Sliced Deckplans and Ship Design for Large Ships

[vutpakdi]

I've been having fun doing deckplans for a few weeks now, and it occurs to me that to do the deckplans for a large ship (as in at least a thousand tons), I'd probably have to end up placing the decks perpendicular to the axis of the ship and repeating decks, just to make things manageable. The net result is that the deckplans and layout would end up looking like the Azhanti High Lightning plans where there are only 15 or so different deckplans that are repeated as necessary and assembled in a certain order.

Now, what if we take the Azhanti High Lightning idea and scale it down a tad and apply it to the actual ship design? Create a set of deckplans that each represent a perpendicular slice of a cylindrical ship for a specific function (cargo hold, engineering, bridge, crew quarters, passenger deck, fuel, small craft, etc), and then use those deckplans to assemble ships of various sizes.

For example, say I create a set of ship slices where each circular slice is 100 dTons, and I want to create a 1000 dTon freighter. I then arrange 10 slices in this order (from front of ship to back)

Bridge and Crew Quarters
Passenger Staterooms
Cargo
Cargo
Cargo
Cargo
Fuel
Fuel
Power Plant
Jump Drive-Maneuver Drive

If I wanted a 1000 ton destroyer escort, I could arrange a slightly different set of deck plans like:
Bridge and Crew Quarters
Weapons
Fuel
Fuel
Fuel
Fuel
Power Plant
Power Plant
Jump Drive Maneuver Drive
Jump Drive Maneuver Drive

Or a 600 dTon passenger liner:
Bridge and Crew Quarters
Passenger Staterooms
Passenger Staterooms
Fuel / Cargo
Power Plant
Jump Drive/Maneuver Drive

This idea could be extended to the actual design of the ship itself. Each deck could be a "module", and the ship could be designed by selecting the modules. Obviously, the ship wouldn't be as optimally designed as a custom designed ship since there might be, for example, an excess of fuel, but one could imagine certain ship builders actually building some ships this way by assembling prebuilt components on a larger scale. Sort of like a variably sized liberty ship idea. Of course, the ships would be pretty darn boring since they'd all be cylinders of varying lengths.

In terms of real world practicality, I/others could create a set of different types of decks so that people could assemble their own ships and have something that approaches the AHL set in terms of flexibility and usefulness. I could also see such a set being published as a Traveller's Aide.

Anyway, what do you think of the idea? The idea came to me during a 4 AM feeding, so I can't say that I've been able to think the idea through properly. I'll probably try out some deckplans after I finish the Patrol Cruiser and Falkyn's insertion ship request.

Ron

 

[Rifkin]

This idea was used in the Albedo RPG (Furries in space) Starship supplement. The original game was put out by Chessex, I believe. The game had some interesting elements (like character psychology and self-image). The starship layout system was pretty much as you describe ... cylinders with deck slices ... pre-layed out and assembled as needed.

 

[far-trader]

I think its a great idea Ron, I remember doing a set like this back in my CT days for my TAS Hotels, no doubt also inspired by the Azhanti High Lightning deckplans. I had basement levels (Engineering, i.e. power), command floors (Bridge, i.e. front desk etc.), staff quarters (Crew Compartments incl. services), guest floors (Passenger Quarters incl. recreation) and parking (Craft Bays). All it would have taken to make it a space ship would have been drives. I had a simple ratio worked out of so many sub-levels, command levels, staff levels and parking levels per guest floor, and based on the worlds starport and population I'd figure the guest rate to get the number of guest floors.

 

[GypsyComet]

Originally posted by Rifkin:
This idea was used in the Albedo RPG (Furries in space) Starship supplement. The original game was put out by Chessex, I believe. The game had some interesting elements (like character psychology and self-image). The starship layout system was pretty much as you describe ... cylinders with deck slices ... pre-layed out and assembled as needed.

I have that book, quite useful for stations as well as large cylindrical ships...

Albedo (the comic) was the pioneer of "furry-dom as serious story-telling", and the game reflects the serious nature of its source. As such, aside from the animals, it makes pretty decent lootage for Traveller (and vice versa).

 

[GypsyComet]

Originally posted by Ron Vutpakdi:
For example, say I create a set of ship slices where each circular slice is 100 dTons, and I want to create a 1000 dTon freighter. I then arrange 10 slices in this order (from front of ship to back)

Of course, this leads to a stellar state reviled by all its neighbors because their ships look like flying office buildings. Ugly ones.

In my own personal Traveller-resource-hungry space, this idea is far more useful when applied to space stations, which I see as naturally tending towards tall structures due to natural compartmentalization.
In such cases, core design assumptions revolve more around external dimensions than a particular volume. If we want an eternal "building block" look, we just get everyone started with the same size empty square (or 2-to-1 rectangle) deckplan, and tell them to fill it. In the scale used by CT, MT, and T20, this could easily be a 15m square or a 15mx30m rectangle. Height is indeterminate as long as it's an even number of decks. Standardize the placement of interface doors and go to town...

 

[CarlP]

Somewhere in my gaming books, I've got notes I made on the Azhanti High Lightning deckplans. My intention was to do exactly what we're talking about here--assemble the decks in different order and quantity to produce new ships. I started off with freighters, but the concept could be used for other types, as well. I think my second ship was going to be a light cruiser or destroyer, about half the tonnage of the AHL.

 

[Hueroman]

Has anyone got a line on where those Lightning Class deckplans can be had online, or even reproduction??? I misplaced mine, and have been kicking myself in the behind ever since!

 

[Ran Targas]

Oddly enough, modern ship building is done in a similar manner; individual slices are assembled outside a drydock, craned into place, and welded. This works particularly well for ships with large, open decks like tankers and bulk freighters.

 

[vutpakdi]

Originally posted by Lord Covington:
Has anyone got a line on where those Lightning Class deckplans can be had online, or even reproduction??? I misplaced mine, and have been kicking myself in the behind ever since!

The Azhanti High Lightning plans are available as in the reprints (Traveller Games) from Far Future Enterprises. They aren't the full sized plans (watch eBay for those), but they are available. The Azhanti High Lighting Supplement book is available in the Supplements reprint from FFE.

I'm still toying around with the idea of doing these deckplan slices. I have a set of passenger and cargo 50 dTon deck slices done, but I haven't done the bridge or engineering slices.

Ron

 

[trader jim]

i wiuld like to see some on this board..so i can compair!!!!

 

[MrMorden]

You can do the same thing with a 'horizontal' layout. Just make some standarized modules (like a stateroom module containing 4 staterooms, a drive module containing 20 tons of drives, etc.) and lay them together side by side and end to end. Have an accessway at some standard point in each to allow crew access, and you can do this for arbitrarily large ships...

 

[Pwyll]

what a great concept!

 

[vutpakdi]

One of these days, I'll get around to finishing an initial set of 50 dTon slices for people to see. One of these days when I have some time...

The circular layout is a bit of a pain when compared to a more rectangular setup.

Ron