Making a functional deckplan

[zero]

As I near the completion of my Cstars ship design (a TL 8-ish 100 dton ship with spinning pod arms as living space under a generated gravity made for inner planet trade with a small crew) I have come up with a point that needs remedying before I can possibly create a deckplan.

The ship will have in its main cigar-shape body a bridge section, an Engineering section at the rear with a Class A Reaction Drive, room for the fuel, both as xenon gas (for the Reaction Drive) and Hydrogen (for the P-plant). There will also be a cargo section.

Now my main issues are where to place the cargo hold in the main body, as the crew stateroom will be in the one spinning pod, Engineering and the Bridge need to be close to the spinning arms (I would place them adjacent more or less, excluding common space) otherwise the crew will be wasting time getting to their positions.
I used to place the Cargo Hold in a deck below the main one in my Traveller ships, I am not sure if this would be acceptable given the spinning structure of the ship (I'm having to also wonder if having these arms could mean if the ship is technically still stream-lined or not, a bonus I got to forgo the shuttle phase of transit - as it wont be out skimming due to its inner system role)

I will keep the the fuel space on either side of Engineering and have them built inside little aerodynamic wing structures, they wont be aerofins (too small for that) but act more as visible points on the exterior to show where fuel is kept (and make it look as if the ship is more aerodynamic than what it is :wink: )

Either way the ship is going to be tiny, but its shaping up to be a nice little ship that I grow proud of, so good I may use it for lower TL worlds in my normal Traveller games. I will post a statblock when complete too.

Any opinions on where to place cargo on this type of ship would be appreciated anyway, thank you.

 

[far-trader]

Any opinions on where to place cargo on this type of ship would be appreciated anyway, thank you.

How about externally? In vacuum rated shipping containers lashed down to tie points on the hull. This way you don't lose volume for access or getting past it and the ship can be balanced (critical for spin hab ship I'd think) by placing the containers at specific points depending on total containers and individual container masses.

 

[zero]

Ok, but are there any specific rules or critically, loss to dtonnage of the ship from this?

I currently just have the alotted cargo space left as spare dtonnage as normal, spending valuable credits on containers is also something I want to avoid.

Btw, I actually do like this idea, but I dont want to change the actual statblock around if I can help it.

Also I have a smallish space for cargo (potentially under 30dtons of the 100) so if it doesnt affect things, aesthetically it could work too.

 

[phavoc]

Are you planning on having a single cargo hold, or can you break it up?

If you want a single hold, then you are going to need to modify the central section to accomodate the cargo bay. Don't forget you can store fuel between decks so that you don't have to allocate a specific section on your deckplans showing fuel stowage. Just swag it and you'll be fine.

If you are ok with splitting the cargo up, you have some choices. You can go with containers that are fitted externally to the central hull that can be removed at will. You could also go with cargo 'blisters' that are similar to the container concept, except that they don't detach. In either case you have a choice of designing access from inside the ship, or only externally. If you are short on space, then I'd say the cargo can only be accessed externally. If you have a bay large enough for a single container, then you could say you would have to bring them in one at a time in order to access the cargo.

 

[Captain Jonah]

If the ship has no armour then the normal damage rules work, taking a hit on the cargo will work in exactly the same way if it is a single internal cargo hold or a load of external pods.

Several people have already mentioned external cargo pods. This is probably the best idea. You have no grav plates, no jump drives and no armour so there is no reason for the cargo to be inside anyway.

You ship is a cylinder, so fitting the outside with a frame or structure able to hold a ring of 1Dton cargo pods. If your ship is 100Dtons or roughly 5m wide by 20m long as a cylinder. This gives you a hull circ of roughly 30m, a single cargo 1Dton cargo por is 1.5m wide, 3m long and 3mhigh so allowing for the frame and fittings taking up space either side of the pod to clamp it in place as well you could wrap 10 cargo pods in a ring around the ships outer hull.

