Do You Wanna Build A Starship? (open OOC workshop, join at any point, no experience necessary)

[Jorus Merrill]

So a few people have expressed interest in doing a shipbuilding workshop and getting some pointers on how to do it. The Guide is comprehensive, but there's a lot going on, and it can seem intimidating to some.

So here's the plan. Every day, I'll post another chunk of the starship template. You edit that chunk of the template into your first post, and fill in what you think is best. Ask questions here or in PM, as many questions as you want, but only if you're participating in the workshop. Catch up at any point, don't feel compelled to keep pace with me. It's really not too bad, though.

I'm tagging people who've expressed interest, but this is open at any point.
@[member="CHANI"] @[member="Marek Starchaser"] @[member="Jared Ovmar"] @[member="Jaxton Ravos"] @[member="Darth Malificete"]

Day One​

Image Credit:
Intent:
Development Thread:
Manufacturer:
Model:
Affiliation:

​

Pick an image you like. Nobody can help you with that, or tell you for sure if it's being used, though I do have a good number of ships stashed away at http://varanin.deviantart.com/favourites

If your image turns out to be in use or otherwise not appropriate, this is not the end of the world. Don't get discouraged.

Oh, and please, please make sure your image is practical if you're making a warship. Spines and sails and split hulls and skinny hulls and narrow points and tentacular whatnots are a baaaaaad idea for structural integrity.

***​

Let's talk about intent. Lotta people have trouble with this one. The Guide basically says what not to do, but here are some common ways to go about it. This doesn't have to be art, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

• To create a standard, 'vanilla' starfighter for mass production and public sale
• To fill the Light Star Destroyer gap in the Mandalorian armory
• To create a personal transport, mobile home and base of operations for Captain Rolf Skyjumper

That's really all there is to it, for any kind of normal submission. If your concept is a bit 'out there,' just spend a line or two saying what it does:

• To create a dedicated hospital ship for the Levantine Sanctum
• To create a humane prison ship for the Republic
• To create a modular biological and alchemical research base for the Sith Council

There's a reason you want to make this submission. That's what you put in your Intent line. If you're doing this for a faction and a thing like this already exists, I'll let you know and we can deal with it at this stage.

***​

The Guide goes into a ton of detail on Development Threads -- how not to do them, what counts, etc. Since we're workshopping a new submission from scratch, let's not worry about dev threads right now, unless you reeeeeally want to make something that would need one. If you're unsure whether your concept would need a dev thread, just ask me.

***​

Manufacturer. All I can really say on this is that the Guide covers all bases. If you want to make your ship for a specific faction and they're cool with that, mention it under Affiliation and we can talk about what some appropriate shipbuilders for that faction are. I personally have shot-calling, permission-granting ability for Iron Crown Productions (a shipbuilder that exports throughout the Unknown Regions, as well as making the Lords of the Fringe military) and Silk Holdings (a shipbuilder that exports throughout the Outer Rim and a good chunk of elsewhere, and makes some military-grade stuff). Both of those firms make everything from starfighters to personal transports to capital ships. So, basically, if you want to make something big and shiny and don't want to go ask a faction head for permission, consider permission granted by default on those two manufacturers. There are also plenty of canon corporations that I don't think have owners on this board, so those would be easy too.
Protip: If your manufacturer isn't a household name, link to it.

***​

Model. This is one spot where people get tripped up a LOT. The name of your submission could be Popo-class Bulk Freighter or WL-372 Popo-class Bulk Freighter, but the Model could be WL-372 Popo-class Bulk Freighter in both cases. Random letter-number combinations are usually fine. Some kinds of ships have special things, like the YT/YZ/YWhatever freighters from CEC, or the TIE/ln, TIE/sa, etc. designations for TIE fighters. Or you could just put Popo-class Bulk Freighter, just the name of the class, and that's fine too.

***​

Affiliation. Broadly speaking, here are your choices.

• A faction
• Personal/Independent
• Publicly Available

SO.​

Make your first post, put that chunk of the starship template in there, and fill it in. If you have any questions, no matter how stupid you think they are, ask me here or in PM.

