Even if my entire narrative happened in space (it doesn’t, by the way), I need more than just fighting vessels. What are everyday people doing in this world of many planets? And what is my writing process for designing for luxury versus functionality?
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The po’ongabel of my Drifting Amalgams universe once built a now-defunct maglev train system. For this chat, I’ll talk about the interior design of po’ongabel trains to walk through my writing process for conceptualizing vehicle interiors.
Morphology Matters: Who is the Vessel Designed For?
The vessel’s user is the first thing I consider when designing vehicles. The size of the interior, whether it has seats, options for maneuvering around other passengers, and even the top speed of the vehicle all start from here.
For instance, po’ongabel are stout compared to your average human. They can walk on two or four limbs. Plus, they commonly hang in and swing through trees. A po’ongabel maglev vehicle would need a wide interior. Additionally, to ensure that I accounted for their unique physiology, I created double decker trains that allow passengers to hang from handles in the top section.
What is the Primary Purpose and Function of the Vessel?
Ultimately, design is only as good as function, so for every vessel I design, I think:
Is the vessel for passengers, cargo, or something else? This helps determine how much space is needed for seating or sleeping as well as how much of the vessel has to be pressurized or life-support capable.
As a fast-speed passenger vehicle, the po’ongabel maglev train is designed for people, which means it has the comforts of a train or plane–with seats and luggage compartments.
How many people (including crew) will be in the vessel? The more people in the vessel, the bigger the vessel. But this decision needs to be balanced against functionality because vessel size can affect speed, maneuverability, and ability to be detected.
Po’ongabel cities are dense, high-population areas. Accordingly, these vehicles are large enough to support high capacity while maintaining an aerodynamic design for speed and maneuverability.
Should the vessel be comfortable? This question affects size, resourcing, and equipping. Comfort requires greater amounts of interior space per person, and luxury vessels may have fancy food capabilities or exercise equipment. Plush furniture or entertainment capabilities that would not be available in a bare bones vessel may also be included. These extravagences may need to come at the cost of extra fuel needed or expansive crews to maintain luxury systems.
While there is a nod to comfort in the maglev, that is not its primary focus. Seats and hanging handles are padded, and the width of aisles and seats matches that of the average po’ongabel. However, as a major means of public transit, the maglev train had no other conveniences designed into it.
Will the vessel be in an uncomfortable atmosphere? Beyond the fact that any vessel leaving the atmosphere will spend time in the discomfort of space, a vessel may also find its way to an atmosphere that is unlike the one it left.
For instance, if it’s a manned cargo vessel, it may make inter-planetary runs. Similarly, a vessel meant to transport passengers from one planet to another, will potentially encounter two different atmospheres. Thus, considerations would need to be made for ensuring the crew and/or passengers are able to adjust to the air and gravity. Spacesuits or environmental control devices may need to be envisioned.
Though the po’ongabel maglev is transport designed for travel on planet only, some cities have a much greater elevation than others. Because of this, there are on-board alerts indicating when the atmosphere is changing–and to what degree.
Will the vessel be in “hostile space”? Depending on the level of drama or conflict in the scenes affecting the vessel and crew, this can be a big one. This determines whether the vessel has defensive or offensive capabilities.
I discussed this in greater detail in my chat on designing ships for potentially hostile situations, so check out the link in the description if that’s a topic that interests you. But for my purposes here, I’ll mention that the now-defunct po’ongabel maglev train has no current need for defensive capabilities. Further, because it was meant as public transit, it was not designed with any weaponry.
How long is an average trip? Long trips with a lot of passengers usually result in high comfort and/or stasis chambers. Short trips can have less luxury and can have fewer resources designed around protecting people and cargo.
Trips on the po’ongabel maglev are rarely more than a couple hours, so it’s little more than a short plane trip. No need for it to be any more comfortable than your average bus.
This is just a starting point, though. There are many other ways to expand on these ideas, but these questions help me build the baseline for sci fi world building all my vessels.
Until next time, keep creating.