Sci fi Capital ships

So if you were to design a capital ship (more or less a ship longer than a few hundred meters built to take on other capital ships) how would you.

CP's are usually not atmoshere capable and spend thier entire life in a vacuume environment. Often they house fighter in a hanger to complement thier main weaponry of cannons, and missile/torpedo launchers (some have both or one type.) Armament, shields, propulsion, crew, and size are generally how a ship is classified. (Although by armament alone can be debated) Generaly speaking, they are big, tough, posess poor manouverability, and very well armed

The Commissioner
Assault Class
1400m long
Armed with: 1X dorsal mounted Lightning Gun, 900X turbolaser/ion cannon turrets, 40X autoguns, 15X Rave guns, 100X 36in Projectile Launchers
5 layers of Plate Shielding, 5 layers of EMP Shielding, 5 layers of Projectile Shielding, 5 ayers of Advanced Temporal Shielding, 1 layer of Psisonic Shielding
Onboard Vehicles: 1X AT-AT Barge, 2X Blockade Runners, 1X Mine Ship, 20X boarding Craft, 1X Tug, 1X Lambada Shuttle
Crew of 1000
Propulsion: Slip Drive, Ion Trusters, Warp Drive
Powered by 100 Fusion Core Reactors

That's it I promise.

 

Anything Empire related suits me fine, a star-destroyer called the "Excruciator" would be nice
baah baah baah... buh, bu-dah, buh, bu-dah

 

This is my vision of a scifi cap ship.

http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/e/b/e ... 2.jpg.html

Not as powerful as a Star Wars cap ship but at least it can get into a solar system without having to elbow aside planets.

 

Nice. Confusion is a good weapon (Cap'n, I dinna know which side is up. I don't have the power....yeah that was a bad star trek spoof)

 

I am really bad at doing this kind of stuff because, more often than not, I overdo or underdo my numbers. Copying others wouldn't be fun, and I don't know any vehicles, or weapon types. Any advice? Anyone? A standard range of numbers of shielding, weapons and onboard craft would help a ton. I'm only good at thinking up names. For mine, something like the Dominator, Apocalypse, Centauri Primus or any other really cool name would be nice-but I think Centauri Primus has already been taken in Babylon 5. It;'s a movie I heard about.

 

The problem with this is that no knows what you're talking about... there is no standardized way to compare ships, no technology, just names. Sci fi needs those to give the numbers a reason, or else a "Turbolaser X900000000000" would be... what? And how it stack up against fantasticum armor of 20 in thickness? :roll:

What is the point?

 

I think I tend to go over board alot...well think about iot the Commissioners only slightly longer than a Star Destroyer yet she carries enought fire power to be equivelent to the Death Star. (Lightning gun apparentlyhas enought power to punch holes form the Earth's crust from space.)

 

Try telling that to these guys

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/

 

Atleast they have something standardized to measure it up against. My point is, why talk to each other about ships we would like to design when it is all unsubstantiated fantasy and we cannot compare them because the technology and the characteristics are all stuff we made UP...

 

Your point? It's all fun and game dude! Besides, if you think about it Enterprise vs say Executor (A SW SSD- Vader's flagship actually) would end up with both ships destroyed.

 

If I designed a capital ship and made up all sorts of terms, I would not be telling you anything. That is my point.

 

True, but 'phaser' and 'blaster' are widely known and recognised terms for laser weapons. a turbolaser (based on it's name) is a relly big laser cannon. And thats pretty much what it is.

Although technically, who cares about the specific componants. if it's armed with 900 QDP's (Quantum Disintegration Pistols- don't ask I dunno either) all that tell you is that it should pack a heavy punch.

 

Maybe I'm too old for this, at 17. But it seems completely ridiculous. :x

 

Touble is that Pistol, IMHO, implies a very short range hand held weapon, so unless the crew come storming onto the target with said QDPs between their teeth (and the consequent implications for Vac Suit Integrity), I dont think it would have much effect.

Unless we have a commonly agreed set of terminology, it is impossible to make comparisons.

