Ark Royal Stuff - Misc. Illustrations

[Ahkileez]

An IRC/Chat-style RPG ship named the USS Ark Royal (Akira-class) over at Star Trek: Echoes recently launched with me as CO.

I'm a real stickler for trying to jam more detail into the Trek world so I started designing things to enhance the environment. Not necessarily changing major things, but extrapolating based on what was already shown and adding in additional detail I think should've been there all along.

Development Patch - I tried to create this in the style shown in the Defiant/Danube era. I figure the Akira came out of the same Borgbuster program, so it fits in nicely.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Akira-Patch-WIP.jpg

Uniform Patch - This is the uniform shoulder patch (the official symbol is this shield, backed by a crossed sword and scepter and crowned by a knightly helmet). It's worn on a variety of uniforms. Not the normal "Class-B's" we'd normally seen, but on a host of others, including enlisted uniforms, working uniforms, tactical uniforms, security uniforms, etc.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Royal-Shoulder-Full.png

Service Uniforms - *INCOMPLETE* - Here are some of the uniforms in use aboard the Ark Royal. In addition to the ordinary duty and dress uniforms we know, there are extrapolated variants/additions to those uniforms, and other classes of uniforms for other situations.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Royal-Uniforms.jpg

Tricorders - *INCOMPLETE* - It's been a while now since Nemesis and a long while since the 'flip-phone' tricorder came into being, so I reasoned that Ark Royal would now be using the new 'PADDcorder'. While this can be used on or off the ship, I figure it's most effective on the ship where it functions like a padd and has access to the ship's computer as well. So if you scan a damaged piece of equipment, for instance, it would also bring up the maintenance details on the part, whether there are replacements in stock, etc. I do intend to draw a flip-corder for more rugged field use as well, probably using elements from the more recent variants shown in like the Voyager finale and so forth.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/MK-XIII-WIP.jpg

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Tricorder-XII-E.jpg

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Tricorder-XIII-EC.jpg

Small Arms - The range of weapons shown in Trek seems ridiculously mundane, so I expanded on the list based on what I think they should have, things that have been shown but not repeated, and so forth. I think this is a decent cross-section of infantry weapons to be found aboard a frontline combat ship like an Akira.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/small-arms-WIP.jpg

Tactical Weapons - *INCOMPLETE* - Here's a list of torpedoes in use aboard the Ark Royal (not counting the different types of torpedoes/missiles her fighters carry). They're obviously interpretations of ones we know to exist, plus a customized decoy that I designed. I have planned (but not yet drawn), a multi-warhead one designed for overloading shield grids.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/arms-wip.jpg

Probes - This is a full assortment of probes. I redrew, embellished designs of probes I was told a long time ago came from the TNG tech manual. I don't own the TNGTM so I can't verify that. I added Voyager's multi-spacial probe to the list as well to round it out to an even ten. I'm thinking about designing a relay or distress beacon and tossing that in as well.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Probes.png

I have no doubt that I'll end up doing more stuff in the future. I really enjoy creating extrapolative detail in the Trek verse, so I'll probably add more things to this list in the future.

I hope you all enjoy the illustrations, and find them interesting. I'm all for C&C so feel free to discuss anything you see here.

- Kurt

[Aresius]

Sweet. I'm looking forward for the updates.

[t-cast]

Excellent designs!

[Ahkileez]

Aresius - Me too! Hehe. There are a few odds and ends I have planned. As far as major updates, I guess I'll have to wait for inspiration to strike or for someone to suggest something. One thing I was thinking of doing is a 'civilian combadge' for wearing aboard ships or stations. Somehow it seems odd that they would allow civilians to run around with Starfleet combadges that essentially indicates they're military by having them on.

t-cast - Thanks t-cast. I'm glad you like them.

[Somerset]

Wow man. When you have a burst of inspiration you really shine. Excellent designs my friend. A civy commbade would be cool Any ideas brewing around for an aux craft for the Akira?

[Marian87]

Very cools stuff

[Aresius]

Well, what about the female forms of the uniform?
And -a thing I've been wondering about- StarTrek has some desert-uniforms, so why not also some aqua-uniforms?
;)

Nice idea with a civilian badge.

[Ahkileez]

Somerset - Hey Al! :) I have an unfinished design. There's what looks like a 'garage' behind the bridge where I plan to park it. Since we kitted her out with fairly standard shuttles and runabouts, I wanted one craft that looked like the ship the way that the E-E had those shuttles that looked like they belonged to her, and so did Voyager. I echoed the catamaran shape for a wide-bodied, hulking kind of craft that I kind of picture a little like a the Killer W.H.A.L.E GI Joe toy I used to play with as a kid. :)

Marian87 - Thanks man.

Aresius - You mean like wetsuits for diving? As for the female forms, there's really no benefit to duplicating everything shown there in its female equivalent. Where I would expect the female one to be different, I've tossed it in. :)

[XRaiderV1.7]

nice stuff.

[Ahkileez]

Somerset - Hey Al, here's that auxiliary ship I need to finish. I don't think of it as a 'captain's yacht' kind of a situation. It's a working ship belonging to the Ark herself. Part runabout, part dropship, kinda.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Pinnace.png

[Aresius]

Well, somewhat a mix between a wetsuit and a complete diving-suit. Y'know, with air tank and such stuff.
The water equivalent to the EVA-suit.
Well, for the unit-band and such stuff, I'd be glad to see the female form. Or also for the Honour Guard. They're very nice. Btw, what's the duty uniform of the HG's?

Nice shuttle.

[Somerset]

Ooo, I like it. I'm not a fan of the nacelles so far in. They might look a little better right on the edge IMHO, but you probably tried that already and didn't like it. ;) I like the weapons pod on top. Looks like a beefier version of the Chaffe shuttle. Like a Chaffe runabout. Add the Argo's drop down door in the rear and the sucker would like a troop/transport carrier heavy runabout.

And the diving suit thing sounds cool. You haven't done that before. I'd love to see your take on some sort of ground vehicle too.

[Ahkileez]

Aresius - That wetsuit thing might be a bit difficult, but if inspiration strikes, I'll give it a shot. The honor guard are just a specialized unit out of the ship's security personnel for when there's something major happening aboard. They no longer focus on ship security duties, but focus entirely on their charge. As for female variants of that and the kilt uniform, I'm not sure what the value would be in drawing those, since they wouldn't be fundamentally much different from the male ones.

Somerset - I wasn't planning on closing in the back end of the design, but I think I'll have to to keep it coherent. But I was going for a 'catamaran' feel to this ship as well to echo its mother, y'know? It's not so easy to tell from the way the image is shaded, but the 'outer edge' you see there is already sloping down. Nowhere to put the nacelles there. I'm still shooting for a heavy hover/landing craft kind of feel, so I put the nacelles up on the top of the ship where the big engines on a military hovercraft would be. :)

Ground vehicles are hard... I'm a fan of wheels and many Trek fans aren't.

[Somerset]

Oh I get it. Now that you told me about the shading and I look at it again, I makes sense. I think the scale looks off because the nacelles are right in the middle of the craft, when usually they are either intergrated, on the edge, or sticking out. What about shifting them to the rear more...or putting something behind them?

As for the ground vehicles, I'm a fan of the wheels too, but I know what you mean.

I can't wait for you to design your own ship, dude.

[Ahkileez]

The design's far from complete. I'd gotten this far when I kind of hit a creative wall. I don't quite know how to tie everything together to get it to look the way I imagine it in my head. I'll keep working on it though.

Right now I have it so the ship's carrying one of those Argo shuttles with its little rally truck. Beyond that, I'm not sure if Ark Royal needs anymore ground vehicles, but who knows, inspiration may strike. I had started designing a smaller 'dune buggy' type one a while back for Xayvian that I never finished.

The only full-size Trek ship I ever designed was the Arion. Does that count?

[Aresius]

Well, it's just usual to make both gender forms...

[Ahkileez]

Aresius - well if I get ambitious, Aresius, I'll try to do females of those suits, but I wouldn't count on it, hehe.

If something else comes up of course, I'll hop right in :)

[Somerset]

Hey Kurt, I was looking at the ST:Echoes website and I saw those beautiful rank pips. Is that you handiwork?

Oh and I had a thought while watching the Military channel last night Any thoughts on an remote piloted fighter like the Predator, maybe just used for recon for the Ark Royal? Would be something different.

[Ahkileez]

Hey Al. I'd like to take credit for those pips, but I'm afraid not. They're Kuro's, from over on kuro-rpg.net. He does great work.

Ark Royal's got specially built manned Recon fighters already, as well as reconnaissance probes. I'm not sure what the value in a Recon UAV would be, y'know?

Made more progress on the 'super-auxilliary' for her though. She's finally got a name, "Britannic", to go with the naming scheme of the other auxiliaries aboard.

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/4649/akiragigv3dq0.png

[Somerset]

Oh I didn't know about the fighters. I remeber you putting them up here now, though.

I like what you did with the Brittanic. Very nice.

[Ahkileez]

Thanks Al. I often overclutter my stuff, so I'm trying to avoid that here. She's the forward craft of a warship, so I want her to look blunt and tough and covered in armor plates rather than sensor pallets.

[Somerset]

Yeah, it looks like this little ship can take a beating. What are the araments? I only see the forward phasers and what I assume is the weapons pod on top. Will that be it, or do you have some secrets hidden up your sleeve?

[Ahkileez]

Not sure what to do with the armaments. I don't want to overdo it and turn her into a mini-Defiant - that's not what the ship's for and her mama's already a beast. Maybe put in some micro-torp rockets in the pod along with a couple sensor palettes?

So far she's got the forward phasers and the ones on her nacelles. Put in some rear and underside ones and she should be pretty well covered on that front.

I'm thinking of her as kind of an A-10/Dropship cross. She can do a good deal of damage, but her primary asset is the fact that she can take a hell of a beating on her way in/out.

[Somerset]

Oh that reminds me of what I wanted to ask you. With all these uniform variants is there any heavy combat suits? Some sort of light armor? Don't know if that's very trek like though. It's probably just me playing Halo 3 way too much.

[Ahkileez]

I don't have any kind of 'solid' armor. Not yet anyway.

But I did make some flexible light-combat armor. It's just a more complete version of what you see in the LCU uniform variant there.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/1739/sfccombatug4.jpg

[Aresius]

Nice idea.

PRISM?
Something like a rocketeer or the ARC?

What's the difference between standart medical, the medical doctor and the lifesaver? I mean, they're all about medical, okay. And the lifesaver could be an emergency-medo, okay, but I always thought that medical doctors only differ from the rest of he crew by their medical tricorder..

[Ahkileez]

PRISM was a special forces unit in an old RPG org I was in. Not sure what you mean by a Rocketeer or an ARC though.

The standard teal-shoulder uniform and the medical doctor/lifesaver I figure would be a matter of 'conscientious objector' status. A bit like how, in civilized combat terms, you shouldn't attack ambulance trucks, medics, hospitals etc. due to convention. These non-combatant doctors and medic/lifesaver personnel would be unarmed. A doctor who chooses to fight would wear black (or science/counselor/whomever else would wear teal).

I don't think I ever saw McCoy do any shooting. Voyager's doctor probably wouldn't fight, I don't think Phlox did either. They'd be non-combatant medical docs in white on the battlefield. Doctor Crusher and Doctor Bashir both did a fair deal of fighting, so if they were on the field they'd be in black, and armed.

Make sense?

[Somerset]

That's pretty cool, dude. I like it.

[Ahkileez]

Thanks Al :)

[Aresius]

Aye, makes sense.

Nice, okay; Rocketeers: Rocket troopers.
ARC: Advanced Recon Commando. StarWars term, sry. They're something like a specialised task force.

And now you can kill me form using a StarWars term in StarTrek. :flippy:

[Ahkileez]

Hehe, I wouldn't do that. One place Star Wars excels over Star Trek is in providing gritty realism.

[CASUAL OBSERVER]

I really like the combat uniforms. Just a word of advice though, I'd enlarge the ceramic plates. The SAPI plates we use in the Army are about 11" x 14" (give or take a few inches depending on size) and cover all the major organs- heart, lungs, liver, stomach, etc.

Also, I am not sure how this would figure into your RPG, but I'd do away with departmental colors. They really don't serve a purpose in a ground combat setting. Plus the uniforms would likely get so duty/ dirty/ grimy/ etc that the colors would be hard to see anyways.

I do like the Doctor and Corpsman uniforms though.

[CX]

This is some pretty awesome artwork.

[Ahkileez]

Casual Observer - I understand what you're saying, and in the beginning I did have larger plates. But the suit started to look too 'stormtrooper' y'know, and that's not what I was shooting for. I was aiming for an easier-wearing soft armor, similar in concept and purpose to the light/soft armors some police agencies wear under their uniform. It won't stop the highest level stuff, but it will catch a bunch of lower-level stuff just fine. It's got several layers of that, and double-stuffed layers over many major areas. I put the small plate there because it seems in Trek that whenever someone does get hit, it's in center mass. I know that's due to lazy special effects people, but it can be rationalized that there's a degree of autotargeting to those weapons, so the plate protects the most critical area.

Perhaps in the future I'll attempt a more durable 'hard' armor'.

As for the department colors, I know they'd get pretty grimy, but they showed up okay on the AR558 guys uniforms, but more importantly, it's one of the signature elements of drawing a modern-era Trek uniform, so with it gone, it'd lose some of its Trekness. At least that's what I think. :)

CX - Thanks mate.