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Day One​

​

​

Image Credit: made by Achimstyle.​

Intent: To give the Council of Sorcery a ship which could be used by all members of the faction.​

Development Thread: There will be about 3 to 5 development threads.​

Manufacturer: Mage Guild Operations (design), Silk Holdings (construction)​

Model: MGO-40 Archmage-class Starfighter​

Affiliation: Council of Sorcery​

​

​

​

...​

​

I'm going to die... ​

 

[Ahra Martrey]

Expedient

Still Looking for Image

Image Credit: Still Looking for Image
Intent: Create a ship for Ahra
Development Thread: Not sure if needed. The ship will be custom built for a rich businessman, so...
Manufacturer: May I use Silk Holdings?
Model: Ag57 Expedient-Class Transport
Affiliation: Personal (Gregor Inden/Ahra Marcon)

 

[Corey's OOC]

Image Credit: Plane2 by JoasKleineArt http://varanin.deviantart.com/art/Plane2-348628596 (second ship)

Intent: To provide the Haor Chall with a publically available droid starfighter for sale on the open market that will not out compete the droid fighters available to the CIS
Manufacturer: Haor Chall Engineering
Model: QS2(P) Droid Starfighter
Affiliation: Public Available
Modularity: No
Production: Mass Produced
Material: Durasteel (Alusteel is reserved if Haor Chall produces a CIS variant)
Description:
Classification: Starfighter
Role: Space Superiority
Height: 1 meter
Width: 0.75 meter body, 2 meter wing-tip
Length: 2.5 meter
Power Core Generator/Reactor: Fuel Cells
Hyperdrive Rating: None
Minimum Crew: Zero/Droid Brain
Optimal Crew: Zero/Droid Brain

Modularity: No
Production: Mass Produced
Material: Durasteel
Description: In an effort to make a mass-produced and publically available droid starfighter, the engineers at Haor Chall have created the Quick-Strike 2 Publically Available Droid Starfighter. This fighter is designed to be launched en masse from a larger vessel to cause more of a problem for radar and targeting systems, while providing a decent amount of fire power.

While there is a CIS variant under construction with a stronger hull, the public option is a viable and worthwhile purchase. Cheap, quick, and providing decent fire power, it excels in causing more of a distraction with fire support than a viable combat option in small groups.

Sold on the open market by the Squadron amount, these fighters are advertised to be launched in a team. The droid brain will calculate the best firing options and flight trajectories to avoid enemy fire and to bring their weapons to bear upon the enemy. Still, they are able to bested in one-on-one combat against a sentient, they are lethal in group deployment.

Armaments:

• 2 Forward facing laser cannons (fire linked)
• 1 forward facing missile launcher (3 missiles)

Hangar: None
Non-Combative Attachments:

• Standard Navigational Systems
• Standard Sensor Array
• Standard Targeting Systems
• Basic Deflector Shields
• Standard Combat Droid Brain

Passenger Capacity: 0
Cargo Capacity: N/A
Consumables: None
Sublight Speed and Manuverability: 1

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Ahra Marcon"] - Yeah, go ahead and use Silk - it's one I can give permission for, and it makes custom ships all the time. I see you got an old favorite image of mine
@[member="Darth Malificete"] - Like we talked about on Skype, having a Tier 1 company as the manufacturer isn't your best bet. My suggestion would be to partner with a larger firm and say 'Manufacturer: Mage Guild Operations (design), ______________ (construction)'
@[member="Marek Starchaser"] - Nice find!

 

[Nyarl]

Image Credit: http://hpashkov.deviantart.com/art/Patrol-106756283
Intent: To create a ship to fill one of the empty gaps in the Moross Crusade's fleet, specifically a patrol boat.
Development Thread: If Necessary
Manufacturer: Moross Shipyards
Model: Salee-Class Patrol Boat
Affiliation: Moross Crusade

 

[Edric Vanyan]

Day One​

Image Credit:

Day One​

​

​

Image Credit: http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/41/80/87/jet_fi10.jpg​

Intent: To create the first standard fighter for the Iferetes Empire, this will be the mainstream and high use fighter for space and atmospheric theaters of combat. Making up the bulk of the small craft ships it is the standard fighter for all pilots to learn to pilot and must be mastered before moving to the scout or heavy fighter variants.​

Development Thread: None right now​

Manufacturer: Iferetes Avionic​

Model: Jet fighter thing... honestly i dont know.​

Affiliation: Iferetes Empire​

 

[Arage Bao]

Image Credit: http://dekus.deviantart.com/art/SpearStar-frigate-129366180
Intent: Creating a Frigate for Jared, to use as a mobile command center.
Development Thread: -
Manufacturer: Sienar Fleet Systems
Model: SV-302 Aurora-class Frigate
Affiliation: Personal

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"] - Santhe/Sienar recently got a ship called the 'Exalt-class' approved - even though it's a vastly different ship, they'd both be called 'the Exalt' - gotta pick a new name. Make Affiliation 'Personal'
@[member="Arthur David Hardrada"] - '________-class Fighter' would be sufficient.

