Designing Lex’s ship
“Countless industries have arisen from the cataclysm’s wake. Chief among them is Recollection, a galaxy-spanning trade of dat crystals extracted from the matterium wastes.
Dropstriders became the backbone of this work. Modular and rugged, they unfold into towering walkers that can navigate shattered terrain where standard craft fail. When the signal bleeds shift, a Dropstrider can collapse its legs, lift off, and pursue fresh veins, even off-world.”
Overview
Every great sci-fi character needs a great ship. I’ve been thinking about Lex’s ship since the very beginning. The earliest versions being a sort of space RV. Another early version was a variation of what I’m working on today, a tower-like ship that converts into a quadruped walker when on land. For a while now I’ve imagine these quad-walkers to be the standard mining vessel for Recollectors, miners who extract valuable data from the matterium wastes.
Sort of inspired by my own habits, and by the nature of him being a vtuber, I imagine Lex spending a majority of his time in the ship. I really like the idea of him toggling between gaming and working, getting distracted by one while doing the other.
Inspirations
A bit of the design comes from Slave 1, or Boba Fett’s starship. The taller, slender shape. (This was initially unintentional, I only realized it after showing it to a few friends. Figures, though. He is my favorite character.) I’ve also starting to pull in references for construction vehicles and excavators, since it’s a mining ship.
Other than that, a bunch of stuff on pinterest gets grabbed and put into my Pureref file. Here’s a look at those!
Considerations
Scale is very important here. I want it to be large enough to be somewhat imposing and difficult to maneuver but I also don’t want it to be unmanageable for a single pilot. I’m also thinking about the interior, the scale of the rooms, and the shot placement. It should feel like a small NYC apartment. Somewhere between a semi-truck cabin and a yacht.
Lastly, I’m considering what kinds of stream segments It could facilitate and how I’d implement them. For example, where could I place turrets for a wave defense event? Where viewers send ships after Lex and I have to fight them off in real time.
The latest design removes the front window, which I kinda like. While the window gives the ship a "face," it would appear too wide compared to Lex when considering scale and interior shots. Going windowless would allow for Titanfall-style screens, which complement the concept of Lex playing games while working.
Of all the iterations I've created over the years, this one feels the most promising.
What do you think of it so far?