[CASUAL OBSERVER]

I guess that makes sense. There is that element of Trek-ness that you need I guess. I was just looking at it from an infantryman's perspective. :)

[Ahkileez]

I totally understand. :)

Normally I'm all for stripping away the unnecessary from Trek stuff I draw, but for things to look like they belong, certain design earmarks have to be there.

[Somerset]

You know what I was thinking while playing an insane amount of COD4 and Halo3? The weapons. Besides the hand phaser, the variations of the assault rifle, and the isomagnetic desingrator (which is just a shoulder mounted cannon) that's it. Any more variations? Shotguns, sniper rifles, maybe a gun with some sort of physical ammo to fight the Borg? A shotgun might be pushing it, but the rest...eh, not so much. I'd love to see your take on them. I like the carbine you came up with.

[Nutsy]

WOW Seriously nice stuff :D Also the tricorder... Looks better than the one in the film :D Its tweaked :D

[Dark Saber]

Very Very Nice Designs here. Keep Up The Great Work!!!

[Ahkileez]

Somerset - Hehe, all those things are possible. And maybe I'll give them some time in the future, but all I was trying to design was what I would expect to find aboard Ark Royal under ordinary conditions. The sniper rifles and such I wouldn't expect to be part of our normal complement unless we were carrying a marine contingent aboard - which at the moment we aren't. But who knows :)

Nutsy - Glad you like them. I screwed up the grips. They didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them to, but that's okay. I just need to finally do the flip-version, eh?

Dark Saber - Thanks Sean :) It's nice to be complimented by you. Your work is great, and you've certainly moved into the upper pantheon of art-creating fans by actually being published and canonized, hehe. I saw your Armstrong shuttle/runabout thing on your DA page. Do you intend to flesh that out in illustrated format?

[Dark Saber]

Dark Saber - Thanks Sean :) It's nice to be complimented by you. Your work is great, and you've certainly moved into the upper pantheon of art-creating fans by actually being published and canonized, hehe. I saw your Armstrong shuttle/runabout thing on your DA page. Do you intend to flesh that out in illustrated format?


Thanks I am glad you are a fan of my work. As for the Armstrong I may do something with it in the future.

[Aresius]

Well, a fan of StarTrek and its Mirror side must just love your drawings, Sean. ;)

[Ahkileez]

Hehe, well I *am* a fan of mirror trek since I think it's interesting to see the depiction of a society ruled by mankind's worst natures.

But my depiction of a more militarized Trek isn't a reflection of that. It's just stripping away the bull**** PR party line about Star Trek and showing a more realistic view of that world based on the elements we see.

[CASUAL OBSERVER]

You know what I was thinking while playing an insane amount of COD4 and Halo3? The weapons. Besides the hand phaser, the variations of the assault rifle, and the isomagnetic desingrator (which is just a shoulder mounted cannon) that's it. Any more variations? Shotguns, sniper rifles, maybe a gun with some sort of physical ammo to fight the Borg? A shotgun might be pushing it, but the rest...eh, not so much. I'd love to see your take on them. I like the carbine you came up with.

x2.

One thing I never liked about Trek was the lack of realistic weapons. The pistol size ones are pretty sweet (my favorite is actually the Bajoran pistol) but the long-arms are just horrible. The 'new' type III seen in First Contact is alright, but it has the rate of fire of a civil war musket.

I'd love to see a 'Trekkified' G36K. Same ergonomics of an AR-15/M-16, not quite as versatile but it's got that futuristic look to it.

But then again, like you said, SW has got the edge in gritty realism.

[peragrin]

Critism's first.

I suggest you switch your background color in the uniforms from white to some just off white/almond/pale yellow/whatever, so that the white uniforms stand out a bit.

Large Rank Insigna is a combat nono on Combat uniforms. it makes it easier to snipers to pick out the officers. Keep the colored strips though, cause they are awesome.

The rest is just plain cool.

As for the rest, those are the kind of uniforms i would expect away teams, and ground troops to wear in star trek. Good Job. General Duty Uniforms just don't cut it in rough environments. I like the upgraded tricorders, hand weapons, etc.

[Ahkileez]

Casual Observer - If it helps, I pictured the carbine as the 'spray' gun of the lot. Hence the muzzle grips and stuff to help steady it.

Peragrin - I couldn't really think of a better way to show the ranks at the time. Perhaps something will occur to me in the future. I know about snipers picking off officers, but when you get into the arena of weaponry that can vaporize a block of steel five feet thick, I think the combat dynamic is different than watching out for some tiny, fast-moving bullet, heh.

I'm glad you like the rest though. What you see there is actually the result of running out of ideas for the most part. While I was in the zone I would've done more.

[Major Diarrhia]

Wow, I really love this, you're really making something manual like in size and detail.:D I'm going to say some stuff you may not like now, so brace yourself, I only write it because of how much I like your work in general.

The Akira is older than the Defiant Class. In th episode "Relativity" from Voyager, we see an Akira in the ship yard that Voyager is being constructed. The Defiant was introduced the same time Voyager started and the shipyard scene in Voyager precedes Voyager's launch. The Defiant is described in such a way that it was the only ship to have been specifically built by Starfleet as a warship. That makes the Akira not a purpose built warship and older.

I like the uniforms. However, the Chaplans uniforms really don't fit given the context of Starfleet. Almost every single person in Starfleet seems to have no beliefs or if they do have spiritual beliefs, they seem rather non-religious in nature. In a situation like that, instead of a dedicated chaplain, you might have someone unofficially take up that position if it were needed have some sort of recognition if it were also needed.

Since you're going for a thought out military aspect, perhaps it would be better to use the modern method for using straps with a long arm. It's placed high, on the front, hanging straight down from the firing shoulder. That way it can be brought to position quickly. Since the Class-B-LC uniform seems to be your version of a standard security uniform, it's not the worst thing to have the extremely noticeable shoulder patch and section colors. Although having the mission patch is weird since ship haven't had their own patches since TOS.

The Class-C3 civilian uniform is nice but is really similar to the pilots uniform introduced in Voyager. That uniform was white shouldered and black everywhere else. I don't see a point in having a civilian's uniform.

When going into a hazardous environment, Starfleet crews just use their environmental suits, which are also their space suits. They seem light enough and flexible enough for it to be practical to use it in all hostile environments.

The medical uniform should stay blue green, it's just what they ware so I don't see a point in making them ware white.

I laughed seeing the dolphin in clothing, how does it get in and out of the clothing, especially when it appears to be skin tight and a dolphin wouldn't have any leverage in the water? Even with several dolphins working together it would be extremely difficult. That's just one reason why cetaceans as part of the crew is just weird, not to mention that we've only ever heard of a cetacean lab and not cetacean crew members. It says to me that they're either research subjects or the ones doing some sort of scientific work, or a combination of both to varying degrees but that they aren't actually part of the crew. Maybe more like civilian contractors.

The MK-XIII-M has a typo of "XIIi".

I don't really see the point to a special encrypted tricorder when you could just make the normal ones encrypted if it were wanted. I don't need a special computer for encrypted stuff, I can just download or use online encryption.

Ultritium grendades could be the size of breath mints and still be more powerful than modern grenades. They have tremendous energy density. I don't see photon grenades either, they were mentioned in DS9, so they still exist in some form. Also, a type of satchel explosive was used in VOY to blow up parts of a Borg ship. I think they were either timed or remotely detonated.

The knife is really a dagger and won't be useful for anything other than stabbing and some swinging. Not just because it's a dagger but because it's also made for looks with those wings coming off the sides. Modern combat knifes are made for utility such as for prying stuff open, cutting stuff apart, sawing stuff, clearing stuff, hitting stuff, scraping stuff, etc. That blade is really a show piece, not a tool. I'm not hot on the name either, that blade is nothing like the KA-BAR and the name KA-BAR comes from a story about how a guy "k a bar", or killed a bear with a KA-BAR.

I've never understood the reasoning behind side mounted readouts on guns. It always seemed really inefficient to have to flip your gun sideways and makes you a better target by making you more visible since those displays glow brightly and continuously.

The Type IIIC is just a space walk variant of of the phaser rifle, that's why it has two vertical grips and an open trigger, not to mention magnets so it can attach to hulls. A space suit is going to be stiffer than a normal uniform and reduce dexterity and bulk the user up, so all those features on the gun are specifically useful to using a space suit.

The Worfzooka is probably the Tetryon Pulse Launcher that was mentioned, making the phaser rifles the Isomagnetic Disintegrators or something else, as unusual as that might seem. It makes more sense because of the small explosions, smaller than phasers have made, that the Worfzooka made and how worf was firing it, he was firing into the middle of groups rather than at people. It's been mentioned at elast once or twice in episodes that tetryons can disable weapons. Oddly enough, the weapon does appear to have some sort of blow back but I doubt it's enough to actually harm anyone otherwise the weapon would probably have had that warning. You should make a Starfleet grenade launcher and a man portable anti-shuttle weapon.:)

I like the quantum torpedo, sort of. I don't know, I would have expected something different but in the way of it being more similar to the conventional torpedo casing. At the same time I like the details that have been used.

Sweet combat armor, I think it has a good look and thickness. I like the quilted pattern too, in general I like there being no man scale hard armor. It could use some work though.
- The visor could cover both eyes for stereoscopic visualization. This makes it useful as binoculars. It also makes it more useful in non-telescopic applications. Think full sensor overlays of the surroundings, even with EM, it could make everything look like it's in perpetual dusk and highlight targets of interest. It can also act as the primary display for all the electronics in and outside of the suit. That means no glowy things to give you away, that goes for the visor lenses which should fit securely to the face so it doesn't leak light and it won't produce light forward because it will be trying to absorb energy. So, there is no reason for it to glow.
- Instead of a couple dangly equipment points, full webbing would be cool because it would allow a lot more gear to be carried.
- High visibility anything is a no-no, it's the exact opposite of what a soldier should wear. All badges should be discrete and muted. Badges should be of colors that blend with the uniform. The enemy doesn't need to know what your rank is, you don't want them knowing anything about you.
- That armor plate really goes against the thinking of the uniform, it's placement and shape goes against it too. On the practical side, it's size is way too small, an actual plate would be about three times wider and twice as tall. Even in Star Trek, no one is a perfect shooter, no one is going to always hit the center of mass even though they should be trying for it. Also, it's black, which makes it blend with the uniforms, if you were going for some sort of trick like Batman, you would have to put all the garish badges and colors right in that spot to draw the eye, not that I'm suggesting you do that.
- I like the belt, although black background, with grey insignia would be safer. What's with that hanging cod piece? Also, everything metallic should have a mat finish. The could have a transporter inhibitor, transporter signal booster for beam out, combat knife, power cell for phaser, etc.
- That field pad aught to stay off unless its being touched. Maybe it shouldn't even produce it's own light but just work like paper and reflect whatever is shining on it and it's screen can reflect light selectively and in tones that blend with the environment. Actually, since you have that nice visor, you can project a virtual keypad while using the visor, that means no light needed at all. You keep the pad purely as a backup for if you lose the visor. You can go so far as to just declare the visor tough enough and do away with the pad completely. You just manipulate the visor through your thoughts, gestures, and actions, it could just figure out what you need most of the time just by what you're looking at and what you are doing. Even rank can be displayed electronically and soldiers can have IFF.
- For the knee pads, I once heard of a pad that is supported by the shin and hovers over the knee, thus taking all pressure off the knee. I see you did something like that with the elbow pads.
- The boots seem overcomplicated, especially for the women, which I'll get to. Straps are a good idea but in general Trek tries to downplay fasteners of all types. If they had a boot that looks seamless but is obviously secure at the same time, that would be awesome.
- I really don't like the women's uniform. I like its torso pads arrangement more than the mans, as well as the arrangement for the hips too more, except for the fact that it has a smaller plate. That and the boots give it a whole chain mail bikini vibe that isn't nice. Woman aren't less likely to be shot at, nor likely to be shot at with more care.
- I forgot the combadge, you could integrate that into the visor too and make it a grey badge just for show.
- Really, a color changing material would be a nice addition to the uniform. Black is really only good for SWAT and special forces.

- Trek really has no non-combat positions, even Bashir understood that, armed himself when the Klingons sieged DS9 and actually killed at least one Klingon. The enemies of the Federation have never shown concern for supposedly non-combat positions, even today no one seems to care much. That medic uniform should just be a normal combat uniform with a cross on it and some specialized equipment. How about gloves with all the features of the handheld devices we've seen used by doctors in Starfleet? Same with that combat-lifesaver, that just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe a combat surgeon uniform and medic uniform as separate things with the only difference being the type of specialized gloves and other equipment.

Well, that's it, thanks for posting.:thumb:

[Ahkileez]

Wow, I really love this, you're really making something manual like in size and detail.:D I'm going to say some stuff you may not like now, so brace yourself, I only write it because of how much I like your work in general.

I don't mind in the slightest. I love a good trek debate :)


The Akira is older than the Defiant Class. In th episode "Relativity" from Voyager, we see an Akira in the ship yard that Voyager is being constructed. The Defiant was introduced the same time Voyager started and the shipyard scene in Voyager precedes Voyager's launch. The Defiant is described in such a way that it was the only ship to have been specifically built by Starfleet as a warship. That makes the Akira not a purpose built warship and older.

