They're merely stacked on deck right now to show them off, and as an exercise for me in placing stuff on the deck. The magazines are below the deck - actually, they're in the below-deck portion of the turret, which I haven't bothered modeling yet as it's pretty much invisible under most circumstances. Since I have a construction dock now, I'm going to be adding some features that would be visible during assembly, though.
I've also built some staircases or whatever the navy speak for those is.
From my time in the US Navy, I can tell you that all stairs on a ship are called "ladders". Apparently this dates back to the age of sail when ladders were all they had, and as the ladders got less steep until you could use them without your hands, they kept calling them that. All the stairs on a Nimitz class carrier are steep, narrow, and open at the back so it's obvious why they're called "ladders".
By the way, I'd like to congratulate you on recognizing the distinction between "bridge" and "combat information center"--that's lost on most designers of sci-fi spaceships.
By the way, I'd like to congratulate you on recognizing the distinction between "bridge" and "combat information center"--that's lost on most designers of sci-fi spaceships.
i've made that mistake a few times but it should be alright on smaller ships, on a battleship however there is a difference. interestingly according to some sources the ideas for command centres in sci fi films inspired the design of those in some more modern ships(see atomic rockets).
My head really hasn't been into it these past couple of days. About the only thing I've managed to day was put back a couple of the details that were lost when I modified the hull, and putting in some hatches in the deck. I've been trying to make a cargo lifter to handle VERTREP (vertical replenishment, on real ships basically hauling stuff with helicopters), but the shape is so far defeating me handily.
I've loaded up the USS Baltimore and the USS Gearing to give a bit of a size comparison - and, if all else fails, a place to start working when I wake up tomorrow...
I remembered I had made a similar shot to the above before, so I dug that up just for comparison purposes. This is what the same three ships looked like three years and one month ago:
smallest ship in that shot looks far too much like an ocean going ship, far more so than the others. it is too narrow. VERTREP seems a good idea, maybe make some space infront of the foremost gunturret. consider the size of objects that must be moved into and out of the hull, that will indicate the approximate size needed for the hatch.
Juvat: I'm not completely sure all the changes were for the better, but overall I do think I've improved a bit in the last three years. Still, I am completely stuck on these damned ships and haven't been able to create anything unrelated since forever. I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, though. Enough of my old mistakes have been fixed now that it should be possible to UV map and really texture these beasties soon.
Spacefighter: You might be able to tell from the pic, the destroyer superstructure hasn't changed much since it was first made. I think even the bridge windows are still there from the first incarnation, though the hull was redone completely a couple of years ago, and again (I think) last year. The main problem with changing anything about them though is that I really want them to be recognizable for what they're supposed to be, and destroyers *were* narrow, somewhat stubby ships with the superstructure bunched up on the forward half of the hull, as opposed to in the middle of it like cruisers and battleships. Destroyers are the little fish among the sharks (cruisers and battleships) and whales (auxiliaries, which *are* in the works, somewhere, but they're fugly as heck compared to the rest since I can't figure out a decent shape for them that will let me convert them as easily as I've been doing the warships).
Knight26: The spinal mounts may be coming back, the jury is still out on that. If they are, they'll be mainly internal, though - no big extending prow like before. They're also rather low priority at the moment, working on much needed deck detail and stuff now.
Since I kind of stalled out on the BB-61, I turned my attention to the next class down the line, the BB-57 (South Dakota). Today I've managed to completely rebuild her anti-aircraft batteries, with each gun turret having its own director and target set up, as on the other ship. There are 17 quad "bofors" mounts and 69 single "oerlikon" mounts each on the top and bottom - I think the latter might be the largest number of those on any one ship I've built, not quite sure right now. I've also added the replenishment ports to the wingtips, so the ship can receive and deliver coolant.
Still to do on the BB-57 are portholes and hatches, and a bunch of deck detail. After that comes the BB-55, and then I'll be going over each ship and forking off the individual ships of each class, probably at different refit levels as well.
You may have noticed I've reverted to referring to them by number - that's because I'm going to start working on new names for them, as there aren't enough original names to go around for the fleet I'm envisioning. I figure I'll need at least three or four times as many ships as the real-world US Navy in order to defend my space from aliums and imperialist scum, so each individual model will be pulling double or triple duties, even if they're originally supposed to be different refit levels of the same ship.
I found a fleet ORBAT from the beginning of the pacific war, which let me know that a Battleship Squadron is made up of four ships in two divisions; a destroyer squadron is made up of nine ships in two divisions plus a flotilla leader; and a cruiser squadron is (IIRC) made up of six to eight ships in two divisions depending on which size cruiser. (Alaska and Guam formed a division on their own; all four Atlanta class cruisers formed one as well, IIRC).
I'll need to come up with something like the following:
70 battleships (17 original ships x 4 plus extras) named after planets (member states) of the United Stars
12 large cruisers (6 originally planned ships x 2) named after asteroid belts or other in-system astronomical features
70 heavy cruisers (23-ish originally planned ships x 3, plus an extra) named after the capital cities of the member planets
144 light cruisers (two for one on the heavy cruisers, plus extras) named after other cities
100 carriers named after great battles (low priority, haven't actually figured out how to build a carrier I can bear to look at)
Destroyers and escorts are named for people, and if all else fails I can use a random name generator for them...
So here's my request: Come up with the member states of the United Stars for me! Name a planet, its star, its capital city, and the two or three most important cities other than the capital. If there's an interesting astronomical feature (not very common), describe it too. More than one planet per system is definitely OK - Sol system has at least two inhabited planets (Earth and Mars) and several inhabited moons (Luna, Europa and Io for starters). They're not members of the United Stars, though...
If everyone who's commented on this thread (and its sister on the other forum I'm posting this to) named just one planet, I'd be at least half way done and have enough inspiration to come up with the rest myself, I hope.
Star: Gaet
Planet: Arundel, trans-Jovian Gas Giant
Moons, inhabited: Arundel Down, Mayest, Carrist, and Ornuti
Capital: Sigrid
Major Cities: Holmsfjord, Staal, Pinet
The Gaet system is notable for having not a single habitable rocky planet. Originally established as a refueling base, extensive terraforming has been done to the largest of the Gas Giant's four "habitable" moons. Even now, after two centuries of work, some sort of breathing-assist is necessary on all four--though in Ornuti's case it's mostly to filter out an airborne spore which flourished during the early terraforming process.
Arundel is a trans-Jovian gas giant, some 2.6 times Jupiter's overall mass though somewhat less dense (and, hence, even bigger). It lacks a ring system due to increased atmospheric drag from its low density. It has some fourteen moons, four of which due to tidal squeezing, internal geological activity, or other sources are barely habitable.
Arundites are proud members of the United Stars, known for their rugged individualism and attention to minutia. On quasi-hab worlds like Arundel Down, even the slightest moment of inattention can kill--a fact no Arundite lets ANYONE forget.
star: k827av (commonly referred to as arthes)
planet: k827av-1b (commonly referred to as arthes
capital city: tholmar (2.8 million residents)
other cities: new warwick, new glasgow, itkalar(currently campaigning for independence), zalnir
the star k827av (commonly referred to as arthes) was first visited by explorers shortly after the discovery of hyperspace. it's system, already known from telescope observations by the transit method, had 4 planets. a hot jupiter world at 2 light minutes from the star (a G class of 1.2 solar masses), a habitable rocky world(no life found at that time) at 9 light minutes, a colder rocky world at 11 light minutes and finally a gas giant three times jupiter's mass at 5 light hours. once hyperspace travel became common the second world became home to a colony(tholmar) whilst a small mining outpost was established on the third planet, arthes B has an atmosphere consisting of 85% carbon dioxide, 10% nitrogen and 5% methane and other gases. when leaving their buildings residents on this planet must wear breathing equipment however the temperature and conditions are such that no other protective gear is needed. after time the planet became a prosperous world whilst the mining colony on arthes C was closed in favour of more profitable resources in other systems, arthes B exports and imports many goods and also has a number of shipyards. away from the main cities there are very few residents however with the relaxed laws enforced on many parts of arthes B the unsettled areas are used by smugglers and other semi legal industries, arthes B is also the largest producer of cheap personal spacecraft(many built for smugglers at factories in the vast wastelands). notably the arthes system is rich in high metal content asteroids, there is a military weapons testing centre in orbit around arthes D.
