Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Starships: Bridge and Acceleration Commands

Typical dial positions

Many past ships have the following dial indications:

Flank ahead (1940–present) (US only)
Full ahead
Half ahead
Slow ahead
Dead slow ahead
Standby
Stop
Finished with main engines
Dead slow astern
Slow astern
Half astern
Full astern
Emergency astern (1940–present)

Any orders could also be accompanied by an RPM order, giving the precise engine speed desired. Many modern ships have the following dial indications:

Full ahead navigation (on notice to increase or reduce)
Full ahead
Half ahead
Slow ahead
Dead slow ahead
Stop
Dead slow astern
Slow astern
Half astern
Full astern

"Finished with engines" and "standby" conveyed via separate control panel.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: PLANETARY DEFENSE | How to protect your world from invasion [FIXED]

Generic greetings and welcome to science insanity, a channel dedicated to bringing my love of sci-fi to you. Today we're covering planetary defenses, how they work, what they do and what the different types of them are. So settle in and get ready to learn how to protect your world from all the nasty, filthy, disgusting xeno filth trying to invade it.

1. Monitors as garrisons, or more precisely, guardships.

2. Arguably, space stations would be closer to garrisons, at least in orbital terms.

3. Fleet in being acts as deterrence in terms of pyrrhic victory.

4. Command of spacetime tends to ensure your backyard doesn't get trampled on.

5. Planetary guns tend to be sitting targets.

6. Arguably, defence platforms are space stations.

7. Fleet installations and bases just make maintaining and repairing fleet assets easier.

8. Do we have megastructures? I guess by now Luna would be pretty much swiss cheesed.

9. Screens and force fields would be localized.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and Why do missiles show up so often in science fiction? | Discussion breakdown

Generic greetings and welcome to sceince insanity, a channel dedicated to feeding my ego and indulging in turbo nerd culture. Today we'll be discussing why missiles show up in science fiction and why. From star wars to halo, mass effect to the expanse, stargate to star trek. Missiles and their alter egos make up a good chunk of all sci-fi weapons. So settle in and learn why from afull unqualified fool.

1. Energy weapons tend to be can openers.

2. Need bigger interceptor missiles.

3. Get up close and personal.

4. Drones, probes, missiles, and commonality.

5.

6. Base damage, plus dice number times (missile number minus one).

7. Drama.

8. Well, stored potential damage, versus, drawn from existing energy pool.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Structure, Breakaway Hulls, and Hardpoints

1. ... operate as two or more independent vessels ...

2. Each section must have an appropriate bridge and power plant to operate it.

3. Hull points of each section will be proportionate to the total Hull points of the ship.

4. There are only so many weapons that can be attached to a ship, the limiting factors being the supply of energy, the stresses imposed upon the hull through the use of high-powered weaponry and the surface area of a hull it is possible to cover with weapons.

5. Ships of less than 100 tons have Firmpoints instead of Hardpoints.

6. So, twenty one thirty five tonne breakaway hulls equal seven hundred thirty five tonnes.

7. In theory, that's seven hardpoints and two firmpoints,

8. On actuality, none of those sections have enough hull volume to qualify for one hardpoint.

9. Instead, you could have twenty one single turrets, and twenty one fixed mounts.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Structure, Breakaway Hulls, and Hardpoints

A. In theory, if you can use the better hull point distribution from larger hulls for breakaways hulls, you could transfer hardpoints in a similar fashion.

B. But it's a slippery slope, because what would prevent you use copies of the specific hardpointed smallcraft breakaway hull to replace non hardpointed smallcraft breakaway hulls.

C. If you point to modularization as a loophole, the sub hundred tonne module has to have a preexisting hull section, that supports the hardpoint.

D. Podularization is an existing hull section; the one question you might have if it counts to the minimum hull volume of spinal mounts, and I would say no, because you can still fly the spaceship without them (installed).

E. I tend to think that hull point exemption for breakaway hulls was either not thought through, or an oversight.

F. The penalty, of course, for switching to firmpoints is the limitation of weapon systems installed, in both range and quality, even if you potentially have more slots.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Structure, Breakaway Hulls, and Hardpoints

G. Breakaway hulls are interesting if you can leverage one or more of their feautures.

H. Keeping them smallcraft sized because of control centre costs, only tends to save wiring expenses for their particular section, since the chances are you still have to wire them up for the central bridge.

I. The other obvious feature is stealth maintenance, repair, and upgrading.

J. Refitting costs, or repairs, include the time required, and the extra expenses in getting to a particular damaged ship component.

K. Using Lego construction, you can easily switch them out.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Structure and Hull Traits

1. Advanced at technological level twelve, made from strong, lightweight variations of the standard materials, at double cost; maybe a bonus to acceleration?

