Cars, cars, cars - Einstein Engines: "You Don't Gotta Be An Einstein To See Why Our Cars Are Rated #1 With Commuters"

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Going to make this a public discussion, because I for one am not an authority on cars, and don't want to use executive loremaster privilege to force everyone to drive tacky retrofuture cars from old scifi magazines.

I fell into a deep rabbit hole after stumbling on the Dodge Deora model car. It was never mass produced and was, from what I have seen, a showpiece that became a Hot Wheel. It's basically a van with the entire back cut out and made a big trunk. It's familiar, yet alien.

 

---

---

 

I've narrowed down my research for 'weird but vaguely futuristic' cars to the following candidates:

 

 

 

 

Having our aurorasphere's modern factions having 'self-driving cars' philosophy turn into 'the highway is the AI' lets us play with car designs.

 

---

---

Is retrofuturism something you want to see in Mendell City's streets? Do you want to drive a car that is a small living-room that can drive off the highway, over a grassyfield, into a lake, out of the other side of the lake, and back onto the modern superhighway to jet along at 192mph?

This isn't such a huge thing since we will never see these outside of off-station roleplay, but it can add to the aesthetic we have and inspire any future server art that includes city streets.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

i've done more research with google images and vague search terms like "weird cars from the 50's" all the way up to the 90's

The aesthetic of "zero engine room in the front" is a very promising avenue of style, but what we have is too round.

 

 

[Guest Menown]

Retrofuture-style doesn't really fit our setting imo.

I'll keep an eye out for anything of note.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Retrofuture-style doesn't really fit our setting imo.

I'll keep an eye out for anything of note.

 

Why do you gotta put me on blast like this?

at least let the martians drive it

[furrycactus]

Honestly I love the aesthetic. It's super cool. Could explain it as a sudden popular resurgence of the retro aesthetic across the galactic community.

[TishinaStalker]

Yeahhhhhh, I agree with Menown. Retrofuturism doesnt fit here at all. What kind of aesthetic does it even have outside of "this almost intentionally looks terrible" anyway? Not to mention that cars don't suddenly get manufactured because of post-obsoletion popularity. At least not enough that everybody is driving one (e.g. DeLoreans). Maybe I wouldnt have a problem with the "living room car" thing specifically. Retrofuturism and weirdass 50s corvettes can stay out of 2460 trends though.

[Bauser]

Why not make future cars look futuristic? This Toyota concept really illustrates what I hope the future of the automobile is like - sleek and trimmed like current trends indicate, but totally visually retooled to suit advancements in the technology onboard, with a lot more automated features, tighter engine/powertrain, electronic displays overtaking the need for windows, and totally fucked up with wireless capabilities we don't even know we want yet.

 

 

... and here are some other concepts in the same vein.

[DronzTheWolf]

I know that this'll only go badly but, while I like retrofuturism and I can see it being a hipster trend in the Aurora universe, it isn't really what comes to mind on a future highway.

However.

The cars from Halo 3 ODST hold a special place in my heart: Check it.

 

[RazorXLVII]

Truth be told, I'd follow the following link:

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Economy

A used car, I imagine it being like the retrofuturistic vehicles you've just shown, while the more 'modern' and expensive options could be similar to the Toyota that Bauser has linked a few posts above mine.

Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly endorse this thread, I'd love to see more vehicles on the server lore. There's room for roleplay, here.

[Resilynn]

I am 200% down with retrofuturism trending in mars though.

[Mofo1995]

Let's set aside aesthetic for a moment and talk about the grim dark future of the 3rd millennium.

In our future, a lot of people are really packed into slums and there's just a mind boggling large number of people in the galaxy. While Tau Ceti has a really high HDI compared to other places (lookin at you Mars) I feel like there's something to be said about large clunky vehicles. Imagine motor homes and RVs, where you need to be able to get to and from work or what have you, but you're also really poor. So you just live out of your whip. Imagine a futuristic motorpark slum where there are just rows of parked hover car homes, and people fly around to park their vehicle elsewhere if they want a change in neighbors, or fly to work and then back to the motor slum. Some people could become known as "Grounded" when they can't afford fuel anymore and their hovercar home is permanently grounded.

There's also less depressing aspects to consider. Let's say you do a lot of travelling, maybe as a merchant or what have you. You could have a hover car that's more like a shuttle, hopping from planet to planet aboard freighters with shuttle space. Then you fly about whichever planet doing your business and sleeping in your shuttlecar at night. It's a really big galaxy everyone lives in, so hover homes designed to be used in atmosphere do have a place.

[DronzTheWolf]

So you just live out of your whip. Imagine a futuristic motorpark slum where there are just rows of parked hover car homes, and people fly around to park their vehicle elsewhere if they want a change in neighbors, or fly to work and then back to the motor slum. Some people could become known as "Grounded" when they can't afford fuel anymore and their hovercar home is permanently grounded.

 

My Martian miner lives out of an old RV that he refurbished. The hover capability is kinda wonky and the buoyancy is off so he's modified it to take wheels when he doesn't need to hover.

[BRAINOS]

okay, so here's my thing:

not all cars have to be retrofuturistic

but that doesn't mean that no cars can be retrofuturistic

personal vehicles IRL have a massive variety in terms of styling, capability and function. if you were on the market for a new car, you could go out and get anything from a retrofuturistic car to a militaristic off-road vehicle to a high-tech modern sports car.

that said, a lot of the reason we don't have more retrofuturisticy stuff today is actually safety regulations: if you look at a lot of the posted concepts here you'll see glass domes with very slim pillars for structural support. look at a modern vehicle's a-pillars and you'll notice they beefy af. this is to fit inside airbags, sensors and metal.

if we're going for realism here we should probably start thinking about what sort of emerging safety technologies will be present and mandated into place, especially if we're going the flying cars route.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

OMG space campers. yes please

So taking the posts into account, here is my proposal for the MOST POPULAR brands of cars and the aesthetic for their class/style:

The Wealthy - Don't crash these, for the love of God

Einstein Engine Galileo S. Chic, glass, shiny. Small, compact, electric, and self-driving. It is capable of hovering and low-altitude flights within the city but it can only fly in autopilot in pre-determined paths. (space traffic jams - rush hour traffic 100ft in the air!) Fits 4.

