Comments - pavlosG

I think you should aim for something different, in fact. Bolder. Do not forget that you will have to fight among a fierce crowd of other SF space combat games that either:
- follow the now typical no-risk trend of squarish designs
- use procedural methods to make ships (limit theory)
- keep very basic designs but add tons of meaningless details to make up for the total lack of imagination (yes, elite dangerous, I mean you)
- simply transform ships into spaceships (wing commander carrier)
... all those approaches show serious limitations, and make for very forgettable ships (limit theory could surprise us though, I mean, look at Shipwright, the module for shapeways).

Why not stand out ? Why not pose some constraints, some architectural or technological characteristics that will be used to build around some original-looking ships ? I mean, Chriss Foss was used for Homeworld to great effect, but now everything looks like a bloody F-117 Night Hawk!

Design boldly where no human has designed before !
(and now, my coffee...)

Like the #1, then the #2, then the #5. The first two have geometry complex enough to get away with a simple texture, but the last 3 will need a kind of camo pattern (like ww2 US/ UK navy) to enrich the rather dull lines.
The way I see it, #3 has weapons that can recess into the hull, #4 could do with even more 'modules' or hull parts arranged vertically and #5 could do with a clearer bow/ stern differentiation. #1 might have trouble with weapon arcs.
Perhaps more use of asymmetry ?
Some heat radiators ? (like in #1)

Nice use of slanted hull faces to catch the lighting. Very nice designs !

Will factions differ a lot in design, or will they be human-square centric like those designs ?

you damn renegade, you thought of everything :)

Are you going to use some kind of formations in the game ?

we have the same issue in our game, although we haven't that many ships around: the programmer our our projects says that the turrets are the main CPU hogs :)

An idea: perhaps you can group turrets' targeting, tracking and stuff with a fire director station thing.
See, on ww1-ww2 ships, there were 1-2 fire control stations that took care of groups of turrets: they did the range, movement (etc) calculations and then fed the coordinates to the turrets. Why don't you do the same ? At long range, the angles delta should be minimal, and perhaps you can save some CPU.
Fire directors can also act as filter or priority setters.

Ditching turrets will complicate movement I am afraid: you will then have to mix absolute movement, targeting, cooldown time etc... (how do I prioritize firing/ targeting over pure movement?)... With turrets you can both move AND fire.

creepy is good ;] Thanks a lot nanoelite !

thanks Vaktezraj !

The issue is solved: instead of reaching the space station, the heavy asteroid haulers evade the pirate attacks by colliding one with another <sigh>.

In space, nobody can see you drink (or drive)...

Thank you Nanoelite,
In Ceres you are able to modify, customize your ship thoroughly but their basic architecture remains the same -ship modules are internal. The model of the ship also remains the same, although of course you will see changes in the weapons installed. Visible changes include different scanner and engine effects at this stage, but there might be more later.
We are planning to add several variants of each ship, so after each refit, you will be able to choose a slightly different look/design of ship that you feel reflects the changes you made.

I have trouble looking at your site. Will try again tomorrow

take care,
Pavlos