Throwaway lines in Star Trek mean very little to me. Regardless of what they say on the screen, the ship is very obviously a warship. :) Rather than believe that its extreme tactical design was an accidental inclusion on a run of the mill ship or that its design appeared in a vacuum, I find it most logical to believe that it was part of the same borgbuster program that brought about this slew of more heavily armed ships and weapons like the QTs.


I like the uniforms. However, the Chaplans uniforms really don't fit given the context of Starfleet. Almost every single person in Starfleet seems to have no beliefs or if they do have spiritual beliefs, they seem rather non-religious in nature. In a situation like that, instead of a dedicated chaplain, you might have someone unofficially take up that position if it were needed have some sort of recognition if it were also needed.

Almost every single person is "Star Trek" seems to have no beliefs. This is of course by design of the show's makers who believe that in the future humanity will have left religion behind. I don't believe that's going to happen, so I reflected that in my work. I also showed Vulcan and Bajoran chaplains, who are very definitely shown to have an active religious tradition. Apparently in Trek it's only okay for aliens to be religious.


Since you're going for a thought out military aspect, perhaps it would be better to use the modern method for using straps with a long arm. It's placed high, on the front, hanging straight down from the firing shoulder. That way it can be brought to position quickly. Since the Class-B-LC uniform seems to be your version of a standard security uniform, it's not the worst thing to have the extremely noticeable shoulder patch and section colors. Although having the mission patch is weird since ship haven't had their own patches since TOS.

I think to be able to accept the stuff I've done, you'll have to accept that the way I view Trek isn't like it was presented on the screen. What I see on the screen I chalk up to nothing more than lazy writers and the need of a specific script. I try to strip that way, keeping what's worth keeping and then try to realistically extrapolate the world behind it. Symbology for ships and military units has been around for hundreds of years. I have no problem believing that tradition would continue, and if continued, that military personnel would continue to emblazon themselves with the coats of arms they belong to.

As for the strap thing. I just kinda tried to duplicate the way it looked on the real gun.


The Class-C3 civilian uniform is nice but is really similar to the pilots uniform introduced in Voyager. That uniform was white shouldered and black everywhere else. I don't see a point in having a civilian's uniform.

Not sure how the C3s look like the Voyager pilot thing, but okay, hehe. As for the point of having a civilian uni... it's just work togs of a different type. If there are civvies working aboardship in any capacity they can suit up. In a work environment or time of crisis it makes it easier to pick out the people you want.


When going into a hazardous environment, Starfleet crews just use their environmental suits, which are also their space suits. They seem light enough and flexible enough for it to be practical to use it in all hostile environments.

I just duplicated the silver away team suit shown in Voyager and spruced it up a bit with First Contact styling and a few more bells. Doesn't seem out of place to me. And I'm fairly certain I've not seen crews wear spacesuits on a planet before except for that voyager ep Demon. But I could be wrong.


The medical uniform should stay blue green, it's just what they ware so I don't see a point in making them ware white.

What can I say, I like seeing doctors in white. :)


I laughed seeing the dolphin in clothing, how does it get in and out of the clothing, especially when it appears to be skin tight and a dolphin wouldn't have any leverage in the water? Even with several dolphins working together it would be extremely difficult. That's just one reason why cetaceans as part of the crew is just weird, not to mention that we've only ever heard of a cetacean lab and not cetacean crew members. It says to me that they're either research subjects or the ones doing some sort of scientific work, or a combination of both to varying degrees but that they aren't actually part of the crew. Maybe more like civilian contractors.

I didn't think it necessary to figure out the mechanics of how they would get the suit on or off. It may be more simplistic than is apparent or they may merely ask for help. In any capacity such a creature may serve on a starship, they'd need help with things.


The MK-XIII-M has a typo of "XIIi".

Yeah, I noticed that way after the fact :(


I don't really see the point to a special encrypted tricorder when you could just make the normal ones encrypted if it were wanted. I don't need a special computer for encrypted stuff, I can just download or use online encryption.

I was inspired by the red padds Geordi sometimes had, and by a red tricorder that was shown once. The only reason I could think of for them to be red, and for someone very specific like the chief engineer to be the only one shown with them suggested to me that they had access to very sensitive information or secured that information in a way different from the ordinary devices.


Ultritium grendades could be the size of breath mints and still be more powerful than modern grenades. They have tremendous energy density. I don't see photon grenades either, they were mentioned in DS9, so they still exist in some form. Also, a type of satchel explosive was used in VOY to blow up parts of a Borg ship. I think they were either timed or remotely detonated.

I don't know what the explosive potential of ultritium is, but the idea of an antimatter grenade seemed patently insane to me. So since I wanted a grenade, a took a lesser explosive that was mentioned and used that. The styling and function of this grenade I borrowed from the grenade shown in Alien: Resurrection. The one where the 'pin' also served as a remote detonator. I reasoned that they could be used that way, or one could simply flip the cap, push the button without pulling the pin and it would function more like an ordinary grenade.


The knife is really a dagger and won't be useful for anything other than stabbing and some swinging. Not just because it's a dagger but because it's also made for looks with those wings coming off the sides. Modern combat knifes are made for utility such as for prying stuff open, cutting stuff apart, sawing stuff, clearing stuff, hitting stuff, scraping stuff, etc. That blade is really a show piece, not a tool. I'm not hot on the name either, that blade is nothing like the KA-BAR and the name KA-BAR comes from a story about how a guy "k a bar", or killed a bear with a KA-BAR.

I wanted a knife that looked advanced and functional at the same time. The only thing it lacks is serration for sawing, but that's all. The other parts of it would be functional. I also wanted a knife that would be useful in a fight. It's double-edged, with and the 'wings' would make it particularly injurious if caught in a slice. The stabbing potential is very obviously there. As for durability, I'd leave that to advanced 24th-century metallurgy to solve.


I've never understood the reasoning behind side mounted readouts on guns. It always seemed really inefficient to have to flip your gun sideways and makes you a better target by making you more visible since those displays glow brightly and continuously.

Presumably the gun makers would provide a way to turn said screen off. The gun would also have a screen on each side so that you don't have to flip it over to read it. Perhaps that data would be repeated in the scope of the weapon as well, but being able to externally tell the status of the gun has its advantages also. Plus it looks cool and I loved the counting down numbers in "Aliens" :)


The Type IIIC is just a space walk variant of of the phaser rifle, that's why it has two vertical grips and an open trigger, not to mention magnets so it can attach to hulls. A space suit is going to be stiffer than a normal uniform and reduce dexterity and bulk the user up, so all those features on the gun are specifically useful to using a space suit.

Perhaps you're right, and I believe that was the intent of that weapon in as far as it related to the script. But there's no harm in envisoning more applicability to the weapon than that. Any combat being done outside that requires a 'space gun' is likely to require an increase in firewpower, so why not combine that concept with the a '.50 caliber' version of the ordinary phaser rifle.


The Worfzooka is probably the Tetryon Pulse Launcher that was mentioned, making the phaser rifles the Isomagnetic Disintegrators or something else, as unusual as that might seem. It makes more sense because of the small explosions, smaller than phasers have made, that the Worfzooka made and how worf was firing it, he was firing into the middle of groups rather than at people. It's been mentioned at elast once or twice in episodes that tetryons can disable weapons. Oddly enough, the weapon does appear to have some sort of blow back but I doubt it's enough to actually harm anyone otherwise the weapon would probably have had that warning. You should make a Starfleet grenade launcher and a man portable anti-shuttle weapon.:)

I believe the worfzooka showed up in the Ency as the Isomagnetic Disintegrator. ::shrug:: Doesn't matter much to me. I just wanted a big blow-upper, heh. The footage shows blowback when he fired, so I wouldn't want to stand behind some super-energized purple **** coming out of the back of that weapon. Plus I think additional signage like that helps with the military feel. As for a grenade launcher or anti-shuttle weapon... I dunno. That zooka took awhile to draw, hehe.


I like the quantum torpedo, sort of. I don't know, I would have expected something different but in the way of it being more similar to the conventional torpedo casing. At the same time I like the details that have been used.

I saw a picture one time that showed quantum torpedoes with that general shape, but it was just plain black. I dunno if it was an official picture or not, but I couldn't find the pic when I was drawing this as reference. I went from memory and built from there.


Sweet combat armor, I think it has a good look and thickness. I like the quilted pattern too, in general I like there being no man scale hard armor. It could use some work though.

Give me your best shots :) The quilting was inspired by the Enterprise jackets. Thought they looked cool, but for some reason they stopped using them a few episodes in.


- The visor could cover both eyes for stereoscopic visualization. This makes it useful as binoculars. It also makes it more useful in non-telescopic applications. Think full sensor overlays of the surroundings, even with EM, it could make everything look like it's in perpetual dusk and highlight targets of interest. It can also act as the primary display for all the electronics in and outside of the suit. That means no glowy things to give you away, that goes for the visor lenses which should fit securely to the face so it doesn't leak light and it won't produce light forward because it will be trying to absorb energy. So, there is no reason for it to glow.

I have to admit here to simply making something that 'looked sci-fi'.


- Instead of a couple dangly equipment points, full webbing would be cool because it would allow a lot more gear to be carried.

Thought about it, but I don't really see ordinary Starfleet forces hauling around all that gear. I'd leave that to SF Marines or Federation Army or somebody.


- High visibility anything is a no-no, it's the exact opposite of what a soldier should wear. All badges should be discrete and muted. Badges should be of colors that blend with the uniform. The enemy doesn't need to know what your rank is, you don't want them knowing anything about you.

Troops do come back to camps , even in warzones, though. They are not always in a perpetual state of showing no rank. On the battlefield, just pop those suckers off and drop them in one of those pouches.


- That armor plate really goes against the thinking of the uniform, it's placement and shape goes against it too. On the practical side, it's size is way too small, an actual plate would be about three times wider and twice as tall. Even in Star Trek, no one is a perfect shooter, no one is going to always hit the center of mass even though they should be trying for it. Also, it's black, which makes it blend with the uniforms, if you were going for some sort of trick like Batman, you would have to put all the garish badges and colors right in that spot to draw the eye, not that I'm suggesting you do that.

Hehe, I wasn't going for the Batman thing.

I think I explained it farther back in the thread, but I've no problem going over it again. I wanted a soft armor. I started to design a hard armor but it started to look too stormtrooper. Perhaps I'll attempt that again in the future. I wanted to do a soft armor so I wouldn't have people crying stormtrooper at me. Something that I could concievably see the Trek people we see on screen slipping on as an additional measure of protection. Something similar in scope to the soft armor law enforcement people might wear. It won't stop everything, but it will catch a lot of the smaller stuff, and with reinforced layers over major areas, it helps even more.

The plate in the middle was a way to at least get some element of 'armor' into it. It's small, I know, but I didn't want it to be too obtrusive. I know it's the laziness of special effects people, but in Trek, it seemed more often than not, people got hit smack dab in the middle so it's possible to rationalize a degree of autotargeting, and under a worse case scenario, you have that additional level of protection.


- I like the belt, although black background, with grey insignia would be safer. What's with that hanging cod piece? Also, everything metallic should have a mat finish. The could have a transporter inhibitor, transporter signal booster for beam out, combat knife, power cell for phaser, etc.

There's nothing to say those things aren't elsewhere on that belt. But if I put everything that could concievably be on there on there, then I'd have to describe it all. A tricorder, a phaser, some pouches.... it's easy to imagine from that point. :)

As for the cod piece... I copied that from one of those 'future warrior' programs. I dunno why they had it either, but if there's a number two place I want a bullet to bounce off of instead of going through, it's south of the border. :D


- That field pad aught to stay off unless its being touched. Maybe it shouldn't even produce it's own light but just work like paper and reflect whatever is shining on it and it's screen can reflect light selectively and in tones that blend with the environment. Actually, since you have that nice visor, you can project a virtual keypad while using the visor, that means no light needed at all. You keep the pad purely as a backup for if you lose the visor. You can go so far as to just declare the visor tough enough and do away with the pad completely. You just manipulate the visor through your thoughts, gestures, and actions, it could just figure out what you need most of the time just by what you're looking at and what you are doing. Even rank can be displayed electronically and soldiers can have IFF.

Well, drawing the padd as being off would just leave a black splotch with no explanation, hehe. Better to draw it lit up. It's a datapad so it can concievably show any number of things and it can serve as the processing center for the data being streamed to the visor via 'bluetooth'. There's no end to the potential things you could do with the visor itself, but there would be no way to showcase that ability through the drawing, so it's easier to provide visually with more pieces of useful equipment.


- For the knee pads, I once heard of a pad that is supported by the shin and hovers over the knee, thus taking all pressure off the knee. I see you did something like that with the elbow pads.

I'm not so good with shoes and bits like that, hehe. Just wanted to give the impression that these people would be running and gunning like soldiers today.



- The boots seem overcomplicated, especially for the women, which I'll get to. Straps are a good idea but in general Trek tries to downplay fasteners of all types. If they had a boot that looks seamless but is obviously secure at the same time, that would be awesome.

I wanted something that looked '24th Century Badass', more than anything else. I'm no stranger to comicdom and sexy heroines wearing too-high boots with too many fasteners, but damn if they don't look cool, hehe. As for Trek downplaying straps, well... I've said above how little that matters to me. :)


- I really don't like the women's uniform. I like its torso pads arrangement more than the mans, as well as the arrangement for the hips too more, except for the fact that it has a smaller plate. That and the boots give it a whole chain mail bikini vibe that isn't nice. Woman aren't less likely to be shot at, nor likely to be shot at with more care.

