Opinion: Is this a Close Structure or a Needle

[Thunderbolt]

Though my first thought when you originally posted the design was "wouldn't it be cool if those weapon donuts rotated" which would mean you need more space in the center maybe.

Yeah, that would be a change too far, as it would force the sections apart.

Seven thruster groupings bugs me, I prefer numbers that work into the rated g-rating just for my personal damage system. If (for example) this ship is 3G with six thruster packages and it takes one hit dropping it to 2G then I can say thruster packages 2 and 3 are damaged and point to it on the picture and deckplan. Unless this ship is rated for 7G

My suggestion for the above would be loose the center thruster package. In it's place allow a small craft, perhaps a modular cutter type of craft to handle the modules. In an unstreamlined or partially streamlined design a small craft capable of atmospheric landing is practically a requirement. One that could also handle the modules would be very practical.

I like that idea. I shall investigate further....

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Looking good. A similar idea to the Provincial Trader we designed for the Spica book.

 

[otherles]

Gosh that's cool.

I would say its a dispersed structure.

But then my theory on landing a nonstreamlined ship in a standard atmosphere is to come to a dead stop relative to the surface and drop SLOWLY to the ground.

If I may ask a question, sir. What are the basic stats on the NIKE AEGIS? I'm estimating that there are 64 hard points on her which would make her about 6400 tons. And as a rule I wouldn't design a warship with less that a 4-g maneuver drive, would that be right for the NIKE AEGIS?

 

[Thunderbolt]

NIKE AEGIS and her sister ships were 10,000 tons

The idea I had at the time was to have a class of ship with variable weaponary but based on a fixed set of hardpoints.

NIKE AJAX had:

2 x 100 ton Particle Accelerators Bays
1 x 100 ton Repulsor Bay
3 x 50 ton Missile Bays
24 x Triple Laser Turrets
16 x Double Sand Turrets

If you look closely, I have shamelessly appropriated parts of the NIKE AEGIS to build the Fleet Tender. I never considered NIKE AEGIS as complete, so I decided to revive it and take further in the guise of a new model.

I have updated the model again, removing the central engine module.

REFRESH BROWSER CACHE TO SEE CHANGES

 

[Thunderbolt]

Ah, yes. The NIKE AEGIS had J-4 and M-6

 

[otherles]

Thank you.

 

[Vanyon]

My apologies if this has been asked before.

Those 4 cylinders along the central and forward section of the vessel, what are those for? Just non-removable cargo spaces?

 

[Thunderbolt]

At the moment, I think those will end up being accomodation for the crew, but that could change once I come up with actual games stats.

I tend to go for a art led approach, which is, does it look cool / gritty / fast, and then worry about what goes where later.

If I was being sensible about it from a deck plans perspective, I would not have used cylinders in the design in the first place.

 

[otherles]

If I was being sensible about it from a deck plans perspective, I would not have used cylinders in the design in the first place.

But cylinders make nice pressure hulls.

 

[Theo D Lite]

Cylinders

Cylinders look nice, but when they make up the main design elements of the ship it can make a logical deckplan something of a headache as I've discovered before working with TB on other designs.

Actually I think they might be fuel tanks. But I'll speak with TB separately off list with ideas.

 

[atpollard]

Bulk Freight - hundreds of dTons of Iron Ore, Grain, Machine Oil, Chemicals, etc.

And fitting square furniture and square rooms into curved spaces is a classic architectural nightmare - seldom done very well.

 

[ravells]

Lovely model! Do you find Hexagon stable? I downloaded version 2 from Daz and it crashed so many times I gave up on it.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Lovely model! Do you find Hexagon stable? I downloaded version 2 from Daz and it crashed so many times I gave up on it.

I use Hexagon 1.21, even though I have 2.x somewhere on disk.

After seeing how flakey Hex 2 and Bryce 6 were, I figured I'd stay with something that works. Although I get the occasional 'internal error', I've very rarely lost work in Hex 1.