Cool! That's two systems now. I've come up with a few odd names myself so far:
USS Johnson's Farm (in the tradition of the USS Cowpens, which was named for... the Battle of the Cow Pens)
USS Wet Patch (either a cruiser or a carrier, Americans tend to build towns like "Little Creek" and "Big River"...)
USS Warsong Gulch (yeah, I went there. )
USS John Doe (DD-1234 can have no other name...)
USS Montgomery Hall (a.k.a. Monty Haul, no ship likes to be berthed right beside her due to her reputation for aggressive scrounging. The evidence appears completely anecdotal, though.)
I loaded up the third battleship for a quick snapshot last night before bed, and it looks like I have some work to do on her as her hull is too wide, compared to the others. Not too difficult to fix, and I need to rework her hull anyway so it's no big deal. Saving it for after I'm done with the current project, though.
I've been messing around with building some materials using free textures I downloaded, and after some fits and starts, I've managed to produce this result. The diamond plate texture uses four or five different bitmaps (diffuse, spec, bump and two color layers), and it only really shows up if you're about this close or better, but once you're down here, it looks gorgeous, IMO. A real artist could do better, though, and the painted steel plate of the main hull looks a little bare, but I'll figure it out.
Going only a little further away with the camera makes the texture itself invisible, but I can live with the color that comes out. In the background, you can see my new tractor beam emitters, which I made this morning - I put the emitters on top of the capstans, to give those structures some relevance.
I've also moved the forward AA guns around a little bit so the bottom copy would end up in the right place.
Next, some more fittings on the bow, I think, and along the sides. And jackstaff.
star:C902qn (commonly referred to as sintir)
planet:C902qn-1E(sintir E)
capital city: new volgograd(1.4 million residents)
other cities: new chelyabinsk, new tunguska
C902qn-1E was first colonized by a russian expedition, as the most distant planet from a large star it is an unusual choice to colonize however it is habitable though somewhat hot. all the other 4 planets, A through to D , are too hot to sustain any human life. the atmosphere of this rocky planet(3/4 earth's mass) is breathable and high in oxygen, a number of species were found at time of first colonization. further research found that although some of the larger species were slightly dangerous none of the life forms on sintir E use the same forms of DNA or proteins as earth life meaning that transmission of any diseases is impossible, for this reason areas of land had to be cleared for earth species of crops to grow and an earth bioshere had to be added. sintir E has two totally independent biospheres, one imported from earth, one native to the planet. the climate is warm and 78% of the surface is covered by ocean. when the russian space empire first collapsed the population rebelled and british forces were "invited" onto the planet to take control, the majority of the population did support this change. when the russian empire recovered they attempted to retake the planet after the british discovery of valuable resources on sintir E and throughout it's system. the retaking attempts failed but were some of the first engagements to feature large scale use of space fighters in a decisive battle. the sintir system is still the subject of international controversy.
Alright, I'm using the local solar neighbourhood (20ly around our own sun): http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/nearstar.html
The time-dates are just an idea, you can alter them to fit your timeline.
Star: Alpha Centauri B (K0-type, RA:39.7 Dec:-60 50, 4.4ly away)
Planets: 3, Alpha Centauri BII colonised in 2098, named Centar (M-class)
Moons: 1 Moon: Dalaan (inhabited since 2112)
Capitol: Argolis
Cities: New Moscow, Westphalen, Gagarin
Phenomena & Curiosities: Alpha Centauri BIII, an I-class gas super giant, has an extreme excentricity and is half of the solar year close to ingition into a little sun, the other half the atmosphere is close to freezing point.
Notes: Centar was the first colonised planet after the United Terran Government (UTG) commissioned "Project Starshine", a globalised effort to found the first extra-solar colony, after Mars had been colonised half a century earlier. With the UTG and the Martian Hegemony founding Centar, they united into the Unified Solar Domains (USD). By now, it holds several important buildings, such as the Medical Academy, the Jesu Sanchez Training Facility, and the self-proclaimed Universe-best Restaurant DelRosso's.
Star: Barnards Star (M5-type, RA:57.8 Dec:+04 42, 5.94ly away)
Planets: 5, Barnards StarI colonised in 2123, named Karga (H-class); Barnards StarIII colonised in 2201, named Yarling (K-class)
Moons: 2 Moons over Karga: Hakul (uninhabited), Yang (mining operations in progress), none over Yarling
Capitol: New Tel Aviv
Cities: Wenshen, Mayflower
Phenomena & Curiosities: none
Notes: Founded by Yazu Kolchew, New Tel Aviv was named in honour of his ancestral birthplace. It has very large deserts and water is scarce, but the subsurface offers many ressources and thus, Karga has become a hub of ressource gathering and mining. Yarling was colonised a bit more than 75 years later, in hope of finding more subsurface ressources - successfully.
Star: Lalande 21185 (M2-type, RA:03.3 Dec:+35 58, 8.31ly away)
Planets: 4, LalandeIII colonised in 2164, named Herland (L-type)
Moons: 3 Moons: Dilmin, Jerga (inhabited), Saain (inhabited)
Capitol: Gestir
Cities: Holborg, Kellen
Phenomena & Curiosities: Asteroid Belt between the 2nd and 3rd planet, presumably another planet that was destroyed/torn apart in the primordial times of the system.
Notes: Herland has been colonised in hope that the arid climate and almost barren surface can be terraformed. Albeit costly attempts, only few secluded islands of oasis-like vegetation have managed to survive the harsh climate of Herland. The moons Jerga and Saain have eventually been colonised as well.
Star: Ross 154, named Bloodskins Hideout (M4.5-type, RA:49.8, Dec:-23 50, 9.69ly away)
Planets: none
Moons: none
Capitol: Hershi Base
Cities: Jianglis Retreat, Mayflower, Battle of Mayflower Memorial
Phenomena & Curiosities: The system of Ross154 is an asteroid maze. Closer to the sun, asteroids are partially molten and contain many ressources, further away, the asteroids are mostly frozen lumps.
Notes: This system was once used as a hideout of the Bloodskin Pirates, lead by notorious and charismatic Malcolm O'Toole. Their name derives from their trademark attack pattern that utilises asteroids both as gravitational anchors to maneuver faster, as well as cover and even weapon. While a nuissance at first, their acts of piracy became so intense that by 2190, they were labelled a State-level threat and the Second Federal Fleet was sent to deal with them. Admiral Christen van Hoort personally hunted down O'Tooles flagship, the Blacksun, but van Hoorts own ship, the Mayflower was critically damaged during the final stages of the battle. Van Hoort died on her ship, when the engines overloaded. The bigger asteroids have since been colonised and utilised as starting points for the leisure sport of Asteroid-race, as well as mining operations.
Star: Epsilon Eridani (K2-type, RA:32.9, Dec:-09 28, 10.5ly away)
Planets: 7, EridaniIV colonised 2172, named Starspride (M-class); Eridani V colonised 2245, named Sovereign (P-class)
Moons: none
Capitol: Wayfound
Cities: New Amsterdam, Fort Greysmith, Talparr
Phenomena & Curiosities: The western continent of Sovereign has a unique species of "living rocks". Beings that have a skin texture much like a rock.
Notes: Starspride was founded shortly after the USD renamed themselves into the United Stars, hence the patriotic naming. The founder, Maxim Kachur, was the nephew of then-president Yvanka Grigorowich and made it his "present" to her. Sovereigns icy canyons were first only a tourist attraction, but eventually called the clever marketeer Alexander Baxter to found a stellar water delivery service. His Company, Liquid Stars Inc., carves the ice of the frozen P-class planets and moons as well as iced asteroids into transportable clocks and delivers them to the the plantes with water shortages. His company now has branches and mining operations across the entire United Stars.
