MRO ship for Haber Corporation Idea

[VivienneA]

Hello,

I am new here. I am getting use to the game and talked with nozmanjer about coming up with some ships. The Haber corporation needs a mid range multi-role exploration shuttle. The Haber corporation is more about function than comfortable and looks. So, I am collecting ideas and pictures for a ship design and welcome feedback.

I am thinking a mid range and lightly modular ship with a crew capacity of 6 with long range scanner and an industrial shield generator. The minimum hardpoints are 2 and maybe maximum 4. Here are some pictures. I would like feedback. I circle the interesting points.

https://i.imgur.com/ORVO9Ry.png

https://i.imgur.com/mzVb2um.png

[bszlrd]

Some points and nitpicks:
- Haber won't name their ship after Galileo, they are quite uncreative people. I suggest something like "Medium Explorer" or "Interstellar Explorer" or "Long Endurance Explorer", or something along those straight to business unimaginative lines. (Haber being themselves)
- Exploration and shuttle are mutually exclusive in Pioneer, since shuttles in Pioneer lingo are low range/low deltaV ships. (And we don't support bringalong ships, yet hopefully).
- As of now you can only have two hardpoints: front and back. And a missile capacity on top of that.
- Same for shields, they are kinda granual: either you have none installed, or a number of them.
- And installed equipment isn't visible on the ship. Hopefully these will change too in the future.

I usually try to gather direct inspiration from real life stuff, instead of other people's work, to keep it fresher.
It seems to me that you are going straight to the details. I'm quite curious what you will come up with, but I advise you to post early and regilarly for feedback. And please don't go overboard with greebling, don't overdetail.
Usually I approach ship creation from the other direction. First I try to find an interesting shape, silhouette, structure then iterate and build on top of that.
And don't use the DSMiner for inspiration, that ship sticks out quite much from Pioneer, and I want to remodel it. I've already started in fact, but other stuff came along. You should find it here on the forums.

Edit:
Just saw your evening comments on IRC. Tail sitters aren't supported. Sadly, and hopefully yet.

[VivienneA]

Some points and nitpicks:
- Haber won't name their ship after Galileo, they are quite uncreative people. I suggest something like "Medium Explorer" or "Interstellar Explorer" or "Long Endurance Explorer", or something along those straight to business unimaginative lines. (Haber being themselves)
- Exploration and shuttle are mutually exclusive in Pioneer, since shuttles in Pioneer lingo are low range/low deltaV ships. (And we don't support bringalong ships, yet hopefully).
- As of now you can only have two hardpoints: front and back. And a missile capacity on top of that.
- Same for shields, they are kinda granual: either you have none installed, or a number of them.
- And installed equipment isn't visible on the ship. Hopefully these will change too in the future.

Point A
I understand what you mean. I think "Medium Range Explorer"

Point B
Add to point one instead of Explorer using the would Seeker or Observer(Observer can lend to the design I'm thinking). "Medium Range Observer"

Point C
Easily a obvious front hard point and one on the back. Top maybe the missile capacity.

Point D
Instead of a shield maybe just heavy plating.

Point E
Understood.

Final Point
I will look at some real life ideas. I always was a fan of the US "Avalanche" truck and the Tesla Semi, and the classic F14 Tomcat. So I'll think of some other ideas.

[VivienneA]

A idea.

http://i.imgur.com/7ND1DQT.jpg

The front part would be minimum living for 6. Pretty stripped down but big window observation bridge.

The large circle on the bottom are fuel tank covers.

[bszlrd]

Lookin' good, although it feels a bit less structured as it could be.
I kinda like the Medium Range Observer name, suggest the nefarious ways of Haber.
I've drawn over a sketch of some ideas, suggestions it could possibly go:

1. It could go towards a nose and general hull shape that resembles the Lunar Shuttle a bit. Like narrowing, then having a more elaborate nose with a narrower cockpit/bridge
2. I've elaborated the area at the docking collar a bit, kinda like what the Lunar shuttle has on it's belly
3. I've also elaborated the parts around the landing thrusters, so they feel more part of the overall structure. And I've shrinked the front ones, since most of the mass is on the back of the ship anyway. Nice idea to put them that high, makes landings more stable.
4. Added RCS pods to the front and back. The down pointing back RCS could also be stronger for landing balance reasons
5. I've added round propellant tanks to the end. I'd like to turn that into a Haber staple. With the large belly, there could be another third one at the center too I think.
6. I kept the engines where they were, but turned them a bit to be angled outwards (might overpronounced it, we'll see in the blocking phase). They could even become actually articulated engines, if somebody would pick up programming that feature. And with an attachment structure at the back, this way it could tow stuff, like extra cargo or propellant for longer travels.
7. I've put radiators to the engine pods.
8. The windows on the sides are spaced that way to account for the thrust gravity being along the longitudinal axis during thrust, so the interior layout should be more like a tower than an airplane
9. The nose part of the belly narrows in this sketch, but goes as long as the cockpit part. The clearance on the sides could house attachment points for weapons and extra equipment like scanner dishes and such. (not supported yet by the engine, so "hardcoded" for now, but hopefully somebody will pick up that eventually. - So it could really become a multirole hull with different loadouts and tow setups now that I think of it. ("General Purpose Craft")

[VivienneA]

Overall. I like.

