It was mentioned on INN by Lando recently that the Caterpillar will be somewhat of a benchmark for Drake ships as far as design and looks go. From your perspective, could you expand on that more and how it will affect the Buccaneer, Dragonfly, Herald and Cutlass? How could you see the designs changing based on what you've done with the Caterpillar? I know it is hard to live up to everyone's expectations, but without teasing too much, how excited should we be about what is coming to the rest of the Drake line?asked by Wolf_Frakken

You should be very excited for what's coming for the rest of the Drake line! And it is incredibly hard to live up to any expectations for the quality bar for these ships! But it is true that the Caterpillar is going to be sort of the first, I guess the flagship, ship for Drake. I know we have the Cutlass already out there, and that was one was developed with techniques that we've improved on since they were created.So we will have to go back and sort of upgrade those to the quality of the new ships. So we're trying to hit the bar of essentially what the Retaliator is. So the Retaliator has the latest and greatest technology built into it and I think the Gladius does as well and the Gladiator might have most of that in there.So we have a lot of ships that are already starting to set an example for the kind of quality bar that we want to go for, and also the techniques that we're using for various reasons. Damage, variety. Making sure that we keep our texture resolution high enough requires us to build our ships in a certain specific way. So ships like the Cutlass were not developed that way.

Correct.

And so it will have to get an upgrade. Now the Caterpillar is sort of the shp that we are pushing for to define the look of what Drake is. So when we're done with that one we will end up having to reuse some of the textures that we developed for it, some of the shape language, maybe even some assets.Whatever makes it easier for us to develop the future ships. Then apply that to the Cutlass, do the same thing with the Herald, do the same thing with the Dragonfly, and the Buccaneer. Ok I wasn't sure those names were public! So you should expect that the lineup for Drake will look a family of ships.So if I look at a Dragonfly I should immediately say "Hey that's a Drake ship!" For this and that and that reason. So we're definitely trying to unify the looks with something we've been working on. All of the manufacturers you should be able to see this now between the Starfarer and the Freelancer. The UK team did a really great job unifying those two ships. They look like they're exactly from the same family. The Reliant also because it used a lot of assets that were involved in the UK. So we're trying to do the same thing with Drake and the Caterpillar is the first one online.

Yeah. And then as Elwin was saying as we build more ships based on our Style Guides you'll see a more cohesive look come together. 'Cause the more pieces you have from things you remade you end up getting a giant library based on these pieces and design aesthetics. So it's easier for existing artists, new artists to just come in pick up, go "Oh that's what that manufacturer looks like". Based on existing ships versus the hardest part is coming up with it. You've got all these different manufacturers and each one needs to have a unique aesthetic.

Yeah, yeah, cool.