Warship Design Philosophy (RP Perspective)

[Dandy]

I thought I might benefit from a discussion on ship design philosophy as I go forward with trying to produce designs that are entirely my own (albeit inspired by existing designs in sci-fi and elsewhere). Chiefly, I've been wondering what others might prioritise in their designs in terms of what would be functional layouts and components in a space-faring warship. Be advised that I'm speaking mainly in the context of building ships designed for roleplaying purposes and not those built solely for PvP gameplay.

I'll start with some thoughts on the positioning of crew quarters under the hull. My idea is that crew quarters would ideally be situated in the ship's least-protected areas. This is because, I reasoned, that when the crew is called to action stations none of them should be in their quarters. It stands to reason that they would instead be elsewhere performing their important duties. So if the crew quarters were hit, resulting in a hull breach, nothing aside from material and valuables would be lost.

I also had thoughts on the positioning of munitions magazines in ships that don't use energy weapons. Though I haven't quite worked out where would be the optimal place for those to sit, aside from somewhere near the weapon systems themselves. I wonder whether or not it would be wise to place them simply near the weapons, but then rely on thicker armour/shields on that section to protect them. I even had thoughts of simulating a magazine using warhead blocks or something. So that when a ship's magazine is hit, the expected result actually occurs.

What are your ideas for the practical positioning of specific facilities/components beneath a warship's hull?

-Dan

 

[Olxinos]

I can't say much, but there might something to be learnt from submarines layouts. Submarines and spaceships do navigate under similar conditions after all. The problem with comparing with submarines is that they all (to the extent of my knowledge) have that peculiar long and thin shape though.
Apart from that, I don't really know. I'm not sure placing crew quarters in exposed sections of the ship is that obvious: there's still about a third of your crew there at all times (if we assume a human needs about 8h of sleep per 24h) and you don't know when danger will come. Still, warships are basically weapons, engines, miscellaneous critical systems and living quarters packed together. In a ship designed to have nothing superfluous, it's hard to determine what you need the least.

Oh right, someone posted that on the chat once: deckplan
That might be useful.
(btw, don't use warheads to make an area "explosive", use power batteries, you'll get something stat-wise at least)

 

[Dandy]

(btw, don't use warheads to make an area "explosive", use power batteries, you'll get something stat-wise at least)

I did not know that would work. Cheers.

 

[sayerulz]

What sort of power source are you going for? I personally favor fusion on most ships, fission for very small ones that may not have room for a fusion reactor. What powers your ship will have a large impact on the idea situation and shape of the reactor, from an RP perspective. Same goes for engines. Are they ions? Chemical? Direct nuclear? Indirect nuclear? Or even antimatter?

 

[Edymnion]

Well, a point of reference from the only true Star Trek warship, the okudagram of the Defiant:

Its laid out with engines in the back, then the warp core and engineering, then work areas like labs and cargo, then the crew quarters are up front along with things like mess halls.

For what the ship is intended to do, its a good layout that actually corresponds to what you were thinking.

The ship is designed with it's main weapons facing forwards, so the enemy should ideally always be in front of the ship. It has the "non mission critical" areas, aka the crew living space, up front. Means any weapons fire it takes head on has to blast through a lot of "padding" before it starts hitting the more important areas. So incoming fire has to tear through first the stuff like mess halls, then quarters, then sick bay/labs/cargo, then the computers, with the main power and engines being at the very back.

Would be a good way to plan your ship. Figure out which side you expect to face the enemy most, and put the most expendable stuff there, and bury the "good stuff" behind that. Basically like you said, use the RP space as extra shielding.

 

[Dandy]

I'm not sure placing crew quarters in exposed sections of the ship is that obvious: there's still about a third of your crew there at all times (if we assume a human needs about 8h of sleep per 24h) and you don't know when danger will come.

