The Space Opera Working Thread

reply to post by nenothtu


Hey nenothtu, awesome representations, those turned out great, regardless of if we use them or not. What program are you using to render them if you don't mind my asking?

reply to post by nenothtu


Now that is one ship I wouldn't mind being a Chief Medical Officer in!

What kind of editing would you need on a ship like that?

reply to post by SeekerOfAUTMN


Celestia.It's freeware under the GNU license, with literally gigabytes of stuff you can add to it. If you google "celestia", it's the first link that pops up on the page.

From there you can download the program, and navigate to the "Celestia Motherlode", where gigabytes (8 or 10, I think) of addons can be downloaded as needed.

The starship models I used came from TurboSquid. They had around 750 spacecraft in 3ds format, but I stuck with the freebies. Celestia will only use models in 3ds or cmod formats.

Celestia will allow you to view all the stars in, for instance the hipparcos or tycho catalogs, in their actual positions, from anywhere. And then there's the planets and stuff... download pre-made or create your own... as I did in the case of the Khalamzadar system. I'm working off and on on an addon for Robert L Forward's "Rocheworld" too. It would be done now, if I could figure out how to make a spheroid atmosphere follow an egg-shaped planetary surface

edit to fix a typo and attribute the models used.

nenothtu out

[edit on 2009/3/18 by nenothtu]

Originally posted by DJMessiah
reply to post by nenothtu

 

Now that is one ship I wouldn't mind being a Chief Medical Officer in!

What kind of editing would you need on a ship like that?

The model is in *.3ds format, so anybody knowledgeable in CAD with software that would handle the format (it's a 3d Studio MAX format, but there's probably other software that will handle it) could probably modify it.

I'd try, but my CAD skills are... substandard. You should have seen what a time I had of trying to produce something as simple as an egg!

Im happy to take the role of chief engineer, although if possible I would still like this to be my first mission in space.

We could bring new writers in (new crew) during the story by docking at space stations. This will allow others to join in once we get going. Just a thought.

This is for the Penelope crew, titles can be added.. Captain, Chief Engineer, etc. Its up to you guys if you want to use them.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5b4e59a9e5d0.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/543ca1309487.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by nenothtu


I'm going to say this up front, excellent work, nenothtu - I like the design on the first one.

In about 30-40 minutes, I'm going to my room and I will lay down an entire specifications post for the Penelope.

I saw the creative weapons post - need to go get a better look at it and I'll let you know what I think. I'd like to leave major modifications to the department heads depending on what they think necessary for the ship, just run everything by me so we don't have a slew of random technology I know nothing about on board... lol

Penelope crew, feel free to add suggestions to what I post - I'm always up for advice on how things can be improved.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by mf_luder]

reply to post by John Q


That looks cool as hell - lol - a bit "Star Trekkish" but cool.

We'll keep it.

Good work!

Alright here it is!

USS Penelope - 11931
Venturer Class Carrier

Primary Function: Long Range Exploration

Crew

Total: 15,510

(I like the idea of having each department head determine his/her own needs for the total number of personnel in each section. The following information is JUST a suggestion and doesn't have to be considered gospel unless department heads like it.

Command Staff: 9
Navigation - Filled
Medicine - Filled
Science - OPEN
Engineering - Filled
Communciations - OPEN
Security - Filled
Supply - OPEN
Marine Commander - OPEN
Fighter Wing Commander - Filled

There should be at least 1000 - 2000 personnel attached to the Marine contingent to act as a defense/boarding force if needed.

There are a total of 72 Starfighters docked in the USS Penelope and they include the following:

1 Fighter Pilot, 5 Technicians, 5 Weapons Specialists. - - SO:
72 Pilots, 360 Techs and 360 Weapons Specs total.

The rest of the crew laydown I'll leave to my officers' discretion as to how they want to man their sections. The Total Crew number is just to provide PLENTY of leeway on number of personnel needed.

Nenothtu - as current head of security operations, you have operational control over all Marines on board until we get a proper Commander for that - you also have Security personnel.

Ship Functions

Weapons.

Seeker - I love your ideas for the weapons. Just give me some elaboration so I'll know what they do. We can incorporate them into the Penelope at any time. The following are my ideas:

Short Range: Armor Piercing Solid Projectiles
Shield Depleting Energy Rounds
Anti-Fighter Batteries

Long Range: Ship to Ship Capital Artillery Canister Guns (Heavy)
Ship to Space (Anti-Fighter) Canister Guns

Seeker, we can fit in yours wherever, just let me know something.

Defenses.

Static Repulsion Field (Anti-Projectile)
Triple Titanium amor plating
Energy dispersal fields
Anti Missle Chaff and Flak Tubes

Structure:

Six Bays capable of housing an overall total of 72 fighter craft, their support crews and their weaponry line the sides of the (design 1 picture)

The command center is locate on the top of the ship, near the center where the little round thing comes to a head. lol - sorry - I can't really elaborate better than that.

