WIP Discussion (Part 1!)

[Krulle]

Thanks, guys.
I am horribly bad a facial features, I rely on that white tattoo marking, which is not that well visible in the other panels.
But she did not have any impact on the story yet, besides being present.
But since she's mentioned on the cast page, chances are high that her role will become more prominent.


Speaking of androgynous Loroi: I find her rather masculine in the above picture.
Yes, Loroi battle participants are usually female, therefore I found the armour indicators on second look... But her facial features are rather strong, with Humans often an indication of a male individual.
Another reminder we are not seeing Humans here.

[dragoongfa]

There are plenty of women with masculine facial features, in some societies they are considered great wife material because of the fact of how good looking their sons will be.

Modern women tend to hide such features with makeup, cosmetics and minor misdirection but they are common.

[Krulle]

I just wanted to point out that I find Talon much more men like than I found Beryl, as some other commenters here did.

Anyway, I could have looked her at hair, but I tend to forget that since twins in my class made a joke out of my problems identifying persons by facial features alone. I relied on the different hairstyle preferences to differentiate the two.
After the holidays the two had switched their hairstyle.
It took me a week to not select the wrong name. From this I learned to ignore hairstyles, especially with women, as those are quickly changeable. And I do not want to be thrown out of my comfort zone as happened by those two....

[Suederwind]

Hm... She has that "Don't mess with me or you'll walk home" expression on her face. Very fitting!

[kclcmdr]

Good to see this up and running again.

The Patroon folks should be please for a WIP alert update.

[Krulle]

Indeed.
Also I expected due to the Patreon reward formulation that they would get WIP previews first.

Don't have any money left right now, as I need to support some staff representatives who just got fired....
So I do not know if patrons got more WIP, or this WIP first....

[Karst45]

*squeeel* OMGOGMOGM!!! it Talon!!!

[icekatze]

hi hi

If Talon is showing up, could we be about to take the highway to the danger zone?

[JQBogus]

Or it could be the loooong boring part of the trip where she sets everything to autopilot and comes back to the passenger cabin for some Tang.

[Mr Bojangles]

hi hi

If Talon is showing up, could we be about to take the highway to the danger zone?

Hot, blue space elves plus one of the greatest songs ever written? YES!!

Or it could be the loooong boring part of the trip where she sets everything to autopilot and comes back to the passenger cabin for some Tang.

Awww, man, JQ, why you gotta bring a guy down like that?

[Krulle]

Time to dig out this thread again.....

That looks great. Not that functional, but this is a visual medium.

The battle station needs to turn quite a bit to get the manoeuvring engines positioned to be effective...
Will they already appear on the next page, or are these sketches for a bit further down the road?

[Mr Bojangles]

Time to dig out this thread again.....

SpoilerShow

That looks great. Not that functional, but this is a visual medium.

The battle station needs to turn quite a bit to get the manoeuvring engines positioned to be effective...
Will they already appear on the next page, or are these sketches for a bit further down the road?

Perhaps there are control vanes similar to what are on the drives of Loroi ships? Maybe steerable nozzles?

[Sweforce]

Wow, a transformer spacestation. Cool.

[Suederwind]

Hm.... That would indeed be cool. However, the transformed one is labeled BS-5, while the others are BS-3. So maybe its a different model?

[Arioch]

The battle station needs to turn quite a bit to get the manoeuvring engines positioned to be effective...
Will they already appear on the next page, or are these sketches for a bit further down the road?

It's just a concept.

I don't follow the complaint about the positioning of the engines.

[Krulle]

I see only two engines, "left" and "right" (in the drawing).
To be able to move "up", "down", "forward", or "backward", the station would need to turn itself to be able to move.
That may become necessary to keep its position. And with all the turning necessary to position the engines suitably, that may take a long time.
But then, stations move sedately anyway, and they should never be involved in accidents which push them out of their intended paths.
(5 engines are necessary, 3 in the ring plane instead of two. The combination of one engine or two engines can push the station in any direction on the plane of the ring, then one engine on the top, and one on the lower end, and you're set for all directions. But if the ring engines can also fire up and/or down, you can move all around.)

In a battle, that's a non-issue anyway, as battle stations are not meant to move around anyway.
It was just meant as an observation, and not a complaint.
Makes a nice graphic, and that's what this comic is also about.

Also happy to see some new WIP drafts.


[edit] looked a bit more at the details of the drawings, apparently the engines can fire in pretty many directions. Still I see issues in efficiency of the engines when moving "forward/backward" (in/out of the plane of the paper). But then, I still like the look. Interesting concept to make gaps into the ring to allow passage of ships to the core parking slots.
With artificial gravity, why not turn the parking decks ninety degrees so the ships fly in from top/down, so that the ring can remain a closed ring?
But then again, alluring graphic for a visual medium.
(With that I mean that in visual media I definitely do not expect things to be in a "most efficient form", but often in a "most visual pleasing form".)[/edit]

[SVlad]

I see only two engines, "left" and "right" (in the drawing).To be able to move "up", "down", "forward", or "backward", the station would need to turn itself to be able to move.

Actually, even nongimbal engines positioned that way can move the station up, down, left and right. If the station can rotate around it's vertical axis by reaction wheels, it could also move forward and backward.

[Arioch]

The BS-3 has four engine outlets and the same kind of maneuvering thrusters that a starship has, so it should be plenty maneuverable. It won't be as nimble as a starship and is limited to about 5G acceleration, but that should be sufficient for the needs of a defensive weapons platform.

Interesting concept to make gaps into the ring to allow passage of ships to the core parking slots. With artificial gravity, why not turn the parking decks ninety degrees so the ships fly in from top/down, so that the ring can remain a closed ring?

The ring forms the same function as the prongs of a warship -- it houses the primary deflector screen generators. The gap draws a visual parallel to the warship prongs, and gives the sense that the hangars are being protected by the ring. If the hangars were oriented vertically, there would be no room for the weapons and antennae sticking out of the top and bottom, and they wouldn't seem as protected.

Plus it wouldn't look as cool.

[Absalom]

I'm inclined to make a B5 joke, but it's been long enough since I watched that I can't find an appropriate clip .

[Krulle]

Concepts for Spiral's dagger/pendant.

Finally, a new WIP!
Thank you, Arioch....

(Also, I am positively surprised to see this WIP image here. I was expecting WIP mostly for Patreons....)

Not much to be seen here, but I like what I see.

(I made post mostly to lift this thread up from page 2)