2. Crude hulls are quickly made and both heavier and less efficiently streamlined than other hulls, increase base Reflected Signature by +25%; it's slower, and costs a quarter less.

3. Disposable hull is designed for only a single-use, though attempts can be made to reuse the hull, but all repair and operations checks suffer DM-4; slightly faster and costs a quarter less.

4. Heat Shielding is only available for streamlined hulls and cost at ten kilostarbux per tonne, probably closer to reality than a hundred kilostarbux, though costs probably don't quite translate one to one.

5. Heavy is likely military hull; seems to slow down acceleration.

6. Lightweight materials or manufacturing processes can create a lightweight hull; costs fifty percent more though likely loses hull points, but probably has better acceleration.

7. Radiation Shielding appears to need a higher technological level, but appears to be a lot cheaper; so the question is what is a LaFarge charged particle screen?

8. Stealth apparently does not exist in space, by here we are.

9. Tough grants a ship additional hull points and increases its base cost by 50%, the 'Tough' trait imparted by a Composite hull incurs no additional cost over the cost of the hull material; who knows how that's actually handled.

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: The Satire Hidden in ALIEN's Production Design | Making Alien

In this video, we take an in-depth look at the dark satire injected by Ron Cobb into the production design of Alien’s Nostromo spaceship that highlights the fact that the true monster of Alien is not the creature but the Weyland-Yutani corporation itself.

1. Leyland-Toyota.

2. Egyptian aesthetic.

3. Corporation fanbois.

4. Wrap me in plastic ...

5. Padding.

6. Futuristic corporate design.

7. Emojis.

8. Replaceable tools.

9. Multi purpose.

A. It's people! Megacorporation is made out of people!

B. Failsafe.

 

[Condottiere]

Starwarships: The artistic principles behind SCI-FI ship design

Hello hello, this video is a meta dive into color, shape and the forms used to convey feeling, aesthetic and appearance for science fiction ships designs. Most people don't know much about what goes into actually making science fiction designs, so this should hopefully introduce people to the often totally unnoticed elements of creativity and skill that goes into making the iconic ships of the Sci-Fi genre.

This is also going to be part 1. I originally wanted to make this video on the structural elements like engines and guns placement and such but decided it would be both more interesting and more informative to do this instead.

Also, while this was a voted on topic, a part 2 will be made on the stuff I cut because I feel like 25 minutes doesn't do justice to the original topic choice and its more content fodder so, yea, part two eventually. Maybe.

1. Shape.

2. Scale and balance.

3. Purpose and function.

4. Colour.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Tug Vessels in Science Fiction

Spacedock delves into the little-remarked space tugs of certain sci-fi franchises.

1. Jump shuttles.

2. Involuntary salvage operation.


Special Salvage Operation

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Underway Replenishment and Jump Fuelling

1. It's one of those spaceship components that's missing ninety percent of the description.

2. In theory, you could pump fuel through the UNREP directly to the jump drive from an external hull.

3. Twenty tonnes of fuel per hour per tonne of dedicated equipment.

4. That's one tonne of fuel per three minutes, per tonne.

5. In practice, we don't actually know the flow rate of fuel from the onboard tanks to the jump drive.

6. Nor, what's the actual time window this occurs, or can occur.

7. Even being generous and confining it to three minutes from the six possible, you'd need one tonne of dedicated equipment per tonne transferred.

8. Best case would have been half a tonne per tonne of fuel, but that assumes that the fuel is transferred to the jump drive over six minutes.

9. About the only way that an extended hose from an external hull could possibly fuel the jump drive, without resorting to drop tanks.

 

[wingsday]

What if you had, for example, a 5k j1 destroyer, that had a 2.32t drop tank mount, and a like, ~800t or whatever fuel skimmer w/ a 580t fuel tank, another 2.32t drop tank mount, and a clamp, the idea being that you just mate the 2 drop tank mounts. It's maybe pushing the rules some but I don't really see why you can't just hook up a pipe that's sufficient to another pipe that's sufficient

 

[Condottiere]

1. The drop tank is attached directly to the hull of the starship.

2. Underway replenishment assumes some distance between the two hulls; how much is somewhat unclear.

3. A five kilotonne starship needs default five hundred tonnes of fuel per parsec travelled, so if that's totally in a drop tank, that would require that two tonnes mentioned.

4. Firstly, there are the docking ports, fuel injectors and explosive collars that allow the spacecraft to mount drop tanks and jettison them quickly.

5. The assumption would be that fuel injectors would be part of that two tonnes.

6. Remember, a lot of the current rationale/explanation would be retcon, trying to fit in with the need to have that extra five hundred tonnes outside of it's, ah, one hundred diameter gravitational influence before it affects the jump transition, either during or in it's end phase.

