Building Ships

Porsche

Mongoose
Is there a software tool to design ships out there for free and/or purchase? I'm running an eCG and need things online.

:twisted:
 
design them as in getting the stats? or design them visually??

the reason i ask this is becuase i can do the stats, finally got my head round it all, but want to build my ideas and don't have a clue how too.

Chef
 
Any spreadsheet will do the first, if you have any inclination to formula building at all. Simple stuff, really.

The second part is harder, because it qualifies as an "art". Without inspiration, either yours or someone else's, exterior views and deckplans are rarely going to satisfy, regardless of shiny presentation.

Inspiration comes in many forms, of course. It could be a Google Image search, a favorite movie, an existing deckplan that gets you thinking "if only they put that *over there*", or a previous edition of Traveller's list of hull configurations and what those mean for dimensions. Yes, it used to be much more complex...
 
What I do is to first design out the deck plans for the new ship and then backfill all the details that are needed. Also remember guys, as the GM you "can" fudge things as you see fit. The point is to have fun and be entertainment, not actually design a "real" ship. As long as the ship fits the scope of what is needed for the game, anything can be explained as "Tech". Now I try to add a "sense of Realism" but remember this is FRP.

Penn
 
Nothing official - and nothing for pay either, as far as I know, that is MGT specific. The MGT Aids Yahoo Group downloads might have something.

If you have time issues - there are a lot of deck plans online. Even just using the search feature in the forums should yeild some good stuff - notably this.

For custom built stuff, a spreadsheet should work fine - openoffice calc is free if you don't have Excel. This thread has some pointers.

For deckplans - Inkscape is multiplatform and free. It does a great job at SVG files and decent printing - its postscript/PDF is decent, though it has some issues (latest version should be better - though I haven't used it).

[P.S. - If you deal well with numbers and simple programming - direct postscript can provide superior results with just a text editor (ghostscript is very usefull and free - Acrobat Distiller is handy, but pricey). ;) ]
 
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