Ship Design Philosophy

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Starships: Inside the Ship That Changed WWII | The Liberty Ship

The Liberty Ship was a cargo vessel so important it helped turn the tide of World War II. We’ve recreated it in 3D for this video, so you can see exactly how it all worked, from the engine room to the bridge.

Liberty ships were cargo vessels built by the United States during World War II to transport supplies, equipment, and troops to Allied forces around the world. Designed for rapid, low-cost production, more than 2,700 were constructed between 1941 and 1945. They were built faster than the enemy could sink them. Powered by a triple-expansion steam engine, they reached speeds of about 11 knots. Although intended as temporary wartime transports, many remained in service for decades. Simple and reliable, Liberty ships became a backbone of the Allied war effort.

Chapters
00:00 - 00:54 Intro
00:54 - 02:26 History
02:26 - 04:10 Specifications & Capabilities
04:10 - 06:49 Exterior Tour
06:49 - 07:59 Weapons & Defenses
07:59 - 11:18 Bridge Deck & Boat Deck
11:18 - 11:58 Upper Deck
11:58 - 14:50 Second Deck & Steering Gear
14:50 - 15:50 Tank Top
15:50 - 17:51 Boilers
17:51 - 20:27 Engine
20:27 - 22:02 Legacy & Conclusion

1. Seven kilotonnes plus, eleven knots, and under a hundred man crew.

2. Technically, the Victory ships were fifty percent larger and faster.

3. If I had to recreate one, I'd go for five kilotonnes.

4. Though, with interstellar scale, and the requirements of an interstellar military, a hundred kilotonnes.

5. One of the advantages would be that while as a larger target it would be more attractive to commerce raiders, you'd need a lot of them to tackle it.

6. Or, a light cruiser.

7. Crew size would be cut by two thirds, and you could link weapon systems together, that would make a hit on a light cruiser possibly critical.

8. The numbers of laser turrets should ensure a rather effective point defence shield.

9. And a little investment in large bays, should give even the most aggressive of commerce raider captains pause.

 

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Size also has a defensive value against critical hits. Above 2,000 tons ignores turret and barbette critical hits; above 10,000 tons ignore small bays. Coupled with the large number of hull points those ships come with, it becomes hard for small commerce raiders to do anything other than scratch them before they make jump (if able), or to avoid a long drawn out fight. An armed 5k hauler may well win a fight against smaller ships even if the total number of weapons were less, if it was doing effect and 10% criticals while the attackers could not.

And the longer the freighter can stay fighting, the more time any help has to catch the raiders.

Further thought on those rules - one of the ways small ships can do the job is missiles, since multiple ships can combine into a salvo to overwhelm defenses and get into 10% critical hit territory regardless of the size threshold rule.

There's also a problem in that turret/barbette missiles are the same as bay ones, so the large ship rule probably shouldn't apply to those. It seems odd that a Medium Missile Bay launching a salvo of 12 causes effect criticals, but three missile barbettes firing a salvo of 15 does not.

 

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Missile and torpedo count as individuals when launching, and salvoes when arriving, so the launcher type doesn't count.

In theory.

It's more a question of fire control and fratricide, which is probably why it's fire and forget.

And, you could time it so that several salvoes arrive in the same round.

In that sense, it's why you'd want a robust point defence, if only to trim down the number of missiles.

And at a hundred kilotonnes, you definitely will have close escorts.

What I'm having trouble with, is establishing what's considered the normal jump range.

When I tried mapping out a Confederation wide express boat network, it became pretty obvious why jump factor/four is a requirement.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

V. At least in the short term, pulsing is faster than puttering along at a milligee.

W. In the practical sense, you'd be better off using a default hull, and install a manoeuvre drive onboard.

X. In the more taxation evasive accounting sense, it's was fundamentally cheaper to minimize capital outlay and operating costs.

Y. Balancing the requirement with simplicity and Byzantine compromises, to achieve something workable and worthwhile, is an art form.

Z. And in real life, sometimes convenience is more attractive than cost.

 

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Starwarships: True Size of the Imperial Navy [999.M41] 3D Documentary

In this Warhammer 40,000 lore documentary series we will be exploring the True Size of the Imperial Navy of the 41st millenium. In this first episode we look at the overall naval hierarchy, the ship classes, and a typical ship section. This includes everything from the smallest attack craft to Destroyers, Frigates, Battleships, and even Gloriana class flagships.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
05:17 Fleet Hierarchy
09:54 Typical Ship Section
12:22 Ship Classes
14:10 Escort Class
16:19 Cruiser Class
18:20 Battleship Class
20:13 Gloriana Class
21:28 Outro

1. Segmentum, possibly domain.

2. Sector two hundred light years, squared, or sixty one plus parsecs.

3. Ours being forty by thirty two parsecs.

4. Plus infrastructure and fortifications.

5. Battle groups, or task forces.

6. Broadsides, to cross the tee, or, perhaps, use of secondary armament after the spinal mount can't be brought to bear.

7. You probably want gunboats and fighters.

8. Minor combatants.

9. Pack tactics.

A. Rear guard.

B. You probably have to adjust tactics based on the capabilities of the starwarships you bring with you.

C. Battle groups seem to be built around a battleship.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

1. Is pulsing worth it?

2. On the face of it, no.

3. You're really reliant on a good engineer, and/or engineering department.

4. It's more a way to surpass rules that cap performance for specific spacecraft design archetypes.

5. Arguably, a way to take off from a Terran standard gravity well, with a factor/one manoeuvre drive.

6. Apparently, you can't overclock a reactionary rocket.

7. Though, at technological level seven, with factor/three available, it's not a necessity.

8. Plasma drives aren't mentioned, and with a fuel component, probably not possible.

9. Solar sails might depend on the helmsman detecting and capturing the extra energy from solar storms and flares.

 

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If your ship can hover on anti-gravity without using the drive, you should be able to make orbit on any amount of thrust. That seems to be how Air/Rafts do it.

If you're constrained by reality, use a booster rocket to launch. It could even be the type that can fly back and be refuelled.

Although the sort that's a part of the ship has more uses. A combined 2G thrust for even one round (6 minutes) easily gets the ship moving fast enough to head up up and away.

 

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That's the issue, we don't really have a clear answer as to whether lifters are inherent in manoeuvre drives.

Or if it's an add on.

Or if the writers are thinking of vectored thrust.

With air/rafts, it's a valid assumption that the local gravity is, or has to be, neutralized, so that rising to near orbit is possible.

Booster rocket is possible, but adds complication, and takes up two percent of volume, plus uses up one tenth to a quarter percent of fuel per six minutes.

I'd be more enthusiastic, but the current update quadrupled rocket volume.

And they simplified high burn thrusters by mixing the two together, for better or worse.

So, it's a bit of dog's breakfast.

 

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Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

A. The bridge has two weeks of life support and battery power, while emergency thrusters give it basic manoeuvring capabilities, equivalent to Thrust 0.

B. A detachable bridge is even capable of soft-landing on a planetary surface.

C. That means it can safely land on Terra, presumably.

D. If you can overclock that, it can take off from a gravity well, of less than Terran standard.

E. I tend to think of dropships, or pods, with manoeuvre drive factor/zero.

F. It would be a one way trip from an orbital release, but it can self deliver.