The Ares, Deck by Deck

[Le Duc du Bout]

First, I have never been doing deck by deck planning of any vessel.
Nonetheless, I was thinking about how to establish a relative accurate deck by deck shape. I guess you know the precise number of decks of the Ares.

So, perhaps by slicing up the ship (deck by deck) you could establish an accurate deck outline. Just an idea; don't know if that'll work.

Le Duc du Bout

[AliasEthan]

Le Duc,

Yeah, we will be "carving" up the ship deck by deck - the primary and secondary hulls proper won't be an issue, but the adjoining middle or "neck" part is likely to cause some headaches. I found an MSD of the Ares, but it's based on a 15-deck ship, and it's in fact 17.

Endeavour and I spoke last night and we expect to be starting by the end of the week. He's elected to work with a 10px to 1m scale, so the resultant image is going to be MASSIVE. (6244x2101 around Deck 10 - a little less than 6244 as the nacelles are the longest part.)

[Le Duc du Bout]

Well if you would litterally slice up the ship, I don't see why the "Ares-neck section" will pose a problem. Furthermore, I guess it's going to be very important to do this with a high poly version, windows, escapepods and all to see the placement of all.
What will cause a problem - or some headaches - is the spacing between the decks. Because those will have to be sliced up too.

Le Duc du Bout

[AliasEthan]

The headaches are going to come from the deck spacing. In the neck section, it transitions slightly. As in the deck spacing in the primary hull is different (bigger) than in the secondary hull (smaller). It basically wants to line up what must be Deck 6 in the secondary with Deck 7 in ther primary. We're going to attribute it to the change in "slope" of the two hulls, but it's pushing it slightly.

The only other headaches are the massive bridge module as the ship's scaling suggest the ship (and thus bridge module) MUST be bigger than the designer originally intended - about 12% in each direction. That and the shuttlebay - it's not actually practical. The doors are nice and wide (and tall), but you couldn't actually stage anything larger than Type 9s in the bay, and that's pretty much pushed up right to the door, which we know isn't procedure.

Endeavour is actually planning on doing some rough sketches for a design inspired by the Ares, but a bit smaller and more practical. (Nacelle placement is also an issue). Despite all of its quirks, I do love marklar's Ares. We'll be deciding soon which direction we're going. It'll all work in the end.

[Le Duc du Bout]

1. Is there an actual "standard deck size" (in height I mean) ? Is it possible some "technical" decks actually are taller or even the opposite ? If there is no standard height (of the decks nor the spacing in between), I guess you have an awful lot of spacing to play with.

2. I have always been wondering: suppose you have a deck 6 that "slopes" down...until it reaches level with deck 7; how do you "define" that slope ? Doesn't it change deck 6 into 7 ?

3. Of course, it will all work in the end.

Le Duc du Bout

[AliasEthan]

Sorry for the delay on the reply. I'm out of town at the moment with a family member who's recovering from surgery. (It went well, in case anyone thought they should worry).

As for a standard deck height, there really isn't one. Generally, it's somewhere above 3.2m on taller ships, but that number gets higher as the ship has less decks. The Defiant, for example, has a height of over 6m per deck, but that's attributed to the ship's small size, excess armor, the presense of a "sub-deck", etc. Intrepids have a height of over 4m per deck. The Sovereign's is 3.625m, the Galaxy's around 3.4m.

Obviously, Deck 1 is a little taller on all ships just by design. There's the need for jeffries tubes, which sometimes exist in the normal deckspace, or are sometimes between decks. You also have the need for the supporting structure, the gravity generators, power and data transmission, etc. Sometimes this is in the walls, again, sometimes in the floor.

We haven't seen a decent enough cross-section to really show what's involved, and how much of that height can be attributed to the outer hull and armor, as well as space between decks, so it's anyone's guess.

As for the sloping thing, it's more the curvature of the outside hull, and the difference between the primary and secondary sections. It's unsolved for now, and I'm still waiting on the preliminary sketches from Endeavour. He's been busy with RL stuff, as have I, so I'm definitely inclined to be patient.

Hope to have an update soon.

[Drumming Hawk]

Originally Posted by AliasEthan

Attached is an ortho I made a long time ago based on found images, before I spoke with the ship's designed. I just re-opened the mesh and will be making massive orthographic views soon. Also attached is an outline image made by marklar himself. I've also got someone's take on a Master Systems Display, but I really dislike the layout. These should do in the meantime - give you an idea if you want to tackle this.

If so, let me know and we'll chat!

The images you found were mine as I also use the mesh for an RPG.

U.S.S. Sam Houston - USS SAM HOUSTON, NX-82845

[Drumming Hawk]

BTW ... I like what you are doing and plan to follow your efforts here.

I wish you the best of luck!