It’s Ugly, But Gets the Job Done

The Hermes shuttle is one of those fun little guys that never really got enough screen time. WC4 built practical sets for much of the shoot, including a full shuttle cockpit for the more commonly seen Confed box shuttle. So the poor Hermes gets short shrift. Nevertheless we do have some FMV sequences with it in the game, notably when you visit Telamon, but it pops up in a few other places including the demo. We used the Telamon shots as the primary reference, but there was also a nose-on promotional render which was used as well for some of the texture details.

Though there aren’t any official stats on the shuttle in the game documentation we’re estimating that it’s about 30 meters in length, has two laser turrets for defense, and can carry six marines and their gear plus two pilots.

The mesh itself is rigged and the turrets will respond to bad guys, as well as having the intakes spin and a few other bells and whistles. Further proof that even in games, there are no small parts, only small meshes.

Speaking of the demo…

Though the team hasn’t set an exact date yet for launching a playable demo, we are committed to having it ready for you in late 2021. From an art perspective we are about 60% complete on providing the ships and fighters needed for the demo. To give you an idea on what we have to create we have:

• Hellcat V
• Stormfire Pod
• BWS Intrepid
• Hermes Assault Shuttle
• Pirate Razor fighter
• Pirate Thunderbolt fighter
• Pirate Arrow fighter
• Pirate Frigate
• Confed Frigate
• Jump Buoy
• Skybox
• Planet mesh

That’s just the 3D assets. We also have to do additional passes on the particles and generally work on visual improvements overall. We look forward to publishing it when we can, and hope you enjoy playing it when it’s ready.