Artstyle guide:Aeran
 Artstyle guides
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Contents
Universe Background
see also: Aeran Species Description
Origin:
- How much gravity was there on this world?
- What element(s) made up its atmosphere and in what concentrations?
- What element(s) made up its liquid bodies and in what concentrations?
- What kind of temperature range was there at the equator?
- What kind of temperature range was there at the poles?
- What kind and color of sun(s) did this world have?
- What were the biggest challenges to survival on this world? (Examples- Starvation, Weather, Competition)
Gravity: ~1.3x Earth-normal
Atmosphere: Nitrogen-Oxygen (24% O2), with minor nobles (neon, argon), carbon dioxide, and water vapor
Primary liquid bodies: water, ~80% surface cover, continents small, large islands frequent
Average temperature of homeworld (pre-industrialization): ~300K
Sun: Orange
Primary challenges (pre-industrialization): Extremely competitive and invasive ecology.
Physical:
- What element(s) are they based on? (Carbon, unless otherwise noted)
- What is the average mass of one?
- What is the average length, width and height of one?
- What skeletal system if any do they use? (Examples- no skeleton, exoskeleton, endoskeleton with invertebrate, vertebrate, multi-vertebrate)
- What are their major core body segments if any?
- What senses do they have and at what ranges do they work in relative to Humans and what are the rough numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these sensory organs?
- What form(s) of locomotion are they capable of and at what speed(s) and how are the appendages that they use for this structured and what are the rough numbers, dimensions, shapes, :*colors and locations of these appendages?
- What forms(s) of object manipulation do they have and how are the appendages that they use for this structured and what are the numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these appendages?
- What organs do they use for taking in air, liquid and food and what are the numbers, dimensions, shapes, colors and locations of these organs?
- What kind of colors and textures cover their body surfaces? (Examples- slime, scales, hair, feathers, boney plates)
Dimensions: 2-3 meters in length from the head to the end of the balancing tail. 1 - 1.25 meters high at each of the the four leg-shoulders.
Mass: 200-250 Kg
Skeletal system: Multivertebrate(4) with interleaved rib arrangement, bilateral symmetry
Major divisions: Tail, midsection (hindlimbs to midlimbs), foresection (midlimbs to arm-shoulders), neck, head
Senses: Audio, visual, chemosense (all in head). Tactile (skin, strongest at hands, rear-feet, tail)
- Visual accuity: Aera cannot see in the dark, but do have excellent low light vision. Long distance focus is inferior to that of humans, but motion sensing and clarity of short and medium ranges is superior to human norms.
- Chemosense: Aerans have both external (lower face) and internal (mouth) chemosense organs. Aerans are mouth breathers, and do not have nasal passages. External chemosense organs are used primarily to assist in lending directional information to scents picked up by the internal chemosense organs.
Locomotion: The ancestors of the Aera ambled about amid the lowest layers of a continent-spanning, towering jungle. The Aera prefer to scamper as often as walk, and move on their mid and hindlimbs, their foresection parallel with the midsection, arms tucked in, and tail extended for balance.
Manipulators: Two hands, each with a 2+1 finger/thumb arrangement
Textural appearance: Leathery skin, thick over most parts of the body. Ashen gray, with darker gray striations and amorphous, blotchy, yellowish patches in a pattern unique to each individual Aera
Mental:
- How much faster or slower is their thought speed relative to normal Humans?
- Which areas of mental aptitudes and abilities are they more capable in than normal Humans and by how much?
- Which areas of mental aptitudes and abilities are they less capable in than normal Humans and by how much?
- Which emotions and instincts are stronger in them than in normal Humans and by how much?
- Which emotions and instincts are weaker in them than in normal Humans and by how much?
- How is their society organized?
- What are their primary goals or ambitions as a faction?
- How are their overall political and military strategies and tactics different from the other factions?
- How do they see themselves as a species or faction?
- How do they see the other species and factions?
The Aeran thought processes mostly operate at speeds comperable to that of humans, but with some notable distinctions in process, efficiency and valuation of concerns.
On average, Aerans possess demonstrably superior quantitative reasoning skills compared to human norms. While not completing most subtasks at remarkably faster speeds, Aerans are much less likely to make mistakes or become lost or distracted.
