SPQR Shipyard (Space Roman Fleet)

[wat]

SPQR Shipyard

I've finally gotten to the point where I feel like my ships aren't completely terrible and I can share them with you guys.

I'll be documenting my progress on the ships for my fleet, based on my own extremely inconsistent and unfleshed-out alternative history where the Roman Empire never dies and instead makes it into space.

Ships

SPQR Legatus - Titan

Still pretty heavily WIP-status. Hull is nearing completion, and there's some preliminary detailing on some portions of the ship.

Length: 713m
Height: 170m
Width: 361m

Imgur Album

Spoiler: Bottom-side Detailing (Update 4/3)

 

[Zyrr]

Pretty dope, though I'm not sure about that bottom fin type structure. Besides that, though, good shape, good colour scheme, lot of potential.

 

[wat]

Pretty dope, though I'm not sure about that bottom fin type structure. Besides that, though, good shape, good colour scheme, lot of potential.

Thanks, the bottom fin structure thing is really rough right now so I see what you mean. It's just a design element that's really grown on me lately. I used to hate them with a passion but for some reason I'm liking it more and more.

 

[Zyrr]

Thanks, the bottom fin structure thing is really rough right now so I see what you mean. It's just a design element that's really grown on me lately. I used to hate them with a passion but for some reason I'm liking it more and more.

Hey, if you can flesh it out and make it look nice, I won't argue. It just looks kinda awkward right now.

 

[IAbsoluteZeroI]

That's a pretty mean looking ship already! And I love the idea of the space roman empire haha

 

[jzimmerman4]

Really nice shape to your titan. Needs a lot of detailing but it certainly has promise! Keep it up, cant wait to see more.

 

[wat]

Update - Initial Bottom Side Detailing.

Finally got some time to start showing the bottom of the ship some love. Reshaped a bit, and left off the "bottom fin structure" for the moment. It might make a reappearance once all the rest of the details come in, in a more iterative process.

First attempt at some detailing that I didn't really like and ended up scrapping.

Spoiler: Scrapped Details

And what I ended up going with, some Arc Reactor/Orbital Weapon/Magic Ring/Bottom Thruster lookin things. I don't know what they are yet but I'll think of something haha.

Spoiler: More Pictures

Overall, I'm pretty happy with deleting the first bottom-side details and starting over.

That's a pretty mean looking ship already! And I love the idea of the space roman empire haha

Thanks, I'm thinking for a station I might do some more traditional Ancient Roman styled architecture, or at the very least a statue somewhere lol.

Really nice shape to your titan. Needs a lot of detailing but it certainly has promise! Keep it up, cant wait to see more.

Thanks. Definitely needs an insane amount of detailing that I may or may not have underestimated the time it would take haha.

 

[Zyrr]

Those two bottom structures are pretty great looking, I could imagine some crazy planet siege beams or something coming out of them. The lighting you used is impeccable, by the way. Really, really good use of it.

 

[wat]

Those two bottom structures are pretty great looking, I could imagine some crazy planet siege beams or something coming out of them. The lighting you used is impeccable, by the way. Really, really good use of it.

Thanks! That was my first thought of what they could be, planet siege beams, since someone else thinks so let's just go with that haha.

 

[jzimmerman4]

That detailing is amazing!! Keep it up and that will be one hell of a ship!

 

[Loadout]

Since you're going Roman you might as well look at some of their statuary and architecture for extra inspiration. I think Janus the two faced god of beginnings and the end is a great place to start.

After that the Colosseum, aqueducts, and even some of their temples may help you round out your shapes to give it a more Romanesque feel to it. Not that arc reactor magical ring dingys don't those are pretty sweet no matter who makes em. :p

Love the work so far, hope to see some roman drones floating about your ship yard eventually.

Cheers
~The mad Drone scientist

 

[Superjudge]

Since you're going Roman you might as well look at some of their statuary and architecture for extra inspiration. I think Janus the two faced god of beginnings and the end is a great place to start.

After that the Colosseum, aqueducts, and even some of their temples may help you round out your shapes to give it a more Romanesque feel to it. Not that arc reactor magical ring dingys don't those are pretty sweet no matter who makes em. :p

Love the work so far, hope to see some roman drones floating about your ship yard eventually.

