The Athena is not your comon space liner, it is a much smaller model of passenger transport.Actually, check the .pdf section on the main RPG site. I don't own the book personally, but I believe the Athena Strain takes place on a liner, and the pdf section has both deck plans and a deck layout. I don't know how accurate it is for all star liners, or if it's what you're looking for, but it might serve as a starting point.
Because a commanding officer needs to be close at hand at all times in case of an emergency. So if something dire happens that really NEEDS the captains word, he can get to the bridge in a matter of seconds rather than the minutes it might take him if he had a cabin in section A with the rest of the crew.1) Why exactly are the bridge and especially the captain's quarters in the zero-g part of the ship?
Actually it's in a good place. Remember, that part of the rotating section is the "outer deck", so the shuttles can launch with help from the ships rotation, just like B5's Starfuries. Docking would require some kind of "corkscrew motion", true, but nothing an autopilot couldn't handle (especially consoidering that a liner will use it's shuttles only under ideal conditions - stationkeeping near its PoD or Destination-, unlike a warship).2) Doesn't the shuttle bay have kind of a strange shape and position? A rotating, one deck thick donut right beside the engines. There would never be enough space to put even one light shuttle in there and docking would be a very delicate manoeuvre.
Exactly. See the "engineering section" at the end of the corridor? The thrusters of the main engines are just aft of that (duh!)3) For that matter, where are the engines? I would have guessed the should be at the rear of the central section because there is actually no good reason to have a corridor that long.
ShadowScout said:Because a commanding officer needs to be close at hand at all times in case of an emergency. So if something dire happens that really NEEDS the captains word, he can get to the bridge in a matter of seconds rather than the minutes it might take him if he had a cabin in section A with the rest of the crew.1) Why exactly are the bridge and especially the captain's quarters in the zero-g part of the ship?
ShadowScout said:Actually it's in a good place. Remember, that part of the rotating section is the "outer deck", so the shuttles can launch with help from the ships rotation, just like B5's Starfuries. Docking would require some kind of "corkscrew motion", true, but nothing an autopilot couldn't handle (especially consoidering that a liner will use it's shuttles only under ideal conditions - stationkeeping near its PoD or Destination-, unlike a warship).2) Doesn't the shuttle bay have kind of a strange shape and position? A rotating, one deck thick donut right beside the engines. There would never be enough space to put even one light shuttle in there and docking would be a very delicate manoeuvre.
ShadowScout said:Exactly. See the "engineering section" at the end of the corridor? The thrusters of the main engines are just aft of that (duh!)3) For that matter, where are the engines? I would have guessed the should be at the rear of the central section because there is actually no good reason to have a corridor that long.
ShadowScout said:Modification however is a worthy goal! Go on, make up your own spaceliner! We have the Aasimov class from the show and the Princess class from "The Athena Strain" - who is to say that threre aren't a lot more liner versions floating around? Make up yours, get an nice graphics program (older versions are usually to be had for little money, and serve quite well for these purposes) and draw up prety deck plans. Hell, if you do a good job you could even submit it to Mongoose for publication in S&P!