sideranautae said:
The reason is because the artists that are hired generally don;t know the rules or much about the subject they are drawing.
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By the way I am a designer, who supplies concept sketches for mongoose...no insult taken, if you can't hear another persons opinion without getting peeved..ya really should find a job that doesn't invite criticism..
I mentioned earlier I know spheres maybe the most efficient space wise, and if that was the only factor yeah, a sphere wins hands down.But I design less than optimal/efficient/realistic for several reasons.
However there are two issues....
artistic:
If your designing ships for an audience you cant always go with the most realistic, or most efficient. after all it is a form of entertainment. You have to try to provide something visually interesting to the audience.
People look for a front and back, as well as a hint to the purpose of the ship. So if your designing a cargo ship you give it obvious cargo pods, or holds. If it's a warship you add a few weapons pointed in the direction the ship is pointed.
If a ship is intended to enter an atmosphere you give at least some form of streamlining, or at least minimal cross section so it isn't a wall flying into a headwind.
The second consideration is well, practicality, bean counters get a vote in ship design.
If a ships weapons are pointed in the "wrong" direction in a fight they are wasted mass, and wasted resources.And in all likelihood on a sphere more than half the weapons will be pointed in the wrong direction to engage the ships primary target. No commander will willingly allow himself to be enveloped so he will most likely be taking fire from one or two directions at most.
Now you could install duplicates of it's heavy weapons around it's circumference to cover those arcs, but bean counters hate duplicate systems. they would insist on a single main weapons system and turning the ship toward the primary target to engage... that means you need a ship that can present a very narrow cross section on at least one facing.
A sphere has the same cross section at any angle. That means you cant hide critical systems behind heavy armor or away from the direct line of fire, the heavily armor the end that's going to take the heaviest fire. You have to armor it 360 x 360...which bean counters also hate. they want you to armor the section that is most likely to be taking heavy fire the heaviest and spread out the remaining armor in other places. ( modern tanks are a great example)
The 360x360 armor also reduces the mass you have to move around, increasing speed and response times...Which is important if you do suddenly face an enemy that can threaten you from an angle our main weapons cant engage. now i know Traveller ships don't consider the actual mass of ships, or the facing of a ship, however if we are talking practicalities of real warships then this is a factor.
Sooooo basically there can be reasons for a non-spheroid ship, without it being impractical, or unrealistic.