I found this piece of bark that looked kind of like a space ship to me. Here is how I went about making this amazing space ship. And by "amazing" I mean autistically internally consistent.
If you have comments or feedback, feel free to leave it here. If you'd like to commission a custom 3D model, I can help you with that.
I've long lost the piece of bark that this sketch (and the whole destroyer) was based on, but the sketch itself resurfaced recently, so here it is!
Work In Progress version.
Color code is as follows:
Grey: Armor (light), drive (dark), and structural.
Orange: Coolant and heat management systems.
Yellow: Power
Green: Crew
Teal: Data and sensors
Blue: Immune (ship robots)
Purple: Storage and cargo
Red: Weaponry
Tramp Dest Ventral view. Blue boxes are the "immune" system, the robotic modular automation units, or "fighter bay"
red segmented circle is the final stage accelerator ring. You can see the boost ring just behind the teal circle (a primary sensor dome) and two of the three secondary launch ports (bottom and right).
Tramp Dest Front. Big green thing is the Arboraetum, a park/garden/biomass-tank. Below it, the red thing is the primary accelerator port, and five lasers. Basically, green is crew, and red is the shooty bits.
Tramp Dest Port Side.
Tramp Dest Starboard. The big green thing in the middle is the fab bay. It's basically where all the machine tools, welders, and maintenance happens. It's just large enough to hold one of the big engines, but only just. Most major system maintenance is done in-situ.
Tramp Dest Stern
Tramp Dest Dorsal
Tramp Dest Starboard Exterior. A fun render of the Starboard side of the ship, viewed from the front. Some hidden elements overlayed.
Tramp Dest Starboard Exterior. Same view as above, but purely an external view. I've added some cosmetic stuff to the crew quarters. Will probably re-do it at some point.
Partial systems view. Kind of confusing, but that's what the inside of the ship is like. I occasionally get lost in there when I'm working on modeling it.
Tramp Dest Data. The data infrastructure of the ship. All the dead ends are engines and force ports (not shown). You can see the primary core at the center, and then the secondary data infrastructure radiating from each secondary processing core. The teal is all data systems (domes are sensors), yellow is reactors, blue is robotics, and green is crew (command centers, and engineering)
Some effort has been put into making the data system redundant, with all sensors connected to two data cores, and all cores connected to at least three other cores.
Tramp Dest Landing Legs. Added landing gear by cutting some pieces out of the hull and attaching them to legs. There are five points of support counting the lower hull, which acts as a foot as well.
Last to go in is the mechanical structure. This is what holds all the pieces in place. Kind of looks like a birds nest, or a spider web. All (nearly) the structural plates are fully constrained by tension members, so the shape should be rigid. Haven't attached the structure to the other modules yet, but that should be the last step.
Tramp Dest Systems. Systems overview with various systems highlighted.
Armor: multi-layer composite material, primary structural member
Highly reflective layers to deflect radiant energy
high density layers to absorb kinetic impact
high strength, high rigidity, high toughness layers to distribute forces
sensor layers for damage feedback and strain analysis + distributed electromagnetic sensing
active force layers,
draws power to hold the hull together during heavy manuever or impact.
Can make the hull "sticky" for camoflauge, requires continued power drain
Thermal bulk and adjustable hull flattness (rigidity) through water interstitials.
1 primary hull
1 secondary hull
Engines: "short range" Anti-graviton emitters, can use interstellar medium for low-impulse drive situations
use reaction mass for extra thrust, or where ambient matter is scarse
Incorporate force ports and act as force ports
can draw in environmental media to replentish reaction mass stores
21 Main drive ports
11 reaction mass storage tanks
Force Ports: Dual polarity short range (10km) reaction actuators.
Used to deflect projectiles into armor, or away from the ship
Used to de-columate energy weapons
Used for manuvering, see Engines
13 force ports
Power: Darkmatter reactors, use magnetic coupling lines for power transmission
2 primary octant reactors
5 secondary tetrant reactors
15 darkmatter fuel tanks
Weapons:
1 three stage accelerator ring, with
1 primary emission point
3 secondary emission points
Can fire antimatter streams, (path pre-cleared and guided by laser, primary port only)
Can fire Dumb mass projectiles
Can fire self guiding missiles with various payloads
5 Lasers around primary emission accelerator port
2 Lasers, rear facing. can be used for
target painting
ensor illumination
direct thermal damage
blinding enemy sensors
powering active projectiles and remote bots
Sensors: Primary and secondary sensor domes
Integrated sensors in armor
Integrated internal systems sensors
3 primary sensor domes
7 secondary sensor domes
Data System: primary bi-lobe core, and distributed secondary bi-lobe cores
linked closely to primary systems
Fire control
Reactors
Sensors
Force Ports
1 primary core
6 secondary cores
Crew: Full support for crew, Max capacity, ~1400
Crew ~500 consists of:
Officers
Engineers
Medical
Technicians
Pilots
Soldiers
Mission specialists
Primary and secondary hanger bays front and rear respectively
Fab bay, can hold one entire drive unit. Standard fab machinery
Engineering, three story zone adjoining an auxiliary core, aux sensors, and fab bay
Arboraetum, biomass, recreation, and viewing windows
Quarters, 5 hab spheres, house approx 200 crew each, with viewing windows
Life Support
10 all purpose life support units
18 backup life support units
Control Centers, Main and auxiliary, fore and aft respectively
Mess hall, with windows to Arboraetum, food storage and preperation
Recreation, fitness, connected to Arboraetum
Medical bay, centrally located in crew area
Docking Ports, 4 primary docking tubes
Escape Pods,
All crew quarters double as lifeboats (cap 500 ea).
