Unit Pictures

[solidsamurai]

About the Colossus, I'm gonna keep it more in the 80 meter range for now. I just don't see a reason for it to be so small when Protoss ships can be so large.

Like most things, this argues with physics. The taller it is, the harder it is to keep balance, since gravity causes it to sway when standing. Also, materials need to be that much stronger. Armor probably isn't going to be all that much better, unless there's hull redundancies all over the place (and even then, hull redundancies are just a specific counter measure; the enemy can still aim for the engines - y'know, that sorta thing). Also, shields would probably require bigger engines since it needs more surface area to cover something bigger. It all seems pretty pointless to have something that tall. We get that it needs to be tall to shoot things with lasers and climb cliffs, but not THAT tall. That's just how I see it.

Protoss ships can be as large as they want, because all they need is big inertial engines to keep them afloat. Most importantly though is that ships don't have legs that need to keep them upright and constantly tweak their strength in order to balance and pivot on the ground in hundreds or thousands of ways. Each leg doesn't need to balance itself in order to direct and carry weight in a finesse matter for its locomotion. The appeal of mechs in sci-fi (AKA battle bots with legs) from a physics standpoint, is that they could be more agile than other vehicles, or at least able to deal with more terrain variety, including climbing out of ditches (which tanks, or even hover tanks if they're magnetically floating above ground, could struggle with).

[Zoar]

well Protoss shields are all psi-shields and their units are all Psi powered rather than via conventional electronics
the original manual states that "Over time, Conclave scholars and Templar sages learned to reproduce the energy shield using induced psi-field generators, which allowed even the smallest robotic machine to surround itself with a protective field."

[solidsamurai]

I don't really want to buy into your anti-air handwaving. Yeah, it could be done, but it just makes everything more... lame. Spore colonies/crawlers unable to attack stationary targets makes no sense, what if a battlecruiser were hovering in place 5000 feet off the ground, and a bunch of spores were rooted underneath it to defend the hive? "Oh, nope, it's not moving, sorry Overmind, can't attack." And there are quite a few more surface-to-air attacks: in addition to longbolt (missile turret) missiles and seeker spores, there're hellfire (goliath) missiles, javelin (thor) missiles, the HotS thor's cannons. And the SC2 Queen and Warhound used to have air-exclusive ranged attacks. Not to mention air-to-air attacks like the phoenix, corsair, corruptor, devourer, viking, wraith, etc. being able to hit collossi and not buildings. Right now I have the Nexus at over 40m tall, so I still think the colossus should be taller.

Here's another handwave - Buildings have grounded sensors and are able to employ mixed signals (powerful, heavy duty/non-portable hardware) to ward off anti air. When airborne, they aren't grounded, so they can't give off signals - hence, they're vulnerable to anti-air. When grounded, it helps to have more surface area touching the ground than not. Hence, why command centers are very wide at the bottom, and also nexii* (probably).

*The plural of nexus.

Colossi should still be taller than nexii, I agree. The nexus is large, but I don't think it should stand at 40 meters. Height should be more comparable to a babylonian ziggurat (I was going to say aztec ziggurat, because aztec temple architecture is probably the source of art inspiration, but an aztec temple is actually much bigger). I'm gonna look up how tall the babylonian ziggy is.

EDIT: 80 - 100 feet. 80 feet is still close to 30 meters, which is basically the height of the statue of liberty. And that's like a religious sight - a nexus is basically just an operations center for generating 'psionic matrixes' (requires no pylons to be powered), and a mineral/gas processing and factory for constructing probes. Much of the size is at the bottom, I feel. It's a massive structure - it just isn't that tall.

well Protoss shields are all psi-shields and their units are all Psi powered rather than via conventional electronics
the original manual states that "Over time, Conclave scholars and Templar sages learned to reproduce the energy shield using induced psi-field generators, which allowed even the smallest robotic machine to surround itself with a protective field."

Okay, well there still needs to be some sort of medium to store that energy. A medium that isn't all that portable (hence why buildings and such have stronger shields than units). Basically the logic of a battery - heavy duty batteries are heavier and probably need thicker armor to protect the battery (the rationale of armor thickness in SC1 and 2 is Hp, whereas actual armor rating is armor quality, as I've interpreted it). The more shields a unit has, the more engine power it probably needs to move!

If it's a generator - then it's an engine, meaning it requires weight and volume in proportion to power output; the source of the fuel (psychic power, gasoline, lithium, he3, whatever) is irrelevant.

[Demolij]

Okay, well there still needs to be some sort of medium to store that energy. A medium that isn't all that portable (hence why buildings and such have stronger shields than units). Basically the logic of a battery - heavy duty batteries are heavier and probably need thicker armor to protect the battery (the rationale of armor thickness in SC1 and 2 is Hp, whereas actual armor rating is armor quality, as I've interpreted it). The more shields a unit has, the more engine power it probably needs to move!

If it's a generator - then it's an engine, meaning it requires weight and volume in proportion to power output; the source of the fuel (psychic power, gasoline, lithium, he3, whatever) is irrelevant.