My nitpicks
- The tanks I think should be diagonal medium size but tucked in the back not hidden. To me it throws the design off in a horizontal position. Plus I can imagine the heat level if exposed entering a atmosphere. You have a huge fireball waiting to happen.
- The top docking port was intended to relate to some engine core ejector. Im into Star Trek a lot but in this case I think its some circular vent slash cooler. The docking port should be more towards the front.
- As to the rear when model I can get a hardpoint. I think center towards the lowest part possible.
- Height when modeling I am think three building floors. Which is about 3.5 meters each

Lookin' good, although it feels a bit less structured as it could be.
I kinda like the Medium Range Observer name, suggest the nefarious ways of Haber.
I've drawn over a sketch of some ideas, suggestions it could possibly go:

1. It could go towards a nose and general hull shape that resembles the Lunar Shuttle a bit. Like narrowing, then having a more elaborate nose with a narrower cockpit/bridge
2. I've elaborated the area at the docking collar a bit, kinda like what the Lunar shuttle has on it's belly
3. I've also elaborated the parts around the landing thrusters, so they feel more part of the overall structure. And I've shrinked the front ones, since most of the mass is on the back of the ship anyway. Nice idea to put them that high, makes landings more stable.
4. Added RCS pods to the front and back. The down pointing back RCS could also be stronger for landing balance reasons
5. I've added round propellant tanks to the end. I'd like to turn that into a Haber staple. With the large belly, there could be another third one at the center too I think.
6. I kept the engines where they were, but turned them a bit to be angled outwards (might overpronounced it, we'll see in the blocking phase). They could even become actually articulated engines, if somebody would pick up programming that feature. And with an attachment structure at the back, this way it could tow stuff, like extra cargo or propellant for longer travels.
7. I've put radiators to the engine pods.
8. The windows on the sides are spaced that way to account for the thrust gravity being along the longitudinal axis during thrust, so the interior layout should be more like a tower than an airplane
9. The nose part of the belly narrows in this sketch, but goes as long as the cockpit part. The clearance on the sides could house attachment points for weapons and extra equipment like scanner dishes and such. (not supported yet by the engine, so "hardcoded" for now, but hopefully somebody will pick up that eventually. - So it could really become a multirole hull with different loadouts and tow setups now that I think of it. ("General Purpose Craft")

[VivienneA]

If there is no hardpoint at the rear weapons. I think one special unique quality like long rang scanner should the replacement and fits the role of the ship. It would need a high hull as plating.

At least something like that. The docking port on the last sketch can be the scanner.

[bszlrd]

- Not sure what do you mean by the tanks. Anyhow I suggest that you do a blockout first,where the proportions and placements are roughly worked out in 3D, before committing to anything.
- The docking port could go forward, could look good there too. Not sure about the vent/cooler part, but I'm curious about the details of that.* A scanner mount could go there too. Or an utility mount, along the lines of the customizability I mentioned.
- 3.5m floors feel rather excessive. Especially because there's no artificial gravity in Pioneer, so the layout should be serviceable both at belly down and under thrust (tail down - tower) orientation.

*: I'd say Star Trek habits won't fit too well with Pioneer. We are trying to aim for a somewhat more believable and less magitech setting. No artificial gravity or antigravity for example. There are shields, and my general assumption is that they are quite a power hog and can't be excessively miniaturized (no personal shields). And they are one of the reason for the high power - high efficiency engines, shielding the engine parts from the fusion plasma, and the atmospheric shielding is something similar.
(sidenote to @joonicks, if you read the forums: you could've pointed out this part as a counterargument when we were talking about star scooping: the plasma temperatures in the engines are comparable to stellar temperatures, so there must be some kind of protection against them. Anyhow I'd say we could do better than replicating E:D or Frontier when it comes to ISRU/propellant gathering gameplay)

[VivienneA]

Heres a link I did last night. Roughly.

https://imgur.com/a/qpil9

- Not sure what do you mean by the tanks. Anyhow I suggest that you do a blockout first,where the proportions and placements are roughly worked out in 3D, before committing to anything.
- The docking port could go forward, could look good there too. Not sure about the vent/cooler part, but I'm curious about the details of that.* A scanner mount could go there too. Or an utility mount, along the lines of the customizability I mentioned.
- 3.5m floors feel rather excessive. Especially because there's no artificial gravity in Pioneer, so the layout should be serviceable both at belly down and under thrust (tail down - tower) orientation.

*: I'd say Star Trek habits won't fit too well with Pioneer. We are trying to aim for a somewhat more believable and less magitech setting. No artificial gravity or antigravity for example. There are shields, and my general assumption is that they are quite a power hog and can't be excessively miniaturized (no personal shields). And they are one of the reason for the high power - high efficiency engines, shielding the engine parts from the fusion plasma, and the atmospheric shielding is something similar.
(sidenote to @joonicks, if you read the forums: you could've pointed out this part as a counterargument when we were talking about star scooping: the plasma temperatures in the engines are comparable to stellar temperatures, so there must be some kind of protection against them. Anyhow I'd say we could do better than replicating E:D or Frontier when it comes to ISRU/propellant gathering gameplay)

[VivienneA]

So I worked on the design some like we talked about.

That includes.
1) Increasing the width of the rear.
2) Increasing tank size. I think it's triple of what it originally was. It takes more volume.
3) Increase size of RCS.
4) Added some body mesh to show scale. The taller person is 1.9meters average US male height of 5.9 and female 5.4.
5) Added antennaes on front of ship to better hint to explorer and also more open window space.
6) Thinner legs.

The full gallery is at https://imgur.com/a/FTJeo

Different Views
https://imgur.com/VgZ1kCq
https://imgur.com/rUvXXwo
https://imgur.com/MqaLsBU
https://imgur.com/iJrpe1e

Same ship with wider top in the occupant part.
https://imgur.com/LxyxBUN

If someone has feedback post it on the thread. Thanks!