USS Shrike - Bridge [WIP]

[curson]

Hello folks!
Still working on putting up my Fan fiction project, and having chosen the class of ship that will be protagonist, I put myself to the test and installed InkScape for the first time in my life, to put together a bridge. Being one of the most "central" location of any Star Trek ship, I needed to have it pretty much schemed out even before starting.

The ship is a Seagull-class, the USS Shrike as for the title, and it is designed by Lukas D'Anvil.

As said, this is my first time messing around with InkScape, so I've a lot to learn, and I still have to fill in the Conference Room and the Captain's Ready Room, which are just blanks here. I'm not so sure about the shape of the console of the Tactical and First Officer position, but so far this suits the symmetry.

There we go

 

[TheSeeker]

What, no bathroom?

 

[curson]

Ahahahah
Oh snap, I furgut the tuiletz.

Jokes apart, I thought about giving it an all-around aspect (bathroom, facilities, storage, and what not) but my idea is not a Technical Manual (very far from it right now), I just needed a reference for my characters to move into, like a "set". My plans call for a "standard quarter", engineering and sickbay too, all major locations on-board, just to give an idea of where and how the characters are moving around

 

[sojourner]

Nice clean lines. Lukas has alot of interesting ships designed there, but I couldn't find a Seagull class. Which one is it?

Edit: Wow, Lukas really has some nice designs above and beyond just the ships!

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Nice start. I like how you have the forward stations in a sort of row. Not unlike my science bridge designs.

http://www.geocities.com/practical_unicorn/bridges/bridges.html

Are eng1, sci1 and the con/ops stations all meant to be on the same level? If so, the XO and tactical stations will have a tough time seeing the viewscreen. I suggest dropping them down a step or two into the forward "pit", which currently serves little purpose.

Mark

 

[curson]

Are eng1, sci1 and the con/ops stations all meant to be on the same level? If so, the XO and tactical stations will have a tough time seeing the viewscreen. I suggest dropping them down a step or two into the forward "pit", which currently serves little purpose.

It's an idea I'm thinking about.
SCI-1, ENG-1, CONN and OPS are indeed on the same level as TACTICAL and the XO seat, with just the captain being a "step up", on a pedestal similar to the one you'll find for the Captain's chair on a Defiant bridge... I was thinking about lowering CONN and OPS in a Voyager style (read: LT Paris' position), while having the two positions on the side (ENG-1 and SCI-1) kept at the same level as the rest.
From the point of view of modifying the design is just a matter of adding a couple of lines, I'll make some tests

Nice start. I like how you have the forward stations in a sort of row. Not unlike my science bridge designs.

http://www.geocities.com/practical_unicorn/bridges/bridges.html

WOW. Some impressive designs you have there. I love your style and ideas
This goes into my bookmarks!

 

[curson]

Updating with the latest work, done during this very early Japanese morning.

Now it's all a matter of tweaking, as all the important bits are completed
I will let it rest there for a while, to see how it looks when I open the file again.

 

[hellsgate]

I like this bridge alot, except for a few minor nitpicks.

• The Conn/Op's should be slightly reduced to a one-person station a-la Raven-Class starships, rather than require two personnel.
• The Tactical & First Officer should have the same "sideburns"-style LCARS consoles as the Captain.
• You don't need 3 Engineering Stations and 2 Science. You need one Engineering (at the Master Situation Display,) one Operations, one Medical/Environmental, one Science. One auxiliary over-ride for the occasional "Oh damn," moment that can be used for any purpose previously mentioned.

 

[Captain Fine]

It looks like the first officer and tactical are on their own little miniplatforms? I like that idea :P

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

• You don't need 3 Engineering Stations and 2 Science. You need one Engineering (at the Master Situation Display,) one Operations, one Medical/Environmental, one Science. One auxiliary over-ride for the occasional "Oh damn," moment that can be used for any purpose previously mentioned.

That really depends on what era the ship is from, what size is, and what mission its intended to carry out.

 

[curson]

• You don't need 3 Engineering Stations and 2 Science. You need one Engineering (at the Master Situation Display,) one Operations, one Medical/Environmental, one Science. One auxiliary over-ride for the occasional "Oh damn," moment that can be used for any purpose previously mentioned.

That really depends on what era the ship is from, what size is, and what mission its intended to carry out.

Indeed, I agree with Herkimer Jitty, and I frankly don't think the bridge is over-staffed or over-equipped. There isn't much written down by Lukas D'Anvil (the designer of the Seagull class), except what's on Treknology. So I'm making my mind as I go along in designing this writing project, about what exactly this ship is in for... I don't want to reveal part of the "plot" and what it has "special" about it, but I'm trying to keep it balanced and with meaning.

Length: 305m
Width: 170m
Height: 72m
Decks: 18
Displacement: 2400000t
Complement: 40 officers + 310 crew, evacuation limit: 600

...it's not a small vessel. I don't see the point of a MED station on the bridge, and not being a strict Explorer the double Science positions are enough IMHO. There is the OPS right next to the CONN in the "front" row, and the two positions labeled ENG-2/ENG-3 are easily usable as anything I'd like to (this is created as a set for a FanFic project I'm working to develop), I just needed a quick way of labeling them on the map, without taking lines and lines of text to explain what they can do. As I imagine all Star-Trek like system, the console are pretty configurable.

