Starship Interiors

[Hemdian]

My interiors are very much like the Florian and Andrew's corridor, BUT with more light - lots more light.

Hmmm ... on the one hand the Galactica bridge in old BSG is a dead ringer for the AHL bridge and that was quite bright as I recall, but on the other hand I could see ship common areas (corridors, etc.) having a diurnal cycle with light levels adjusted accordingly.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Yeah, I also call self propelled artillery guns 'tanks' - oh how you must hate me Seriously, I should have known better ...

Yeah, yer just like alot of Gomers that way After all, what the difference between a tanker and an a gunbunny? The tanker got to go tank school when HE applied... BLACKHORSE FOREVER!

 

[Vile]

Like most others (at the time of posting), I went for the Firefly look. That's because the most common type of interior would be that of the PC's own ship, which is also their home. It's only natural that it should look somewhat 'homey'. That concept covers a whole lot of ground, though - just look at any interior design magazine and you'll quickly see that people's idea of 'homey' varies hugely. For instance, I like minimalism - most things in shades of white, with lots of hidden storage space so nothing is left lying around (incidentally also good practice if you find yourself switching off the grave plates a lot).

But the rest of the styles make an appearance, too - there are the swish, clean interiors of luxury liners and yachts, workmanlike and spartan military vessels, and grungy, cramped, nothing-gets-cleaned-unless-it's-broken 'Das Boot' style commercial freighters and mining ships.

 

[Merxiless]

Ridley Scott, Squared, plus a paramilitary feel.

Lots of flashing lights, and coolant / steam pipes hissing, and dripping water.

Computer voice, announcing "22 seconds to impact...", and such.

Steel catwalk gratings, vent ducts, the whole bit.

Engine rooms look like the inside of a US Navy Cruiser Engine Space, pipes everywhere, hard to move around in, let alone get up in there to fix.

 

[Hemdian]

Ah, forgot to mention Pitch Black seemed very Traveller-esq, the Lewis & Clarke from Event Horizon, and the interiors in Silent Running.

I mention the last because I've been looking at large ship deckplans. The AHL had (because of its internal arrangement) a large number of relatively small decks plus a number of lifts to rapidly get between them. On a ship organised more 'conventionally' you would have fewer decks but some might be quite long. For example, analysing the Ghalalk I have deduced it has 10 decks, but the distance from the from to the back is quite large. There needs to be a way of covering that distance quickly. Either Star Trek style turbolifts that more sideways or ... little buggies like they had in Silent Running. Not sure which I prefer yet.

 

[BlackBat242]

Or slidewalks.

Several US airport terminals have them... Salt Lake International (SLC, Utah) has one between the terminals.

 

[kafka47]

I had to choose "Other" as it is all the above...Tramp Traders are like Alien or Firefly. Imperial Navy ships are like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. And plenty of Solomani ships have the space shuttle look, as do many shuttles, Gigs, SDBs.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

I'm with Kafka. Each Empire has its own look to it, especially alien ones. Imperial ships for me are clean, 2001ish, but with a touch of Dune and a touch of ST:TNG. They have an old world feel.

Solomani have a Bit of 2001 too, Alien, and... Starblazers (or Space Cruiser Yamato). They have a Navy Space Navy, with Naval Tradition.

I try not to approach it too cornball like they did on star Trek a bit. where you can see the same stuff used over and over again, and every race has a universal color scheme and matching outfits, etc. But I try to go along with historical influence and how creatures look to define the "look" of it.

 

[KrisComet]

Starships and ships

I usually see the small individual ships 500tn and less kind of like the MF from star wars,
and when I get to the larger war ships kind of a blend between the original battle star gallactica and star wars... but never like in star trek, unless it is a Darrian ship... I guess the ships boat in ALIEN was kind of spot on too... good question though ....... tks

 

[kafka47]

A player's ship...
This...

Not this...

 

[Icosahedron]

Obviously that guy's not married! :toast:

 

[gcbright]

My inspiration for Starship Design IKEA

Hi,

I draw my inspiration for Starship design from NYC apartments and IKEA. Space is at a premium in almost all character ships (100-400 ton range).

Just like a NYC apartment (the real ones, not the impossible large ones you see on TV), space is a premium and all starship designs should take that into account.

No space wasting winding corridors (alien), and no overly large ships bridges with social worker stationed there (STTNG).

