MOI Art Description Archive

Artstyle guides

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Caution - comprehending the following may require learning the "jackSpeak" dialect of English.

Andolian Protectorate

Nietzsche

Visual description:

The basic shape of the main hull is roughly cylindrical. The thickness of the body does not vary overmuch, though it does vary, except at the front and rear. At the rear, it tapers abruptly for a very short time, then curves in on itself, creating a caldera, or bowl-like depression into the rear of the vessel. The main engine exhausts are in this inset area. On the tapered part of the ring around the engine bowl are four point-defense turrets, one top, bottom, and to each side. Coming out from the main hull are four projections, one pair on top and bottom, not too much after the engine area, and one pair on the sides, forward of the top and bottom pair, but overlapping somewhat in that they begin before the other pair ends. These projections are quite thick, and shaped something like a compromise between a circle and an equilateral triangle. Imagining them as triangles one would say that they were aligned such that the top and bottom pair pointed forwards, and the two side projections pointed rearwards. The projections extend out about the radius of the main body, whereupon they are capped by a thick, slightly wider plate, much as one would imagine a toadstool, shitake, or portabello would appear if the stalk were almost as thick as the head, and the head flat on the top and rounded on the bottom and edge. Just below the cap, embedded in the projections, are large engine thrusters. The engine thrusters in the top/bottom pair are larger than those in the side pair. On top of the cap, at each of the "corners" is a largish turret, though not a massive one, somewhat tilted down from the flat plane of the top of the cap such that its gun can depress below level. Each such turret contains a single gun. Forward of the side projections somewhat, the cylindrical main body differentiates. The top portion becomes a bundle of six tubes (for launching anti-capital missiles) around a larger central projection, two above, two below, and one to each side in slightly svertically squashed hexagonal fashion. The tubes are not actually touching each other, and the area in between them is filled in solid as is the area between the tubes and the central projection. Beneath this bundle of tubes is a hangar/docking bay. The combination of the docking bay and the collection of tubes are slightly slimmer than the main body of the ship. The tubes extend slightly beyond the end of the hangar. The central tube area terminates in an inset sensor array and two small turrets, one to each side. The missile launcher tubes terminate as one would expect them to, flush with the base of the turrets on the central projection. There is a tractor beam turret on both sides of the hangar, and a disabling turret on the bottom lip of the hangar.

There are various PD and anti-fighter turrets, but their position isn't as important at this level of description, save to say that I see 3 anti-fighter turrets on the sides of each projection to discourage loitering beneath the guns, and that PD coverage must be excellent :)

To describe a bit more...

The open face of the docking bay is in the forward direction, and though, from the outside, it is clearly much deeper, the initial open area is somewhat shallow as it terminates in a large armored door that protects the inner docking bay.

Looking at the Nietzsche from dead ahead of the vessel, one might imagine the missile launcher tubes as the hideously deformed descendants of magazine from a six-shooter revolver. Relative to the crisp radial symmetry of the six-shooter, the tubes are stretched further apart horizontally, maintaining vertical and horizontal symmetry, but not radial. Likewise, the aperatures where the missiles exit are vastly smaller by comparison to the size of the tubes themselves than in a revolver. Most notably of course, these tubes do not at all revolve, nor move at all. So they really do not look all that much like a revolver magazine; perhaps the image of a revolver is only the quick shadow of a thought that comes from knowing that one is staring at six tubes, each of which holds death, and each of which has opened its dark mouth in your direction....

Materials/texture/greebles/etc. appearance: A purely military vessel, there are no vulnerable areas exposed unnecessarily. However, there are various sensor arrays, shield emitters, escape pod launchers, and maneuvering thrusters located on the hull, so it is not just a giant smooth armored mass. That being said, it IS a military vessel, and the dominant feature of its hull will still be the nearly seamless overlapping plates of multiple layers of armor.

Approximate Sizes: length of main body - 1500 meters, including engines, hangar bay and launch tubes. radius of main body, 150 meters. length of projection caps ~ 450 meters

• A translated version of the above:

Mechanist

The below text is pulled from a PM I sent. I'll clean it up at some later point.

