[BFG] - Designing new ship types - 3d printing madness

[Islacrusez]

You mean through periscopes? If I recall correctly modern submarines only use those thing occasionally, mainly relying on sensors and GPS. In the darkness of space, like deep underneath the sea, visibility is rather limited, especially if you want to look a couple of kilometers away.

They use their sensors to navigate, though you still need to be able to do it the old fashioned way from the surface if needed. They use a search periscope which is all fancy and electronic, but for the actual torpedo attack, it's the attack periscope, a smaller, simpler device - purely optical, mirrors and the mk1 eyeball.


I quite like the smaller turrets, though the recesses they sit in could be bigger to facilitate their theoretical turning. The shot you posted highlights what was feeling a bit off about the main guns (for me). Could you do a version with the main guns having a small extension on the back, sort of a counterbalance, extending aft of the pivot circle?

[Malika]

They use their sensors to navigate, though you still need to be able to do it the old fashioned way from the surface if needed. They use a search periscope which is all fancy and electronic, but for the actual torpedo attack, it's the attack periscope, a smaller, simpler device - purely optical, mirrors and the mk1 eyeball.

But that would mean there is daylight right? I mean...night vision isn't the greatest for long distance stuff if I'm not mistaken. How would they deal with this in total darkness? I would imagine using a periscope then would be quite a pickle!

I quite like the smaller turrets, though the recesses they sit in could be bigger to facilitate their theoretical turning.

Good point! I'm working on that as I'm typing this. The only potential problem that might not arise is that the stl conversion might mess some parts up, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Another thing to keep in mind is that these turrets are 2.75mm wide, making all sorts of gaps around it is more realistic when looking at the model from very close, but once printed you'll hardly see it, unless you use a magnifying glass or something.

The shot you posted highlights what was feeling a bit off about the main guns (for me). Could you do a version with the main guns having a small extension on the back, sort of a counterbalance, extending aft of the pivot circle?

I quickly fixed that! Back of the turrets have been beefed up a bit as you suggested. The only problem I have with it is that the gun feel slightly too clunky now.

[Islacrusez]

They use their sensors to navigate, though you still need to be able to do it the old fashioned way from the surface if needed. They use a search periscope which is all fancy and electronic, but for the actual torpedo attack, it's the attack periscope, a smaller, simpler device - purely optical, mirrors and the mk1 eyeball.

But that would mean there is daylight right? I mean...night vision isn't the greatest for long distance stuff if I'm not mistaken. How would they deal with this in total darkness? I would imagine using a periscope then would be quite a pickle!

Remember they have been doing it since WW2, so I imagine they have ways of dealing with it.

The shot you posted highlights what was feeling a bit off about the main guns (for me). Could you do a version with the main guns having a small extension on the back, sort of a counterbalance, extending aft of the pivot circle?

I quickly fixed that! Back of the turrets have been beefed up a bit as you suggested. The only problem I have with it is that the gun feel slightly too clunky now.

Hummmmm. *ponders*

[Malika]

Wanted to give the ship a little bit more shape. However, I'm not too fond of wings and such on these ships. So I decided to beef up the torpedo prow a bit, thereby making it look more heavily armored, and making it more distinguishable from the stern:

[Islacrusez]

Thin ass, fat prow, that just ain't right. Maybe try pulling the nose into a point? I think we had a version of this at one point, hehe. The centremost block can remain square, just pull it forward a bit (not too far).

[Malika]

I've returned to the original prow since the beefier one meant the ship would shoot itself whilst trying to hit enemies that are straight in front of it. However, I did start working on some communication/navigation arrays, still early WIP though:


@Islacrusez: Hmm, need to ponder a bit about the front. I like the idea of it being more heavily armored, making the shape of the ship more 'mace'/'club'/'hammer' like rather than sword like. So a blunt front rather than a pointy one.

[Islacrusez]

Why do you want to armour the front so much if most of your firepower can't shoot forward?

[Malika]

I don't know actually, it makes no real sense, especially since these aren't ramming ships or anything. One reasoning I had behind it was that the torpedoes would need extra protection.

[Islacrusez]

Hmm, where does that idea come from I wonder? Could it be perhaps the nature of BFG's torpedoes and how they so often hide behind armoured prows?

[Malika]

Hmm, where does that idea come from I wonder? Could it be perhaps the nature of BFG's torpedoes and how they so often hide behind armoured prows?

Most definitely! I feel as if I'm a bit trapped in my own inspirations, I mean I've looked at BFG a lot for this project, but sometimes I wonder if I look a bit too much at it.

[Islacrusez]

Hehe, trapped in your inspirations and by your aspirations it seems; I think you're too fixated on not following established ship designs (or certain aspects) that you're not looking at inspiration, references etc as a precaution to try and insulate yourself from outside influence. What you need to do is look at as much inspiration as possible, and decide for yourself how you want your ship to look and what elements you want to use. Sure you'll end up largely remixing existing ideas and conventions, but if you also use realworld influences as well as obscure fiction, you'll end up with something that is both partially original and not breaking boundaries too much as to make people dislike it.

There's also the function vs form debate; as long as both are given enough consideration, it doesn't really matter which gets priority. It also helps that if you go the function above form route, that the function makes sense.

[Malika]

Been experimenting with other prow mounted weapons:


Not fully sold yet, but I did make the prow multipart, meaning that the torpedo bays and sensor/comms array are separate pieces. I'm not too fond yet of the new frontal weapons, I think I'll need to design some totally new weapons rather than try to regurgitate the existing energy weapons.

Oh yeah...notice that little change at the back?

[Malika]

By the way, in the meantime I've updated the communication arrays a bit. The one on the front still needs a lot of work though.




Whilst I'm personally not so much into the idea of having a bridge on the ship, the communication arrays do give people the option to count that part of the ship as a bridge if they'd wanted to, they could even try to paint tiny windows on that part of the hull!

[Malika]

The lovely fellows over at Resin Addicts (check the place if you're interested in scratchbuilding/casting your models yourself) gave me some feedback, which kinda inspired me. Got the suggestion I should try to beef up the size of the engine itself, it didn't really work out. However, it did enable me to further chop up the ship:



This way the ship has become even more modular, allowing you to really go crazy with different designs. Really need to start rebuilding the heavy turret component and some turret variants...

[Blindhorizon]

I really like this ship it's almost to the point you should stop fiddLing with it. I will say I absolutely hate the big guns sticking out the front of the noses on your ships. I think you need to shorten them and find a way to make them fit In with your design better.