That's right, 50 kiloton Cruiser Deckplans!

[RocketDad]

This is my first thread, so please be patient with me.

Anyway, deckplans are my passion and I've always wanted to make a big ship. I like running the kinds of adventures that involve rating and ensigns on capital ships, sometimes in customs work, sometimes as a damage control party - you know, like the sub-plots in the earlier Honor Harrington novels.

The thing is, you can't map 200 meter long spacecraft in a one inch grid without some finagling...

My solution for this design is repetition. The central broadsides, for example, are made of 30 meter armored sections with missile bays, turrets, sensors etc. Repeated in a regular arraignment. Of course, it is much easier to show you... so below are links to my preliminary work. I'd love to know what everybody things - both about the plans, and the concept itself.

1. A beauty shot of a 50 kton cruiser, in its low-rez basic form:

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2. Orthos of the same:

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3. A first-pass deckplan of one of the Broadside segments:

 

[BytePro]

Saw the images separately, but your links (images?) don't show in the post above.

Looking good - I like nice clean designs with touches of details like the shaded contours for equipment.

 

[RocketDad]

Saw the images separately, but your links (images?) don't show in the post above.

Looking good - I like nice clean designs with touches of details like the shaded contours for equipment.

Fixed. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Matt123]

I like the design principle of using repetition in large ships, it would have a lot of benefits for design, construction, maintenance, crew life, combat damage control, repairs and c3.

I'd be interested in seeing a plan at the macro level, depicting the major ship elements (eg: drives, tankage, bridge, etc), some of which are then detailed with plans similar to the one you show.

The detail and execution of the plan posted looks good. But at the moment it lacks context (where in the ship does it go).

Expanding the image (Ctrl+) doesn't provide more detail and clicking on it doesn't do anything. I've never posted an image here, but I think others may have linked thumbnails to the gallery or a larger image. But I'm not sure of the detail.

 

[Ackehece]

Actually how large ships are built... Block by Block.
Of course there are sections of non duplication (drive, power, bridge (actually you might duplicate them as well )
Great idea for laying out huge plans (planetoids not withstanding)

I think we make mistakes on ships like this in that we bring a 2d airlift body idea to them and not a 3D space thing. :nonono: If I was to attack this ship from stealth - I would again attack the top, bottom or rear of it. Don't fall to the stars wars/trek design philosophy

 

[RocketDad]

If anyone missed it, there is a location key in the upper left of the deckplan map, showing where this deck is located on the cruiser.

I think we make mistakes on ships like this in that we bring a 2d airlift body idea to them and not a 3D space thing. :nonono: If I was to attack this ship from stealth - I would again attack the top, bottom or rear of it. Don't fall to the stars wars/trek design philosophy

I totally agree. That's why this cruiser has the same number of available beam bay turrets available dorsally and ventrally; 14. The port and starboard "broadsides" have the most weapons, with a full salvo of fourteen missile bays and... eleven beam bay turrets. So as far as seconday beam armaments, the dorsal and ventral fire arcs are heavier than the port and starboard. The outboard small weapons turrets can traverse and elevate to cover any fire arc, so the ship is equally protected on all sides.

...Except the bow and stern, of course. The bow takes care of itself, with a 5 kton particle accelerator in the spinal mount, two forward arc beam bays in addition to four turreted beams, six small turrets and four missile bays.. The Aft arc is the weakest, but still has a full salvo of two small turrets, six beam bays, and four missile bays, which is equal to the forward secondary weapons loadout.

I'm going to be posting more pix showing the overall picture of the cruiser and how the decks are arranged. The superstucture is simply a comm tower/observation post around the long-range comm mast, the CIC is two decks below and has it's own armored shell. But more on that later.

 

[mentis]

This design has the potential to be the best large ship Traveller deckplan since the Azhanti High Lightning class. I will greatly enjoy seeing more of this ship as it is developed.

 

[RocketDad]

02 Deck: Fighter Catapults/Command Deck

Enjoy!

 

[Ackehece]

This design has the potential to be the best large ship Traveller deckplan since the Azhanti High Lightning class. I will greatly enjoy seeing more of this ship as it is developed.

Agreed more work like this will make the game deeper and give us more play spaces. A fully detailed large scale ship is an impressive achievement.

I want to play Traveller: Space Hulk on that ship :rofl:

 

[RocketDad]

Cover Design

Playing with the GIMP (and Photoshop and Comic Lite) and came up with this:

 

[savage]

very nice

Nice cruiser what's she firing?

 

[RocketDad]

Nice cruiser what's she firing?

Four of her missile tubes and three of her laser bays. The beams are broken because they're only visible in the clouds of gas and debris from an Imperial dissenter out of frame.

 

[madmike]

Well, I would certainly buy a PDF deckplan set if you self published on RPGnow or Drivethru!

 

[savage]

me too

Well, I would certainly buy a PDF deckplan set if you self published on RPGnow or Drivethru!

I would agree.

 

[RocketDad]

The Promised Silhouettes

Here are the first few ship silhouettes:

The Engines and power plants are distributed around the ship for better survivability:



The same goes for the fuel tankage. Rather than just a "fuel deck", the Cruiser has fuel bunkers through out the ship, and the scoops/purifiers at the ventral -most points:




And of course, what separates a warship from just a big ol' brick in the sky, A really big gun:

 

[Matt123]

Looks good. Does the main weapon point aft?

 

[madmike]

Looks good. Does the main weapon point aft?

It does seem that way, based on the elevations provided.

Love to know the reason

 

[RocketDad]

The cruiser is facing port. The Spinal gun shoots out the bow. The conning tower is so far forward because the fighter launch tubes (aft) are so long, and the main engines are mounted forward.

Once I finish dressing the model (a pain in the butt) I'll post a image that is fully labeled.

 

[RocketDad]

Cruiser Deck 2

Here we are, Deck 2 Central Compartments, featuring all that stuff in the picture:



I personally like to see large ships with a full medical department, not just a single room, generic "sickbay" This cruiser, after all, operates independently far from fleet and base, so it makes sense to have a large medical area. It also lends itself well to disaster relief missions (which allow more role-play opportunity than fleet actions, after all).

In the tradition of Navies in RL, the Wardroom is just off sickbay to allow for overflow after heavy casualties. I put the main enlisted mess next door for the same reason. Each pair of tables can be joined to make a makeshift exam/operating table, and all the chairs are stuffed into the Multi-Purpose Room prior to action.

 

[GRNDL]

How big are the squares on your maps? From the galley/mess, I get the feeling that are a bit larger than 1.5m??