 November 8, 2011 - 7:30am | I was reading the Space Monkeys section and certain rants on the Colonial Chrome site and saw the author's dislike for requests for deck plans for large capital ships, particularly of the thousand meter designs. I found that his complaint is lacking merit, because he's thinking along the lines of providing unique and specific details to each and every design. However, he himself provides a clue on a rant page about how to overcome this using essentially 'just any old floor plan' because they could likely be found somewhere on a ship of that size. The fact is, when you get on that scale, you need to redefine what constitutes a "detail". On this scale, a "detail" is basically a room or compartment of any type or even a whole section. You don't need to add the details of that area, unless the room, compartment or section has very specific and unique architecture (Use a separate floor plan for that room). With this map, you simply assign a numerical designation to room/compartment types and then mark that room/compartment with the number. This allows an RPG GM/Referee to drag out any generic floor plan that fits that type of room/compartment without having to exactly match it to that particular ship, type of ship or size of ship. If the ship is so large that identifying each and every room is too difficult, then identify whole sections instead and have section maps available that are each essentially generic deck plans themselves. This type of deck plan allows the GM to have a comprehensive deck plan that makes sense when you run through it and remains consistent, while at the same time it is hardly more difficult to design than a deck plan for a freighter, if at all. Requirements for Massive Starship/Space Station Plan: 1. Deck Plan delimited by numbered rooms/compartments - No details 2a. Generic room/compartment floor plans 2b. Specific room/compartment floor plans for unique structures within the ship Total number of room plans needed: Equal only to the number of room/compartment types available, most or all generic (rinse and repeat). Requirements for Super Massive Starship/Space Station Plan: 1. Deck Plan delimited by numbered sections 2. Generic section map deck plans 3a. Generic room/compartment floor plans 3b. Specific room/compartment floor plans for unique structures within the ship Total number of section plans needed: 1 along with any number of unique areas you choose to have. Total number of room plans needed: Equal only to the number of room/compartment types available, most or all generic (rinse and repeat) along with any number of unique areas you choose to have. By simply having a library of generic section and room/compartment plans, you can use them for any massive or super massive starships. Death Star-type Plans:A planetoid-like man-made structure is going to have exceptional redundancy. Using the Star WArs Death Star as an example, let's consider how it's constructed:The Core Depending on how you choose to design it there will be a large area approximately 1/4 of the station's width that makes up the core, somtimes just a large space with massive generator at tis center (Ala Death Star II) or the generator will run from the north pole to the south pole (Ala the original Death Star) with identical deck plans in the area surrounding the core from top to bottom (Ignore the curviture of the outside limiting this space toward the poles; you can use random floor plans for those areas.) The generator may be its own structure with floor plans. Use the original Death Star concept as the structure for that generator. All the floors within the core of the original Death Star will be identical. All the floors outside the core will be one section repeated multiple times around the circumfrence. So depending on which floor you're on, the number and size of the sections will vary, but every section will be no different than the next, each section containing everything needed to maintain a crew for that section as if it were its own ship, massive ship or super massive ship as discussed above. The Super Weapon The super weapon will be at a diagonal or perpendicular angle to the ship's design, but the floor plans will remain parallel and contiguous to the floor plans for the rest of the station. They will simply be injected into the overal structure, replacing the generic sections in those areas. Treat it as a second core diagonally or perpendicularly intersecting the structure, and each area surrounding the super weapon core is diagonal or parallel to the super weapon's core, but parallel to the station's core. Each floor section of the super weapon is identical to the next. The super weapon itself takes up more space toward the surface and needs no deck plans, though may have unique access areas and gangways. In all of this, no details need to be given except for the individual generic floor plans of the sections. Requirements for Death Star Battle Station Plan: 1. Deck Plan delimited by numbered sections with area for core and super weapon 2. Generic section map deck plans 3a. Generic room/compartment floor plans 3b. Specific room/compartment floor plans for unique structures within the ship Total number of section plans needed: 3-5 (to accomodate section size differences and the super weapon and core) along with any number of unique areas you choose to have. Total number of room plans needed: Equal only to the number of room/compartment types available, most or all generic (rinse and repeat) along with any number of unique areas you choose to have. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 November 9, 2011 - 3:24am | Frist thoughts: you need some rough numbers on crew because just housing them will eat up a lot of space. Then you need to make some provisions for moving them around fast. Because walking 2 km to work or actions stations is not going to work. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 9, 2011 - 4:37am | Second thought: an individual crew member would likely have his quarters close to his duty station. Section of a death star will be like little cities. And people from that section will know that "you ain't from around here." NOW here's the interesting part, they won't say anything to you! It would so common an occurance that lost souls would wander into and through that they'd start to avoid asking what are you doing here lest they get stuck helping yet another numb nut find their way. The exception is if they're at their post and its a secure area. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 6, 2011 - 3:14am | Those are good suggestions when designing the individual generic sections. Perhaps 2 generic sections would be in order. One for the typical ship/station operations and one for the crew quarters. Then stagger them. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