Cheers
~The mad Drone scientist

Yes, but SPQR refers to the legion itself. I don't necessarily think the architecture would be as big an inspiration as the accoutrements of the legion (ie swords, shields, standards, etc)

 

[Loadout]

Yes, but SPQR refers to the legion itself. I don't necessarily think the architecture would be as big an inspiration as the accoutrements of the legion (ie swords, shields, standards, etc)

actually alot of the roman legions bore heraldry in respect to the roman gods. much like the greeks before them. their statuary and architecture reflect this as well, and since buildings live longer than cloth banners, its easier to use the similar references. apologies for the format of this post im on my mobile device atm.

 

[wat]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it. On my way to the gym and the preworkout is kicking in so I'm going to hurry this post. Apologies for any poorly phrased ideas.

SPQR generally refers to the republic as a whole, but was commonly flown on the standards of roman legions so most people know it from that source.

As for the direction this fleet will take, it will follow more in line with Superjudge's assessment, inspiration from various Legion armor, shields and weapons. And just that, inspiration, maybe some design elements here and there. Obviously the colors of the legion are taken as well (I'm also planning a praetorian variant of all ships, with a purple and black color scheme once I have blueprint functionality complete in my starmadepy project). Here's an example from the idea graveyard, a speed-build of a ship I was going to call "The Centurion" but ended up scrapping. (Might use some of the ideas later however). It was to be based around the plumage of a centurion's helmet.

Spoiler: The Centurion - Failed Ship

I'm imagining it more as how things would look after thousands of years of progress (typical Sci-Fi designs inspired by an ancient roman design language) as opposed to just transplanting Roman Architecture into space. That's not to say I don't want to include things like that, I do. Just not for the ships. For the stations I'd like to bring in some traditional architectural elements and be a bit more cliche with the whole thing.


Interesting that you mentioned Janus and drones together though as I've had an idea in that vein for a really long time now ever since I saw this piece.

Spoiler: Drone Inspiration

I think something like that could be pretty cool, but it would probably end up being fairly large.

 

[Loadout]

...
Interesting that you mentioned Janus and drones together though as I've had an idea in that vein for a really long time now ever since I saw this piece.

Spoiler: Drone Inspiration

I think something like that could be pretty cool, but it would probably end up being fairly large.

To each their own, I was mostly thinking of statuary of the gods as in armaments. If you take a look at most of their statues, you'll see a lot of forms and shapes that translate into weapons and ship shapes very easily. You gotta be abstract of course, but after thousands of years some things would stay similar, colors and all of course, but more like rounded dome shapes coming to a point. Much like the centurion you have there, which isn't terrible at all, a few details and it'd be a nice medium ship. =)

In regards to the pic, you'd be surprised how well you can make shapes in small formats. My main idea is to set a design limit, like 11 x 13 and see how well I can fit the shape into that size. It gets changed around a lot, but having a general size restriction actually makes a lot of shapes work better, as they don't get too oblong or finicky.

 

[Zyrr]

To each their own, I was mostly thinking of statuary of the gods as in armaments. If you take a look at most of their statues, you'll see a lot of forms and shapes that translate into weapons and ship shapes very easily. You gotta be abstract of course, but after thousands of years some things would stay similar, colors and all of course, but more like rounded dome shapes coming to a point. Much like the centurion you have there, which isn't terrible at all, a few details and it'd be a nice medium ship. =)

In regards to the pic, you'd be surprised how well you can make shapes in small formats. My main idea is to set a design limit, like 11 x 13 and see how well I can fit the shape into that size. It gets changed around a lot, but having a general size restriction actually makes a lot of shapes work better, as they don't get too oblong or finicky.

All I can think of now is a giant, 2km^3 station modelled after Julius Caesar's face. With giant death beams coming from his eyes, obviously.

 

[Loadout]

All I can think of now is a giant, 2km^3 station modelled after Julius Caesar's face. With giant death beams coming from his eyes, obviously.

Lol'd So hard @ this. Don't forget rockets from his ears though. He's gotta blow off steam somehow xP

 

[IAbsoluteZeroI]

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited for this line of ships/stations.