What I feel is wrong with this is, how do Archons get Shields then? They get it from their psionic powers I'd imagine. The problem is then, why does the Dark Templar have more shields then the High Templar? The High Templars psionic powers are more "powerful" per say (If you've seen Anatomy of Starcraft, I agree that the Khala has Electromagnetic powers, and the Void has Gravitational powers.)

[solidsamurai]

The HT has to focus to channel his energy pool for his spells. The DT is a warrior and part of warrior training is working up the ki or psi-power (whatever) to have heftier shields; though he isn't as tough as the zealot for obvious reasons.

The archon is a whirling storm of energy and mass - their brains act to constantly drawn in energy (not store it) while it is being drawn out (energy that isn't stored, is drawn out, in the form of heat, or through the telepathic plane, whatever), in order to create force fields and even power 'psionic shockwaves' as sudden bursts of energy. Psionically, they're sorta like tiny little stars. Archons do not store energy, they simply generate a whole lot of it all at once, all the time. It's the same deal with the templars. The zealot suits might store their own energy for teleportation and shield regeneration.

Done.

If you've seen Anatomy of Starcraft, I agree that the Khala has Electromagnetic powers, and the Void has Gravitational powers.

Rly? I was thinking the khala was in part electromagnetic (it gives of some of those waves), but I was thinking the void derives power from the disproportionately large amount of dark energy/matter in the universe.

[Robear]

I changed some sizes of stuff and drew a new Viking and the Swarm Host, though those haven't been scanned and colored yet. I shrunk the Colossus down to a little over 60m. It already looks weak compared to terran aircraft, so, no smaller, I think. :| I know we'll disagree on this, solidsamurai. :P



Side note, I've actually grown really fond of the new Valkyrie design.



I think for this edition of the poster I'll have a little color-coded number in a circle next to each drawing and then a numbered key at the bottom of all the names, instead of trying to cram all the text in next to the units. It's probably less convenient, but will look more professional, I think.

I also have no idea what I'm going to do about the Gorgon. I think it should be roughly twice as big as a Minotaur (the picture below just has them roughly thrown together, not with precise sizes).



But of course the Bucephalus is supposed to be a Gorgon at 560m, which would make the Minotaur the size of a small aircraft carrier. Which it probably isn't, because so much of the design is just hollow, empty space... So, either Gorgons just aren't that much bigger than other ships (which makes Kerrigan exclaiming "that ship is huge!" in HotS a little odd), or Minotaurs really are just cruisers, not carriers or capital ships, or, again, that "largest battlecruisers are 560m" line is BS, and I should ignore it. I'm in favor of ~550m Minotaurs and, I dunno ~900m Gorgons. And we'll see how the Hyperion matches up later... You can see from the little ships in the above picture how hard it is to fit a hangar the size of the Hyperion's armory on any of the exterior designs. :/

Drawings that have yet to be completed and added:

-Leviathan
-Spine/Spore Crawlers (maybe)
-Locust
-Swarm Host (needs color)
-Hellbat
-Hyperion
-Viking Fighter (needs color)
-Oracle
-Tempest
-Pylon (maybe)
-Protoss Colonist Shuttle (which should be in the capital ships lineup, since a whole Zerg mission took place inside it

And then I think I'm done.

[Hawki]

At this point in time I'm personally inclined to see the 560m figure as a Minotaur one. Subjective of course and not something I can objectively change on the wiki, but hey, images are good, and that includes the size of the Gorgon here.

As for the colonist ship, it's actually the Daelaam Ark (source: http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Daelaam_Ark). Seems to be a different ship type from the shuttles seen on the surface.

[Robear]

As for the colonist ship, it's actually the Daelaam Ark (source: http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Daelaam_Ark). Seems to be a different ship type from the shuttles seen on the surface.

Hmm... this is an interesting distinction, I wonder how different it was meant to be? Like, it could just be a normal colony ship with a name, or it could be a hub-ship that all of those 'colonist shuttles' launched from...

Well, I'll just make something up. :P Probably between a void ray and a carrier.

Here's the Swarm Host that I mentioned. How big should the locusts be? I'm thinking like small/tailless zerglings.



I've decided not to do the spine/spore crawlers, so after the locust the only other Zerg unit to do is the Leviathan. Getting close...

[Visions of Khas]

Well, I'll just make something up. :P Probably between a void ray and a carrier.

You can probably create it from the in-game sprites, the wallpaper, and the hologram you find on the bridge of the ship.

[Demolij]

You should update the poster with these new unit sizes. I want to see a Colossus next to an Ultralisk and a Thor to see if it fits appropriately.

If a Gorgon is twice as big as a Minataur class, then it's the same size as a Mothership, but still not much bigger then a Behemoth class. That might need to be looked at, personally.

There is a picture of Locusts compared to Swarm Hosts on the website. So I think your assumption is close.

You're almost there! Don't let LotV beat you to your goal, and make you take even longer! (Also, I'd find it funny if you did Scarabs :P)