Dannage Fleetyards: Poor Advice For Noobs

[Dannage]

Just seeing if steam links nicely...

The interior-built-first corvette chassis will have two different versions once we get to the outer bits.

 

[Col_Kurtz]

Just seeing if steam links nicely...

The interior-built-first corvette chassis will have two different versions once we get to the outer bits.

You guys who build in interior/systems first just blow my mind. I tend to go for the shell then make things fit. Nice work!

 

[Dannage]

http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...763/968F443F5F760037F104186F678BBC112C1480C9/

Colonel... you ruined my Christmas...

After you mentioned the fifth element, I googled the film. Haven't watched it since the cinema release some 15 years ago or so... But I found their ship... WHICH LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MINE.... Which means I can't submit it for the contest! Who would have thought, something from that long ago would just pop into my head as I was building it. It didn't even look much like the sketch, but evolved into what I built... but yeah.. it's almost an exact copy of the film... bum.

I suppose it's better I found out now, than after whining I didn't win... oh well...

Progress slow on the smaller ship, but a frame for the outer hull now in place.

 

[Peekie30]

if it wasn't actually based off the 5th element ship, it's probably fine

 

[Col_Kurtz]

if it wasn't actually based off the 5th element ship, it's probably fine

^ This, I hope?

Sorry about that mate, if I had foreseen the issue I wouldn't have said it :p Maybe email the guys and ask if there's an issue? I saw this because the shape is a common shape for sci-fi ships. Best wishes man and I'm sooooo sorry.

 

[Dannage]

Do a search on google for "Fifth element navy ship" and you'll find it... It's almost exactly the same. No way anyone looking at the two would think I hadn't copied it.

 

[ltmauve]

Honestly it doesn't look close enough to say that you copied the ship.

If you want your design to look different, you should probably make the ship look less boxy from above. I'd take the tube at the stern and change the edge. Also try adding armor belts along the top and bottom so it doesn't just look like a tube, I guess? Also probably increasing the slope at the front would help.

 

[Col_Kurtz]

Do a search on google for "Fifth element navy ship" and you'll find it... It's almost exactly the same. No way anyone looking at the two would think I hadn't copied it.

Well I feel like a toad now -.-

 

[Dannage]

Well, it's better you spotted it. At least if I don't get time to do a different submission fleet, I can add notes to the effectof "we spotted it was a copy"

I'm just impressed I can remember the design of a ship I haven't seen in 19 years.

 

[Dannage]

Still been working on this lot, despite possible non entry..

 

[Theats]

I actually believe when I get a rig that can play this game, that I will design systems and interiors first. It seems like ships should be designed to suit the function that they serve, so I applaud the creator of this thread. Reading through it has made it seem less daunting to get back into the game.

 

[Dannage]

Well I'm glad, since that was the intention. I don't have any amazing logic on any of my ships. I have cargo bay doors which swing open and closed, and the Stobart has a series of yellow and green lights, and one of the pairs turns yellow, and moves down the chain. Otherwise it's just power, thrust and shields, nowt fancy.

In fact, here's a cutaway of one of the WIP ships.

 

[Dannage]

Theats, as I have one more ship to build, I thought I'd post some in-flight early stages, also helpful for those considering building from the inside out.

Now, I have a bit of an advantage, because I have already built four ships, so I know the sort of components I am needing. What I've done here is worked on two symmetries, and created a floor and ceiling for the middle deck of the last ship.

The mid-deck of all these ships tends to be crew and operational, so at the back, with the little prong bits, is showers. Block in front of that is toilets. The bit with the cross is the core room. Behind (underneath) that, is the transporter room. As a hospital ship, this will also get additional transporter rooms, for those large scale evacuation missions.

The rows of rooms is crew quarters. This has significantly more crew than any of the other ships, but that is because o all the medical staff!

Ahead of the reactor room is the faction block. Two meeting rooms ahead of that. Four larger crew cabins at the front, for doctors/senior staff. A small lounge right at the front. This is basically the heart of the ship.

 

[Dannage]

Having done the walkway layout with the single block, I then start from the middle adding wedges to the corridors and the occasional light block. Some of the areas have decoration, for example pipes in the core room. Next, I fill in all the 'gaps' the corridors are leaving, with systems. The pattern for my current set of ships has been to put power capacitors in to the gaps, around the mid deck, so hopefully this is the last to blow up. I only keep a thin layer of them, to keep the profile of the ship sensible.

