Wotcher folks,
I'm a big fan of the Sci-Fi author Peter F Hamilton, and would especially love to see some of his ships recreated in Orbiter. Has anybody ever done, or would anybody be willing to do, an addon to simulate some of them? There are quite a few in total, but the simplest would probably be the Adamists starships. I'll use the "Lady MacBeth" as an example.
Due to the nature of the FTL drives in the universe the Adamists exist in, all FTL starships are completely spherical. Any sensors, weapons, radiators, launch bays and the like are extended for sublight operations but must be retracted inside the hull before the ships FTL can safely operate. Failure to do so always destroys those instruments and usually destroys the ship. So, spherical. Of any size, but the most common (including the Lady Mac) are around 50 metres in diameter.
Usually using fusion drives as main engines, along with conventional rocket drives for use near planetary atmosphere. The three fusion drives on the Lady Macbeth produce around 12 g's of acceleration as an absolute maximum. The Lady Mac also has an antimatter drive that can produce up to 30 g's, but due to the difficulty of simulating two different main drives I'd say the fusion drives would be plenty.
Instruments, which as I said must be able to retract inside the hull, consist of comms dish's, camera's and the like which are generally on 10 metre stalks. Radiator panels rise from the hull as a cylinder, and then unfurl into a windmill sort of thingy. Some ships also have military grade sensors that are less flimsy, they are generally on much thicker, mushroom shaped, stalks that only rise about a metre from the hull.
Most ships have a hanger that fits a spaceplane, the Lady Mac's being able to carry about 8 people, but little if any cargo. Sounds about right for a DGIV I guess. Most also carry a much smaller hanger containing what is essentially a workpod. Some also have one or more cargo bays. Again, because of the nature of the FTL drive in the series, these bays all need to be closable. The idea is that the ship has a large number of "jump nodes" just beneath the hull, all of which need to discharge silmultaneously to make a jump. Any gaps (such as a hanger without doors) would result in the ship just being ripped apart, for some pseudo-scientific reason.
Anyways, if anyone knows of an existing addon like this, I'd love to hear of it. If not, is there anyone who would be willing to work on it?
EDIT: Picture, with labels, of a starship in sublight configuration: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/AdamistTechnical.jpg
The arse end of said ship: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/AdamistEngines.jpg
Sensors: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/Sensors.jpg
Radiators: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/dumppanels.jpg
I'm a big fan of the Sci-Fi author Peter F Hamilton, and would especially love to see some of his ships recreated in Orbiter. Has anybody ever done, or would anybody be willing to do, an addon to simulate some of them? There are quite a few in total, but the simplest would probably be the Adamists starships. I'll use the "Lady MacBeth" as an example.
Due to the nature of the FTL drives in the universe the Adamists exist in, all FTL starships are completely spherical. Any sensors, weapons, radiators, launch bays and the like are extended for sublight operations but must be retracted inside the hull before the ships FTL can safely operate. Failure to do so always destroys those instruments and usually destroys the ship. So, spherical. Of any size, but the most common (including the Lady Mac) are around 50 metres in diameter.
Usually using fusion drives as main engines, along with conventional rocket drives for use near planetary atmosphere. The three fusion drives on the Lady Macbeth produce around 12 g's of acceleration as an absolute maximum. The Lady Mac also has an antimatter drive that can produce up to 30 g's, but due to the difficulty of simulating two different main drives I'd say the fusion drives would be plenty.
Instruments, which as I said must be able to retract inside the hull, consist of comms dish's, camera's and the like which are generally on 10 metre stalks. Radiator panels rise from the hull as a cylinder, and then unfurl into a windmill sort of thingy. Some ships also have military grade sensors that are less flimsy, they are generally on much thicker, mushroom shaped, stalks that only rise about a metre from the hull.
Most ships have a hanger that fits a spaceplane, the Lady Mac's being able to carry about 8 people, but little if any cargo. Sounds about right for a DGIV I guess. Most also carry a much smaller hanger containing what is essentially a workpod. Some also have one or more cargo bays. Again, because of the nature of the FTL drive in the series, these bays all need to be closable. The idea is that the ship has a large number of "jump nodes" just beneath the hull, all of which need to discharge silmultaneously to make a jump. Any gaps (such as a hanger without doors) would result in the ship just being ripped apart, for some pseudo-scientific reason.
Anyways, if anyone knows of an existing addon like this, I'd love to hear of it. If not, is there anyone who would be willing to work on it?
EDIT: Picture, with labels, of a starship in sublight configuration: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/AdamistTechnical.jpg
The arse end of said ship: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/AdamistEngines.jpg
Sensors: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/Sensors.jpg
Radiators: http://www.silentphoenix.co.uk/confed/FullImages/dumppanels.jpg
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