Oh, I wish, I wish...
If I was a modeller of any respectable calibre I would've changed the Icelus' appearance, maybe a little, maybe a lot, I don't know. I
liked the concept of an upgraded Hecate as part of the GTVA war effort, but not the model as it exists now... the current high-poly Hecate looked... "deadlier" to me somehow. (oops hope I didn't offend starbug.
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Replacing the Raynor? How about the Boreas? Somehow I always saw the Boreas as the Raynor's equal, only "less advanced" (in its use of FS2 Terran textures, but hey, familiarity works here, don't you think?), assuming both ships coexisted in the INF universe. Of course there's the Segomo, but since the independent SOC fleet is gone, that one's answered...
Second the notion to see Phobos/Alcyone, why not the Alexandria too. Maybe the odd transport or cargo ship for good measure. Some "new, yet not so new" ships to bridge the gap between 2367 - 239x/24xx while keeping the GTVA thematic link in place... besides, that's still 30 years of available development time... even with the an economic collapse?
I see it like this: the EA vs. Sol war effort is nowhere near as taxing as the GTVA - Shivan war; EA had the time to make everything look uniform, menacing, fitting a certain theme. Blue. Plays to propaganda too, but it does show (in a way) that some sort of government reform took place on Earth.
The GTVA on the other hand (if they still hold that pseudo-good guy position ala R1, but that's going off-track) just design and build whatever works. Let success in combat unconsciously brainwash the people to accept the not-as-good aesthetics and eventually romanticise them. Phobos can be one example, it's (mostly) just a flying box that can shoot in any direction.
End random banter, cool stuff so far. Still not sold on the EA paint scheme but considering what I said above I can learn to accept it. Same goes for the Gagana's wing launchers, I thought they looked better and more aggressive mounted at the edges, just needed the wings and launchers themselves to look good somehow. But that one a few pages back looks more realistic, so if that's what you guys are going for, then I can't really argue, can I.
