Ship Design - Deck Plans Guidelines?

[Tugun]

I know there's supposedly 14 cubic meters to every dton, but... Are there are actual guidelines to doing your own deckplans for your own unique starship?

What determines the number of squares or whatever for a ship? And if i use a % of ship tonnage for armor, does this still take up dtons per se or does the ship's internal space shrink the more armor/% I assign?

Just wondering if anyone has some official rules for deck plan layouts (even a rough guide of how much space is covered by drives, life support, fuel tanks etc.) so I can tailor up my own starship interior maps.

 

[rust]

As far as I know, there are no official rules for deckplans, neither for ear-
lier Traveller versions nor for Mongoose Traveller.
The convention usually is that a dton is depicted as the equivalent of two
squares of 1.5 m each, with a height of ca. 3 m (including the deck).

Apart from this convention, you are free to do whatever you please, and
even this convention is just that - a convention, not a rule.
If you want to use any other system, you are free to do so, although you
should mark clearly what system you are using.

 

[Tugun]

That explains why the staterooms aren't 9-10 squares wide.

Makes sense a bit more now, and gives me something to work with.

Thanks again!

 

[AndrewW]

Things like armor don't show up on deckplans and isn't usually figured into the space available on the plans themselves. Of course they are your plans so feel free to do whatever you wish with them.

Note for low profile vehicles (ie: fighters) it's usually only 1.5 metres high so these take 4 squares to a ton.

 

[atpollard]

Another usefull rule of thumb is that the actual object is at least half its design volume. For example a 'stateroom' is typically 4 dTons (8 squares under the guidelines already mentioned), however, the actual staeroom is typically shown as only 4 squares with the other 4 squares used for common areas and corridors.

Have fun drawing.

 

[iainjcoleman]

Also, a deck plan is considered valid if the tonnage obtained by counting up the squares (2 squares to a ton) is within +/- 20% of the listed tonnage.

 

[Tugun]

Another usefull rule of thumb is that the actual object is at least half its design volume. For example a 'stateroom' is typically 4 dTons (8 squares under the guidelines already mentioned), however, the actual staeroom is typically shown as only 4 squares with the other 4 squares used for common areas and corridors.

Have fun drawing.

Will do. Plus I figured that the extra "ghost tons" for a stateroom were either that (corridors/common areas as mentioned in the book(s) and by you above) as well as the life support equipment, which I thought wasn't necessarily IN the stateroom space itself (IMHO more likely in the engineering section or perhaps the same deck at some central hub where it connects via ventilation ducts, plumbing, heating etc.)

 

[AndrewW]

Another usefull rule of thumb is that the actual object is at least half its design volume. For example a 'stateroom' is typically 4 dTons (8 squares under the guidelines already mentioned), however, the actual staeroom is typically shown as only 4 squares with the other 4 squares used for common areas and corridors.

Have fun drawing.

Well, staterooms usually occupy 6 squares for 3 dtons with the extra for common areas and corridors.

 

[Dave Chase]

In most official designs, deck plans take up the 1.5m by 1.5m by 3m that rust mentioned.

But from the side view most decks are only 2.5m tall with the floor/ceiling being 0.5m thick.

A hot bunk takes up 2 squares by 1 square with corridors being 1.5m wide being typical.

Most deckplans do not show the large volume of fuel (water) in the plans, especially on Jump capable ships.
Most of that fuel space is taken up in the outer part of the ship (wings and the such) or are in a seperate section that is normally not accessible by most.
The few plans that do show the fuel area do so either out of completeness or because of some special feature or location on the deckplan.

Depending on the tech level, hatchets are normally found on the outer hull and as block points for sectioning off the ship.
Iris values are found on many Imperial ships.

It is typical to use a thick line for hull bulk heads while using a thinner line for standard walls. (Difference in how much damage they can take before breaching and bulk head/hull walls are vaccum pressure capable where most intertior walls can not hold pressure.

Just a few of the given things one could find in many of the Traveller products out that include ships.

Dave Chase

 

[RandyT0001]

Don't know what software you'll be using but I wrote an essay on how to draw Traveller deckplans using Campaign Cartograhper 2 Pro (CC2Pro). Even if you don't use CC2Pro the overall process might prove to be helpful. A copy of it can be seen at Freelance Traveller. In fact the shipyard section contains a fair amount of fan created material for previous versions of Traveller that might be helpful until Mongoose or a third party publisher can produce something a bit more "official".

 

[BP]

Tugun, there are numerous deck plans to be found on the web - a simple search of the forum (link above) with keyword of 'deckplans' and forum set to 'Traveller' should fetch some posts with nice ones - like in this one.

If you don't have High Guard - the SRD adds more design options (see the Sticky regarding the Developers Pack). Also, there are a number of deckplans in the previews provided at the bottom of the Mongoose Traveller page (under downloads).

 

[GypsyComet]

Most deckplans do not show the large volume of fuel (water) in the plans, especially on Jump capable ships.
Most of that fuel space is taken up in the outer part of the ship (wings and the such) or are in a seperate section that is normally not accessible by most.
The few plans that do show the fuel area do so either out of completeness or because of some special feature or location on the deckplan.

For example, if you are designing ships on the "living quarters in the middle surrounded by fuel" model, you still want to know how long your airlock corridor needs to be to reach the outside. Most civilian ships have little enough fuel that it ends up in discrete compartments that you can use to fill out the shape of decks, or isolate engineering from everything else, or, if you want to hide it, put between decks as a half-deck.

Some of us are serious deckplan nuts (raises hand) because we started back when a big part of Traveller was the shipboard skirmish game 'Snapshot'. Knowing how your ship is arranged also allows for informed responses to emergencies ("Wade's stateroom is between mine and the bridge, so I'll kick his doorbell while I run past." or "The ship's locker is behind me, and not behind the Denebian Tree Lion. Right?").

It does come down to the style of play. For some, a ship is just plot device to get from place to place and consume money. For others the ship is a character, just like the ones walking around.