The plate being small was decided by the form factor of the doubled up bits on the chest. There was simply no room to make it bigger. :) See above.


- I forgot the combadge, you could integrate that into the visor too and make it a grey badge just for show.\

That's certainly a good idea, but at the time I wanted to retain the impression of this as just a 'ruggedized' version of an ordinary duty uniform, down to the look and feel of it. As for integrating it into the visor... again, impossible to show that functioning.


- Really, a color changing material would be a nice addition to the uniform. Black is really only good for SWAT and special forces.

It may very well have color-changing properties. But see above for the desire to have it showcased as part of the family of contemporary post-FC uniforms.


- Trek really has no non-combat positions, even Bashir understood that, armed himself when the Klingons sieged DS9 and actually killed at least one Klingon. The enemies of the Federation have never shown concern for supposedly non-combat positions, even today no one seems to care much.

I wanted to showcase the idea of compassionate conscientious-objector type medical personnel like we've had in some wars in the past. Certainly Bashir became more than a little sociopathic during the D-War and Beverly has been shown fighting, but I don't recall if McCoy was ever shown killing anyone and I doubt Phlox would have gone into combat as a fighter either, or the Holodoc. I think it's reasonable to believe there would be some doctors who simply refuse to take a life, even on the battlefield. And surely not all enemies would be without conscience with medical personnel.


That medic uniform should just be a normal combat uniform with a cross on it and some specialized equipment. How about gloves with all the features of the handheld devices we've seen used by doctors in Starfleet?

Like "Earth2"? :) That glove was cool.


Same with that combat-lifesaver, that just doesn't make sense to me.

Being big and red and white was the same as having that red cross on their helmet or arm. Sure, sometimes the enemy didn't care, but a lot of the time they did. It also makes it easier to protect and support the medics as they pull our buddies off the battlefield to the field doctors to care for.


Well, that's it, thanks for posting.:thumb:

Always happy to be of service. I enjoyed your post. It was very insightful :)

[Major Diarrhia]

Throwaway lines in Star Trek mean very little to me. Regardless of what they say on the screen, the ship is very obviously a warship. Rather than believe that its extreme tactical design was an accidental inclusion on a run of the mill ship or that its design appeared in a vacuum, I find it most logical to believe that it was part of the same borgbuster program that brought about this slew of more heavily armed ships and weapons like the QTs.

Hardly a throw away line, it was a pointed and involved conversation specifically pointing out that a purpose built combat ship was something not just unusual but unique in Starfleet. The holes on the Akira may in fact be multiple torpedo bays but even so, with the converstaion in DS9 about the Defiant, it can only be assumed that the Akira class has all the luxeries of a normal Starfleet ship, plus various labs, and civilian accomidations, making it not unlike a scientific cruis ship that happens to be well armed, possibly better armed than its counterparts but not neceserly either. What it really indicates is that it would never be acknowledged to be a warship, Sisko said the Defiant is classified as an escort ship and continued to say that it was to just downplay the fact that it is a pure combat ship. If Starfleet had a battleship for destroying planets, they would probably call it a mobile defensive battery or planetary survey vessel.:D They wouldn't acknowledge its combat ability in any form if they could help it.


I was inspired by the red padds Geordi sometimes had, and by a red tricorder that was shown once. The only reason I could think of for them to be red, and for someone very specific like the chief engineer to be the only one shown with them suggested to me that they had access to very sensitive information or secured that information in a way different from the ordinary devices.
In that case, a special red or orange engineering tricorder would be great. Doctors get them, why not engineers? It could have a detachable, flexible, probe, wand for getting the sensor into tight spots.


I don't know what the explosive potential of ultritium is, but the idea of an antimatter grenade seemed patently insane to me. So since I wanted a grenade, a took a lesser explosive that was mentioned and used that. The styling and function of this grenade I borrowed from the grenade shown in Alien: Resurrection. The one where the 'pin' also served as a remote detonator. I reasoned that they could be used that way, or one could simply flip the cap, push the button without pulling the pin and it would function more like an ordinary grenade.

In TOS, the photon grenade was actually a mortar round but as a handheld weapon it would probably work because photon torpedoes are adjustable yield weapons. As for Ultritium, I think it's something like ten times more powerful than TNT, at the very least. It's porbably much higher than that since an earing size amount of it was going to cause an explosion deadly in a 20 m radius. Hand grenades, which are to some extent a hand size portion of explosive, are deadly 5 to 15 yards, although their fragments can kill at 50 yards.

I wanted a knife that looked advanced and functional at the same time. The only thing it lacks is serration for sawing, but that's all. The other parts of it would be functional. I also wanted a knife that would be useful in a fight. It's double-edged, with and the 'wings' would make it particularly injurious if caught in a slice. The stabbing potential is very obviously there. As for durability, I'd leave that to advanced 24th-century metallurgy to solve.
It really looks like a show knife, not advanced. Lacking serrations isn't a problem, most knives don't have them, although most newer combat knives seem to have them. Also, your knife is like a Bayonet.

The wings make it more dangerous to draw and harder to pull out of whatever you stick it in, which also makes it more dangerous. No real knife has wings like that for good reason.

If you want something futuristic, check this out.
Kampfmesser 2000 (http://www.bimbel.de/artikel/artikel-30.html)

Presumably the gun makers would provide a way to turn said screen off. The gun would also have a screen on each side so that you don't have to flip it over to read it. Perhaps that data would be repeated in the scope of the weapon as well, but being able to externally tell the status of the gun has its advantages also. Plus it looks cool and I loved the counting down numbers in "Aliens"
My point is that you can place the redout behind and below, or in, the scope. Doing that gives reasons for making more and newewer angles and descriptions of the weapons. In every book, it's always side views, one after the other. Show what it looks like to look through the scope or visor and all the information you get out of it. Same for the arm pad, show it on and off in a close up view of its own held up on an arm. I forgot to mention it but a visor that looks like Geordie's VISOR but that wraps all the way around the head would be awesome.


Perhaps you're right, and I believe that was the intent of that weapon in as far as it related to the script. But there's no harm in envisoning more applicability to the weapon than that. Any combat being done outside that requires a 'space gun' is likely to require an increase in firewpower, so why not combine that concept with the a '.50 caliber' version of the ordinary phaser rifle.
I don't think it would require any more firepower at all since it's an anti-personel weapons. If you want a man portable support weapon or crew surved support weapon it's the perfect chanec to make something reminisent but completely original.

They never actually linked the names to the weapons in the script, people just assume the Worfzooka is the isomagnetic disintegrator for some reason. I have no idea why though.

The quantum torpedo image you saw is probably from the DS9 tech manual.



Thought about it, but I don't really see ordinary Starfleet forces hauling around all that gear. I'd leave that to SF Marines or Federation Army or somebody.
Even a light but fully capable rigging makes sense. The little attachment points seem more of an afterthought. Instead of integrating a whole carry system it could just be webbing that goes over the uniform because you're right that an away team probably wouldn't cary much but they aught to carry more than they do.


Troops do come back to camps , even in warzones, though. They are not always in a perpetual state of showing no rank. On the battlefield, just pop those suckers off and drop them in one of those pouches.
I think they always ware their rank, even in combat and it's always the dull green kind. The only time they ware the flashy stuff is when they're not in a combat zone and being on base doesn't count if that base is near or in a combat zone.


Hehe, I wasn't going for the Batman thing.
I like the fabric armor a whole lot, it makes the single, small, armor plate come off even more of an after thought. It makes it more out of place. For a long time kevlar vests were just fabrics, it's only recently that you could add ceramic plates and you don't even see them since they slip inside a pocket in the vest.


There's nothing to say those things aren't elsewhere on that belt. But if I put everything that could concievably be on there on there, then I'd have to describe it all. A tricorder, a phaser, some pouches.... it's easy to imagine from that point.

Just more excuses for more angles, do a close up rear view of the belt.:)

You're right about the codpiece, the Interceptor has a large dangling piece of something for protecting the groin. Yours is going to need to dangle a lot more to offer protection.:D
Interceptor body armor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_body_armor)


That's certainly a good idea, but at the time I wanted to retain the impression of this as just a 'ruggedized' version of an ordinary duty uniform, down to the look and feel of it. As for integrating it into the visor... again, impossible to show that functioning.
To me, it comes off as the normal combat ware, not an inbetween armor. Having another layer of armor go over that wouldn't be the worst thing.


Like "Earth2"? That glove was cool.
I completely forgot about that but yes, like their gloves. It's not just a good idea but someone designed an actual one that can read pulse and other things and can direct you to perform perfect CPR.


Being big and red and white was the same as having that red cross on their helmet or arm. Sure, sometimes the enemy didn't care, but a lot of the time they did. It also makes it easier to protect and support the medics as they pull our buddies off the battlefield to the field doctors to care for.
Facing the Klingons, Jem'Hadar, or Cardassians that would get you killed fast. I don't know about the Romulans but they probably fit that too. The Remans too since they were into the whole genocide of Earth plot of Shinzon.

[Ahkileez]

Hardly a throw away line, it was a pointed and involved conversation specifically pointing out that a purpose built combat ship was something not just unusual but unique in Starfleet. The holes on the Akira may in fact be multiple torpedo bays but even so, with the converstaion in DS9 about the Defiant, it can only be assumed that the Akira class has all the luxeries of a normal Starfleet ship, plus various labs, and civilian accomidations, making it not unlike a scientific cruis ship that happens to be well armed, possibly better armed than its counterparts but not neceserly either. What it really indicates is that it would never be acknowledged to be a warship, Sisko said the Defiant is classified as an escort ship and continued to say that it was to just downplay the fact that it is a pure combat ship. If Starfleet had a battleship for destroying planets, they would probably call it a mobile defensive battery or planetary survey vessel.:D They wouldn't acknowledge its combat ability in any form if they could help it.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree here, hehe. The PR falsehood of not acknowledging they are warships not withstanding. And it was clear from that exchange in DS9 that those words were dripping with sarcasm. Even the enemy referred to the Galaxy Class as a battleship. No matter what you call your own ships, your enemy will certainly classify the threat it represents.


In that case, a special red or orange engineering tricorder would be great. Doctors get them, why not engineers? It could have a detachable, flexible, probe, wand for getting the sensor into tight spots.

Perhaps so. I didn't bother to draw any kind of a sensor wand for the engineering one.


In TOS, the photon grenade was actually a mortar round but as a handheld weapon it would probably work because photon torpedoes are adjustable yield weapons. As for Ultritium, I think it's something like ten times more powerful than TNT, at the very least. It's porbably much higher than that since an earing size amount of it was going to cause an explosion deadly in a 20 m radius. Hand grenades, which are to some extent a hand size portion of explosive, are deadly 5 to 15 yards, although their fragments can kill at 50 yards.

Well there are ways to make explosives more or less lethal or craft them in ways to cause specific effects. We'd have to assume these grenades would have some intelligent design behind them. :)

The stun grenades, for instance, I thought would have a weighted bottom to make them stand upright after you throw them, maximizing dispersal.


It really looks like a show knife, not advanced. Lacking serrations isn't a problem, most knives don't have them, although most newer combat knives seem to have them. Also, your knife is like a Bayonet.

The wings make it more dangerous to draw and harder to pull out of whatever you stick it in, which also makes it more dangerous. No real knife has wings like that for good reason.

If you want something futuristic, check this out.
Kampfmesser 2000 (http://www.bimbel.de/artikel/artikel-30.html)

Well I like it. It looks like a scifi knife to me. :)


My point is that you can place the redout behind and below, or in, the scope. Doing that gives reasons for making more and newewer angles and descriptions of the weapons. In every book, it's always side views, one after the other. Show what it looks like to look through the scope or visor and all the information you get out of it. Same for the arm pad, show it on and off in a close up view of its own held up on an arm. I forgot to mention it but a visor that looks like Geordie's VISOR but that wraps all the way around the head would be awesome.

Maybe. I honestly don't see myself building out all those little details at this point though. Not unless our org opened up a more dedicated ground combat game where this kind of detail would be useful.


I don't think it would require any more firepower at all since it's an anti-personel weapons. If you want a man portable support weapon or crew surved support weapon it's the perfect chanec to make something reminisent but completely original.

They never actually linked the names to the weapons in the script, people just assume the Worfzooka is the isomagnetic disintegrator for some reason. I have no idea why though.

Those things seem out of the scope of arsenal I'd expect shipboard tactical personnel to have need for, but if inspiration hits, I'll see what I can do. :)


The quantum torpedo image you saw is probably from the DS9 tech manual.

Probably. I don't own any of the TMs.


Even a light but fully capable rigging makes sense. The little attachment points seem more of an afterthought. Instead of integrating a whole carry system it could just be webbing that goes over the uniform because you're right that an away team probably wouldn't cary much but they aught to carry more than they do.

I had a thought. The rigging may be integrated into the suit itself. Support straps sewn into the uniform with those attachment points serving as an exterior anchor. There may already be webbing moving about at the key points, lending support at the shoulder, so if you need to carry something more, you just attack an external webbing kit, buckle it up and hook up what you need.

Make any sense?


I think they always ware their rank, even in combat and it's always the dull green kind. The only time they ware the flashy stuff is when they're not in a combat zone and being on base doesn't count if that base is near or in a combat zone.

