runsforcelery wrote: The point about the size of the ships, especially for the first movie, is well taken, and one that I've raised with them myself. However, they are deeply committed to making this only the first of several Honorverse movies. Clearly, moving beyond the first film is going to require the initial movie to be a financial success, which is part of their thinking, but if we do make a second and/or third film, simple size will be a much weaker way to differentiate between individual ships. This is particularly true because Evergreen recognizes the distance scale on which Honorverse battles are fought and doesn't want to squeeze down to the kind of ridiculous pointblank ranges at which supposedly deep-space warships engage in all too many movies and television productions. This is part of what I mean when I say they want to do the movie right.
Hi David (and the rest of you all)
I have a few (like five-ish) comments on this; and as Honorcon is somewhat inconveniently located for a Dane, I will just have to contend myself with making them here:
1: HotQ: Great Choice!
As you yourself (and others) note OBS would be harder to transfer to film.
90 minutes is problematic even so, I hope extending to 2 hours (or more) is a possibility if it becomes a necessity; because I think it will.
2: Regarding early introduction of ”the intelligent Nimitz”, how about a scene similar to the swimmingpool & tennisballs scene from SVW (IIRC)? Shows he is a tool user and has a (particular ...) sense of humor. Have him use a lift (elevator for the Havenites, eh, Americans around here
) on his own a couple of times, and mission accomplished.
3: As for the religious aspects, a longer briefing in of Honor (maybe while in-route, from Courvoisier, so as not to make the beginning of the movie too boring) could both give more exposition to Courvoisier, and be used for such things as ”for some misguided reason chose to call their new world Masada”. Add a few ”compare and contrast” comments as to the number of denomenations are represented in a single of the Queen’s Cas; costs 1-2% of the screentime available.
4: On the ”onscreen size comparison” of ships, two scenes come to mind: when Honor is contemplating the convoy in-route out of a window (IIRC in a grav, wave, so we get to see the sails blazing), one could have one of the freighters pass behind the Apollo, while Honor’s comments to a mr. exposition slips in that they are medium-sized freighters.
Then later on, when the Greyson navy comes out to greet them, have one of their LACs or tincans pass in front of the Apollo (or the Star Knight).
Sidebar here: I hope we will also establish that there is no sound in space in the Honorverse. I am not expecting kubrickian use of silence thoughout, ... but just one scene of blaring alarms, screaming, and fogging air as a laser rod penetrates into a core hull (e.g.
Madrigal’s bridge), instant cut to the outside with a plume of air venting, while the missile tubes continue to fire _All In Utter Silence_. Please. I can go with visible beams for the sake of making the action visible, but not sound in vacuum.
5: Regarding differentiating the hulls:
AFAIK it is canon that:
Both RHN and RMN ships usually sport white hulls, but is it the same shade? Oh, the horror! Stuck with egg-shell ships!
Ecru or Bone white for the RHN.
(when ”running silent” switching to a mat black would be visually invocative.)
The RHN and the RMN display class, hull number, and name differently (and from the IAN).
RHN gundecks are all one type (except CM/PD decks), RMN gundecks are mixed.
RHN & RMN (& SLN) hammerheads are visibly distinguishable.*
CM launchers are the same size on all classes(sizes) of ships.
*: IIRC the models for SITS have hammerheads that are:
Pyramid-base frustrums on a square base for the RHN.
”round but with a slice taken off top and bottom” frustrums on ditto for the RMN.
So building on this canon and quasi-canon; the GSN (and the Masadan ships) should have distinguishable hammerheads, coloration, and weapons-deck layout, and all should use a different font for their hull number/name.
The Masadans may have opted for a vengeful Red or cleansing flame Yellow for their hull paint (not smartpaint in their case).
Similarly the GSN may have stayed traditionalist and chosen ocean gray, (not light grey, to stay noticeably darker than the RHN ”white”, and not haze gray as that is reserved for when the IAN is introduced), or they may have gone with dark blue.
GSN & Masadan hammerheads may have some distinctive shape too, e.g. hexagonal-base frustrums for one of them, dedocahedral for the other (the description of SLN hammerheads evokes octagonal-base frustrums to me for some reason, which would make that unavailable if others/tMWW agree with this perception).
Finally, if the Hull names and other identifiers are kept in a standardized size (across all navies and hull sizes, and in different fonts; all for the viewers convenience), then the lettering, as well as the size of the CM launchers, will clearly indicate how large a ship is:
If
Troubadour fills the entire length from bow hammerhead to beginning of the broadside, you are looking at a tincan. But if the text looks small, then
HMS Reliant is one big piece of metal.
Length of hull goes down by [8M-ton/80k-ton]^1/3 or a factor 4,64 between a DD and a SD, so it would still be legible, just a lot smaller, so this would work!
Additionally; if one absolutely have to have a blatant visual distinction between ships of different sizes, it would make sense for classes with armor to truncate the top and bottom more than ships without armor, as the usable (core + weapons deck) hull width would decrease as the decks approach the roof or floor, but the (horizontal) armor thichness must stay the same.
Lighter, basically unarmored, ships only have to pay for the skin of the hull, so they would include this volume; but heavier ships (SDs especially) might omit these decks to mitigate somewhat on the already inflated armor percentage.
(or they might not, just a for instance, for if it proves needful.)
Oh, and during the Blackbird-orbitals energy range engagement,
Breslau’s missile volley should be followed from launch to impact, with number of frames reflecting the real distance between the combattants, to give an impression of how long-ranged Honorverse ”close range” is.
That game ... not a first person shooter where you protray a Leveler? (Brair Rabbit asked with fear in his voice). Still Alive Bonus only if you capture the cabinet before Adm. McQueen inacts her appellative.
Hope you will forward what of this you find useful to the Evergreen team (dumping any chaff).
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