Changes in Spacecraft
As described elsewhere, Morrigan Press has obtained the rights for the
TTA setting and are publishing a series of new art books, as well as an
RPG game. Since they decided to start the process by publishing a new
version of the original book, Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100
AD (with the dates in the title and throughout the book
increased by 100 years). This is not an exact reprint, but rather a new
book with some textual changes, new art added, and some old art omitted
(some presumably to appear in later books). For the benefit of newer
fans of the series who lack access to the original book (a problem
which is likely to increase over time), I am compiling
a list of changes between the old and new editions here.
Throughout this list, SC1 refers to the original book (Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100
AD), and SC2 refers to the new book (Spacecraft: 2100 to 2200
AD). I also use color to indicate what sort of
comment I am making: red
text is for errata, yellow text
is used to describe changes that were probably intentional, and green text is
used for art notes. Normal white text is probably just my
personal commentary on something.
Overall Changes
- SC1
was initially hardback, SC2 is only softcover.
This was a publishing decision, as hardback books are more
expensive for both the publisher and the customer.
- Some
of the entries in SC2 occur in a different order than in SC1, such as
the Hornet.
- Several
entries in the original were omitted:
the Birdsnest/AAF 311 Warhawk, the Skybase (though the Panther pursuit
ship and AA C14 Transporter both come from this illustration), all but
one of the illustrations of the Interstellar Queen, the
Moray Eel, the MOBAS (though the PMSV VII Heavy Tank from this
entry's painting appears in SC2's Cobra illustration), the Miami
Spaceport, the Railbus, the NOMAD Industrial Complex, and all of the
"Unidentified Alien" pieces except the City Ships of Alpha
- There
are some new entries, some of which are originals, and some of which
are from other books: The AAF 225 Cobra (A new design),
The CAM 216 Vulcan (new design inspired by an offhand mention
in SC1's Piranha entry) AA010 Pathfinder (mentioned several times in
SC1 but never shown), the AA C17 Transporter and AAF171 Panther pursuit
ship (both taken from SC1's Skybase entry), the TDA 278 Barracuda
(originally from Great Space Battles).
- The
timeline was expanded using current events and recent history.
In general, SC1 did not describe events prior to a decade in
the future (that is, the one of the earliest dates was 1987, nine years
after the
book's publication).
- Throughout
the book,
certain info entries were slightly altered. For
example, where SC1 reads "Short Range Defence Ship", SC2 reads "Short
Range Defence Spacecraft". Whenever a ship had multiple
manufacturers, SC2 specifies "Various (TTA licensees)" and similar,
whereas SC1 usually simply listed "Various".
- The
diagrams were omitted. In SC1, many of the
entries included line drawings of the ship or some
other aspect (such as a map of the Solar System showing the Terran
Defense system, in the Sentinel Major entry). In the
individual entries below, I usually describe these.
- None of
the
artwork includes images of humanoid figures, even when the originals
did. That was a deliberate choice on Adrian's
part, given the
relative difficulty of realistic human(oid) figures in 3D.
- Much of
the
artwork in SC2 is darker, and consequently harder to see.
- Nearly
all of the models in
SC2 are cleaner/less "weathered" than their painted counterparts in SC1.
Individual Entries
CAM 117 Gunship
- SC1
listed 9 officers PLUS 35
human
crew (presumably crew in the sense of "not officers", not the sense of
"the people on the ship"). SC2 has
34 crew COUNTING the 9 officers.
- The two
ships depicted
in SC2 were firing on a
third ship in SC1.
- There
was a cross section
diagram of the
gunship included (which was fairly ambiguous. It
could arguably be a diagram of the ship that
was omitted from SC2's illustration, meaning that SC2 could be seen as
depicting the wrong ship.)
- The rails
and fin at the bottom of the ship are flying independently in SC2.
SSF21D Cutlass
- References
to the "United States Space Command" and the "US models" in SC2 were
references to the "Fenderal Law Enforcement Authority" and "Law
Enforcement models" respectively in SC1.
- Classification
was "Local Defence Interceptor" in SC1.
- SC2's
armament info is a duplicate of the CAM
117 armament info. The original reads: Assorted nuclear
weapons, 1 OPA 8 Particle Accelerator, 2 laserlances
- SC1 gets
an errata here ... it listed "high high-output" engines.
(SC2 corrects this.)
- SC1
included a top view diagram of the Cutlass with FLEA markings.
- There
was no orange stripe in SC1. The aft stripe was more
blue-grey. Overall, the ship was a bronze color and much less
angular and more smoothly curved. It was thicker vertically,
and the proportions were more wide/short than in SC2.
- There
was a group of spacesuited individuals fleeing the site of the launch.
AAF 212 Hornet
- The text
originally contained
four
additional paragraphs describing the upper laserlance design and how
it gave an advantage to the ship, the role of the ship throughout the
war, and its current status. (Because that is a
major element of the entry, I consider its omission an errata.)
- The
Main drive was
originally a
nuclear/hydrogen drive, not a nuclear fission drive. These
are not
necessarily synonymous (though they could be interpreted that way).
- Armament
originally
listed "assorted nuclear weapons", not
missiles specifically. (Again, not necessarily
synonymous.)
- The
front, top, and side views of the hornet were not included in SC1.
- The rear half of the original ship seems to be shorter and
with a more pronounced "slope".
- The "engine" proper was much less obvious.
- The forward half had a more obvious curved "nose" and two
semicircular markings like "eyes", which could be ports.
- The upper laserlances were at a larger vertical angle to
the axis of the ship.
- The "bend" in the striped engine section was more obvious.
- The original illustration depicted one of the Hornets being destroyed.
- The hull markings in the new pic seem to
be slightly higher than they should be, as if rotated around the ship's axis.