OTOH, I wanted the XO and the TAC officer to have a full station in front of them. In almost all the Star Trek bridge designs around, the XO especially sits down with mostly nothing in front, and the idea I want to put in place is to have him (it's going to be a male character) more able to get his hands dirty with the ship's system. As I imagined it, it's a semi-redundant station he's sitting at. Instead of having people rushing to take the place of the injured Helm officer, why not simply having a console in front ready to take over?

Thanks for the feedback everybody keep it coming, I will soon start working on Engineering (there are also Sickbay and a standard quarter on the list...).

 

[sojourner]

I agree with those assessments. Especially regarding a medical station on the bridge.

I am guessing what people are seeing as platforms around your xo and tactical stations are really an attempt to show the shape of the consoles? If so, I personally would not make them total wrap around for those stations. Too confining. Maybe for the XO a console on his right side that can be extended and rotated to be in front of him as needed, and for the tac officer do a console front and center with an elbow off to his left. There is no law that says a bridge has to have bilaterally symetrical stations.

And hey, be daring! Bring back the coffee table! if it's good enough for Sulu. The lack of table surfaces in bridge designs always bugged me. where do these people set their drinks?

 

[curson]

I am guessing what people are seeing as platforms around your xo and tactical stations are really an attempt to show the shape of the consoles? If so, I personally would not make them total wrap around for those stations. Too confining. Maybe for the XO a console on his right side that can be extended and rotated to be in front of him as needed, and for the tac officer do a console front and center with an elbow off to his left. There is no law that says a bridge has to have bilaterally symetrical stations.

And hey, be daring! Bring back the coffee table! if it's good enough for Sulu. The lack of table surfaces in bridge designs always bugged me. where do these people set their drinks?

Yes, those are "warping" all-around consoles indeed, around the XO and TAC position. I have to say this is still the bit that is bugging me most in the concept of this bridge. I wanted (and still want) the XO to have a full console at his disposal, and by going with this idea, I went for the symmetry with the TAC's one on the opposite side of the captain's chair. I will probably tweak with those again in the near future, but the general layout its pretty much satisfying to me. Again, I really don't see what a MED station could do, than SCI-2 couldn't do... I labeled those station ENG-2, ENG-3 and SCI-2 just to describe them, but as I intend the system (LCARS or equivalent) to be in 2386 when the stories will be set, I see no reason why if needed at the tap of a button those stations could be re-configured for what's needed most.

I do assure you that this bridge if fully equipped with coffee-cup holders, well concealed in pretty much every console all around though in my case, they would be tea-cup holders. Please forgive my hate for coffee

(any typo is due to the quite strong earthquake shock that just happened here in Tokyo...)

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

You'd best make sure that was an earthquake. Tokyo gets destroyed by alien invasions more often than Paris, New York City and Washington DC put together.

 

[curson]

/me checks out of the hotel window and see no Godzilla on the horizon

Yep, apparently this time around it was an earthquake! I've collected another one *yay*

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Updating with the latest work, done during this very early Japanese morning.

Now it's all a matter of tweaking, as all the important bits are completed
I will let it rest there for a while, to see how it looks when I open the file again.

Nicely done But watch the door opening spacing at the conference room and ready room doors the way you have it now one of the partitions will hit the other one. if the doors are the typical double opening sliding type that we see in the show you might want to consider moving one of the doors slightly further apart

 

[curson]

Nicely done But watch the door opening spacing at the conference room and ready room doors the way you have it now one of the partitions will hit the other one. if the doors are the typical double opening sliding type that we see in the show you might want to consider moving one of the doors slightly further apart

Very good point indeed.
I noticed it when I finally realized how I wanted to position the doors, but decided to finalize it anyway like this, mainly for two reasons.

First: I don't have to stretch hard to imagine the doors being in a "scale like" design, thus flexible at some point, and the two partition on the same side of the two doors could be easily imagined to slide up into the wall dividing Ready Room and Conference Room.

Second: still keeping in mind a new design, we could image the two partition to be partly folding, and closing on themselves while sliding back. From a security point of view having such a solution is not a problem (if you want resistance, you put a force field on it) and from the safety point of view having a system like this gets you easier access if the door doesn't automatically open...

I am still thinking about relocating the door of the Ready Room a bit lower anyway, it is one of the improvement on the list, but the level (low) of details of the design allows for plenty of different explanations for it. They look so good to me right there

 

[curson]

UPDATE: It seems impossible for me to edit my first post in this thread, and thus the TITLE, which should now be "USS SHRIKE - WIP", sorry for this.

I'm posting what I've been doing with Main Engineering design so far... there's still something to do, but here it is.

D-Warp is a new kind of drive the USS Shrike will be having, derived from the concept elaborated in the ASR PBEM Universe (info here). Being 2386 and being the original Seagull-class design by Lukas d'Anvil supposing so, a ship with a new drive was in my likings.