Who knows. I probably could have done better with the ranking scheme I did something similar to the contemporary field uniforms when I did the desert operations uniforms for my old RPG.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/470/doutu6.png


I like the fabric armor a whole lot, it makes the single, small, armor plate come off even more of an after thought. It makes it more out of place. For a long time kevlar vests were just fabrics, it's only recently that you could add ceramic plates and you don't even see them since they slip inside a pocket in the vest.

I'm getting the impression you really hate those plates :)


Just more excuses for more angles, do a close up rear view of the belt.:)

You're right about the codpiece, the Interceptor has a large dangling piece of something for protecting the groin. Yours is going to need to dangle a lot more to offer protection.:D
Interceptor body armor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_body_armor)

Well, it's dangling pretty low now. It's just that the design for the drawings doesn't sharply dileniate the crotch so it makes it look like the crotch hangs much lower than it would. The plate would be pretty much over the groin area.


To me, it comes off as the normal combat ware, not an inbetween armor. Having another layer of armor go over that wouldn't be the worst thing.

Perhaps not. I just expect this to suit a combat situation and give you better odds of coming out alive unless you're hit by a BFG :)


I completely forgot about that but yes, like their gloves. It's not just a good idea but someone designed an actual one that can read pulse and other things and can direct you to perform perfect CPR.

Perhaps I'll work on something like that in the future. But Trek really likes hands-off tech.


Facing the Klingons, Jem'Hadar, or Cardassians that would get you killed fast. I don't know about the Romulans but they probably fit that too. The Remans too since they were into the whole genocide of Earth plot of Shinzon.

The writers of Star Trek have a nasty habit of always portraying the enemies as inhuman animals with no combat ethics - the better to paint Starfleet as saints, no doubt. But I have to believe some enemies would have some honor.

Fun discussion as always :)

[Major Diarrhia]

I had a thought. The rigging may be integrated into the suit itself. Support straps sewn into the uniform with those attachment points serving as an exterior anchor. There may already be webbing moving about at the key points, lending support at the shoulder, so if you need to carry something more, you just attack an external webbing kit, buckle it up and hook up what you need.

Make any sense?
I just realized completely separate webbing makes sense because everything on a uniform wears out. If the webbing can just be replaced by putting on a new vest, that would be very helpful. On the other hand, they can just replicate new uniforms as they are needed. On the other hand, in a nasty combat situation they might not have access to replicators.


Who knows. I probably could have done better with the ranking scheme I did something similar to the contemporary field uniforms when I did the desert operations uniforms for my old RPG.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/470/doutu6.png
Neat uniform.


I'm getting the impression you really hate those plates :)
Really, either the uniform should be covered in them to a useful degree or not have them at all. I know you're just going for certain looks though.



Well, it's dangling pretty low now. It's just that the design for the drawings doesn't sharply dileniate the crotch so it makes it look like the crotch hangs much lower than it would. The plate would be pretty much over the groin area.
To the same degree as the interceptor armor?


Perhaps I'll work on something like that in the future. But Trek really likes hands-off tech. It always struck me as excessively hands on in that people go in and do everything in person. Unless you mean it another way.


The writers of Star Trek have a nasty habit of always portraying the enemies as inhuman animals with no combat ethics - the better to paint Starfleet as saints, no doubt. But I have to believe some enemies would have some honor.

Fun discussion as always :)
It's part of the character of the Star Trek universe that most things outside the Federation are horribly nasty. It's not to highlight the Utopian nature of Earth and the Federation but to make it interesting. If you tried to write a story in a Utopia, nothing would happen because everything is perfect, so the Federation is placed in a horribly nasty universe that constantly draws them into conflicts. Anyone who isn't nasty ends up joining the Federation or being an ally of some sort, so those groups don't fight the Federation. The only alternative to have the Utopia fall apart or degrade in some way to provide a story, which has happened a few times but to maintain its basic story element the image can't be broken, only poked at and fixed.

Yeah, same here.

[Ahkileez]

Thought I'd update this thread with some actual work :)

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2880/combadgeseu3.png

[Somerset]

Oh man, those are great! I love the Starfighter Command one. The civvy one is cool, although I'm not a fan of the back which looks like a speaker. Let me rephrase, I do actually like it a lot, but my the little Spock in me keeps telling me it doesn't look trekkie enough. What if it was just all gold? The diplomatic one looks exactly what I would think an Ambassador would wear. Great job. Love the detailed diagram!

[Ahkileez]

Somerset - Hey Al, glad you like em. :) The Civvy one was inspired by the Seimens combadge prototype. I wanted something that looked drastically different from the military combadges so if you saw them on the street together, you wouldn't necessarily assume the person wearing the civvy one was military and snipe him. Hehe. I also wanted it to look more utilitarian and mass-produced and less like the sculpted pieces the fleeties use. Models of this type might not only be used on ships, but on colony worlds, by civil service personnel, etc.

I like the ambassador's a lot as well. I also made sure to label it as more than just a combadge. The idea of it being a "Diplomatic Shield" would be along the same lines as those little pins US Congressmen/women wear that signifies their governmental status - or in this case, diplomatic status.

[CASUAL OBSERVER]

I really like the new badges.

Keep the updates coming! :thumb:

[Aresius]

I like the idea of the warrior uniform supporting the rank bigger and central.

I just think that in a serious combat situation, you don't have the time to have close looks at ones rank. This way it's easy to see..

Nice badges.

[CASUAL OBSERVER]

I like the idea of the warrior uniform supporting the rank bigger and central.

I just think that in a serious combat situation, you don't have the time to have close looks at ones rank. This way it's easy to see..

Nice badges.

To be perfectly honest, you really don't.

Just like any other group of guys who spend every day together, you learn names and faces pretty quick. In combat, that's what you go off of- who's telling you to do something.

Also something to think about; under fire everyone more or less becomes equal. You all know what has to be done and how it needs to be done. You all become eyes and ears for the organism that is your unit (usually at the squad/ platoon level). With enough training and experience, you'll be amazed at how predictable you can become to your comrades.

[Ahkileez]

I guess the point I was getting at earlier is that if you're anywhere near an active warzone, don't necessarily have to be down in the mud, you're going to be wearing battle dress. I mean most of the clerks and communications people and so forth are not actively engaged in infantry-level fighting, but they're wearing the same uniforms. So the rank structure is still maintained, even though it evaporates a bit in the heat of battle.

[Somerset]

Here's a question. Will there be a Marine variant? The battle at AR 558 (was that it? AR something), weren't those guys marines? I know one of the movies had a General in it, which I'm guessing was seperate from the Starfleet Admiral...I was just thinking that if there are Marines (not MACOS. I hate MACOS...which are just Marines with a different name, which is why I think they should just call them marines.)

Oh and what about enlisted personnel? Do they have a different uniform? I know Chief O'Brien didn't, but what is your view on that Kurt?

[Ahkileez]

Marine variant of what? Combadges or uniforms? And one of the Star Trek movies had a Colonel in it. I don't remember a General. But it does lend credence to the idea of different services - which I fully embrace.

Right now I've been drawing stuff I expect to see used aboard Ark Royal, and at the moment, we're not carrying any Marines. We do have a Federation Army peacekeeper battallion as part of our unit, on another ship. But currently no Marines.

As for enlisted uniforms, I'm not sure if you're referring to standard uniforms or the combat ones. For regular uniforms, I differentiated them in Dress and Working uniforms, but not in the 'Class-B' unis they walk around with when doing more neat and clean duty because, as you said, O'Brien and other enlisted personnel were shown as wearing the same uniforms under those circumstances.

As for AR-558. It's been supposed that those guys were SF Marines, or specialised SF Tactical ground forces of some kind (which would make them de facto Marines anyway). But just wearing a black sweat shirt with a bar across the chest wasn't exactly sufficient distinction for me.

[Ahkileez]

Some people asked for something like this, so...

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9513/combadgessfmcse8.png

[Aresius]

@CASUAL: Well, you're right, but you can't always sty with your squad or platoon. What if you're ordered to join another task force for special duty or whatsoever?
No familiar faces to recognise. ;)
That's where I was pointing at. I'm very aware of the fact that you are familiar with the faces and the belonging ranks within almost a week.
But as said, you're not always with your known grouping.

[Ahkileez]

Quick and Dirty, hehe :)

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3743/sfmcqdtm7.png

[Somerset]

The colonel! That was it. I meant a marine variant of the uniform. It seems that enlisted always wear a BDU (I know they have a standard dress uniform, but I always see them locally in BDU's), while officers where a standard dress uniform. Just wondering if you were going to do anything with that, but like you said, I keep forgetting you're just doing Ark Royal stuff. I'd like to see an Army variant, since you have them.

That uniform we saw in Siege of AR-558 was supposed to be a combat uniform, which I liked but I definatly like your version better.

The Marine combadges are great. Not only does it look like a great combadge, but I like how you updated the traditional anchor design.

[Ahkileez]

I'll see what I can do about the army stuff, hehe.

Glad you like the Marine combadge too. It feels nice and solid to me.

[Somerset]

Hey. I was looking at the fighters you made for the Ark Royal and had a question. Any chance you're going to make a bomber too?

[Ahkileez]

Guess you forgot the Shintos, huh Al?

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2600/shinto2claymorekb0.jpg

[Aresius]

1-4 are bomb bays then?

And what's the green disc?

[Ahkileez]

Yeah. It can carry different kinds of munitions handled by the machinery inside, as well as lay small mines suitable for smaller enemy ships (Not big capital ones).

The green disk is a sensor dome whatsit.

[Somerset]

Yes, I did. Well that answers my question. Thanks! Anything else you're working on?

[Ahkileez]

Working on a tangential thing mentioned earlier, yeah.

[Ahkileez]

I haven't worked too much on this project lately. Basically what happened is I started to work on a side view for Britannic and it sucked and I got discouraged. Then I got sidetracked by an ancillary project to this one.

This little transporter beacon (approximately actual size) I drew because of the needs of a mission we were doing. Basically you slap it on to what you want to get a good solid transport lock on, activate it and it'll extend its arms to affix itself properly and then you've got a nice solid signal to beam whatever it is out.

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/927/transportbeaconkh6.jpg

The task force Ark Royal is leading into the area of space we're in, includes a Federation Army peacekeeper unit. Not SF Marines, but Federation Army - an entirely different service.

I meant to get much further along with this project before showing anything from it, but I figure I owe you guys something for being so kind.

The images are pretty self-explanatory. For the uniforms, I wanted something that felt like it belonged to the same 'family' as the current Starfleet uniforms, produced by the same culture, but with a distinct look of its own since it's an entirely different service.

Hope you like.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1821/arkarmycorps1cv1.jpg

----

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9884/arkarmyunis1mh0.jpg

[trooper_211]

I really like the Federation Army idea. I had a similar idea for that myself.

What do you envision the Armoured Corps using? I was thinking of designing some sort of Federation Tank or Armoured Vehicle. Are you planning anything like that?

Fantastic work!! :thumb::D

[Ahkileez]

At the moment, no. :) I'd probably piss off a lot of fans because all my stuff wouldn't be hovering. :)

[trooper_211]

Why does it matter what the "fans" think? I think the idea of wheeled or tracked vehicles in trek is a good idea. There are many planetary environments that effect the mechanics of repulsor lift technology.

And who says Tanks can't hover? :D If they can make a 700 000 ton starship hover in a planetary atmosphere than a 40-70 tank should be no problem!! Star Wars has both hover tanks (Trade Federation AAT) and tracked tanks (Rebel T-4B Tank), so why can't Trek?

Still, great work. :)

[Major Diarrhia]

I don't think we've ever seen anti-gravity fail in Star Trek, it's weird for them to have wheeled vehicles also because the only civilian vehicles we've ever seen can fly.

I really like that some of this stuff is actual size, I don't know why I didn't realize the badges are actual size, it's just not something I often see. They look great, I especially like the idea of the diplomatic badge, the civilian badge is a good idea as well, they also look good.

I don't care for the transporter beacon, though. Com badges already cover that function and the mechanical binding mechanism doesn't make sense to me. It would look cool in action though. In fact, in the combadge diagram, you have the emergency locator beacon small enough that four can fit on a pinky nail. They should probably come on a strip that you press against a surface, then they stick.

I like the Class A Mess Dress, the one on the left looks like a three piece suit.:D

[trooper_211]

In the TNG episode "Hollow Pursuits", the anit-grav unit in the cargo bay is malfunctioning due to the presence of a sort of chemical/radiation that effects many of the ships systems. This is just a small piece of evidence but it does show that anti-grav units can be effected by chemical/radiation.

I personally feel that wheeled/tracked tactical vehicles would still have a practical use in the 24th cenutry, but that's my opinion and I respect yours. :)

Thanks.

[Aresius]

Well, the Argo -though not very liked- is just another proof for that.

[trooper_211]

Yes it is. I wouldn't imagine a vehicle like that would be designed without a purpose, Starfleet doesn't seem to waste it's time and resources.

[Aresius]

yeah. I think that wheeled, light units are used for scouting and artillery support and other wheeled and tracked units are used as support for main battle lines.

btw, if there any images between the beacon and the Armys org-chart, I can't see them...

[trooper_211]

If there are any images there, I can't see them either but I don't think there are. :)

I don't think that repulsorlift vehicles would make very stable gun platforms either. No matter how advanced technology becomes, sometimes its necessary to go back to basics.