Star: Procyon A (F5-type, RA:39.3, Dec:+05 14, 11.41ly away)
Planets: 4, Procyon AII colonised 2177, named Halcyon (K-class)
Moons: 1 Moon: Kergano (surveys in progress)
Capitol: Neo Sydney
Cities: Fairmark, Yanders
Phenomena & Curiosities: Procyon A and B are very close together from an astronomical point of view. Stellar maneuvering is very dangerous, and failures to obey the strict rules of the system has costed many ships already. The shipwreck-yard contains the corpses of hundets o shps that were detroyed or damaged beyond repair due to navigational errors or ignorance.
Notes: Halcyon was first settled to be only an outpost, and for nearly a century, this was the premise, but when the inter-system flights became routine enough to not cause the loss of a ship every other month, civillian settles began to colonise the otherwise barren surface. What Halcyon lacks in ressources and beauty, it makes up by the inhabitants: The label "Halcyon Manufacture" has become a sign of highly skilled workmanship.
Star: Groombridge 34A (M2-type, RA:18.4, Dec: +44 01, 11.64ly away)
Planets: 2, none inhabited
Moons: Groombridge 34AII (a J-class gas giant) has 28 moons, 3 of them can support life: Calgary (inhabited since 2187, M-class), Jan (inhabited since 2198, M-class), Loyan (start of colonisation scheduled for next decade, N-class) 8 more moons as inhabited with mining operations or outposts.
Capitol: New Swansea (Calgary)
Cities: Loratus (Calgary), Telger (Jan), Stadnau (Loyan), Burder (Loyan)
Phenomena & Curiosities: Groombridge 34AII is a gas giant much like Jupiter, only about 2.8 times the size.
Notes: New Swansea was more or less accidentially settled by Josephine Rubenstein, an ace-pilot and former Starnavy fighter hero, when she crashlanded on Calgary and was marooned there for an entire month. It was later found out that the neighbouring moon had an intense electro-magnetic field that disrupted the fighters system, and eventually endangered and almost caused the light cruiser Osaka to lose control as well. After some adjustments to the EM-shielding, these disruptions were negatable, and Rubenstein, partially fond of her lunar retreat, requested a survey team to check the moon.
Star: Epsilon Indi A (K4-type, RA:03.4, Dec:-56 47, 11.83ly away)
Planets: 16, Epsilon IndiAII, colonised 2191, named Ghandi (M-class); Epsilon IndiAV, colonised 2198, named Luther (O-class); Epsilon IndiAVI, colonised 2211, named Wu (L-class)
Moons: several with mining operations. 2 in preparations of colonisation, yet none fully colonised.
Capitol: New Mumbai (Ghandi)
Cities: New Wuhan (Wu), Louderfield (Wu), New Cologne (Luther)
Phenomena & Curiosities: This system contains 3 asteroid belts; one between the 2nd and 3rd planet, one between the 8th and 9th, and one behind the 16th. Several mining operations are in progress among the first two, while the outer one is used by the military.
Notes: Ghandi was settled by Rajkumar Ghandi, descendant of the famous Indian Mahadma Ghandi. Luther has been founded by the black James Robertson in memory of Martin Luther King. Wu loans its name from Harry Wu. All three have been famous activists for human rights, equality, and union. The settlements were established on the founding days of the United Stars as a commemoration and celebration of the harsh and sometimes brutal past when nations still fought against eachother. President Shiricho Ieyatsu addressed the population on the colonisation day of Wu, welcoming them into what he called the Gold Era of the Stars.
Star: Luytens Star (M3.5-type, RA:27.4, Dec:+05 14, 12.39ly away)
Planets: 5, Luytens StarII, colonised 2199, named Zaion (L-class), Lyutens StarV, outposts established 2200, named Freude (Q-class)
Moons: 2, Tenga (uninhabited), Guldar (inhabited since 2205)
Capitol: Sebrus
Cities: Churchill, New Berlin, Dalmar
Phenomena & Curiosities: Lyutens Star V has several zero-G spots and a unique surface.
Notes: Settled by Marten van Hoort, descendant of the legendary Admiral van Hoort, Zaion was intended to be a primarily military outpost, by only few months after the colonisation, the luxury liner Crystal Stars was forced to dock at the orbital station due to an engine failure. Among the crew was the paraplegic-born James Bauer. While waiting at the Spaceport, he felt uneasy with all the military and asked the Crystal Stars dockmaster for a personal shuttle-ship to tour the local system. Visiting Luytens StarV, he discovered the Zero-G spots and surface spots, where the grass seems to be petrified into glass. James Bauer recorded these and began building up a small enertainment company. By now, the Zero-G spots are both used as entertainment as well as military training.
Awesome, many thanks. My head is full of spinning triangles right now, I'll have to go over all of these later and make a list, get some hull numbers jotted down and whatnot. Then, it'll be time to load up Photoshop again and start making decals.
I've been busy adding the docking tubes to the BB-57, including adding another telescoping section so the tube can extend further, which should help in docking with some types of shuttles. All that's really needed for that section right now is the segmented doors (I'm thinking garage type) that will cover the ports when not in use. Also, ladders. Can never have too many ladders.
star:N114gb (brittania IV)
planet: N114gb-1B (brittania IV
capital city: new buckingham(5.7 million residents)
other cities: new lincoln, new aberdeen, port brittania IV
Brittania IV was the fourth british colony founded, the first city being port brittania IV. the star N114gb is hotter than the sun but emits roughly the same amount of energy per second though at higher frequency(blue) and sits on the edge of a nebula in a hundred thousand year orbit(P.S.i would have checked this roughly if only i had the mass and radius of some nebulae), leading to spectacular night skies for parts of the year. the planet N114gb-1B is the second in a system of 14 planets, it is rocky with one large moon. this moon stabilises the axis of the planet which has allowed life to evolve, although a closely guarded secret there are a number of sites suggesting that some form of primitive civilisation may have existed over 350,000 years ago. shortly after the colony was settled and an earth biosphere imported to support the colonists, a nuclear leak from a fission reactor powering the city of port brittania IV leads to that city becoming medium level radioactive. however 19 years later a new colony is established to harness resources on the planet and make the most of it's central location amongst many other inhabited systems, at first a large naval presence occupies the system for raids on nearby systems. this decreases but a fraction of it remains today as a shipyard and as a repair facility. the other planets in the system are a mixture of gas giants and highly volcanic worlds, heated by compression and tension from each other's gravity as they orbit close to each other. brittania IV is now a rich system but has little political power or effect on other worlds.
star:Y781nn(astrialis)
planet: Y781nn-1A (astrialis A)
capital city: batasa(640,000)
other cities:none
the astrialis system is barren and empty, a small white dwarf which is believed to have lost any plantes it may have possessed when the star flared up into a red giant 1 billion years earlier. astrialis A is the only planet and has a chemical composition of the kind that would be expected for a planet formed at the edge of the proto-planetary disc of a hotter star, the planet is believed to have been captured in a close encounter with N114gb around 350,000 years ago (N114gb is now 2.7 light years away from Y781nn). at the far sharing astrialis A's orbit are asteroids, some perhaps the remnants of planets Y781nn once had, others pulled into orbit over the last few million years, many of these "foreign" asteroids are rich in gold, platinum, uranium and what were once known as "rare earth metals". the chinese settled on astrialis A as a base of operations for mining the ateroids, all settlements are concealed underground to protect from the harsh radiation(uv,x-rays) emitted by the white dwarf star. the estimated survival time for a human on the surface with only a normal spacesuit rather than an armoured version is 85 minutes before they begin to severely burn, unprotected by any atmosphere. with the discovery of more accessible metal deposits in more distant systems, astrialis A became a slum. everyone with the money to leave did so, leaving only the desperate and poorest. the chinese government attempted to repopulate astrialis A, the new arrivals found themselves in the perfect position to exploit the original colonists. astrialis A is now ruled by gangs of criminals and smugglers, funded from outside by corrupt officials. it has entered common use to use the term "an astrialis" to mean a slum, or "astrialised" to mean weakened then ruled from elsewhere by leaders who never even set foot upon the world they control.
star:T664cr(caltaraxen)
planet:T664cr-1B(caltaraxen
capital city: antensburg (2.0 million residents)
other cities: goltar, nartvix, new calais
caltaraxen is the first extra solar colony established by france,it is located on the only rocky planet in the T664cr system which was chosen simply because it was the only system in close range of earth that had yet to be claimed by another nation. the planet T664cr-1B is tidally locked to the small star T664cr, so one side is in perpetual day, the other in perpetual night. a narrow ring of land in constant twilight is home to all the human habitation on the planet which has a semi breathable atmosphere and some native life. the french government covered up the events at the time of colonization, which are believed by some to have involved the slaughter of a primitive alien civilisation, to this day the government protests that the species was already extinct before they landed. there are a number of underground tunnels leading from the twilight region to man made caverns under the day side of the planet, the caverns contain generators harnessing the heat gradient between the day and night sides. with the lowering cost of manufacturing a space station was later built in orbit around one of the three gas giants that caltaraxen B shares it's system with, this station now houses more people than any of the individual cities on caltaraxen B. the caltaraxen system has no major resources but the economy of it's planet and space station have remained in good health.
