Star Destroyer Map? To SCALE!?

     So after getting LAUNCH WINDOW up an running (finally) my tired brain needed a break.  As a sort of palate cleanser, I went trawling around Ye Olde Interwebs looking at Star Destroyers.

 Some of the images I came across were from Geoffry Mandel's blueprints.  These are so old, they pre-date the scaling up of the Blockade Runner and SD made late in production and show us a Star Destroyer less than five hundred meters long.  The weapon mix and compliment is also interesting - the Mandel SD only has a crew of 750 (280 of which are Stormtroopers) but still carries a full wing of 72 TIE fighters.  No AT-AT or chicken walkers, though.  The SD was either too small to carry planetary assault equipment, was optimized for space combat, or, most likely, these were omitted because George and ILM hadn't invented them yet.
    Anyway, for fun, I started sketching star cruiser whose size was inspired by Mandel's SD, and blended featured of all different Star Destroyers we see from Episode II on.  I couldn't get the tiny inch long sketches I drew scale up, so I fired up Wings 3D and simply built a model in that.  Because my "Pocket SD" star cruiser was only about 600 meters long, I could build it out to scale.  The scale I chose was one grid square = 15 meters, because my Star Morph capital ship map tiles are 15 x 30 meters, so it made sense.  I also though about texturing the beast, but this was just a palate cleanser, so why bother?
     That's when the muse descended.
     I can texture blocks in Wings.  I have twenty-six star morphs laying around.  Hmmm...

      Sure enough, I not only could put my Starmorphs on 1x2x0.2 tiles to represent 15x30x3 meter deck segments, the resolution of the images was sharp enough to really see the detail.
    I was shocked as the implications set in.  By using my existing tiles, maybe a few new ones, and Wings 3D, I had the tools to fully map a Star Destroyer to scale.
    At first I thought it was crazy - after all, my Starphin project proved to be too much work to do in a timely manner - and that ship was a third of the size of my Mandel SD.  But in reality, the SD is a lot simpler a project, because the large pieces like engines and main guns are computer models and the deckplans have already been drawn.
     The results so far have been encouraging...

Starphin Treaty Frigate 027 Deck

     (sigh) Another week in which I've been too busy to make a proper post here at the Blue Max Studios blog.  Part of the reason is that I've been in the beginnings of editing and layout on Rob Garitta's first solo book, the Hawking Class Scout.  Expect this book to come out sometime between the tenth and fifteenth of the month.

     Another reason that I haven't posted just yet, is that I had this map to finish:

     This map is part of the new work I've been doing to provide top-quality maps for SF gaming.  I'm hoping to be able to provide these free and rely on my Patreon account for support.  As it stands, I'm still having to divide my time between this kind of work and more mundane chores.   But I'll keep making maps as often as I can.

     Anyway, this post is about the latest deck of our Starphin-class Treaty Frigate.  This is the 027 Deck:

     At first glance, the 027 Deck has features in common with the two decks above.  In the after compartment are a pair of escape pods and radiators for the second-stage capacitors to the upper pair of turbolasers.  The forward two bays are filled with pump machinery linked to the coolant reservoirs above.  The pair of pumps are monitored with a matching pair of monitor consoles. 

     In the forward central compartment we see something different. The Forward Gun Director station is located here, and is responsible for prioritizing targets and keeping track of the entire forward fire arc of the spacecraft.  The information gathered by the forward targeting array, which extends down to the 022 Deck, is first sorted and prioritized in the Gun Director room before being sent in a more organized fashion to the CIC below.  The responsibilities of a Gun Director are many and varied on any warship, but on a carrier - even a pocket carrier like the Starphin - the job become exponentially more difficult as the movements of a dozen friendly fighter craft must be tracked and accounted for when in battle.  Losing your starfighter forces to friendly fire is an embarrasing yet unfortunately frequent problem without expert fire control.

     I hope you enjoyed this week's maps and I look forward to making more.  In other news, my wife Debra and I are collaborating on a new project that I hope to announce sometime after the release of the Hawking.  I'm bursting with excitement about this new project, so If at all possible I'll announce it even sooner.  Anyway, I'm hoping to get some more posts out next week.  Until then, RocketFans!

Help me make you more awesome maps!

Starphin Treaty Frigate 028 Deck

   Ugh!  I've been trying to get blog posts out all week and all week I've run into delays and issues.  Debra's work schedule has been such that she hasn't been able to help me develop next post for our series on Alternate Metaphysics for Open D6.  The next section deals with codes, creeds, and how to get back your Fate Points once you use them, so it's pretty important.

