Submarine picture again

[ffutures]

I've been tweaking this all day, think this is as good as I'm going to get it unless I think of something specific I need to add for the scenario. I may make the windows smaller, but apart from that I think it's OK.

For adventure purposes I'm saying that the engine can be used for direct steam rocket propulsion to achieve 25-30 KPH underwater (it can do more than this but the propellers and fins are used for steering and attitude control and fairly ineffective at high speed), cruising speed (propellers only) is more like 10-15 KPH. The hull is designed for vacuum as well as pressure, and the engine is powerful enough to take it into orbit around Ceres in an emergency, but it lacks the steering engines of a real spacecraft - there's a little attitude control via compressed air jets but capacity is very limited, and steering isn't accurate enough for a safe landing, even on Ceres. You'd basically do this as a last resort, if you couldn't get back to your base, and someone would have to rescue you. The hull is rated to 4000 M on Earth, so should be good to about 120 Km inside Ceres.

No built-in weapons - it's intended for peaceful scientific exploration.



Later In answer to the points raised I've had another go - this one fixes the rear concavity and makes the ports smaller, and fixes a problem affecting compatibility with older versions of Acrobat, also somehow makes the file 250k smaller which is always useful!

But there are still only two pressure suits, and ordinary space suits are NOT diving suits. I'm a stinker, aren't I...

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I see 8 seats and 2 diving suits... that crew had better hope they don't all have to make an emergency exit at the same time. :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I couldn't possibly comment...

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

No emergency hatch either, in case the main hatch gets buckled or dented... Could lead to all sorts of troubles as the rest of the crew have to shelter in the engine room while the control cabin is flooded to let the divers back in. And then the difficult repairs...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Whistles innocently...

New version of image posted.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that looks and feels like a more natural and aesthetically pleasing hull shape.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

These posts have had my inner GM grinning from ear to ear, but I'm not sure I'm cut out to be one of your players...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oh, I very rarely kill characters. Worry them, perhaps.

Basically, there may be a problem which will require some ingenuity to solve, but it can be done with the resources available and without killing everyone except the guys in the pressure suits. If the players think a little, of course...

[ggreig]

Someone I know is sometimes seen as a tough GM. In fact he doesn't kill many player characters, but there was an outcry when a popular but simple NPC was fleeced of the sheep we gave him as a reward for helping us.

Poor Willum, a pawn in the hands of a heartless GM!

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure you don't. But judging by the number of things you're saving up for the poor creatures in this adventure, I'm not sure my nerves could take it :-)

(joking, of course, it sounds great)

I don't like to kill PCs when I GM either. Don't tell my players... but my rule of thumb is more or less that someone has to be stupid AND unlucky AND not bailed out by a fellow party member to meet an untimely end. Unless credibility would be seriously damaged by not killing them, of course.

PC ingenuity seems to suffer massive fluctuations in the supply, at least in my groups...

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Mmm, possibly I'm being over-critical, but engineering-wise, I don't think this design would have much pressure resistance. That concavity around the engine is a serious weak point. Generally, you want everything on the hull to be convex on at least one axis. That's the reason real life subs are all cylinders or, for the deep sea ones, spheres or collections of spheres.

I don't think there's any particular reason why a cone wouldn't work as well as a cylinder, so I think the general shape might work, if you assume the hull is a not very eccentric ellipse in cross-section. The engine room concavity might work if the engine room is filled with non-compressible oil (real life deep sea subs use this technique) but then you have that flat bulkhead, which is almost as bad as a concavity. And you'd need an airlock to get into it.

Least work would be to change the rear hull to a convex surface, I think, with about half the curvature of the dimple you have now. Not as sexy looking, though.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I'll see what I can do, it ought to be easy enough to change it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

And new version now posted.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Sweet! It looks like a submarine now. Though not as sexy.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I might give it some rear fins and more props to preserve the arrow shape.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Doesn't work - just looks cumbersome.