Thanks a bunch for all the planets, I think I have enough for now. Going to catalogue them and see if I can match them up to some ships later. Still too tied up in modelling to get any writing done. Which is still good, at least I'm being productive.
I decided to give the Essex class another go, and since it was based on the same general hull and machinery as the Alaska-class, that's where I started from as well. Aside from some vertices having been pushed around some in the nose area, from the vertical centerline and down they are currently identical, to the point where the Essex still has the Alaska-class turrets and superstructure on the ventral side. I'm toying with the idea of leaving it like that, I did more or less the same thing on my (very ugly and in the queue for a rebuild) Saipan- and Independence-class light carriers, which were based off of the hulls of Baltimore- and Cleveland-class cruisers. (The Independence class used hulls which had actually been started as light cruisers, the Saipan-class were laid down as carriers but still used Baltimore-class hulls, with minor modifications.)
If I don't keep the turrets, I'm currently at something of a loss for what to do with the underside instead. I can't put another flight deck on the underside, as the ships operate in gravity fairly often. The ventral superstructure needs to balance out the shape like it does for the other ships, which more or less means it needs to be centered in the X-axis, with a decent-sized protruding fin like the other cruisers. And it needs to have the same number of guns on the underside as it has above, to keep the bottom from being an even more glaring weakspot than the flight deck.
One option I've been considering is to swipe the superstructure from one of the CLAA-types, which has more or less the same number of DP turrets, the keel fin and everything, and stick that on the bottom. It would look a little small on something as big as an Essex class, though...
You could strap an ungodly amount of antennas and C3 gear on her belly. A carrier needs to be in constant communicaition with her aviation element, no?
maybe put some turrets on the sides of her hull as well as above and below, the communications equipment and antennae could be a good idea. but that ship needs a fair bit more work, at the moment it is rather ugly. maybe build the carrier on a very different design from your battleships, decide it will be purely for use in space or something if that gives you more freedom. perhaps add some pods on the sides as well to make the ship wider which would improve the appearance, with some more work i don't doubt you will make this another good ship.
by the way, i haven't gone through all of your thread but have you ever tried any fighters or bombers, they could come out quite well.
maybe put some turrets on the sides of her hull as well as above and below, the communications equipment and antennae could be a good idea. but that ship needs a fair bit more work, at the moment it is rather ugly. maybe build the carrier on a very different design from your battleships, decide it will be purely for use in space or something if that gives you more freedom. perhaps add some pods on the sides as well to make the ship wider which would improve the appearance, with some more work i don't doubt you will make this another good ship.
by the way, i haven't gone through all of your thread but have you ever tried any fighters or bombers, they could come out quite well.
1.) It appears to me that these ships are streamlined, therefor decreasing the cost necessity of fabricating and replacing custom parts. This would also fit into the World War ideology, you seem to be forgetting, whereas, basic ship hulls were often streamlined and re-purposed as a new ship type. If I recall correctly, a battleship hull was restructured and turned into one of the States first carrier and all.
2.) Seeing as he just laid the basic keel of the ship, of course itll require more work. But saying its "ugly?" Fine matter of opinion, but once again warships aren't suppose to be pretty, and warships from the World Wars, were not pretty. They were menacing, intimidating war machine. Thinking of it in its function over form, that ship sure as hell looks ugly and gorgeous.
3.) Its been stated his ships are able to enter atmo with antigrav tech. However I doubt that creating a vessel specifically for space (in this case) will change the design aesthetic too much.
@Bastion - This is looking nice thus far. As for the underside, since its a carrier, why not some "drop tubes" where a drop pod, or some other small craft can immediate drop out toward a planet thats "down below" the ship or something? Otherwise, Im thinking the regular nurnies and greebles of satellites, antenna, and the sort might just be the best fit.
spacefighter - yeah, it was ugly. They usually are when they're just started, and this one is no exception. I've redone everything from the horizontal plane and up twice today, and I think I've gotten the hang of it now, but it's still an ugly beast compared to the others - but then, all WW2 carriers were.
Building the carrier asymmetrically was decided ages ago, as there was no way of building a vertically symmetrical carrier that I could be happy with that would be recognizable as the original ship - and that's pretty much rule number one. I think the entire move away from vertical symmetry in my ships (the adding of the chin structure to all the hulls, the deletion of bridges on the ventral superstructure, the omission of drone catapults) was setup for carriers like these, really.
Aside from being able to operate like this in an atmosphere, there were lots of other considerations. One of the main ones is that eventually, I want to be able to evolve the carriers along the same lines as they did in real life, and that means angled flight decks, and a move away from centerline deck elevators. Another was the flight deck edge details, like the anti-aircraft guns and the lifeboats, which I'd have nowhere to put (or no reason to put where they go on the real thing) if the flight deck was internal, for example. Also, without an external flight deck, how am I supposed to do a WW2-style full deck strike, where all the planes on the carrier are lined up four abreast to take off in order?
alonzo: Thanks for the assist, and you've hit the nail fairly square here. Yes, in WW2 they did repurpose hull designs a lot. Previous to that as well, really, for several major reasons. One of them is, there is a boatload of math involved in designing a hull, and back when mathematical computing aids were restricted to the abacus and slide rule, doing that boatload of math took time. If you needed to build a ship, the fastest way to do it would be to figure out which existing hull design was closest to whatever your requirements were, and start from there - and if you really were in a hurry, you wouldn't even start calculating, you'd lay the keel down and start building.
Also, ship designs weren't static by any means. While the US navy made general plans, it was up to the contractor to interpret them, which they all did slightly differently. Not enough for it to matter when it came to components like turrets and such, but still, there were differences. Also, the ships had to be built fast - if the plans said to use one component, and you didn't have one, and could not wait to get one, you had to figure out some way of accomplishing the same thing with something you *did* have. Sometimes, these solutions turned out better than the official way of doing it, whether by working better, or being faster to build while doing the same job.
Finally, there were those changes that were decided on while the ships were under construction. The plans for the Cleveland-class light cruisers said she was to have four quadruple 1.1-inch anti-aircraft guns, and a number of .50 caliber machine guns. Of the eight ships ordered with this armament, only one was completed that way, the others had a steadily increasing number of 20 and 40 mm guns in place of the .50 cals and 1.1 inch guns, using all manner of kludges to get them all to fit without the ships capsizing. The Iowa class were ordered without enclosed bridges, with only a catwalk around the conning tower. Iowa and New Jersey were the only ones completed that way, and New Jersey got her bridge enclosed after her shakedown cruise. At that time, the Missouri and Wisconsin were half done already, and they received another kind of bridge enclosure. (which was eventually retrofitted to the other two, just in time for the end of the war).
So yeah, things look like they're bolted on wherever sometimes. That's what the real ships looked like, and mine do for much the same in-story reasons. Don't you know, there's a war on?
