Space Tech Suggestion Thread, Post Ideas Here! (Warning: Large Images)

[Symphia]

If you have ideas or concept art for me, please post it here! I want to see what you guys can come up with.

This is my idea for a single-man star fighter. For those of you that are familiar with the Descent series of games, you may recognize this as the MIGHTY Pyro GX.



My idea for the Pilot Suits for Fighter Pilots.

[Lock-Os]

Hm... I was more or less thinking more or less along the lines of Variable Fighters like the VF-1A Valkyrie.

This post has been edited by Lock-Os on Sep 22 2008, 08:43 PM

[Fae]

The ships look good, definitely. I was thinking, outfit wise, something a little simpler maybe, like a full-body catsuit with a see thru hood. It'd be sexy enough, definitely, and they have technology advanced enough to not need all of the bells and whistles of a head bubble and stuff. And I mean, skin tight. But this is just my individual input, of course, Sammy's idea looks more realistic.

[Lock-Os]

General TXS Space Ship notes:
Armor is reduced to increase the speed of the ships and reduce manufacturing costs, applies to all TXS Ships. The simple reasoning is that currently, no space threats have been encountered that have not been stopped at the 2nd defense line (The cruisers.), and as a corporation, time and costs are things highly valued by TXS. Also, since the main goal of the fleet is to support the TXS bases and ground forces, response time is critical. The armor is specifically designed for impacts from solid weapons like guns and missile warheads as well as space junk and micro-asteroids. Energy weapons, while more effective against this kind of armor, still need to be quite powerful to apply enough energy to melt or cut though the armor.

It also helps that TXS's focus on energy weapons has produced something akin to a Laser based CWIS system that can shoot down incoming targets. As an energy based system, it drains power from the reactor core, so the ship produces less thrust. Of course, this being space, friction isn't around so if you plan on going straight on though momentum keeps the ship going. If you need to maneuver though... well, then the ship can tap into it's reserve energy units for a bit. This gives TXS captains a certain peace of mind about the lack of armor.

Too bad though the engineers used the reserve energy units as a sort of improvised armor to give the reactor cores extra shielding. Another quick note is that all the outer compartments do not contain essential functions. Life support, engine room, and the primary bridge (where all the control systems are located.) are all found in the inside of the ship. This allows the outer layers to act as a shield to protect the inner core of the ship.

An interesting result of the lack what would be considered a ship's bridge is that their are very few super-structures on the hulls of the ships, particularly the smaller ones. Instead, multiple cameras provide a 360 degree view to the bridge. The helmsmen has a separate pod where he can pick camera views for detailed maneuvering. Since all sensors of all ships are networked together, a comprehensive tactical overlay smiler to a heads- up display is displayed over the 360 degree view, giving the captain and the heads of all the ship's systems, in particular, the weapons control team, important information as to the overall situation as viewed from their location. Also, the cameras are arranged in rows like shark's teeth, if one would be destroyed, the damaged one is ejected and a new one replaces it. Still, there are only a few extra cameras, so it's not an endless supply.

Also, every ship has a sort of auto-repair capability, where a goop-like substance can be released to seal any holes due to battle damage.

TXS Space Carriers: (Size 1lkm long.) Large Space Ships used to house fighters and transport large amounts of men and cargo. Due to their large size, they are very costly and thus only a few exist. They also contain quite a few missile batteries and plenty of Vulcan-type Laser guns for defense. Due to their large size they were not designed to land on the surface of the planet. Therefore, the outer sections of the hull will melt and collapse, sending the ship on an uncontrollable descent. Even if the ship could survive the re-entry, it would become more like a bomb and crash land since the ship cannot fly. It's armor is moderate, less than what it would seem to need to be, but it's so huge due to the fact it often doubles as the main cargo carrier of the fleet that any small armor increase would make the ship move significantly slower.

TXS Cruisers: (Size 620m.) Ships that provide both heavy escort and attack capabilities for the main fleet as well as preform many of the attack duties of the fleet. Contain a mix of weaponry to deal with a mix of threats. Railguns provide all around attack power, but are mostly for Space to ground attacks, as they can be dodged by ships at long ranges. Missile banks include heavy and mico missiles for attacking various targets. Vulcan-style Lasers provide close-range defense. They can in a pinch be used to recover fighters, but not repair or re-supply them. These ships form the 2nd defense line.

TXS Destroyer Escorts: (Size: 150m.) Too small compared to the other ships be called Destroyers in the traditional navel sense, they are better called Destroyer escorts. Overall, they just have a few light rail guns and single bank of large missiles to deal with other ships. But they do have quite a number of micro missiles and Laser turrets to knock out fighters and missiles, providing much needed cover for the larger ships. Not quite as fast as they should be, but they can change direction pretty quickly. They comprise the 1st defense line along with the fighters. Also, due to TXS' massive use of material to build the facilities to make larger ships, the production of these smaller ships has been cutback. The board of directors and investors are more impressed with the larger ships than with the smaller ones, so thus an imbalance is created. Thankfully, enough fighters exist to support the DE's so that the two make an effective team.

TXS Cargo ships: Various ships designed to supplement the cargo capacity of the main fleet. Size varies but most are smaller than a cruiser, Few hands, and only a few weak Laser Vulcan means that these ships are generally better armored while maintaining a good speed. While the larger sized ships are space only, many smaller ships are designed to enter the atmosphere, make a controlled landing, and touchdown in quite rugged areas. Only to take off again with some kind of assistance.

It is interesting to note that sometimes ships that do this are given extra armor, not only to protect essential supplies from harm, but also as a way to give metal starved colonies extra scrap metal to use as well as reducing the weight of the cargo craft on it's path back up to the rest of the fleet.

This post has been edited by Lock-Os on Sep 30 2008, 06:56 AM

[Symphia]

Very good, Lock. A lot more than I expected. I still need to come up with a size and a doodle for a Minotaur class war ship, but I think yours are safely set. It would be wise to attempt to come up with classes to go along with the sizes.

Ignoring the attractive young woman in the pilot seat, this is what I propose the cockpits of the Talon-class fighters look like. linky!

This post has been edited by Symphia on Jul 13 2009, 08:15 PM

[hadess20]

Sym, your linky is dead.

just thought you should know.

{edit: hmph. works now. probably my ISP annoying me}