Starship design challenge!

[Womble]

I am writing a sci-fi story, and I need some ideas- namely, ship designs. Seeing how much ship-related discussion is going on here, I decided to seek the advice of the good people of Gateworld (especially the Virtual Fleet crowd, who seems so adept at ship-invention). Below I will describe what precisely I need, using Stargate ships and tech for comparison purposes.

1) I need a "design" for a patrol dreadnought- a very large, self-sufficient spacefaring unit intended primarily for border patrol of a multi-galactic space empire and, when necessary, suppressing rebellions. It should be able to single-handedly face off against whole squadrons of 304-comparable battleships, suppress planetary defences, etc. Preferably not a stereotypical Death Star-like thing with a superweapon on top though. I am looking for concepts that haven't been done to death yet.

2) A "main" battleship that could be the mainstay of a fleet. I want it to be something radically different from anything we've seen in Stargate, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and other popular sc-fi.

3) An "invasion module"- basically a troop transport that could also double as a fighter/bomber, providing close air support for the troops it fields.

Now, here's the catch- I want to avoid the generic sci-fi solutions such as cloaks, shields, beam weapons, etc. as much as possible. The more original your design, the better. I repeat, I am looking for things that have not been done to death yet. That said, please don't go overboard, too; keep it "Stargate-realistic"- the kind of ships that could potentially appear in the Gateverse without destroying the audience's ability to suspend disbelief.

Another thing: for plot reasons, the civilization using this ship does not build anything "living", "organic" or "biomechanical", so please don't suggest anything in that direction.

If you want to help, please post your ideas here, and the person with the best suggestions will win... my undying gratitude?

[Crazy Tom]

How about some green?

Spoiler:

Invasion module:

Needle shaped craft. It has a laser colar for cuting through an ship's hull in the boarding role. The passanger section is located at the far back, with the cockpit forward of that but aft of the fuel tanks. Around the air lock, a ring of engines provide propulsion, it uses an counter-grav device for cntrol as it boasts no control surfaces.

Armament is a high energy laser mounted on the nose of the craft with a 360 degree capabele roating mirir turet. As well as a torodial missile/bomb rack forward of the fuel tanks, that wraps around theback of the laser emiter. It;s powered by a naqudah power cell.

No windows are present, a holoprojection system is used to display information to the pilots. Who fly the craft by a mix of hand, foot, eye, and voice controls.

Armored with cold plasma armor that dubles as an fluid dynamics generator that improves endo-atmoshperic performance.

Tell me if you like this style.

[fugiman]

Do you need anything else like races, culuture, political systems, social groups, or anything else? Because I have alot of ideas for those as well as ship based tech

[s09119]

The urge to hijack this thread for my own fanfic is enormous... but I will resist.

So you want to avoid generic designs and cloaks/shields? That's gonna be a little difficult...

[Womble]

Do you need anything else like races, culuture, political systems, social groups, or anything else? Because I have alot of ideas for those as well as ship based tech

Not really, no. I have that part covered pretty well, I think.

Crazt Tom- nice one. I might actually use it- but how do you retain that cold plasma armor during reentry and atmospheric flight?

[thekillman]

Patrol dreadnought:

Utilizes New Age missiles.
Missiles equipped with:
inertial dampeners
Particle Engine
Hot Plasma Shield
Naquahdriah hyperdrive.

missiles can make small stellar jumps. close to a ship, it re-enters, activates its shields to penetrate deep in a ship while its hyperdrive overloads and creates a big explosion.

the ship itself is shielded by Power Dispersing Nano hull, also minimizing visibility, and utilizes a special cloak generator bending most forms of radiation around the ship, cloaking it from sensors.[thing actually exists, though its not that big, and its just a nice ring, and doesnt cloak from all radiation[like visible light]]

it also uses drone weapons, weapons equipped with a solid hot plasma shield. they utilize six point defence Particle Weapons, generating heat buildup behind shields if fired, while small ships are cut in half if hit properly. drones are spherical.

