Then go for it, nothing's set in stone. These are just thumbnails, that can miss points that come up when the model is ready. I was unable to look at the updated one yet, but sounds promising.

Deleted the attachment form the post above and resubmitted a tweaked, smaller design. This one actually works, obviously the price is just for testing purposes...

3500 tons make it resonable usable with a lvl 9 hyperdrive

Edit:

i have calculated the volume of this ship and it is ~7000m³, 1m³ of wather is 15-16 tons, you have to calculate on those big ship a lot of not used space like crew cabins, flight bridge, cavities for pipes and cables, heating space ecc ecc, a 0.5 of the volume is a good value,but this is just what I think

P.S.

pattern02 crash my modelviewer

The patternt works on my comp, I do however have an intermittent crash when restarting a new game 2-3 times on sol (so that I can buy the ship )

I am pretty sure 1m3 of water is exactly 1 ton - 10x10x10 (1 liter is 1010x10 cm)

Here is my reasoning for the volumes:

Total hull volume : 7000 m3

Cargo: 2500 m3 - 36% of the ships volume 

extra capacity : 700 m3 (10)%   - this is a space in the ship that cannot be used as a cargo bay, but it is possible to install additional equipment into it. Shields, scanners, autopilot, fuel scoops, hyperdrive, all goes here

Fuel tanks : 1000 (14%) - as shown on the picture, I have tried to fill any space that wasn't filled, but tried to leave enough space for the engines and other structural objects.

Empty hull mass : 2800 m3 - 40 % of the total volume is the structural mass of the ship. That includes basic engines, living space, life support, batteries, power plant, heat sinks, etc, etc...

PS: these are values from my work in progress lua...

-- Copyright © 2008-2013 Pioneer Developers. See AUTHORS.txt for details
-- Licensed under the terms of CC-BY-SA 3.0. See licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0.txt

define_ship {
name='Nerodia Transport',
model='nerodia',
forward_thrust = 25e7,
reverse_thrust = 14e7,
up_thrust = 14e7,
down_thrust = 8e7,
left_thrust = 8e7,
right_thrust = 8e7,
angular_thrust = 8e7,
camera_offset = v(0,0,15),
gun_mounts =
{
{ v(0,-0.5,-10.7), v(0,0,-1), 5, 'HORIZONTAL' },
},
max_cargo = 2500,
max_laser = 2,
max_missile = 4,
max_cargoscoop = 2,
max_fuelscoop = 2,
min_crew = 1,
max_crew = 6,
capacity = 3200,
hull_mass = 2800,
fuel_tank_mass = 1000,
-- Exhaust velocity Vc [m/s] is equivalent of engine efficiency and depend on used technology. Higher Vc means lower fuel consumption.
-- Smaller ships built for speed often mount engines with higher Vc. Another way to make faster ship is to increase fuel_tank_mass.
effective_exhaust_velocity = 3e7,
price = 562,
hyperdrive_class = 9,
}

what mean max gargoscoop and fuelscoop = 2 ? alls ships needs only one generaly , do you make that to  boost the scoop speed ? 

venturestar is 7500m³ you can use it for strting values

good point vuzz, yes obviously you can only have one.

hint:

for most of the equipment the default is 1

thus you only have to use i.e. "max_fuelscoop = 0"  if you like to have NO fuelscoop

the use is "restrictive", one could say.

this is the case for:

    max_engine (=hyperdrive)

    max_fuelscoop

    max_cargoscoop

    max_cargolifesupport

    max_ecm (i'm not sure about i guess here you can use 2, but nonetheless it defaults to 1. "2" if i remember right would allow to have both types of ECM at once)

    max_hypercloud

    max_energybooster

    max_fuelscoop

    max_cargoscoop

    max_lasercooler

    max_cargolifesupport

    max_hullautorepair

    max_radarmapper

    max_atmoshield   

all of them default to 1 and doesn't have to be specified if you like to allow this equipment.