I started out by making a better mockup island, which was scaled according to the size of the twin DP turrets (the real island is the same width as a twin DP turret, excluding the platforms). It's nowhere close to done, but it looks a lot nicer than the block thing. Then, I decided I didn't like the shape of the hangar deck, so I stripped the hull back down to the "waterline" and started back up again. It took most of the day to get something that looked decent, I've spent hours trying to fight smoothing and shading errors, on a structure made from all quads. o.O
Eventually, I arrived at the current shape, and started adding the gun platforms. I also removed the original underside superstructure, and replaced it with one from a light cruiser, less the O1 deck - the cruiser has the right number of barbettes for the DP guns (4 singles and 4 twins topside, 6 twins on the bottom) and without the O1 deck there are no heavy turrets. I can also install more or less the same number of 40 mm quads on the underside without modifying things too much, though fitting in all the 20 mm guns will be tedious....
After that, I added *most* of the AA guns to the top half. The missing ones are at the back of the flight deck, and will be added later. A couple of the quad turrets are in the wrong places right now - there's a sponson with two of those things aft of the wing which shouldn't be there, those mounts should be on deck-edge platforms. I'll move them when I've built the platforms.
Finally, there's a bunch of floating gizmos over the flight deck - those are things I imported from another model and have yet to place on this one. They'll be moved to their final locations when I've built the various platforms for them, as well.
Now, I'm going to take the advise of my cat, and go to bed...
you should take the design of the avengers carrier for the movie in consideration and do somthing along that style minus the huge fans like still keep the wings where they are but have em a sold mass or slame some rocket engines in them
That looks pretty well. I personally hink that the lower area should still hold decent weapondry. Any solid and spacefaring ship is going to engage in ship-to-ship combat at close proximity, or even point-blank range, and if one ship has not enough guns to kick the enemy, it'll have a very bad time. At least it should have far stronger shields (which in turn would b eg the question as to why the other ships don't have stronger shields either...)
Posts
From my time in the US Navy, I can tell you that all stairs on a ship are called "ladders". Apparently this dates back to the age of sail when ladders were all they had, and as the ladders got less steep until you could use them without your hands, they kept calling them that. All the stairs on a Nimitz class carrier are steep, narrow, and open at the back so it's obvious why they're called "ladders".
By the way, I'd like to congratulate you on recognizing the distinction between "bridge" and "combat information center"--that's lost on most designers of sci-fi spaceships.
I've loaded up the USS Baltimore and the USS Gearing to give a bit of a size comparison - and, if all else fails, a place to start working when I wake up tomorrow...
A bit of a difference, wouldn't you say?
Spacefighter: You might be able to tell from the pic, the destroyer superstructure hasn't changed much since it was first made. I think even the bridge windows are still there from the first incarnation, though the hull was redone completely a couple of years ago, and again (I think) last year. The main problem with changing anything about them though is that I really want them to be recognizable for what they're supposed to be, and destroyers *were* narrow, somewhat stubby ships with the superstructure bunched up on the forward half of the hull, as opposed to in the middle of it like cruisers and battleships. Destroyers are the little fish among the sharks (cruisers and battleships) and whales (auxiliaries, which *are* in the works, somewhere, but they're fugly as heck compared to the rest since I can't figure out a decent shape for them that will let me convert them as easily as I've been doing the warships).
Knight26: The spinal mounts may be coming back, the jury is still out on that. If they are, they'll be mainly internal, though - no big extending prow like before. They're also rather low priority at the moment, working on much needed deck detail and stuff now.
Since I kind of stalled out on the BB-61, I turned my attention to the next class down the line, the BB-57 (South Dakota). Today I've managed to completely rebuild her anti-aircraft batteries, with each gun turret having its own director and target set up, as on the other ship. There are 17 quad "bofors" mounts and 69 single "oerlikon" mounts each on the top and bottom - I think the latter might be the largest number of those on any one ship I've built, not quite sure right now. I've also added the replenishment ports to the wingtips, so the ship can receive and deliver coolant.
Still to do on the BB-57 are portholes and hatches, and a bunch of deck detail. After that comes the BB-55, and then I'll be going over each ship and forking off the individual ships of each class, probably at different refit levels as well.
You may have noticed I've reverted to referring to them by number - that's because I'm going to start working on new names for them, as there aren't enough original names to go around for the fleet I'm envisioning. I figure I'll need at least three or four times as many ships as the real-world US Navy in order to defend my space from aliums and imperialist scum, so each individual model will be pulling double or triple duties, even if they're originally supposed to be different refit levels of the same ship.
I found a fleet ORBAT from the beginning of the pacific war, which let me know that a Battleship Squadron is made up of four ships in two divisions; a destroyer squadron is made up of nine ships in two divisions plus a flotilla leader; and a cruiser squadron is (IIRC) made up of six to eight ships in two divisions depending on which size cruiser. (Alaska and Guam formed a division on their own; all four Atlanta class cruisers formed one as well, IIRC).
I'll need to come up with something like the following:
70 battleships (17 original ships x 4 plus extras) named after planets (member states) of the United Stars
12 large cruisers (6 originally planned ships x 2) named after asteroid belts or other in-system astronomical features
70 heavy cruisers (23-ish originally planned ships x 3, plus an extra) named after the capital cities of the member planets
144 light cruisers (two for one on the heavy cruisers, plus extras) named after other cities
100 carriers named after great battles (low priority, haven't actually figured out how to build a carrier I can bear to look at)
Destroyers and escorts are named for people, and if all else fails I can use a random name generator for them...
So here's my request: Come up with the member states of the United Stars for me! Name a planet, its star, its capital city, and the two or three most important cities other than the capital. If there's an interesting astronomical feature (not very common), describe it too. More than one planet per system is definitely OK - Sol system has at least two inhabited planets (Earth and Mars) and several inhabited moons (Luna, Europa and Io for starters). They're not members of the United Stars, though...
If everyone who's commented on this thread (and its sister on the other forum I'm posting this to) named just one planet, I'd be at least half way done and have enough inspiration to come up with the rest myself, I hope.
Planet: Arundel, trans-Jovian Gas Giant
Moons, inhabited: Arundel Down, Mayest, Carrist, and Ornuti
Capital: Sigrid
Major Cities: Holmsfjord, Staal, Pinet
The Gaet system is notable for having not a single habitable rocky planet. Originally established as a refueling base, extensive terraforming has been done to the largest of the Gas Giant's four "habitable" moons. Even now, after two centuries of work, some sort of breathing-assist is necessary on all four--though in Ornuti's case it's mostly to filter out an airborne spore which flourished during the early terraforming process.
Arundel is a trans-Jovian gas giant, some 2.6 times Jupiter's overall mass though somewhat less dense (and, hence, even bigger). It lacks a ring system due to increased atmospheric drag from its low density. It has some fourteen moons, four of which due to tidal squeezing, internal geological activity, or other sources are barely habitable.
Arundites are proud members of the United Stars, known for their rugged individualism and attention to minutia. On quasi-hab worlds like Arundel Down, even the slightest moment of inattention can kill--a fact no Arundite lets ANYONE forget.
star: k827av (commonly referred to as arthes)
planet: k827av-1b (commonly referred to as arthes
capital city: tholmar (2.8 million residents)
other cities: new warwick, new glasgow, itkalar(currently campaigning for independence), zalnir
the star k827av (commonly referred to as arthes) was first visited by explorers shortly after the discovery of hyperspace. it's system, already known from telescope observations by the transit method, had 4 planets. a hot jupiter world at 2 light minutes from the star (a G class of 1.2 solar masses), a habitable rocky world(no life found at that time) at 9 light minutes, a colder rocky world at 11 light minutes and finally a gas giant three times jupiter's mass at 5 light hours. once hyperspace travel became common the second world became home to a colony(tholmar) whilst a small mining outpost was established on the third planet, arthes B has an atmosphere consisting of 85% carbon dioxide, 10% nitrogen and 5% methane and other gases. when leaving their buildings residents on this planet must wear breathing equipment however the temperature and conditions are such that no other protective gear is needed. after time the planet became a prosperous world whilst the mining colony on arthes C was closed in favour of more profitable resources in other systems, arthes B exports and imports many goods and also has a number of shipyards. away from the main cities there are very few residents however with the relaxed laws enforced on many parts of arthes B the unsettled areas are used by smugglers and other semi legal industries, arthes B is also the largest producer of cheap personal spacecraft(many built for smugglers at factories in the vast wastelands). notably the arthes system is rich in high metal content asteroids, there is a military weapons testing centre in orbit around arthes D.