the ship has annother thing: powerfull Repulsor fields. repulsor fields are based off inertial dampeners. repulsor fields slow down, and if under correct angle, even bend off attacks. only the most powerfull attacks head through without notable difference. repulsor fields render most fighter weapons obsolete. instead of having a main weapon, it uses large batteries of High Power Lasers, and Particle Cannons to destroy most vessels. a Long range Drone cannon utilizes a Gauss cannon to propell a drone at massive speeds, it then activates in mid flight and rapidly nears an enemy ship far away. particle cannons firing close to the speed of light allow to fire massive distances. instead of draining shields, they too create a heat buildup creating system failures.

its powered by its own hull, as it absorbs massive amount of energy, in the form of light, weaponsfire, and solar winds, and can even use neutrino's for power.

Hyperdrive is a Triple Hyperdrive generator system. creates an optimal efficiency

[EternalAlteran]

Guardian class patroller

Size: 300x75x37m

Hull: Reinforced Polymers (It's naturally soft, but when impacted it becomes hard and deflect the blast),

Frame: Steel (with a radiation slowing substance for extra protection)

Propulsion: -Ion-propulsion
-Hyperdrive (73.000 FTL)

Offensive systems: -Railguns (with explosive liquids and an oxidizing agent for outeratmosphere combat (no friction so no early detonations) and normal rounds for atmospheric combat)
-Missiles
-Multi Missiles (Missile which can launch several other missiles when at full speed with systems that prevent detonation on impact but wait for the fuel to ran out so that the missile can prentrate the enemy hull due it's design)
-Small quick-tracking antifighter railguns

Defensive systems: -Interceptor missiles (small fast missile to neutralize enemy missile)
- Weapon dispator (device that reroutes enemy attack over the entire hull for optimal use of the hull and higher survivability)
- Explosive deflector (device to draw explosive force from the hull thereby keeping damage to a minimum.)

Auxilary craft: 3 Scout/Patrol crafts (equipped with sublight engines, cloack, anitfighter railguns, armored hull, subspace communications, advance sensors,

hyperdrive (37.000 FTL), medium range sensor, inertial dampeners

Other sytems: -subspace communication
-medium range sensor
-inertial dampeners
-Subspace tracking device (small missile like device capable of traveling to another ship an grabbing on to it and cloaking itself while transmitting the ships coordinates)

Escape pods: 10x tenperson escape pods (Fired out the ship at high velocity, equipped with small thrusters for manouvering and decelaration engine and equipped with systems to make optimal use of a planets gravity field if encountered.)

Powersource: -Fusion reactors
-Solarcells
-Device that converts movement over the floor in energy(actually excist as an prototype in reality)

Crew: 30 people

Other people onboard (70max)

This vessel is designed to scan the boarders of an empire. The vessel has an route which it travels. It can drop Scouts and pick them up later. The vessel maintain contact with the scout through subspace communcations and the scouts can investigate with their cloaks on and call for the Patroller if action is neccesary

[Womble]

Thanks everyone. Very nice ideas so far. Green to all, naturally.

[Crazy Tom]

Not really, no. I have that part covered pretty well, I think.

Crazt Tom- nice one. I might actually use it- but how do you retain that cold plasma armor during reentry and atmospheric flight?

It's actualy generated from air on the outside of the craft's skin, search up plasma on wikipedia.

I need to know: antimatter or not?

edit: some info on their physiology might help.

[Gmandex]

The ship should have good weapons, great shields, and of course incorporate more than one race when it comes to adding personnel to the ship.

[Sealurk]

Gravity weapons - not just the cliched black hole bomb that somehow manages to ignore its inherent mass limitation, but gravity lasers, i.e. a beam of such intense gravity, directed in laser like fashion, that it rips the target apart due to the severe gravity gradient (think tractor beam on steroids).