Also, @[member="CHANI"] has requested a quick briefing on different kinds of ships.

Freighter
Corvette
Carrier
Yacht
Transport
Capital

'Freighter' and 'Transport' are generally used interchangeably. In Star Wars, 'transport' is more often used to refer to something BIG, though 'bulk freighter' and 'bulk transport' are interchangeable, and 'personal transport' is its own thing. Basically, there are no rules for freighter vs transport. It's just words. Most light freighters are 25-50 metres long (Millennium Falcon), most bulk freighters/bulk transports are anywhere from 100 to 300 metres long. But you can make them any size you want.

'Capital ships,' broadly speaking, are anything combat-ready from corvettes on up. Some claim a stricter interpretation, whatever. Most people use it to refer to anything corvette size or larger. The board follows this breakdown:

• Corvettes 100 - 200m
• Frigates 201 - 400m
• Cruisers 401 - 600m
• Heavy Cruisers 601 - 1,000m
• Light Star Destroyer 1,001 - 1,500m
• Star Destroyers 1,501m - 1,700m
• Command Ship 1,701 - 2,000m

'Carrier' is just a role. You can make a carrier out of a bulk transport, or any size of capital ship. That's the right-hand column in the guns and hangar tables in the Guide.

A 'Yacht' is, like a small transport, one of those things that's bigger than a starfighter but generally smaller than a corvette. Its main cargo is, usually, a rich person and company. There's some gray area between yachts and freighters -- some old yachts, modified, make great little freighters, etc.

It's important to note that the Guide gives no stats for small transports and things between starfighter and corvette size, apart from gunships and dropships. That's on purpose, to spur creativity. However, a general rule of thumb would be to stick closeish to dropship or heavy dropship stats, depending on the size of your ship.

 

[CHANI]

Day One

Image Credit:
by 0-hr

Intent: Private contracting; transport, escort, precious cargo, patrols, bounties, smuggling.
Development Thread: n/a
Manufacturer: Corporate Sector Authority, Subsidiary
Model: MX-2000 Marauder-class Cruiser
Affiliation: Personal/Independent

 

[Ak'lya]

Image Credit: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fVelZMGB-uU/T_GI63dJ6xI/AAAAAAAAAk4/24-VtMnQPY0/s1600/tigershark_2x3.png
Intent: To replace the Z-95 that Strask has been using.
Development Thread: None. Will do if needed
Manufacturer: Prototype Lab Q
Model: X-57 Starfighter
Affiliation: Personal/ Bothan Spynet

 

[Matreya]

Also, as a side note to go alongside Jorus' info, if needed James Armor Companies (J.A.C) has ship making capabilities as well as it's own ship subsidies. So feel free to use it as the manufacturer, simply jot it down and let me know via PM.

 

[Sarah Frostlight]

Day One​

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100616160025/starwars/images/8/89/Imperialfury.jpg

Image Credit: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fury-class_Imperial_interceptor
Intent: Customized and updated Fury - Class Imperial Interceptor for Sarah to use
Development Thread: if needed
Manufacturer: Originally Manufactured by Sith Empire Modifications and rebuild by "various"
Model: exact model lost to the ages, Sith Interceptor
Affiliation: Sarah, Currently Republic

Intent, to Update and customize Sarah's Ship and make it relevant.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Sarah Frostlight"] - A lot of people have tried to remake a Fury-class, and I know the dude who owns Santhe/Sienar -- he might be willing to have it remade at some point. Until then, I'd really strongly suggest making a different ship for this exercise.

 

[Sarah Frostlight]

K I will watch for now

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="CHANI"] @[member="Marek Starchaser"] @[member="Jared Ovmar"] @[member="Jaxton Ravos"] @[member="Darth Malificete"] @[member="Strask Ak'lya"] @[member="Ahra Marcon"] @[member="Arthur David Hardrada"]

Day Two​

Modularity:
Production:
Material:
Description:

Modularity. Basically, you should only put 'Yes' (and then explain it!) if you're doing one of about three things.

• Giving several alternatives for a weapons loadout. For example, a civilian speeder bike, you could say 'Yes: A military variant has two blaster cannons,' and then spell that out later in the Armaments section, which we'll get to. Another example would be the Animus-class Assault Courier, which has five potential weapons loadouts.
• Making a modular ship/station that can 'plug in' modules for different mission profiles. One excellent example is the Pathfinder-class long-term exploration craft, which goes into a great deal of detail about modularity in the description.
• Making a ship that's meant to be easily modified, like many CEC small transports.