The other most important feature, is to remove the y-axis symmetry and then build a staircase (seen on the right) up to what will be the next deck. I don't want to worry about the floors for that deck until I've filled in all the corridor gaps here in the mid deck though. Once I have a decent amount of power capacity, I may lay a couple of power core lines too. I will try and avoid adding thruster and shield blocks into the mid deck, but that's just for this set of ships.

 

[Dannage]

Now, you can see I've added much more power stuff, as I've worked my way through some central rooms and going back. Made quick space for the stairs/slide to the lower deck, then the faction room, entrance to crew cabins, toilets, medical offices, showers and then two emergency transporter rooms, 2x1 since they may have to bring up stretchers. The ship can beam 32 souls aboard at once.

All the stuff at the back will get hidden under power cores now, should get me to about 7m power.

 

[Dannage]

zzzz.. That was a lot of corridor and power to lay... 15.5m, so the life support machines won't run out of juice!

Now that I have the internals complete for the mid deck, I can only use one plane of symmetry rather than adding the roof and floor at the same time. Ho hum!

 

[Dannage]

As we move into the upper deck, I haven't yet determined the floor layout, but I know every corridor bit I build needs to have other, non power, systems in all the gaps, and I fill as I go, so upper deck it's shields, shield rechargers and thrusters. Lower deck it will be warp drive and thrusters. Then in the back section more shields and thrusters.

On all these ships, when you change deck, you get doors. This is to allow restricted access and also provide some a hard seal on each deck, in the event of pressure loss. Should really be more doors throughout the ships, but let's say forcefields would pop up in such situations, as I don't want people spending all their times getting irritated by doors walking around.

 

[Dannage]

I had already decided when I did the stairs up, that you go up then you either go aft, in which case you are in the systems and command section, as with all the other ship top decks, or you go to the fore section, in which case you enter the 'hospital' section.

There were some key changes in the hospital section, to make it easy to identify it as such. For one, we move to white hull. Second, we move to a two block wide corridor, since we expect a lot of people to be being wheeled around on trolleys.

Then, we have replaced the 'white lights' found in all the other ships (and the rest of this one) withice crystal, to soften the light effects and also act as a hygiene purifier. There are some internal forcefields too, to give some protection from bio hazards. We have a few floors laid out for specific intended areas now which are:

Chief Medical Officers office (Centre, aft)
Two triage rooms (Either side of the CMOs office)
Emergency Operating theatre (Centre middle)
Quarantine wards (Either side of the operating theatre
4 Wards (Either side)
A recouperation/recovery lounge (Centre-fore)

Not sure about the furthest forward bits on either side, I might make another pair of wards, if I need more hospital beds... Let's see how many I get in the 4 to start with!

 

[StarWars1981]

I'm not sure what to think of your building style. I like the interiors, but I don't understand how you can possibly see a ship out of your current brick. Don't get me wrong, the brick doesn't matter, it's just that I don't see how you can possibly come up with a shell that will, automatically, fit perfectly with the interior, unless you design it all to the block first.
Hence why I build ships shell first and then interior/systems later.
So, out of curiosity, how DO you plan on building a shell around this? Do you have an idea when you start, or do you just say "If I have to, I'll build a bigger shell" when building this interior?

 

[Dannage]

Actually, I don't have a set approach to ship building. Some I've done from the inside, and some I've done the other way around. This fleet is usefully, all quite brick shaped, but I've also got the benefit of this being the 5th in the series, therefore I know her general outline. I did a sort of half and half with the Starburst and then ended up getting annoyed travelling around the interior finding tiny spaces I hadn't filled in. :D

I have, actually, already done a few exterior blocks. I had a vision of this one looking like the starburst but having a vaulted white space coming out of the forward centre-hull, to provide windows to the patients. I have managed to get this started on the quarantine block, though as I start to add bits of the exterior superstructure frame, I may adapt the shape if it looks too ridiculous. For example, I have realised I'm not far enough out with the outer edge, so am going to make the exterior wedges one lock further out.

This is where I got to last night.