Friday, June 13, 2008

Oh dear! What happened to the Helios?

Earlier today while running a few missions in Khanid, I was chatting with some mates on The Drone Bay channel - which you should all join by the way! - when all of sudden, my good friend Madok Ironfist cries out in desperation "What have they done to the Helios!".

Now now, what was this? One of the reasons that my main is a Gallente is that I prefer the look of their ships - besides the Amarri of course! So when I heard that the Helios had been overhauled, I felt concerned. After a bit of research Madok had emailed me the two screenshots below. Low and behold, the Helios had been tampered with! I don't know about you, but the new look, hints at a Caldari influence. That wing sticking out is very reminiscent of the look and feel that a lot of Caldari ships have, or Caldari stations for that matter.

I'm on Madok's side on this one! This is a downgraded look for a ship that looked amazing and reminded somehow of Boba Fett's Slave I ship. Don't ask!





Old

New

What's your take on it? The new or the old?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree, there is stronger symmetry in the old version. I prefer Gallente designs myself (even though they can get REALLY bulbous), and this one-armed bandit theme isn't so much an improvement.

That said, the lighting and general texture/model upgrade is sweet looking.

Anonymous said...

Cov-ops frigates have been changed to be a little studier. Across the race's the astrometrics frigates have been changed and the cov-ops is a t2 astrometrics had to change with them. Gallente had an edge for a while having the cov-op based on a frigate that was combat worthy. Now it's balanced and you get the Imicus platform. Enjoy

Anonymous said...

I've never flown a Helios before but I have to say that I like the old model a lot more. The new one reminds me of the Imicus mining frigate. Although, that said, I haven't seen an Imicus since I first started playing a couple years ago so maybe it's changed since then.

Anonymous said...

I really wish developers would stop doing things like this, changing items already in the game that players have earned and become attached to, for benefits or appearance.

I never got the skill or need to fly a CovOps, but the Helios was my favorite due to it looking like Slave I as well, I even bought several for the heck of it.

For them to change the ship model to the Imicus after years of that ship and model being in the game, to a crappy frigate.. is reprehensible. It simply isn't fair to players who loved the old ship style.

It's bad enough you've still got some of us recovering from the last graphics update that ruined a fair number of great looking ships as well..

Anonymous said...

They munged up the Cheetah as well. It used to be based on the Vigil body-type but now it takes -- from all things -- the Probe.

Poor choice, IMHO.

Anonymous said...

Boooo, the Imicus hull is the ugliest Gallente frigate design, if they had to change the hull model, why not try the Tristan hull or something?

Anonymous said...

I remember reading about this in the patch notes, thought it was an odd one.

The Anathema has had its model changed. It will now use the Magnate hull instead of the Crucifer hull.
The Helios has had its model changed. It will now use the Imicus hull instead of the Maulus hull.
The Cheetah has had its model changed. It will now use the Probe hull instead of the Vigil Hull.

Looks like they wanted all of the covert ops ships to resemble their T1 astrometrics bonus hulls (like the unchanged buzzard). Electronic Attack Ships use the T1 EW hulls (Keres is the T2 imicus). This way most T1 frigates now have an easily recognisable T2 counterpart.

I still prefer the imicus model though :)

CrazyKinux said...

Thanks for the information re: the patch notes. I guess though the reasoning makes sense the results of those changes though wasn't too pleasing to some of us!

CK

Anonymous said...

Aye, and while the change doesn't directly affect me I agree wholeheartedly with Scott on this one. People have spent time and isk to train for and purchase these ships. It's a kick in the teeth for those of us who care about and grow attatched to the aesthetics of our ships.

Also, I see Anonymous already explained the T2 astrometics reasoning. Don't know how I missed that.

Apologies if these comments are coming through multiple times, I'm attempting to post from a very temperamental computer.

Carole Pivarnik said...

I don't like my "new" Cheetah nor my alt's "new" Helios. But then, I didn't care all that much for the old designs either. While I realize Minmatar ship designers in particular would be quite challenged to make it so, I wish cov ops ships looked a whole lot sexier and sleeker than they currently do. The Gallente...they could do that. Already seem to have that "sexy" them happening in their ships.