That said, I run my idea on the assumption that when a warship in space is made ready for battle, nobody aboard would be enjoying downtime or sleep. I like to imagine that every crew member has a station to man. That said as well, if there are shifts then it would mean that there would already be someone at your station if you were off work and in your quarters. Crew in downtime serve as support personnel during battle? Hm. This bears some thought. I'll see if I can find out how this is handled on real warships.

What sort of power source are you going for? I personally favor fusion on most ships, fission for very small ones that may not have room for a fusion reactor. What powers your ship will have a large impact on the idea situation and shape of the reactor, from an RP perspective. Same goes for engines. Are they ions? Chemical? Direct nuclear? Indirect nuclear? Or even antimatter?

In my own writing I proposed a power source that derives energy from plasma. It was an extremely hand-wavy sci-fi thing I threw in there without much thought for physics. In short, I'm not actually sure what sort of powerplant my ships would use. It's something I'll give thought now though.

Well, a point of reference from the only true Star Trek warship, the okudagram of the Defiant:

Its laid out with engines in the back, then the warp core and engineering, then work areas like labs and cargo, then the crew quarters are up front along with things like mess halls.

For what the ship is intended to do, its a good layout that actually corresponds to what you were thinking.

The ship is designed with it's main weapons facing forwards, so the enemy should ideally always be in front of the ship. It has the "non mission critical" areas, aka the crew living space, up front. Means any weapons fire it takes head on has to blast through a lot of "padding" before it starts hitting the more important areas. So incoming fire has to tear through first the stuff like mess halls, then quarters, then sick bay/labs/cargo, then the computers, with the main power and engines being at the very back.

Would be a good way to plan your ship. Figure out which side you expect to face the enemy most, and put the most expendable stuff there, and bury the "good stuff" behind that. Basically like you said, use the RP space as extra shielding.

I'm not much of a Star Trek fan, but this seems sensible to me as far as a deck plan goes for the reasons I outlined before. Though there is the idea that space-faring vessels would be engaging threats in three dimensions. You'd only be able to keep that one side facing the enemy if you were not outnumbered or outmanoeuvred. What I might have done instead is line the port and starboard sides with these nonessential compartments, spreading them across as much of the sub-hull surface as possible, aside from areas near what I might consider health hazards like power generation or propulsion.

Thanks for the image, I'll keep a hold of that for reference.

-Dan

 

[Panpiper]

I would just like to inject here that an RP ship does not have to be a complete pansy when it comes to combat. There is absolutely no reason you cannot run a proper set of power lines to give your ship maximum power, and build effective weapons to use that power. If you are really trying to minimize weapon sizes, use overdrive weapons. That will both use up the power quickly and keep the weapons tiny. Make them cannon/beam/overdrive and weapons as small as 36 blocks can still bust even the toughest armor.

For magazines and such, consider having a 'locked' door that simply says "No Admittance" and fill that space with weapon/shield blocks. You do NOT need to make every ounce of space inside the ship, hollow. The engineering physics of Starmade systems is such that a lot of the systems are NOT hollow. Do not try to force Starmade into the preconceived notions of other fictional universes or even our own putatively real one. Ships should be built to exist inside a Starmade universe, which means a lot of a ship should be solid blocks. The thing that makes a ship RP in Starmade is 'also' having appropriate open spaces to walk about in.

I agree by the way with putting those open spaces on the exterior of a ship, especially the front. One of the most effective things you can do for a PvP ship in Starmade is to have spaced armor, especially on the front. Layers of RP space does that job just fine. Just throw in some advanced armor into the mix as 'bulkheads' complete with blast doors, and go for max pierce/punch defensive effect to maximally capitalize on all that wonderful spaced armor and hull. Remember that thrusters can make great wall linings, especially for large open spaces like hangars.
[doublepost=1481226274,1481226034][/doublepost]Engine rooms are a great place to put any needed auxiliary reactors and power capacitors. Just remember to build them such that all the capacitors and auxiliary reactors are contiguous and that the auxiliary reactor systems are as close to 9800 modules as practical for your ship design.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

The RP perspective is really hard for me. I try to include passages, a nice bridge with officer seats and status displays, conference rooms, crew quarters, cargo bays, and so on, but all that stuff is pretty much superfluous in the game's current state and the real-life engineer in me sees it as wasted space that would be better used for packing more systems in. Most of my ships only have a few small rooms, and I always get burned out and never finish on the designs that have "nice" interiors. I'm hoping future updates will ease this by somehow requiring interiors to fulfill certain roles, probably through crew functions.

