Dave McRoss wrote:Ehm...nice job of research, you show a lot of patience and a uncommon will to complete the task. Kudos to you!
But I noticed the sizes:
I compare them with real aircrafts/spacecrafts...and I'm a little perplexed:
The Adder is only 2,5 meters short of a B-52 (lenght 48,5).
The Space Shuttle (I'm talking about the Orbiter Vehicle) is 37,23m long.
IHMO they're too much big. All of them.
Like the other guys said, there are a lot of threads in these boards which started when people made a similar observation to yours.
But the matter is very simple. I guess you are actually playing Oolite. So I guess you have seen other ships in space, followed them, shot at them, etc. Therefore simply ask yourself: did their size seem okay to you while playing? How would it be if they all were just half as big as they actually are (or even smaller)? Would you ever even see any of them (I mean, notice details on them, not just a single pixel or two for a ship)? Would that be satisfying for your gameplay? I guess not. And that's precisely the reason why all structures (not only ships, but stations as well) are deliberately bigger in Oolite than in RealLife™.
Note: Elite/Oolite is a game, not a proper space simulation.
Dave McRoss wrote:PS: Try to compare the cabin's glasses with those of real vehicles. This is like to have a wall of an house entirely made of glass or space-resistant trasparent material. They're shaped for a smaller ship (look at Viper).
Well, yes,
if Oolite were a realistic space simulation, which it isn't, and never claimed to be.
And actually, even if Elite/Oolite were a space simulation, the answer would be no. Would you actually really expect a space ship to have cabin glasses in the first place?
The usual explanation is that there are no glasses at all on a ship, and the cabin is not located directly behind the hull, but buried somewhere safe deep inside the ship, and has a view screen which is connected to some cameras on your ship's hull. So, whatever the blue fields on the front parts of the ships signify, they are certainly
not windows.