Hiver Starship-long

[Andrew Boulton]

"I envision Hiver ships as conical, like their homes."

I read that as "comical"...

 

[Ran Targas]

As much as I like Jesse's stuff (I think they are very viable designs for basic human ships), I think the Hivers have another aesthetic all together ...

IMTU, for purposes of differentiation as much as anything, Hivers build their ships using an 18m2 hexagonal floorplan versus 2.25m2 squares.

I did this for numerous disjointed reasons but mostly I thought it made sense for a race who have more horizontal space requirements than vertical to lower ceilings and widen rooms (plus its more cave-like). It does make things interesting when trying to sketch out passageways and what-not but most importantly, it immediately sets them apart from the humanoids.

Another quirk I give Hivers IMTU is they seldom use artifical gravity in their ships, instead scuttling over whatever surfaces are available. When you basically have four hands, why do you need artificial gravity to provide stability?

 

[Scarecrow]

Now that would make for interesting deckplans - there is no 'down'.

Hmmmm......

Crow

 

[parmasson]

IIRC the alien module has a few illustrations. That is were I was drawing the “pill” shape from.

 

[mike wightman]

Just the one ship, and something that looks like a small craft of some kind.

 

[parmasson]

Not much, but something to go on....

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Scarecrow, I am working on a design for folks like the Quaddies in Bujold's Falling Free, and that is the hardest part to "design" - how do you do a "floor"plan if there's no "floor"?

 

[Scarecrow]

I'm not familiar with Bujold's Falling Free or the Quaddies. Please elucidate. Also, more importantly, Share with the group: What's your solution?

Crow

(edit)I've just had a random thought. Instead of a linear deckplan; a flowchart. Every spatial location on a ship is connected with every other spacial location via a spidersweb of instantaneous transit conduits. The exit of a spacial location will take you instantly to any other spacial location on the ship.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Quaddies are geneered humans with an extra set of arms instead of legs.

The non-linear starship appeared in Secret of the Ancients.

 

[Scarecrow]

Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
Quaddies are geneered humans with an extra set of arms instead of legs.

The non-linear starship appeared in Secret of the Ancients.

Bugger! I figured someone would have gotten there before me =)

Crow

 

[Andrew Boulton]

300,000 years before!

 

[Fritz_Brown]

As Andrew mentioned, Quaddies are geneered humans - four arms, no legs, rather intolerant of gravity, very tolerant of radiation/0-g/etc.

I'm doing a write-up of them to eventually post, but have been side-tracked a lot lately. (I even have permission from Ms. Bujold! )

And, yes, if I can ever get any deckplans done (did I mention how hard deckplans are when there's no "floor"?), I will post them.

 

[mike wightman]

You could do the deckplan on a cubic net for each compartment, which can then be folded to make the 3d shape:
link

Or something more comlex:
link

 

[parmasson]

^It hurts, it hurts, somebody make them stop . . . . .

 

[Scarecrow]

I was thinking of doing a spherical bridge for my hiver ship and drawing it out on a world map template. There would actually be two spheres joined. One for the bridge and one for the navigator.

Crow

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Sigg, once you folded it, how would you be able to read the deckpplan? Wouldn't it be on the inside?

 

[mike wightman]

Photocopy onto acetate...

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Photocopy onto acetate...

Heh.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Photocopy onto acetate...

That would make a pretty awesome handout at the game table!

 

[SanDragon]

Far out!