    In addition to that, I've been working on some more maps for use in SF games and campaigns,  after running a brisk poll over on Google+, the majority have asked for a hidden rebel base map.  I began work and immediately bit off more than I chew:

It's like, Echo Base big...

     And those fighters you see?  I had to skin those in Wings before I pasted them in:

Not to brag...

     But despite all of this, I did finally manage to get the 028 Deck arranged in a fashion I can live with.  Let's have a look, shall we?

The fabled 028 Deck

Okay, to start with, the forward nose of the deck is indented because this is the uppermost deck of the upper targeting sensors, which run down to the 022 deck. The deck is bisected fore to aft by the first- and second- resonance chambers, where the energy from the capacitors and the gas from the two pair of tanks aft blend into laser-y goodness.   The pair of capacitors above on the 029 deck feed into the inner-most pair of resonance chambers, and a matching pair of capacitors below feed into the second-stage chambers.
     The open shaft from above continues down past this deck and offers some of the only access to the aft spaces and the gas tanks.  Each tank has an emergency bleed-off tank to handle pressure issues, as you do not want your lasing medium venting into an open compartment.
     The most distinct features of the 028 Deck are the pair of turbolaser turrets on either side. While the energy feeds and laser beam optics get all the fame, the majority of the volume and mass of a laser system is its cooling machinery.  Four pair of coolant tanks sit in this deck, and feet pipes around both resonance chambers and the turrets themselves.  In the forward-most compartment of this deck, like the others, is a monitoring room.  This one not only keeps tabs on the high pressure gas feeds, power levels and temperature of the lasers, the compartment serves as an auxiliary fire control station.

     I'd like to add more, RocketFans, but this was literally all the time I could spare today.  Anyway, if you like what you see and want to help me make more awesome game maps and deckplans, don't forget to drop by my Patreon and sign up!

Help me become the science fiction version of Dyson Logos!

  

Starphin Treaty Frigate 029 Deck

     It's another Monday, RocketFans, and we have a new deck for the Starphin-class Treaty Frigate ready to show off!  Before we get to that, I'm gratified to report that the Blue Max Studios blog has had it's most popular week ever!  Thanks for your interest, everybody, it means the world to me.

    But now we deckplan.

029 Deck:  Upper Turbolaser Capacitors

     Forward of the central lift we have the upper tuborlaser monitor room, which regulates the power flow from the hypermatter reactor below decks to the pair of massive capacitors on this deck.  On either side of the monitor room are two droid corrals that hold a pair astromechs apiece.  They have access to the port and starboard surge protector compartments, with are bathed in the orange glow from the capacitors.  The surge protectors help regulate the power levels from reactor to capacitor, and from capacitor to turbolaser.
     The central lift opens aft into a maintenance corridor that offers ladder access to the deck above and below.  The corridor is bisected by an open shaft that allows the power, collant and other utility pipes to run between the turbolaser support decks.  A retractable catwalk crosses the pit to the corridor beyond.  The after corridor opens into the port and starboard thermal regulator compartments, which is a fancy way to say the heatsinks and radiators just aft of the capacitors.  Each compartment has a monitor station and offers access to this deck's escape pods.  The escape pods each can hold a half-dozen crew, but it's rare that these upper decks are so populated.

     And now for an admission, RocketFans:  I was not happy with the 030 Deck I posted last week.  So, always the perfectionist, I brought the GIMP back out and modified it.  I am much more please with the results.  See for yourself:

New and improved!

      I mainly added some shading to give the map some depth, and I changed the colors around a bit.  the biggest change is omitting the orange on the hyperwave transceivers and adding the radiator piping aft.  There are also a pair of R1 operating on the deck now.  The blue one, R1-K5 or "Arcs" has had quite a career over the years.  We'll find out more about him later this week.

      Hope you all enjoy the maps!  If you do, and all the other articles you see here, consider making a small pledge to our Patreon.  Every bit helps me keep making maps, game supplements and other goodies for my RocketFans!

It'll be your good deed for the day!

Starphin Map and a Modest Proposal

Had to finish the Bow so I could measure the decks...

   Happy Monday, RocketFans!  I've been contemplating all of the suggestions I've received over the last week having to do with our alternate Metaphysics mechanics and the ideas are slowly evolving.  Expect a new post on the topic Wednesday, maybe.  For today, I am happy to present the first completed deck of our capital starship, the  Starphin Treaty Frigate!