There are two primary medical facilities on board - one for normal crew operations and one for the fighter pilots/marines in case of injuries during ship to ship combat. (DJMessiah, if you have any suggestions for the medical stuff, feel free to pipe in at any time.)

The ship contains enough rooms and quarter to house all 15,510 personnel. We assume that like the Earth military of old, lower ranks equal more to a room to conserve space.

The Penelope contains two food processing and storage facilities, capable of sustaining a crew of 16,000 for 3 years without resupply. These facilities are paired with water treatment and recycling facilities capable of sustaining the same size crew for 2 years without resupply.

There is an on-board air generation facility which uses principles found in plant life to help generate oxygen and recycle it. Since this technology was discovered 100 years ago, it is able to run almost indefinitely these days.

The engines are twin Super-Quad 51J FTL "Bender" Drives. The exhaust cones are solely for sub-FTL travel, as the ship actually uses on-board wormhole generators to move about the galaxy. (JohnQ, as you are the Chief Engineer, this is your baby and I want to see you treat it as such. Chime in with any suggestions and modifications you'd like to see or make to the stock Earth design.)

Computers/Sensor Equipment

The ship has three primary computer banks.

The sensor systems work by three modes:

Passive Scan. - This mode is for detecting any upcoming threats or anomalies to the ship and is always running, regardless of alert status or any other running modes the ship may be in.

Active Scan. - This mode is for directly scanning any vessels, objects, etc. the crew would like to know more about.

Long-Range Scan. - This is high on power consumption but is capable of presenting near-real time data of the surrounding 500ly of space when used.

The ship does not carry probes.

Communications

A "Universal Translator" was a thing of fiction in the 20th century and for all practical purposes, may forever be. However, by using the knowledge amassed from all Earth languages, the Penelope's computers are able to analyze vocal and linguistic information gained from new species to attempt to build a common grounds for communication.

The ship can operate with the following limitations to communications:

Real Time for out to 50ly
Near Real time for out to 50-100ly with a delay of 5s.
Near Real time for out to 100-200lywith a delay of 10s.
Anything further is sent in a "data burst" which can take longer times depending on distance and method of receipt.

The ship has internal PA communications systems for intra-ship communications by the Captain and other ranking personnel.

The ship has an internal "personal use" system for personnel to call each other.

The ship has access to the "Galactic Interweb" - (Equivalent to the internet)

That's the first data dump I have.

I will add/edit/change more in the next few hours while I ponder over this.

Crew members please make suggestions as you see fit.


[edit on 18-3-2009 by mf_luder]

Some assumptions I'm making.

1) We're part of a fleet.

2) That fleet has established itself in the region as a part of an "Alliance" or "Unified League" of sorts.

3) We are part of Earth's Space-Borne Naval forces.

4) We can communicate with and interact with other ships in our fleet if necessary.

More to come.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by mf_luder]

A carrier, the USS Nimitz was lost in the Alpha Centauri region of space and our mission is to take the Penelope there to try and locate any signs of the missing crew. This mission is classified High Priority.

The USS Nimitz has not reported in for nearly two months now.

We are to investigate, search for survivors, and report our findings to Earth Command.

Opening Post (Edited update)

************************



NOTE

Suggestion for the opening post



Title:

The Voyages of the Penelope and the Yddryl

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d378fdcf5f0c.jpg[/atsimg]

Credit: www.cfa.harvard.edu...

(pic Optional]

From two distant locations in the universe, two ships depart at approximately the same time. Their destiny is to meet and an adventure awaits the brave crews stationed within their hulls.

Faster Than Light and capable of using wormholes, crammed with extensive technological advances, devastating firepower and defensive shields., they are a veritable match for each other.

( bla bla bla - suggestions accepted )





Starhip Penelope

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/87a4c44e0844.jpg[/atsimg]


(insert pic here)

-of Earth Federation, departs from LagrangeOne, a permanent orbital outpost situated near the home planet.

Crew

• Captain - mf_luder
  
• Senior Celestial Navigator - Fook Gai Dan
  
• Chief Medical Officer - DJMEsssiah
  
• Chief Security Officer - nenothtu
  
• Weapons Control Officer - WCO Seeker
  
• Navigator - whiterabbit85
  
• unassigned Ensign - John Q
  

Mission

A carrier, the USS Nimitz was lost in the Alpha Centauri region of space and our mission is to take the Penelope there to try and locate any signs of the missing crew. This mission is classified High Priority.

The USS Nimitz has not reported in for nearly two months now.

We are to investigate, search for survivors, and report our findings to Earth Command.



