An Architect Reviews the Anvil Carrack [Star Citizen]

[Music] if you've ever dreamed of sailing the stars in discovering new worlds then star citizen's newest ship promises to deliver the perfect vessel to accommodate you on your mission [Music] hey guys I'm morphologist and welcome back to an architect reviews the series in which I utilize my skills in the field of architecture to examine something in the digital realm today I'm taking a look at the very much anticipated anvil Kerik and because of this anticipation it has taken some time for me to digest this ship properly to be able to convey to you my thoughts about both its exterior and interior for me I found it to be a mixed bag with both good and not-so-good moments so in this video I'm gonna take you from deck 1 all the way up to deck 4 top to bottom bottom to top and talk to you about its failures and successes and by the end hopefully you'll have learned a little bit more about architecture and design if you did any like what I do and you want to see more don't forget to hit that like subscribe and bell icon so you know the next time I post a video unlike other popular ships I've reviewed on this series the anvil Kerik is not a luxury travelling ship it's an exploration vessel and so it doesn't have the same requirements as those big luxury ships like the 600 i and 890 jump for that reason it makes a lot of sense that the way you get on and off the ship would be through the vehicle bay because you would have to use those vehicles to explore the sometimes very hostile environments that this vessel is built to go down and see this space is also really starting to show how evolved co G's design process has become not only have they comfortably sized it to fit up to two IRS's but they've also made a lift on the floor to stop you from blocking the access door which is a very smart thing to design in they've also carefully considered how you might traverse the decks on the ship should the power go out through this what I like to call Jefferies tube because I'm a Star Trek nerd but basically an access ladder that can bring you all the way up and down the ship say for deck 4 which we'll go into a little bit later in the video just pass the vehicle Bay is a sensibly placed airlock that brings us to the outside and how you'll likely enter the vessel in the future once station to ship and ship the ship docking becomes possible they've also smartly located number of Eevee a suit lockers in this airlock to allow for you to enter spaces that might not have any oxygen in them what I like best here though is the careful consideration of program adjacency in this case it's where you have the vertical circulation relative to the ingress point here are the elevator to take us up to the command deck is directly located next to both major ingress points the airlock to the station as well as the lift that takes us out unto the surface of a planet or in some cases the deck of a landing zone this is a programmatic understanding that unfortunately was not present in ships like the Starfarer which I need to review at some point still beyond that we find ourselves in one of the kerrick's three large detachable cargo ponds a place that rivals the size of even the caterpillar which are mostly metallic grey is highlighted by red and red lights which I find to be quite attractive and distinctive from the rest of the decks will find on the ship just beyond the three cargo pods we'll find ourselves in the armory and suit locker section of the ship I imagine this is where you might store your EBA suits that are armored as well as your complement of weapons or tools that you might utilize on your trips down to the surface of hostile planets the space down here is generously sized and I find that here near the turret area it might have just a little bit too much space they may have considered giving more space for storage somewhere on the ship but it's hard to know without having a 3d model Mac in the armory though is the lift that brings us up to the upper decks of the ship and our next stop deck to habitation it's completely exposed which i think is a little bit of a strange design choice I would imagine that this is not a place I'd like to be if the grab Jen goes down and I'm in here while we're doing maneuvers when I get stuck in between the elevator and the wall but it works and here we are deck to you habitation here we are on habitation where the crews gonna spend most of their time off-duty here things are a little bit different than on the sub deck the hard deck plating of sub deck one are replaced by soft pads on the wall here on deck 2 and the lining has also changed we also get a bit of a peek into the med bay which is one of the cooler parts of the Karakum what makes it such a great exploration vessel stepping through an emergency bulkhead though things completely change they're relatively cool blues and reds of the sub deck replaced here by warm colors which are more comfortable for living conditions as we've covered in earlier videos humans tend to prefer more sunlight type light sources in longer staid living conditions such as in the 3500 K range whereas brighter say 5000 K lights are more suited to working zones but first let's take a step into the sickbay because it's a pretty cool little design now you'll notice immediately that this actually has its own airlock which makes a lot of sense it would be good for doing something like bringing aboard somebody who may have become infected with some sort of new alien virus or if you'd like to bring a very special sample on board that you want to save study and examine but may be dangerous to the crew the design itself is very clinical and I think they've done a very good job of making it different than any other part of the ship it screams medbay without having to say it with large signs the centerpiece though and the most important part of the Med Bay is the medical bed that sits in the center and at the heart of the ship this makes sense because it is what's going to keep you alive out there in the verse just adjacent to it is the chief medical officers office and that is so cool to have aboard a ship in star citizen it's got a great view onto the medical bed for doing say examinations of possible contaminated crew members or people that you've encountered or alien species and then just across from that is the medical storage room which is where you're