***​

Production. A quote from the Guide is appropriate here:

How widely available is your ship? Mass Produced ships are readily available for use. Minor Production are more limited and won’t be found in even half as many numbers as mass produced ships. Limited Production ships are prototypes or ships that are being fielded in limited numbers for testing. They might have new or experimental technology onboard. Unique ships are just that; unique. Whether from cost, modification, or other limiting factors, there’s only one of this ship.

For a modified personal ship that's from a mass-produced line, put Unique.

Limiting factors include what size your manufacturing company is, and how powerful or special your ship is. An interdictor would be Minor, as would an elite starfighter. For what you've got right now, I'd suggest @[member="Darth Malificete"] put Unique, @[member="Ahra Marcon"] put Unique, @[member="Marek Starchaser"] put Mass Produced, @[member="Nyarl"] put Mass Produced, @[member="Arthur David Hardrada"] put Mass Produced, @[member="Jared Ovmar"] put Unique, @[member="CHANI"] put Mass Produced, and @[member="Strask Ak'lya"] put Limited unless you intend for there to be only one of them.

VERY important note here. If you're creating a modified personal ship that's part of a production line that doesn't exist yet, the factory staff REQUIRES that you submit a 'vanilla' or 'stock' version first and get that approved, to contribute to site canon. Don't worry, this doesn't mean you have to do two submissions this time -- what it means is that, after you're all done workshopping your ship, I'll make the vanilla versions and get them approved, and then you submit your individual ships. If your ship isn't modified, it doesn't need a submission apart from the 'vanilla' or 'stock' model, and that's the one you should be workshopping, the mass-produced or minor-production one.

***​

Material. What's important here is hull strength, cost, and weight.

What is it made out of? Certain materials are more resistant, or vulnerable, to certain weapons. See: Metals or Compounds for a list of materials. The most important materials are usually structural. For example, an average Star Destroyer will have durasteel for its hull and armor, and transparisteel for its viewports. Most ships are made from durasteel and transparisteel. Tougher materials are much heavier (such as turadium) or much more expensive (such as glasteel), and frequently both. Anything beyond this needs to have explanation and justification why its using such rare and unusual metals in large quantities.

Common HULL metals:

• Durasteel (your default, a very good metal)
• Desh (lighter, cheaper, weaker, and more flexible)
• Desh-maranium (even lighter and cheaper, but weaker)
• Desh-terenthium (very light and more flexible, expensive, almost as strong as durasteel)
• Alusteel (slightly stronger than durasteel and more expensive)
• Quadanium steel (comparable to alusteel)

Common VIEWPORT metals:

• Transparisteel (your default)
• Glasteel (more expensive)
• Plexalloy (comparable to glasteel)

Other RARE materials:

• Matrix Armor (stronger than durasteel -- heavy and expensive -- never make most of a ship out of this)
• Turadium (used for high-security blast doors or to reinforce especially critical parts of a ship -- heavy and expensive -- never make most of a ship out of this)
• Impervium (some unique ships have a thin coating of this over their hulls -- very, very expensive)
• Beskar (a very rare metal -- extremely strong -- some Mandalorian ships have partial beskar plating -- in general, don't touch it)
• Condensed-matter composite (designed for engine housings -- used to reduce vibrations and stresses from very powerful engines)

***​

Description. We're going to handle this LAST.

 

[Ak'lya]

Modularity: No
Production: Limited
Material: Durasteel for body, Transparisteel cockpit
Description:

 

[Corey's OOC]

Modularity: No
Production: Mass Produced
Material: Durasteel (Alusteel is reserved if Haor Chall produces a CIS variant)
Description:

 

[CHANI]

Day Two
Modularity: Yes
Production: Unique
Material:
Durasteel majority,
Quadanium stress points,
Condensed-matter composite engine
Plexalloy cockpit, Transparisteel ports
Description:

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Marek Starchaser"] - For safety's sake, I'd recommend you do one of two things.

• Confirm with CIS that you'll be making them a variant of this - give them an advance preview - and then include the CIS variant in the same sub. 'Material: Durasteel (alusteel for CIS variant).' Then, when you come to whatever else is different, we can talk about that later.
• OR make it two separate submissions, order doesn't really matter

@[member="CHANI"] - 'Mass Produced' would be if your sub describes thousands of ships. 'Unique' would be if your sub describes YOUR ship, if it's modified. You've gotta pick one.