Drawing ships.

[infojunky]

When I was younger I drew ships then made them fit the rules. In that it was the things in my head shapeded the the ships I Drew. Book2 basics, in that what do you need to fight a ship? What do you need to visually think about it.

I think I’m too stoned to go much further.

 

[aramis]

90% of my ship combats have had no need for plans nor drawings. And not just Traveller, I'm talking ever. Including the campaigns of Battlestations, where positioning aboard mattered!

It's nice to have reasonable external views. Nice, not essential.
PC ships it's lovely to have deckplans, but not essential, most of the time. Much more fun, but not essential.

I described a seeker plan thusly:

"Ok, the ship, fore to aft: Avionic, Bridge, 4 cabins on the main hall, which then runs back to Engineering and the turret. Port and starbord of the hall are the cargo/ore bays; aft to either side of the engineering compartment is fuel."

I should slap that together in Sketchup...

 

[Grav_Moped]

I kind of get that, but mostly started with the rules to give a general idea of what went where.

The designs were mostly shaped by my ideas about what made sense -- largely from an aerodynamic perspective, then in-universe engineering. A little bit of SR-71 here, a little bit of DC-3 there. Then on to spheres and spheroids because the drives were probably some sort of field effect and you get interesting shapes from antenna broadcast patterns.

I drew deck plans before making overall drawings, though I was thinking of the plans as being section views of the entire ship when I drew them.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

In the beginning, I drew ships to the rules. Then as time went on, I started adding more elements not show in official deck plans. Because the people I played with, starting asking question about the parts of the ship. Then it became about were the damage was, could I hide behind this, was there enough room to put this or that on the ship, upgrades, so on and so forth.

It just became habit to draw the ship first and do the math later.

 

[Grav_Moped]

And now I'm going through them as though they were lived-in spaces (sort of what @Rigel Stardin is saying, but from a different angle). Rules say this and that have to be present, but what does that look like from the inside? Does that work if you're living and working in it?

 

[infojunky]

And now I'm going through them as though they were lived-in spaces (sort of what @Rigel Stardin is saying, but from a different angle). Rules say this and that have to be present, but what does that look like from the inside? Does that work if you're living and working in it?

That’s it, the spaces people live in. When you read a lot of SF it’s not about a bigger ship, but more about how to Pimp your ride.

I will admit to being whacked out of my mind right now, but good pharmaceuticals and having half your blood washed will do a bunch to the mind set.

Look at the framework of the scout, what can it be? In Mayday it’s three or four different ships. But not so hung up on the tech level framework, but the idea of it. Like the idea of the Freetrader.

Hence why I start where I do.

Now it’s like the slavish connection to “Starports”, why? Yah sure main wolds exist but there has got to garages, yards etc… that working outside this model we have built.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

@ infojunky

There are two designs I have that will probably never show up in the Image Library. One is of a smuggling vessel which, I think is really cool and the other is a Yacht which is pimped out to the max. Both vessels hit that spot in my psyche, you know the spot, if I could get out there and explore space either one would be that ride I'd use. I know it a weird thought but sometimes you put so much effort into something, you just wish you had the time and money to make it real.

 

[aramis]

And now I'm going through them as though they were lived-in spaces (sort of what @Rigel Stardin is saying, but from a different angle). Rules say this and that have to be present, but what does that look like from the inside? Does that work if you're living and working in it?

When I get to that point, I go to 3d cad and the game stats, and make the fit. The results can be quite amusing.


If it looks like too much drive, that's because it is... MGT1 design. Short term fusion, long term fission. Plans in sketchup, layout of screenshots in Appleworks 6 Mac. Note that current sketchup cannot render the file. I've tried. Too old.

 

[coliver988]

even before gaming I drew spaceships - insides, outsides, whatever. Think I started way back in elementary school drawing all sorts of whimsical things Loved the Franz Joseph Star Trek tech manual since it showed areas in the ship not shown on TV (still have mine from the 70s, still spend a ot of time re-re-re-reading it). Traveller came along and then I started drawing spacehips within the rules. Mostly. I have way too many deck plans and things that don't get used in a game but that does not really matter - I spend a lot of time wandering various ships in my mind and that's good enough for me.