Interceptor Mk. 273 {Mechanist Interceptor}

The central most part of the hull is about three times as long as it is high, and twice as high as it is wide. It is roughly oblong, in frontal cross section, and somewhat more ovoid in side cross section. There is _no_ visible cockpit as such, because NO MECHANIST CRAFT HAVE VISIBLE COCKPIT AREAS . Both pilot and co-pilot are ensconced in the centermost portion of the vessel, having been loaded through hatches on the fore and aft undersides. Both the frontal and rearmost parts of the central hull are bedecked with sensory and transmission equipment. On each side of the central hull are slightly dimpled extensions, squarish (though rounded in a concave fashion, hence the dimpling) about as wide again as the central hull region, and slightly extended beyond both its top and bottom. Together with the central hull, these form what would be, if the central hull were cleaved flush at front and back, a cube dimpled on sides and top, not unlike a block of chalk used on four sides to coat the tips of pool/billiards cues, although here, the outside edges are rounded as well. Situated in each of these dimples is a turreted engine fixture. Those on the top are larger than those on the sides, proportionately to the ratio of the width to the height of the "dimpled block". Each engine fixture is consists of two main propulsory engines, opening rearward only, incorporated into a round-edged block of thickness commensurable with the width of the centermost hull region (rounded also at the corners from the top-down sense). Thus, the top and bottom engine blocks have connective regions somewhat less wide than the centermost hull region, and engines of diameter similar to the width of the centermost hull region (a bit on the smaller than side of similar), and the ones on the side have the same proportions, but are smaller. Atop each turreted engine mount is a rocket pod full of small, rapid launch dumb projectiles.

Embedded in the each side block is a very large spinal mounted gun, running 80% of the length of the craft, and centered lengthwise with respect to the rest of the vessel. The maximum diameter of the central tube describing each gun is ~1/2 the width of the central section of the craft. They are not merely open tubes - any opening depicted should be quite small in comparison to the diameter. Various accessories to the gun emplacements (capacitors, cooling stystems) are mounted above and below the gun, but not to the sides.

For the sake of scaling details, assume the width of the central section to be ~5 meters, thus making the entire vessel ~30 meters long, and ~30 meters wide at the engines (though only for ~8 meters at the center of the length of the vessel (+-4m), 15 m wide otherwise) and a height of 30 meters at the engines (but only for 12 meters (+-6m from center), 10m high otherwise.

Interceptor Mk. 212 {Mechanist Interceptor}

The main hull is an irregular hexagonal prism, with alternating sides of length X and 2X, a length X side "down". This configuration dominates half the length of the vessel. It is extended half again on both front and back (the hexagonal faces being front/back) with a regular hexagonal prism of side length X, centered, flat side "down". Each extension is subdivided into 24 equilateral triangular regions, each of which houses a (not particularly triangular) missile launch tube.Three non-descript spinal mounts (i.e. make the support structure for the guns, not the guns, those will be added later in modular fashion, unlike the above integrated weapons) begin 1/3 of the way forward on the main hull on length X sides, and continue on past the end of the main hull, running over the forward extension. Underneath and around the gun mounts, alongside the extension, are sensors and transcievers, providing some degree of merging of the extension and the main hull. Alongside the rear extension, there are also sensors and transcievers, but less so, as the more striking features are the three rows of decoy launchers, one row aligned with each of the X length regions of the main hull. On each of the 2X sides of the main hull, there are turreted engine emplacements, similar to those on the Mk 273, excepting that instead of rocket pods atop the two larger engines there are two slightly smaller engines that abut the larger two, each being "above" and towards the other engine, resulting in a sort of a "haircurler" arrangement of engines upon the turret mount. Assume X to be ~ >=2 meters, for a total width of each engine turret of ~8 meters, and assume the main hull region to be ~16 meters long, with each extension then being ~8 meters long. There is a single hatch for pilot insertion on the top front of the main hull segment.

The main geometry described here is simple - so spend lots of polygons on the connective structures attaching the extensions to the main hull, and all of the sensors/transcievers, decoy launchers, gun support structure, engine turrets, and missile launchers. Done properly, the appearance should be no more low-poly than an any object, such as a tank, with an intrinsically angular core presence. Indeed, when I say "irregular hexagonal prism" this doesn't impose a limit of no more than six large quads for the center part of the ship- this is an indication that the fundamental shape is that of an irregular hexagonal prism - precise details beyond that are left for the artist to manipulate - if I've mentioned it, I thought it was important, if I didn't mention something, then use your judgement as to whether it's appropriate to add - the description isn't meant to be exhaustive