Steamrunner Deck Plans

[Anomaly]

I'm working up the deck plans to a Steamrunner.

This will be the new USS Thomas Paine (Rixx and the old one were destroyed in Wolf 359), which is the setting for my new Coda Trek tabletop game.

It won't be quite as detailed as my previous excursions into deck plans due to the sheer volume of what I have to create, as well as the fact that details tend to get lost because of the final overall image sizes.

While it isn't entirely finished yet, I figured I'd give you a little taste of the bridge.

[Owen E Oulton]

Nice work, Anomaly. I like it.

[Long Tom]

Absolutely excellent work.

You and Owen should get your heads together on a project..now that i'd pay good money to see....

Regards and admiration

Long Tom

[Paul]

I like it, Anomaly.

Can't wait for the final product.

[Anomaly]

Thanks guys. Believe me when I say that this is far from finished.

I've only finished deck 1, and have started work on deck 2. I didn't quite realize the undertaking when I decided to do it. Thank goodness for the mirror copy command.

I'm drawing it in Campaign Cartographer 2, each deck on its own layer. There's no scale listed yet but each door frame is just under a meter.

Hopefully this project won't be a year in the making.

[Karg]

Nice, Like to see what you come up with for the rest of the ship.

Karg

[Ineti]

Nice work!

Where would one find Campaign Cartographer 2?

[Anomaly]

You can get Campaign Cartographer 2 from Pro Fantasy Software.

Imagus, this is your cue.

[Anomaly]

Click here to see all of the deck layers exposed (and thus how I'll be mapping them out, as well as completed Decks 1 and 2.

[Long Tom]

Excellent work again...kind of makes me want to splash out on Campaign Cartographer..

Long Tom

[Anomaly]

As you can see above, some things have changed.

This is a cutaway of the top three decks shown together.

This is deck 2.

This is deck 3.

Thanks, Long Tom. If you work in CC2, put up some work! I'd love to see some other stuff.

When I'm done I'll be releasing this map for folks to use with the viewer.

[Uruz]

Anomaly,

For those that have CC2 and would like to try their hands at something like this, could you detail (or summarize) the procedure you follow for your deckplans? I have no visually-artistic talent whatsoever, so any tips you can offer would be most appreciated.

[Anomaly]

I'm not sure how realistic a full tutorial would be, but I can try to paint it in rough strokes.

I started with an image of a Steamrunner overhead, which I know is about 244 meters in length. In CC2, I set each grid square to be one meter, and used Insert Picture (set to Fit Just Inside), then drew the picture insert to be 244 squares in length (width was kind of arbitrary, just made it wide enough to fit the image at its 244 length). I repeated this process for the side/fore view. I left these up for reference, placed on a layer I call BACKGROUND (which is frozen but visible). I also cut a center line across the middle of the ship to determine where the middle is, and placed it on its own layer, frozen.

The ship stats I have on the steamrunner say it has nine decks. So I took a look at the side and determined where the decks start/end, and drew lines demarcating the various decks on the side view. I brought the end points down to determine about where the decks begin and end on the overhead view.

I began to trace the outlines of the various decks using the background as a guide. I put each deck on its own layer. I traced the port side of the decks first to the center line, then used 'Copy > Mirror Copy' to complete the rest of the deck and make sure that one side was identical to the other. In fact, you'll notice I use the mirror copy a lot.

Once I had the general layout of the decks determined, I picked a deck and began to work. I go between turning on and off the background layer, to reference window placement. Windows are a valuable commodity on any starship, especially one so tightly packed as the steamrunner, so that's where I felt that staterooms would be located. So I tend to start at the outside and work my way in.

I set the line width to .25, and that makes up the 'walls' using the continuous line tool. Using a thin box as a door, I set that up as a Symbol in Symbol Definition, and once I had all my walls and corridors, I went through and placed the doors in the walls (without them being cut out yet).

I then used the SPLIT tool and selected a wall behind a door. Splitting the path allows the line to remain a constant shape when sinking the door in. I then used the TRIM tool to trim the wall out from under the door and to the edge. There are other ways of going about this using advanced techniques (such as automatic splitting of the line upon symbol placement and 'magnetizing' the symbol where it will attach to a line).

I then use the 'odd geometric shape tool' (I don't know what this one is called off hand) to create the colored backdrop of the room, which denotes in the vaguest sense what the room is dedicated to. I make sure I keep these within the walls and create whatever irregular shape I need to cover the floor area. I then immediately switch to 'Send to Back', select 'Prior', and send it to the background. I do this after everything else is done, because you don't want to try tinkering with a wall and keep selecting the background colored area.

Before tackling a whole ship, I suggest working on a single room, or a bridge, or something a little smaller in scope. Get your feet wet, read the user manual from page 1 to the end (it's less of a manual and more of a tutorial so follow along with it), and dive in after that.

CC2's interface can be a little odd, but it is intuitive once you've grasped the basics.

Good luck!

[Anomaly]

This is an image of my CC2 window, and what tools I'm talking about.

Comparing the back of your user manual with this image will allow you to look up specific tools in the book.

[Anomaly]

The links (not my sig, but the image links), should be working again.