Community Event / Creation How big is a Cobra MkIII?
- Thread starter el_tel
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Philip Coutts
Volunteer Moderator
I may be wrong but I have a feeling in the original Elite the sizes weren't given in metres but units. When Oolite happened along they simply took the units and replaced it with metres. If that's right it would mean the Oolite dimensions weren't strictly correct. Or maybe I dreamt this?
That's the impression I get from the 'manual' page Ian Bell's website. It quotes '65/30/130ft' compared with '55/15/70ft' for the Cobra Mk I... A pretty radical redesign.
Ah! The famous discussion on scale is back
I know...here we go again!
When will it ever end!!??!?!
However, tongue in cheek negativity aside, it's a valid point for this game, as the scales of the ships will be important, especially as we'll eventually be wandering about inside them.
The main benchmark for scale is the Coriolis - canonically stated to be 1KM across. Measure the docking bay slot and there you have a comparison for whatever the maximum size of a ship can be.
I once posited that the "populace" of the Elite universe used a custom definition of "metres" and "feet" that were basically the same thing.
Who knows what ED will bring.
I read somewhere (Oolite?) that the dimensions are roughly 30m x 65m x 130m.
Will this be correct for Elite
I'm thinking about space station design, so the sizes of the largest/smallest ships would also be useful.
If the Cobra Mk3 really has a width of 130 ft, a length of 65 ft and a height of 30 ft, then it must have a oddly shaped cargo bay: long and narrow like the inside of a truck.
You're right. It should be in the 'Ask a Question' forum. But I'm creating my own fictional space station, which I plan to post here eventually, so this is the first place I thought of.
I think the best way to approach scale right now would be to use the sidewinder as a base and work from there - we already have a good idea of the scale of that ship from the newsletters
taking various measurements and cross referencing them I have managed to put it into photoshop my guess of the size of the Cobra mk3. this image is at 1:1 scale.
unfortunately my screen res is a small 1680x1050 so i can only get part of it in,
but i assure you the image is a 1:1 scale, this part is looking at the right hand side of the ships lower exit port.
but i assure you the image is a 1:1 scale, this part is looking at the right hand side of the ships lower exit port.
The Sidewinder pretty accurately matches the sizes mentioned on Ian Bell's manual page (link above), just converted from feet to metres. That said, I've got no real problems with scales changing, escpecially when ships are made bigger. The original Anaconda was around 170ft, but I'm fairly convinced the new model (which I'm guessing will be updated again for the final game) was more like 300ft.
Here's the Oolite ships chart and here's the Elite : Dangerous Sidewinder description giving us the comparison between Oolite and E.
So, for the Cobra Mk3, I'd say it is a 26 meters-long spaceship.
(overall, with your first statement, it would mean 12 m x 26 m x 72 m)
.So, for the Cobra Mk3, I'd say it is a 26 meters-long spaceship.
(overall, with your first statement, it would mean 12 m x 26 m x 72 m)
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That would depend on the definition of a 't'. <chortles>
This is a snap of a model I made, It shows a rough Cobra Mk III (left) and a Sidewinder. The Sidewinder dimensions were obtained from the link in a post above this (FD E dimensions),
To get a sense of scale, there's a human model in the red circle and at the arrow.
His name is Jeff.
In the picture below is my very battered Cobra with three Sidewinders on an exterior docking gantry of my space station (in the background is a loading bot).
Does the Cobra look approximately the right size with regard to the Sidewinder?
dimensions),To get a sense of scale, there's a human model in the red circle and at the arrow.
His name is Jeff.
In the picture below is my very battered Cobra with three Sidewinders on an exterior docking gantry of my space station (in the background is a loading bot).
Does the Cobra look approximately the right size with regard to the Sidewinder?
depends where you are from
short ton, 2,000 pounds, used in the United States
long ton, 2,240 pounds, used in countries such as United Kingdom which use the imperial system
metric ton, also known as tonne, 1,000 kilograms, or 2,204.6 pounds
either way 12 pallets of cement at a guess.
short ton, 2,000 pounds, used in the United States
long ton, 2,240 pounds, used in countries such as United Kingdom which use the imperial system
metric ton, also known as tonne, 1,000 kilograms, or 2,204.6 pounds
either way 12 pallets of cement at a guess.
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