     This deck was fairly easy to do, as I already knew what I needed.  Situated just below the upper sensor dome, this deck would service that machinery, house the main communications antennae, and have coolth (not my word, okay?) pumps and tanks for the after radiators and heat sinks.  In addition, the upper ring of shield projectors are on this deck, a pair of shield generator nodes, and a pair of inertial compensators.  This was the best place for the ICs, in my opinion, as this tall fin would be likely to snap off the first time the Captain order flank speed without them.  But enough talk, deckplan below!

030 Deck

     This is not a deck with much human habitation.  In fact, outside of the insulated forward sensor substation and the after sensor room/pump house, the antennae and sensors would fry any organics in the maintenance spaces when the electronics are active.  This is a deck primarily for droids, and probably not regular R-series astromechs, either - upgraded R1s, with their reactor-drone casings, are possibly the only robots that can service the sensors and hyperwave antennae while they are in service.  For fun I used a classic design for the hyperwave transievers - except for the color and size, they are identical to the antenna mast on an Imperial Mk I Star Destroyer.  I went with a pair because I needed the lift tube to be on the centerline of the deck.  

 

     As you'll see in the next several maps, the machinery for the four turbo lasers on the decks under this one take up so much space that I've had to do some creative arranging to get everything to fit and still have space to move from one end of the deck to the other.  It would be simpler if I could just have two lift shafts, fore and aft, to reach all sections of the following decks, but the hanger spaces below make that impossible.

     For what is easily the largest mapping project I've ever attempted, I find myself running out of room easily... 

     This deckplan  turned out to be 15 tac squares wide and another 15 long, not counting the heat sink.  That's fairly large - and this is the smallest deck on the ship.  And there are forty-nine more.   Which brings up the ugly little question of how exactly I'm going to be able to publish this monster?  The PDF would have to be a couple of hundred pages, take about six months of work, and sell for at least fifty bucks to recoup even a fraction of my time and effort.  I mean, I enjoy drawing spaceships, obviously, but this is my job and I can't just work on unsalable projects and expect to get the bills paid.

     But.

     I have a Patreon account, and a handful of fans who support my work by pledging a dollar or two a month to see more content on this blog and to get access to my existing PDFs for no extra charge.  It occurs to me that through Patreon, I can get the kind of money I need to work on this project, and the Alternate Metaphysics book, and all the other big ships I want to map.  You, my dear RocketFans, can get all those goodies just by pledging a dollar or two a month.  It's good math; For the cost of a fifty-dollar book, which most of us couldn't justify buying, you could pledge a dollar and keep it up for over four years, in which time I will write a lot more than one book of plans. After all, in the last four years, I've written and published 42 books.   That a lot better deal. 

     If you look at my Patreon homepage, you'll see I currently get $60 a month in pledges.  I deeply, deeply appreciate every bit of support I get from my patrons.  In order to be able to give away the Starphin maps, the Metaphysics book and the other projects I would love to work on and don't have the time, I would need to reach a goal of about $200 a month.  If a hundred and forty people were to pledge a dollar a month, I'd be home free and you would all get free books.  We've been getting close to twice that in visitors a day since I began posting on D6 topics again, so I know it's possible.  

     So that's where we are, RocketFans.  I'll keep mapping and showing off the un-keyed deckplans on the blog for as long I can afford to.  If we hit $200 on Patreon, I'll release the full deckplans, maps, keys and stats and keep designing and mapping ships large and small, for as long as you want me too.  

    I'll even take requests.

Starphin - class Frigate WIP II What the Stats Mean

     Work continues on the Starphin-Treaty Frigate, RocketFans.  Today, we're going to dig a little deeper into the design of a large capital ship by looking at all of the systems, sub-systems, and ancillary spaces that need to be present in order for the Starphin to perform it's mission.  First, we look at the stats, then extrapolate from those what we need.  Simple, right?

Improved version

  I wish.

    Designing a spacecraft using even the most generous of standards is difficult.  There are a lot of little things that you have to account for and keep track of.  Fortunatly, I've been blessed with an enormous amount of help form folks like Winchel Chung, Robert Brown, Curtis Saxton, and of course the Incredible Cross Sections books.  But enough shmoozing - let's dig in, shall we?

