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Starfleet Design Bureau

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Starship Design Bureau Starfleet Design Bureau
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StriderInCosmos said:
Which is a right shame, as sci-fi really does offer up the chance to play around with what a 'ship' looks like. Our wide and tall fellows need some more representation in fiction, methinks.
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Yeah soft sci-fi really does give the opportunity to go as weird as you want with ship designs, and in harder settings the ships will probably look 'weird' by default.

ST: TAS has some good ones.

www.ex-astris-scientia.org

Ex Astris Scientia - TAS Alien Ship Classes

www.ex-astris-scientia.org

In particular the Pod ship, and Kukulkan's ship are pretty interesting.
 
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Anything that needs to be able to enter atmosphere is going to end up looking aeroplane like or having some sort of cheat that lets it pretend it is.
Anything that goes fast enough through the void of space ends up encountering random particulate at a similar rate to atmospheric flight so ends up doing the same. (In Star Trek's case, the cheat is that they're actually Not going that fast, so far as random object encounters are concerned, if I recall correctly.)

Of course, soft sci-fi Is where all the cheats live.
 
Chargone said:
Anything that needs to be able to enter atmosphere is going to end up looking aeroplane like or having some sort of cheat that lets it pretend it is.
Anything that goes fast enough through the void of space ends up encountering random particulate at a similar rate to atmospheric flight so ends up doing the same. (In Star Trek's case, the cheat is that they're actually Not going that fast, so far as random object encounters are concerned, if I recall correctly.)

Of course, soft sci-fi Is where all the cheats live.
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Nah, Trek uses deflector dishes to push stuff to the side so they don't ram dust at warp speed. That's what the big dish looking thing on the front of the ship does.
 
My Eva senses are tingling...

As if... Eva-Trek was slowly beginning to seep into out timeline...

(All told, some of the Angels would make great problems of the day for a crew to solve. Ramiel and Sahaquiel, especially).
 
If we are doing designs from other franchises, Halo's is probably my favorite. The UNSC is just so Utilitarian and I think it's great. The classic Dagger design from Star Wars would be another.

Star Trek really has that futuristic charm nailed though, with ships looking wonky because of specific technologies. Plus, alien ships tend to look actually alien. It is not just Human ships repainted in aggressive red-black, or peaceful blue-purple. They have real design philosophies behind them, one of the only Sci-fi franchises to do so.
 
Fouredged Sword said:
Nah, Trek uses deflector dishes to push stuff to the side so they don't ram dust at warp speed. That's what the big dish looking thing on the front of the ship does.
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Pretty sure that's for dealing with things a bit more substantial than stray atoms and maybe molecules. Even if not, I wasn't forgetting the deflector exists, just how to explain the relevant bit of how warp works (note that the warp field itself is already doing some of the work, which is why eveyone else seems to get away without deflector dishes).
 
Chargone said:
Pretty sure that's for dealing with things a bit more substantial than stray atoms and maybe molecules. Even if not, I wasn't forgetting the deflector exists, just how to explain the relevant bit of how warp works (note that the warp field itself is already doing some of the work, which is why eveyone else seems to get away without deflector dishes).
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"The navigational deflector, also known just as the deflector, the deflector array, the deflector dish, the main deflector, the nav deflector, the parabolic dish, the main sensor, was a component of many starships that was used to deflect space debris, asteroids, microscopic particles, and other objects that might have collided with the ship. At warp speed, the deflector was virtually indispensable for most starships as even the most minute particle could cause serious damage to a ship when it was traveling at superluminal velocities. (VOY: "Alliances", "Collective")

"The deflector commonly took the form of a dish-shaped force beam generator containing heavy-duty subspace accelerators at the extreme forward end of the vessel's secondary hull. It performed its primary function by emitting low-power deflector shields to deflect microscopic particles and higher-powered deflector beams and/or tractor beams to deflect larger objects. (Star Trek: First Contact; VOY: "Alliances", "Shattered")"
 
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2171: Project Copernicus (Spaceframe: Part Three)
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    • [X] Ventral Secondary Hull (Engineering Section)

    The large secondary hull is still dwarfed by the main saucer, but it's still the largest you've ever constructed. Five decks of space, the front dominated by the main deflector. Many of the highest-mass and most vital systems on the ship will be mounted here, including options for extra phaser hardpoints. In this case you have made the decision to keep the engineering section closer to the main hull, keeping the ship more compact and streamlined than the gangly-looking Cygnus. It should help offset the mass increases that would be needed by larger nacelles.

    But that brings you to the nacelles. This is the largest ship ever produced by human hands, though still dwarfed by the Vulcan explorator ships. But where those are fast and hyper-specialised, you aim to accomplish similar velocities and capabilities in a much cheaper package. Part of that involves ditching the circular warp coil assemblies for linear subspace emitters, which trade off field stability for greater performance and vulnerability to damage at a cheaper cost.

    But here two nacelles are only one of the options. Be it in a cruise or sprint configuration, the warp coils are going to struggle to match the field densities of smaller starships. This can be compensated for by doubling up on the nacelles, mounting two on each pylon in a twinned configuration. This would allow them to work in tandem, strengthening the field and providing matching or even superior performance to standard nacelles. The greater subspace warp would also allow another crack at the parallel configuration to boost both cruise and sprint speeds simultaneously.

    [ ] Dual Nacelles Cruise (+0.2 Cruise)
    [ ] Dual Nacelles Sprint (+0.2 Sprint)
    [ ] Quad Nacelles Cruise (+0.4 Cruise) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance] (+Cost)
    [ ] Quad Nacelles Sprint (+0.4 Sprint) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance] (+Cost)
    [ ] Quad Nacelles Parallel (+0.2 All) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance] (+Cost)



    Current Ratings
    Cost: C-
    Infrastructure: C

    Two Hour Moratorium, Please.
     
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    • [ ] Quad Nacelles Sprint (+0.4 Sprint) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance]
    [ ] Quad Nacelles Parallel (+0.2 All) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance]

    Time to breach that Warp 7 barrier.
     
    So... YOLOdyne time?

    I'm thinking we go for Quad Nacelles. Unless we really bork up on the prototype roll, we should, on average, get a better result.
     
    Nah, we should go quad cruise. This thing's performance is going to be dictated by it's ability to travel long distances. Cruise speed is everything.

    [ ] Quad Nacelles Cruise (+0.4 Cruise) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance]

    This isn't a war ship. If it needs to sprint it's going to burn through it's fuel and rack up the kinds of maintenance problems that require it to end it's mission. If we want it to actually do it's job we should make sure it's cruise speed is fast enough it doesn't NEED to sprint.
     
    [ ] Dual Nacelles Sprint (+0.2 Sprint)

    DAMN YOU YOLODYNE!!

    I want to go for Sprint. All the better to run away from whatever space bullshit the Shields and phasers can't handle.
     
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    Ambit said:
    Split the difference, maybe?
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    We tried that last time and it didn't work. Curiosity topped out at Warp 6.9, and it seems like our current coils can only do 6.8 outside of a sprint configuration. Parallel will only just get us to Warp 7 if the prototyping roll succeeds, and I don't trust like that.

    If we're going to get weird, let's get weird.

    [] Quad Nacelles Sprint (+0.4 Sprint) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance]
     
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    [] Quad Nacelles Parallel (+0.2 All) [Prototype] [One Success Roll: Performance]

    Hope that it doesn't completely fail this time
     
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