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Deck plan, furniture layout ?

JimMarn

SOC-14 1K
I realize engines in the stern, and sensors in the bow of the ship. Weapons pointing forward, and other directions to take care of other ships sneaking up from behind. Beds in crew area, along with a small kitchen.

But I am somewhat lost as to what goes where beyond that. While I don't have the ability to do 3D renderings of ships, i was going to see what I could do in providing pngs of star/planetary ship interiors.

Is there a 'standardized' deck plan layout for the various size ships ?

Thanks !
 
I have a number of symbols. I was wondering about general layout of where they go.

I realize 'Stateroom 4' would have a bed and storage. My problems come in with the rest of the ship.

I am part way through putting symbols into a Beowulf template from Profantasy's CC3-Cosmographer and can upload it somewhere, here or my website, if anyone wants to see what I have so far.
 
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You mean the actual arrangement of which rooms go where? No, there's not really a 'standard' per se, most of that is determined by a variety of factors relating to the components themselves. The major things you'll need to consider -

1. The bridge or control room - This depends on the type of ship you're designing. On a military ship, it makes the most sense to put the bridge as deep inside the ship as possible to prevent battle damage. On a civilian ship, close to the skin of the hull is acceptable, usually with viewports to see outside unaided.

2. Crew living areas - these can be set up most anywhere, but I tend to place them where they give easy access to the engineering and bridge compartments. If there is an emergency, you don't want the crew to have to run long distances to man their workstations or damage control stations.

3. Passenger living areas - again, they can go most anywhere, but my general rule is to work on isolating them from the bridge, engineering, and crew compartments. Even on civilian ships, it helps to prevent hijackings and passengers wandering around randomly pushing buttons.

4. Troop living areas - can go most anywhere, but my preference is to locate them close either their armory or boat/vehicle bay, to minimize their time to deployment. If you can position them between secure locations and other passengers, they make a great buffer and enhance security.

5. Medical facilities - depending on the function of the ship, I put these either near the passengers for easy access, or near the core of the ship on military vessels to prevent damage. If the ship has low berths, its usually a good idea to keep the medical facility nearby.

6. Cargo areas - depends a lot on the design of the ship. You want to make sure you have a big enough hatch to get cargo in, and enough area to move around once its loaded.

I would follow this link - to the Deckplans section of the Files on the site, and download the PDFs done by magmagmag. He does excellent 3d deckplans, and he has a very good sense of how things should be put together. He also has full 3d views of some of the compartments that you may be able to use. You noted you were filling in a Beowulf template, so I'd suggest starting with the A-110 Free Trader.

The A-110 is mags version of a Beowulf, albiet a bit different than standard.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. This bunch is generally very helpful. :)
 
Is there a 'standardized' deck plan layout for the various size ships ?

certain features may dictate ship layout. for example if you have boat bays they may determine the width of your hull. cabins organized around a central corridor will have their own width and can only be installed within a hull in discrete quantities. all that fuel has to be put somewhere, access/egress points are required, cargo/passenger access must be available at ground level, boat access points can't be too low or ground clutter may interfere with their operation when docked, weapons need a clear field of view, etc.

other considerations are hull access (can you cut the hull to access major engineering components to do major work?), damage control (do you have major bulkeads to limit damage and air loss, or will a single hole vent your entire ship?), crew safety (are there two ways out of every major space?), alignment (are all bulkhead access points, hatches, and attachment points aligned properly?), etc.

if it all has to fit in a "streamlined" hull it gets challenging.

see my signature links below to my deckplans.
 
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It is also worth keeping in mind that different cultures will have different arrangements.

The Solomani tend to pack crew in like sardines, while the Zhodani don't put up barriers between passengers and crew (or ratings and officers) unless the ship is designed to operate outside of Consulate space.
 
It is also worth keeping in mind that different cultures will have different arrangements.

true. I did a zhodani ship for use in the pbp game "combat ribbon" where almost every cabin held an entire extended "family". but but loss-of-air-pressure damage control requires the use of some bulkheads no matter what a culture would prefer.
 
At the risk of being booted out of CoTI ;) , if you can find a cheap copy of the T4 book Naval Architect's Manual, you can see a lot of deckplan-style examples of the different layouts for spaces within ship interiors. I don't know if they are mechanically sound and it's not any help on how "rooms" can be positioned in relation to each other. But it does present some concepts on how furniture, equipment and so on can be placed in a particular space (different approaches to bridges, for instance).
 
I'd be interested in seeing these, but the links don't seem to be working. Could you check them out?

They are working now, my domain's .htaccess had some issues.

Not much in the way of detail. But I am tired of working on my Crestar/AD&D site ( over 2000 maps) and will spend more time on my Traveller and Starship sites.
 
At the risk of being booted out of CoTI ;) , if you can find a cheap copy of the T4 book Naval Architect's Manual, you can see a lot of deckplan-style examples of the different layouts for spaces within ship interiors. I don't know if they are mechanically sound and it's not any help on how "rooms" can be positioned in relation to each other. But it does present some concepts on how furniture, equipment and so on can be placed in a particular space (different approaches to bridges, for instance).

rpgnow has a watermakred pdf... I have an account there. I'll go ahead and get it. They also have T4 Starships. I'll see if I can squeeze that amount of moola out of my account.

The Mongoose books don't let the pages spread well enough for me to photo copy the deckplans in there. On those particular battleships... well, the crew looks like they are in one section. Not a good idea. Even on the US Navy destroyer I served on, crew berthing was in several places.
 
At the risk of being booted out of CoTI ;) , if you can find a cheap copy of the T4 book Naval Architect's Manual, you can see a lot of deckplan-style examples of the different layouts for spaces within ship interiors. I don't know if they are mechanically sound and it's not any help on how "rooms" can be positioned in relation to each other. But it does present some concepts on how furniture, equipment and so on can be placed in a particular space (different approaches to bridges, for instance).

I can't give you reputation, but thanks ! some of the files I had purchased in the past from rpgnow had been updated. I downloaded them. Again, thanks !
 
rpgnow has a watermakred pdf... I have an account there. I'll go ahead and get it. They also have T4 Starships. I'll see if I can squeeze that amount of moola out of my account.

The Mongoose books don't let the pages spread well enough for me to photo copy the deckplans in there. On those particular battleships... well, the crew looks like they are in one section. Not a good idea. Even on the US Navy destroyer I served on, crew berthing was in several places.

T4 Starships has a long history of inducing rage, just sayin.
 
Seems okay to me... except the rooms and fuel areas are rectangular. Other deck layouts I have show fuel areas following the curvature of the hull.

No problem. I can work with either one.
 
Got the two from Mongoose. No battlewagons though. Not sure I would be willing to take on one of the battlewagons in CC3 right now anyway.

Couldn't find any on the blog that wasn't covered over by a 3d drawing of the ship.
 
Don't know if MongooseMatt is listening, but I think there would be a niche market in releasing the source files for their "big ship" deckplans* so those of us who want to can "rearrange the deckchairs" on the Tigress...

(*)I even bought the book, but d'ya think I can remember it's name? Doh!
 
I've just uploaded an overhead view of the ship to my Starship Wanderer site. Someone I know looked at the side sketch I made, you can see it on the site, and made a Wings 3ds object out of it. I took that today, rotated it, and did a screenshot of the overhead view. Drew on it in CC3, using bitmap fills, got the picture I uploaded and posted there.

I realized back about 1971, when I came up with this ship idea, it probably wouldn't get drawn completely.

Maybe I can get more of it done than I have so far.

I would be willing to give it a try to move some deck chairs around as well.
 
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