     First of all, lets look at the ship's crew and passengers. Crew is set at 175, assuming that there will be at least that many droids.  There are five gunners per turbolaser, for a total of 30, an additional 14 quadlaser gunners, a platoon of toops (32), fifteen pilots (fighters and shuttle!) and fifteen support crew, with room for eighteen more passengers, such as command staff, additional personnel or what ever.  That comes to a total of almost three hundred people.  So, right off, I need to have beds for that many.  But there is so much more that a crew needs then just a rack to fall into.  We need galleys, mess halls, heads and showers, for starters.  Obviously, we also need some kind of sick bay and dispensary.  Depending on the mission, we may need a dental unit, OBGYN, medical lab and imaging, bacta ward, and morgue.  But think of all the places we never see in science fiction that logic tells us has to be there.  There must be a ship's laundry, tailor, supply office, and a canteen to buy toothpaste and razors or whatever they use in a galaxy far, far away.  But there are even more considerations.  After perusing the general plans of the WWII escort carrier Thetis Bay (CVE-90), I discovered all sorts of space I never thought about.   Cobbler.  Barber shop.  Film lab (well, computer lab in SW).  Bakery. Post Office. Payroll Office and safe!

Just some of the systems I've had to find space for...

      Now, some of these amenities may seem like too much for a such little ship. While the Starphin is a Frigate by treaty and a Corvette by size convention, in reality, it is a Cruiser.  That's because it's consumables are listed, just like its Corellian ancestors, as being one full year's worth.  According the RAW from the REUP Manual a ships consumables are "A measure of the ship’s air, food, water and fuel and how long it can travel before having to stop for refueling and resupply."  This means that the Starohin needs to carry enough food, water, spare parts, tools, aviation fuel, tibanna gas, oxygen, uniform socks, laundry soap, replacement forks, disposible medical supplies, laser optics - everything, for three hundred people, for three hundred sixty-five days.  That's 109,799 crew-days of supplies.

     A Star Destroyer could carry that many crew-days of supplies, but then a Star Destroyer has almost fifty thousand people on board.  Fortunately, supplements such as The Darkstryder Campaign, novels such as the unfinishable Children of the Jedi give us solutions in the form of hydroponics bays and "full enzymatic breakdown" recycling technology.  Also, one can assume, since Humans and Duros  started forging the space-lanes twenty-five millennia ago, such technologies will be fully mature and operate at the peak of theoretical efficiency.  But we'll still need water tanks, plant bays, and vats of recycling material and processors. Spare parts get almost the same treatment, as self-replicating factories are a part of everyday life in the galaxy, one can assume that broken parts can be recycled into new ones with minimal feedstocks in storage.

     See?  Not impossible problems, but stuff you have to think about if you want realistic deckplans.  Next time, we take a look at the top-most ten decks of the Starphin, and actually start mapping some deckplans.  Here's a look at some of my behind-the-scenes-work, so you can get a taste of what I've been trying to deal with.  Enjoy!

Starphin-class Frigate WIP Part I: WEG Game Stats

I'm gratified by the upsurge of interest in this project I've seen on Google+.  Your support is what motivates me, RocketFans!

"If the Republic will not let me build proper warships,
I'll give the galaxy an armada of glass cannons."
-Argye Norn, Lord Halowan, 

As promised, We will begin the Starphin project by cooking up some stats, West End Games style.  To be strictly technical, these stats are based partly on the un-revised second edition Star Wars: The Role-Playing Game stats, the REUP stats, all mixed with my own ideas about how to go about designing a spacecraft.  So, just to forestall any splitting of hairs or picking of nits, the capsule will give us an option where those who prefer, say, the stats that +Oliver Queen  develops over mine, you can have both in the same universe.  Because he really does make nice stats, doesn't he?

Craft:		Lord Halowan Spacewerks Starphin-class Treaty Frigate (Pocket carrier configuration)
Type:		Multi-purpose vessel
Scale:		Capital
Length:		180 meters
Crew:		175
Crew Skill:		Astrogation 3D, Capital ship gunnery 4D+1, Capital ship  piloting 4D, Capital ship shields 3D, Sensors 3D+2
Passengers:		80 (65 troops)
Cargo Capacity:		800 metric tons
Consumables:		1 year
Carried Craft:		12 Class-6 Combat Pods, 1 passenger shuttle
Cost:		5,000,000 (new), 3,000,000 (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier:		x1
Nav Computer?		Yes
Maneuverability:		2D+1
Space:		6
Atmosphere:		400; 1200 kph
Hull:		4D
Shields:		3D
Sensors:
	Passive:	40/1D
	Scan:	60/2D
	Search:	120/3D
	Focus:	5/4D
Weapon:		Six Double Light Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc:		Turrets (3 left, 3 right)
Crew:		5
Skill:		Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control:		3D
Space Range:		5-20/40/80
Atmosphere Range:		10-40/80/160 km
Damage:		5D
Weapon:		Fourteen Quad Laser Cannons
Fire Arc:		Turrets (4 front, 3 left, 3 right, four back)
Crew:		1
Skill:		Starship Gunnery
Fire Control:		3D
Space Range:		1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range:		100-300m/1.2/2.5 km
Damage:		6D