One full ring gives you 10Dtons of cargo and takes up 3m of length. Two full rings will take 6m etc. Depending on how much cargo you have 10Dtons/20/30 etc who simply mark off that much of the outer hull as cargo racking. Over engineering you have fuel and you need to keep the area of the spin habitat clear but you should be able to fit 40Dtons taking up 12m of hull length easily. Since these are sealed pods and not accessible from the ship you don't need to include full details on the deck plan. Step in the hull radius for that bit of the hull that holds cargo to account for the cargo taking up ships volume and you are done :lol:

 

[rust]

If I did not misunderstand your concept with the spinning habitat, a cargo
hold inside the ship should probably be close to the center of mass of the
ship to avoid structural stress caused by an "untrimmed" ship.
However, I think I would also prefer external cargo pods, unless they ha-
ve to be big enough to include passenger pods. With smaller pods you do
not need to allocate volume and money for clamps (at least this is my in-
terpretation), and you can "trim" the ship by connecting the pods around
the ship according to their mass.
Another point to remember is that it should be easy to connect and remo-
ve the pods, so they should be somewhere where the "longshoremen" ha-
ve sufficient access space and are not endangered by moving parts or by
"hot" parts of a drive (and the cargo should also be far from anything ra-
dioactive - it already gets enough radiation in space anyway).

 

[zero]

I might have some titanium steel armour for the ship as its currently worked out quite cheap, not alot, the minimum amount will probably be on it.

I will probably split the cargo into 5dton canisters, as mail is 5dtons and I dont have an odd number not in the 5s of cargo to begin with. Though the 10dton idea is good and means less splitting up the freight.

Captain Jonah, I didnt get your last sentence btw. For simplicity I may have the cargo containers able to be entered from within and have them stuck to the ships sides in as an aerodynamic way as I can.

I still havent tried to deckplan this ship, but I can already see alot of trial and errors before I get it :roll:

 

[rust]

Captain Jonah, I didnt get your last sentence ...

As I read it, Captain Jonah points out that the hull of the ship should have
a "step" or an indentation where the cargo pods fit in.

 

[AndrewW]

Note Book 6: Scoundrel has an External Cargo option:

External Cargo: Instead of carrying its cargo inside the hull, a ship may be designed to mount cargo in an external rack or framework. This allows a smaller hull to be used instead, making the ship considerably cheaper.

Alternately there's the modular hull option in Book 2: High Guard.

 

[Moonstruck]

I would only spin part of the ship, in a "Lifesupport ring". A la, 2001 A Space Odysey.

Right H.A.L.L.?
Yes Dave.

Then you can stick any small craft and cargo pods you want. In docking clamps of some type. Around the non-roating part of the ship.

 

[AndrewW]

I would only spin part of the ship, in a "Lifesupport ring". A la, 2001 A Space Odysey.

Right H.A.L.L.?
Yes Dave.

HAL: I can't do that Dave.

 

[Mithras]

At the front for ease of cargo transfer!

 

[Captain Jonah]

Since you have nothing radioactive in the drive section there is no reason for the crew to be keep away from it.

On so small a ship put the ring or rotational point midships of the volume. If your drives take up 20Dtons and you have 10Dtons of fuel and 20Dtons of cargo for example. The drives and fuel behind the rotational point, cargo in from plus you need another 10Dtons up fron to balance. Say the bridge behind the cargo and just in front of the rotational point.

Moonstruck this is half of the topic, the other half which is about rings and pods as rotational sections is under the title gravity rings :lol:

 

[zero]

Gotcha, it should be easy when deckplanning to split the dtonnage and have a strut with pods in the middle.

I will be keeping the cargo space around as internally entered and use it to balance the ship too.

 

[rje]

Also I have a smallish space for cargo (potentially under 30dtons of the 100) so if it doesnt affect things, aesthetically it could work too.

Sounds like a fitted module, inserted into a frame on the main hull, suitable for a TL8 version of the Modular Cutter to deliver and pick up.

 

[zero]

Cargo space has gone up, its 38 tons and I am slowly placing this space into seperate holds around the ship, with a certain amount infront and behind the spinhabs to even the ship out.

The deckplan is starting to come along, I have finished Engineering and Fuel space (after much turning the air blue due to tonnage and the slightly off number of tonnage a Transit-Drive has).

Thanks to all for the input so far, in this and other threads, I shall get a deckplan online at some point.