NationStates Jolt Archive

What tech is your starfleet based around?

Personally, I tend to lean towards either exorbitantly large, slowish carriers or fast ships with kinetic armaments and missiles. As far as number of ships goes, we're pretty much proportionately equal to the USN (~2,000 KN ships vs ~280 USN ships).

Tri-engined design with Star Trek phasers and missiles for long range engagements and heavy turbo-lasers for close action. My ships also have cloaking devices and tend to be on the more manoverable side.

Discussions of roleplay philosophy go in the roleplay forums. Moved from Gameplay.

Hard FT... so rotating ring sections, nuclear missiles, laser PD and fusion engines. For FTL, I generally use some version of the Alderson Drive so that I'm not confined to the Sol system. No shields, antiship lasers are large and difficult to build, railguns provide most of the 'gun' armament.

For squishy FT (a mix of hard and soft) I use artificial gravity and fighters, but otherwise I'm still no-shields and no-huge lasers.

imperial me 40k shinra corp ltd star tech/ some other stuff

Only my technology is based around ST and SW, I design my own ships, like this:
http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/mreynolds058/?action=view&current=A-ClassDestroyerPic.jpg

Alversia, nice ship. I like a mix of a few big dreadnaughts and smaller, more manuverable ships. Most of my tech is based on Star Trek, with a little Star Wars and even some Halo mixed in. Here's some of my ships...

Challenger-class (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Challenger-classDreadnaught.jpg) Dreadnaught

Valiant-class (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Valiant-classBattlecruiser.jpg) Battlecruiser

Columbia-class (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Columbia-classDestroyer.jpg) Destroyer

and a freighter-turned-pirate that I drew up, the Fighting Falcon (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Piratecruiser.jpg)...

Alversia, nice ship. I like a mix of a few big dreadnaughts and smaller, more manuverable ships. Most of my tech is based on Star Trek, with a little Star Wars and even some Halo mixed in. Here's some of my ships...

Challenger-class (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Challenger-classDreadnaught.jpg) Dreadnaught

Valiant-class (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Valiant-classBattlecruiser.jpg) Battlecruiser

Columbia-class (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Columbia-classDestroyer.jpg) Destroyer

and a freighter-turned-pirate that I drew up, the Fighting Falcon (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Piratecruiser.jpg)...

Thanks, this is my personal favourite:
F-Class Battlecruiser: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/mreynolds058/?action=view&current=F-ClassBattlecruiserPic.jpg

What programme did you use?

3D Studio Max, you? On a side note, I originally created those three ships a few years ago out of Lego's. Last month, I found them in a box and, as I needed new ships, desided to make images of them. You'd be surprised about what a pile of Lego bricks can create, lol.

Cool, I used to LOVE lego :D

I used DOGA for my ships, is Studio Max any good?

3D Studio Max, you? On a side note, I originally created those three ships a few years ago out of Lego's. Last month, I found them in a box and, as I needed new ships, desided to make images of them. You'd be surprised about what a pile of Lego bricks can create, lol.

For spaceships which cannot land on atmosphere, although I still take some liberties:

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3x.html

Now for the spaceplanes, I love the retro look they have based on some Space Race's and modern RL spaceplane prototypes:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/MiG-105-11a.JPG/300px-MiG-105-11a.JPG

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/02/spaceplane.jpg

I don't use even a single bit from any existing sci-fi, and much less from space opera series, except perhaps for the Firefly. Solar Communes exists in a parallel universe where the maximum speed is 1c and anything beyond is impossible while making an unmanned ship accelerate at more than 10g(And that by finding a ridiculously large source of antimatter only, while manned ships have 1g as the maximum acceleration limit with no inertia nullifying handwavium) would be totally impossible(I need this as a safeguard against some of the less realistic FT designs around with 1,600g maximum acceleration and alike which I would have no chance against, they have an "Einstein and Newton's Laws of Physics Anti-depredation Shield" in their own Universe). My design principle is simple in the way that protection against lasers is much easier than protection against relativistic projectiles and coilguns. Conventional lasers are only used as a CIWS for the starships, something like a much more powerful and compact version of the THEL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THEL), complemented by the RIM-217 guided rolling airframe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Airframe_Missile) ECM space missiles with vectored thrust used as another CIWS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIWS).

