Just playing with thrust plates ...

[Ran Targas]

I, for one, have never been happy with the extremely human centric and limited designs available in OTU starships. It never seemed to me to reflect the cultural/technological diversity of the Imperium or non-human influences.

So, I've been tooling with this idea on how to expand the possibilities of ship configurations and build greater variation in ship design (particularly to reflect distinct cultural, physiological, and technological differences). Plus this idea encompasses some concepts used in popular sci fi thus opening up their design conventions to a Trav universe.

The theory (please go easy on me):

Thrust plates or anti-gravity generators produce distortions in gravity fields. These fields naturally pervade all space so these drives are nominally effective even in deep space due to the galactic gravity field. In essence, these a-grav systems are very similar to the classic warp or gravitic drive systems, distorting or riding gravity fields to propel a vessel forward or whatever direction is desired.

So, on this premise, I believe that warp nacelles and the great fins on Mimbari and Centauri warships of B5 fame could be viable design features in the Trav universe.

I've already started drawing up ships with Andromeda-like extended curves and Centauri-like fins, spreading their engineering systems throughout these structures. It makes for some interesting designs and lots of square counting. Also, IMTU the classic Vargr shark fins have been morphed into drive field generators vice simple affectations, allowing for the mass of these features to be accounted for and opening up the hull space.

Please respond with your thoughts ...

 

[Antony]

Well traveller was meant to be for all types of SF setting, so go for it. Its your universe, its your rules.

 

[mike wightman]

I think it's an excellent idea. It adds a bit of variety and interest to the ships of the other races.

I don't know if you've thought of extending the idea to the jump drive, or which version you use (i.e. jump grid versus no jump grid).

If you do have jump grids in the hulls of your ships then you can play around with that too.

In the starship operator's manual it mentions that the jump grids in the hulls of alien ships have a different symmetry/pattern to Imperial designs.
This could be extended as per your idea for fins and projections above. Instead of jump grids in the hull alien ships could have jump vanes or jump fins that generate the jump field around the ship. Some jump vanes or fins could be extended from the ship on telescoping pylons, or fold out from the hull.

Lots of descriptive possibilities here

 

[TheDS]

Not that I have a B5 design book or anything, but I was always under the impression that Minbari ships were designed the way they were for looks, not for function. Of course, in most shows or art, the actual people who design ships always design for looks, not functionality.

What you are talking about (in essence) is that the majority of people are not inventive artists. Using the tools we have available, ships tend to be monobodies with little in the way of decoration, because the smaller your ship's profile, the harder it is to get hit. In Traveller, we don't wory about heat radiation that much, but it's likely to be a big killer in real life, preventing us from building giant warships. We have large arms used for gathering light and for radiating heat; Traveller doesn't, and indeed, few if any movies show significant heat radiation equipment.

The parts of a ship, if you look at the design sequences, are pretty much standard or oversimplified. Things like life support will vary depending on a lot of variables, but in general, with humans, you need to devote about 10% of your hull space to it and leave the details to the architect. An alien species might require more or less, and it may be very specialized. An aquatic vessel will have probably half its mass devoted to water to allow its crewmembers to roam freely around their ship. Little green men will have deck plans with much lower ceilings, but will probably not have a significant change in overall LS volume, assuming they are otherwise like us.

It all comes down to the inventiveness of the artist. How creative they are, and if they can get away with their vision. I personally am fairly limited in this respect, and my ships are usually long and aerodynamic. A Mon Calamari cruiser doesn't need to enter atmospheres, so it can be shaped any way they want, but unnecessary appendages do nothing but waste fuel. A sphere is the most space-efficient design, anything else uses up more fuel (because there's more hull surface area to cover, so your hull weighs more for a given volume), so you'd better have a good reason to build something besides spheres. Long ships have a smaller profile, making them harder to see or hit, while disks are good for atmospheric flight, and so on.

So draw what you want to draw and justify it how you want to, and maybe post some of these pictures so we can all marvel at and be inspired by them!