 

Einstein Engines Model Galileo G. Larger, electric self-driving car. It's fully grounded, but can drive over water. Fits 2.

 

Einstein Engines Model Aristotle G. A very compact personal car for an affluent consumer. It isn't equipped for anything except highway and street travel, but it's very chic and modern for the space-conscious. Fits 3.

 

The Middle Class

Hephestus Industries Atermis Model F. Self-driving, stain-resistant seats, capable of hovering or going over water. Fits 4.

 

Hephestus Industries Odyssey Model G. - Your wife will be impressed with you again if you drive home with this. No trunk space and it's grounded, but all the commercials say this is JUST like what the rich people are driving. Look at those sharp angles. Those are expensive-car sharp angles. And all that glass! Wow. What do you mean this isn't what we needed? Helen, this is for me. Helen please let me have this I'm 39 and wasting my life. Fits 3.

 

Affordable Junk Titles - Look, you can't exactly be picky at this point. They're street legal.

Getmore Mileage Family Model W. This camper is capable of slow flight if you burn actual liquid fuel like a 21st century primitive, but without an onboard pAI, not within the airspace of any major city. It's got a collapsible table inside and chairs that roll back to let you sleep on them. Fits 8. NOT HIGHWAY LEGAL. NOT RATED FOR SPEEDS ABOVE 70MPH.

 

Getmore Mileage Family Model Q Look, you said you needed more trunk space. Well, here's your damn trunk space Craig. Fits 2 and probably everything in your house. NOT HIGHWAY LEGAL. NOT RATED FOR SPEEDS ABOVE 70MPH.

[Doc]

I really don't see the point in creating specific car models and their contents. There's either not enough listed and there's barely any description of what's actually going on (such as in the post above. I still have no idea what's actually distinguishing between low class and high class cars besides they look bulkier) or there's too many and we're just looking at a laundry list of car models with minute differences (like real life), which is not interesting on a wiki page we're just skimming to get an idea of the status of personal transportation in our setting.

It would be much easier to go with overall brands, describe their typical traits, styles, and primary uses (industrial/personal/luxury/sports/etc.), much like we do with, for example, different prosthetics brands, in my opinion. Heph makes industrial vehicles known for reliability, Necropolis makes weapons platforms, Bishop makes high-class glass-cannons (or, glass sports cars, in this case), and so on- or, y'know, make new brands, I dunno. Why the hell is Getmore making cars?

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I really don't see the point in creating specific car models and their contents. There's either not enough listed and there's barely any description of what's actually going on (such as in the post above. I still have no idea what's actually distinguishing between low class and high class cars besides they look bulkier) or there's too many and we're just looking at a laundry list of car models with minute differences (like real life), which is not interesting on a wiki page we're just skimming to get an idea of the status of personal transportation in our setting.

It would be much easier to go with overall brands, describe their typical traits, styles, and primary uses (industrial/personal/luxury/sports/etc.), much like we do with, for example, different prosthetics brands, in my opinion. Heph makes industrial vehicles known for reliability, Necropolis makes weapons platforms, Bishop makes high-class glass-cannons (or, glass sports cars, in this case), and so on- or, y'know, make new brands, I dunno. Why the hell is Getmore making cars?

 

That's what the post above was meant to establish. There's the 'genre' of cars, serving as examples of particular models for people who can afford them. I'm not a car person at all, and only wanted to create the aesthetic and style of different car brands.

And Getmore makes quality and affordable products of all types. From Getmore brand foods, to Getmore Appliances, Getmore Cleaning Supplies, Getmore Cars, Getmore Nuclear Weapons...

[BRAINOS]

i kinda liked the posted examples, some pretty neat stuff there

as for the wiki page, doc is right, outlining a few major brands and their general design language and utility would work just fine. even though i AM a huge car nut and actually really love poring over minute details, i can see it's unnecessary to get the idea across.

i do think expanding getmore a little bit just has a really good ring to it and i can see einstein trying to reclaim some of their lost market with personal vehicles. hephaestus would probably specialize in hummer-like vehicles or other heavy utility vehicles, even specialized mining trucks and military transport. of course we don't have to list everything.

also if someone designs a mogunz meat truck like the oscar meyer weinermobile i will give them a high resolution image of a cookie

[Trazz666]

I'll be honest, when I read Einstein Engines, cars were the last thing that came to mind. I just assumed they did, like...space ship engines, bluespace drives, things like that. It's weird to think of the concept of 'cars' in such a futuristic setting.

[Scheveningen]

the cars are fantastic. Love these ideas, they might just be fluff but they add unique characterization for the future.

[Mofo1995]

So you just live out of your whip. Imagine a futuristic motorpark slum where there are just rows of parked hover car homes, and people fly around to park their vehicle elsewhere if they want a change in neighbors, or fly to work and then back to the motor slum. Some people could become known as "Grounded" when they can't afford fuel anymore and their hovercar home is permanently grounded.

 

My Martian miner lives out of an old RV that he refurbished. The hover capability is kinda wonky and the buoyancy is off so he's modified it to take wheels when he doesn't need to hover.

 

This is cool at and exactly the kind of stuff I like.