And as always, WWII sized space fighters are completely useless.

The only exception is the FTL suicide in the Immaterium or "Shadow Universe" with all WH40k Chaos stuff inside, but that is for another universe rather than their own obviously, and when sub-light travel is 1,000,000,000 times safer, there is a reason why it's only a plot device to not isolate completely Solar Communes from FT RPs.

I use technology from several different sources, mostly games...

Game series:
Freespace
Homeworld
Independence War
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

TV/Movie series:
Star Trek
Star Wars

DO info. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8381392#post8381392)

I use technology from several different sources, mostly games...

Game series:
Freespace
Homeworld
Independence War
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

TV/Movie series:
Star Trek
Star Wars

DO info. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8381392#post8381392)

Nice pics, where'd you get 'em?

3D Studio Max, you? On a side note, I originally created those three ships a few years ago out of Lego's. Last month, I found them in a box and, as I needed new ships, desided to make images of them. You'd be surprised about what a pile of Lego bricks can create, lol.

Quite right. I used to make all sorts of spaceships with my Legos. I had some quite impressive and large creations. Ah... the good old days.

What tech is your starfleet based around?

Mostly Startrek and Real Life(Modern Era) with a few modifications.

You'd be surprised about what a pile of Lego bricks can create, lol.

Actually, no I wouldn't considering I was a Lego nut when I was younger and built you name it, including Lego starships.

Just as an example, I built this massive Starship/starbase which took over 3 hours to build. Contained about a 1,000 bricks and weighed a few pounds for good measure. When I finally took it apart (it took up to many of the bricks I had) it took around an hour or so to completely disassemble it into all it's individual pieces. Taking it apart itself was a chore. Just to give you an idea of how complex this thing was, I was able to build 3 to 4 starships just from the pieces of the massive starship/starbase I took apart. Each of those smaller ships alone contained around 100 to 200 pieces themselves.

Though that massive starship/starbase is no longer here among us, it's spirt still lives on. I took a few pictures of it for prosperity before I killed it.

Quite right. I used to make all sorts of spaceships with my Legos. I had some quite impressive and large creations. Ah... the good old days.

Tell me about it...:(
Though my good old days aren't that old considering most of what I built is still together and stored in a box. Just sits, there year after year. Poor things must be lonely by now, but at least they have each other.:(:rolleyes:

I hear ya', Lego crowd...back in the old school days, those were great times.

As for my tech, I roll with SW, ST, and the occassional Halo or Mass Effect thing that looks cool that I mixed with other stuff to bring it up to par. That, and a little bit of RL science mixed in to improve this or that.

The Aumanii Fleet is based on the philosophy of "If it looks mean it doesn't matter"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v361/Auman/Aumanii%20Army/AumaniiComparisonChart.jpg

Nice pics, where'd you get 'em?

A combination of sites... It took me a while to find some good pictures from all the sub-par ones.

My ship stats are similar to the ones from Freespace 2, which I got at this site (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). Some of my pictures come from them as well.

Parallel Universe, 2200's:

Tech consists of hyperlink gates in orbit around the gas giant planets, Mars, and in selected locations in the Asteroid belt. Shipboard Warp or Hyperspace drives are only theoretical, and the fixed nodes are enough for mining operations.

Ships are powered by ion thrusters and advanced anti-gravity devices. Weapons are lasers and ion cannons on fighters, coil guns and laser/ion turrets on large vessels. Most ships are equipped with conventional torpedoes for asteroid destruction when avoidance is impossible. These are sometimes modified for weapons purposes.

Primitive deflector shields are used on large vessels, but only a select few fighters are so equipped because the deflector system costs twice as much as the fighter itself.

