In 20 days we will finally see how the Imperial Cutter is an upscaled smaller ship
- Thread starter Ted Striker
- Start date
The step size ratio of rise/run doesn't look right, very shallow. And it looks like it might change as you go up the stair case. Is the staircase curved? Are these even supposed to be stairs?
The stairs look like they are supposed to fold flat but I can't figure out how the underside of the staircase folds-up flat, Or does the whole staircase slide up into the interior of the ship taking up a crazy amount of space? The bottom half might telescope into the top half and stairs accordion together but I don't see how that mechanically works.
And yes, if the scale of these stairs are correct I would bang my head on the underside of the ship every time I run up them.
To me it looks like the stairs were designed to look cool from a distance, with fancy cool curves. Very artsy without considering actual function.
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The epitome of Imperial Aesthetics.
It looks like they aren't even in 90° and each step has a different angle.
The stairs have bigger problems than scale.
I'm getting the same vibe. Anaconda looks like it was designed to be as large as it is and a lot of time was put into it. The Cutter and Vette look imposing but they were obviously not designed to be seen with spacelegs once you start scrutinizing the details.
They don't look like stairs or an escalator or anything. I don't know what they're supposed to be or how they're supposed to work. The first "step" or whatever it is starts at shoulder height, and that curve is a major hazard lol.
By the way, does anyone else think the stairs don't look like stairs?
what are they supposed to be?
will and kate made a video about it, there you can see that it is just upscaled.
Upscaled or not, they don't seem like very good stairs.
And they extend prior to landing which is also peculiar. Good way to rip it off and a good strip of the hull with it. Perhaps they are intended as an element of a futuristic landing gear that we just don't understand. (sarcasm).
And they extend prior to landing which is also peculiar. Good way to rip it off and a good strip of the hull with it. Perhaps they are intended as an element of a futuristic landing gear that we just don't understand. (sarcasm).
Aha! We are all wrong. It is not a staircase. Its for scooping snow and ice.
To collect lots really fast the ship can drive forward slowly.
Those things that everybody thinks are stairs is a conveyor. Siderails to keep the ice chunks from falling off. Its so obvious now that I understand.
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I suppose it could also be used for scooping sand and gravel. Whatever you need for your construction/landscaping project. To deliver the load you run the conveyor in reverse and drive slowly backwards.
To collect lots really fast the ship can drive forward slowly.
Those things that everybody thinks are stairs is a conveyor. Siderails to keep the ice chunks from falling off. Its so obvious now that I understand.
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I suppose it could also be used for scooping sand and gravel. Whatever you need for your construction/landscaping project. To deliver the load you run the conveyor in reverse and drive slowly backwards.
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Tell me: if you had the materials technology to make incredibly strong transparencies, why would you then still make the windows minuscule?
Airliner cockpit windows are limited by the materials technology of today. If we could make them bigger, we would. In 3307, the window technology has had 1200 years of development.
Rather, let's turn it the other way around, looking back from 3307. "I can't believe they made the 747 cockpit windows so tiny. How could they see out properly, peering out of those minute windows?" (Indeed, there have been plane crashes caused by the poor view out of airliner cockpits).
This is about as perfect a picture of the issue as there can be.by Chief Eng. Parker
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Now if you shrank those stairs by about 50% they'd make a lot more sense right? And shrinking the ship along with it would make the enormous cockpit windows a little more to scale.
Never mind the fact that you'd never be able to get into the ship without doing the limbo or crawling.
Yep, I would. The cockpit/windows are a major weak point of a ship. You want to minimize that as much as you can without compromising visibility.
I'd also not make them look like ancient 747 cockpit windows only upscaled to enormous proportions. I'd design something a little more like an Anaconda or Corvette, with plenty of visibility and not an enormous mock-up of an aircraft from 1,300 years ago.
Why wouldn't we make them bigger?- Most flight of commercial airliners is done in IFR not in VFR - you need those windows just for safety reasons on the ground and to line up with the runway in the final phase - in case of strong side winds, where you have to counter them to just right before touch down and then align with the runway quickly. Otherwise flight is done by working the avionics.
Our garmin cockpit just has camera displays - it can all be done with small cameras around the space craft - there doesn't have to be any windows at all. Especially in space where there is nothing to see at all for most of the flight - all pretty dark outside. We just have those orbit lines on the hud, otherwise what would we see - dark sky with some stars far away. just for landing and near stations we would need to see something outside - which would be better done by cameras than with windows.
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Even now, we want them as big as we can possibly make them. The regulations require the crew to be able to "see and avoid":
§ 91.113 Right-of-way rules: Except water operations.
(a) Inapplicability. This section does not apply to the operation of an aircraft on water.
(b) General. When weather conditions permit, regardless of whether an operation is conducted under instrument flight rules or visual flight rules, vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft.
Aside from the staircase discussion which considering an A380 staircase is hard enough to climb after enough GNTs, on the subject of the cockpit scaling: there is the Dr Who TARDIS theory mentioned once in this thread, and there is the Schrodinger's Cat explanation:
Inside the cockpit looks huge, outside it looks tiny. Unless the front windows open you can never tell whether the cockpit is big or small because you can never be inside and outside of the cockpit at the same time.
No laws of physics broken, karma restored and no animals were harmed
BTW: Cutter is awesome fun!
Inside the cockpit looks huge, outside it looks tiny. Unless the front windows open you can never tell whether the cockpit is big or small because you can never be inside and outside of the cockpit at the same time.
No laws of physics broken, karma restored and no animals were harmed
BTW: Cutter is awesome fun!
Regardless of any scaling issue, now the bottom stair looks like a toilet bowl to me and I can't unsee it!by Chief Eng. Parker
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The community site for Elite: Dangerous, Starfield, Kingdom Come: Deliverance with the game databases, information, gaming news and other handy content...
those stairs are obviously for Space Cats. They're raised above the surface to avoid unwanted entry by non-Space Cats.
I just posted this in that other thread - it looks like this would be less of an issue if the "steps" did not fold up. (making it a ramp)
Source: https://youtu.be/971eW_vkVU4
The first step near the ground would still be too thick, but relatively easy to fix.
The first step near the ground would still be too thick, but relatively easy to fix.
So like Star Trek. No windows on the bridge (well maybe small viewports) but they have that huge viewscreen. That's sound tactical design. The bridge is critical and shouldn't be compromised with large windows.
In spaceship games we want windows though. They don't have to be huge but we want to be able to see space.
I guess you could argue that a Cutter is built for luxury not war so huge windows are acceptable (like a Beluga's gigantic windows) but then why is it good at combat when it has such a glaring weakness like that huge and overly exposed bridge? And why is it taking design cues from vessels over 1,000 years old?
Seeing this stairs all I can think of is:
(the uncensored version requires an age check)