Why ships aren't round

[Eldon]

Hello to you famously friendly lot,

I've been doing some messing around, thinking about redesigning the various ships to have a more "realistic" (to me at least) feel. More rocket shaped, engines placed to give even thrust around the centre line, that sort of thing.

I found I had a small problem with the python: the distinctiveness of its shape comes from it being flat. Make it round and there's no way it will be a python any more.

This got me thinking, if all the ships are roundish, why is the docking slit rectangular, instead of square, or even circular. An easy enough change to make, sure. But really, that would change the game far too much. It just wouldn't be oolite if you could dock and not have to worry about rotating to match the station.

The thinking cap went on, and eventually I realised that the reason many ships are roughly flat is so they can fit out of a docking port easier. Why not change the way docking ports are made? Because the station uses a force-field that keeps gases in but allows solid objects out. Said force-field has a catch though, it needs emitters to be reasonably close together, so you can make the bay as wide as you like, but have problems making it any taller.

Thoughts, ideas, better explanations?

[Smivs]

Hi Eldon, and welcome.
That's as good an explanation as any.

[Commander McLane]

Hi Eldon, and first of all welcome to the boards, and of course to this great game! I notice you've been registered for over a year, but the first post is an appropriate place for a welcome.

Your explanation for the shape of the docking slit seems sensible. But why do you think that the ship shapes are roundish? I don't think they are, but would consider the majority in fact flattish. You noticed it yourself for the Python. The two Cobras are flat as well. So are the Adder, the Asp, the Gecko, the Sidewinder, the Fer-de-Lance, the Krait, the Mamba, the Transporter, the Worm, and the two Viper types. I would view only the Anaconda, the two Boas, the Morays, and the Shuttle as having a roundish cross-section.

[Eldon]

perhaps instead of "if all the ships are roundish" I should have said "if I make all the ships roundish"? I realise the most of the basic ships aren't round, (its not just the flight model that's "aeroplanes in space" ) this was just something I got to thinking about as part of a redesign exercise. Most of the ones that aren't are wing like, which can be adapted, or left for atmospheric entry, but the python would have looked wrong either way.

[DaddyHoggy]

Dips into thread I thought was going to be a EE 'Doc' Smith philosophical discussion about ship design...

Greetings Eldon.

Dips back out again - 100+ unread threads/posts still to go!

[Switeck]

Rock Hermits do have a semi-round entry port.

Before the standardized main stations appeared, whatever came before them probably had even smaller, simpler docking ports. ...which would explain the flat profiles of the Python and Cobra 1.

Large trade ships could only start appearing in significant numbers once stations could easily support them.

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Daddydoggy: I love your reference to EE smith( I have the whole series and have worn out 2 sets in reading them) but do not forget: Andre Norton in her Time traders and other books have globes for space sips. Same for Ken Sawyer's far Seer trilogy/ where the alien blue vessels are VAST spheres. Others like the Pern series has cylindrical vessels. Only here in Oolite and elite have I seen the flat vessels. A question: since all of our ships never go Planetside... why should they have wings or winglike structures(other than to hold fuel or weapons). In space, it doesn't matter if pods are on the outside as there is no drag or turbulence to affect them. However, this is all hypothetical for oolite as the game would radically be different if changes were made to space ship construction.

Thanks for all your thought provoking insights.
Yah-Ta-Hey

[DaddyHoggy]

Daddydoggy: I love your reference to EE smith( I have the whole series and have worn out 2 sets in reading them) but do not forget: Andre Norton in her Time traders and other books have globes for space sips. Same for Ken Sawyer's far Seer trilogy/ where the alien blue vessels are VAST spheres. Others like the Pern series has cylindrical vessels. Only here in Oolite and elite have I seen the flat vessels. A question: since all of our ships never go Planetside... why should they have wings or winglike structures(other than to hold fuel or weapons). In space, it doesn't matter if pods are on the outside as there is no drag or turbulence to affect them. However, this is all hypothetical for oolite as the game would radically be different if changes were made to space ship construction.

Thanks for all your thought provoking insights.
Yah-Ta-Hey

Why thank you!

With regards to ship designs - I have a few - interrelated - explanations:

1) Some ships can go planetside - Moray and Adder the two most obvious from the literature (The Worm can too - but that's a brick with an engine and not a 'wing')
2) People like what they already know - I can imagine a cross-over point where companies that had previously built "aircraft" moved into building spacecraft - probably low-orbit stuff to start with, then interplanetary as the engine and shield tech advanced - but they had to take their market with them - so ship designs were modified to include the new engines, scoops and shields but basically remained as wings...

[fronclynne]

I was going to buy a bucky-ball house, but then I realised my refrigerator isn't round. Round windows are harder to manufacture, too. & don't even get me started on round cats.

[Smivs]

& don't even get me started on round cats.

You talking about me?

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Commander smivs... That is ONE big cat... I thought that my 20 pounder was big but I bow before your king (queen) cat.

Bowing to you
Yah-Ta-Hey