A good source of inspiration to me is to visit an IKEA store and look at the small living area samples setup around the store (400 sq ft to 1200 sq ft). Take in how space is used and how space is conserved thru good design and apply that lesson to your ship design.

Also keep in mind, that in metro areas, people spend insanely huge amounts of money to remodel their condos to get as little as 6 inches more space in a room.

Thanks

 

[Blue Ghost]

For standard Imperial ships I take my cue from some of the DGP interiors (like the Bridge of a Donosev Scout Cruiser in WBH). But otherwise that would be Alien and BSG (old and new) with a touch of Star Trek Voyager (holo control panels). I also like Scarecrow's Florian interiors and his Suleiman class Scout exteriors + air/raft. Finally, a mention has to go to the art on the Traveller Reveival Commission.

For non-standard ships I take my inspiration from anywhere that seems appropriate (once had a ship that was a highport converted into slow cargo ship ... interior was a cross between Stargate SG-1 Goa'uld mothership and Star Trek DS9).

The Florian's pretty much my favorite Traveller ship right now. The interior scheme seems very realistic to me.

However, having said that, I like the Japanese renderrings, but, pictured them with more even lighting, and perhaps not as prestine; i.e. scuff marks on the floor and around the doors. That kind of thing.

 

[saundby]

All the above plus Flash Gordon (movie and the serials) and non-spacecraft design. Some places are constrained in ways that make things utilitarian, others have the money, materials, and labor to embellish to their heart's desire. They can put servos on the doors that sound like a soul in torment because they like the effect. They can build a ship that looks like a Greek temple because they want to make a statement.

Elsewhere materials are expensive and lives are cheap, they'd miss the point of Das Boot if they saw it, since everything looks pretty luxurious to them.

So it runs the gamut for me.

 

[BlackBat242]

They can build a ship that looks like a Greek temple because they want to make a statement.

Exactly!! Cultural imperatives often outweigh efficiency concerns, even in Traveller societies.

 

[Peter Newman]

Obviously that guy's not married! :toast:

In my mind he's divorced. If I'm feeling merciful he just has high alimony and child support bills to pay along with his starship mortgage, but if I'm feeling evil than the starship is community property and he and his ex-spouse still have to work together. It's hell, but neither of them can afford a ship on their own, so if they want to stay travellers, than they've got to avoid killing each other.

 

[Jamus]

Lived in, utilitarian, personable

 

[DaveChase]

To me it depends on how much money you want to spend

More space cost more to maintain and move in tonnage.

I think the bare bones should be a either NASA Apollo cabins or Dark Star (George Lucas's film where they had to crawl over each other to do anything.)

I think middle ground would be what we see in most deck plans for Traveller.
(Military would also be middle ground, you don't want to spend to much but you don't want your Space Navy so pissed at you that decide to pay you back in missles.
Also include movies Event Horizon and Red Mars for examples of middle ground.

I think high class or wealthy would be lie Star Trek, Lost in Space (both TV and Movie), along with Black Hole (movie).

Dave Chase

So, yes I voted other because I think the correct answer is yes, all the above.

 

[ravells]

Mine are like Serenity all the way.....they were like that even before Firefly and Serenity came out - which I guess is one reason why I liked them so much!

 

[Scarecrow]

My tastes vary depending on what I'm into at the time. The Florian interior was very much inspired by the interior of the NX01 and obviously the Millenium Falcon, the Nostromo, Sulaco, the other Enterprises and most other mainstream starship interiors have been big influences.
I love the interior of Serenity, not just because it's utilitarian and credible but because it's decorated like a real living space. Kaylee's door has drawings on the outside like a teenager, Wash's flight console has dinosaur toys on it and the dining area has flowers painted up one of the bulkheads - to name but a few of the gorgeous details in the set.
I was recently playing Mass Effect and I love the 'performance bike' design ethic to all the hardware designs in that game. The interior of the Normandy is ridiculously spacious - a necessary game mechanic - but it looks gorgeous and it got me to thinking about how restricted Traveller floorplan design is - largely because of all the minor systems, accessways and bits and pieces like landing gears that aren't accounted for in the design tonnage. I'm considering in future ignoring tonnage. As long as all the listed features are present and no more, then it makes no difference to the game really.

Crow