I have always liked this one

Best place to look is concepts ship http://conceptships.blogspot.com/ theirs some stunning work in there.

I like the industrial look and designs done by Syd Mead

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=syd+me ... 80&bih=807

Chris Foss would be another one

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chriss ... 80&bih=807

Anything from Babylon 5, look at the DVD or the numerous fan site also this site might be usefull for scale http://www.merzo.net/

I'd like to share my thoughts if I may 🙂 Not very accurate response to the question, but I think in line with the problem.

As a (future) engineer I'd first of all think about functionality and structure. What layout of a space-ship would benefit its functionality? For instance, in space there is no air, making an aerodynamic shape seem a bit redundant. And for landing: to get a spaceship of any respectable size back off of a planet larger than the moon would require such rediculously vast amounts of energy and fuel that it would probably be better to leave it in orbit and have shuttles to get crew and gear up and down. So, nice curved shapes, meh, don't think so. As for structural aspects, for instance, try quickly accellerating ISS from a single point in the structure and the rest would probably just snap off, a no go for a craft intended for stellar travel. But perhaps the modularity of ISS would be a big plus for spacecraft also, asin: bust (one of) your life-support compartment(s)? just plug in a new one. So, for acceleration you would like to have all your mass as close to the center of gravity as possible, OR you might use multiple engines to balance out the forces. You could do the former in all directions, or only in the direction of acceleration, I.E. a very sleek long ship. The latter would also benefit aerodynamics in low earth orbits, but with massive engines and, in most games, nearly infinite fuel who cares about aerodynamics anyhow. Also you'd have to solve the 'crunching-a-can' effect, depending on the magnitude of the acceleration. For rotational acceleration however sleek and long is a nightmare, making a sphere/cube/etc kind of shape preferable, in other words, symmetrical over all three axes of rotation. So what is our spacecraft going to do? just sit there in orbit? ISS-like would be fine, fly long distances? sleek and long is probably best. Fight and maneouvre around? ball-shaped would be optimal, etc etc.

As for life support, pressurized cabins etc, do we really want the whole ship to be pressurized? that would require alot of structural weight that might be unnecessary for something like engine compartments or ammo storage space. Then again, NOT pressurizing any compartment requires all mechanical operations to be done with a space suit, which may not be a good option in the heat of battle. So does our space-ship have a complete hull, or perhaps some parts of it are simple eiffel-tower like structures? For instance the radioactive powersource might be shielded with massive plates of lead, but, and I believe it is voyager that uses this, it might be easier and more weight/cost efficient to simply move the radioactive core a distance from the spacecraft, so that the residual radiation becomes acceptable.

After all that producibility comes to mind. Any craft has to be producible, and I can't think of any benefit to a long production time, except for the construction company that gets to suck your wallet dry. So again, curved, doublecurved, oddly warped shapes? Not the best way to shorten production-time. Modularity is again a plus here, kind of like the way they build large ships these days: make many parts separately and weld em all together when they're done.

Hope this gives a bit of a feel for what a real space-craft would look like 🙂

Thanks a lot guys!

Petroleus: Wow, thanks for that! Not what I asked for, but surely some good food for thought. My first goal with this project is not realism, but believability and entertainment. I want the world and technology to feel tangible, but not necessarily "realistic". Realism tends to be pretty boring (explosions in space anyone?) 😛 Your info there does give me some good things to think about. I have a feeling we'll be talking a *lot* more soon!

In fact, I'm finally getting off my arse (well, technically still sitting on it) and getting some pics and vids and more info uploaded. You can check out my old idea thread here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1159&start=20

I'll be updating that thread with all the new snazzy stuff once it finishes uploading in a few minutes 🙂

EDIT: New thread here! viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2027