Now if we had a particular universe and therefore set of weaponry, we could have a meaningful discussion. Personally I would go for one of the capital ships in David Weber's "Honorverse" or better still, Starfire series

Tom

 

Your not too old for this. I'm 16 and I have a friend who's just as crazy as I am..and he's 20.

Pistol...yes I see. I was thinking randomly.

although we probably should set up our own 'universe' for tech. Any ideas?

 

Well, our universe is still very, very big. What if an alien race somewhere out there has already invented phasers, blasters, and other sci-fi weapons? So I'll make my ship somewhat like Siberian's, although I'll try to mix and match things as well as I think can still make my ship a powerful one.

Atlantis
1600 metres long, 2800 metres diameter
Armament: 2X ventral mounted superlasers, 100X point defence lasers, 20X disintigrator cannons, 35X plasma beam emitters, 12X concussion missile launchers
Protection: 4 layers of plate shielding, 5 layers of EMP Shielding, 5 layers of Projectile Shielding, 5 layers of Advanced Temporal shielding, 2 layers of Psisonic Shielding
Onboard vehicles: 120+ fighters, 20X boarding craft, 1X shuttle, 2X blockade runners, 1X tug, 1X mine ship
3100 crewmen
Propulsion: Hyperdrive, Ion thrusters, Slip Drive
Powered by 90 fusion core reractors and 10 ion reactors

The Atlantis serves primairily as a flagship for task forces. It provides air support with it's fighters, and lays mines with it's mine ship. Other ships in the task force usually do the fighting, since it has no effective long range weapons besides it's superlaser cannons, which has been considered far too destructive to use in normal operations. If attacked, however, it's disintigrator cannons, deadly medium-range weapons, spring into action, and are backed up by the plasma beam emitters and torpedo launchers. The 100+ turbolasers aboard are short-range, point-defence armament used if the enemy manages to break through the first defences. If faced with extremely heavy opposition and the most dire, and desperate of situations, the superlaser, capable of punching holes in the crusts of planets, is used.
PS Do not confuse the superlaser mentioned with the one on the Death Star.

 

Er.... 2000+ Fighters but only 1100 crew?

 

robot brain controlled fighters

now, this one is from the Total Anihilation universe (with a few twists)

The Hydra
Core Class

1100m long

Armament
6 Intimidator long-range plasma cannons (2 turrets)
80 Punisher heavy plasma batteries (2 cannons/battery)
160 Sentinel laser turrets
100 Chainsaw point defense turrets
20 Silencer heavy torpedo launchers

Defense
4 layers of Gamma-class Heavy Armor
2 SKYDD-9 Shield Generators
2 Eraser radar jammers

3 Snooper long-range radar arrays

Crew
the discovery of Patterning has rendered human crews obsolete. the Hydra is instead serviced by 100 FARK assist/repair bots hooked up to the ship's fusion reactors and Moho Metal Maker. additional "crew" include twenty Advanced Construction kbots for advanced repairs

Fighters, Bombers and stuff like that
250 Avenger standard fighters
70 Vamp stealth fighters
30 Rapier gunships
20 Krow heavy flying fortresses
10 Titan torpedo bombers

Additional Equipment
5 Advanced Fusion Plants
1 Moho Metal Maker
5 Energy Storage Units

Propulsion
4 Velocity Fusion Drives
2 Lightspeed Hyperspace drives

the Hydra is a long-range bombardment ship relying on its Intimidator turrets to do most of the work thanks to their ridiculous range. unfortunately, their somewhat poor accuracy limits their usefulness on extreme ranges. If enemies manage to close, the Hydra unloads its heavy Punisher batteries and follows up with Silencer torpedoes

the Hydra's Sentinel laser turrets are primarily defensive, but can serve as offensive weapons at close range. the Chainsaws cannot engage targets larger than a torpedo bomber due to their small projectiles


kind of rushed this one. might have to review and change things later

 

The thought of a fighter under the total control of the 30th century equivalent of Microsoft Windows.... :angry:

 

What the hell is an "ion core reactor"?

And what kind of term is "turbo" laser? A turbo is a gas driven compressor made to give more power to combustion engines. I don't see how it applies to lasers.