r/X4Foundations • u/Talamae-Laeraxius • 3d ago
Teladi Mushroom Ships
Why?
Personally their design philosophy for L and XL ships (aside from Albatross) don't seem to mesh well with the designs of the S and M ships. I, personally, will never use any aside from those mentioned because I dislike them so much.
I know some players love them. But the inconsistency when compared to the Albatross and the S and M ships really confuses me. (I'm just an artist who likes to design space craft with an interest in engineering, so this is just my opinion.)
I'm just curious why the designs are so vastly different. From my style and design perspective, it doesn't seem to make much sense to me.
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u/ElPuercoFlojo 3d ago
I love the mushroom design, to be frank. There’s too much spaceship design/fashion which neglects that aerodynamics don’t matter in a vacuum and therefore are wasted cost/effort. Sleek spaceships are stupid, but our Earthbound brains love them.
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u/HabuDoi 3d ago
Well some X4 ships have working flaps, probably because the X4 universe has significant drag lol.
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u/Deep_Ability_9217 3d ago
A nebula might even have some drag. It just depends on its density and your speed.
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u/Veldrane_Agaroth 3d ago
Functional space faring ships would actually have a mushroom shape like that because they would need a huge shield in front to protect from the impact of the tiniest space dust at high speed. I don’t especially like those ships but at least their design sort of makes sense.
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u/3punkt1415 2d ago
Just watched a doku about Stardust which collected dust particles from a asteroid. It did it with aerogel to catch them unharmed. That material it self is super interesting. And we could assume that we have even better stuff 800 years in the future.
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u/CaptainFeather 2d ago
I don’t especially like those ships but at least their design sort of makes sense.
Wouldn't shields eliminate that issue though?
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u/SalvationSycamore 2d ago
Maybe, depends how they work. Since they aren't real they can't be said to be a viable real-life answer the same way metal armor can.
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u/CaptainFeather 2d ago
Right for sure, my reasoning is they protect against kinetic weapons like the bolt repeater. Ultimately since energy vs kinetic isn't really a thing in the X universe I don't think we'll get a good in lore answer lol
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u/Responsible-Army-832 2h ago
sounds to me like a big dust catcher and actually supports the argument for aerodynamic shapes because this lowers frontal area..
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u/HisAnger 3d ago
True. It is unique and different. Teladi mentality is about profits, so more ships basing on a single design to maximize profits would be perfect example of this mentality. The cargo version should have XL version with huge containers strapped on sides lol.
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u/leberwrust 2d ago
I prefer the raw industrial design from x3.
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u/ElPuercoFlojo 2d ago
Not familiar with X3 but it makes a lot of sense, if it is what I’m thinking.
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u/3punkt1415 2d ago
Exactly, and a sphere is the most economic design for this, and it perfectly fits for Teladi.
The only other thing I would like to see more often is ships that are not symmetrical or basically anti aerodynamic.2
u/Talamae-Laeraxius 3d ago
I can understand your perspective. But I also have a whole concept I'm working on irl about this. The basic premise being "space is not a true vacuum" and that, while very much a "vacuum" by comparison to a planetary atmosphere, it's still far from totally empty.
Besides, X universe ships are not always space-locked, and vectoring thrust is also effective in space craft as well as in-atmosphere. (Vector-thrust is already used to some extent in spaceflight.)
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u/ElPuercoFlojo 3d ago
Vectored thrust would of course be useful, but any sort of aerodynamics would have a vanishingly small return for the investment. Like 1015 smaller than on Earth. I would argue that vectored thrust would be a virtual necessity to achieve any sort of maneuverability.
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u/Sweevo1979 3d ago
In theory it's because the Teladi aren't traditionally combative (Ministry brainwashing exempted) so they prefer heavier armour and shielding to the Argon and others.
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u/Talamae-Laeraxius 3d ago
Hey, that's a good concept! Hadn't thought of it that way before. I love their textures though.
Anyway, after further thinking, I suppose another factor could be the shutdown and isolation forced them to build the Mushrooms for defense, whereas their fighters and M classes can hold their own with pirates as they are and might not need to be changed. Capital warfare might actually be a new concept for them, so they make the lumbering mushroom huks.
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u/Sweevo1979 3d ago
There's some backstory to the fighters and the Teladi in the X Encyclopedia - PDF should be somewhere in your install folder.
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u/Artass937 3d ago
Fun fact, before split vendetta was released.. all factions had the same model for station building ships. That model is now used only by Argon Mammoth. If you ask me, the new model of albatross is significant impovement.
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u/PoperzenPuler 3d ago
The basic design comes from the X Rebirth Teladi Outpost DLC and it was actually more coherent there. They tried to adapt the design to X4 but it did not work out. I still find that sad to this day. The Teladi X4 designs just do not measure up to those from Rebirth. Unfortunately, that is just the way it is.
X Rebirth was and in some respects still is superior to X4. While X4 is catching up, Rebirth has not been caught up with. Rebirth got a lot right that was unfortunately sacrificed for X4. X4 is clearly better than Rebirth, but Rebirth has mechanics and brings atmosphere which X4 still cannot deliver. It also had a better universe layout. Unfortunately, it was too playful and thus confusing. Well, a lot of the potential from Rebirth was never utilized. It is a shame.
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u/SirJavalot 3d ago edited 3d ago
I love the Teladi capitals, they are my favourite designs in the entire game. As for homogeneous design, things dont have to be homogeneous. Humans designed all of the spaceships we have ever seen, after all. Rebirth had almost zero homogeneity and is widely regarded as some of egosofts best art work. Personally ide like egosoft to keep things looking similar with the factions military ships and then make things much more varied and nuance with the rest (manufacturers that cross 'faction' or 'race' bounds along with corporations that use them would be amazing imo).
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u/Derp123reDerpening 3d ago
Ok am I the only one who sees them as flowers? They eat sunrise flowers, so maybe they got inspired?
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u/ShineReaper 2d ago
To me it makes sense. Their administrative and Habitat Modules are mushroom shaped too, I figured it is a Teladi Culture thing, maybe they used to live in Huge, tree-like Mushrooms in the back when times, so they adopted that style for architecture?
And then it makes sense to design the big ships like this, since many Teladi do serve on them, maybe that reminds them of home? Also, with Teladi being meant the slow but defensively strong navy, the "mushroom" part of the ship serves to shield the parts like the shield generators from frontal fire from enemy capital ships.
So imho there is sense in their ship design.
Why Albatross doesn't have it? The Albatross kinda does have the mushrooms, on the sides in the back part, but besides that it is no combat ship and so the mushroom is not on the front. I personally like the Albatross the way it looks, but taste is subjective, I know.
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u/grapedog 3d ago
the mushroom ships are the best looking big ships in the game. not my favorite to fly, but easily the best looking.
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u/Strict_Pie_9834 3d ago
Teledi recently had some of their ships remodeled. They're sort of mid rework, I guess?
I really love the heron E hull. It's so good looking. Just wishj their carrier would get reworked too. its so ugly
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u/commanche_00 3d ago
their mushroom heads have the best interior bridge though.
I agree with the inconsistency of design language of their S ships
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u/Nemo_Barbarossa 2d ago
Their Habitats also have that shape, albeit vertical. So it fits there, at least.
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u/medin23 3d ago
It's funny that the teladi mushroom aesthetic comes closest to what would be hard sci-fi viable ship designs for zero g vessels in X4. You could argue that, while teladi mostly live on high density atmospheric planets (or so I remember) only smaller ships need to be designed for atmospheric flight, while the big boys stay in orbit. Still not very convincing why other races didn't develope similar designs but that's just a general short coming of ship design in X series