USS Johnson's Farm (in the tradition of the USS Cowpens, which was named for... the Battle of the Cow Pens)
USS Wet Patch (either a cruiser or a carrier, Americans tend to build towns like "Little Creek" and "Big River"...)
USS Warsong Gulch (yeah, I went there.
USS John Doe (DD-1234 can have no other name...)
USS Montgomery Hall (a.k.a. Monty Haul, no ship likes to be berthed right beside her due to her reputation for aggressive scrounging. The evidence appears completely anecdotal, though.)
I loaded up the third battleship for a quick snapshot last night before bed, and it looks like I have some work to do on her as her hull is too wide, compared to the others. Not too difficult to fix, and I need to rework her hull anyway so it's no big deal. Saving it for after I'm done with the current project, though.
I've been messing around with building some materials using free textures I downloaded, and after some fits and starts, I've managed to produce this result. The diamond plate texture uses four or five different bitmaps (diffuse, spec, bump and two color layers), and it only really shows up if you're about this close or better, but once you're down here, it looks gorgeous, IMO. A real artist could do better, though, and the painted steel plate of the main hull looks a little bare, but I'll figure it out.
Going only a little further away with the camera makes the texture itself invisible, but I can live with the color that comes out.
I've also moved the forward AA guns around a little bit so the bottom copy would end up in the right place.
Next, some more fittings on the bow, I think, and along the sides. And jackstaff.
star:C902qn (commonly referred to as sintir)
planet:C902qn-1E(sintir E)
capital city: new volgograd(1.4 million residents)
other cities: new chelyabinsk, new tunguska
C902qn-1E was first colonized by a russian expedition, as the most distant planet from a large star it is an unusual choice to colonize however it is habitable though somewhat hot. all the other 4 planets, A through to D , are too hot to sustain any human life. the atmosphere of this rocky planet(3/4 earth's mass) is breathable and high in oxygen, a number of species were found at time of first colonization. further research found that although some of the larger species were slightly dangerous none of the life forms on sintir E use the same forms of DNA or proteins as earth life meaning that transmission of any diseases is impossible, for this reason areas of land had to be cleared for earth species of crops to grow and an earth bioshere had to be added. sintir E has two totally independent biospheres, one imported from earth, one native to the planet. the climate is warm and 78% of the surface is covered by ocean. when the russian space empire first collapsed the population rebelled and british forces were "invited" onto the planet to take control, the majority of the population did support this change. when the russian empire recovered they attempted to retake the planet after the british discovery of valuable resources on sintir E and throughout it's system. the retaking attempts failed but were some of the first engagements to feature large scale use of space fighters in a decisive battle. the sintir system is still the subject of international controversy.
ships still looking good.
The time-dates are just an idea, you can alter them to fit your timeline.
Star: Alpha Centauri B (K0-type, RA:39.7 Dec:-60 50, 4.4ly away)
Planets: 3, Alpha Centauri BII colonised in 2098, named Centar (M-class)
Moons: 1 Moon: Dalaan (inhabited since 2112)
Capitol: Argolis
Cities: New Moscow, Westphalen, Gagarin
Phenomena & Curiosities: Alpha Centauri BIII, an I-class gas super giant, has an extreme excentricity and is half of the solar year close to ingition into a little sun, the other half the atmosphere is close to freezing point.
Notes: Centar was the first colonised planet after the United Terran Government (UTG) commissioned "Project Starshine", a globalised effort to found the first extra-solar colony, after Mars had been colonised half a century earlier. With the UTG and the Martian Hegemony founding Centar, they united into the Unified Solar Domains (USD). By now, it holds several important buildings, such as the Medical Academy, the Jesu Sanchez Training Facility, and the self-proclaimed Universe-best Restaurant DelRosso's.
Star: Barnards Star (M5-type, RA:57.8 Dec:+04 42, 5.94ly away)
Planets: 5, Barnards StarI colonised in 2123, named Karga (H-class); Barnards StarIII colonised in 2201, named Yarling (K-class)
Moons: 2 Moons over Karga: Hakul (uninhabited), Yang (mining operations in progress), none over Yarling
Capitol: New Tel Aviv
Cities: Wenshen, Mayflower
Phenomena & Curiosities: none
Notes: Founded by Yazu Kolchew, New Tel Aviv was named in honour of his ancestral birthplace. It has very large deserts and water is scarce, but the subsurface offers many ressources and thus, Karga has become a hub of ressource gathering and mining. Yarling was colonised a bit more than 75 years later, in hope of finding more subsurface ressources - successfully.
Star: Lalande 21185 (M2-type, RA:03.3 Dec:+35 58, 8.31ly away)
Planets: 4, LalandeIII colonised in 2164, named Herland (L-type)
Moons: 3 Moons: Dilmin, Jerga (inhabited), Saain (inhabited)
Capitol: Gestir
Cities: Holborg, Kellen
Phenomena & Curiosities: Asteroid Belt between the 2nd and 3rd planet, presumably another planet that was destroyed/torn apart in the primordial times of the system.
Notes: Herland has been colonised in hope that the arid climate and almost barren surface can be terraformed. Albeit costly attempts, only few secluded islands of oasis-like vegetation have managed to survive the harsh climate of Herland. The moons Jerga and Saain have eventually been colonised as well.
Star: Ross 154, named Bloodskins Hideout (M4.5-type, RA:49.8, Dec:-23 50, 9.69ly away)
Planets: none
Moons: none
Capitol: Hershi Base
Cities: Jianglis Retreat, Mayflower, Battle of Mayflower Memorial
Phenomena & Curiosities: The system of Ross154 is an asteroid maze. Closer to the sun, asteroids are partially molten and contain many ressources, further away, the asteroids are mostly frozen lumps.
Notes: This system was once used as a hideout of the Bloodskin Pirates, lead by notorious and charismatic Malcolm O'Toole. Their name derives from their trademark attack pattern that utilises asteroids both as gravitational anchors to maneuver faster, as well as cover and even weapon. While a nuissance at first, their acts of piracy became so intense that by 2190, they were labelled a State-level threat and the Second Federal Fleet was sent to deal with them. Admiral Christen van Hoort personally hunted down O'Tooles flagship, the Blacksun, but van Hoorts own ship, the Mayflower was critically damaged during the final stages of the battle. Van Hoort died on her ship, when the engines overloaded. The bigger asteroids have since been colonised and utilised as starting points for the leisure sport of Asteroid-race, as well as mining operations.
Star: Epsilon Eridani (K2-type, RA:32.9, Dec:-09 28, 10.5ly away)
Planets: 7, EridaniIV colonised 2172, named Starspride (M-class); Eridani V colonised 2245, named Sovereign (P-class)
Moons: none
Capitol: Wayfound
Cities: New Amsterdam, Fort Greysmith, Talparr
Phenomena & Curiosities: The western continent of Sovereign has a unique species of "living rocks". Beings that have a skin texture much like a rock.
Notes: Starspride was founded shortly after the USD renamed themselves into the United Stars, hence the patriotic naming. The founder, Maxim Kachur, was the nephew of then-president Yvanka Grigorowich and made it his "present" to her. Sovereigns icy canyons were first only a tourist attraction, but eventually called the clever marketeer Alexander Baxter to found a stellar water delivery service. His Company, Liquid Stars Inc., carves the ice of the frozen P-class planets and moons as well as iced asteroids into transportable clocks and delivers them to the the plantes with water shortages. His company now has branches and mining operations across the entire United Stars.