Look at the TR-116 rifle seen in DS9, a 24th century take on an assault rifle with the same basic principles of an AK-47 or M-16, just adapted with modern technology to fit the need. I think this shows that it is possible that the same ideas could be applied to armoured vehicles.

Thanks. :)

[Ahkileez]

Well, if I were to design any ground vehicles, most of them would be a hybrid wheeled/hover platform. Both to be able to handle any situations where hover isn't ideal, and also for a more stable surface to use. Plus I just think it grounds things in reality more. Too much of Trek is 'magical'. We just take things for granted as fans. I like some dirt in the corners and some chips in the paint of my Trek :)

Aresius - There's only three images in this latest post. The beacon, the corps badges and the uniforms.

Major Diarrhea - The locater beacon things were designed for more than merely showing where something was. They served as a high-power signal for locating the target, an enhancer for attenuating the signal on the object to provide a more successful transport, and a submolecular pre-scan of the object. Essentially instead of the ship's transporters having to find, focus on, read, convert and transmit information on the target on the fly, it's getting that done for it. Like providing gas for your car instead of waiting for crude oil to go through twenty levels of refinement before you use it.

Basically I designed them for a situation Ark Royal was in. We're in orbit of a planet that had an ion storm blow through recently, so everything's haywire. Sensors are occluded, inorganic transportation is problematic and organic transportation is too dangerous from orbit to the surface. Our away teams on the ground needed to recover some weapons that were stolen from us, but we couldn't just pluck them out from orbit (cuz that would be too easy, heh). Hence a ground insertion team made it to where the weapons were being kept and 'marked' each torp with a beacon, which allowed us to get them out through the interference.

Makes sense?

[carlg]

Really amazing stuff in this thread. I only have really one gripe, and it's not your work in particular.

I just generally notice that with a lot of Trek stuff, when people extrapolate ideas like a "Federation Army", it ends up being like the US or British army with Trek bagdes attached. That always bugged me since the Federation is supposed to be made up of hundreds of different peoples, and none of them ever seem to contribute anything to the way Starfleet is set up. Did us humans luck out and invent the perfect way to set up a military force?

Anyways, I'm sorry for hijacking your thread with that little rant there. I do actually like you work, and I'll finish by saying I love the dress uniforms on page 8.:thumb:

[Ahkileez]

Not a hijack at all mate. I love discussing stuff like this.

I essentially stole the British Army's corps setup as the tempate for the Fed Army and I freely admit it. I understand what you're saying about having more alien influence in things, but that's a hard thing to relate you know? Not being aliens, it's hard to put ourselves in that mindset and imagine what they would produce.

That's my reason anyway. I wish I did have better ideas of how to make it more alien.

[Major Diarrhia]

In the TNG episode "Hollow Pursuits", the anit-grav unit in the cargo bay is malfunctioning due to the presence of a sort of chemical/radiation that effects many of the ships systems. This is just a small piece of evidence but it does show that anti-grav units can be effected by chemical/radiation.

I personally feel that wheeled/tracked tactical vehicles would still have a practical use in the 24th cenutry, but that's my opinion and I respect yours. :)
That was invidium contamination. It didn't just effect the grav-sled, it effected plasma injectors, glass' atomic structure, and transporters. In general, it was effecting power systems, that means even a wheeled vehicle would be in trouble. It was also able to cling to people and contaminate anything the person came in contact with. Anyone who uses that stuff on a battlefield would be nuts for the same reason as using poison gas, biological warfare, or fire on a day with strong and unpredictable winds.

There's an easy way to protect against it though, sensors can be set or made to detect the stuff and then to render it inert all you have to do is lower its temperature to -200 C. At worst, it would be a minor impediment. Good for ambushes but that's about it.

The Argo is still a huge mystery to me. If the idea was a vehicle for use in environments where advanced tech might not work, how do you deliver the car when it's delivered by a fully advanced shuttle that uses anti-gravity?

The only time I recall anti-gravity not working was in DS9 where it was mentioned an anti-gravity chair, like a wheel chair, wouldn't work on DS9 because of some strange incompatibility between Cardassian and Federation anti-gravity systems.

If there are any images there, I can't see them either but I don't think there are. :)

I don't think that repulsorlift vehicles would make very stable gun platforms either. No matter how advanced technology becomes, sometimes its necessary to go back to basics.
Trek's anti-gravity is extremely stable. Most notably is in one of the TOS movies, where a guy is standing on a grav-disk to work on a ceiling, it doesn't move in the slightest. Then there is the Argo jumping into its shuttle, the shuttle barely moves when the Argo hits the deck.


Look at the TR-116 rifle seen in DS9, a 24th century take on an assault rifle with the same basic principles of an AK-47 or M-16, just adapted with modern technology to fit the need. I think this shows that it is possible that the same ideas could be applied to armoured vehicles.

The TR was a response to environments where phasers couldn't work but was dropped when phasers were made to work in those environments. So, they are definitely willing to take a step back if that's what works. But it also shows us they won't completely replace more advanced systems on the off chance that more advanced ones won't work. I imagine that if environments where normal shuttles can't work were somewhat common, the Federation would have something that uses older tech but there would be equivalent advanced tech vehicles. Think of how many shuttles Voyager went through, the Federation can build all the shuttle size vehicles it wants, where ever it wants.:D



Major Diarrhea - The locater beacon things were designed for more than merely showing where something was. They served as a high-power signal for locating the target, an enhancer for attenuating the signal on the object to provide a more successful transport, and a submolecular pre-scan of the object. Essentially instead of the ship's transporters having to find, focus on, read, convert and transmit information on the target on the fly, it's getting that done for it. Like providing gas for your car instead of waiting for crude oil to go through twenty levels of refinement before you use it.

Basically I designed them for a situation Ark Royal was in. We're in orbit of a planet that had an ion storm blow through recently, so everything's haywire. Sensors are occluded, inorganic transportation is problematic and organic transportation is too dangerous from orbit to the surface. Our away teams on the ground needed to recover some weapons that were stolen from us, but we couldn't just pluck them out from orbit (cuz that would be too easy, heh). Hence a ground insertion team made it to where the weapons were being kept and 'marked' each torp with a beacon, which allowed us to get them out through the interference.

Makes sense?
Oh, one of these (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Transport_enhancer). They were made half as large in Voyager as they were in TNG. A palm size device as the next evolution doesn't strike me as far off, well as long as it's a hefty palm size device but I would expect it to be used in groups of three where you still have to place them in a triangle.



That's my reason anyway. I wish I did have better ideas of how to make it more alien.
Don't worry about that, Starfleet was an Earth organization that just happened to let aliens in up until TNG. Frankly, the simplicity of marks and uniform does separate it from modern militaries. Remember Picard saying Q's WWII uniform was a ridiculous costume?:lol:But you mean in oranization, keep in mind, since it still is vastly human in composition, it makes sense for human practices to be the norm.:) Is it a direct British rip off?

[carlg]

Yeah, but that's what I mean. Why should it be mostly human in composition? If there's a few hundred planets in the Federation, we should be vastly outnumbered.
Then again, it was sort of our idea, so I suppose it makes sense for Starfleet to be patterned after our sensibilities. *shrug*
And I wouldn't know how to make it more alien, either. Unless, of course you added the Tellarite harpsichord into the Ark Royal's regimental band.:D

[Somerset]

Well, I think aliens have a tendency to stay out of the Federation way of thinking, because it was a human concept. The Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites were all at each other's throats, then we young whippersnappers come in, smack them on their hands and tell them to shape up and then go ahead and tell them how to. So they basically sat back and say "Alright, we'll listen to you." Every other race that joined up later followed that example, probably because if it works why try and fix it, ya know?

I do agree though, I'd love to see a little more alienation of the Federation. Although, for all we know, we have and we just don't know it. Maybe Andorians are the ones who used veritcal warp cores instead of horizontal? Maybe linear phaser banks were a Trill invention? Things like that.

[Ahkileez]

Yeah, but that's what I mean. Why should it be mostly human in composition? If there's a few hundred planets in the Federation, we should be vastly outnumbered.
Then again, it was sort of our idea, so I suppose it makes sense for Starfleet to be patterned after our sensibilities. *shrug*
And I wouldn't know how to make it more alien, either. Unless, of course you added the Tellarite harpsichord into the Ark Royal's regimental band.:D

Therein lies the problem, Carl. I don't ascribe to what the Major does above. I liked Enterprise. I think they made mistakes but for the most part it was a good show. But making Starfleet an Earth organization forever relegated to Trek to a human show with token aliens. In my mind, I try not to think of it that way and I would fully expect to see tons more alien influence.

Unfortunately, since we're humans, we likely wouldn't recognize something alien for what it was, and as a human, it's damn near impossible for me to alter my thinking to produce something that way. Ultimately anything we create will have its roots in things right here on Earth, be it material or cultural.

But I wouldn't take my mental limitations as a earth-bound designer as support for the idea that everything in the Trek world is and should and would be designed for the sensibilities of humans.

[Major Diarrhia]

Even in the TOS movies Starfleet was an Earth organization. In ST VI, the Commander 'n Chief is a Starfleet Admiral, not the president of the Federation. Only in TNG is the Federation President also the Command in Chief of Starfleet. There's also the weird mentioning by Kirk about his ship being part of the Earth Space Probe command, or some such. And back in the movies, a huge deal is made over a crew being comprised mostly of aliens for the first time. Even after that, we rarely see aliens, except perhaps specific species.

We would recognize an alien concept really easily because we wouldn't understand it. :D There's just no way we could possibly come up concepts so removed from our own thinking that people within our own civilization won't be able to recognize them. For instance, things move in evolutionary steps, Native Americans had boats (canoes, rafts, dugouts) but when European ships arrived, the natives could not understand what they were seeing to the point that many couldn't see what their eyes were picking up. One story has it that a medicine man stared at a few ships several days straight until he finally had the realization that they were some sort of huge canoe. The more sophisticated people saw them immediately but thought the ships were huge birds at first.

This doesn't mean the locals were incapable of thinking up boats but simply incapable of doing so at the point they were at in water craft design, or without a lot of absorption and patience. I know I've seen images that don't make any sense for several second, accidentally, due to lighting or angles.

[Ahkileez]

Ultimately I chalk it up to Trek's writers being very lazy over the years. It was simplest and easiest to fill everything up with humans. They never really portrayed the trek world the way that they would talk about it in magazine interviews.

[Aresius]

Yes. Look at TOs. So many races that looked like human.. Even the Klingons.
I mean, the KLINGONS?!
Hello??

Seriously, you cannot have masks for everybody. Okay, they could have borrowed some masks from Star Wars sets and altered them, yeah. But that wouldn't have fit so nicely...

And besides, you can't know, how many of the crew that look like human are actually Betazoid, Risan or Deltan....

[Ahkileez]

Look at other scifi shows out there. Star Wars isn't a good example since they've only been movies, but other shows like Babylon 5, Farscape and Doctor Who did a fantastic job of showing a rich and diverse galactic environment and those shows had way smaller budgets than Star Trek.

It was just laziness. Everything in the Trek world is human, and American to boot.

[Aresius]

Got a point there...

[Major Diarrhia]

Well, Farscape but not really B5 and Doctor Who sort of. Farsacpe went wild with well wild looking aliens but at the same time they had a load of perfectly human looking aliens with only the Sabacians supposed to be human descended. I dare say Farscape had more humans with funny hair or a bump somewhere as aliens than TOS or TNG, what sets Farscape apart are the settings.

B5 had cool aliens but they were limited in number which allows more thought to go into each one. Even with that, the Centuri just had funny hair, the Narn are cool but they're just some good paint and great chins.:D The Drazi are like Klingons that had their head ridges fall all over their face.

Doctor Who really does try but those masks are horrible, the Jim Henson guys are the only ones I've seen who know what they're doing with masks. B5 is sort of in between Star Trek and Doctor Who in makeup and costumes because B5 has quality and imagination. So you have things like the encounter suits compared to Daleks but. I like B5's various encounter suits far more and the Shadows are cooler than anything I've seen in Star Trek or Doctor Who. If the Shadows had been the design for Species 8472, that would have been great.

Er, I missread something, I thought you two were talking about physical differences for some reason. For cultural diversity in Trek it's sort of random. Those dinosaurs in Voyager, the people on the generation ship in Voyager, those guys who were dying of the Phage in Voy, Borg, Vulcans, Q, Dominion, "The Gamesters of Triskelion". I think Voyager may have actually done well in introducing alien cultures now that I think about it. The problem is that a lot of races are there for just one defining quality to center a story around, rather than weaving a whole backstory. Sometimes an interesting back story gets in.

[Ahkileez]

While it takes an enormous amount of time to really illustrate a different culture, Farscape was by far the best at it I think - followed by B5. While Farscape did have some forehead aliens, even then they were given distinct personalities that had range and depth rather than having every member of a species portray exactly the same dimension.

As you point out, aliens in Star Trek usually exist solely for the sake of moving the plot as laid out along. Frankly that's boring to me.

[Robert Harrison]

I love the uniforms, the aquatic one are good, nice to see someone else thinks that aquatics from earth should be in the Federation was well...

[Tovette]

I dig the army versions. :)

[Ahkileez]

Wow, how'd I end up headered?

I guess I'll need to add some new stuff to keep it worthy huh?

[Sanjurjo]

Lol. :)
Great 2d work you have here!
Nothing to envy to the proffesionals, i have to say. :D

[Ahkileez]

I haven't done too much on the Akira side of things lately, but I did play around with the Army side since our taskforce has an army detachment.

