K_Jameson
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Maybe I already said this somewhere, but I embarked in the writing of a humble sci-fi novel that is set in an ambientation loosely related with the Elite Universe, in particular Frontier Elite II.
Why Frontier? Because that game has heavily influenced my imagination when I was a boy. It portraits a very realistic future scenario (as far as possible speaking of science fiction featuring interstellar travel), and is virtually unlimited. Really mind-blowing. Still one of the the best ever released.
In parallel with the writing, I enjoyed myself with the design of a series of spacecrafts (more or less derived from the FE2 ones) that will appear in the story. I want to show it.
The purpose of these 3D drawings is solely to give a visual reference to the things I describe in the text, and thus small details aren't necessary. No porting to Orbiter is intended.
...
Let's start with the Imperial Courier (likely the names will be subject to modification in the final version of the story). The dreaded mainstay of the Imperial fleet undewent a major modification in my version: the engine nacelles are aligned with the CoG of the ship, correcting the blatant error of the original ship.
A significant portion of my story is set aboard a ship that belongs to this class.
We proceed with the Osprey Attack Fighter (and the big brother, Osprey X). In the redesign process, I was heavily influenced by the Cosmo Zero Fighers by Battleship Yamato. The pilot of a ship of this class will play a major role in my story.
A favourite of some: the Moray Starboat, here in my interpretation. There's a ship of this type in my story, but it plays a marginal role.
The terror of the skies: the Imperial Explorer (from Frontier: First Encounters). The main characters of my story will pass a bad quarter of an hour because of one of these. Again, in my model, the engine nacelles were positioned to align the center of thrust with the the CoG of the ship.
A Puma Clipper and a Panther Clipper. A battle that involves some of these beasts take place in one of the chapters of my story.
That's all for now. If you like, I proceed with other spacecrafts, with the inclusion of some original designs.
---------- Post added at 12:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------
Two more imperial ships: the classic Imperial Trader and an original design of mine: the Imperial Sloop, that make use of a single ramjet instead the two of the Courier.
Both ships are briefly featured in my novel.
---------- Post added at 12:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 PM ----------
An orbital city owned by the Federation, in the Eta Cassiopeiae system.
Loosely inspirated by the orbital cities in Fronter.
The "cylinders" are 3,5 km long and with a diameter of 1,5 km.
Here, three types of cylinders: urban district, park, farmland.
Detail of the park:
I enjoyed calculate the population of such a station. The total internal usable surface of the cylinders (urban districts + park; farmland not counted) is 27.5 square kilometers. I've assumed that the urban districts are densely populated. As reference, the gross population density of Manhattan is 27,812.2/km2 (source: wikipedia). I used a more conservative value of 18,000/km2, then the population of my orbital city is 18,000x27.5=495.000 inhabitants.
Why Frontier? Because that game has heavily influenced my imagination when I was a boy. It portraits a very realistic future scenario (as far as possible speaking of science fiction featuring interstellar travel), and is virtually unlimited. Really mind-blowing. Still one of the the best ever released.
In parallel with the writing, I enjoyed myself with the design of a series of spacecrafts (more or less derived from the FE2 ones) that will appear in the story. I want to show it.
The purpose of these 3D drawings is solely to give a visual reference to the things I describe in the text, and thus small details aren't necessary. No porting to Orbiter is intended.
...
Let's start with the Imperial Courier (likely the names will be subject to modification in the final version of the story). The dreaded mainstay of the Imperial fleet undewent a major modification in my version: the engine nacelles are aligned with the CoG of the ship, correcting the blatant error of the original ship.
A significant portion of my story is set aboard a ship that belongs to this class.
We proceed with the Osprey Attack Fighter (and the big brother, Osprey X). In the redesign process, I was heavily influenced by the Cosmo Zero Fighers by Battleship Yamato. The pilot of a ship of this class will play a major role in my story.
A favourite of some: the Moray Starboat, here in my interpretation. There's a ship of this type in my story, but it plays a marginal role.
The terror of the skies: the Imperial Explorer (from Frontier: First Encounters). The main characters of my story will pass a bad quarter of an hour because of one of these. Again, in my model, the engine nacelles were positioned to align the center of thrust with the the CoG of the ship.
A Puma Clipper and a Panther Clipper. A battle that involves some of these beasts take place in one of the chapters of my story.
That's all for now. If you like, I proceed with other spacecrafts, with the inclusion of some original designs.
---------- Post added at 12:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------
Two more imperial ships: the classic Imperial Trader and an original design of mine: the Imperial Sloop, that make use of a single ramjet instead the two of the Courier.
Both ships are briefly featured in my novel.
---------- Post added at 12:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 PM ----------
An orbital city owned by the Federation, in the Eta Cassiopeiae system.
Loosely inspirated by the orbital cities in Fronter.
The "cylinders" are 3,5 km long and with a diameter of 1,5 km.
Here, three types of cylinders: urban district, park, farmland.
Detail of the park:
I enjoyed calculate the population of such a station. The total internal usable surface of the cylinders (urban districts + park; farmland not counted) is 27.5 square kilometers. I've assumed that the urban districts are densely populated. As reference, the gross population density of Manhattan is 27,812.2/km2 (source: wikipedia). I used a more conservative value of 18,000/km2, then the population of my orbital city is 18,000x27.5=495.000 inhabitants.
