Mass Effect Ship Concept Art
Frigates are light escort and scouting vessels. They often have extensive systems to provide anti-fighter screening for capital ships, and carry a squad of marines for security and groundside duty. Unlike larger vessels, frigates are able to land on.The most important role filled by frigates is reconnaissance., unlike ships and communications employing the mass effect, are limited to the speed of light. Subsequently, a stationary observer can only detect a vessel one light-year away when its light arrives at the observer's location, one year after leaving said vessel.Because faster-than-light attackers always arrive before defenders can detect them with luminal sensors, attackers can always surprise defenders. For defense, fleets surround themselves with spheres of scouting frigates scanning for enemy ships and transmitting warnings to the main body.Frigates achieve high cruise speeds because of their high-performance drives. They also have proportionally larger thrusters and lighter design mass, allowing them greater maneuverability. In combat, speed and maneuverability make frigates immune to long-range fire of larger vessels.In fleet combat, frigates are organized into 'wolf pack' flotillas of four to six.
Wolf packs speed through enemy formations, hunting enemy vessels whose have been taken down by fighter-launched. The wolf pack circle-strafes vulnerable targets, using their superior speed and maneuverability to evade return fire.Cruisers. Cruisers are middle-weight combatants, faster than dreadnoughts, and more heavily-armed than frigates. Cruisers are the standard patrol unit, and often lead frigate flotillas. Cruisers cannot land on medium or high-gravity worlds, but do possess the ability to land on low-gravity planets.Cruiser-weight starships are the standard combat unit encountered away from large naval bases, the 'poor bloody infantry' of most fleets.
Nimble scouting frigates have neither the punch nor the stamina to stand up to serious combat, and the mighty dreadnoughts are a strategic resource, carefully hoarded and committed to the most critical battles.Cruisers perform routine independent 'show the flag' patrols in settled systems and lead flotillas of frigates in small engagements, such as pirate suppression campaigns. In major fleet engagements, cruiser squadrons support the dreadnought battle line by screening their flanks against enemies attempting to maneuver for a main gun 'bow shot' from their vulnerable broadsides.CarriersCarriers are dreadnought-sized vessels that carry a large number of fighters. All races provide their fleets with organic fighter support. Cruisers fit a handful in the space between the interior pressure hulls and exterior armor. Dreadnoughts have a hangar deck within the hull. Humans – who had only recently 'graduated' from surface to space combat – were the first to build ships wielding fighters as the main armament.In fleet combat, carriers stay clear of battle, launching fighters bearing disruptor torpedoes.
The art of Mass Effect Universe is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Mass-Effect-Universe/dp//ref=aslisstl?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=15106047. The model you get on the rack after purchasing it in Mass Effect 2 isn't actually a UT-47. It matches the concept of a 'human heavy cruiser' from The Art of Mass Effect art book and is identified as an 'Alliance Shuttle' in Mass Effect 3.
Fighters are the primary striking power of the ship; if a carrier enters mass accelerator range of the enemy, things have gone very wrong.It is possible to recover and rearm fighters during combat, though most carriers seal the flight deck and try to stay out of the way. The flight deck is essentially a corridor through the armor and into the heart of the vessel. A single well-placed torpedo is enough to gut a carrier.Dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts are kilometer-long capital ships mounting heavy, long-range firepower. They are only deployed for the most vital missions. A dreadnought's power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts range from 800 meters to one kilometer long, with a main gun of commensurate length.
Mass Effect Ship Concept Art Projects
An 800-meter mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one twenty-kilogram slug to a velocity of 4025 km/s (1.3% the speed of light) every two seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of about 38 of TNT, about two and a half times the energy released by the fission weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.The stipulates the amount of dreadnoughts a navy may own, with the peacekeeping fleet being allowed the most. As of 2183, the turians had 37 dreadnoughts, the asari had 21, the had 16, and the Alliance had 6 with another under construction.
As of 2185, the dreadnought count was 39 turian, 20 asari, 16 salarian, and 8 human. By 2186, humans construct a ninth dreadnought, and the volus have built a of their own. The, unbound by the treaty, possess almost as many dreadnoughts as the turians. In preparation for the retaking of their homeworld, the fitted their with dreadnought cannons, effectively making them dreadnought-class vessels though with much weaker armor. The batarians are stated to possess dreadnoughts, but the exact number is unknown.Dreadnoughts are so large that it is impossible to safely land them on a planet, and must their drive cores into the magnetic field of a planet while in orbit. The decks of large vessels are arranged perpendicular to the ship's axis of thrust, so that the 'top' decks are towards the front of the ship and the 'bottom' decks are towards the rear of the ship.Small Military Vessels Combat Support Craft.
WrexMatt Rhodes: Heres a version of Wrex on his throne that was never released. It was drawn to help give the level artists a starting point. Human ReaperMatt Rhodes: The Collector ship and the Human-Reaper both took a very long time to design. This biggest challenge was communicating the immense scale. These concepts were all part of the long discussion about scale, but also how abstracted the Human-Reaper would be.
Early experiments leant more towards a fetus, others towards adult skeletal and muscular systems. Human ReaperMatt Rhodes: This one in particular was far too literal. I include it because the human-tube has been a long running and terrible joke between a few friends. Just imagine the deafening squeak of a thousand asses rubbing on glass.
ShadowbrokerMatt Rhodes: Early passes at the Shadowbroker. ShadowbrokerMatt Rhodes: This one is my personal favorite. I kind of wish wed gone this direction, even though admittedly it's a bit more boring that the final version.
This was a response to the description Hes basically Ares, in space. EdiMatt Rhodes: Edi went through a lot of quick, early iterations. When you know a character is going to be a particular challenge it can help to explore a lot of territory quickly and early. We tried: Plastic-skin, with and without glowy-bits.See more iterations of Edi on. EdiMatt Rhodes: I still find that concepting major characters in T-pose (or just standing there) to be challenging.
Mass Effect Ship Concept Art Gallery
When I feel stuck, it helps to put them in context. This image explores Edi being more literally connected to the Normandy. Reaper dronesMatt Rhodes: These were early Reaper drone concepts that remain my favorites to this day ProtheansMatt Rhodes: Protheans were interesting. At first I was trying to design a creature that could conceivably be (if you squint your eyes) the genetic root of all the alien races in our galaxy (yes yes, just like that TNG episode). I was trying to stay as close to their original appearance in ME1 as I could (which had been kept intentionally vague for just this reason). That didnt last long though. FinaleMatt Rhodes: Okay, admittedly, Ive kept these drawings far away from the internet for a while.
Thats because theyre connected to controversy in one way or another. Please take them as they are: drawings done during development, posted for interests sake. Ive been asked to comment on these subjects in the past but will continue to let the work speak for itself.These were some of the first images drawn for the finale level. The original thought was to create a serene space in the middle of a pitched battle.
I thought it would be interesting to create this golden lotus flower out of panels and protective foil.