[Rintaran]

I dunno, I've seen some pretty good stuff with solid colours come out of Bryce... Mind you it was Bryce 4, but I don't see why they'd make it worse. It's a matter of how you use it though. What I would suggest would be choosing a light source, and having the colour darken as you move further from that source.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

AWESOME!!!! By the way, I think the Tarrasque might see action in a month of so....finally. I hope, at least. Hehehe.....it lives.....

[Dthclaw]

Well, Rin, it could also just be that I'm a little biased against plain colors, too But I honestly haven't gotten results with solid colors that look better as textures.

[Axel]

Speaking here from a purely engineering standpoint: Wings? C'mon, let's be practical. What purpose could massive chunks of uninhabitable metal sticking out of the sides of the craft serve? Yes, this is space, so any preposterous design will fly, but additional mass still increases the ship's inertia. Not to mention added surface area just increases the number of things that can get knocked off by passing debris. The only potential use for wings is to provide steady atmospheric flight, which those bizarre angles couldn't provide. Not to mention the leading edges being a wee bit too thick to be of any use in producing lift.
Sorry, but I'm an aerospace engineering major. This is what I do.

[Dthclaw]

Actually, Axel, they're not wings. They serve as beam weapon mounts (the edges have particle beam emitters), heat dispersion, secondary energy source, and shield emitters. None of that immediately obvious, which is actually the point - better for them to have to choose between targetting the heavy weapons capable of cutting your ship in two or the shields.

They are useless for atmospheric control, true. And they don't produce lift. But then, a mile long starship needs AG anyway. And when your sub-light propulsion is a combination warp drive and superstring/field thruster, you really don't need control surfaces (just change the shape of the warp field a bit).

And before you go nuts about the pointy things in the back, that's part of the FTL.

Sorry, but I'm a starship nut. This is what I do.

[Lyinginbedmon]

It looks great Dthclaw, very Lexx

[Dthclaw]

How do you figure? Lexx was a nasty dragonfly/phallus thing.

[Lyinginbedmon]

It just really has the Lexx-y vibe going on

[WoeTheSinner]

mmmmmmm LEXX i really did not care for that show...

Allow me to explain any design for any spaceship in the following quote.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" A.C. Clarke

So frankly it can be wahtever...and if people say that wont work you say, "yeah it does its got a flux capacitor and a probability drive...you know like magic"

Having said that, i am an electrical engineer, any spaceship i made would be a perfect sphere and superconductive...all energised all the time...just because i like faraday cages! BAM!

Hmmmm now if i had to pick a space ship design from any sci fi series i would pick ASTROTRAIN from transformers

[Axel]

Why would anyone attach massive things to the hull of a craft when any function they serve could just as easily be performed with them cleanly integrated onto the craft itself. Just because a preposterous design is possible in space doesn't make it a good idea. Increasing the surface area just increases the amount of insulation and reinforcement you need. Anything but the minimum possible surface area just increases the cost of the craft. I agree, a simple geometric shape isn't much fun to fly, but it is practical.
The support attatching the whatevers is also too small, too much mass supported by too little volume.
And since this ship likely does have to enter atmo you need to worry about atmospheric stability. Those extrusions will act like wings, you'll see massive drag along the whole structure and lift forces that'll make the ship want to spin in circles.
A streamlined design with a delta wing planform, that's the way to go.

If I could choose any space ship from sci-fi it would be the Borg cube. There's a well designed space craft. Or Serenity, the design actually makes perfect sense.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

I hate to say this, Axel, but the design works because...

its got a flux capacitor and a probability drive...you know like magic

[Axel]

....
"Sir the ship's bad design is causing it to fall apart!"
"Divert power from some unrelated system to the structural integrity field!"

[Dthclaw]

ROFL Star Trek.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

If it's good enough for Scotty, it's good enough for me! by the way, we do have soemthign we can reverse the polarity on, right? Or something with a frequency we can modulate? And an endless supply of ensigns wearing red shirts? Without those, we'll never get out of anything alive!

[Axel]

"Did many Bothans die to bring us this information?"
"No, why?"
"We're boned. Start killing Bothans, and don't stop until I say so."