I hate to compare to other games, but my Space Engineers ships always looked more interesting simply because the game mechanics encourage it. You need ways to connect all the cargo systems together, and the fact that you need physical access with the welder to repair blocks encourages more open space on the interior so you can clean up after a battle.

 

[Panpiper]

The RP perspective is really hard for me. I try to include passages, a nice bridge with officer seats and status displays, conference rooms, crew quarters, cargo bays, and so on, but all that stuff is pretty much superfluous in the game's current state and the real-life engineer in me sees it as wasted space that would be better used for packing more systems in. Most of my ships only have a few small rooms, and I always get burned out and never finish on the designs that have "nice" interiors. I'm hoping future updates will ease this by somehow requiring interiors to fulfill certain roles, probably through crew functions.

I hate to compare to other games, but my Space Engineers ships always looked more interesting simply because the game mechanics encourage it. You need ways to connect all the cargo systems together, and the fact that you need physical access with the welder to repair blocks encourages more open space on the interior so you can clean up after a battle.

One day 'soon', hopefully within most of our lifetimes, we will have the crew and quarters update. This will give crew an actual in game effect that a well built PvP combat ship will not want to be without. Including some RP space on your existing builds is a good way to future proof them, so they'll be easy to convert. In the mean time, spaced armor is a good idea, and RP space does that job nicely.

 

[KiloZulu]

Here are a few thoughts I try to balance when designing a combat ship:

I try to place the ship core away from the center or bow of the ship. Since my ships usually have engines and engineering towards the rear, it typically gets placed as part of the engineering room(s).

Particularly on a combat ship, I prefer to place crew quarters deep inside the ship along its center line. I provide off-duty locations for crew (lounges, dining, whatever) that provide outside viewing so the crew doesn't have to look at ship corridors 24/7. I've had players complain that crew quarters should have windows, and I've compromised on some of my ship designs.

I locate escape pods throughout the ship and as the ship's design allows- near the bridge, near engineering, and near crew living spaces. I have a really nice single-button escape pod template that I can easily dock to ships. All a player has to do is step inside and press a button. Doors close, lights flash, they're buckled in (gravity switches,) and they are launched from the ship. A pre-charged jump drive lets them get far away from whatever danger threatens.

I try to make sure there is more than one access/exit to as many locations as possible. Corridors will run down opposite sides of the ship, decks will have stairs in addition to elevators, and there are more than one airlock. This provides alternate routes of travel for crew in the event of an emergency in a specific location.

At the same time, I try to keep transporter rooms, shuttle bays, and airlocks all within a certain area of the ship. This helps contain entry points to the ship in boarding actions (not much you can do to control holes punched through the hull.) Medical facilities typically are kept close to these areas, as well, although they may not be the primary medical station.

My bridges can be located anywhere, since they are usually nothing more than RP spaces. Any system computers should be somewhere else. On a large ship, I'll also create an aux. bridge somewhere deep inside - and this may be the location for the computers.

 

[jayman38]

I am currently doing some light layout work on a 125-m Battletech (tm) Dropship (long, submarine-like design).

