Ugliest Starship
- Thread starter mancerbear
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ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Cool.AndrewW said:
mancerbear
Mongoose
I would be very surprised if the Tigress wasn't in High Guard.
Tenacious-Techhunter
Mongoose
Realistically, reactionless or not, Maneuver Drives would be much more effective if they were separated into partial units and put at every extreme of the ship away from the center of mass; better leverage there. And just inboard of the Maneuver Drive units would be the sensor units, similarly “leveraging” the improved perspective that having its units mounted at the extremes provides. A ship would be much more likely to be “pulled” from the front and the sides than “pushed” from the back, unless it’s just some massive freighter or “ship-of-the-line”, for which turning performance is less important for one reason or another.
Another issue that Traveller ship design completely neglects are the massive radiators required, for which the typical “propellant exhaust port” cannot realistically be a match.
Another issue that Traveller ship design completely neglects are the massive radiators required, for which the typical “propellant exhaust port” cannot realistically be a match.
middenface
Cosmic Mongoose
AndrewW said:
How readable will the deckplan be? With the iso style of plan (which I don't like)
middenface
Cosmic Mongoose
Tenacious-Techhunter said:
You forget several important facts..
1. You are discussing technology that does not exist and in the far far future - you cannot possible say for certain how things work etc etc
2. Neither points have any sort of bearing on the game and players won't give a rats ass any way.
3. Radiators fine, this has been brought up time and time again.. you want them play 2300AD
4. It's A GAME not a simulation (see point 2 as well)
5. I can see the logic of your point - but I am quite happy with my designs and 30 odd years of Traveller art.
6. Waste heat is shunted into hyperspace via the GNDN conduit. I chose not to show the radiators they are hidden...
7. Too much realism makes a game boring/unplayable. 2300AD has got it right. Much like having hyper accurate deckplans.. they would be unusable.
8. Again it's a game - its SCIENCE FICTION
And besides what does your post have to do with the original question???
Tenacious-Techhunter
Mongoose
There was some discussion regarding how a ship’s form should fit its function.
Your “facts” are merely opinion...
1. Leverage is leverage is leverage. Physics isn’t merely negated just because it’s the future.
2. No one said it had bearing on the game. It does, however, have bearing on how a ship’s design should follow its function; which is a part of this thread.
3. Opinion.
4. More opinion.
5. Yet more opinion.
6. You’re talking waste heat from the core reactor; actually, in spite of being a lower temperature, the waste heat from the people inside the ship can be a much trickier problem.
7. Too much lack of realism makes a game unplayable; when players can no longer rely on the game world behaving realistically, they can no longer reason about it, and lose the ability to make informed decisions. At which point, the GM is just jerking them around as he pleases.
8. There’s more to science fiction than just aliens. There’s also the oft-neglected “science” part.
Finally, if nothing else, unrealistic ships are ugly; they are a betrayal of design.
Your “facts” are merely opinion...
1. Leverage is leverage is leverage. Physics isn’t merely negated just because it’s the future.
2. No one said it had bearing on the game. It does, however, have bearing on how a ship’s design should follow its function; which is a part of this thread.
3. Opinion.
4. More opinion.
5. Yet more opinion.
6. You’re talking waste heat from the core reactor; actually, in spite of being a lower temperature, the waste heat from the people inside the ship can be a much trickier problem.
7. Too much lack of realism makes a game unplayable; when players can no longer rely on the game world behaving realistically, they can no longer reason about it, and lose the ability to make informed decisions. At which point, the GM is just jerking them around as he pleases.
8. There’s more to science fiction than just aliens. There’s also the oft-neglected “science” part.
Finally, if nothing else, unrealistic ships are ugly; they are a betrayal of design.
middenface
Cosmic Mongoose
Tenacious-Techhunter said:
Yawn..
middenface
Cosmic Mongoose
AndrewW said:
Interesting. I thought Gurps Starships did it right, a honking big diagram!
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
No one is stopping you from making a book of these perfect ships of yours.Tenacious-Techhunter said:
middenface
Cosmic Mongoose
ShawnDriscoll said:
For once I agree with your there.. Yes Mr, shut up or do it!
I don't have a problem with Fugly designs... look at the Donosev!
Tenacious-Techhunter
Mongoose
For the most part, the lack of a good ship construction tileset is stopping me. You would think that Mongoose would release an svg half-dTon square tileset as open-source, with attribution required (the default being a nice graphic and link to their own website); but no, they haven’t done that yet. So my ship designs are perpetually stuck on the backburner due to a lack of basic art assets.
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
Seriously, graph paper, pencils and pen plus a straightedge are too complex?! Search 'graph paper' (or 'hex paper') and you will have every size for every need. I've made deck plans for decades and they are good even with detailed embellishments as seen on the professional designs.
My local game store does sell starship deck tiles (including half tile angles) for a slicker look and a dungeon mapping outfit also has a starship deck designing program. It's out there just not handed free after someone does all the work.
Do vargr ships generally count as ugly? I'm sure aslan ship architects routinely puke seeing a picture of any vargr ship. Vargrs can't puke because they're laughing too hard at the oh so foo-foo kitty carriages. Both look at the imperial designs with a 'meh..', dull.
My local game store does sell starship deck tiles (including half tile angles) for a slicker look and a dungeon mapping outfit also has a starship deck designing program. It's out there just not handed free after someone does all the work.
Do vargr ships generally count as ugly? I'm sure aslan ship architects routinely puke seeing a picture of any vargr ship. Vargrs can't puke because they're laughing too hard at the oh so foo-foo kitty carriages. Both look at the imperial designs with a 'meh..', dull.
Tenacious-Techhunter
Mongoose
Reynard, that looks like crap on Roll20. So no.
Most “deck tile” products I’ve seen are 6x6 squares or so, and not individual squares.
Most “deck tile” products I’ve seen are 6x6 squares or so, and not individual squares.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Vargr ships should be largely customized, and duct tape is a small but vital constituent.
mancerbear
Mongoose
fusor said:
I quite like the look of the Donosev; function over form. I also agree with you regarding the CT Fighting Ships books... yuck in general.
I find Aslan ships to be rather graceful and beautiful. I like the smooth roundedness of them, and the script written on the hull. Vargr ships are really beats unto themselves, with all those fins and such.
I think one of things I don't like about starship designs in the OTU is that there's not really much rhyme or reason to them. Other settings have a certain consistency to them - Star Trek with its nacelles and saucers, Star Wars with its 'letter-ships" and bulbous strutt-y rebel cruisers and TIE fighters and big triangular ships for the Empire, Babylon 5 with it's spinning section for Earth Force, and big fins for Minbari, etc. But the OTU? That's largely an incoherent mess. There's no real consistent design logic between the ship designs, no real sense of a chain of evolution from one ship type to another. Sure, the different races have different aesthetics -Vargr with their spiky ships, K'Kree with their big saucers, Aslan with their round nodular ships etc - but the human ships are just all over the place.
