Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

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RedDwarfIV
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Is it just me, or does it look like it needs another engine on the underside?
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by discord »

possibly, the center of thrust looks a bit iffy.

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Updated:

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Final draft:
Image
Image
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by GeoModder »

Pretty neath.
Perhaps too light on the retro thrusters? I reckon the ship could have some on the opposite part of the bottom thrusters as well?
OTOH, couldn't find those on any picture of the Bellarmine.
Image

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Bellarmine definitely had some Vernier thrusters, there's a three-nozzle one between the four engines at the tail. I don't recall it having retro thrusters, but then, the Scout Corps Bennet and Yorktown classes are smaller and much more compact than the larger and bulkier Fleet classes. They'd be better able to do a 180* flip and slow down with their main engines.

The America class has quite prominant retros.
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by GeoModder »

RedDwarfIV wrote:Bellarmine definitely had some Vernier thrusters, there's a three-nozzle one between the four engines at the tail.
Yeah, I know. I was solely talking about retro thrusters on the class.
Image

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

GeoModder wrote:
RedDwarfIV wrote:Bellarmine definitely had some Vernier thrusters, there's a three-nozzle one between the four engines at the tail.
Yeah, I know. I was solely talking about retro thrusters on the class.
Which is why I then agreed with you before suggesting what it might do instead of fire retros.
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by Username »

Easy Boys. :lol:
That looks Great RedDwarfIV!
Did it really have that double bow ? It really invokes a sense of old sea-going vessels. Kinda like the Space is an ocean Trope. Besides housing sensors what other benefits would that bring ?

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Username wrote:Easy Boys. :lol:
That looks Great RedDwarfIV!
Did it really have that double bow ? It really invokes a sense of old sea-going vessels. Kinda like the Space is an ocean Trope. Besides housing sensors what other benefits would that bring ?
This is all I had to work with:
Image

I interpreted it to have a double-bow, but I see no reason besides aesthetics as to why it might have one. But then, aesthetics are why Terran vessels aren't cylindes, cigar or skyscraper shaped, as Arioch told me on the Terran Questions thread.
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by Arioch »

Don't know whether this helps or hurts, but...

Image

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RedDwarfIV
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

The turrets were the last thing I drew onto it. I was pretty certain the top was flat by that point, but I wanted to put the mass drivers on the 'wings' like the America has.

But I'm pleased to see I sort of got the double bow right. The ventral one is a lot bigger on mine, but exists on the canon one too.

I am a little confused by the angled main engines on the Arcadia, Centaur and to a lesser degree, England. You explained why the Highland has angled engines - so that its nose will be in a pitched up position where the centre of thrust goes through the centre of mass while the spacecraft's underside acts as a lifting body - but as ffar as I can tell by making the main engines on these ships angled, you reduce the efficiency and accelleration. If its for turning, Vernier thrusters plus throttling down one set of engines could have worked just as well.
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by Arioch »

They're just concept sketches.... don't read too much into the fine details.

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Ah. Fair enough.
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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by isaacssv558 »

Hello. This is my first post and I would like to say I hope that this comic isn't dead and will eventually start receiving updates. That said what stops rail guns from being used as a missile launch system in order to achieve a longer range. The reason rail guns are inaccurate at long ranges is that the shots, while fast, are slowing than beams and cannot turn like missiles. Thus it seems that by adding propulsion systems for turning they could become a sort of comprise between missiles and beams, slower than beams but faster than missiles and more maneuverable than beams but less so than missiles.

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

As far as I know, the Umiak do sometimes employ rail launchers for their torpedos, which gives them a little bit of a boost out the door, but there are a lot of technical challenges involved in accelerating something with advanced electronics and volatile propellants with a high powered electromagnetic rail/coil. And unfortunately, the missile's initial velocity is not nearly as important as its acceleration while inside point defense range. Often times, the combatants area already jousting at each other at high relative velocities.

(I suspect that in some cases, due to the effectiveness of point defense, being able to fire all your missiles at once might be more beneficial than firing them one at a time out of a high tech launcher.)

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by isaacssv558 »

Thanks, If the point defense can shoot down missiles launched with a railgun couldn't they shoot down normal railgun bullets? If they can shoot down railgun bullets then it seems that humanities railguns are completely useless except at ranges so close the bullets hit before the point defense can hit them. Unless the railgun bullets can't be detected by the point defense in which case I ask why not fire railgun bullets with stealthy engines for turning?

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by discord »

isaac: stealthy railgun bullets with stealthy engines is a kinetic missile, to keep it reasonably stealthy you would have to use cold gas thrusters, these are not exactly known for great delta-v/weight efficiency, which means most of the velocity comes from the railgun, which limits effective range something fierce.

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

They don't have to shoot down the railgun rounds, they only have to move out of the way. Moving out of the way of a railgun round is trivial to do at the combat ranges commonly seen by the Umiak and the Loroi. So yes, in a sense, humanities' railguns are useless. They work well enough for policing Terran commercial traffic, but you'd practically need to have your railgun jammed up the enemy's nose to hit them.

There are a couple circumstances where I could see a Terran railgun being used effectively, but they invariably require the element of surprise and some level of trickery to get into range. Like pretending to surrender or pretending to be a wreck, which might not even work the first time, let alone twice. (From what we've seen in Outsider so far, it is possible that they'd get vaporized instead of approached, just to be safe.)

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Re: Concept Fanart of Future Terran Ship Designs

Post by fredgiblet »

Orbital bombardment is a good use for them.

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