0. The design is symmetrical, so for the most part, I'm using YZ symmetry right up the middle.
1. Due to a total lack of shields in the Battletech universe, I am using advanced hull for the skin, with very few exceptions.
2. Directly underneath the skin is a layer of power capacitors. This gives the ship a rather immense power storage capacity.
Having immense power capacity vs. miniscule power generation can yield dramatic moments.
3. In long flat stretches, big sheets of capacitors are replaced with a sheet of thruster blocks.
4. In a corner or two, I replace a long line of capacitors with reactor blocks, just so that it has -some- power generation.
5. I design a central RP walkway network that reaches all the obvious egress/ingress areas.
When I start actually building, I pick an area along the walkway network, towards the middle, where I place the core.
In the case of this dropship, I had designed the walkway when core-drilling was still the way to kill a ship.
Therefore, in this design, the ship core is located half-way along the ship in the floor of a hallway intersection.
This gives it protection, while making it a relatively quick trip from the outside to the pilot's seat, as it were.
When actually building in-game, I place the core, and then use the pre-planned blueprints to build the walkway out.
I build out to each of the egress/ingress areas, to give an overall "shape" of the internal RP space.
Then I further build out to established shapes in the pre-planned blueprint, developing the skin of the ship.
At this stage, when skinning the ship, I'll have to make some changes from the original blueprints to work in 3D space.
6. I look for nooks and crannies between the RP walkways and the outer skin to place crew quarters.
In the case of this Dropship, there is a 2 m space between the central hallway and the side-hull.
Just enough room to squeeze in multibunk quarters and bathrooms. Sadly, not enough room for gravity couches. Hold on tight!
7. I have laid some power lines along the walkways, representing some of the longest stretches in the dropship, for more power.
8. I have already started replacing bits of power capacitor with additional armor and weapon blocks to coincide with Battletech lore on this ship.
9. With the inner walkways, outer skin, and personnel rooms in place, line the outer skin on the inside with power capacitors.
As mentioned above, replace large sheets of capacitors in this layer with sheets of thrusters; there will be more than enough capacitors.
10. With the power capacitor layer (batteries) in place, line that with a second skin of advanced armor.
11. When the inner armor is in place, build any additional powerlines that can fit.
12. Place weapon systems at the appropriate locations. (For Battletech lore, I created very specific, remarkably weak weapon sizes for specific Battletech weapons.)
13. Fill in the remaining spaces with thrusters, placing capacitors or individual power blocks in spaces to prevent the accidental "leakage" of thruster plumes where there shouldn't be any.
14. Final build-mode walkthrough to make sure all RP spaces are walkable and to make sure all non-RP spaces are filled with systems.

Munitions storage: I recommend using missile modules to show "stored ammo" along the side of the block. Bonus: it can actually be part of an operational weapon system, without your crew knowing.

Also, instead of the big, moving fans for ventilation, I always recommend using thruster blocks for vents. That way, you get a bit of functionality out of the decoration block. Just be careful not to introduce unsightly plumes into RP spaces (unless that's the look you are going for, of course.)

 

[Dandy]

Do not try to force Starmade into the preconceived notions of other fictional universes or even our own putatively real one. Ships should be built to exist inside a Starmade universe, which means a lot of a ship should be solid blocks.

Why not, and who says? I'm afraid I have to disagree with that notion wholeheartedly on the basis that StarMade, as a sandbox game, affords the player the ability to build and act according to their will. I don't believe there is, or should, be any prescription for how a ship in StarMade should be.

I am however with you on the notion that a ship meant for roleplaying doesn't expressly have to forego reasonable combat capability. That much certainly cannot be argued, in my opinion. The reason I labelled the thread as I did was largely a means of defining the context of my initial question. Trying to avoid too much discussion on ship systems as pertain to StarMade's game mechanics and keep the conversation based in principles as pertain to the "practicalities" of a space-faring warship's deck plan.

Here are a few thoughts I try to balance when designing a combat ship:

I try to place the ship core away from the center or bow of the ship. Since my ships usually have engines and engineering towards the rear, it typically gets placed as part of the engineering room(s).

Particularly on a combat ship, I prefer to place crew quarters deep inside the ship along its center line. I provide off-duty locations for crew (lounges, dining, whatever) that provide outside viewing so the crew doesn't have to look at ship corridors 24/7. I've had players complain that crew quarters should have windows, and I've compromised on some of my ship designs.