What about shield variants, i.e. work by different 'rules' (instead of the simple energy-as-armour analogue, the shield works very differently to how the hull armour works, perhaps by being more like a shield in a swordfight, i.e. only covers a small area and needs to be actively moved to protect a particular direction).

I probably have more, but its late, I'm tired, and I've got to keep some ideas to myself for my own sci-fi novel! best of luck.

[fugiman]

Here are a few ideas that I had that I want to explain before I put them on a ship that I have designed

Crystalic Fusion Reactor- Uses a special element that when superheated and fused together produces power that rivals that of the Asgard Neutrino
Generators


Atomic Jump Drive- The Drive Accelerates the mass of the ship to near light stpped then locks unto an atom and jumps from one atom to another allowing faster then light speed in our own galaxy. Now this form of FTL is slower then a Goa'uld hyperdrive but allows easy micro jumps as well as not going into hyperspace

Dierct Naquadah-Potassium Cannons- Charging up a magnetic field that launches a block of Steel that is filled with Naquadah-Potassium that when hits a solid barrier blows up doing considerable damage

Dampening Field- It drains energy from kientic and energy weapons up to 35%

Crystal Absorption Plates- Crytal plates that absorb and channel energy into conduits that store and power to be used later for the main systems during a battle however if to much energy is concentrated the plate will blow out and be next to usless

Neural Control Interface- Much like the matrix the pilots are strapped in so they can the fastest response time possible and allows vast calcutions to take place

~Designation: Battleship
Build Time: 1 year
~Dimensions
-Length: 850 Meters
-Width: 240 meters
-Height: 120 Meters
~Capacity: 1,500
-Crew: 300
-Maximum Capacity: 2,000 (for several hours)

~Contol Interface:
Neural Control Interface

~Powerplant:
1x Crystalic Fusion Reactor


~Propulsion:
Atomic Jump Drive
2x Large Linear Ion Drives
6x Small Linear Ion Drives
100x Postioning Ion thrusters


~Hull:
Carbon/Naquadah

~Armament:
8x Dierct Naquadah-Potassium Cannons
20x Vertical Launch Systems
50x Point Defense Cannons


~Defenses:

Dampening Field

Crystal Absorption Plates


So how does that look?

[lord groovy]

Crystal Absorption Plates- Crytal plates that absorb and channel energy into conduits that store and power to be used later for the main systems during a battle however if to much energy is concentrated the plate will blow out and be next to usless.

Why not channel the energy directly inside a secondary generator. It would be linked directly to the main weapon(s) and to the defense systems. His role would then be to relieve somewhat the primary power source of your ship.

[thekillman]

Lifesupport:
a special Photosynthesis reactor. utilizes modified algae to turn CO2 into air and glucose with hydrogen as a byproduct. this hydrogen is then used to power a gas reactor to power light and other simple systems. air is refreshed and oxygen is removed.
organic waste is pumped into the reactor aswell to be processed into other products, allowing much longer missions. a sunlight generator faking sunlight is used as power for the photosynthesis reactor. the algae are modified to use sillicium for more efficiency.

[Womble]

It's actualy generated from air on the outside of the craft's skin, search up plasma on wikipedia.

I know what plasma is, just wasn't sure how you wanted to "armorize" it. And does it mean the craft will be unprotected while in space?

I need to know: antimatter or not?

Yes. Although I am not sure how antimatter would interact with force fields/ energy shields should there be any in the story. It would probably need to be able to "space-burst" should it happen to be stopped by a shield before it reaches a piece of matter it can react with.

edit: some info on their physiology might help.

Uh, that's a difficult one.

The patrol dreadnoughts are relics of a past so distant that nobody really knows who built them and what their physiology was like, or if they had bodies at all. That they were border control vessels of an empire is mainly a conjecture based on their pattern of travel. Nothing is really known about them except that it's really unwise to stand in their way.

The users of the other two vessels are human-like, broadly speaking.