Coolest Armadas

which Space RTS has the best lookin' ships?

By N3rull on April 16, 2009 7:21:51 AM from

Hi,

Just wanted to ask - which Space game (RTS, maybe other?), in your opinion, had the coolest ship designs? The ones that really caught your eye most.

My all time favourite is the Hiigaran fleet from Homeworld2. It was made of monolithic and well designed ships that were clearly made for war, but not to show off. They had no fancy gadgets, no unnecessary additions, but they still looked like they meant business.
Sins also feature quite a few nice looking ships, the coolest being the Skirantra (it has some fancy claws and beastly designs, but it works well for it). The Marauder and Enforcer also look very nice in my opinion. Assailant and the Vasari carrier cruiser, on the other hand, look plain funny .

What are your favourites among PC gamers' space tools of destruction?

+40 Karma | 20 Replies

The Star Destroyers and Super Star Destroyers from Star Wars are pretty cool. They have this elegant and simple deadliness to their design.

The Bird of Prey from Star Trek looks cool to.

In Sins, I think that the Radiance, Illuminator, Disciple, Kol, Desolator and Kortul have nice designs.

I really like Advent and Vasari fighers as well. They look much better then the old versions.

The GVD Hatshepsut from Freespace 2 still stands out for me. Most of the ships in that series have been well designed, especially the capitals. SJ Sathanas with its claw is pretty iconic, as well.

Made me think of Homeworld as well, but for me it's the Kadeshians with their massive short-range fighter swarms and giant carrier. Really interesting aesthetic.

Agree with JuleTron, I think the bird of prey is great. Kinda a fan of some of the B5 ships - human and Narn. Thing is the human one is that style we've seen in a few formats in different places.

My favourite ship graphic ever is from a game is the Stiletto from Nexus the Jupiter Incident. The starting ship. I'll honestly say I was rather gutted when you got the uber ship the angel to do the rest in =P

Eve has some beautiful ship designs. Visually love the Cormorant and Ferox of the Caldari. Cruiser wise the Amarr Arbitrator and Omen look great and so does the Galente Thorax. Frigate wise galente Atron and the Minmatar Burst look good. I used to really like the old version of the Probe - but not keen on the new one. I'd honestly like to say the rifter hull I also like... but to be honest I don't know if it was the ship's abilities round about castor I like rather than the model if I'm really honest. Indy wise - its the Minmatar one - the train like one with the Wreathe - but I've never seen the new model of it.

My Favorite fleet from Homeworld was the Turanic Raiders. Their ships just looked crude, and anceint. It gave them a rather cool appeal. The other fleet that i like was the Taiidan. I found homeworld 2 very disappointing compared to its orignal sure it was nice having fighters auto grouped as squadrons but many of the stratgies involved seemed a bit simpler than those in the original and the stripping of all the other cool races which where in the first one really irrated me. All together homeworld 2 was great looking but was a bit of a let down, it felt like it sort of lost part of its soul(or perhaps I'm just being ignorant).

Another fleet I REALLY like was the Shivans from Freespace were awesome especially those Juggernaughts and the Astaroths( those thinks were almost impossible to hit) . Come to think of it when i pass my exams I think i'm going to lock myself in my room for a few days and hammer my way though Freespace again. Anyone know if Freespace 2:OS works on vista 64?

I really did enjoy aesthetics of the Hiigaran fleet from Homeworld 2.

The Super Star Destroyers from Star Wars seemed near mythic to me.

The Kol and The Radiance have excellent designs that just don't seem to get old.

But my favorite fleets were from the Halo universe. I loved the Covenant. They had that sexy, elegant, smooth look to them, but they could really kick ass. The UNSC ships had that blocky human look to them. Even their weapons had that human feel: Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, missiles, nukes, mines.

elegance: the Mon Calamari battleships from Star Wars

everything else: I love the Alteran ships from Stargate Atlantis. their ships say "Don't like how our ship looks? then come into weapons range"

their "blocky" yet almost smooth ships are awesome. it's like Our ships kick ass and we don't care how they look, as long as they are the biggest, baddest, most bad-ass thing on the block.
Aurora: is there anything more bad-ass?

The ships in X3 Terran Conflict look pretty cool.

the original Wing Commander carrier Tigers Claw. When I was 10 there was nothing better in life than to see the Claw when my little fighter was a bumb away from being space junk.

then seeing the whole fleet sortie (which was the Claw, a destoryer or two, a corvett and maybe a few supply ships) was simply unreal to me.

the armada that struck the most fear into me, was in StarTrek Armada. My wife loved to play Borg and she would bring in a hundred cubes at a time at the end of long games. it was insane and sad to see everything i had build up join the collective in a matter of moments.

The Naboo starfighter from Star Wars: Episode I. They have this sleek, simple design, yet they look like they could kick anyone's ass in a dogfight, and that yellow paint job says, "Now you see me, now you die!"

Spiecies 8472's ships from Star Trek: Voyager. The smooth, curzy shapes look badass without much fancy designs, ans the colors~mottled rust-brown and forrest green~make them look like they're made of natural materials, not metal.

The Wraith hive-ships from Stargate Atlanis. Huge and evil-looking.

I would have to say because I am trek fan it would have to the be the Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E plus the nebula class ships

Imperial- and Super- class star destroyers are wonderful looking, IMO. Huge fan of the Galaxy-class starship. But my favorite of all is the Romulan Warbird, the big one from TNG. My like for Romulan ship design causes me to favor the Vasari in this game.

Quoting GeneralEtrius,

reply 8

The ships in X3 Terran Conflict look pretty cool.

Yay fellow X3 fan.I agree that that the X3 universe ships look awesome, especially the nice shiny Paranid capital ships.

If we are including mods in addition to base games then I would have to say the ships from the Macross:Do You Remember Love? Mod for Homeworld also look great.

Yay fellow X3 fan.I agree that that the X3 universe ships look awesome, especially the nice shiny Paranid capital ships.

There are a lot of X fans on Stardocks forums. I dont like the stark white Terran ships, but I do like the dark grey Terran Military warships. The Argon ships also look great.

halcyon, with full detail-bump-extras-bloom-highlight

It might not count but the one I like the most is the Normandy from Mass Effect!

My favorite ship is the Ancient Warship Aurora from Stargate Atlantis it looks so authentic and futureistic. In the Stargate Races Mod they made one and i think that it looks awsome but the one on the show looks even cooler. I also like the one in the mod from Star Trek Armada.

I thought the Romulan/Reman ship from startrek nemesis looked pretty awesome. To be honest, some of the coolest ships were made in Galactic Civilizations 2. I've made a few myself that, when I was done, I was blown away by how cool they looked.

Laggy double post...

Chalk up another fan of the Imperial Fleet in Star Wars, and both the Klingon & Romulan fleets in Star Trek.

The Empire's Star Destroyers (again, in particular the Imperials and Supers) are just truly badass and awe-inspiring. On the other hand, Klingon and Romulan vessls have this predatory aesthetic that makes them look very intimidating.

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Coolest Armadas

which Space RTS has the best lookin' ships?