posted
I'm now starting to build up a small gallery of ship schematics, and was considering doing a fleet chart. In the process of looking for inspiration online, I got very fascinated by fleet charts themselves.
Who would you guys say has the best fleet chart, however you define "best"?
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Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I'd say that the best fleet chart would show confirmed ship sizes or at least reasonable guesses. It would use the best available schematics and match their style. Well, one of the best was already mentioned by Futurama Guy.
And I would really love to see a chart with your ships, Irishman.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Bernd's chart is the one I go with (though I disagree about the giant subspace freighter on the chart with the largest ships and with the size of the green klingon freighter).
You gonna update your charts anytime soon Bernd? The ships from Nemesis would look nice added in there- as well as those from Enterprise. I'm sure some of our fellow Flarites would assist in making the images needed.
I'd love to see you color and add in Gerard Gillian's charts to your site (after getting his permission and fixing the Sabre's scale of course!).
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Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
it's silly that they used the freighter at all but for a sperate race to use the EXACT design but paint it bright green and scale it up 300% is ridiculous.
Better to keep it the same size as the cardie freighter, say the Klingons bought the design (as it's a colonists transport) and converted the storage facilities into living quarters.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
But that means that IKS Rotarran (which is seen in clear comparison with the freighters, just as Dukat's prey is seen in clear comparison with the Cardassian version) would be the smallest BoP ever seen, whereas we have every reason to suspect that it's larger than most...
IMHO, it's perfectly reasonable to have freighters that are (almost) scaled-up or scaled-down versions of each other. That is exactly what we see in the real world, after all. Basically, there's a grand total of one general goods vessel design (or tanker design, or ro-ro design) in the mercantile navies of the world today, scaled up and down at will.
Now, warships that have easily identifiable functional elements scale a bit more poorly. Still, one can take a WWII destroyer, cruiser and battleship, adjust the scales of any two, and superimpose them - and get an almost perfect match. I think Bernd exaggerates the woes of scaling a bit...
Regarding the "ancient freighter" of "Final Mission" infamy, I see no reason not to assume that it comes from the same family as the other, more modestly sized ships of the same design. "Ancient" in this case need only mean "300 years old", which is quite plausible a design age for the entire family. The heroes in the episode express unfamiliarity with the vessel's *origin*, not its *design*.
If anything, "Final Mission" and "Heart of Glory" put together suggest that the "Batris-type" design is so ubiquitous that one cannot positively identify (or even reasonably guess) the operator on the basis of the model, but must look closely for tiny hints such as pennant codes.
But I digress from the main point. Which is that Bernd's fleet charts rule.
Personally, I try to look at each ship on an individual basis and try to ignore the blatant similarities, when the fact of the matter is that it all boils down to budgetary concerns on a science fiction television series. It is fake afterall.
Doesn't Minutiaeman have some fleet charts around floating out there too?
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Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
yeah....a minor tweak but better than nothing I guess.
Better by far than the worst use of another model "scaled up" for a new function: Harry Kim's "Nightingale". Makes me foam at the stupidity of it.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Personally I like Gilso's Schematics fllet charts.
Timo, you cannot scale up a destroyer or scale down a battleship without some major internal and external modifications. For instance you can't have a battleship hull the size of a destroyer's hull, and expect it to perform like a destroyer. Likewise with the destroyer scaled up to match the size of a battleship hull. They're two totally different designs. Compare the Fletcher class of the WWII with the Iowa class.
Registered: Jul 2000
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Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Matrix, we're talking not about "modifications" but completely different internal structures, since the types of ships were probably engineered completely independant of each other. You're reading far too much into an examination of similarity in external structures and shape only.
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Registered: Sep 2001
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I take it it's either you're joking or you really don't remember me. I've been in the Gulf for the part several months, bombing the hell out of some Iraqi natives.
Basically what I am saying is that you cannot seriously scale up a design regardless of how simple or complex the design is without making modifications to the exterior to accomodate the scaled up design. Most ships probably have a certain design for a reason. Sure if you scale up a design 200% and give an extra deck for every one deck, it's sounds simple. Real life terms, you're talking about practically redesigning the whole interior, so you can keep in the exterior design. More than likely that scaled up design won't be nearly as efficient as a scratch designed and built design of similar design. Just my cents.
Registered: Jul 2000
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