I locate escape pods throughout the ship and as the ship's design allows- near the bridge, near engineering, and near crew living spaces. I have a really nice single-button escape pod template that I can easily dock to ships. All a player has to do is step inside and press a button. Doors close, lights flash, they're buckled in (gravity switches,) and they are launched from the ship. A pre-charged jump drive lets them get far away from whatever danger threatens.

I try to make sure there is more than one access/exit to as many locations as possible. Corridors will run down opposite sides of the ship, decks will have stairs in addition to elevators, and there are more than one airlock. This provides alternate routes of travel for crew in the event of an emergency in a specific location.

At the same time, I try to keep transporter rooms, shuttle bays, and airlocks all within a certain area of the ship. This helps contain entry points to the ship in boarding actions (not much you can do to control holes punched through the hull.) Medical facilities typically are kept close to these areas, as well, although they may not be the primary medical station.

I like this idea of putting the ship core aft or wherever your propulsion systems and engineering compartments are. I may adopt this, as it seems practical. I'd also love to learn more about your escape pod design. I'm currently trying to devise a system for one of my own ships and I'm honestly not sure where to begin.

-Dan
[doublepost=1481228602,1481228241][/doublepost]

I am currently doing some light layout work on a 125-m Battletech ™ Dropship (long, submarine-like design).

0. The design is symmetrical, so for the most part, I'm using YZ symmetry right up the middle.
1. Due to a total lack of shields in the Battletech universe, I am using advanced hull for the skin, with very few exceptions.
2. Directly underneath the skin is a layer of power capacitors. This gives the ship a rather immense power storage capacity.
Having immense power capacity vs. miniscule power generation can yield dramatic moments.
3. In long flat stretches, big sheets of capacitors are replaced with a sheet of thruster blocks.
4. In a corner or two, I replace a long line of capacitors with reactor blocks, just so that it has -some- power generation.
5. I design a central RP walkway network that reaches all the obvious egress/ingress areas.
When I start actually building, I pick an area along the walkway network, towards the middle, where I place the core.
In the case of this dropship, I had designed the walkway when core-drilling was still the way to kill a ship.
Therefore, in this design, the ship core is located half-way along the ship in the floor of a hallway intersection.
This gives it protection, while making it a relatively quick trip from the outside to the pilot's seat, as it were.
When actually building in-game, I place the core, and then use the pre-planned blueprints to build the walkway out.
I build out to each of the egress/ingress areas, to give an overall "shape" of the internal RP space.
Then I further build out to established shapes in the pre-planned blueprint, developing the skin of the ship.
At this stage, when skinning the ship, I'll have to make some changes from the original blueprints to work in 3D space.
6. I look for nooks and crannies between the RP walkways and the outer skin to place crew quarters.
In the case of this Dropship, there is a 2 m space between the central hallway and the side-hull.
Just enough room to squeeze in multibunk quarters and bathrooms. Sadly, not enough room for gravity couches. Hold on tight!
7. I have laid some power lines along the walkways, representing some of the longest stretches in the dropship, for more power.
8. I have already started replacing bits of power capacitor with additional armor and weapon blocks to coincide with Battletech lore on this ship.
9. With the inner walkways, outer skin, and personnel rooms in place, line the outer skin on the inside with power capacitors.
As mentioned above, replace large sheets of capacitors in this layer with sheets of thrusters; there will be more than enough capacitors.
10. With the power capacitor layer (batteries) in place, line that with a second skin of advanced armor.
11. When the inner armor is in place, build any additional powerlines that can fit.
12. Place weapon systems at the appropriate locations. (For Battletech lore, I created very specific, remarkably weak weapon sizes for specific Battletech weapons.)
13. Fill in the remaining spaces with thrusters, placing capacitors or individual power blocks in spaces to prevent the accidental "leakage" of thruster plumes where there shouldn't be any.
14. Final build-mode walkthrough to make sure all RP spaces are walkable and to make sure all non-RP spaces are filled with systems.

