I’ve talked about ship design elements and modern-day technologies for spaceship weaponry. So now it’s time to do a little structured worldbuilding.
Space fighting with overpowered ships is exciting, but realistically, there are trade offs when designing a ship for power vs. maneuverability. So, how do I decide what types of defensive and offensive capabilities a ship should have?
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In my Drifting Amalgams series, the planet of Barpadai is a sort of Swiss Bank of the universe. Because Barpadai sees a lot of visitors. I decided to create an elite patrol force to manage the planet’s proximal space. The Pallas’s Class Interdiction Prowler or PCIP design was created by answering these four questions for balancing ship systems and capabilities.
How Hostile is the Territory the Spaceship Travels?
Let’s talk about how likely a ship is to be in a hostile situation. My rule of thumb here is that ships in routinely hostile space are resourced in favor of offensive and defensive capabilities while ships traveling in safe space pay more attention to comfort of the crew and passengers.
For a ship that routinely transports passengers from one allied planet to another, for instance, I would route most of the power to temperature control, entertainment systems, etc. Likewise, I’d design limited shielding capabilities and basic to moderate maneuvering and escape abilities because passenger transport routes are safer than routes through unclaimed space.
Conversely, cargo ships carrying valuable goods through hostile space, would need heavy shielding, lethal weaponry, and/or turbo power to speed away.
PCIPs need speed and maneuverability to outflank or chase down intruders. Therefore, I designed sleek, basic exteriors with a compact sensory and communications array. Thrusters burn efficiently with a special blend of fuel known for its turbo boosting power.
How does the Design meet the Crew’s Needs?
User compatibility of a ship is often taken for granted, but it can be an important narrative detail for adding color or personality to a story. Additionally, these details can be used to explain situational reaction time and critical ship failures.
For instance, having mute ship operators who require a neural interface for propelling and maneuvering the ship could mean that reaction times are faster than manually controlled ships–because ship control is happening at the speed of thought.
Life support is another area of interest here. If the users’ preferred air composition is easy to produce and contain within the ship, they may be able to avoid catastrophic life support failures in certain situations.
Using the PCIPs as an example: These ships’ pilots are a leopard-like people whose hands allow them to operate manual controls. Artificial intelligence can give recommendations, but has no direct control of ship’s weapons. This feature allows patrol officers to assess various situations and determine when to disable, damage, or destroy a suspicious vessel. Controls also respond to various purring frequencies–a vocal command system that can be used to lock enemies out of control systems.
How Does the ship Detect a Threat?
Not only does a ship’s crew need to remain alert when entering hostile space, but they need a ship that can detect threats early.
Basic detection like radar or lidar are imperative. But high-end ships likely won’t stop there. A high-tech option may include artificial intelligence that not only senses enemy presence from a distance but avoids or destroys enemies automatically.
It is also important to remember that not all ships encountered in hostile space will necessarily be enemies–even if they look like enemies at first glance. Therefore, a means of ship-to-ship communication or enemy identification, like DNA-based lifesign detection, is useful.
The combined sensory and communications array of Prowler ships allows them to detect ships from a significant distance as well as communicate with unregistered ships both visually and verbally. These arrays are shielded and have multiple backups to ensure that one hit from an enemy ship does not disable main functionality.
Does Fight make more Sense than Flight?
Light vs. heavy conflict will affect how extensive offensive and defensive capabilities are.
Additionally, if the ship is meant to escape dangerous situations–rather than engage an enemy–the design needs to have a reduced size, no irregular shaping, fuel efficiency, and a powerful energy source. These qualities will allow speed, maneuverability and the ability to shield against foreign objects that it may hit at high speeds.
PCIPs are not meant to engage in heavy combat. They are, instead, investigatory by nature and serve to determine if a vessel needs to be immobilized or destroyed by computer-driven defense systems. Therefore, resources of these ships are designed for passive defense and interception. Their sleek design, fast thrusters, maneuverability, and efficient fuel source allow them to perform their function.
Because some vessels will immediately engage Prowlers, they have been equipped with electrical and radio neutralizers, an array of weapons that can be deployed just before a fast escape, and heavy shielding to protect the patrol officers during confrontation.
Now, all that’s left is to show the model build of the Pallas’s Class Interdiction Prowler.
Until next time, keep creating.
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