7. Even assuming one five hundredths is the requisite high pressure plumbing, it's still, in practical terms, next to the jump drive.

8. The difference would be the need to maintain the flow rate over some distance, and some flex in the hose, since not quite sure the distance moved within that round, whether it's three or six minutes, or whatever the time window would be.

9. Again, the text misses out requisite details.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Engineering, Jump Drives, and the Expanding Universe

Otherwise, it is destroyed by the expanding jump bubble or warped by the jettison explosion.


That doesn't contradict the aforegoing, however it does confirm that that the jump bubble expands from some point, rather than leaping into existence.

I'd say it does come into existence just outside the starship hull, otherwise if it's internal, say the jump drive itself, you have to explain what happens to the contents of said starship.

The problem with an expanding bubble, is, where does it start?

Because, even if by some reason the starship's hull is grounded to the jump drive, what happens if you have cargo piggy backing, along for the ride?

At this point, you get the rationale for the jump net, which would protect the external item from the expanding bubble, rather than extending the jump field.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments, Point Defence Lasers, and Underdogfighting

1. Point defence turret power point consumption is one over six minutes.

2. Point defence lasers are one to two power points per shot.

3. Dogfighting modes switches on at close range.

4. Point defence dual lasers need only one power point per shot.

5. That's a quarter power draw of a hardpointed laser, and a third of a firmpointed laser.

6. Since it's on a turret, heading doesn't really matter.

7. Since the rules say that the point defence turret can only can be used on a hardpoint, useful to swat fighters from freighters.

8. Actually, only the point defence turret needs to be emplaced on a hardpoint.

9. There could be a loophole.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments, Point Defence Lasers, and Underdogfighting

A. A single point-defence laser can be mounted in a point-defence turret or replace standard weapons in a normal turret.

B. Depends on whether a firmpointed turret is considered standard.

C. One (and only one) Firmpoint can be upgraded to a single (not double or triple) turret, which may fire in all directions as normal.

D. You lose the plus two accuracy from the point defence turret, and have doubled the tonnage, but pay fifty kilostarbux less.

E. The point of the exercise is to get a low powered laser onboard.

F. And again, depends on how normal is defined.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments, Point Defence Lasers, and Underdogfighting

G. In theory, you should be able to install the defence laser in a hardpointed fixed mount.

H. Again, you should be able to install it as a firmpointed fixed mount.

I. The given text tends to invalidate that.

J. These weapon systems are definitely dual use.

K. Whereas the twenty tonne point defence systems won't even scratch the paint off the hull.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and ENERGY WEAPONS in SCI-FI | The types of energy weapons and why they show up so much.

Generic greetings and welcome to another episode of science insanity. Today an opinion piece on a sci-fi classic, energy weapons. Everything from cannons to railguns, flak rounds and PDC’s. We’ll break down the general types you see pop up in science fiction and what they're good at. Then we’ll discuss why they're so common and what they offer to the audience and writers.

1. Trash energy efficiency for solid state.

2. Chemical lasers use ammunition.

3. Pulse lasers more efficient in that it allows vapourized materials to evaporate.

4. Particle weapons use magnetism.

5. Coherent and charged.

6. Plasma, over complicated?

7. Charged and hot.

8. Static electricity.

9. Cost effective.

A. Colour coding.

 

[Condottiere]

Starwarships: Life Aboard... The Millennium Falcon | Spaceship Breakdown

In every space opera, every space adventure, every Western in the stars, you can guarantee that somewhere in the cast will be a rogue - a smuggler, a pirate - sat behind the wheel of their very own space ship. Often it will be falling apart, often it will have some hidden depths that make it worthy of being a hero ship.

And at the core of this thoroughly milked genre trope is the Millennium Falcon - a hulking bucket of rust and bolts that inspired a thousand and one other ships. Since the 1970s, there hasn’t been a single generation of kids that hasn’t been awed by the kitbashed squashed burger - and you’ll be hard pressed to find a fan of science fiction who wouldn’t gladly sell their kidneys to ride alongside their favourite dog in the Falcon.

But beyond the hype, beyond the nostalgia - what would it be like to live aboard the ship that completed the Kessel Run in 14 parsecs?

0:00 Introduction
1:25 The Ship
6:40 The Computer
10:07 Working Life
15:24 Food & Drink
17:21 Recreation
21:24 Conclusion

1. Flattened sphere.

2. Modified freighter yacht.

3. Refitted blockade runner.

4. Glitching onboard computer.

5. Fast, tough, and ignorable.

6. Hyper rupture, when the void looks back.

7. Three months of supplies.

8. Local cuisine.

9. Corellian caping device.

A. Medical bay.

B. Recreation/training area.

C. Bravery.

 

[Sigtrygg]

And now the most hated video