Deckplan creation guidelines [Mongoose Traveller]

[golentan]

So, in the interests of designing custom ships, I would like very much to know if anyone has advice on creating the deckplans/possibly a nifty "exterior shot" graphic (the latter is MUCH lower on the priority list though). How do I keep track of tonnage, how much space can be devoted to corridors/common areas, are there any good programs I could use for it (though I'm on a mac, so windows only programs are out), stuff like that.

[golentan]

So, as an addendum I found good guidelines for spacing things properly and getting the volumes (should anyone be remotely interested). As it turns out, classic designs were given with 2 squares of floor space equates to 1 ton. So, for example, a 100 ton vessel could have 2 decks of 100 squares each.

Still would like help on a program to illustrate this.

[Telok]

I ran a Classic Traveller game for a year and have some things that could help.

These are three deck plans and two ship collages.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9XsjpBrTFDRYmEwYWQ5YjMtNDNlNi00MzI1LWIwM zEtNjExMWIwMjI2ZTEx&hl=en_US
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9XsjpBrTFDRZDRjNTQwMmYtNjcyZS00Zjg3LWE3O TYtMDM0MDQ2ZjM0YWQy&hl=en_US
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9XsjpBrTFDRMjBiMGFhZjQtYTU1MC00MjNlLTkzM TYtMjQ4MGNjZjY1NWMx&hl=en_US
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9XsjpBrTFDRNTI0ZDM3YmUtNmU4NS00MjIyLTg3M jEtMGNmN2M3ODRjNTNj&hl=en_US
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9XsjpBrTFDROTI5ZTUyZGItYWY3OC00MzNhLTlmZ DEtZmIwMDViZWJjMDgx&hl=en_US

Note that I scammed these ships off an old game I have called Frontier: First Encounters. It was really useful because I could just whip out images and planets/systems without going and writing everything from scratch.

For the deck plans of the ships I just made guesses. It helps that the players of your game probably don't have jobs designing real world ships or aircraft. If someone in your group does complain (or really is a naval engineer) just give them to job of doing the shop designs.

As long as the space ships look good and play well then mis-allocating the hyperdrive tonnage will go totally unnoticed. But try to get the number of hardpoints and cabins right, and don't forget the toilet.

[golentan]

I'm actually planning on releasing an E-book supplement (probably free, maybe as high as a buck-ninety-nine), so the deckplans looking nice and professional does matter to me. But thank you for the advice.

Edit: Also, none of those links are working for me.

[Premier]

I don't have the Mongoose version and I don't remember Classic Traveller having any explicit advice on creating an actual deckplan, but here (http://web.archive.org/web/20030402111803/http://www.synicon.com.au/sw/deckplan/deckplan.html) is a link to an archived version of a highly relevant essay. It's about Star Wars, but most of the principles would be equally applicable to Traveller.

[golentan]

Well, again, what I really need at this point is a graphic program. Traveller ships fortunately have most of the space concerns worked into the ship's statblock, and I'm not foolish enough to do the "1 foot high deck."

[Reynard]

Well, there's Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/download/), which could do what you want it to do once you're used to it.

[houlio]

I don't personally know of any sort of graphics program that would auto generate ship graphics, so you're probably on your own for that. I have seen some people on the Mongoose forum do some pretty snazzy stuff though. So it might be worth it to check over there if you haven't.

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewforum.php?f=89

[golentan]

So, I'm going to try installing WINE and AutoREALM, and will update on how well it works.

[golentan]

Seems to be working fine, if only I could get the dang thing to do what I wanted. :smallsigh: Fortunately, there's a tutorial specifically geared to the program and traveller. Onward! Excelsior!

Thanks for the advice everyone.