Capsule: Following the signing of the Galactic Concordance and The passing of the Military Disarmament Act, many small polities, client states, and allied factions expressed concerns about disarmament.  The Starphin-class frigates are an attempt to circumvent the tonnage restrictions of capital starships.  Halowan Spacewerks accomplished this by creating what is, according to the Anaxes system, a Corvette. Looks, however, can be deceiving. The addition of an effective point-defense system to the Sptarphin gives the frigate more effective protection that mere shields.  It was by adding twenty-four escape pod bays to the central tower that Halowan Spacewerks managed to create a modular attack starship without violating treaty restrictions. The first warship upgrade created for the Starphin was the "Pocket Carrier" retrofit.  Since the escape pod bays open into the centrally located hanger bay, the Starphin can be easily modified to carry a squadron of combat pods, such as Nibuus Cluster Manufacturing's Class-6, and properly maintain them for multiple sorties. While still far less effective than a true warship, the Starphin-carriers are easily able to protect isolated star systems and convoys from pirates, gangsters and other elements seeking to take advantage of the 90% fleet reduction after the War.  Halowan offers the Starphin under license through Rendili StarDrive, insuring that many different versions will be produced in the years to come. 

I've Fallen in Love with D6 Again

     ...Not that I ever really fell out of love with what is my favorite gaming engine ever.  I haven't been showing it much lately, but that was more of a business decision than a personal one.  White Star and The Black Hack have, between them, bracketed the SF OSR market of late as much as they have the color spectrum.  I've been writing products for these systems, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
     Another reason I stopped producing for D6 is, ironically enough, the D6 Star Wars fandom.  And not because it's getting smaller, but because it's bigger and better than ever.  The number and quality of the fan-produced books for Star Wars D6 not only have higher production value than what I can do, seeing how I have to own the rights to all the art before I can sell, but books such as the new REUP core book and the books produced by Womp Rat Press are better than what West End Games could put out in the Nineties.  How's an indie producer like me to compete?

     But.

     Let's be honest here; I didn't star writing RPG books for D6 because I thought it was a smart business decision.  I started writing D6 books because I was a fan and had always wanted to.  I love D6.  I think it's one of the easiest systems to learn, and in my experience, it's the easiest system to run. Therefore, I have decided to start writing for D6 again.

Some of our future products will include a collaboration with Rob Garitta on a version of spacecraft creation rules for the Black Hack.  I'm writing the next installment of the Technical Readout series  featuring shuttles, which will be released under OSR as well as D6. In addition, there's the next of our Species Spotlight books, with will feature a race of ghost faced killers called the Sung.  But those are our smaller projects; There are two pretty major ones in the works that as well.

     Our next major title will be Opposing Force: Alternate Rules for Metaphysics for Open D6.  In this book, we'll provide alternate mechanics for those most frustrating of rules (next to the Wild Die, apparently) in the D6 System.  In addition to a new system for using Fate Points and Powers, the book will have guidelines on creating new Codes to live by, new organizations, weapons, equipment, species and templates.  There will even be new spacecraft, because of course there will.

Project number two won't be available for sale for quite some time, but you'll all get a chance to follow along as I'll be posting regular progress reports.  I will be working on this:

Starphin-class Frigate
Concept Art

This little beauty is a small Missile Frigate/ Pocket Carrier.  It's 180 meters long and 150 meters from the top of the forward fin to the base.  It has six light double turbo-laser turrets, fourteen point defense turrets, and either 24 missile tubes with a hundred and twenty missiles, or a squadron of twelve fighters.  This ship is tiny by space opera standards.  By mapping standards, it is a mammoth project as the spacecraft is a hundred and twenty tactical squares long and has fifty decks.  I plan on making these plans as detailed as possible.  this will require some serious research on the design of the weapons turrets, engines, life support system and landing gear.  Like I said, this will take a good bit of time.  The good news is, I'll be posting the works in progress on the blog.
   Anyway, that's what's going on with Blue Max Studios for now.  Our next several posts will involve showing off our work, so stay tuned, RocketFans!