In the end I do like to have logically arranged ships, but honestly, unless you are doing combat on the ships, it really does not matter. Nevertheless, I will always be drawing and looking at spaceships. I have bookshelves full of technical manuals for things that don't exist

I still buy the occasional deck plan book just to read and think about wandering through it. And I spend a lot of time looking at spaceship drawings - one of the best parts of the internet is showcasing the sheer imagination of people generous enough to show their work.

 

[whartung]

Note that current sketchup cannot render the file. I've tried. Too old.

You might be able to import those files in to something like Blender.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I wonder if this tool would be of any use for this purpose, since it is browser based+free (and therefore OS agnostic) ...

Tinkercad

Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding.

www.tinkercad.com

 

[whartung]

Sure looks pretty neat.

 

[aramis]

I wonder if this tool would be of any use for this purpose, since it is browser based+free (and therefore OS agnostic) ...

Tinkercad

Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding.

www.tinkercad.com

It lacks the robust drawing tools. It's a "drop in a shape and add it to or subtract it from the existing assemblage." It also lacks a readily findable import....

 

[infojunky]

Ok, you might notice I am all over the place tonigh. Was watching westerns while undergoing a procedure, the purity of them it what struck me.

well it’s the next day and time to start again.

You got a old scout out of the junkyard and set about building a hot rod behind the farms machine shop. (Please note this is where I started) And rebuilt in to something you could fly. Or could have been a Freetrader, Etc..etc… read the premise behind the Cosmic Computer and Stories of the like.

Think of all those places that aren’t Main Worlds. Just Garage, a dock, a rock in the void. Then fill that void with the characters and ships defined by the edges.

 

[infojunky]

Consider this, a 150 ton Escort two lasers and two launch tubes based a scout. That is your model, what do you do with it?.

 

[Shadowrunner]

As a teenager I think deckplans got used either when exploring a possibly prize bounty or during combat to refer to where crew were, damage control, leaks, fires, survival that kind of thing.

Since making 3D maps for Action RPGs and growing up, I think a number of things are in my mind when designing ships. What people want, what is new (if possible), what is plausible, logical and makes sense. Also I think more about exploring inside the ship and combat, every day life, how to make it interesting and not like turnkey motel inside. What surprises, traps, treasure, chokepoints, defensive areas there might be. I think about security of the ship and ask myself, would I want to fly this ship. I try not to design perfect ships but build in vulnerabilities, chinks in the armour etc.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

@Shadowrunner

Yes! After you finish your design and you're writing it up, the most pleasure moment is looking it over and saying, "Hey, wait a minute, there is something wrong here?" You found either a mistake or you found character in the overall design. Naturally you're going to fix the mistake but, if the ship's design works with 'a minor error' do you really want to fix it?

Example: I built a ship a while back, it a merchant ship with a very large gravitronic lift engine towards the rear ship. When I looked over the design and realized where the gravitronic were, I said to myself. "Huh, when it lifts off, the rear of the ship is going to lift first, causing the nose to point downwards at an awkward angle?" So I gave the nickname "The Plow." Inexperience pilots were p r o n e to scrape the bow when lifting off vertically and changing over to horizontal flight. It could teach the PC a valuable lesson in making sure the cargo was strapped down and secure. You wouldn't want your cargo to go forward during lift off because, you'd end up 'plowing' into the ground nose first!

Would it be the most popular ship in the game? No, it wouldn't but, it would add something to world building. "Hey look! Jar Jar got a job flying a Plow? Man, he must be hard up, to fly a rust bucket like that?" So many scenarios could be built around the ship to add color or danger, I could spend a few more paragraphs on it. But, I won't. I hope you see my point and remember the Immortal Painter Bob's words:

"They're not mistakes but happy little accidents..."

 

[Dragoner]

I have a tendency to do them vertically oriented lately, though earlier, there were more horizontal ships, like with using an Avery Panther from TTA. This, however, is the one from my latest book:

 

[Rigel Stardin]

@Dragoner

One thing about your design I would change: Move the 'Quarters' deck up to 'Service/Galley' location. It stands to reason the crew should be closer to the Bridge and controls in case of emergencies.

Added bonus: Here is a design you can play around with and use in your book if you like

I have other 'parts and decks' for tail sitter as well, if you want to take a peek.

 

[aramis]

Looks very RosCosmos there, Dragoner... (not that that's actually a negative; there's a certain gravitas of looking like real craft.)