Munitions storage: I recommend using missile modules to show "stored ammo" along the side of the block. Bonus: it can actually be part of an operational weapon system, without your crew knowing.

Also, instead of the big, moving fans for ventilation, I always recommend using thruster blocks for vents. That way, you get a bit of functionality out of the decoration block. Just be careful not to introduce unsightly plumes into RP spaces (unless that's the look you are going for, of course.)

I know absolutely nothing about the Battletech universe, but I enjoy the idea of building ships in StarMade to replicate the conditions in the universe they're based on or copied from. It's a rewarding challenge to balance these ideas with functionality in terms of the game's mechanics.

 

[KiloZulu]

Why not, and who says? I'm afraid I have to disagree with that notion wholeheartedly on the basis that StarMade, as a sandbox game, affords the player the ability to build and act according to their will. I don't believe there is, or should, be any prescription for how a ship in StarMade should be.

I am however with you on the notion that a ship meant for roleplaying doesn't expressly have to forego reasonable combat capability. That much certainly cannot be argued, in my opinion. The reason I labelled the thread as I did was largely a means of defining the context of my initial question. Trying to avoid too much discussion on ship systems as pertain to StarMade's game mechanics and keep the conversation based in principles as pertain to the "practicalities" of a space-faring warship's deck plan.



I like this idea of putting the ship core aft or wherever your propulsion systems and engineering compartments are. I may adopt this, as it seems practical. I'd also love to learn more about your escape pod design. I'm currently trying to devise a system for one of my own ships and I'm honestly not sure where to begin.

-Dan
[doublepost=1481228602,1481228241][/doublepost]

I know absolutely nothing about the Battletech universe, but I enjoy the idea of building ships in StarMade to replicate the conditions in the universe they're based on or copied from. It's a rewarding challenge to balance these ideas with functionality in terms of the game's mechanics.

I'll see about uploading it this evening after work. If I remember correctly, it's 7L x 7W x 15H and is designed to simply dock to your ship ready to go. You will likely need to adjust the launch rails to conform with your ship's dimensions. It has two main parts - the launching system and the escape pod itself. Along with adjusting the length of the launch rails, I also frequently add a blast panel to cover the launch tube opening.

The launching system docks to the ship, and has the launch tube and a set of double doors. When you launch the escape pod, these doors will close to maintain the ship's seal from the vacuum of space. A red light will turn on in the tube, as well, to let everyone know that the escape pod is gone. The doors are completely automatic and cannot be opened in the absence of the pod. The launching system has some minor shielding to help protect it from random hits.

The escape pod is capsule shaped. Once you step inside and press a button, the capsule door closes behind you (as well as the launcher doors,) your gravity is switched to that of the pod, and it is launched out of the tube. A beacon light begins flashing on the outside. The inside has a couple of seats, a storage locker, and medical kit. The ship core is accessible so that you can operate the jump drive, and there is a small amount of thrust to return to the launcher or perhaps aim the pod towards the nearest planet.

 

[KiloZulu]

Here is the escape pod. Enjoy.

 

[Jojomo]

That said, I run my idea on the assumption that when a warship in space is made ready for battle, nobody aboard would be enjoying downtime or sleep.

I think that sounds extremely realistic. No way you're going to have crew sitting around off duty in battle. You'd need more crew, and therefore larger/heavier/more expensive ships for the same capabilities.

 

[KiloZulu]

Set the clock. 33 Minutes. Rest while you can.

 

[Tamren Shade]

I have a rough layout most of my ships stick to. Crew and R+R facilities tend to be exposed and forward and upwards with some nice views through a few layers of white crystal armor.

My bridge tends to be towards the top of a WWII/ Star Blazers inspired command structure, again with a sweet view through multiple layers of crystal armor. I deliberately make the command tower tall enough to see over any forward turrets, but this is a point where I'll freely admit to compromising the field of fire for my rear facing turrets just for cool factor. My bridges also tend to be unrealistically exposed (cough-Return-Jedi-Cough), but considering for now they are just RP spaces I'm ok with that.

