There is more stuff standarised in real life. The dimensions of the Titanic were restricted by the Panama channel. And a lot of ships are limited in size by the Suez channel.
I thought that still the locks of the Panama channel set the de facto standard for ship-building, since they are the smallest of any of the big channels? (Although the channel is currently rebuilt specifically to address this problem, i.e. install bigger locks.)
Eric Walch wrote:
One of the things that aren't standardized are refrigerators. My sister moved from Ireland to Germany earlier this year and bought a nice new fridge for her new apartment. On delivery, the fridge didn't fit through the front door.... The other part of the family had a big laugh of course.
Although this sounds more like a problem of non-standardardized front doors. Or perhaps in Ireland they are building houses around the pre-installed fridge?
It is alleged the size of the shuttle was limited by the size of its solid fuel rockets, which were limited by the size of the tunnel they had to get through from where they were built, which was determined by the size of a train track, which was determined by the width of the wheels of a cart, which was determined by how wide the @rse of two horses were side by side...
Probably apocryphal but I like the concept...
Probably true to an extent, in that everything is built on everything that's gone before. Some things – like train tunnels – do get literally set in stone.
What you could get, instead of vast new ships that require vast new docking bays, could be vast new ships that split chunks of themselves off, like Thargoid's Hammerhead ... you'd only really be likely to find them in systems that are both very rich and very populous, where that level of bulk hauling could be profitable.
The problem with giant stations at super-tech super-rich systems...is they have no connecting points elsewhere.
Trade between 2 super-tech super-rich systems will no doubt pale in comparison than between 1 and lower tech raw resource systems. This means in those lower tech systems there needs to also be a huge ship handling facility/station, otherwise raw materials will only be arriving a thimble-full (Anaconda!) at a time. The amount of ship traffic would have to go up to stupid levels to move a fraction of what is done on Earth's oceans currently. 1000's of Anacondas per day!
In case anyone has actually done the math, regular stations docking port have VERY slow ship passage times. I'd say only about 2-4 a minute docking. And leaving times aren't much better.
1) Most hyper rich systems are connected to more than one system, so handling the extra traffic is destination related. Also that is assuming the vast majority of the traffic is trade based. Many people fly into a high tech system for many reasons.
2) It would be an optional oxp, if the concept seems reasonable then our public can deicide.
3) Ok I know I only said 2 but it's a minor 2 only really 2.5 .... THINK OF THE EYE CANDY! rotating station ringed with girders, walk ways and trusses like some strange dynamo. Flying into a massive station port with ships docked in bays on either side as you float gently towards the reception portal.
I like the idea of feeling that your part of something bigger.
Even the SuperHub station cannot handle many ships docking/launching at once with the current way it behaves.
And I do not want the super-rich systems that act as destination hubs to be absolutely crawling with freighter traffic, some 100x as much as currently seen!
So I must assume that planets are almost entirely self-sufficient and 99+% of ship traffic is basically for luxuries. (Not Luxury class cargo canisters, but rather "specialty" foods, expensive textiles, ultra high-tech computers, etc.)
A low tech poor agricultural world certainly won't be buying computers at 102 credits/TC for subsistence dirt farmers, so it just means there's either a rich elite buying these or even the worst-off worlds still do as well as citizens of Earth's richer nations.
Keep in mind Earth today probably wouldn't rate as Tech Level 1, definitely multi-government, and probably "poor agriculture"...so all the ocean ship traffic it has may be how little low tech worlds might trade on their surface.
1) Most hyper rich systems are connected to more than one system, so handling the extra traffic is destination related. Also that is assuming the vast majority of the traffic is trade based. Many people fly into a high tech system for many reasons.
2) It would be an optional oxp, if the concept seems reasonable then our public can deicide.
3) Ok I know I only said 2 but it's a minor 2 only really 2.5 .... THINK OF THE EYE CANDY! rotating station ringed with girders, walk ways and trusses like some strange dynamo. Flying into a massive station port with ships docked in bays on either side as you float gently towards the reception portal.