Star: Procyon A (F5-type, RA:39.3, Dec:+05 14, 11.41ly away)
Planets: 4, Procyon AII colonised 2177, named Halcyon (K-class)
Moons: 1 Moon: Kergano (surveys in progress)
Capitol: Neo Sydney
Cities: Fairmark, Yanders
Phenomena & Curiosities: Procyon A and B are very close together from an astronomical point of view. Stellar maneuvering is very dangerous, and failures to obey the strict rules of the system has costed many ships already. The shipwreck-yard contains the corpses of hundets o shps that were detroyed or damaged beyond repair due to navigational errors or ignorance.
Notes: Halcyon was first settled to be only an outpost, and for nearly a century, this was the premise, but when the inter-system flights became routine enough to not cause the loss of a ship every other month, civillian settles began to colonise the otherwise barren surface. What Halcyon lacks in ressources and beauty, it makes up by the inhabitants: The label "Halcyon Manufacture" has become a sign of highly skilled workmanship.
Star: Groombridge 34A (M2-type, RA:18.4, Dec: +44 01, 11.64ly away)
Planets: 2, none inhabited
Moons: Groombridge 34AII (a J-class gas giant) has 28 moons, 3 of them can support life: Calgary (inhabited since 2187, M-class), Jan (inhabited since 2198, M-class), Loyan (start of colonisation scheduled for next decade, N-class) 8 more moons as inhabited with mining operations or outposts.
Capitol: New Swansea (Calgary)
Cities: Loratus (Calgary), Telger (Jan), Stadnau (Loyan), Burder (Loyan)
Phenomena & Curiosities: Groombridge 34AII is a gas giant much like Jupiter, only about 2.8 times the size.
Notes: New Swansea was more or less accidentially settled by Josephine Rubenstein, an ace-pilot and former Starnavy fighter hero, when she crashlanded on Calgary and was marooned there for an entire month. It was later found out that the neighbouring moon had an intense electro-magnetic field that disrupted the fighters system, and eventually endangered and almost caused the light cruiser Osaka to lose control as well. After some adjustments to the EM-shielding, these disruptions were negatable, and Rubenstein, partially fond of her lunar retreat, requested a survey team to check the moon.
Star: Epsilon Indi A (K4-type, RA:03.4, Dec:-56 47, 11.83ly away)
Planets: 16, Epsilon IndiAII, colonised 2191, named Ghandi (M-class); Epsilon IndiAV, colonised 2198, named Luther (O-class); Epsilon IndiAVI, colonised 2211, named Wu (L-class)
Moons: several with mining operations. 2 in preparations of colonisation, yet none fully colonised.
Capitol: New Mumbai (Ghandi)
Cities: New Wuhan (Wu), Louderfield (Wu), New Cologne (Luther)
Phenomena & Curiosities: This system contains 3 asteroid belts; one between the 2nd and 3rd planet, one between the 8th and 9th, and one behind the 16th. Several mining operations are in progress among the first two, while the outer one is used by the military.
Notes: Ghandi was settled by Rajkumar Ghandi, descendant of the famous Indian Mahadma Ghandi. Luther has been founded by the black James Robertson in memory of Martin Luther King. Wu loans its name from Harry Wu. All three have been famous activists for human rights, equality, and union. The settlements were established on the founding days of the United Stars as a commemoration and celebration of the harsh and sometimes brutal past when nations still fought against eachother. President Shiricho Ieyatsu addressed the population on the colonisation day of Wu, welcoming them into what he called the Gold Era of the Stars.
Star: Luytens Star (M3.5-type, RA:27.4, Dec:+05 14, 12.39ly away)
Planets: 5, Luytens StarII, colonised 2199, named Zaion (L-class), Lyutens StarV, outposts established 2200, named Freude (Q-class)
Moons: 2, Tenga (uninhabited), Guldar (inhabited since 2205)
Capitol: Sebrus
Cities: Churchill, New Berlin, Dalmar
Phenomena & Curiosities: Lyutens Star V has several zero-G spots and a unique surface.
Notes: Settled by Marten van Hoort, descendant of the legendary Admiral van Hoort, Zaion was intended to be a primarily military outpost, by only few months after the colonisation, the luxury liner Crystal Stars was forced to dock at the orbital station due to an engine failure. Among the crew was the paraplegic-born James Bauer. While waiting at the Spaceport, he felt uneasy with all the military and asked the Crystal Stars dockmaster for a personal shuttle-ship to tour the local system. Visiting Luytens StarV, he discovered the Zero-G spots and surface spots, where the grass seems to be petrified into glass. James Bauer recorded these and began building up a small enertainment company. By now, the Zero-G spots are both used as entertainment as well as military training.
Need more?
I've been busy adding the docking tubes to the BB-57, including adding another telescoping section so the tube can extend further, which should help in docking with some types of shuttles. All that's really needed for that section right now is the segmented doors (I'm thinking garage type) that will cover the ports when not in use. Also, ladders. Can never have too many ladders.
star:N114gb (brittania IV)
planet: N114gb-1B (brittania IV
capital city: new buckingham(5.7 million residents)
other cities: new lincoln, new aberdeen, port brittania IV
Brittania IV was the fourth british colony founded, the first city being port brittania IV. the star N114gb is hotter than the sun but emits roughly the same amount of energy per second though at higher frequency(blue) and sits on the edge of a nebula in a hundred thousand year orbit(P.S.i would have checked this roughly if only i had the mass and radius of some nebulae), leading to spectacular night skies for parts of the year. the planet N114gb-1B is the second in a system of 14 planets, it is rocky with one large moon. this moon stabilises the axis of the planet which has allowed life to evolve, although a closely guarded secret there are a number of sites suggesting that some form of primitive civilisation may have existed over 350,000 years ago. shortly after the colony was settled and an earth biosphere imported to support the colonists, a nuclear leak from a fission reactor powering the city of port brittania IV leads to that city becoming medium level radioactive. however 19 years later a new colony is established to harness resources on the planet and make the most of it's central location amongst many other inhabited systems, at first a large naval presence occupies the system for raids on nearby systems. this decreases but a fraction of it remains today as a shipyard and as a repair facility. the other planets in the system are a mixture of gas giants and highly volcanic worlds, heated by compression and tension from each other's gravity as they orbit close to each other. brittania IV is now a rich system but has little political power or effect on other worlds.
star:Y781nn(astrialis)
planet: Y781nn-1A (astrialis A)
capital city: batasa(640,000)
other cities:none
the astrialis system is barren and empty, a small white dwarf which is believed to have lost any plantes it may have possessed when the star flared up into a red giant 1 billion years earlier. astrialis A is the only planet and has a chemical composition of the kind that would be expected for a planet formed at the edge of the proto-planetary disc of a hotter star, the planet is believed to have been captured in a close encounter with N114gb around 350,000 years ago (N114gb is now 2.7 light years away from Y781nn). at the far sharing astrialis A's orbit are asteroids, some perhaps the remnants of planets Y781nn once had, others pulled into orbit over the last few million years, many of these "foreign" asteroids are rich in gold, platinum, uranium and what were once known as "rare earth metals". the chinese settled on astrialis A as a base of operations for mining the ateroids, all settlements are concealed underground to protect from the harsh radiation(uv,x-rays) emitted by the white dwarf star. the estimated survival time for a human on the surface with only a normal spacesuit rather than an armoured version is 85 minutes before they begin to severely burn, unprotected by any atmosphere. with the discovery of more accessible metal deposits in more distant systems, astrialis A became a slum. everyone with the money to leave did so, leaving only the desperate and poorest. the chinese government attempted to repopulate astrialis A, the new arrivals found themselves in the perfect position to exploit the original colonists. astrialis A is now ruled by gangs of criminals and smugglers, funded from outside by corrupt officials. it has entered common use to use the term "an astrialis" to mean a slum, or "astrialised" to mean weakened then ruled from elsewhere by leaders who never even set foot upon the world they control.
tomorrow another...
star:T664cr(caltaraxen)
planet:T664cr-1B(caltaraxen
capital city: antensburg (2.0 million residents)
other cities: goltar, nartvix, new calais
caltaraxen is the first extra solar colony established by france,it is located on the only rocky planet in the T664cr system which was chosen simply because it was the only system in close range of earth that had yet to be claimed by another nation. the planet T664cr-1B is tidally locked to the small star T664cr, so one side is in perpetual day, the other in perpetual night. a narrow ring of land in constant twilight is home to all the human habitation on the planet which has a semi breathable atmosphere and some native life. the french government covered up the events at the time of colonization, which are believed by some to have involved the slaughter of a primitive alien civilisation, to this day the government protests that the species was already extinct before they landed. there are a number of underground tunnels leading from the twilight region to man made caverns under the day side of the planet, the caverns contain generators harnessing the heat gradient between the day and night sides. with the lowering cost of manufacturing a space station was later built in orbit around one of the three gas giants that caltaraxen B shares it's system with, this station now houses more people than any of the individual cities on caltaraxen B. the caltaraxen system has no major resources but the economy of it's planet and space station have remained in good health.