Instead of fighters, many pirates and most military vessels use remote-operated drone fighters. The pilot is safe inside the carrier, and if a fighter is destroyed, a new one is activated.

Battle sites are lucrative locations for salvage operations.

Most ships are ore freighters, often autonomous and unmanned. The mining colonies use scout fighters to fend off pirate attacks. The primary military vessels serve double-duty as battleships and carriers. Many light freighters are used for other deliveries of varying degrees of legality.

Everything has the feel of Star Wars and Firefly, with the Star Wars tech scaled down to fit a solar system instead of a galaxy. Hyperlink gates are similar to Babylon 5.

If I get better at Google Sketchup, I'll try some renderings. I may try using AutoCAD, too, although my 3D use of that program indicates that it's unsuitable for this kind of project. It will do it, I just think Sketchup might do it better. I wish I had 3DS MAX.

Legos are awesome for space ship design! I'll see what I can pull out of boxes if I can borrow a digital camera.

I tend towards ships from Homeworld (in my earlier days as UA), and my own imagination now. Well, when I do FT anyway. Half the time XC-42 is going to be PMT/MT, so that I don't get shut off from any particular avenues.

If I get better at Google Sketchup, I'll try some renderings. I may try using AutoCAD, too, although my 3D use of that program indicates that it's unsuitable for this kind of project. It will do it, I just think Sketchup might do it better. I wish I had 3DS MAX.


I found that Sketchup was completely useless for this sort of project, you're better with DOGA or 3DS MAX

Dahanese Commonweath ships are my own imagination, nobody elses! Unfortunately as a result of that there are no images available to go along with them, but that's what writing is for isn't it?! To paint pictures with the mind!

Ermor uses a rather unorthodox "ship design philosophy". Basically, if you can put thrusters on it and put troops inside, it's a space ship. The Ashen Empire has transport vessels ranging from near-to-actual-freighters to tin cans to hollowed out asteroids.

Due to the distinct lack of need for air, food, water and other things vital for the living, the warships used by the Ashen Empire generally just carry ammo. Lots and lots of it. And since the undead don't really have a concept of "personal space", they can cram in a whole lot more troops into a much smaller space than the living could. Since you can't fold them like robots, it's naturally less than them, but still much more than your regular living folks.

Some warships don't even need to carry ammo. They just carry tons of undead which power the weapons of the ship on their own. A sort of "unholy energy" to "viable weaponized stuff" kind of deal. They also use this to power all their ships as well. It is the cause of the green flames which come forth from the thrusters of any an Ermorian vessel.

All this makes Ermorian ships pretty much unusable by most other groups since they can't conjure up the required type of energy to activate them, let alone move them without towing them or something.

And so on. This is a system I came up with myself, too!

Ermor uses a rather unorthodox "ship design philosophy". Basically, if you can put thrusters on it and put troops inside, it's a space ship. The Ashen Empire has transport vessels ranging from near-to-actual-freighters to tin cans to hollowed out asteroids.

Due to the distinct lack of need for air, food, water and other things vital for the living, the warships used by the Ashen Empire generally just carry ammo. Lots and lots of it. And since the undead don't really have a concept of "personal space", they can cram in a whole lot more troops into a much smaller space than the living could. Since you can't fold them like robots, it's naturally less than them, but still much more than your regular living folks.

Some warships don't even need to carry ammo. They just carry tons of undead which power the weapons of the ship on their own. A sort of "unholy energy" to "viable weaponized stuff" kind of deal. They also use this to power all their ships as well. It is the cause of the green flames which come forth from the thrusters of any an Ermorian vessel.

All this makes Ermorian ships pretty much unusable by most other groups since they can't conjure up the required type of energy to activate them, let alone move them without towing them or something.

And so on. This is a system I came up with myself, too!

