[Counciler]

The capital ships in the game? I've always wondered where they are....

[Mobius]

The Hatshepsut has a bridge subsystem

About the others, the game isn't clear about this matter.

[Dark Hunter]

I'd always assumed the Bridge to be somewhere in the interior, heavily protected. After all, it's stupid to make the bridge vulnerable by building it right on the outside with a big window when you're most often gonna be relying on screens and readouts anyway.

Also: the FS1 intro shows us what I take to be the bridge of an Arcadia installation. You'll notice no viewports are visible in the shot, although admittedly the shot is rather narrow and doesn't show much.

[Mobius]

I don't share your point of view, I don't think the bridges are well in the interiors.

Most ships have vulnerable parts. Just look at the Deimos, the Hecate, the Orion and the Fenris/Leviathan. A well placed torpedo can kill hundreds of crewmen.

There are "eyecandy" reasons behind this choice. Would we like completely armored hulls? Would we like cubes with turrets and engines? The answer is simple: No.

[lenard27]

I'd say the Bridge is usually near the top back part of the ship. But that's just because thats how it is in Star Wars and Star Trek.

[Dark Hunter]

@Mobius: Well, I for one see no windows on the Deimos. Or the Hecate. Or the Orion. Maybe on the Leviathan...

So I say your point is moot.

@Lenard: I'd agree with you in one case: the Hades. Why else would they build that stupidly large tower in the back except to put the bridge up there?
But I don't see such structures on any other ships (I suppose the middle par of a Leviathan might work that way...)

[karajorma]

I've always thought capships should have a great big really obvious bridge.

Just stock it full of mannequins and pretend to play dead once the enemy take it out.

[Mobius]

@Mobius: Well, I for one see no windows on the Deimos. Or the Hecate. Or the Orion. Maybe on the Leviathan...

So I say your point is moot.

[Hades]

@Mobius: Well, I for one see no windows on the Deimos. Or the Hecate. Or the Orion. Maybe on the Leviathan...

So I say your point is moot.

If you see no windows then you must be blind.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Mars]

I always wondered where the Command channelling comm officer is.

The front of that Orion is many decks tall, it can't all be bridge, also the fact that the objectives in the game never have you destroy the bridge of an enemy warship says to me that the bridges are very well protected.

[Dark Hunter]

Call me blind then, cause nothing in that pic looks like a window to me. Just a bunch of white and yellow lights.


EDIT: Just asked my roommate, and he sees no windows either. What say you to this?

[Polpolion]

I'd doubt ships would have actual windows.

[Mars]

The Fenris has windows, as does the Deimos

[Nuke]

if i was desiging a 4 km long ship (any ship im not even talking warships, because space dibrits can be as bad as a bullet) id put at least 10 feet of steel between the outside of the ship and the nearest habitable section.

[Counciler]

if i was desiging a 4 km long ship (any ship im not even talking warships, because space dibrits can be as bad as a bullet) id put at least 10 feet of steel between the outside of the ship and the nearest habitable section.

Yeah but what about fighters with obvious windows. They travel at many times the speed of a capship, and we DO see debris fly by us. with lasers hitting our windows, debris hitting it, and the shrapnel from explosions, why don't they break? Keep in mind that we didn't always have shields.

As another example, the Space Shuttle has windows, as does many other ships.

[karajorma]

FS2 ships can survive hits from multi kiloton weapons even without the use of shielding. Space debris is about as damaging on that scale as having someone throw feathers at you.

[Wanderer]

In space the increasing amount of armor (ie. the mass) translates quite directly into smaller acceleration.. So keep adding armor and you end up having a nice ship shaped - if practically immobile - space station instead of a space ship. That is assuming it can ever make it to the orbit.

[Nuke]

if i was desiging a 4 km long ship (any ship im not even talking warships, because space dibrits can be as bad as a bullet) id put at least 10 feet of steel between the outside of the ship and the nearest habitable section.

Yeah but what about fighters with obvious windows. They travel at many times the speed of a capship, and we DO see debris fly by us. with lasers hitting our windows, debris hitting it, and the shrapnel from explosions, why don't they break? Keep in mind that we didn't always have shields.

As another example, the Space Shuttle has windows, as does many other ships.

and those windows are 3 inches thick

FS2 ships can survive hits from multi kiloton weapons even without the use of shielding. Space debris is about as damaging on that scale as having someone throw feathers at you.

i was thinking realisticly, not freespaceistically

In space the increasing amount of armor (ie. the mass) translates quite directly into smaller acceleration.. So keep adding armor and you end up having a nice ship shaped - if practically immobile - space station instead of a space ship. That is assuming it can ever make it to the orbit.

well maybe 10 feet of metal might be overkill. an inch of steel for the outer hull plus a couple layers of 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch plating for an internal double and/or tipple hull. each hull would be angled differently to help vector radiation and high energy particles from habitable areas. sorta in a similar way to how stealth reflects radar away from the source.

more steel would mean slightly better radiation protection. mass can be cranked assuming the propusion tech can keep up with structural designs. you could also store water between the hull plates for added radiation shielding and it could also be used as propellant. youre not gonna be able to build a several kilometer long ship unless you got some big honkin engines.

for warships youd want a densely layered hull with blast compartments which could contain explosive forces and radiation. to be able to take nuclear detonations youd go with more or less a zepplin style construction, which is mostly a huge hollow superstructure with skin attached and habitable areas being small and within the bowels of the ship. you could fill in the voids with  honeycombed cells to help take blasts. you could join the cells with explosive bolts so they tear away from the hull when a detonation takes place inside one.

you could counter all that by encasing your nukes in heavy water ice. the effect would be 2 fold, neutrons would reflect back into the bomb and make the reaction last longer (increasing the yeild), and provide blast mass which would vaporize and expand to give it some effects of a blast wave in the vacuum of space. such warheads wouyld ne4ed to penetrate and detonate in a confined space to be useful.

[Counciler]

Well obviously this takes place far in the future. Lets assume suspension of disbelief for a moment. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that with all the planets colonized, and all the technological advancements, they would have access to superdense metals far stronger and lighter than steel? We obviously don't see honeycomb blimp nuke-proof ships ingame, but they DO stand up to the Harbinger (Fusion bomb surrounded by 3 fission bombs). So they must be made of something more durable than steel... right?

Lets also go on that same route and assume that, like in star trek, they found a way to make metals invisible. Or, even better, one of those superdense metals IS invisible. There. No more 6 inch glass, no more 10 foot steel. Now you have 1 inch of Ubaromgwtfbbq MegaGlass and 1 foot of Zomgcrazymansauce SuperSteel.

fiction ftw.... yai4me

[Nuke]

zeppelin > blimp

no matter what super material they have, id probibly prefer woven carbon nanotube mats epoxied together, which would in theory be even lighter and stronger than traditional carbon fiber. still with uber materials youd want a structure to suck up a warhead and force the blast of the explosion out of the ship rather than into it.