Command Staff: 9
Navigation - Filled
Medicine - Filled
Science - OPEN
Engineering - Filled
Communciations - OPEN
Security - Filled
Supply - OPEN
Marine Commander - OPEN
Fighter Wing Commander - Filled

There should be at least 1000 - 2000 personnel attached to the Marine contingent to act as a defense/boarding force if needed.

There are a total of 72 Starfighters docked in the USS Penelope and they include the following:

1 Fighter Pilot, 5 Technicians, 5 Weapons Specialists. - - SO:
72 Pilots, 360 Techs and 360 Weapons Specs total.

The rest of the crew laydown I'll leave to my officers' discretion as to how they want to man their sections. The Total Crew number is just to provide PLENTY of leeway on number of personnel needed.

Nenothtu - as current head of security operations, you have operational control over all Marines on board until we get a proper Commander for that - you also have Security personnel.

Ship Functions

Weapons.

Seeker - I love your ideas for the weapons. Just give me some elaboration so I'll know what they do. We can incorporate them into the Penelope at any time. The following are my ideas:

Short Range: Armor Piercing Solid Projectiles
Shield Depleting Energy Rounds
Anti-Fighter Batteries

Long Range: Ship to Ship Capital Artillery Canister Guns (Heavy)
Ship to Space (Anti-Fighter) Canister Guns

Seeker, we can fit in yours wherever, just let me know something.

Defenses.

Static Repulsion Field (Anti-Projectile)
Triple Titanium amor plating
Energy dispersal fields
Anti Missle Chaff and Flak Tubes

Structure:

Six Bays capable of housing an overall total of 72 fighter craft, their support crews and their weaponry line the sides of the (design 1 picture)

The command center is locate on the top of the ship, near the center where the little round thing comes to a head. lol - sorry - I can't really elaborate better than that.

There are two primary medical facilities on board - one for normal crew operations and one for the fighter pilots/marines in case of injuries during ship to ship combat. (DJMessiah, if you have any suggestions for the medical stuff, feel free to pipe in at any time.)

The ship contains enough rooms and quarter to house all 15,510 personnel. We assume that like the Earth military of old, lower ranks equal more to a room to conserve space.

The Penelope contains two food processing and storage facilities, capable of sustaining a crew of 16,000 for 3 years without resupply. These facilities are paired with water treatment and recycling facilities capable of sustaining the same size crew for 2 years without resupply.

There is an on-board air generation facility which uses principles found in plant life to help generate oxygen and recycle it. Since this technology was discovered 100 years ago, it is able to run almost indefinitely these days.

The engines are twin Super-Quad 51J FTL "Bender" Drives. The exhaust cones are solely for sub-FTL travel, as the ship actually uses on-board wormhole generators to move about the galaxy. (JohnQ, as you are the Chief Engineer, this is your baby and I want to see you treat it as such. Chime in with any suggestions and modifications you'd like to see or make to the stock Earth design.)

Computers/Sensor Equipment

The ship has three primary computer banks.

The sensor systems work by three modes:

Passive Scan. - This mode is for detecting any upcoming threats or anomalies to the ship and is always running, regardless of alert status or any other running modes the ship may be in.

Active Scan. - This mode is for directly scanning any vessels, objects, etc. the crew would like to know more about.

Long-Range Scan. - This is high on power consumption but is capable of presenting near-real time data of the surrounding 500ly of space when used.

The ship does not carry probes.

Communications

A "Universal Translator" was a thing of fiction in the 20th century and for all practical purposes, may forever be. However, by using the knowledge amassed from all Earth languages, the Penelope's computers are able to analyze vocal and linguistic information gained from new species to attempt to build a common grounds for communication.

The ship can operate with the following limitations to communications:

Real Time for out to 50ly
Near Real time for out to 50-100ly with a delay of 5s.
Near Real time for out to 100-200lywith a delay of 10s.
Anything further is sent in a "data burst" which can take longer times depending on distance and method of receipt.

The ship has internal PA communications systems for intra-ship communications by the Captain and other ranking personnel.

The ship has an internal "personal use" system for personnel to call each other.

The ship has access to the "Galactic Interweb" - (Equivalent to the internet)






Starship Yddril

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a348be2a8591.jpg[/atsimg]

(pic optional)

-of the Orion Alliance, departs from the Rigellian outpost in the Orion Nebula

Starship Yddryl


• Captain - Cadbury
  
• Pilot(?) - scurvy
  
• Communications Officer - visible_villain
  
• Navigation Officer - Skyfloating
  
• Empath/Chief Medical Officer - antar
  
• Special Ops - Whisper67
  
• Mascot - silo13
  

Their mission remains UNKNOWN

[edit on 18/3/09 by masqua]

Im OK with our ships design and whsipers67 hints at our interior design.