Compared to humans, Aerans are at once chronically hyper-alert, but capable of obsessive levels of focused concentration on the task at hand. Aerans do not degrade in mental capacity as readily due to exhaustion. In general, the entire Aeran body will operate at near-full capacity through extended non-rest and stress periods, collapsing in a step-function, rather than gradual manner. Indeed, the Aeran existence is one of nearly constant stress, as they work themselves to death in lives far shorter than that of Humans, Klk'k, etc.
Humans would consider all Aerans to have a thoroughly paranoid mindset. Aerans feel their concerns are entirely rational, as, historically, most things _have_ been out to get them.
Aerans have extemely strong hierarchical loyalty arrangements, and, although posessed of individuated desires, excel at subverting them to the demands of the hierarchy.
Through countless wars of successive integration and the institutions supporting the Aeran cultural and political hierarchy, the loyalty structure of the Aerans has enabled them to map their natural pack/clan bond affinities onto a profound species-wide affiliation.
The primary goal of Aeran society is what it has always been: group survival above all else. All that has changed is the parameters and implementation details.
While the Aera are not innately belligerent, they are innately untrusting and tend towards presumptions of negative intentions on the part of the other species they have had relations with. Moreover, when the Aera feel threatened, it is easy for them to justify arbitrarily extreme measures if they believe said measures will at all increase the odds of their long-term survival. As such, the policies pursued have often been seen as startlingly aggressive by the other parties involved.
Style Overview
Technological Appearance:
- What are all the paint colors of this faction?
- What are all the colors of their external hull materials, lights, engine thrust, shields responses, weapons fire or anything else?
- Which kinds of geometric shapes and surfaces are often visible in the ships of this faction? (Examples, angular edges, curves, cylinders, spheres, boxes, etc.)
- Which kinds of geometric shapes and surfaces are rarely or never visible in the ships of this faction?
- What structures or hull sections are visible on the outside of their light craft and what kinds of shapes are these and what sizes are they proportionate to the rest?
- What structures or hull sections are visible on the outside of their capital ships and what kinds of shapes are these and what sizes are they proportionate to the rest?
- Are there any animated moving parts or organs besides turrets visible on the outside of any of their ships?
- What kinds of things would you see on the inside of one of this faction's ships or stations that you wouldn't see on its exterior? (useful for damage textures, damage subunits, etc.)
Primary distinguishing color ranges: Beige/Tan/Mustard-yellow over white/gray/brown basecoats
Common accent colors: Purple, grays, browns, white
Primary lighting color: Cyan
Frequently visible: well defined front/back of ship. unibody construction/tightly-fitting armor plates. Radiators, sometimes with retractable cover-flaps. Extensions, especially on larger vessels (where they are generally topped by turrets):
- extensions are vaguely teardrop shaped in cross section, the non-pointy end thereof being somewhat flattened, rather than fully round, and genrally facing forward. Extensions reduce slightly in diameters of cross section as they extend from the ship, but terminate in a flat, cross-sectional face by the time the area has been reduced by ~1/2 or so from the base of the extensions.
Rarely visible: boxy corners and subcomponents, modular design, piping, windows (even aeran civilians aren't much for star-gazing)
Seen inside, but not out: obviously separately designed mechanisms, modular internals (Aerans practice modular design, but they like to hide the fact that they do).
Moving parts(non-turret): radiator covers
Capital vs. light craft: Light craft are more heavily bilaterally symmetric than capital vessels. Capital vessels are more likely to have numerous tri or radial symmetries. For radial symmetries, multiples of 3 are common. Light craft tend to have both front and back extensions that, although vaguely winglike in shape, are not wings, and are fairly thick in proportion to the size of the craft. The extensions are proportionately much smaller for capital vessels. Larger capital vessels tend to have forward facing spinal mounts of architecturally significant size.
Cultural Aesthetics:
Aerans like clean, uncluttered structures. Aeran ships are often described as having an overall appearance much as if they had been carved out of a single block of wood or sculpted down from a large stone rather than looking built up piecemeal, as some human designs are.
Technological:
- Which technological fields do they excel at relative to the other factions and how does this translate into game-play?
- Which technological fields have they fallen behind in relative to the other factions and how does this translate into game-play?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their weapons versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their interceptors versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their fighters versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their assault craft versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their bombers versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their light capital ships versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their medium capital ships versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their heavy capital ships versus those of the other factions and how do their tactics with these differ?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of their stations and infrastructure versus those of the other factions and how do their uses for these differ?