Wow, imaginative

Most ships are large for their class, barely meeting maximum requirements. Each ship class tends to look radically different from other classes e.g.: Attack Ships, Strike, War, and Omega Cruisers all share a common style, while Raven class capital ships, Faclon class ships of the line, and Firestorm class carriers look similar, but are very different from their combative counterparts. Essentially how a Dominion ship is made depends largely on what it will do.

I use a heavy mixture of plasma-based weaponry and Star Trek style torpedoes coupled with turbolasers on some of the heavier vessels.

Defenses are a mixture of a unique energy-absorbing shield system (which does have a major weakness, but I leave that to the enemy to figure out :p) and thick ablative armor reinforced with tritanium supports.

Propulsion is a mixture of gravitic thrusters and impulse drives depending, again, on the vessel. I use wormhole generators on all large vessel and a prototype micro version on my 20 Explorer vessels. Everything else uses transwarp or just hitches a ride with a capital ship.

Unlike EmeriKa, who has a devilishly efficient and gruesome setup, we do need to accommodate living Marines, but quarters are tightly packed and very spartan. You'll see this close, compartmentalized, utilitarian architecture on all Dominion vessels, as we are driven by efficiency and space management. Despite this system, I do hate to admit that his undead forces still have us beaten in the numbers game.

Finally, the power source for all Dominion vessels is the microsingularity core, a black hole in layman's terms. It provides all vessels with a theoretically inifinte source of power, allowing for the operation of energy-hungry technology like the wormhole generator. It also provides a weapon of last resort when the battle seems hopeless. I don't think I need to explain what happens if one my vessels loses core containment in the middle of your fleet formation. The larger the ship, the larger the core. Despite all measures taken to preserve the ship as well as keep the core contained, naturally nothing is invincible and Dominion captains know how make a victory very costly for their opponents.

Appearance wise, Otagian ships are all varying lengths (50 meters in case of corvettes to the 12 kilometers of a superdread) of matte black tube (barring Joseph who's a horrifying array of rather gaudy colors. He calls it psychological warfare), or matte black eggs when their shields are online. Weapons design focuses heavily on missiles, with massive rings of VLS encircling their hulls at multiple points. Barring missiles, coilguns are popular, along with masers for point defense.

Internally, Regency vessels are rather different from most other civilizations. Since there's no crew, access to areas is limited primarily to rather small drones, or a five foot six inch man at most (barring passenger areas and multipurpose bays, the latter of which resemble giant fish tanks in shape). There's no bridge, and no single AI core, with hundreds of nodes being scattered across the ship. While Avatars patrol the halls if a breach occurs, the primary method of defense is the ship's own inertial dampeners and drives. Locate the enemy, shut off dampeners in the area (or the whole ship), and accelerate at a hundred gravities. Instant paste, with only minor stress to the area (although any loose objects tend to be ground into dust).

Tech is mostly my own, although I tend to borrow more obscure or general ideas from fiction (SCCAMs, necroscopes, and Langston Fields being the limit of direct theft). There is a reasonably heavy influence from the Culture, although the concept of Otagia, it's society and government predate my reading of Banks.

Otagian ships are not only physically powerful...but aesthetically pleasing.

I use a concept from Warhammer, and have things powered not by the Warp, but by a place of my own Creation, The Place which is no Place, The Void. Outside of all things, niether existing or not existing, The Void is merely the bridge betwen Existing, and complete and utter nothingness.

Translating this to tech, I have some pretty interesting weapon creations, but otherwise, just assume a mix of Phasers and Turbolasers.
As for actual ship design, I have only a few.
Clam shuttles, based on actual clams, Octopus ships, looks like a giant red octopus, Whale Ships, loks like a blue whale, used for transport purposes, and as of late I have added a ship that is a little smaller than a Star Destroyer, and lacks the tower.

List of my cap ships. You can tell what I favor for them.

http://skaugra.proboards55.com/index.cgi?board=clantech&action=display&thread=1196455660

For fighters, yeah, pretty much the same.

http://skaugra.proboards55.com/index.cgi?board=clantech&action=display&thread=1197266777