11 dedicated escape pods (cap 50 ea)
Observation Deck, Beneath dorsal sensor dome
Immune: Interchangable robots for Security, Fire, Repair, Emergency response, rapid transit.
1 Primary immune center
stores of parts and automated assembly for immune unit maintenance
in-depth test suites for immune unit validation
35 Immune Nodes
store and exchange immune modules
allow immune units to switch operating modes
37 Immune Magazines, Quick deployment of immune units
Infrastructure:
Equipment corridors from hanger to fab bay.
Equipment Corridor linking Fab Bay, Munitions, Reactors, and Immune Center
Crew Corridors
75 airlocks for zone isolation, maintenance, and exterior access
Immune corridors, powered transit for immune units
Reaction mass tubes, bulk reaction mass transport
Power distribution net, with 96 nodes (junctions)
Coolant system
32 Coolant tanks, Store and route coolant
15 Coolant Nodes, Route coolant, act as junctions
28 Coolant Patches, radiate excess heat (engines also dump heat)
Data Lines, All engines, force ports, and sensors wired direct to the primary core
Each reactor has a data core controlling it exclusively
Most sensors, engines, and force ports have at least one other secondary controlling data core
All secondary cores have bypass lines, forming a network independent of the primary core.
Storage:
4 small cargo bays, 11 x 11 x 6.8
17 medium cargo bays, 17.8 x 11 x 6.8
1 large cargo bays, 35.6 x 28.8 x 11
Structure:
Primary and secondary hull acts as structural shell
4 landing legs and lower structural hull used to support vessel during landing operations
External Connections:
Primary and secondary hangers for boat docking
docking ports are used for normal crew entry/egress
Immune nodes can accept new immune units. Rear unit between magazines (immune center 24) normal entry point.
airlocks can be used to enter or exit the vessel as well
Sensor domes contain data hookups for access to data cores
Fuel system has a recirculating intake filter in the rear
Torpedo manifolds (2) each have connection ports
Antimatter storage rings have a refuel port in the rear
Drive units can intake reaction mass, Lower rear drive (unit 5) has an intake port.
Power umbilical hookup to any power node. Two designed for this at rear.
Main cargo hatch on lower landing pad.
-History-
OMT (Orbital Materials Technology) Locates scrap 3m thick reactive hull
Initial vessel built for TVS (Trans Vesta Systems), vessel named "Shaving"
Second hull (5m thick) located by GW (Gravity Well), sold to OMT
OMT expands vessel under contract for TVS, vessel renamed "Tramp"
TVS withholds payment, OMT loans vessel to GW
GW extorts payment from TVS, destroying minor property
OMT reclaims vessel, recieves payment from GW, surrendurs vessel to TVS
TVS refits internals, threatens GW
vessel stranded after being disabled by GW coverts
GW arrives with aid vessels, TVS refuses aid.
Empire arrives, investigation awards majority stake to GW.
GW purchases remaining interest from TVS.
GW breaks vessel, reuses majority in an outpost "Stunning Refusal"
GW sells 3m hull to vessel AI
AI builds vessel in non-military configuration. Vessel named "Splinter"
-Scenarios- (human equivalent)
ship AI infected (immune deficciency)
Hull breach (cut)
out of reaction mass (slip, fall)
Reentry (slowing from a run)
planetary liftoff (getting up to a sprint)
Long-range duel (firearms)
Skirmish (knife fight)
Defense computer got excited about re-directing fire through non-critical paths in the ship. (unproductive speculation)
Internal dialog of defense system responsibility handoff (delegation)
-Storylines-
Tech is tempted by promises of being taught super-complex stuff.
-Characters-
Captain who has seen everything
Crewer:"We've lost port aux sensors"
Captain: "Someday we need to get that fixed"
Software Tech who wants to over-optimize systems
Tech: "We can re-write the force control to get a 5% increase in coverage"
Captain: "But on reentry, we'll all die?"
Tech: "I've alraedy made the changes."
Paranoid (by design) Immune system
Captain: "Why is this combat unit following me?"
IS: "Enemy boarding action is uprated."
Captain: "What, so you can roam the ship with live munitions?"
IS: "I'm sorry Captain. I will uprate the probability of munition malfunction."
Captain: "Fine; This unit is making me nervous."
IS: "Yes Captain; It is making me nervous now too."
-Odities-
Immune node in the center of the accelerator loses power when it is firing.
Power and data for Primary Dorsal Sensors run through the observation deck.
Orphaned thermal panel aft of Crew Quarters 3, Hooked to power, but no coolant
Engines 1 and 2 have interfering thermal panels (30cm), need special modifications.
Sec. Data core 1 Runs three sec. generators and two sec. sensor nodes. It feels overloaded.
Sec. Data Core 0 runs sec. reactor 3 with data lines threaded through the main cannon array.
Dorsal Port sector should have a sec. data core, but it was never installed.
Three storage bays only accessable via immune system