going to store all your samples and medicine to keep the crew alive on those long missions overall it's one of the better parts of the ship and I like how they even thought to change the height of the floor in the space it does perhaps suggest a hierarchy of importance of the Med Bay and the ship stepping back into the hallway I also encountered a bit of a strange design choice here with the exposed to lift this is the same small lift that we saw earlier down on the lower deck now the issue I have with it is that it's connected with no airlock between decks 3 & 2 which means that if it were to be decompressed at any point it would decompress both decks which is a design oversight difficult as it may have been I may have considered instead a way to create a door there so that it would be sealed moving on now to the mess hall it showcases a very interesting design choice on the part of CAG to create a split-level design where some of the decks are slightly lower slightly higher than other parts of the ship there may be an underlying need for this to have happened considering the amount of space on board but it may actually just be that that's the way they wanted the ship to look and I actually quite liked it more specifically though I really liked how they located windows directly across from one another here in this design enabling you to effectively see through the entire ship so width this has the effect of extending the space virtually without actually making them bigger and I think that's a good thing for a small vessel on long journeys to relieve that cabin fever syndrome you might get from being cooped up in one place for too long windows also visually connects the different programmatic elements of the ships so that you always can kind of see what's going on with the rest of the crew but also where you are in the verse being on an exploration vessel is about exploring and wanting to see the outside I imagine would be an important thing for those onboard we're now here across from the mess hall in the rec room though and this is where crew will kick back and relax again between shifts maybe play a bit of this very hard looking spaced pool just next to that and through this story you'll find the ship's head going through another hexagon shaped door you'll find these throughout the ship however there are some rectangular and even square doors which makes me wonder if they should have just thought of using the same sort of door throughout the ship and been more consistent now across from that door you'll find the racks for the crew and this comes equipped with five total now this does seem to be enough for the ship though it would be nice to have a few more just in case you wanted them there seems to be enough space to add at least one more rack but you can always hot rack with this and so it might not be too much of an issue you can especially like that they're using very light grays and whites here in the crew quarters to make the space feel bigger remember that dark colors compressed space visually and can make it feel less comfortable than it might otherwise feel I also like the selection of lighting in the bunks themselves their fall-off is limited enough to make them feel comfortable and not too bright and it definitely feels like a space I'd want to get some rack time in one of the benefits of not having too many racks in here though is it is pretty comfortably sized heading back into the hallway our next stop is going to be in the captain's quarters which is one of my favorite if not my favorite space on the ship the captain's desk is almost thrown like in the space which makes sense since the captain is essentially King aboard his or her own ship I also like the ample amount of storage to display your knickknacks as you've collected them and your travels around the verse but I also notice how they've raised the ceiling just above where the captain's sits gettin prominence to the space I've talked about this in previous video so it's really cool to see them utilize this technique as a method of giving hierarchy to the space subconsciously overlooking the ceiling plane is a common mistake of less experienced designers and it's clear here that CAG is on the top of their game they've also again used different temperature lights here in this more intimate space giving it a much more comfortable feeling but the designers aren't without their own sense of humor if you look closely at this champagne bottle you might notice a familiar name yes just to the right of the captain's desk is the captain's private bunk and private head which again are utilizing a warmer temperature specifically where the captain sleeps I really again like this attention to detail color temperature and lighting is again an often overlooked design feature that is really important to making a space feel comfortable if this were all evenly lit and very high temperature blue like lighting I'd imagine it would feel very clinical sterile and uncomfortable but now let's step back on the turbolift that's okay there's nothing turbo about it but let's step back on the lift and get up to deck 3 which is described as the technical deck and you'll see exactly why that is when we arrive [Music] arriving here on deck 3 you'll notice that the pallet has once again changed it would seem that anvil likes to specify dark grays and Red's for their working spaces which is a pretty let's say handsome look the lighting though is a bit dark but I'm willing to overlook this because it does set the mood quite well here in this space it may not be practical in the real world but here in star citizen it looks pretty freakin cool one strange note about this though is that when I first saw images of this deck on the website I thought that this was on the lower decks it's a bit strange to me that they should set the angle the walls kind of as if you were in the hold of a ship on the upper decks I prefer that to maybe be in a different direction maybe flipped I also took note of their attention to detail when it comes to how they're ventilating the space HVAC is definitely not something required for an internet spaceship but they took the time to think about how you would run oxygen up and down its decks here in the center of the space you can clearly see ventilation holes as well as ducting that goes from the forward most part of the ship all the way to its stern now let's step into the drone Bay