Spaceship design

I've made a page with some of my thoughts on Spaceship design.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Excellent! Thanks for writing this up.

Anonymous said...

Cool!
What do you think about asymmetric designs? You haven't touched on that subject.
Millenium Falcon comes to mind, perhaps, which is pretty heavily asymmetric if you think about it. Shape wise its only one little protrusion, but since that's the cockpit, the ship would obscure a lot of the view for the pilot.

In your doodles there are no asymmetries either.
Some aircraft have stuff like an antenna on one side, but since a spaceship wouldn't have any air resistance to bother with, there could be even more of that. It looks a bit "counterintuitive" I think, but might also add a bit of oddness that makes it more memorable.
What are you thoughts on that?

Arne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Arne said...

I've added a blurb about asymmetry to the page, but I'm not sure if it's particularly insightful.

Anonymous said...

Interesting point about the mechs.
I guess, mechs that are supposed to be fast runners are often symmetrical. Heavy mechs can be more asymmetrical. At least I think so. It probably creates a feeling of something slow and lumbering because of how difficult it is to walk quickly when carrying something heavy on one side. Might be applyable to spaceships as well!
(As long as the source of propulsion is behind the center of mass, I guess? Otherwise it'd have trouble flying in a straight line :)

BeRKA said...

Very interesting. I will think about your ideas next time I design something for Traveller.

phiq said...

Great insight.

duo said...

I like your comment about pikachu's tail. Details like that make designs look more genuine and organic. Instead of a ship with a gun, have a ship that is a gun. The lancer frigate isn't easily identifiable as an attack ship. Who who could mistake a tank for anything other than a weapon?