I tend to space my weapon computers out in different positions and rooms surrounded by advanced armor bulkheads, while it's more likely I might lose one or two weapon computers to a lucky hit, I will not lose ALL my weapon systems to one hit. Well, unless I'm totally getting my tail kicked and they vaporise half my ship with one nuke , but at that point losing weapons systems ceases to be all that relevant .....

The single most protected open room is the engineering section because that is where I will be at personally if I'm piloting, so it makes sense to fortress the hell out of that room . This is also where I keep some defensive system computers, possibly the computers for some specialized weapon systems, buttons for nifty log things, elevator logic, etc.

I usually incorporate the core into an advanced armor floor just in front of the seat for the main engineering console. This room is usually 2/3 ro 3/4 of the way back from the nose of the ship, and just over the centerlines for the XZ and YZ symmetry planes. Below the XZ plane is usually completely filled with systems, that's where I run power lines most of the length of the ship. The empty space between the power lines grids are filled with shield blocks, and I wrap one large section of capacitor blocks around the mix of shields and reactor blocks.

The second most protected room is the medical bay. Thinking about that in RP terms, that would be the room where wounded crewmembers in possibly compromised vacuum suits or maybe even too wounded to be in a vac suit are going to be collected, so it makes sense to make the med bay buried deep in the ship and hopefully less likely to suffer a loss of atmosphere. In my larger ships, the med bay is typically directly above engineering. I tend to place my transporter room near the med bay, for both RP reasons, and to make it conveniently near, but not in, main engineering.

Rear of engineering is also typically filled with system blocks, that's where I'd built in Aux reactors if the design calls for it, or where I prefer to put blocks of defensive effect systems, and my jump cores. Rear of that would just be thrusters and engine p*&$ using cool lighting effects behind crystal armor, and grebling made of more armor blocks.

Forward of my crew areas is where I tend to put my weapon systems, usually the forward 1/2 to 1/3 of the ship. I try to keep them organized by block type so I can shift click all of them at once to attach/detach computers, and I try to have complete weapons systems enclosed in their own bays of advanced armor.

For shields, I mostly use the little trick where the first 3-5 blocks in from the exterior hull in almost all directions is shield blocks, this is one point where I struggle as a ship designer. I know the rule of thumb for shields is to devote around 40% of your total block count to your shields, but I usually just make it to 25-35% before I start trading off things I don't want to trade off.

The final element I try to incorporate into my ships is internal bulkheads of 1-3 advanced armor blocks thick along the XY plane subdividing my ship into 4 or 5 separate sections. The bulkheads do have ports and holes through them to account for the power systems and weapons, so my ships aren't perfectly divided, but I try to keep high powered sniper style weapons from punching a hole clear through a ship bow to stern.

I'm still deciding on what blocks and how thick I should be making my outer hull, and I have no idea if how I set up ships is ideal or not, but I do have a general system I use. How strictly I stick to the above layout will vary depending on what I'm building a ship for and what kind of concept I'm working towards.

 

[Panpiper]

I have a rough layout most of my ships stick to...

This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say that RP ships do not have to be total wimps in a fight. Tamren Shade is clearly designing his ships to 'both' be RP consistent 'and' combat capable. I dare say however with all those bulkheads, his ships are probably pretty slow.

 

[Dandy]

Here is the escape pod. Enjoy.

Thanks a lot! This should help in designing something to fit my ships.

I have a rough layout most of my ships stick to. Crew and R+R facilities tend to be exposed and forward and upwards with some nice views through a few layers of white crystal armor.

My bridge tends to be towards the top of a WWII/ Star Blazers inspired command structure, again with a sweet view through multiple layers of crystal armor. I deliberately make the command tower tall enough to see over any forward turrets, but this is a point where I'll freely admit to compromising the field of fire for my rear facing turrets just for cool factor. My bridges also tend to be unrealistically exposed (cough-Return-Jedi-Cough), but considering for now they are just RP spaces I'm ok with that.