I like the idea of feeling that your part of something bigger.
I've had this very idea (the 3rd one) in mind for a little while, as I have something that would make it work story-wise. And a few little things that might make it even more of an active station like "elevators" running along some of the trusses and things like that.
But unfortunately I haven't had time to code anything much (although the basics of the code for the elevators is tested and works, and is part of the code in the Emerald liner) and won't have in the near future as work-life has gotten too busy...
I've had this very idea (the 3rd one) in mind for a little while, as I have something that would make it work story-wise. And a few little things that might make it even more of an active station like "elevators" running along some of the trusses and things like that.
But unfortunately I haven't had time to code anything much (although the basics of the code for the elevators is tested and works, and is part of the code in the Emerald liner) and won't have in the near future as work-life has gotten too busy...
I too have had this idea... I got the modeling done but was completely stumped with the coding so I gave up, the model is probably still floating around on interstallar hard-drive somewhere.
Perhaps Superhubs might connect galactic sectors instead? Maybe deciding on placement would be a matter of linking this chart system rich industrial high tech level corporate state with the next chart system poor agricultural low tech anarchy, or whatever works best or seems practical. Trade routes might not be so obvious, even within the same sector.
Take an idea from one person and twist or modify it in a different way as a return suggestion so another person can see a part of it that can apply to the oxp they are working on.
So I must assume that planets are almost entirely self-sufficient and 99+% of ship traffic is basically for luxuries. (Not Luxury class cargo canisters, but rather "specialty" foods, expensive textiles, ultra high-tech computers, etc.)
I find that an perfectly sensible assumption, given that the planet we ourselves happen to inhabit is almost entirely self-sufficient, too.
Obviously it wouldn't make much sense to get the bulk of your every-day consumables from light years away. So I have always thought that the commodities are exactly like you put it, specialties, rare and exotic fabric, etc. It's also clear that the trade on the stations—even if we assume that there is not only one station in orbit, but many—can't account for more than a fraction of a planet's GDP. So obviously the huge bulk of trade must be intra-planetary, not inter-planetary.
Absolutly amazing ideas for ship designs in here
Ye there is a BUT;
Why would a super huge cargo ship need to dock atall in space? You wouldn't even need shuttles.
You just throw the stuff. With computer controled throwers and catchers.
After all that is more or less how we got to the moon, just threw them up with less computing power than a modern digital watch.
Dead easy.
Last edited by Alex on Sat May 28, 2011 2:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
LOOK OUT!!! OOPS.. "Press Space" Commander
If you do not see "Press Space" more often than you want.. Your not trying!
I'd like to see stations have more than one docking port, something that size on earth would have several docks, the Coca-Cola factory near where I work has 4 docks. And that wouldn't be 1 tenth the size of a Oolite Station.
Very good point Cmdr ADCK.
Though a rotating station would only have 2 at most, along the axis of rotation.
Then again... Wouldn't it be a huge laugh trying to dock on a rotating side?
My first few hours in elite were very informative (had wrote wasted) learning how to dock
LOOK OUT!!! OOPS.. "Press Space" Commander
If you do not see "Press Space" more often than you want.. Your not trying!
Then again... Wouldn't it be a huge laugh trying to dock on a rotating side?
You wouldn't make that a docking port...but it might work ok as a launching port! That way ships could launch on a vector unlikely to interfere with the docking port traffic oriented on the axis of rotation.
I'd like to see stations have more than one docking port, something that size on earth would have several docks, the Coca-Cola factory near where I work has 4 docks. And that wouldn't be 1 tenth the size of a Oolite Station.
Well, yes. But of course also your factory's docking bays have much less than 1/10 the size of a single standard Oolite docking bay.
Although this sounds more like a problem of non-standardardized front doors. Or perhaps in Ireland they are building houses around the pre-installed fridge? 
