defining (limitating) factor of X4 ship design.
Yes with all these constraints its more difficult to make nice ships. But thats all on them I'm really curious how these all came to be....

The walkable areas are a design decision. Of course that limits freeform model design. The same with the limitations posed by docking pads: ships need to fit onto it, ai actors need to be able to enter the ship.
Looks like X4 targeted to have one key element that Star Citizen has: entering every ship seamlessly. Thats a design decision and fine with me. It surprisingly works much better than the coding quality of other parts of the game would indicate... Seamlessly walking into a ship from the platform, sitting down and taking off, especially for NPCs is quite impressive, while more trivial things like exchanging wares or finding an approach vector to the docking module for the autopilot breaks the game.

The modules on hardpoints should be retractable outside of combat. They really do look like pimples.

[Requiemfang]

Personally I don't like the look of the Cerberus or the Gorgon as frigates. These ships are not frigate sized at all, they're Corvette sized, frigates if you want to be realistic and true to prior games they should be slightly smaller than the destroyers. Also the "frigates" we have currently in the game are too FAT especially the Gorgon and Cerberus, I don't mind the Osprey as is, it seems more fitting as a design for the Teladi. I really wish the devs had just stuck with the scout > fighter/heavy fighter > corvette/bomber > frigate > destroyer/carrier size line up. If anything the destroyers we have in game current should be re-designated as frigates and give us a proper XL battleship/destroyer that's of comparable size to the carrier but certainly is exactly what it's name implies, a flying hull of death and destruction.

Another thing that surprised me is that the devs changed the Argon's mainstay destroyer name, in X3 and prior games it was the Titan, why did they need to change it to a Behemoth? is it because the name sounded cooler or sounded as if Behemoth made it sound bigger? I don't understand that change at all, this is the most inconsistent change I've found, there are others but that change from Titan to Behemoth raised a few questions on my part.

[caltrop]

Another thing that surprised me is that the devs changed the Argon's mainstay destroyer name, in X3 and prior games it was the Titan, why did they need to change it to a Behemoth? is it because the name sounded cooler or sounded as if Behemoth made it sound bigger? I don't understand that change at all, this is the most inconsistent change I've found, there are others but that change from Titan to Behemoth raised a few questions on my part.

It would be nice to think that this is because they are planning to introduce an XL-sized destroyer/cruiser/etc Titan class warship lol ^_^

[mr.WHO]

It would be nice to think that this is because they are planning to introduce an XL-sized destroyer/cruiser/etc Titan class warship lol ^_^

Keep dreaming - they don't bother to fix crappy capship weapons/turrets or weak Xenon capships yet you expect them to make entire new class of ships?

[dholmstr]

The M-ships should never have had the docking of S-ships (maybe one really special ship..). The combat drones should be smaller than a fighter, like 1/4. Look at the docking bay on the Cerberus, you can dived that into 4 section about, that should have been the size of drones. And instead of a cumbersome landing process they would use launchtubes, pushing the drones outwards at good speeds (they are small and unmanned). The ammount of tubes would dictate how many drones could be in the air ...space I mean space...at once. The return and docking could then be faster "attaching" the drone back on the tube, and repairing. If the drone would blow up the tube in question would "load" a new one. This sadly would prolly add much calculation to the game so I don't think it will ever happen

[killerog]

Did they ask you to make a new one? Hm interesting. Everything from XTC was already complete at that point.

This was for AP.

[Axeface]

Did they ask you to make a new one? Hm interesting. Everything from XTC was already complete at that point.

This was for AP.

XTC = Xtended, he means that the Xtended ships were complete when egosoft asked us for them for AP. Im intrigued too that they asked you to make a ship in a week, that is insanely fast. I spent that just concepting some of my ships. Impressive, would like to know which ship.

[killerog]

Did they ask you to make a new one? Hm interesting. Everything from XTC was already complete at that point.

This was for AP.

XTC = Xtended, he means that the Xtended ships were complete when egosoft asked us for them for AP. Im intrigued too that they asked you to make a ship in a week, that is insanely fast. I spent that just concepting some of my ships. Impressive, would like to know which ship.

Woops misread him.

Yeah I was surprised as well. Cant remember too much about it all now, so long ago. It was the new Split M2(+) I think off the top of my head.

[Requiemfang]

This was for AP.

XTC = Xtended, he means that the Xtended ships were complete when egosoft asked us for them for AP. Im intrigued too that they asked you to make a ship in a week, that is insanely fast. I spent that just concepting some of my ships. Impressive, would like to know which ship.

Woops misread him.

Yeah I was surprised as well. Cant remember too much about it all now, so long ago. It was the new Split M2(+) I think off the top of my head.

Was that the Taipan?

[shealladh]

The M-ships should never have had the docking of S-ships (maybe one really special ship..).

Have to agree there.

[Axeface]

Was that the Taipan?

Im pretty sure the Taipan was made by the xtc team, or at least we made A taipan (cant remember who though). Whether its the same one as in the AP Im not sure. More likely the Pteranodon for shady business?

[Requiemfang]

Was that the Taipan?

Im pretty sure the Taipan was made by the xtc team, or at least we made A taipan (cant remember who though). Whether its the same one as in the AP Im not sure. More likely the Pteranodon for shady business?

I might have to go back to Terran Conflict to find out... lol been waaaaaaay too long since I played that game and especially the X-tended mod.

besides that I hope the devs when they get around to adding Split, Boron and possibly a form of a Terran faction into the game that they stick to what the races base strengths were, granted I hope the Boron can at least go toe to toe with some of the races and not be all defense oriented and not pushovers when it comes to weapons, a lot of their weapons were designed to negate shields but had a hard time with having ommph factor in hull damage unless they were using PPC's which mod developers for a good deal of the mods I played back in TC and AP made light of and exclusively left out of the Boron ship weapon line-up. It made Boron ships pushovers and jokes to have.

[Axeface]

Was that the Taipan?

Im pretty sure the Taipan was made by the xtc team, or at least we made A taipan (cant remember who though). Whether its the same one as in the AP Im not sure. More likely the Pteranodon for shady business?

I might have to go back to Terran Conflict to find out... lol been waaaaaaay too long since I played that game and especially the X-tended mod.

besides that I hope the devs when they get around to adding Split, Boron and possibly a form of a Terran faction into the game that they stick to what the races base strengths were, granted I hope the Boron can at least go toe to toe with some of the races and not be all defense oriented and not pushovers when it comes to weapons, a lot of their weapons were designed to negate shields but had a hard time with having ommph factor in hull damage unless they were using PPC's which mod developers for a good deal of the mods I played back in TC and AP made light of and exclusively left out of the Boron ship weapon line-up. It made Boron ships pushovers and jokes to have.

Theres a working version for AP, its a bit of a pain to install though because their are non official little fixes and stuff. I might make a video or new download version for it.
As for Boron ships, get a Megalodon and load it with flails, and then tell me they are pushovers ;p Was my flagship for a long time back when I played. I hope in X4 that they actually DO make boron ships defensive, and with regenerating hulls. I like the shield heavy playstyle tbh.