SFEOS is an open source game that is just starting out. The game developers are harnessing the power of the artist community here on Steem to communally create the art style of the game.
They have recently published this post where they ask for concept art based on this initial story fragment.
I thought I'd throw my hand in an idea for the Meritocracy spaceship. The story states that its architecture is inspired by fractals and that it doesn't look anything like what we imagine a 'traditional spaceship' would look like.
I thought of several ideas: a hollow asteroid (big enough for an entire civilization), a variation on a Dyson Sphere with an artificial sun held at its center using a gravity well, a TARDIS variation where the outside and inside dimensions differ.
I tried to remember other weird, fractal looking, ships. I remembered that in ST:TNG there was the crystalline entity, a fractal shape reminiscent of a neuron that was big enough to decimate entire planets. It definitely doesn't look anything like what we expect a 'traditional spaceship' to look like.
I thought I'd try to come up with something like that. Here's my initial idea as an entry for “ CONCEPT ART CONTEST for SFEOS game” by @ccomons.art.
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I thought of it like a diamond or flower with elongated petals drawing backwards. As if we took Sputnik and turned it into a polygon extrapolation of itself.
The ship travels through space by concentrating gravity ahead of it. It's the same principal as an electromagnetic train or a railgun - the concentrated gravity continually pulls the ship forward increasing its acceleration. It wouldn't be very maneuverable with this type of propulsion system, but for interplanetary travel, where speed is the key, it should do well enough.
I hope you like this concept and I'm looking forward to seeing what other artists come up with.