this is one of the reasons why this is called the technical deck it's here you'll be able to maintain and deploy your drones for various missions such as repair mining or exploration whilst you're on mission it's a pretty neat space and I like how they've got these louvers over the windows just in case something say explodes I also like that in this space that there's a bit of exposed structure which gives us a little bit of an idea of what the characters Tunder its skin smartly located across from the drone bay is the workshop of the ship and this is where you're gonna be fixing things like your EBA suits your armor your weapons any modules that may have gone down you might even use the 3d printer here to make some new ones I also think that even just having a repair Bay on board is a really great idea for a long-range vessel that will not be able to return to port as often as other ships when they're out on the frontier I think that's again what makes this ship feel so polished that they've thought of so many things stepping back into the corridor agreed with the shuttlebay which will be visiting shortly I just want to show you quick where the Jefferies tube ends here on the upper deck it's called a service ladder here on the ship and you can see this is how you might get all the way up to the technical deck should the power go out it's pretty cool little feature now the shuttle bay is a really important feature to have on the character nabel's you to do things like arc your ship in orbit and go down in a much more fuel-efficient vehicle fuel 'no Carrick's expensive but more importantly when you're out in space and you're very far from port it's not a good idea to be wasting fuel going down into a very thick atmosphere or into a gravity well that's very difficult to get back out of the hangar bay is also consistent with the rest of the ship with this very angular style of walls but here it actually comes into play as being pretty useful because the opening is larger than the pad it makes it a lot more simple to get a vehicle down in here in fact if you accidentally hit a wall they'll kind of direct you down onto the pad you can also get a glimpse of the airlock and observation room on deck 4 just above the hangar and overlooking it which will be our next stop after we complete our visit here of the technical deck now just beyond the hangar you'll find yourself in a fairly large quarter that will lead you to the elevator that takes us up and down the ship which we visited a little bit earlier and if you access these side corridors you'll find the access hatch to either the port or starboard sign turrets it's access corridor is very reminiscent of say something from the Millennium Falcon I quite like it and the bolts hurts a heck of a lot of fun to use moving even further aft we find ourself in the rear most section of the ship which is engineering this to me is a really well designed space not because I know anything about engineering aboard spaceships I don't think many of us do but because they had to go about making the space convincing enough to feel like the engine room of a space ship it's also one of the first dedicated engine rooms we've gotten in star citizen and I think they've done a really good job it spans two decks giving you multiple access points for the many modules that you're gonna have to maintain in the final version of star citizen and the nerd and we can just imagine running up and down these decks repairing things as we're in battle or as we just need to keep the ship afloat well on a long mission often in architecture we try to create something that evokes an emotional response and I think this is one of those spaces in the ship that does that it's not what you might think when you think of good design like a really well crafted space with beautiful sweeping curves on the walls rather they've paid really close attention to the detail work here to make it more convincing that this could be a real science fiction engine room with exposed cables structure accessible panels interesting lighting and yes even some moody mist so if the many spaces aboard the carrick this is one of the most wildly successful ones overall though is you may have been able to tell from this review so far of the interior I've not found many faults with it that's because I think they did a really good job with the interior of the carrick but we're not done yet it's time to take a step on to the stellar cartography deck which is deck 4 now I said earlier that there was a Jefferies tube that could give you access to multiple decks of a ship should it be powered off now there's one big design flaw in the ship and that's there is no Jefferies tube the deck for and so should the power go off you will not be able to access this without having the ev8 outside the ship or crawl up the elevator shaft itself which seems like a pretty dangerous prospect especially if the elevator has become jammed or is stuck on the fourth deck completely cutting off access stellar cartography though itself is pretty gorgeous I have to wonder though why there are no seats seemed like a kind of a comfortable place to work if you're sitting here for long periods of time charting out paths forward it would seem to me that you'd want some readout screens or something of that kind here on this deck especially because there's nowhere else on deck or to actually sit down but well short shifts would probably be okay if you're working up here 12 hours that might be a bit of a pain on the legs but maybe that's just a minor issue maybe their suits themselves keep you supported you've also got access to an Eevee a airlock just up here on deck 4 which will lead you out just above the kerrick's hangar bay it's also got some additional suit lockers of course because you would need to have a place to store your Eevee a suit but one of the curious parts of this deck isn't what's here it's what's not here because it overlooks the hangar bay itself you might expect to find some sort of console up here that would give you access to it and allow you to operate it and with the amount of space in this airlock there's more than enough room to add an auxilary access point for the hangar bay if they do come back and do a second pass or a third pass I'm not sure how many passes I've done already on this I think that would be a great addition to have just in front of this window but we need to turn