Official Deckplan of the main ship

Do you have a deckplan for a free trader that we are using? I only have the one from snapshot...

Well, if an accurate deckplan is your want I may have just what you desire. It's pretty accurate tonnage wise, and sticks close to the best model there is imo, the original mini. I also tried to keep the arrangement and details in the spirit of the best set of deckplans (excepting for the scale and the errors that caused), the ones from Starship Operator's Manual 1.

So if they suit and all are agreeable to not publishing or distributing them (you can use them for your own private games, maybe we'll offer them eventually, or I'll post them up somewhere for the public when I get tired of trying to get them made official ) I offer for use my take on the Beowulf. It's an old set, in need of some work looking at it again. And it doesn't match your own drawing. For one thing the dorsal turret won't fit where you have it and the original placement (as per my plans and the mini) makes a lot more sense, and fits.

Have a look, see what you think.

Again, links only, the files are too big for the board. If you need more explanation, a guided tour can be arranged (when I'm feeling a little better). Or just ask questions here and I'll answer.

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/DorsalExterior-1.jpg

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/UpperDeck-Keyed.jpg

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/MiddleDeck-Keyed.jpg

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/LowerDeck-Keyed.jpg

Note - If you're using Internet Exploder... get a life and switch to something else Those photobucket images don't rescale in IE but look fine in Firefox. I don't have a clue why. Maybe it's only my IE

Here's that quick guided tour that might explain some of the less obvious items.

I know I've done this before, at least twice, but do you think I can find it. Oh well...

Welcome aboard The Beowulf. I'm sure you'll have a pleasant trip, let me start with a quick orientation of the ship. We'll begin from above and work our way down through the ship.

You may have noticed the brightly coloured orange and red exterior hatches while you approached. Those are emergency escape hatches. The solid red one is the jump drive capacitor ejection hatch in case of overload.

The Type A has six configurable passenger staterooms on the upper deck. Three port side and three starboard. They may sleep two in double occupancy or two adjacent staterooms may be combined into a suite. The beds fold up into the wall and ceiling to accommodate a table and chairs for day use, and each includes a private fresher and mini food and beverage unit. Storage in the room is minimal but aft of the staterooms is a baggage hold for extra luggage. Some ships of this class opt to use the small divided area of the middle deck hold for baggage and the baggage hold as an air/raft hanger. At the forward end of the corridor is the lift from the main deck and access to the dorsal turret.

The lift from the upper deck exits in the lowberth chamber on the middle deck. There is a convenience fresher here for the use of lowberth passengers before departure and after arrival, as well as being handy for high passengers and crew from the common area. Storage lockers at each side of the area hold low passenger possessions, and supplies for the lowberths. External access panels allow movement of bulky components through the lockers if needed.

Aft of the lowberths is the main cargo hold with retractable curtains to keep the accessway to engineering clear of any shifting loads, dividing the hold into a bulk cargo area to port and a miscellaneous cargo area to starboard. The cargo lift is also used as cargo space.

The upper engineering area houses the jump drive and engineering control station, with the main tool and parts locker adjacent to the capacitor bank. Access to the lower engineering deck is through a floor hatch.

Forward of the lowberths is the common area with a large table and seating and full wall display screen for entertainment. To port of the common area is the galley and supplies locker/airlock. To starboard is the main airlock and ship's locker. Both airlocks are about 1.5m lower than the middle deck floor and have short lifts that can also be configured as steps or ramps to facilitate passage.

The crew staterooms open onto the common area. Typically the ship's medic uses the one to port while the remaining crew use the combined staterooms to starboard. This double size double occupancy stateroom may be configured as two standard staterooms if desired. In some cases the single stateroom is provided for paying passage if the crew is small enough, typically through double duty ratings.

Forward of the common area is the ship's office and Captain's stateroom. And through that is the bridge.

The ship's computer is located below the bridge in a half-deck high space and accessed by a floor hatch and crouch lock. The computer access doubles as a cramped emergency airlock from the bridge.

Accessed from the floor hatch in the common area is the cargo accessway on the lower deck. This has it's own emergency hatch and serves as an airlock to the ventral turret, special cargo hold, and lower cargo hold.

The special cargo hold can be set to many environmental conditions and contains the access panel to the forward landing gear bay. The lower cargo hold contains the access panels to the aft landing gear bays and is flanked by the cargo airlocks. Each cargo airlock can quickly transfer up to 5tons of cargo through the rear facing door up or down the retractable power ramp.

Behind the cargo lift is the lower engineering space with it's own airlock and small tool/parts locker with external access. The twin powerplants and thrusters are located on this deck.

That concludes the tour.

