The "Battleship Bridges Problem" (and Hello)

Hello, new here, been following development for a short time, nice to meet you .


I was just watching the last livestream and the topic of playability vs realism came up, with Jon citing the need for ships to have bridges in order to read well, despite the fact that the ships are robots and wouldn't realistically need them.
I thought the problem was interesting and, being an artsy person, decided to see if I could come up with a compromise/solution.
Here is the result:



In this case, what appears to be a bridge is basically the robot's "head" (with little yellow eyes); the whole ship is a mech with a boat-shaped body. The head is placed on a turret so that the whole bridge area can swivel to "look at" whatever you tell the unit to target. When idle, the ship might look around lazily, or turn to watch passing ships.
The practical upshot of all this is that the unit is recognizably ship-like, yet also possesses a bot's appearance and mannerisms.
The particulars of the design can vary however you want, but the goal was to create something that looks like a generic bridge at first glance, but better respects the lore upon closer inspection.

Anyway, figured I'd pitch in my two cents.
Discuss.

It definitely looks neat. It would be neat to see too

It needs moar turrets, but yeah, it looks really good. Looks both like a robot and a ship.

That's wicked cool.

We will be one step closer to a transformers PA mod!

That is one hell of an illustration. Good job.

It looks fantastic, but i can't help but feel a ship with a head would wind up a touch silly... Perhaps something a bit more cylon, but then all the best parts of your design fall off. I just think it needs a legitimate reason to turn with the turrets beyond looking.

I like the drawing, but I don't think there should be either optics or radar. (Why would you put them on a turret so large? Optics and radar are light, but them on little swivels.)

Also, I have a few ideas to take up more spawn on the ship's deck:
-small-scale power generators (Makes sense that the battleship has its own power supply)
-Ammunition storage
-Telemetry/ballistics calculation devices
-smaller guns/AA guns

That is one awesome picture. Do some more based off of more suggestions. I don't have any ideas that make sense :ugeek:

Exhaust ports. Sure they won't be venting petrol fumes or anything, but it'd look appropriate.

I'd hand-wave and say "exhaust ports for dumping waste heat" but it's a boat... it's in a giant pool of coolant. ;p

I wasn't considering turrets or anything because the goal was just to design a bridge-thingy.

It is a bit silly, and that's mostly intentional. A cartoonishly grandiose game like this should be at least a little tongue-in-cheek. Even if the bridge area doesn't rotate, the overall effect is the same.
I did actually consider giving it a scanning Cylon eye, but figured that would be a little too obvious. Maybe a small dot eye like on some of the commanders would work nicely.

Obviously a cooling tower for the nuclear reactor that powers it.... That said, I hope they go with a more elegant solution.

I like the idea, even as is, but maybe try a version where instead of the entire "head" turning you could try something along the lines of the Cameras mounted on the Nose of Apache Helicopters?

Mike

Replace the left "grill" with two barrels and the entire ship would look sweet. Then maybe AA guns or a depth charge launcher at the front.

I love the idea. What a great way to make ships have a whole bunch of personality!

This!

P.S. Speaking of Transformers, the ship's head has a Shockwave thing going on there... Hm.

Idea is great could solve the readability vs we dont need bridges thing.

Sweet way to reconcile a gameplay consideration with the game's lore. Good job!

I hereby voice my support!

One the best unit designs in the entire forum.

Uber should offer you a job.

Have you got time to make a second run and make it look a little more PA, bit more yellow and stuff?

Can't see the picture, anyone kind enough to mirror?

Cheers.