Tech: Aerans excel at most applied mathematics and the physical sciences, but lag noticeably in biological sciences. Aerans clear-cut their own homeworld, driving back their ancestral jungles to make room for their industrially-oriented civilization, and prefer living entirely apart from the ecosystems of the worlds they colonize whenever possible. Aeneth-forming relies heavily on cleansing the host-planet of its native ecologies before introducing Aeran ones. Aeran colonization is a very infrastructure-intensive task compared to the techniques deployed by humans and even moreso in comparison to the Rlaan. Aeran society in general is very resource intensive. While the Aeran rate of population increase and technological progress is very rapid, they left their homeworld much later than the other interstellar powers, and the further reaches of their empire are much less developed. While the planet is being rendered amenable, the Aerans will tend to focus on developing orbital infrastructure even while little-to-nothing exists on the ground, and will do so to a greater degree than other groups. The Aera shun fully autonomous AIs, as they view them as more likely competitors than allies. They view biological AI constructs in much the same light. AI research is therefore somewhat stunted in Aeran society, and certain tasks are thus much more labor-intensive. Aeran research in weapons technology is excellent, and frequently somewhat superior to that of the other factions. However, a bias toward excellence has skewed the quantity-quality tradeoff somewhat toward quality over quantity. While the Aera will not forsake economic or practical efficiency wholesale, they are innately comfortable with the notion of problems being solved by the introduction of superior technologies and engineering. While Aeran technological and engineering progress is rapid, they are making up for lost time relative to the other species, and their advancement is uneven.
Weapons: Aerans have a notable prefereance for shield-piercing weaponry and tend to ignore options without significant shield-piercing effects. The Aerans wish to make every shot count, and are thus more limited in their potential array of death-dealing options. Most smaller Aeran weapons are ammuntion based, utilizing complex warhead designs that emit a brief, intense pulse of radiation upon contact with an enemy craft's shields. The preference for shield-piercing weaponry extends to Aeran capital vessels and missile designs. Aeran craft tend to prefer using larger numbers of smaller missiles over smaller numbers of larger missiles.
Tactics:
- Small groups: smaller Aeran craft, while purposed, are capable of generalist missions and are often tasked with recon and commerce raiding
- Large groups/Fleets: Aerans prefer large engagements to skirmishes, as they tend to be more direct in attempting to achieve their goals.
The primary use for small craft in Aeran fleets is as a screen for larger capital vessels. Aeran interceptor craft are defensively oriented. In contrast with many other groups, the vast majority of the superiority fighters will also remain behind to guard the fleet. Corvette class vessels are the primary implements of Aeran assaults on other fleets. The Aerans do not rely on what would generally be considered bomber class vessels, and instead utilize a mix of assault corvettes, F/A light craft, and escort corvettes, the latter two acting as the primary escorts for the torpedo-rich assault corvettes. Capital vessels engage at maximum distance, and attempt to remain at distance from enemy fleets until the enemy's organization has been broken, or the fleet's missile supplies have been exhausted. Larger Aeran capital ships, even in their non-missile loadout, generally prefer a role more artillery than cruiser in nature. While Aeran destroyers are capable generalists, the majority of their armament is tailored to engaging assault vessels and other larger, less manueverable sub-capitals. However, Aeran destroyers do tend to have very solid forward acceleration and the ability to orient all primary turrets in a forward direction for chase maneuvers. Aeran craft built specifically to counter threats in the Rlaan-Aeran conflict have a disproprtionate number of weapons designed to deliver maximum damage over short time periods at short distance. Larger Aeran capital vessels are on the larger side, and significant economic investments for the Aera, even relative to most other major factions. The Aera will readily sacrifice smaller vessels to allow their larger assets to escape a losing engagement. While the Aera operate what is arguably the largest carrier currently in use (the Agesipolis), it is used more as a mobile base, moving in to hostile systems only after initial combat operations have subsided. The Aerans instead rely on jump-capable small craft, even for purely defensive scenarios, and a larger number of much smaller tender craft (currently, the Dorissus class) to repair, refuel, and rearm them. This is in keeping with the much larger role of sub-capital (non-fighter) craft in the Aeran fleets, and their ability for self-management relative to fighter-craft.
Installations: Almost all Aeran installations are armed, and any sizeable one armed heavily. The Aera are very reliant on their orbital infrastructure, and will go to great lengths to defend it.
Additional information
Key Features
Canonical Examples
In Game
Ariston class superiority fighter