now to our last stop on board the carrick before we examine its exterior and that's the bridge [Music] for the intrepid explorer this is where you're going to be spending the majority of your time and as such it should be a very well treated space in my opinion it doesn't disappoint it boasts one of the best views on the entire ship and actually one of the best views of all the ships in star citizen save for maybe the 600 eye the view down below is staggering above any moon or planet that you should visit and it's surely very well suited to the task of exploration one curious thing about the bridge of the character is that it's actually two decks so if we step over here to this small elevator we'll find ourselves up on the command deck so this lower deck is really meant then for the pilot and navigators to control the vessel whereas this upper deck might be where the commander is spending the majority of his or her time directing the rest of the crew on how to react to say dangerous situations or to respond to signals that they may be trying to locate the source of again here with all the technical spaces aboard the carrick they're keeping with this theme of grays and red accents and it really works well here on the bridge giving it again a very handsome look I also love the very centrally located hollow table here where people you could imagine would be standing around discussing the next move there's also a really cool looking command control console here which actually can fly the ship here though we begin to see a bit of some artifacts from the multiple changes in the size of the ship there was a time where the carrick was much longer much larger than it is today and I think at that time the upper bridge was supposed to look down in the lower one now because of its size unfortunately we can only see what's outside and not what's below which is a bit of a disappointment because you lose that of scale that you might have otherwise had on such a majestically large bridge now you may think that this is the end of the video but it's not because we've arrived now at the sore spot for me for the carrick i think the interior was done wonderfully the arrangement of spaces is superb and the polish is better than any ship that I've seen so far however when we take a look at the exterior 'z form it is a far cry from what was once the concept for it it was originally a very even sort of looking ship a bird of prey if you will and now it seems a bit more like a penguin of prey now mind you penguins can be fierce creatures but they don't always look so now I think I might know what the issue is here's the profile of the current design of the carrick and here's my version that I've made some small adjustments to again here's the original and my slightly changed version I tried pulling back the dropdown bay from the nose slightly to give it a bit of a longer look I also slimmed down the underside just slightly and added a bit more definition to the engine that continues the line from the front and ends it at the rear and I think that's one of the things that made the original design so successful was the separation of the upper and lower part making it seem Allah or slender than it was here's a reminder though is the original concept that we got now I think the newer version actually has better design elements than the original but the original still has something over the current one and that's it's very slender look this version you see on the screen now though was one that was posted a little bit later an actual model that they had in game when the ship grew to a much larger size and it originally was advertised as now I think they had to do this because they weren't able to get the concept to look like they wanted to with the interior spatial requirements ultimately though those spatial requirements won out over making it look more like the original concept and I think that's ok it is unfortunate that it doesn't look quite as good as the original concept to work but it's not a bad looking ship and it's also nice to be able to park it in a large hangar you must understand that big ships like they 90 can be really cumbersome when you only have a few places where you can actually park it so having it right there at the max is just fine by me I still think though that they could slim it down visually somehow to bring it a little bit closer to the original concept but as it is now I'm still okay with it there is one design feature that kind of irks me just a little bit though and that's their choice of making the rear engines circular instead of their original shape I don't quite understand the need to try to match the rest of the anvil lineup considering all the other animal ships are really small I think they could have set up a new design language for very large anvil ships and kept the original design just fine so in sum then the only really big sore spot for me for the carrick is its exterior which can be honed and perfected hopefully in the future but if it never is and it stays as it is today I'm ok with it and it is growing on me with each passing day the exploration level redoes also helped accentuate its more appealing qualities the upper part of the ship and kind of minimizes its underbelly which makes it look fat after all it's that underbelly that really is what ruins the look of the ship from the exterior and if that can be minimized I think overall it'll be all the better for it but still CAG knocked it out of the park here and they're really showing their skill with each passing ship that they create getting better and better at honing in on their craft I think John crew and his guys have done amazing work but what about you guys what about this design do you find it be successful or not so great let me know down in the comment section below I love reading your comments and interacting with you guys even though this turned out to be a very long video I still didn't have enough time to cover every nook and cranny of the ship so I'm sure you guys are gonna spot some great stuff by the way did you guys know that all the ships you see in this video are community members that just flew with me the other night that's right if you want to fly with me check me over on Twitch down in the description below and become a part of the Armco community today which is also found in the description and of course I hope to see you in the verse [Music] [Music]

