I wish I could decide

[Manticore7]

In my spare time I like to draw starships, but It sucks that I'm almost never fully satisfied with the design for very long. I am at first, but the more I look at the designs the more I want to add or take away. it gets iritation at times.

[Dr.Epic]

You've already made the decision. You just have to understand why.

[factotum]

Many years ago my art teacher at school told me that you can keep adding detail to a picture, but there comes a point--usually quite suddenly--where the extra detail stops making the picture look better and suddenly makes it look worse. The secret to good art is to know where that point is and stop before you reach it! I would imagine starship design comes under the same category, so you simply need to train yourself to accept that just adding more and more stuff will make the thing look rubbish.

[Sacrieur]

Welcome to being an artist.

[Crow]

You could always take the practical approach. What is the starship intended to do? When it looks like it would fit that role, stop, and put it aside for a day or two before going back to it.

[factotum]

One other thing: have you thought about the practicalities of your space ship? Is there room for engines, fuel, crew etc. inside that oh-so-streamlined hull? :smallwink:

[H Birchgrove]

Do you want your space ship to look like the classic flying saucers from 1950's invasion films or cigar-shaped rockets from Buck Rogers? Do you prefer something like Star Wars cruisers or Star Trek's starships? Or do you want to draw scientifically believable multi-generational sublight space ships with ion drive?

[shawnhcorey]

One other thing: have you thought about the practicalities of your space ship? Is there room for engines, fuel, crew etc. inside that oh-so-streamlined hull? :smallwink:

Other things you might forget:

the head
the galley
laundry

[KuReshtin]

When it comes to designing space ships, I find that the forum of CortexSystemsRPG.org have a lot of good ideas on what needs to be included, and also have a bunch of good visualizations as well.
Their 'Ship Yard' sub forum is great.

[Sacrieur]

Well you could take the practical approach, in which case starships would represent the most economical design.

There's the engineering approach, where you would design the starship to be efficient, powerful, and easily upgradeable/maintained.

And then there's the scientist approach, which is more of a rule of cool type of deal. "Why does your ship have an antimatter engine?" "BECAUSE IT IS ****ING COOL!"

[H Birchgrove]

Other things you might forget:

the head
the galley
laundry


Rest rooms. Don't forget them. :smalltongue:

[Anxe]

Isn't the head another name for restrooms? Or were you pointing that out?

[H Birchgrove]

Isn't the head another name for restrooms? Or were you pointing that out?

I didn't know that. :smalleek: