 February 8, 2012 - 10:45am | I'm doing some work on laying out a recreation station for the Down Below vimh adventure Thread for actually designing that particular station is here: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/6163#comment-24439 Question I'd like help with is how to layout the sation? one whole deck dedicated to casinos, another deck is the red light district, another deck is resturants, another deck is amusement parks. or in Pie sections ie, this pie section is first class and its hotels, casinos, resturants, spas all cater to first class tourist. this narrow pie section here caters to vrusk exclusively, This section here, about 1/2 the station caters to middle class. this pie section here is for less desirables and visitors from the Rim like humma. I suppose I could do a station cut-a-way diagram like on the back of the KHs map and color code it for the pie wedges. perhaps even I could use the pie wedges idea and still have one deck all casinos and the pie wedges would have color codes in the setting like B5 did. So you could be on the casino deck and walking down the corridor and reach Gold section which would tell you that you just hit the first class casino hotels. Or would they actually section off the station to prevent non VIPs from distrubing the VIPs? Thoughts? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 8, 2012 - 11:24am | "Or would they actually section off the station to prevent non VIPs from distrubing the VIPs?" Many high class hotels do this here on earth, so I don't see why that couldn't be the case on your station. Some places here are reserved only for the upper crust even. Though I guess I can't see it being very cost effective to build a whole space station that caters only to the upper crust. But partitioning a space station to reflect social delineations seems plausible enough to me. Who knows, maybe under the ideal circumstances you could find a megacorp willing to build a high class station that caters to only certain individuals within a certain social strata. I guess maybe I can't imagine it because I'm not rich. :P As far as how to lay out your floor plans, I guess that would be your personal preference. Whichever method is easiest for you to work with? I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you!  |
 February 8, 2012 - 11:26pm | As you enter a space station from the center, I would imagine that the organization would be to put the main floor of hotels, casinos, shopping malls, etc. on top. For hotels the suites would be the rooms all the way out to the edge (all the way down) because they have full gravity and the best options for windows. Some might even have windows on the floor here. Every few decks should have an open causeway around the full ring. Think of airport terminals with enough room in the central walk way for foot traffic on either side and golf cart traffic down the middle. The edges would be shops or micro hotels like Japan has. The reason for the open path the full length of the ring is to allow people to safely move from one side of the ring to another in an emergency. I see emergencies handled in two degrees. First evacuate to a safe section and seal off the section in danger. Second head to escape pods, preferably on the outer ring. The outer ring makes ejected pods travel the safest route away. Escape pods could be placed on the outside of inner ring decks but the path out is more problematic. Thrusting down runs the risk of hitting other pods rotating into your path. Thrusting away from the station at a side gives the pod a spiraling course that it must correct and which may cross other escape pods. Let the station have pie sections by function so that buildings and complexes like what we would have today are put in similar groups just have them built going down not up. Then make the lower gravity decks above become more industrial than residential or commercial. So my theme is industrial to residential going out for a recreation station and with in this zoning group your functions in slices. Also there is plumbing space between decks like office building today and as you have described in the vimh adventure. But, add to this that every five or ten decks there is a maintenance deck where the station workers take care of the actual space station parts that are intentionally hidden from the guests and residents. Think of how some hotels and big manner houses have all the extra corridors and rooms for the staff that maze through the building but are not noticed. -iggy |
 February 9, 2012 - 12:05am | I like the general layout of the station map used in the KH set, but I dont like how the recreation and residential decks chop into each other, and I would like the option of Service and Administration decks. Although, if I was to design my own space station decks, I would model the recreation deck like a shopping mall, with upper walkways looking down at the lower thoroughfare, storefronts along the walls and open park area, while the residential decks resemble hotels and condos, with clusters of small apartments, large luxury suites, common areas, and so on. I would use that layout as for normal community station or a recreation station - the difference is that a community station have plazas modeled like a shopping mall (with less reputable establishments tucked in out-of-the-way areas), while a recreation station have plazas modeled like a big casino or amusement park. In both cases, the first few levels makeup the plaza, followed by a service level (for staff movement, storage, security and administration), then upper residential decks for guests, then lower residential decks for staff and crewmen, then the bottom deck holds everything else (life-support systems, main computer, workshops, back-up systems, emergency supplies, etc.). |
 February 9, 2012 - 7:13am | OK most of the above goes well with a typical SF recreation station. You could also use so ideas from the Space Above and Beyond episode where they went to one or the Buck Rogers episode about the space casino. OR you could deal with reality. A recreation station created for one particular class such as the such or merchant spacers would still be sectionalized to deal with the differing tastes because at a minimum you are dealing with four different races who have differing tastes in entertainment. Start with bars despite that picture of the Dralasites stealing bottles from the bar we are told they become intoxicated by steam rooms. Humans and Yazirians are close but we are also told Vrusk love beauty, harmony and order and are generally unwilling to get into fights. Thinking here they prefer wine tasting rooms over beer bars. That is if they even drink alcohol. Notice that in the description of the Dralasites it is mentioned that Steam Room effect Dralasites the same way alcohol effects Humans and Yazirians. PERIOD. Vrusk are not mentioned. Brothels tend to be extremely specialized toward the type of entertainment they provide. Ever been to a homosexual fetish brothel that also catered to regular heterosexuals too? Nope they don't exist. Same thing here with four races or maybe three since Dralasites do not reproduce in pairs. OR maybe two sine Vrusk are egg layers but we are not told if it is internal or external inpregmentation. Casinos might be the most universal in use but let us not forget we have many types of gambling and they are not all done in the same place. Card games, slots, little ball games and spinning wheels are the usual but you also have animal racing both on and off track and sports team betting. Plus the possible illegal betting on fights. Also here the amount of wagers would separate the Spacefleet riff raff from the Vrusk Corporate officers. Shopping. Talk about specializing this would be the worst. Few stores could handle items from all the races and since this would be higher end shopping specialization would be a very general rule. Not the exception. One big area is in art. Vrusk in particular have a life goal of collecting art but a race with a compound eye and who speak in clicks are going to have very different tastes in paintings, sculpture and music. Other entertainment. Remember not all entertainment is a night out painting the town red (or blue since Vrusk can't see red) Movie theaters, plays, group debate circles, exercise rooms, reading rooms and all kinds of clubs for groups specializing in many acitivities like Magic the Gathering players. Got it. Oh and by the way the Clarion Station is not a good example. It was built for a human world with a very small other race population. Go bigger and have many different levels and sections. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 9, 2012 - 8:30am | I've been assembling and submitting some d100 lists to the zine. I'm now thinking that some d100 lists of SF bar names, restaurant names & etc. Might be a good compliment to a write up on this station. The brotherhood of spacers cadre will have a club and hotel for spacers having to visit the station since their ship came here but they themselvescan are not wanting to blow their money in the tourist traps. There's a place like this in Boston's North End, the Mariners House, just a few doors from the Paul Revere house. Any licensed seaman can stay for $9/night and get an equally good deal on meals. This sort of thing will need to be well written up. One interesting feature of the Mariners House is the coupolo if you go to the top floor you can climb the spiral staircase to this and experience an awesome view of Boston and the harbor. I think the Brotherhood of Spacers establishment should be positioned to have this, perhaps the upper most deck of the ring so that it has an observation dome on the inner side of the ring. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 9, 2012 - 11:04pm | I think that you may find something like the cities in World of Warcraft where you can go to the merchant districts and find whatever you need in terms of stuff for your individual race and class. |
February 10, 2012 - 1:49am | The brotherhood of spacers cadre will have a club and hotel for spacers having to visit the station since their ship came here but they themselvescan are not wanting to blow their money in the tourist traps. There's a place like this in Boston's North End, the Mariners House, just a few doors from the Paul Revere house. Any licensed seaman can stay for $9/night and get an equally good deal on meals. This sort of thing will need to be well written up.
That sounds like a good idea. You know something like a group which gives help to those who wander around space sorta like a TRAVELLER'S AID SOCIETY. Now where did I put my mustering out tables? You know the one that let's you get a gun or maybe a scout ship. (have I dropped enough hints yet?) Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 14, 2012 - 9:58am | I think segregated recreation stations would be common. Who wants to jump into a hot tub after a group of shaggy yaz's exit it? Seriously though, who is more eccentric and demanding of catering then the wealthy? The problem is that the wealthy are the target audience of these types of stations. It's not really a racist thing, though I am sure that there should be plenty of that. I could see the ultra rich, ultra egotistical buying entire sections so they don't have to run into anybody, regardless of race, as they try to enjoy themselves. These would be the same guys who play in private gaming rooms with others of their status or perhaps even only participate via video conferencing. Spending all those creds to fly across the galaxy to go to a famous, effluent resort just to play poker with other guys through a video screen. Jedi, I like your idea with the brotherhood of spacers. It makes me ask, what would the SF equivalent of the AAA motorist club be? |
February 14, 2012 - 3:36pm | Don't limit the wealthy to play. Anyone catch all the uproar because Beyonce and JayZee took the ENTIRE maternity floor so their child could be born without paparazzi getting in? I can see their point, but really they couldn't find a small private hospital for that? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 15, 2012 - 7:13pm | IIRC Brotherhood of Spacers is cannon to KH. AAA, being a motorist club would likely be world centric, to individual worlds but the premium would be through the roof since most worlds don't have the infrastructure in place to support it. On earth auto clubs are able to take advantage of existing infrastructure. On a frontier world this sort of club will require specialized equipment since they can't contract with local tow services already in place five kilometers apart. As for space I don't see the auto club thing coming into play so much as tug services and repair ships being contracted for by the job. Militias or planetary governments might operate rescue ship like our Coast Guard. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