Channel: Morphologis

Views: 681,978

Keywords: Star Citizen, Architecture Review, Architect, Gameplay, Review

Id: ybsu2Af9AI0

Length: 27min 33sec (1653 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Strange-Scarcity]

These are some of best produced videos from a fan that I've seen. He does a really solid job describing the things he likes, dislikes and provides some really solid and appropriate criticism.

[u/OneoftheChosen]

He covered my major issues with the Carrack.

1. Rear turret seems like wasted space. IMO it should be like the top turret and that space used for something else. Science station pls? Specifically moving the plants and stuff outside the Med Bay.

2. Elevators not being air-locked. He didn’t mention this but elevators going to the ground??? Pls and thx

3. Obvious issues with the hangar’s access panels and lack thereof.

4. More ladders pls. You can even add ladders to elevator shaft and then put a door on the elevator floor to go through in case power goes down.

5. Hallways seem a bit wide everywhere.

6. I definitely think we can shrink the rec room a tiny bit to add space for more bunks.

7. Minor but the lines of the Carracks exterior!!! I never cared that it got fat but those lines not connecting from the front to the back bothered me to no end.

[u/9gxa05s8fa8sh]

the wasted space is really a shame. so many redundant hallways

[u/Agatsu74]

Concerning the Captain's office:

I'd rather have at least one opportunity for guests to sit in the captain's office than 2 shelves. I'd rather remove both of them and put chairs there instead.

What's with the small, pointlessly retractable screens behind the Captain? The captain can't see them and they're hard to make out for anyone standing next to the door. They could also just be MOUNTED TO THE WALL and free the space on the shelf.

Even better, remove them altogether and instead put one HUGE screen on the EMPTY wall on the side, which BOTH the Captain and guests could easily see.

​

Concerning the Captain's bedroom/bathroom:

I'd rather they made the bathroom smaller (like in the Starfarer Captain's quarters: shower/toilet combo left, sink right) and the bedroom bigger so it could have a queen sized bed that's accessible from both sides - and it would also add enough space to add a big screen between the lockers.

​

As for the rear turret space, I'd put 2 holding pods in one of the corridors leading from one of the armories to the rear turret, and turn the "corner" into an actual holding cell. There's definitely ZERO reason for 2 separate corridors back there.

​

On the Bridge, it might be possible to add a ladder (and maybe even the lost sliding pole) on the side in front of the consoles/next to the hologlobe, to connect the two spaces and make it more practical - because having to use a single, slow elevator is less than ideal. I'd also like to see more screens there, and maybe a coffee maker. ^^

​

The crew quarters...

I did the math with my eyeballs, and if you put a corridor behind the door at the pool table, you could have 4 adjacent small cabins on the side (bed, locker and maaaaybe even a chair with a console), plus a 5th one for the XO at the end of the corridor, where the showers are currently situated.

Then add showers to the current toilets, either in separate stalls or by making them a combo. There is no reason 2 toilet stalls need a big ass-room like that with a big ass mirror with a big ass-sink and big ass-shelves.