As I said it's an old set of plans in need of some minor revision, but it is CT Book 2 and iirc comes to within 1ton of spec* for all but the fuel. I just fudged the fuel as filling voids and hoped the rescaled hull wasn't too much over 200tons because of it. I seem to recall Crow looking at it way back and doing a quick volume assessment and finding it over by some, but I don't recall how much. More than I liked, but not enough to be worth fixing

I did start some interior visuals once but wasn't happy with them. I also worked a bit on doing a walkthrough model in a first person shooter game level editor (Marathon, an old, GREAT, game on Mac, with a version for PC, by the people who would eventually make Halo, the fine folks of Bungie, I could go on... ). The problem there was details. I ran out of map bits before I was half done. And it was breaking the program. But it was looking pretty, and would have been cool to be able to not just walkthrough but play a pirates vs crew boarding action. Ah well. The limits have since been expanded and I've considered taking a hack at it again, if I could find the time.

* per my rational for deckplan elements, not strictly by the book but more sensible imo

Dan, these are deckplans are great, they make a lot more sense than the GURPS ones that I was adapting from.
I would be happy using these as the basis for our ship if no one objects.

Not sure if you've done any work on interior setting but...

...I've been tweaking the plans a bit. Nothing too major, yet

New image postings up shortly, still a bit of a work in progress. So any feedback would be great.

And I'm wondering if a Beowulf will cut it with the new story arc anyway. More on that in the appropriate thread I suppose. Whatever ship we need I'm sure between the Baron and myself we can do some decent deckplans.

Here's the current images. Overall changes include shifting the 1.5m grid. Not sure why I had it centered instead before. I usually prefer a row in the center like it is now.

Lower Deck:

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/LowerDeck-Keyed-1.jpg

Changed the computer layout to better fit my thoughts on it. Changed the cargo access corridor a bit. Changed the single forward landing gear to two. Changed the special cargo hold size a little and ditched the window.

Middle Deck:

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/MiddleDeck-Keyed-1.jpg

Added a control station feature to the Captain's side of his office desk to better fit my concepts of bridge controls (5 stations total). Shifted the escape hatch and crouch lock hatch on the bridge for better function. Made the table in the commons just a little narrower.

Upper Deck:

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/UpperDeck-Keyed-1.jpg

Changed the keys around to match the other decks.

Dorsal Hull:

https://2img.net/h/i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/far-trader/DorsalExteriorunarmed.jpg

Changed the plating lines a bit.

I was just looking at those deckplans and it's not the Book 2 version after all. I suspect it's Book 5. Just fyi.

P.S. Yep, Book 5, but for some reason instead of my usual B5 conversion of B2 no fuel purifier (which would have made the cargo tonnage the same as the B2). Oh well, maybe that's why I put it away last time, trying to make it work for both B2 and B5

I think a Beowulf can cut it, but it should be a jacked-up performance model. Maybe built with higher engineering tolerances and at a higher tech level. Maybe its a Beowulf so it can blend in and go into Zho space with no trouble...

Means I do not have to model up a Marava just yet, as well

Can't recall if I said elsewhere already, but I love the idea/name behind Achilles' Heel. So we will be upgrading the Beowulf class a bit, should be no problem. I ran some quick numbers last week and found a nice set of data points. Will post later.

More germane to this I've done a little more work on the deckplans, to bring them more in line with High Guard. Mostly some of the upper cargo space (middle deck, the small area) is fuel purifiers. And I'm trying to rework the drives just a little (which I think is where I last left the design, frustration over trying to please both B2 and B5, I'm a nut).

So, if you can work around those areas for the moment all the better

And I was bored so I started modeling the Beowulf myself, in SketchUp, it's fun in that beat your head with a heavy book kinda way I don't know if anything will come of it, it's mostly just for my own practice with the program. If it serves any useful purpose it will be to show that it's still grossly over tonnage and where the plans poke out the sides

I need to describe the dorsal turret a little better to you David, it's not quite the way the mini has it. I'll try to get you a pic or scan soon. It needs to come forward a bit and have a small base projecting out of the forward slope of the upper deck area. If you follow and it matters, it's your modeling and work so I'm not going to nit pick, except as suggestions.

Overall I love the model you have. It seems a little large somehow but that could be a trick of perspective. And I'm not sure (never have been) how those little side windows fit in (or are they headlights?)

Oh and did you catch the added landing gear? Or do you prefer the tricycle version? I like either way. Three probably 'looks' better.

Ah, those little side windows, I have often puzzled over those myself, I was wondering if I could put them at ground level either side of the bridge as a view down for the nav and sensor stations, but then the deckplans don't reach out that far, tricky.

I did catch the landing gear change, just haven't added it to the model yet. I think four legs is good, it is such a wide ship it will probably look more stable like that.

SketchUp is ideal for working out interior spaces & having looked at aramis's nightsinger model, it really gives you a basic idea of what it feels like move around inside. Good luck with it!

& I think you may be right about the scale too.