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Redundancy = survivability.

Here's an idea for our nacelle configuration. Look at my new avatar. Now imagine the fourth nacelle underneath and slightly behind the secondary hull. It could be in a "cross" formation, instead of an "X" formation. Just an idea.

The only problem is the placement of the nacelles on the horizontal axis. According to Roddenberry's rules of ship design, the nacelles must be visible from in front of the ship, not hidden behind any part of the hull.

Mikey wrote:The only problem is the placement of the nacelles on the horizontal axis. According to Roddenberry's rules of ship design, the nacelles must be visible from in front of the ship, not hidden behind any part of the hull.

If you were looking straight on, all four would be visable, because (and I'm assuming here) that we wouldn't be using a wide-galaxy style primary hull, or with the "neck" connecting the two hulls. but something closer to a Sovereign or even Prommie style. So all four nacelles WOULD be visable from the front, just slightly on either side, port and starboard, and ventral and dorsal. Like a "+" instead of an "x"

So the left and right nacelles would be somewhat above or below the level of the saucer section?

Mikey wrote:So the left and right nacelles would be somewhat above or below the level of the saucer section?

I'm seeing them as just under, similar to Voyagers at impulse speeds.

Here are a couple rough scans of some even rougher sketches. Keep in mind, I'm no artist, draftsman, or any other such qualified person. I just wanted to contribute and do some drawling. If you look at the ventral sketch (behind the link) hopefully you can get an idea for the profile of the ship - the one at the very top of the other pic isn't really want I want. I'm goin for the 'carved out' look, using geometric shapes carved out in various ways to make everything look Freakin' Sweet. In Theory anyway. And I want the deflector dish to look like the wide, open mouth of a fish. Similar the grill of a 50s classic car... Some sort of tough-looking toothy frown.



Another behind a URL because it doesn't load properly in the forum:
http://www.earmeister.com/sc00572af202.jpg

Thats interesting....its almost as though you've adapted a Nebula design.....very interesting.

Reliant121 wrote:is there a way to make doggy style with numbers?

Dang, I used to know this one

Interesting design, but the nacelles seem a tad small to me.

Could be, Rochey. I didn't worry too much about the nacelles for these scribbles. But I did kinda think that having 4 engines could meant that each one could be smaller, like the Stargazer. Just an idea though.

I guess it does look a little like the Nebula. A four-legged nebula. But there's a secondary hull beneath the saucer section. Actually I realized last night that I was after a Hammerhead Shark look, with the fat curved mouth=DD, flat nose=Saucer, and slender body=sec. hull.

For fun I thought I'd try and download a 3d CAD program, to see if I could do some modeling with it, but Holy Moly, it's too complicated for the casual user... It took me an hour to make an ugly crescent-shaped grey blob. I downloaded 'Alibre Design' which apparently is actually meant for designing mechanical parts and not fictional starships. I don't know why in the world I thought it'd be easy - "All I have to do is enter every vertex, then connect them all."

Something like these?:
















Now, mind that these are super low-def; just a basic model (not even a bridge, impulse engines or deflector), and no textures.

Thats pretty much what I had in mind but I would make the saucer a bit pointier like a Promethius. Also the bridge is inside the ship so it wont show on the outside.

I might also make the saucer longer and pull it back over the top nacelles a bit so they are covered on the dorsal surface by the saucer.

I'll see what I can do.

I really like the 2nd and 4th view of the ship.