[JBE] How Do You Like Your Ships?

[dmccoy1693]

With the d66 Compendium almost done and out the door, we're trying to plan for 2011. A ship book idea keeps popping up at an idea. We're not sure what to do. Warp Speed or Jump Drive.

A Warp Speed book would focus on a TL 17-19 range. We'd be drawing inspiration from both Star Trek and Star Wars (since the physics of both are quite similar, they travel through normal space, can be pulled out FTL speed when in the presence of a gravity well, have variable times depending on distance and speed used, etc). It would possess new weapons, energy shields, and more

A Jump Drive book would focus on the Foreven Sector with the majority of its TLs being in the 10-12 range. It would focus around Avalar built craft, Zhodani/Imperium leftover tech that filers itself to this backwater area, junk craft that is barely held together. It will have the junk craft configuration, ship weapons appropriate for the TL, and more.

But to the Poll question: How important are floor plans to you? Floor plans take a while to produce or are expensive to pay a designer to draw them. Plus, the larger the ship, the more pages they take up => the less ships will be in a book. But all that is for not if you feel that floor plans are vital. So, what do you think? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

[BP]

A - critical to me...

Especially when they are clear and of high quality (i.e. LucasDigital caliber )!

 

[DFW]

Without them I don't need to buy a book. It takes little time to figure out ship designs but, a lot of time to render accurate plans...

 

[rust]

Difficult to answer. My settings use the optional hyperdrive, and only very
few starship types. I do not have much use for deckplans of jump drive
ships with much of their volume consisting of jump fuel tanks, and I would
only be interested in unusual ship designs, not the 245th version of a free
trader or scout.

 

[far-trader]

C - Semi-Important

Best for smaller character scale ships (including small craft if carried or featured), usually unnecessary for anything bigger. The important thing to me is that they be clear, uncluttered, and easy to print (no ink hogging, paper saturating, heavy dark colours please). They should include and match an exterior view or several. A nice artistic three-quarters on bow perspective plus line drawings of flat plan elevations of side(s), top, bottom, aft and bow being ideal.

...but I really wanted to click H - Oh look, a poll! :lol:

 

[BP]

...but I really wanted to click H - Oh look, a poll! :lol:

Yeah - this forum only lets you click one! :lol:

 

[hdan]

I voted semi-important, but what is even more important to me is an EXTERIOR view of that ship. Something I can show to the players.

If I had to choose picture or floor plan, I'd probably choose picture, but all things being equal, any book of ships should include both.

That being said, I don't see a great use for ships over 1000 tons to have detailed floor plans. In fact, 1.5m squares on maps for large ships look bad to me. I would prefer a rough "block diagram" for larger ships with things like "stateroom/living section", "engineering section", "fuel", "cargo", "vehicle bay", "weapons bay", "bridge", etc.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I voted semi-important, but what is even more important to me is an EXTERIOR view of that ship. Something I can show to the players.

Oh that's a given. Images of the ships are a definite.

 

[rust]

Oh that's a given. Images of the ships are a definite.

This raises my interest quite a bit, because with such images it does not
matter whether the ship's interior uses the space for a jump drive or a
hyperdrive, and my setting's characters are far more likely to see a ship
from the outside than from the inside.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Ok ... so that is one nominal vote for a Warp drive system. Anyone else?

 

[far-trader]

OK, on the Warp vs Jump question then:

I'd more likely buy the Jump ones, but I'm not likely to be a huge customer as funds are tight and gaming prospects near zero, sadly. Though I do tend to grab stuff that looks good even with little hope of playing with it.

On the other hand the Warp one sounds interesting in itself. Fresh. I have a feeling it could be a hot seller, especially if there were some side supplements to expand on the idea of a non-3I more advanced tech setting. And you get to avoid all those canon rounds

For what my opinions are worth

 

[Blix]

"Not really important" for me.

I really don't need to know where the fresher or the kitchen is, or that the cargo bay is two doors and an iris hatch down from the engine room, and the time that authors spend fiddling with CAD programs could be much better spent by adding more detail to the ship descriptions IMO. And I don't use miniatures, so I don't need ship plans to put them on. So by and large, deck plans are utterly useless to me.

I'd like to see pictures of the exterior ship (front, side and top views would be nice), and at most I'd like a general plan or schematic of the interior, especially for big ships. If it's a big ship, list the decks and say what they're for (e.g. Deck 1 - bridge, Decks 2-5 admin, Decks 6-20 crew quarters, etc). Maybe draw a cutaway block diagram, but leave it at that. Artwork of the ship interior is fine too.

The old CT AHL book (supplement 5?) was IMO exactly the wrong way to present a ship book - repetetive pages of almost identical deck designs, lists of ship names... sooo incredibly boring *yawn*.

The ideal ship book for me is something like the Ships of the Fleet books for Jovian Chronicles; those had great external artwork, ship schematics (not deck plans), lots of description (in and out of character), and ship stats.

 

[AndrewW]

I really don't need to know where the fresher or the kitchen is, or that the cargo bay is two doors and an iris hatch down from the engine room, and the time that authors spend fiddling with CAD programs could be much better spent by adding more detail to the ship descriptions IMO. And I don't use miniatures, so I don't need ship plans to put them on. So by and large, deck plans are utterly useless to me.

It will vary but the Mongoose Publishing ones wheren't done with a CAD program, and the author didn't do the deckplans.

 

[Blix]

It will vary but the Mongoose Publishing ones wheren't done with a CAD program, and the author didn't do the deckplans.

Either way, it doesn't really change my point . Someone's spending time on them, and they take up space that could be used for something descriptive.

 

[Treebore]

Do the Warp Drive product, I look for more variety, not more of the same, and I have a TON of TL 10 to 12 stuff.

 

[rust]

Do the Warp Drive product, I look for more variety, not more of the same, and a have a TON of TL 10 to 12 stuff.

Thinking about it, I agree, something completely new would indeed be
what I would be most likely to buy.

 

[Jame Rowe]

...but I really wanted to click H - Oh look, a poll! :lol:

Yeah - this forum only lets you click one! :lol:

Which is a pity, because I like his answer.

(Hey, I didn't even notice Option Aitch...)

My answer is somewhere between "Either way is fine" and "Semi-important," though I selected "Either way" for the poll.

 

[rinku]

I don't usually bother with detailed miniatures for Trav, but knowing the layout of a ship is important for a bunch of reasons. So, yeah, pretty important.

 

[Cleon the Mad]

I voted "Very Important" but really in hindsight I should have voted this:

"Semi-Important. I don't care about fighters and capital ships, but I want them for for 100-2000 ton shipss".

Although I would reword it from "Semi-Important" to "Very Important for 2000 dton and under, semi-important and not always needed for anything larger".

As for type of ships, I personally would have much more use for a "Ships of the Foreven Sector". I'm debating doing a campaign that would at least find itself there on occasion once I get my copy of "Darrians" from Mongoose. Plus, I do play an almost pure OTU campaign usually, so TL 17 to 19 ships would at best be an unusual find, most campaigns I'd run or play in would never see anything like that. Last time I had a group of players find an intact TL 17 ship was years ago if memory serves.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mithras]

The warp drive book sounds fantastic. I would buy that immediately.