Artists, Shipset designers, and other creative types, please read.

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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i know they appear in all sorts of clasic sci-fi work, but i have to ask.. turbines in space? sure, sure, for that matter, why conning towers and wings. but turbines? must be to propel the ship thru the 'ether.'

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They could easily be multi-armed centrifuges for an extremely high artifical G-Force. Virtual G's used in a tractor/repulsor beam, or maybe a WMG? Those kind of things you'd need to keep on the outside anyways.

The wings are so you can bank left, then turn right, catching the enemy by surprise

The tower could be for the sensitive equipment/supplies/etc that need to be kept isolated from the main hull for security or safety reasons.

[ 20 December 2001: Message edited by: suicide_junkie ]

[Puke]

quote:

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Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
The wings are so you can bank left, then turn right, catching the enemy by surprise

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HA! got me to laugh out loud on that one!

[Val]

The tower could also be used as a tempting target to draw enemy fire away from the more important body of the ship.

Maybe the fans are like hydrogen scoops that take in fuel for the engines.

Can't top SJs use for wings though...

[geoschmo]

Well, I hate to state the obvious here, but perhaps the turbines don't do anything in space. The ship could be designed to land on planets as well as fly through space and the turbines are for atmospheric flight. Using your ion engines for atmospheric flight would not be very polite to the planetary inhabitants, or terribly efficent if I understand how they are supposed to work.


And I have a suggestion for anyone working on submissions for my contest. I kind of like the Generic Race pics that come with the game. Something in that vein would be well received. But not that bleached aluminium coloring. A new colring and texture would be appreciated.

Geoschmo

[Andrés]

Yeah the turbines. I guess I just wanted to make the engines look different, I think the turbines matched nicely with the rest of the ship, mechanical but sleek. I’m tired of trek warp nacelles, and rockets aren’t even visible in se4 unless I place big flames behind them.
Many sci-fi ships have atmospheric flight capability. That’s when turbines are used, and that also explains their wings and aerodynamic shapes. Wings are also used to provide a better position for weapons and thrusters (it’s easier to turn if the maneuver thruster is farther from the center of mass).

Kwok, I like the position of the three 'prongs'. Maybe I can place a rocket launchers between them, or replace some turrets with somekind of missile turrets. I don’t want a trek-like blue shiny dish, maybe a parabolic antenna and some other gadget in the main hull instead of those grey-yellow 'tanks'.

[DirectorTsaarx]

There's a very simple explanation for wings, bridges, turbines, and all sorts of other things on these spaceships: tradition! And no, I don't mean sci-fi shows, I mean that oceangoing vessels, land-based vessels, and even airborne vessels all have some kind of bridge, and some have turbines; airships (and some oceangoing vessels) have wings; and so on. So each race, as it develops spaceships, naturally follows the old pattern of vessel design. That's why good shipsets have a distinctive pattern: it shows the character of the race.

Also: to bring up an older post, in Star Fleet Battles (at least the old tabletop Version I played in college) the Lyrans used catamaran (and, on larger ships, trimaran) hulls. Made for some neat-looking ships...

[geoschmo]

One month to go!

I'd say Mark definetly has the inside track, but there is plenty of time left.

Geoschmo