11 replies to this topic

[hobknob]

I would like to see more ship classes for the larger designs. Lately all my designs have turned out to be the same thing, which is rather boring. It shouldn't change the game a bit, but could certainly enhance our play.

Hindsight being what it is, I would probably suggest ratcheting up all the sizes quite a bit so that current names have a greater amount of usage and then add many more names before calling everything a Nova Dreadnought.

Just some random thoughts while dreaming of turns.

[Jodookus]

What range do NDNs start at? Forty megatons? Fifty? Are you saying that even 100 or 200 megaton designs are still called NDN? I was hoping that it changed once I got my billiton design entered but I agree it would be a bummer if a billitonner or higher was still called a NDN.

[hobknob]

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

[General Miles Avatar]

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 09:22 PM, said:

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

How large in dimensions would a ship massing 1 billion tons actually be? Miles long?

[hobknob]

General Miles Avatar, on Mar 21 2008, 04:03 PM, said:

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 09:22 PM, said:

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

How large in dimensions would a ship massing 1 billion tons actually be? Miles long?

My life form is very small so I figure that all their stuff is super dense. That would make it about the size of an RV.

[Jodookus]

Maybe a billitonner should be called a Super Nova Dreadnaught? Or Stellar Nova. How about Galactic Dreadnaught?

[Sakarissa]

How about the "That's not a moon" class of ship?

Sakarissa
The Circle

[ali-t-akua]

General Miles Avatar, on Mar 21 2008, 03:03 PM, said:

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 09:22 PM, said:

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

How large in dimensions would a ship massing 1 billion tons actually be? Miles long?

My estimate is a sphere roughly 2.4 km in diameter for a 1 billion T ship. I am basing this on the weight and size of a Nimitz class carrier and am assuming the density is the same as well.

BTW, a 50 Million Ton ship is sphere 890 m in diameter.

[hobknob]

I envision something looking more like sea urchin. That way you have a place for all those spinal weapons.

ali-t-akua, on Mar 21 2008, 07:04 PM, said:

General Miles Avatar, on Mar 21 2008, 03:03 PM, said:

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 09:22 PM, said:

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

How large in dimensions would a ship massing 1 billion tons actually be? Miles long?

My estimate is a sphere roughly 2.4 km in diameter for a 1 billion T ship. I am basing this on the weight and size of a Nimitz class carrier and am assuming the density is the same as well.

BTW, a 50 Million Ton ship is sphere 890 m in diameter.

Reading the Weber books again and an SDN was about 8M tons and 2 km long....

[sir smeg]

I think David Weber said it himself but the ship details in his books are not always accurate, the most obvious one was with the Honerverse ships, it turned out that they had a density slightly greater than air.

One of these days I plan on doing a NUD order for the Udo class planetoide from the Dalek serious, just to see if the program could manage something that would have that many zero's in it

Sir Smeg

[ali-t-akua]

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 07:02 PM, said:

I envision something looking more like sea urchin. That way you have a place for all those spinal weapons.

ali-t-akua, on Mar 21 2008, 07:04 PM, said:

General Miles Avatar, on Mar 21 2008, 03:03 PM, said:

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 09:22 PM, said:

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

How large in dimensions would a ship massing 1 billion tons actually be? Miles long?

My estimate is a sphere roughly 2.4 km in diameter for a 1 billion T ship. I am basing this on the weight and size of a Nimitz class carrier and am assuming the density is the same as well.

BTW, a 50 Million Ton ship is sphere 890 m in diameter.

Reading the Weber books again and an SDN was about 8M tons and 2 km long....

Found a mistake in my calculations. I was off by about 25%. It is actually closer to 3 km in diameter for the spherical 1 Billion tonner and 1.1 km for the 50 Million ton ship. As for the Weber ship, it is possible if the density is the same as a Nimitz class carrier and is a cylinder for a 8 Million ton ship to be 2 km long. It just has to be a little over 5 m in diameter.

[Broodmaster]

hobknob, on Mar 22 2008, 02:02 AM, said:

I envision something looking more like sea urchin. That way you have a place for all those spinal weapons.

ali-t-akua, on Mar 21 2008, 07:04 PM, said:

General Miles Avatar, on Mar 21 2008, 03:03 PM, said:

hobknob, on Mar 21 2008, 09:22 PM, said:

I did a design for a 1B ton+ ship and it is still called a Nova DN. That range starts at 50M tons - btw



That design was quite some time ago and I have not rechecked that the classification has not changed.

How large in dimensions would a ship massing 1 billion tons actually be? Miles long?

My estimate is a sphere roughly 2.4 km in diameter for a 1 billion T ship. I am basing this on the weight and size of a Nimitz class carrier and am assuming the density is the same as well.

BTW, a 50 Million Ton ship is sphere 890 m in diameter.

Reading the Weber books again and an SDN was about 8M tons and 2 km long....

True, but that is for a spindle design. My ships tend to be flattened cones or wedges. The T20 traveller books give lots of different tables to allow us to work out the size of your ship for the mass, which is then used to calculate displacement which can then be used to calculate size.

Suppose the major consideration to shape is how a jump bubble is formed. If it can only be spherical then most jump ships will be spheres. If it can match the shape of the ship then you can go with whatever floats your boat (no pun intended)