Starfinder Starships, one of my favorite things...

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Another side project of the DSC League discord community are Wardens of Mayhem, a space biker gang from Eox, with varying kinds of undead gang members. They oppose one of the other powerful villains of Eox, so mostly engage in internal strifes. On whim, I designed their gang patch, as well as an example space bike - since it's riders are undead there's no need for an enclosed ship, so this is how they travel the wilds of space...

 

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Shown in the illustration below is my huge mining platform ship sitting on a microgravity asteroid, bolted into the ground. Beneath the craft extends an enclosed drilling/digging machine working directly below. The tall uprights allow the vessel to raise up, for maintenance and tool changes in the drilling rig. It serves both as a low maneuverability ship and a planetary mining station. I volunteered to create some maps for last year's Wayfinder Starfinder issue, which I did two, however, after seeing my recent 3D illustration posts on FB, Tim Nightengale asked if I would submit any illustration work, so I agreed - though I've been reluctant to freelance this kind of work, I'm very competent in cartography, but actually doing 3D work, I am uncomfortable selling to others at this point. It's good enough for my uses. The illustration below was the background for the cover design, another artist created a character illustration, also 3D, I believe, that was integrated into that empty space to the right side of the illustration. (While I don't actually own the art, anymore - the ship was never stated or described, just used for illustration purposes, so I still own that!) I featured this ship in the included one-shot module with a single mapped level, First Contact, in my Rules of Engagement SF supplement.

 

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Here's a ship I did long ago, by request, but I cannot actually publish because it's too damn close to looking like the Firefly, even though the interior deck plan isn't quite the same, it's close. I even did an interior of one of the attached shuttles, as if lived in by a Companion. I call it the Hotaru (which is Japanese for firefly!)

 

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The largest starship I'll probably ever design, is a work-in-progress, since I've got tons of mapping yet to do - because its so massive. It already has some cool details, and some of it is designed, so worthy of posting, I think.

This is the Argos, a Generational Colony Base Ship of Super Colossal scale, using the Starship Operations Manual rules this has a crew size of 100,000 and as colony base ship has 5 times that as colonists, so 600,000 complement total. So this is a damn big ship. It measures 396 miles long from stem to stern. The fore portion contains the bridge and operation bays, while the center is massive bays containing ore processing, foundries, manufacturing centers, vast warehousing, hydroponics/food processing, pharma labs, science labs, full maintenance facilities, massive hangers for tiny to gargantuan ships docked inside - the industry workhorse required to establish permanent colonies. A mass transit tram moves 2 ways down the center at high speed taking colonists and crew from the torus to the bridge or engineering, though it still takes an hour transit between. The aft portion of the ship is the massive drives and engineering taking it across vast distances of space - the kind of ships used to establish the colonies of the Colonial Space, of my Kronusverse setting. Someone helped calculate a very rough estimated weight of this thing at 500 trillion displacement tons, at 13.5 cubic meters per ton.

The torus section alone, I did the math, is 9.96 miles wide, 192 miles in diameter, and 603 miles in circumference, which is 5,991 square miles, at 90 occupants per square mile being the ideal non-urban population density, the torus holds a population just over 600,000 residents. I figure six cities of 50,000 evenly spaced around the circumference, with smaller communities of 5000 - 10,000 interspersed between them, with plenty of farmland, hills, forests, lakes and rivers. Using light effects the sky is blue, real clouds circulate overhead that can release rain, and an artificial sun rotating slower than the torus rotation to simulate the passing of a day. A high speed, mass transit tram runs the circumference of the torus inside the walls flanking the torus interior.

Since the torus is 96 miles in radius, in order to achieve 1 G of centrifugal force, it spins at only .076 rotations per minute (roughly 13.5 minutes per revolution), but that's still spinning at 2,753 miles per hour at the outer edge of that ring! A weighted counter-balancing ring spins in the opposite direction for stability.