I wanted them to look and feel distinctly different from Starfleet, but part of the same culture. The rank scheme is a hybrid. It's primarily the British/Commonwealth/European scheme, with a bit of the Nato-style as well.

Hope you guys find them interesting.

OFFICERS
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Army-OfficerR.png

WARRANT OFFICERS
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Army-WarrantR.png

ENLISTED
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Army-EnlistedR.png

[Aresius]

wow, impressive.

[Ahkileez]

Glad you like em man :)

[braden]

Okay, it seems that we have had some related ideas, however, in place of the few weapons that you have posted, I would like your opinion upon these, please note, they are quickly done, and seriously need a good image maker to improve them, but I feel that some ideas could be taken from yours.
Infact, most of your uniform ideas were what I had for my Starfleet Marines.

Wolf's Shipyard Forum :: View topic - Starfleet Ground Vehicles and Bases (http://www.phpbbplanet.com/shipyard/viewtopic.php?t=1127&mforum=shipyard)
Wolf's Shipyard Forum :: View topic - Starfleet Ground Vehicles and Bases (http://www.phpbbplanet.com/shipyard/viewtopic.php?p=24236&mforum=shipyard#24236)

Seriously, anything you want to take from that and improve you can, also I found some Starfleet ship mounted weaponary I made for a BSG crossover, hence the Viper on the page, but thank you for your Voyager style Multi-spacial probe, I will use that to make my own version for this page

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2374/starfleetrj4.th.png (http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=starfleetrj4.png)

[Ahkileez]

You have some great ideas in there, mate :) Stuff I might snag for the future, hehe. :)

I especially like some of your shipboard weapons ideas, and I need an updated TR116-style weapon for an arc we were doing. Might snag some ideas there. ::grin::

I really like the ground vehicles also, but I'm not sure if I want to get into all that or not. I guess I'll have to depend on inspiration. And I like the habitats. Those are cool too.

Great work man :)

[braden]

I have been trying to get some assistance with making better images, as that what is posted in the form is from my 4pix per meter scale blueprints, but I do want to make them more realistic, but that will be sorted out eventually

[Ahkileez]

I like to play around with the miscellany of Trek. The stuff in the background that should be there, but we never really see them. And I like to put together novel things because I think they'd fit.

I know a lot of you guys expect like ship parts and weapons and stuff, but I hope that you'll find this stuff interesting also.

===============
CHRONOGRAPH
This was inspired by the Swatch "Infinity" watch. I don't think we've ever seen anyone wear or reference a watch in Trek, but I don't understand why they aren't there. Time is especially important to people, especially humans. And it's particularly important in a naval environment. This watch is primarily just a watch, but it would function to a limited degree like a PDA also. Mostly in the sending and receiving of messages and keeping schedules and such. It's connected to the ship's 'wifi' network that the PADDs are connected so, keeping it up to date and whatnot.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/SF-Watch.png


===============
LIGHTS

There's two different sets of lights here. The first is what I dubbed a "Hoverlight". I'm not a big fan of anti-gravity because I believe it's a problematic technology. From an engineering standpoint, if anything goes wrong with an AG-doodad, it's likely to go badly wrong. Still, I try to find less problematic ways to integrate AG.

This is the case with the hoverlight. I conceived it first as a piece of medical equipment, to give medics light to work with. But it obviously could have other applications. You can just activate it and hold it where you want it for a sec and it'll stay there, hovering and illuminating. Or you can toss it lightly into the air where it'll stay and brighten a larger area. Then you just deactivate it with a control and it'll lower itself slowly to you. Obviously, this would be a problematic device in high wind since it would just blow away.

The second is the wrist flashlight / beacon / lamp / whatever. The ones in the shows always look retarded. And seem especially so since they use big giant bulbs and we have ULEDs now. I went for a more robust, but yet streamlined and comfortable-looking version. It's got controls to adjust the beam, swap out the battery and an emergency button that would cause the beacon to flash at different wavelengths and probably emit a sound to help find you if you get lost somewheres (much like some emergency flashlights can).

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/SF-Lights.png


===============
Vacuum

This is probably the most controversial of the set, hehe. But I don't buy a lot of the stuff stated in the show and I find Trek's crew numbers generally very small for the size of the ships. One way to account partially for low crew numbers and support what Riker said about the ship "cleaning itself" is to equip it with 'Roomba'-like cleaning robots. Conveniently built by the same iRobot corporation. :) They go about late at night tidying up the ship.

It ionizes the carpet fibers and sucks up the loosened dirt particles and incinerates them. No real need to empty it out. And it's got a little receptacle tray on the back there for anything it picks up that isn't dust or dirt/trash and doesn't get incinerated. If somebody loses an earring or something, for instance.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/SF-Vacuum.png



I hope you guys enjoy little bits of miscellany like this. :) I have ideas for more miscellaneous coming soon to a theatre near you.

[Aresius]

That's sweet.

The wrist clock is a nice idea.
Also the cleaner! :lol: iRobot... Nice idea.

About the lights, well, the second one, the wrist light ist really my fav, as we have commonly seen them on screen (though in another form, the idea remains). The second one is a nice thing (reminds me to Dune, where they also have flying lights around them) and I must say, I'm a fan of hover-tech, as it may solve many problems.
However, I think that this is a bit unnecessary. At least in the common areass where Starfleet goes, illumination is very developed or unnecessary.

About the problem with the wind, commonly, hover-units are understood to have the ability to strengthen the anti-graviton flow on some sites that create a sort of force to withstand the wind or whatever hits them.
I like AG... :)

[braden]

We both had the watch idea, seriously beautiful work man, I love what you are doing for this lot, if I could pay you something for good work I would, but I only have spare Federation Credits, but keep up the work man

[Lord_Trekie]

I especially like some of your shipboard weapons ideas, and I need an updated TR116-style weapon for an arc we were doing. Might snag some ideas there. ::grin::
I must say your work in insanely cool. Something I read about in regards to variants of the TR-116 was that the novel 'A Time to Heal' some of the security forces of the Enterprise used a TR-120, and from the description I gathered that it was a standard TR-120, just stuck in a standard rifle casing, now that wouldn't have to be the case of course, but perhaps seeing your take on it assuming it's worth the interest?

[Ahkileez]

I don't remember if I had actually said earlier that "TR-120" was what I had decided to call this updated TR-116 rifle I was thinking of. But if I didn't, then this is a hell of a coincidence. :)

Maybe inspiration will strike soon.

[Ahkileez]

These aren't just for my ship. They're for the organization (Star Trek: Echoes (http://www.stechoes.com), but obviously will be used aboard Ark Royal also for our players.

Design-wise, they're a mixture of designs inspired by real world awards, the very few pictures of canon ST awards I could find, great ideas by great artists that I've seen and hopefully some individual stuff as well.

I hope you guys enjoy them, and as always I'm happy to discuss the pros and cons of anything here.

(Note: The Letters of Commendation and their accompanying ribbons are translucent, so they'll probably look very dark against the dark BG of this forum)

http://misc.axiom.ky/E-Medals/New-Medals.png

[Aresius]

Sweet work, they look wonderful.

But somehow I think, Picard also deserved a medal named after him.

[Ahkileez]

Hehe, well these are modern-era medals. Picard is still contemporary to them. Not a huge fan of Picard anyway. Love Pat Stewart the actor, but don't like Picard the character.

[Aresius]

:eek: Really?! awwwwwww, saaaaad.. ;)

[Ahkileez]

Hehe, sorry.

[Ahkileez]

I updated the set (the full set has been updated on the previous page).


=============
A couple years ago I ran a huge six month arc called "Sanctum" for the fleet I was in in a previous organization. It was about an area of space called the Sanctum, and a race that lives in it. The Federation inducts a new member with a lot of territory, a powerful military and a bad history with these folks in the Sanctum. With the merging of the two territories, the Fed now surrounds the Sanctum. This leads to increased tensions, and ultimately a war between the Fed and the Synod (the Sanctum's inhabitants).

After the arc was completed (with a 3hr, 60-person IRC finale mission), all those characters that fought in the war received this.

Since I brought my character over from that org into Star Trek: Echoes (http://www.stechoes.com) , he still has it and I needed to redraw it to fit in with the others for STE. Heh.

http://misc.axiom.ky/E-Medals/SanctumWarCampaignMedal.png

================
I had neglected to put in some service markers in the original set. These are obviously in much faster increments than one would get them in a real military, but it's to acknowledge players' commitment to the game/organization.

http://misc.axiom.ky/E-Medals/Service-Markers.png

==================
Cdr_Hensley of Okudagrams.com asked for this medal based on a ribbon he'd designed. I hope he doesn't mind that I kinda swiped it to toss it in with my lot too. :)

http://misc.axiom.ky/E-Medals/Temporal-Defense.png


Anyway, there you go. Hope you guys like them :)

[Aresius]

The first one looks wonderful...

Like being made of a necklace or earring..

So sweet...

[Ahkileez]

Thanks Aresius. I wanted something that looked of alien origin, not the mainstream 'humanized' Federation.

[Lord_Trekie]

Hehe, that first one does indeed look great, I also like the service bars. :p

[Aresius]

Well, for sure the majority of those medals will look humanised, because the majority of Starfleet is human.

But still, maybe you can create some other, more alienised medals.

[Ahkileez]

In the future, as needed, yeah. But I think I got all we need for now. So on to other things. :)

[Aresius]

kk.

btw, what just made me wonder.
Your avatar.. selfmade?
(could also serve as a medal...)

[Ahkileez]

Selfmade, yes. It's the family crest of the Vulcan character I play. :)

I suppose it could at that. If my character ever dies, I guess it could be a memorial medal, hehe.

[Narsil]

I have to say, this is some really incredible work you have done Ahkileez.

Almost makes me want to get back into my Interceptor Tech Manual.

Please keep of the great work. :thumb:

[Aresius]

Qual ulef komihn-whl'q'n il veh khaf tu?

[Ahkileez]

Narsil - I'm honored mate. Your work is gorgeous. To be perfectly honest, yours and Aether's work on your tech manuals is what inspired all this. I just didn't put "Akira Tech Manual" into the header so I wouldn't look like I was jumping on the bandwagon anymore than I actually was, hehe.

Aresius - I'm afraid my Vulcan speaking skills are a little rusty, hehe.

[Aresius]

Are you Human-Vulcan or full blooded?

;-) Kling akhlami buhfik (Nobody's perfect)
I'm also a bit better with tlhIngan Hol

[Ahkileez]

My character is full Vulc, but born and raised on Earth, so he's been corrupted.

[Aresius]

awww, corrupted.

Such a negative-tainted word...

[Ahkileez]

Well, he abandoned the normal emotion suppression that Vulcans do, so he's pretty volatile, and for the most part other Vulcans don't like him. I've been playing him for going on 10 years now. :) We're old friends.

[Aresius]

Impressive. An emotional Vulcan. Now that's something you don't see (read) every day.

I always hoped to once find an entry into Star Trek PBEM or forum-RPG, yet never managed to get clear instructions....

[toXic]

Impressive. An emotional Vulcan. Now that's something you don't see (read) every day.

You can't be serious! :confused:

You get this very often - especially from newbies, who simply want to play something "very special".

Honestly, I don't think it's a challenge to play a Vulcan who shows his emotions because it's pretty much like playing a Human. This only becomes interesting, if the character lives in a society that is dominated by Vulcan habits and rules of conduct.
As I understand it, Ahkileez' character is member of Starfleet, an organisation that - like it or not - has Humans as their driving force and that has human values as their standards. Playing a Vulcan that tries to reach a state of true emotionesless might prove much more challenging (and rewarding) in such an environment.

Of course, this is not intended offense to you, Ahkileez. Being a Game Master myself, I had my share of Vulcan charactes with emotions... and I have to admit, they were usually played pretty poorly by their players. However, I have to admit that this concept may work, if the character is played by an expierenced gamer who has the right feeling for his character.

Now, back to topic: Great work! Less talk, more images. :D

[Ahkileez]

Hehe, I totally understand, Tox. I've seen no shortage of them in the RPG orgs I've played in either. And your assessment is correct: Generally they're played by newbie players as humans with poiny ears.

I can say this with authority since I was a newbie (first online RPG) when I created him and that's exactly how I played him.

But I quickly learned that there needed to be more than that to him. And I made sure that it has ramifications on his life for him to be how he is. If it helps, I have played other 'pure' Vulcans. Hehe.

On the image front... I'm kinda working on something.

[Aresius]

Well, I should have added a tag to this sentence: [/sarcasm] ;-)

[toXic]

Sarcasm doesn't travel well in written language... ;)

[Aresius]

yeah, sadly....

[Ahkileez]

Oh, don't worry Aresius. I knew what you were trying to say. I know how common it is. :) In the Trek RPG world, we are replete with human-like vulcans, Betazoids and mixed-Betas and of course, Klingons.

Comes with the territory :)

[Aresius]

Hehe, well, Klingons are liked like nothing. Their culture is just too sweet. The stellar Samurai-Viking is just a nice image and expect the "stellar", it allso counts for me.
Well, trying to imitate a "real" Yulcan would be a very nice challenge...

[JediFraz]

Sorry to drop in unannounced..:)

Nice work.. I played around with the Rosyth Shipyard concept for a while before real life intruded.