Don't come at me with the "It's a military ship so it doesn't need individual cabins" while so much space is being wasted for showers and toilets. Give the crew some freaking privacy and a small space to call their own, will ya?

Oh and those chairs at the mess hall table are horrendously designed because they are FIXED and too far away from the table. Try it: Sit at your table with your knees barely under the edge and try to eat... yeah... not ideal for eating, is it.

​

The cartography deck

...has a lot of wasted space.

There should definitely be some seats in the cartography room itself, and I would have loved it if it was an actual "holo-deck" so you could stand there and the stars are projected around you... or a beach, or a forest, so the crew can relax and don't go insane on long trips (like in Sunshine), or even a virtual shooting range.

As it is, it seems... off. Like, so much space for something that is basically a bigger version of what's already on the bridge, and you have to walk through the entire ship to get there, can't sit down... I dunno. Feels like wasted potential.

Speaking of wasted potential, it would have been nice if they made just a little bit more space on the left and right of the shuttle bay door so you could comfortably walk there. As it is, the entire airlock and suit locker rooms are kinda pointless since the ship has the docking ring to EVA from anyways. It's nice to be able to walk on the ship when it's landed tho - but not really worth the space used for that.

​

MISC.:

-Add seats next to the Medbay entrance. There's so much space there, and it could be like a waiting room in hospitals.

-More consoles that let you open the shuttle bay, especially *inside the shuttle bay*.

-Have the rear elevator go down to the surface, like in the Reclaimer

-Make the pool table room customizable so the pool table can be replaced by things like a big couch and screen, a poker table, arcade machines (Hype Vanguard Force IV FTW!), sim pods etc.). Add 2 bar stools next to the window.

-it would be beyond awesome of they managed to add some tight "Jeffrey's tubes" in the space between hab and tech deck.

​

I'm wondering why there are only 5 suit lockers in the docking ring chamber since it's a 6 crew ship. They even specifically took one locker out and replaced it with a nothing-panel. It's just... weird.

Oh and I'm wondering where the drones actually come out. Doesn't really matter, I guess, but I'm still wondering.

​

Don't get me started on the exteriors tho. I soooo liked the old design language better. The retro thrusters are boring, flat and tucked on now when they used to be different and interesting. The surface is too flat and boring now and the angle of the ramp is too flat, the bridge seems to small from the outside, the intakes on its sides are weirdly detached and blocking the view and ... well, like I said, I better don't even start, especially since this comment is already waaaaay too long.

Ah well. Thanks for bearing with me if you made it this far. <3

[u/suscepimus]

EDIT: Former architecture student here (3 years of studio + seminar). Slow it down with the downvotes! I kind of know what I'm talking about.

I'm surprised he gave a pass (mostly) to the completely useless crew lounge, and didn't call out the fact the technical deck and habitation deck are basically flipped from any rational program (especially when he calls out the upper bridge as being the captain's station but doesn't criticize the captain's quarters being on a different level than his workstation), or the problem with circulation through the cargo pods which are supposed to be modular.

In general, I think his review is shockingly deferential to CIG. This a good ship. I own one. But it has some pretty glaring oversights from an architectural and design perspective.

[u/FremderCGN]

How are heavy/large components transported to the back like shield gen etc? The way you have to take to put an old component out and a new one in is really long. I don't know if a component judging from the size of the slots for those components would even fit through all the doors. The hangar doesn't work aswell as the doors there are some of the smallest on the whole ship.

[u/PheIix]

The endless hallways really annoys me... The layout isn't as efficient as I'd expect from a military ship, there has been way more focus on comfort. The time I spent in the military I've seen very little of that in their equipment... Function>Comfort is the norm, even if it is something really expensive like a fighter jet... Not much comfort in an F16 or a submarine...

The hallways on both side of the medbay is lots of wasted space, likewise the turret room in the back and the armoury. Why worry about symmetry, when space is at a premium on a vessel that is supposed to be self-sufficient, they could have had more rooms and more functionality instead of that huge room with a weapon locker on each side... Bring it all to one side and put a science room on the other side, or something... Maybe a fuel refinery? Something less wasteful of that precious space...

[u/yomancs]

I'll be watching this afterwork

[u/shiroboi]

Excellent and well thought out walkthrough. I was surprised that I sat and watched the whole thing. You were very careful to visually illustrate anything that you were talking about.