I tend to space my weapon computers out in different positions and rooms surrounded by advanced armor bulkheads, while it's more likely I might lose one or two weapon computers to a lucky hit, I will not lose ALL my weapon systems to one hit. Well, unless I'm totally getting my tail kicked and they vaporise half my ship with one nuke , but at that point losing weapons systems ceases to be all that relevant .....

The single most protected open room is the engineering section because that is where I will be at personally if I'm piloting, so it makes sense to fortress the hell out of that room . This is also where I keep some defensive system computers, possibly the computers for some specialized weapon systems, buttons for nifty log things, elevator logic, etc.

I usually incorporate the core into an advanced armor floor just in front of the seat for the main engineering console. This room is usually 2/3 ro 3/4 of the way back from the nose of the ship, and just over the centerlines for the XZ and YZ symmetry planes. Below the XZ plane is usually completely filled with systems, that's where I run power lines most of the length of the ship. The empty space between the power lines grids are filled with shield blocks, and I wrap one large section of capacitor blocks around the mix of shields and reactor blocks.

The second most protected room is the medical bay. Thinking about that in RP terms, that would be the room where wounded crewmembers in possibly compromised vacuum suits or maybe even too wounded to be in a vac suit are going to be collected, so it makes sense to make the med bay buried deep in the ship and hopefully less likely to suffer a loss of atmosphere. In my larger ships, the med bay is typically directly above engineering. I tend to place my transporter room near the med bay, for both RP reasons, and to make it conveniently near, but not in, main engineering.

Rear of engineering is also typically filled with system blocks, that's where I'd built in Aux reactors if the design calls for it, or where I prefer to put blocks of defensive effect systems, and my jump cores. Rear of that would just be thrusters and engine p*&$ using cool lighting effects behind crystal armor, and grebling made of more armor blocks.

Forward of my crew areas is where I tend to put my weapon systems, usually the forward 1/2 to 1/3 of the ship. I try to keep them organized by block type so I can shift click all of them at once to attach/detach computers, and I try to have complete weapons systems enclosed in their own bays of advanced armor.

For shields, I mostly use the little trick where the first 3-5 blocks in from the exterior hull in almost all directions is shield blocks, this is one point where I struggle as a ship designer. I know the rule of thumb for shields is to devote around 40% of your total block count to your shields, but I usually just make it to 25-35% before I start trading off things I don't want to trade off.

The final element I try to incorporate into my ships is internal bulkheads of 1-3 advanced armor blocks thick along the XY plane subdividing my ship into 4 or 5 separate sections. The bulkheads do have ports and holes through them to account for the power systems and weapons, so my ships aren't perfectly divided, but I try to keep high powered sniper style weapons from punching a hole clear through a ship bow to stern.

I'm still deciding on what blocks and how thick I should be making my outer hull, and I have no idea if how I set up ships is ideal or not, but I do have a general system I use. How strictly I stick to the above layout will vary depending on what I'm building a ship for and what kind of concept I'm working towards.

I like this idea of including bulkheads. In my next build, which will be a large carrier, I was toying with the idea of laying out not only the outline but also structural hardpoints like bulkheads throughout, then building the interior and systems to suit that. Something struck me when I was watching BSG clips the other day, that Col. Tigh directs defence teams to an enemy boarding action by informing them of the precise deck and frame the breach was made at. That allowed them to pinpoint the location and respond accordingly.

The use of crystal armour on the engines was not something I'd previously considered, I'll give that a look.

 

[AtraUnam]

Offtopic point of contention, there are indeed federation warships in some of the canonized book series, they generally resemble a larger stockier 4 naceleed (2 above 2 below) constelation class; they're not common though as klingons regard the constelation class itself as a battlecruiser; when a real federation warship does show up klingons and romulans have been seen going great lengths to avoid confrontation, even with 3:1 numbers on their side.

The only one described in great detail was operating under the flag of vulcan though it was still part of starfleet and predomenantly of human design with some vulcan elements.