I like the dolphin uniform idea. Until a holiday a couple opf years ago I didn't realise dolphins could get sunburn. They'd need protection as much as us..:)

[CX]

Seeing this stuff sorta makes me want to get back into the 24th century as far as fic-writing goes. :( All things in time I guess.

[Coota0]

Checked out your designs for the first time; they're great.
I'm a casual trekkie at best, please forgive any ignorance on my part. I got the impression from reading the first page (and the ship's name) that the Ark Royal had a "carrier" function, but I didn't see any flightgear or fighters (maybe I missed them elsewhere.) Any plans for fighters of a flightsuit and flightgear for the Ark Royal's air wing?

[Ahkileez]

Hey Coota...

Well the thread is fairly long now so I don't remember if I put them in elsewhere, but yeah. I had designed combat craft for this kind of ship a long time ago. For your own edification, however, you should read through, or at least skim. I've put a lot of stuff in this thread beyond what's just on the front page. :)

Ark Royal is a carrier, like her namesake. In addition to a complement of shuttles and runabouts, she carries two primary types of combat craft - Shuriken fighters and Shinto bombers in a few different variants.

Shuriken-class Fighter/Interceptor
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Shuriken-v3.jpg

...and Recon Variant
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Shuriken-Recon-Fighter.jpg

Shinto-class Assault Bomber
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Shinto-2-Claymore.jpg

I never got around to finishing the flight suit. It's on my 'to-do' list, hehe. It will probably end up getting a redesign cuz I didn't quite like the way it was going.
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Flight-Suit-WIP.jpg

Most recently I was working on the deck support stuff for Ark Royal, crew and equipment. I started with the deck tractor, and I'm working on attachments for it.
http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Tractor1.png

And like any carrier, a certain amount of her crew dedicated to dealing with the aircraft will be from the ship, and from the air wing itself. In addition to their ordinary duties maintaining and operating the ship's indigenous auxiliary craft, the Flight Crew (belonging to the ship) works with the Air Crew (belonging to the Air Wing). Some of those positions overlap. And it's kind of sorted out here.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Air-&-Deck-Crew.jpg

Hope that helps. :)

As always, if anyone has any comments or questions, I'm always happy to oblige!

[braden]

nice, is that yellow wheeled vehicle the little aircraft taxi, and again, bloody nice work mate

[Ahkileez]

It's the tractor for handling the various 'aircraft' yeah. I'm working on different trailers for it - Cargo-Haulers, Weapons Carriers, etc.

[Aresius]

Considering the sophisticated transportation technologies they have, it would be more logical of have such tractors as anti-grav units.
Think about TMP, they had these AG pads for that stuff while in dock (seen rushinth through the corridors becore taking off).
And the Ark Royal is in the 24th/25 century, they will surely have developed some tech to make far bigger stuffs fly (canonically, I mean now).

[Coota0]

Very Nice Deck crew designs. I'd seen the bomber earlier in the thread, but didn't rcognize it as such. About how big are you planning on the air wing being?

[Ahkileez]

Considering the sophisticated transportation technologies they have, it would be more logical of have such tractors as anti-grav units.
Think about TMP, they had these AG pads for that stuff while in dock (seen rushinth through the corridors becore taking off).
And the Ark Royal is in the 24th/25 century, they will surely have developed some tech to make far bigger stuffs fly (canonically, I mean now).

I think it's not wise to assume that just because a technology exists that it will be used for all possible applications. We don't do that today, and I don't expect that to change in the future.

Could the tractor's role be carried out by an AG-craft, like a workbee? Perhaps. But there are intrinsic benefits to having your feet on the ground. The greater weight and friction of the wheels on the ground would give it stability, especially when hauling around hovering ships massing dozens of tons. And if a ship is damaged and unable to move under its own AG-producing power, then the power of whatever motors that run it can drag it along anyway - something an AG-craft would have more trouble with.

It's wheels are spherical, so it can maneuver in any direction easily, and those wheels could be magnetized, affording greater traction and allowing it to move safely out of the hanger's force field and on to the 'landing strip' outside the bay that's common on Star Trek ships. Or, God forbid, if there were a massive decompression of the hanger, the tractor would stay right where it is. Over-engineered equipment is prone to failure. A workhorse like this is better with more dependable technology.

Plus it looks cool. :)

It will have one or two AG trailers though.


Very Nice Deck crew designs. I'd seen the bomber earlier in the thread, but didn't rcognize it as such. About how big are you planning on the air wing being?

Thanks Coota. The Air Wing is around 60 or so craft in all, including three full 12-bird squadrons, a half-squadron reserve/training unit, a Recon Wing, the Bomber Wing, a pair of ECW craft based on the bomber's frame, the "AWAC"-style birds that Hobbes let me borrow and an S&R runabout seconded from Ark Royal herself.

[Monkey Boy]

I think it's not wise to assume that just because a technology exists that it will be used for all possible applications. We don't do that today, and I don't expect that to change in the future.

-snip-

Plus it looks cool. :)

And don't forget the beach-buggy in ST:Nemesis - now surely an antigravity a sled or hover-car could have been of more use there? Maybe, but it sure-as hell would not have been as cool (or stupid, depending on how you feel about that movie)

You don't un-invent something, so a wheel is something we will always have access to, and just because they can do it a different way, does not nessisarily mean they should

Soldiers still train with and use bayonets today, and hand-to-hand combat, when there is a clearly better option for them (the rifle)

basic machines tend to be pretty reliable, and lets face it, with spherical wheels, it will move like will smiths car in iRobot, and I'd love to see that!

[Aresius]

Well, that is the issue. Overly weighting stuff. It can crush anything, even those wheels (okay, given the spherical design, they will sustain very, very, veeeeeeeery much weight), but the AG units are commonly explained that the more weight you put on them, the stronger their AG field goes (don't ask how that works, I'm not technicial or physicial (and definitely not doctor! ;) )), thus it's only limited by the reactor (and ST has powerful ones, we know that for sure...)
The only thing that could crush an AG uniting and render it unable to work would be the total loss of energy, which would be with such a small vessel far less likely than with a big beast that constantly gets hit, like the starships.

[Ahkileez]

And don't forget the beach-buggy in ST:Nemesis - now surely an antigravity a sled or hover-car could have been of more use there? Maybe, but it sure-as hell would not have been as cool (or stupid, depending on how you feel about that movie)

And since it took place on a desert planet, they may have been justifiably concerned about the Star Wars parallels of using a hovercar, lest somebody spot a Jawa in the background somewhere. :)


basic machines tend to be pretty reliable, and lets face it, with spherical wheels, it will move like will smiths car in iRobot, and I'd love to see that!

That car was the direct inspiration for this. I wanted to use wheels, but I wanted to 'high tech' it a bit. And spherical wheels was a technology that was suitably futuristic and actually logical for this use.


Well, that is the issue. Overly weighting stuff. It can crush anything, even those wheels (okay, given the spherical design, they will sustain very, very, veeeeeeeery much weight),

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here... the tractor isn't going to have the weight on top of it, but behind it.


but the AG units are commonly explained that the more weight you put on them, the stronger their AG field goes (don't ask how that works, I'm not technical or physical (and definitely not doctor! ;) )), thus it's only limited by the reactor (and ST has powerful ones, we know that for sure...)

I'm not sure where this information comes from. I think it may have gotten confused with Star Wars 'repulsor' technology, that has that inverse relationship and gets stronger the closer it gets to the ground.

[carlg]

Spectacular work! And keep the wheels.:D

[CX]

That car was the direct inspiration for this. I wanted to use wheels, but I wanted to 'high tech' it a bit. And spherical wheels was a technology that was suitably futuristic and actually logical for this use.

Seemed to work for iRobot. ;)

I'm not much one for wheels on Star Trek stuff either, especially when it's been established that they have anti-grav technology. I won't bust your balls too bad though, as sometimes the simplest design is the best design, especially in this case with the spherical wheels similar to what was seen on iRobot, which gave those vehicles very good maneuverability that you'd never get with a vehicle that had a standard wheel and axle set-up. With spheres, you could use some kind of electromagnetic system to drive the spheres in any direction you wanted. :thumb:

[muffiman]

Well, I like the design of the tractor and I think spherical wheels are the better choice.
I made a simple 2D sketch of a possible top view.
I'm not sure about the dimensions, so I choose a length of 5.5 meters and a width of 5 meters.

[Ahkileez]

Hehe, great job Muffi.

That's pretty close to how I envision her top view.

[muffiman]

Ahkileez, I'm looking forward to see your top view

[Aresius]

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here... the tractor isn't going to have the weight on top of it, but behind it.
Even if behind it can crush a vehicle (meaning the shaft).

I'm not sure where this information comes from. I think it may have gotten confused with Star Wars 'repulsor' technology, that has that inverse relationship and gets stronger the closer it gets to the ground.
No, AFAIK, the modern day superconductors have equal ability.
And from what I know about the tech of ST, the AG units are based on them.

[Ahkileez]

Even if behind it can crush a vehicle (meaning the shaft).

No, AFAIK, the modern day superconductors have equal ability.
And from what I know about the tech of ST, the AG units are based on them.

I understand what you're getting at Aresius, but the engineering problems associated with a wheeled vehicle are infinitely smaller than those associated with anti-gravity technology :)

[Aresius]

well, not in my eyes, but it's your game... :)

[carlg]

I think I've gotta side with Ahkileez on this one. Think about it: which has more chances of breaking down -- a device that literally pokes a hole in the laws of gravity, or a wheel?
Especially since the "unexplained power failure" is like one of Trek's top 10 plot devices :D

[scruffyhightops]

Loving this dude. I'm from Portsmouth so I get to see the HMS Ark Royal when she's home, so it;s good too see the old girl getting the Trek treatment.

Are you adding in things like Hazard Teams as well to you already great creation??

[Ahkileez]

mmm maybe. I don't run the ship, I'm just the captain of it. Hehe.

[Aresius]

lol

[blackbird17]

Nice work on your Fighter and Bombers. An your Flight and Deck crew uniforms look great.

[Capt. Eric Gardner]

An IRC/Chat-style RPG ship named the USS Ark Royal (Akira-class) over at Star Trek: Echoes recently launched with me as CO.

I'm a real stickler for trying to jam more detail into the Trek world so I started designing things to enhance the environment. Not necessarily changing major things, but extrapolating based on what was already shown and adding in additional detail I think should've been there all along.

Development Patch - I tried to create this in the style shown in the Defiant/Danube era. I figure the Akira came out of the same Borgbuster program, so it fits in nicely.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Akira-Patch-WIP.jpg

Uniform Patch - This is the uniform shoulder patch (the official symbol is this shield, backed by a crossed sword and scepter and crowned by a knightly helmet). It's worn on a variety of uniforms. Not the normal "Class-B's" we'd normally seen, but on a host of others, including enlisted uniforms, working uniforms, tactical uniforms, security uniforms, etc.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Royal-Shoulder-Full.png

Service Uniforms - *INCOMPLETE* - Here are some of the uniforms in use aboard the Ark Royal. In addition to the ordinary duty and dress uniforms we know, there are extrapolated variants/additions to those uniforms, and other classes of uniforms for other situations.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Ark-Royal-Uniforms.jpg

Tricorders - *INCOMPLETE* - It's been a while now since Nemesis and a long while since the 'flip-phone' tricorder came into being, so I reasoned that Ark Royal would now be using the new 'PADDcorder'. While this can be used on or off the ship, I figure it's most effective on the ship where it functions like a padd and has access to the ship's computer as well. So if you scan a damaged piece of equipment, for instance, it would also bring up the maintenance details on the part, whether there are replacements in stock, etc. I do intend to draw a flip-corder for more rugged field use as well, probably using elements from the more recent variants shown in like the Voyager finale and so forth.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/MK-XIII-WIP.jpg

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Tricorder-XII-E.jpg

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Tricorder-XIII-EC.jpg

Small Arms - The range of weapons shown in Trek seems ridiculously mundane, so I expanded on the list based on what I think they should have, things that have been shown but not repeated, and so forth. I think this is a decent cross-section of infantry weapons to be found aboard a frontline combat ship like an Akira.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/small-arms-WIP.jpg

Tactical Weapons - *INCOMPLETE* - Here's a list of torpedoes in use aboard the Ark Royal (not counting the different types of torpedoes/missiles her fighters carry). They're obviously interpretations of ones we know to exist, plus a customized decoy that I designed. I have planned (but not yet drawn), a multi-warhead one designed for overloading shield grids.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/arms-wip.jpg

Probes - This is a full assortment of probes. I redrew, embellished designs of probes I was told a long time ago came from the TNG tech manual. I don't own the TNGTM so I can't verify that. I added Voyager's multi-spacial probe to the list as well to round it out to an even ten. I'm thinking about designing a relay or distress beacon and tossing that in as well.

http://misc.axiom.ky/AR%20Stuff/Probes.png

I have no doubt that I'll end up doing more stuff in the future. I really enjoy creating extrapolative detail in the Trek verse, so I'll probably add more things to this list in the future.

I hope you all enjoy the illustrations, and find them interesting. I'm all for C&C so feel free to discuss anything you see here.

- Kurt

Now I can't see them

[Aresius]

Of course not, the link to the images has times out...

[Capt. Eric Gardner]

Is there a link to them?

[miss dee]

you have them on a website some place as all I see are X

[Friedebarth]

WOW! Fantastic artwork, and this person I know too.

Just one thing about your Fighters: What's Starfighter Commnad? ;)