Ill just say it. Envoy ships look weird...

I have to say I disagree for the most part.  I'll give you the similarity between the Raloz and the new envoy model, but I find it's more thematic that way.  As for the Advent, I really like the model being used, but my one criticism would be the apparent lack of any exhaust trails.  It really needs some to fit in with all the other ships in the game.  Other than the front curve of the Vasari envoy not looking quite as smooth as I'd like, it seems perfectly fine to me in all other respects.

Do keep us in the loop though IC if there's to be some revisions as I'd love to read about them.

I love the Vasari cruiser! The TEC one isn't too bad, either. The Advent one isn't my favorite, but then again, most of the Advent ships aren't my favorites.

me thinks the vasari one looks too aggresive for beeing a diplomatic cruiser.

looks more like a capitalship to me.

i'd like to see the models of the vasari Envony ship and the jarrasul exchanged

I think that's what makes it perfect as the envoy cruiser. It's saying to the opponent "Do what we want or we will come over there glass your planets "

seriously though....no one else thinks the advent one looks a little "christmasy"

I don't miss the reference when looking at the ship, but it fits so well with Advent in my mind that that takes precedence.

To be honest, the TEC Neruda looks like a flying face with a giant set of teeth. It also has a strangely large amount of windows for a supposedly "mostly automated" vessel. Doesn't mean I don't like it, though.

The Advent envoy does look pretty different from the rest of their ships, but it fits with their general theme. One thing that irks me, though, is that the little ball things are perfectly white. It just looks strange and doesn't fit with the rest of the ship's texture.

The Vasari envoy looks kind of bricky for a Vasari ship, especially with the completely flat rear. There's also a bit of a model quality slip-up, as the front of it is very visibly angled instead of curved.

Overall, though, I'm satisfied with the designs. I just hope the textures and models get improved.

It's not the look the bothers me, it's the size, what the hell does it need to be as big as a continent for?

But it could be great model for Pirate Capital Ship. If only developers enabled pirates to have one, as a part of "techs" gained by them over time.

Agreed, thats my only complaint, theyre huge for non-capital ships. Shrink em a little bit (and their icons too Jeez) and theyll fit nicely.

I believe most if not all frigates should be shrunk down a little. And to be honest have'nt been loving the ship designs lately. The Vasari mine layer looks like the Predator's face, maybe a new additional ship designer?

Diplomacy needs some type of "toy" to play with, Entrechment had starbases and new ships, just an envoy cruiser and the ability to trade and communicate isn't getting me as excited to a level where it was for Entrechment.

seriously? your just noticing the scale is a 'tad' off? look up 'sun', 'jupiter', and 'red giant' on wiki. if the game were to scale, yellow stars would be 109 times the diameter of the terran planets, gas giants would be up to 12 times the diameter of the terran planets, and a red giant star would dominate at 21800 times the size of a terran planet. sure, there are some stars the size of the earth (white dwarf), but there are plenty far bigger stars. oh, and the distances between planets would need a 'touch-up' too.

Actually, it'd be cool if the planets moved in orbit around the star, maybe even have the stars move. you'd have to anticipate how the phase lanes would change. could make for some interesting strategies. defending would definately be harder, but your ships could be cut off alot easier depending on your timing.

The orbiting planet idea was tried during the beta of SINS. Found to totaly unfun from what I heard. Was removed. Ask Anntar or any of the beta testers.

That's what I've heard. From how I imagine that would work, I can see how it would be really unfun. I would expect a lot of "Where the #$%& did my planet go!"

I'd imagine if they orbited extremely slow, it wouldnt be too much of a problem, maybe in SINS 2 they'll work that out.

if they tried it, maybe they could tell us how so someone can make a mod implementing it.

my vision for it would mean every planet would have a phase lane to nearly every other planet in the system (some wouldnt need a lane coz it would never be close enough like neputune to mercury). as the planets orbit, the phase lanes change length; if they get past a certain length, the phase lane is temporarily disabled until it comes within range again (maybe some code to make sure there is always 1 connection to the 'chain'). and yes, you would want the planets moving slowly (because the distances aren't to scale, this compensates), just enough so that a medium game would see a few changes and a long game would see a good amount, but a short game would rarely be effected

Hahaha, don't take me for a fool, I know it's barely worth mentioning scale overall, as you have to ignore the scale generally but one thing that's hard to ignore is the scale of ships next to ships and I just don't get why they are so big compared to other ships that are meant to be full of thousands of people.

Totally agree about the ship scale. I mean damn, the envoys shouldn't be BIGGER than caps! I was expecting them the same size.

Well if your trying to project power...big is better...

Nah just send the Envony first, then if they do not comply you send the forgien relations ship aka the egg.

Being mostly an Advent player, I really haven't gotten a good look at most of the other envoy ships, but personally I really like the look of the Advent's.  Although I do agree the big white bulbs look a little off to me.  Kinda like they don't have a real texture on them.  'Course, they may very well only have a temporary texture at present too, who knows!  Would be kinda neat if they could somehow be made clear, or transluscent, and the blinking light at the end of them put inside to flash through them instead.

I can't say I ever really saw them as christmas ships though.  But it's a rather funny thought all the same.  The bulbs sorta seemed more like the light on an angler fish to me more then anything else.

I think they should tweak the advents design to make it get a bit closer the the subliminal-sexual-matriarchal-femdom-message. It can be seen to look a bit like a female bust with a winged cape, but not enough. 

I didn't think 'christmas ship' either, I thought 'Arabian Nights in Space', with all the cheesy b-movie implications attatched. It doesn't really fit with the artwork either, except for perhaps one of the new portraits. Everything else about them leans more on the hight-tech aspect rather than the desert-world back story, which never seemed too important anyway, except as a way of differeniating their preferred-planet choise (TEC-Terran, Vasari-Volcanic, Advent-Desert). Except this one ship with a very frail-looking design considering it's a cruiser.

The Tec could stand to lose the inexplicable 'legs' on the back which seem to be the engines, the only reason the Argonev constructor had them was because they were meant to represent the arms that would form the base of the starbase build. The front looks fine though, fairly utilitarian whilst clearly not geared for combat.

The Vasari one generally seems ok, a bit tall towards the rear perhaps - the sudden increase in size nearer the end of the fusilage is a bit abrupt.

Do envoys have weapons? If they don't, then it seems strange to me for them to be larger. 

How do envoys affect culture spreading?