on the other hand, if i remember right it won't matter to say "max_fuelscoop = 2" anything else as 0 equals 1 as well.

which leads to that only these are need to be specified if you like to allow all equipment:

    { max_cargo (needed) }

    max_laser (defaults to 0)

    max_missile (defaults to 0)

    max_cabin (defaults to how many tons are left)

    { min_crew (needed ?) }

    { max_crew (needed) }

    { capacity (needed) }

    { hull_mass (needed) }

    { fuel_tank_mass = (needed) }

    { hyperdrive_class = (needed but "0" is allowed) }

---

to the ship, no critzism, but i guess it's way to large and heavy, or in other words i miss little fighters

(with heavy restrictions like a shitty retro thrust, or just enough cargo space for some but not all "necessary" equipment,

i.e. i fit two missiles but then i have to forgo some other equipment),

they make the fun in the game.

as "weaker" the ship as bigger the challange is.

or what is experience of most FE2 players,

in the beginning you certainly like to own each ship at least once, but after that you will find out that they 1st aren't handy (what they should be, it's either a nimble fighter or a clumsy carrier) 2nd you will get more fun out of the game with a small ship, imho.

medium sized or multi role should have even some disadvantages, like a weak bottom thruster (i.e. cobra mk3),

or probably a mediacre or low hyperspace range (i.e. imp. courier), but to compensate this a maneuverability like a small fighter.

we haven't so many equipment only for good, use it, play around with it, restrict ship specs.

not without reason geraldine commands a "sidewinder" and i prefere the "cobra mk1" or a "constrictor",

many prefere the "viper", but well even this ship leaks of something (something we haven't, limited manual control).

from the pov of FE2 seen, carriers make finally only fun to deploy mining machines.

at least i find it not very entertaining to own a "panther" and mount shields to the rim to get invulnerable.

Fyi, slot defaults are (as of 22 September 2013, for those reading in the future):

max_cargo = 0
max_engine = 1
max_laser = 1
max_missile = 0
max_ecm = 1
max_scanner = 1
max_radarmapper = 1
max_hypercloud = 1
max_hullautorepair = 1
max_energybooster = 1
max_atmoshield = 1
max_cabin = 50
max_shield = 9999
max_fuelscoop = 1
max_cargoscoop = 1
max_lasercooler = 1
max_cargolifesupport = 1
max_autopilot = 1

capacity = 0
hull_mass = 100
fuel_tank_mass = 5

price = 0
min_crew = 1
max_crew = 1

hyperdrive_class = 1

These are only the number of items of that type you can carry. Its still subject to overall remaining capacity.

Note that most equipment only considers the first item in a slot. So in the case of max_ecm, you can set it > 1 and equip more ECMs, but the game will only consider the first one.

@robn

I can cleanup nerodia model and after give you for texturing ?

I am not sure what you mean by "clean up". 

Here is the latest model, but if the UV mapping goes out of the window than it would be easier to start from scratch and do it all better...

Is not need redone all by scratch becouse at the end is the same of this, for cleanup i want remove all not need faces and give a better geometry in some point

after with the saved faces i can make a object a bit more complex than this but at the end is need to retexture all, i love your painting hand and with a better model this ship can become really a nice ship , and i'm happy if you want touch textures of some my work like this

http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49

or this

http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42

here the cleaned model

is need to uv-map again becouse many faces are been redone

Edit:

i have uv-map again but need to be touched again i have see you use duble-side faces, in game that can make problems

[attachment=2257:nerodia.dae.zip]

Check thruster and light names, probbably crashes are related

Thanks for trying to improve the model. Like I said, I think I will redo the whole ship later on, when I get a bit more experience. I think I can do better than this, I think I have done a bad job UV mapping the model. It will me easier just to redo the whole thing than trying to save this one. You did however showed me a trick or two on how to create polygons in neat way, so thanks again 😉

Meanwhile, since there was some talk about smaller ships, how about a "sport car" ? 😀