hm, well, it's like this, i'm writing a novel set in the galaxy of the future, you know, similiar to EV, but way different, with an intense story and all. my second book.
but the first was a fantasy tale.
so, i've come across this dilemma...
how in stars name do you describe a Spaceship for a story??
i've tried to learn by reading many space and sci-fi books, but they all fail at that and rarely do!
i'm stuck and i can't even explain what a Skiff (shuttlecraft like ship) looks like!
so, since we're all EV fans, i was wondering if anyone has picked up neat ways of visually describing what a spaceship looks like, in medium detail at least?
a cruiser?
destroyer?
anything?
thanks for the consideration... i appreciate any help!

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"Yesterday we bent and our backs and paid homage to the Kings - today, we kneel only to the Truth." -Deus Ex

I usually use figurative language. Like comparing it in different terms. Saying that the puny defender approached the Cruiser, like a leaf about to careen into a cliff. Or something like that. Get creative with it. You could also get literal and go front to back describing any specific 'landmarks' on the ship. Like that the front curved like an oval, or was sharp like a cone, or something. Actually, thats still figurative language... Anyway, I hope that was of some help.

Be sure to post it in the chronicles when your done!

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(This message has been edited by Jimbob (edited 05-09-2003).)

Just say if its like real big, small, or a medium size ship. Most sci-fi books never describes the ship. They just leave you to figure it out yourself.

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"Freedom is freedom to say that 2 + 2 = 4." 1984 by George Orwell
-Ultimate Rebel

Just make sure that you keep your descriptors straight in relation to real world ships. For instance, unlike in EV, in the real world Frigates are the smallest combat vessels, while Destroyers are quite large in comparison. Cruisers are larger than Destroyers, smaller than Battleships, and much, much smaller than Carriers.

And a skiff is a sailing vessel, if memory serves. Not a tiny one, but certainly not large, more of a personal pleasurecraft in size.

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"Damn, everybody wants something up their ass today! Yeah, I'm cool like that." - forge

Just outline the basic shape of the spacecraft, it's size and colour, and then leave the rest for the reader to work out.

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thanks guys. guess there's no other way. ah well, that'll suffice.
as for the skiff, in my story, you could say it's an obsolete version of the Shuttlecraft in EV. one of the earliest spacefaring 'civilian' vessels. the name seemed fitting.
anyways, thanks for the feedback!

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"Yesterday we bent and our backs and paid homage to the Kings - today, we kneel only to the Truth." -Deus Ex

Oh there's a way. Doug Adams did it occasionally. Especially in the description of Zaphod Beeblebrox's ship in the short story Young Zaphod Plays it Safe. If I find a version of it online, I'll post a quote.

Edit: Viola:

"Any sophisticated knowledgeable person, who had knocked about, seen a
few things, would probably have remarked on how much the craft looked
like a filing cabinet - a large and recently burgled filing cabinet
lying on its back with its drawers in the air and flying."

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(This message has been edited by Rawzer (edited 05-10-2003).)

(This message has been edited by Rawzer (edited 05-10-2003).)

Earth-bound ship classes are probably a good way to go...plus I've learned tons of words used for ships from the Star Control games (Ariloulaleelay Skiff, Earthling Cruiser, Spathi Eluder, Androsynth Guardian, Chmmr Avatar, Ur-Quan Dreadnought, etc...the list goes on and on and on).

Some sci-fi scenarios use words like cruiser and battleship and gunboat, but they don't really correspond to the ship classes they typically represent; for instance, the Star Destroyer is a bit bigger than a Mon Calimari cruiser, and is probably twice as big as a Nebulon-B frigate. You could argue "Star Destroyer" is one term, but then, shouldn't it be able to blow up a Death Star?

Personally I like to stick with words as close to their naval (or aerial) counterparts, as I'd imagine that's how things would actually play out. But you never really know, and it certainly can't hurt to be creative.

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Mike Lee (Firebird)
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ok, thanks again, but a i have a few more questions in mind on this matter.
(i am also net-searching, googl'ing, reading up on it and all, but its nice to have some expert advice from actual ship-users)
this might sound a bit silly, but i never really was into technical stuff and details. i'm all for story and glory
anyway - maeup, areas, and parts of a spacecraft would be?
there's the hull, wings if any, landing gear, cockpit (other name?), cargo bay, thrusters? engines? is there a way i could point these things out when secribing a ship?

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"Yesterday we bent and our backs and paid homage to the Kings - today, we kneel only to the Truth." -Deus Ex

Quote

Originally posted by JC Denton:
**ok, thanks again, but a i have a few more questions in mind on this matter.
(i am also net-searching, googl'ing, reading up on it and all, but its nice to have some expert advice from actual ship-users)
this might sound a bit silly, but i never really was into technical stuff and details. i'm all for story and glory
anyway - maeup, areas, and parts of a spacecraft would be?
there's the hull, wings if any, landing gear, cockpit (other name?), cargo bay, thrusters? engines? is there a way i could point these things out when secribing a ship?