The illustrations below shows the exterior view of the Argos. A 3D illustration view of the torus interior. Then a map of sliced sections of the entire torus interior area.

 

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I am absolutely certain this is my weirdest starship design - it is a bio-hyrid Chrysalis ship of the Nelid race of psionic worms.

Always trying to create viable non-humanoid alien species as encounters or threats, the Nelid are a threat. So I imagined a segmented worm race without limbs, but have an innate psionic gift allowing them to communicate only via telepathy, although the recepient of the communication must have some psionic talent or cannot fully comprehend their desires. However if such a communication begins that worm will attempt to dominate the other. It is through this manifestation that the Nelid "build" things using the efforts of other species to construct it's technology. Another unique psionic power of the Nelid is what I call telekinetic microsurgery. They can perform biochemistry and genetic manupulations at the molecular/cellular level allowing them to experimentally perform bioengineering and genetic alterations onto themselves and to those around them.

Below are illustrations of Nelid: including one engaging in telepathic communication with a humanoid.

Another image shows the skin as transparent in order to show it's internal structures - it's brain comprises 20% of its body in order to accommodate it's psionic powers and intelligence.

The 3D map image is a Chrysalis ship. Giant moth-like creatures on the Nelid homeworld, live in a caterpillar state for about a century consuming botanicals of it's world, in order to create a chrysalis to build around it to begin it's 50 year transformation into a gargantuan cannibal moth - they each other for sustenance. When the chrysalis is formed with the caterpillar inside, the Nelid force the transformation process to slow at an exponential rate, then begin to insert technology built by their slaves, psionically activated computers and systems, weapons, bridge controls, etc. The bays are connected by plasma goo filled corridors that aren't particularly level as a transit surface, while the Nelid can swim in ths viscous, transparent liquid, it is problematic for humanoids to negotiate the enviroment in their heavy armors. The drives are inserted into it's anal cavity (?!). A forward hanger sits beneath the bridge containing walking mounted vehicles that the Nelid use for more movement on solid terrain, as well as fast and maneuverable high speed hover fighter craft.

 

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This is one of my earlier starship deck plan designs, which was featured in the included one-shot with Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide supplement for Starfinder. This is the Scarlet Harlot, a Geisha class entertainment transport ship, Large. Unarmed, this starship is the transport vehicle for a company of actors and entertainers who travel an interstellar circuit to attend entertainment venues across Colonial Space. On more primitive worlds that lack a proper entertainment venue, the included Dinner Theater, allows the ship to serve as the venue. Unusually, the entertainers of this company, are courtesans in addition to singers and comediens, who offer that entertainment service as well.

 

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Kind of weird ship, a personal commission I did, the ship is called the Foxbat, and the weird wings was a specific request. 2 decks, lower deck is just cargo hold...

 

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How about it guys, after those very stylized navy ships, this is probably the practical designed starship I've ever created, and helps explains the mindset differences by the Colonial Navy, and the Colonial Merchant Spacers Guilde (think merchant marine). This is the Trireme class CMSG huge bulk freighter. This ship shows a mixed cargo load, as all the cargo holds are external with 4 bays of container assemblies with 32 cargo containers each, 2 gas/liquid containers, and 2 bulk containers. Many ships have just one type, this has all three. Engineering and Tech shop at aft of ship, central corridor connects the the engines to the fore of the ship. The weapon platform is on the bottom of the ship with clear lines of sight for all attacking arc. At the top is the pilot house, what merchant spacers call a bridge. At center is the crew areas.

 

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Top down render, in case I decide to do the deck plans for this monster.

 

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While the Ysoki (ratlings) aren't indigenous to the Kronusverse, they are recent arrivals to the Delphi system, aboard a Ysoki Sphere Colony Base ship with a singularity drive at center creating a stable .98 Gs to those living aboard. They plan to settle one of the desert planets in the Delphi system... enjoy!