Lore question regarding ship designs

Not sure what this does...but, prepare to be bored.

I was having a discussion with someone about GC3 campaigns and we got onto the possibility of GC2 campaigns being remade for GC3 (which I think is remote and if we get better map/scenario tools something best left for the modding community to try to do). We got onto the topic of the GC2 ship designs and I suggested that they wouldn't return as they might not exist, or at the very least the Terran designs don't exist. I based this around the ships used by the first fleet and those seen in the cutscenes at Earth being the same.

Argument for against was that cutscenes are unreliable, which is a fair point. We see stuff in cutscenes that don't reflect what is actually happening in game. Also where GC2 designs could have turned up, the tutorial, it was unrealistic to expect a completely new shipset to be put together at that stage of the beta. Particularly for a level a significant number might not even play, which is again a fair enough point.

I went into that it makes more sense to retcon GC2 designs to be GC3 designs if there was to be any hope for there to be GC2 campaigns added to GC3. It would mean that Stardock wouldn't need to do another set for all the returning races and just would need to do ones for the likes of the Knox. Less time and money required would make doing a GC2 campaign DLC more attractive.

Anyway, GC2 campaign DLC aside I was wondering if either Paul or Brad already had a stance on the ship designs between the two games? Whether in your minds the GC3 designs were in-universe the GC2 designs or if they are new due to the passage of time? I know it is an odd and pointless question to ask. I doubt anyone else cares about this, well anyone apart from me and the person discussing it already.

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mormegil

Join Date 03/2001

+74

For the most part the Difference in the designs was an artistic decision. Artists tend to like to do new stuff, and we wanted to make sure that the new designs looked good and constant. The end result was new ships in the same design language, but not the same ships. We figured that the 10 years that had passed between games would give us some leeway for the designs to changes.

That said I have always wanted to get the GC2 designs into the game, (This is dear to me since I made most of them.) the old parts were simply 2 low poly, and the rendering systems to different, to just move them over. Which would mean re-creating each part, we did not feel players would want a DLC of what would more or less be old parts re-worked, and re-working them would be too much effort to do as a free update, so that leaves us where we are now. Trying to add new assets rather than bringing back old ones.

In crusade we are going to have some excuses to bring back some of the older designs, for the campaign, so I we will probably be bringing back some of the more iconic ship parts to make sure we bring back those ships correctly. So don’t be surprised if you see some of the GC2 ships make a comeback, just all dressed up.

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The_Last_Jedi

Join Date 12/2005

+24

Okay, so there is a distinction between the GC2 and GC3 designs. Interesting to know.

That does bring me to an obvious question: why are the ships trapped at Earth GC3 designs in the cutscenes? Does that fall under the GC2 models don't exist so its not meant to be taken literally, but rather its just about representing the military build up at Earth? Or alternatively is there a lore reason behind it? Could it be that Earth wasn't as isolated as we thought? Bradley and the First Fleet did spend 16 years with all that left over Precursor tech in the pocket universe after all.

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