**

This doesn't sound silly at all; stats are for video games, maybe for movies to an extent; but for literature, it'd be rather absurd to be saying stuff like, "She's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs!"...um, right. Well, maybe that's a bad example. Stuff like "the 50-meter-long fuselage merged with the sleek black, carbon-composite wings to form a fighting machine with a 50 terrawatt shield generator and the ability to travel at .25c, and I took the sights in as I boarded the ship..." would, however, be strange in a story -- as you say, story and glory just isn't compatible with technical details.

My advice, though I'm not sure how good it is, would be to describe things in a way most appropriate for a situation. If a character is boarding it, for example, the ship's various components should be described as s/he sees them -- the overall form of the hull first, from a distance, then later, the notable external features; once inside, you'd go about describing the cockpit/control cabin/bridge, the nitty-gritty aspects of the actual controls; if the character goes to different areas, like crew quarters, mess hall, or cargo bay, you can describe those when appropriate.

There are lots of organizational patterns you could go through -- outside in, forward to aft, chronological in terms of order in which components were built...it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

Hope this helps...though really, it all depends on what your imagination tells you. Mental pictures help. Mental walkthroughs are even better.

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Mike Lee (Firebird)
Visit Cymltaneous Solutions: (url="http://"http://cs.paching.com/")http://cs.paching.com/(/url)
(hosted by (url="http://"http://www.evula.org")evula.org(/url))

I found a buzzword (bolognium) generator here:
(url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~kyleodin/")http://home.earthlink.net/~kyleodin/(/url)
To get to it, scroll almost all the way to the bottom of the first page. Here's a few good "buzzwords" I got: "Spectro-Neural Space X-Laser Enhancer," "Valium Neutroniumic Inversion,"Graaliumic Neutroniumic Engine," "Toroidal Digital Extractor," "Oblivium Osmosis Flux," "Di-Sanatoriumic Extractor," "Trans-Positronic Leakage," "Physio-Gnomonic Physio-Mesotronic Fuel," "Co-Hypanthium Pion Beam," "Hecto-Anti-Neutrinoic Force Storm," "Circum-Exordium Apo-Aeciumic Transmission Transformer."
Hope this helps!

~Ace

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"There is simply nothing in life more worth doing than kicking ass for money." - J. S. Jordan, Mercenaries Guild

Why in the blue blazes did you not ask me first? Denton --...
Anyways, I will describe a starfighter for you in story format.
"The newly designed Stellar landing silently on the platform, the repulsor jets let off with a soft hiss and the cockpit veered open. Surrounded in all it's glory the ship sat silently on the deck, it's cockpit sat in front while the rest of the starfighter lay behind about 2 metres' from the cockpit the body of the white and blue craft split into a 'T' each prong supporting an arrow shaped wing mounted with tachyon protoss cannons, a pair or retrofitted Photon molecular guided mark IV missiles sat beneath the cannon in the shadows and on the rear wing tips were the remarkable starfighters powerful engines. Four 2 ft wide cylinders sprouted from the rear end of both wings each capable of delivering the utmost in speed and maneuverability. This, was truly a ship to be proud of, a ship, of the Confederation.."
There, The stellar is a Y'wing with wierd wings big engines and powerful guns.
If you can't make it out then... --
unfourtunately yes it does take long to describe one lil ship, however books are long and you won't even notice...

If all the world were insane, I'd fly to the moon..

Umm. lots of punctuation mistakes in last post -_-

If all the world were insane, I'd fly to the moon..

A picture is worth a thousand words, have an artist do some cover art for you. As you're writing this just make rough sketches, vaguely what you these ships look like in your head. There are probably people around the ambrosia ev/o/n boards that'll do it just for bragging rights.

In regards to capitol ship classifications: a "frigate" is the smallest, barely a capitol ship; next is "destroyer", small and fast for striking manuevers (and sub-hunting recently); next is sometimes "gunboat", sometimes its own class and sometimes a kind of destroyer; next is "cruiser", big ship; next is "battleship", these are designed to be capitol ships among capitol ships, before aircraft only another battleship could defeat a battleship, big ships with big guns; and finally "carrier"s and the like, a carrier is a mobile fortress, as big as is feasible.
But then again, only bother if the space forces in your story have a naval heritage.

Also, don't use technobable, it confuses people. Obviously you can make up words, words are invented as technology progresses. But, make it mean something, let the reader understand the basic concepts.

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -Arthur C. Clarke