Lets make sure to move forward gently and slowly and not make any posts longer than one post (otherwise it will be impossible for ALL PARTICIPANTS to follow the story) Know what I mean....CAPTAIN CADBURY....

Im going to start out with a Character-Intro of my Character. It would be cool if you guys introduce your character too...

If there are any ideas or objections to what our ship looks like, speak up now.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by Skyfloating]

Question to our crew:

Should we keep our mission secret from the readership and the humans for now?

reply to post by Skyfloating

If there are any [other] ideas [about Yddrl's hull design], speak up now.

I kind of like this one -

Cool Starship

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9c2da3924d81.jpg[/atsimg]
Source : Starship Gallery

Originally posted by Skyfloating
Lets make sure to move forward gently and slowly and not make any posts longer than one post (otherwise it will be impossible for ALL PARTICIPANTS to follow the story) Know what I mean....CAPTAIN CADBURY....

Good plan.

I'm still holding off posting the new thread just yet. We may as well get the OP as well-designed as possible.

At some point before tomorrow night, though, we should get it finished because I'm off on a trip to Ottawa, the nation's capitol, on Friday to present a portrait to William Commanda on Saturday.

I'll be away for most of the weekend and NOT online. Too busy writing me speech and practising in front of my wife.

Originally posted by visible_villain
reply to post by Skyfloating

 

If there are any [other] ideas [about Yddrl's hull design], speak up now.

I kind of like this one -

Cool Starship

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9c2da3924d81.jpg[/atsimg]
Source : Starship Gallery

Oh Captain I LOVE it! (I would have boarded several xzctros ago however I am currently engaged in battle with the Rigellian underworld which has a hit on my entire Ancient and secret sect. of female warrioress's, the Zzonyaz.)

Seems they had prior intel that I would be traveling to the ships destination and have sent a small force of 5 Yylrons to stop me, not to worry, I will be arriving shortly...

The power to heal is the power to kill.

Of course Captain this is the main ship, any ideas of the individual Pods and their design?

Senior Celestial Navigator Fook Gai Dan, (Fooks), ready to go when you are Capt'n!

errrr, what year is this again?

reply to post by visible_villain


I like the fact that one of our own chose the design. Love it

Greetings.

Please, call my character Whisper. In 'Whispers' entrance aboard the Yddryl, she hints at the ship being organic in some manner.

What are thoughts of other crew members? A totally organic ship? An organic interior? I think we could use a '12 th man.' This could explain it's "unknown capabilities." The current ship doesn't look organic to me so, to save work of the talented mf-luder keep the ship? Make interior skin?

Regarding character introductions....I feel as if I've already kind of done this with Whispers two posts. Can I re-work these two existing posts to put in the main Opera thread? Something fresh? Wait to see what you do? lol

I've read, reread, and reread this thread again. Captn Cadbury said he would post updates within 48 hrs. What is expected of the rest of us? Hello nature - what is YOUR goal with our posting timing? I've been known to role play for 12 hrs at a time....straight ::blush:: But, as an adult with a family - not so practical today. You've all probably seen Whisper67 a lil too much posting lately (does that chic EVER shut up? lol) so it's no secret I *make* time to be on ATS but: I do take time out to get out of the house, take care of my family and another concern I have is.....it's the beginning of storm season and last year we lost electricity A LOT! And I live in the US' 13 largest city and *still* sometimes it can take days.

Now, I know how paranoid a lot of peeps are on ATS about personal information but, if someone doesn't mind. I would love to have a number I can text to in case of some dire emergancy to which I have no access to my 'puter. ::shrug:: U2U if you want - don't worry, I won't think we are 'best buds' and bug you all the time - only to be used in case of emergancy.

Here's my concerns in a nut shell as I haven't had my coffee infusion yet and I rambled:

*Yddryl - organic? as the ship looks now...um, not so organic but as Sky suggested, the interior could have and organic 'skin'

*Call me Whisper, please =) For those who don't know the story (kinda funny) I signed on to ATS as Whisper67 (shoulda just been whisper) anyhow when I clicked the sign up button my kitty walked across the puter and my s/n came up as Whisper6bi lmao - with Mod permission I was able to get a new account name - I've actually been official member since '08 lol ::blush::

*Post Timing Rules - I think this should be clarified. If a member goes rouge or just blows off the opera all togeather we should have guidelines. As my captain suggested...48 hrs?

*Intro post. Can I re-work and copy n past existing Whisper intro into main threads. I made reference to some Rigel culture and insight into my character. Is this okay for the beginning of opera to combine the two post and put in new thread?

*Any one in my team feel comfy enough to give me # to text to only for contact in case of emergancy?

Thanks all!!

To other fairly new members like myself - It could be helpful to workup your posts in word and then copy n paste to ATS. After losing a few long winded and well researched threads on ATS - this member has learned her lesson

[edit on 3/18/2009 by Whisper67]