Fallout: Equestria Resource

So, Kashin got a lot of cool Enclave ships vectored, and after I rendered him his "Eye of the Storm" (featured in Operation: Flankorage), I thought I'll also render the Raptor and the Thunderhead.
Designs are Kashin's, renders are mine.

Raptor-class Dragonslayer Destroyer

Thunderhead-class Mobile Siege Platform

"Eye of the Storm" Flying City

Not how I imagined it... I was thinking that they would be long and more like actual ships that have just been... cloudified.

pretty cool looking.

Sgt Muffin wrote:Not how I imagined it... I was thinking that they would be long and more like actual ships that have just been... cloudified.

These are more "rational" designs based on what they were made for. Boats in the skies would be... stupid. Sorry, but stupid =P.

I never once considered they may be boat like, I did picture more cloud on the larger ship though.

Artemiev wrote:

Sgt Muffin wrote:Not how I imagined it... I was thinking that they would be long and more like actual ships that have just been... cloudified.

These are more "rational" designs based on what they were made for. Boats in the skies would be... stupid. Sorry, but stupid =P.

Actually, boats in the sky, or ships based on a boat design would be the more rational design.
It's obvious that Boats have been around for longer than the cloudships and whenever people come up with new ideas for that they use old ideas that have been modified.

Think Spaceships.
In the 1950's all designs looked like this:

And what does that look like to you? It looks like the only thing at that time that was anything close to a spaceship, a missile.

Early car designs (Really early) looked almost like small trains with pivoting front axis, because they basically were. Trains that you could drive off of a track.

So, rationally. This sort of design:

Or maybe more so, this:

Would fit better if you just changed a few little things here and there


Just that's how I see it. I mean it is completely open to be expanded on because Kkat didn't give a really full description on it, but that's how I see it and will continue to see it becasue they become a really promenent thing in my story later on.

(Pft, don't get me started on Yamato...)

My problem with the "boats in the sky" concept is that boats and seaships are designed to sea, a largely 2 dimensional environment, while cloudships have to navigate in all 3 dimensions. Boats are sleek and long since they have to split the waterway for fast movement, while cloudships don't have to tend to such heavy mediums (clouds ain't solid at all of course, and not even the Raptors could be called fast). So the long chassis is obselete + I think it's so much more volnurable for dragon attacks, and a much easier target to hit (ponies constantly keep forgetting why the hell cloudships were born in the first place). And where do you put such ample hangar bays in a sleek body like that?
In most scifi, spaceships don't even resemble seaships. I prefer Kashin's spacecraft-like designs, because they are fitted better for a 3D environment such as the atmosphere (and space), hence they make more sense to me.

2D thinking is such a problem in sci-fi stuff - ships always approach each other right side up. In "reality" that would happen so infrequently, without deliberate intervention by the pilots.

hi hi

Now, there's nothing wrong with Kashin's designs, but if you're going to talk about warships on a purely functional perspective, long, narrow, needle like designs are very functional. (they're very functional for spaceships too, missiles aren't designed like that by accident you know.)

The first and foremost concern on any armored vehicle is reducing your target cross-section. Having a flat, disk shaped warship would make you increasingly vulnerable to attacks from the ground. A needle or wedge shape is ideal if you are going to be attacking an enemy head on, as it presents the smallest possible target area, while staggered turret placement allows you to fire all your weapons simultaneously. If you're worried about attacks from the ground, a tower shape would be ideal. (If you're worried about attacks from all directions, a sphere is the most volume to surface area effective shape you'll ever find, which will give you the most internal space for the least amount of surface area that requires armor.)

But I think going with the rule of cool is perfectly acceptable in this situation, so I'm not too worried about having strictly functional designs. This is my third and most recent take on the raptor's design, based on imagery of owls in flight...
https://www.artkatze.com/scraps/raptor_sketch_3.jpg
P.S. Submarines operate in a three dimensional environment too, but they still use a needle shape.

otherunicorn wrote:2D thinking is such a problem in sci-fi stuff - ships always approach each other right side up. In "reality" that would happen so infrequently, without deliberate intervention by the pilots.

This is what I love about the Spaceways sci-fi series of books, every ship combat scene is well thought out explained in a realistic 3D environment. Ships aren't all on a single plane, they come at you from different angles. Also, they don't dart around like hummingbirds, a concept that just pisses me off when I see it, they are slow to maneuver and every move needs to be planed out in advance. Reading these books is like watching a chess match played by professionals. The strange thing is, the best sci-fi combat I've ever read (hell, some of the best sci-fi I've ever read) is this series, an "adult" series from Playboy Paperbacks from the early 80's.