fallsfromtrees wrote:Jonathan_S wrote:Well, and you do start running into things that restrict the minimum practical beam.
You need enough beam to get missile launchers into both broadsides[1] (with feed tubes for them) without bumping into each other. (I believe missile hardware length starts affecting you before laser/graser length; but that could potentially play a factor as well).MaxxQ wrote:
Pretty much this. There's a point where you just *can't* make the beam much smaller, unless you're willing to go with smaller (and much more limited) missiles or beam weapons.JeffEngel wrote:
So - let me see if this represents a consensus:
Impeller mechanics dictate a more-or-less cigar shape for a warship and (something practically like a) minimum length for hypercapable ones at least.
Weaponry tends to create minimum practical beam, and small craft carriage may make some difference there too.
So, on the small end, minimum tonnage tends to mean tightening up the draught dimension more than the other two.
As you get larger, practicality of various sorts (impeller mechanics, working inside the thing) tends to limit maximum length. Beam relative to length is limited by impeller mechanics. So filling out from there goes to draught until it's similar to beam, and then you fill out more or less proportionately, insofar as you can and remain up to SD acceleration.
I can agree with this interpretation - the real question is how to RFC and BuNine feel about it?
Well... as was pointed out in another post, I am a BuNine member, and pretty much responsible for the final 3D look of ships, missiles, and such (those links in my post above are *my* Deviant Art page).
Jeff has pretty much nailed what we have to consider when we're trying to work all this stuff out for the Companion(s), and even more on my part, since I get the fun of trying to fit it all into a 3-dimensional image, instead of a single side 2D drawing. There are a few minor differences with my models and the drawings in HoS because it turns out that something didn't quite fit where it was placed in the line art.
Believe it or not, we *do* try to take into account the internals when we do this, but occasionally something slips by and needs to be changed later. I doubt you'll find any discrepancies similar to the differences between the original Star Trek series shuttlebay, and that shown on the later Franz Joseph blueprints - they don't reconcile, and it's been the bane of TOS Enterprise modelers for years.