I decided to give the Essex class another go, and since it was based on the same general hull and machinery as the Alaska-class, that's where I started from as well. Aside from some vertices having been pushed around some in the nose area, from the vertical centerline and down they are currently identical, to the point where the Essex still has the Alaska-class turrets and superstructure on the ventral side. I'm toying with the idea of leaving it like that, I did more or less the same thing on my (very ugly and in the queue for a rebuild) Saipan- and Independence-class light carriers, which were based off of the hulls of Baltimore- and Cleveland-class cruisers. (The Independence class used hulls which had actually been started as light cruisers, the Saipan-class were laid down as carriers but still used Baltimore-class hulls, with minor modifications.)
If I don't keep the turrets, I'm currently at something of a loss for what to do with the underside instead. I can't put another flight deck on the underside, as the ships operate in gravity fairly often. The ventral superstructure needs to balance out the shape like it does for the other ships, which more or less means it needs to be centered in the X-axis, with a decent-sized protruding fin like the other cruisers. And it needs to have the same number of guns on the underside as it has above, to keep the bottom from being an even more glaring weakspot than the flight deck.
One option I've been considering is to swipe the superstructure from one of the CLAA-types, which has more or less the same number of DP turrets, the keel fin and everything, and stick that on the bottom. It would look a little small on something as big as an Essex class, though...
Does anyone else have any good ideas?
Designing the dratted antennae will be a pain, though...
by the way, i haven't gone through all of your thread but have you ever tried any fighters or bombers, they could come out quite well.
1.) It appears to me that these ships are streamlined, therefor decreasing the cost necessity of fabricating and replacing custom parts. This would also fit into the World War ideology, you seem to be forgetting, whereas, basic ship hulls were often streamlined and re-purposed as a new ship type. If I recall correctly, a battleship hull was restructured and turned into one of the States first carrier and all.
2.) Seeing as he just laid the basic keel of the ship, of course itll require more work. But saying its "ugly?" Fine matter of opinion, but once again warships aren't suppose to be pretty, and warships from the World Wars, were not pretty. They were menacing, intimidating war machine. Thinking of it in its function over form, that ship sure as hell looks ugly and gorgeous.
3.) Its been stated his ships are able to enter atmo with antigrav tech. However I doubt that creating a vessel specifically for space (in this case) will change the design aesthetic too much.
@Bastion - This is looking nice thus far. As for the underside, since its a carrier, why not some "drop tubes" where a drop pod, or some other small craft can immediate drop out toward a planet thats "down below" the ship or something? Otherwise, Im thinking the regular nurnies and greebles of satellites, antenna, and the sort might just be the best fit.
spacefighter - yeah, it was ugly. They usually are when they're just started, and this one is no exception. I've redone everything from the horizontal plane and up twice today, and I think I've gotten the hang of it now, but it's still an ugly beast compared to the others - but then, all WW2 carriers were.
Building the carrier asymmetrically was decided ages ago, as there was no way of building a vertically symmetrical carrier that I could be happy with that would be recognizable as the original ship - and that's pretty much rule number one. I think the entire move away from vertical symmetry in my ships (the adding of the chin structure to all the hulls, the deletion of bridges on the ventral superstructure, the omission of drone catapults) was setup for carriers like these, really.
Aside from being able to operate like this in an atmosphere, there were lots of other considerations. One of the main ones is that eventually, I want to be able to evolve the carriers along the same lines as they did in real life, and that means angled flight decks, and a move away from centerline deck elevators. Another was the flight deck edge details, like the anti-aircraft guns and the lifeboats, which I'd have nowhere to put (or no reason to put where they go on the real thing) if the flight deck was internal, for example. Also, without an external flight deck, how am I supposed to do a WW2-style full deck strike, where all the planes on the carrier are lined up four abreast to take off in order?
alonzo: Thanks for the assist, and you've hit the nail fairly square here. Yes, in WW2 they did repurpose hull designs a lot. Previous to that as well, really, for several major reasons. One of them is, there is a boatload of math involved in designing a hull, and back when mathematical computing aids were restricted to the abacus and slide rule, doing that boatload of math took time. If you needed to build a ship, the fastest way to do it would be to figure out which existing hull design was closest to whatever your requirements were, and start from there - and if you really were in a hurry, you wouldn't even start calculating, you'd lay the keel down and start building.
Also, ship designs weren't static by any means. While the US navy made general plans, it was up to the contractor to interpret them, which they all did slightly differently. Not enough for it to matter when it came to components like turrets and such, but still, there were differences. Also, the ships had to be built fast - if the plans said to use one component, and you didn't have one, and could not wait to get one, you had to figure out some way of accomplishing the same thing with something you *did* have. Sometimes, these solutions turned out better than the official way of doing it, whether by working better, or being faster to build while doing the same job.
Finally, there were those changes that were decided on while the ships were under construction. The plans for the Cleveland-class light cruisers said she was to have four quadruple 1.1-inch anti-aircraft guns, and a number of .50 caliber machine guns. Of the eight ships ordered with this armament, only one was completed that way, the others had a steadily increasing number of 20 and 40 mm guns in place of the .50 cals and 1.1 inch guns, using all manner of kludges to get them all to fit without the ships capsizing. The Iowa class were ordered without enclosed bridges, with only a catwalk around the conning tower. Iowa and New Jersey were the only ones completed that way, and New Jersey got her bridge enclosed after her shakedown cruise. At that time, the Missouri and Wisconsin were half done already, and they received another kind of bridge enclosure. (which was eventually retrofitted to the other two, just in time for the end of the war).
So yeah, things look like they're bolted on wherever sometimes. That's what the real ships looked like, and mine do for much the same in-story reasons. Don't you know, there's a war on?
I started out by making a better mockup island, which was scaled according to the size of the twin DP turrets (the real island is the same width as a twin DP turret, excluding the platforms). It's nowhere close to done, but it looks a lot nicer than the block thing. Then, I decided I didn't like the shape of the hangar deck, so I stripped the hull back down to the "waterline" and started back up again. It took most of the day to get something that looked decent, I've spent hours trying to fight smoothing and shading errors, on a structure made from all quads. o.O
Eventually, I arrived at the current shape, and started adding the gun platforms. I also removed the original underside superstructure, and replaced it with one from a light cruiser, less the O1 deck - the cruiser has the right number of barbettes for the DP guns (4 singles and 4 twins topside, 6 twins on the bottom) and without the O1 deck there are no heavy turrets. I can also install more or less the same number of 40 mm quads on the underside without modifying things too much, though fitting in all the 20 mm guns will be tedious....
After that, I added *most* of the AA guns to the top half. The missing ones are at the back of the flight deck, and will be added later. A couple of the quad turrets are in the wrong places right now - there's a sponson with two of those things aft of the wing which shouldn't be there, those mounts should be on deck-edge platforms. I'll move them when I've built the platforms.
Finally, there's a bunch of floating gizmos over the flight deck - those are things I imported from another model and have yet to place on this one. They'll be moved to their final locations when I've built the various platforms for them, as well.
Now, I'm going to take the advise of my cat, and go to bed...
This is the Flickr account for the build, aka the mother load of images....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/qeclasscarriers/