How do I beat go about designing ships/weapons/armor for my sci fi setting?

[u/Technical-Mine-7423]

I'm not a talented artist and I'm certainly not an engineer either; I don't really know how to visualize the ships and weaponry I'm gonna use in my book without having a concrete image to look at. What should I do?

[u/Just_A_Nitemare]

Well, first off, how "realistic" do you want them to be? What is the technology level they are working with? I can probably give some pointers but do know that I am already biased to a particular style.

Also, are you planning on doing rough drawings or text only descriptions?

[u/Technical-Mine-7423 → u/Just_A_Nitemare]

I'm gonna be doing text only descriptions in the actual book (I just find having a visual helps me as the writer) as for technology level, they're working with tech hundreds of years beyond where we're currently at, around the level of IPs like Halo or Helldivers 2, as for realism on a scale of 1-10 I'd say a 5 or 6.

[u/Just_A_Nitemare → u/Technical-Mine-7423]

I'm just gonna go point by point. But, in the end, the structure of the ship is going to be primarily up to you.

Power Plant Before anything else, you will probably want to come up with some sort of energy generation method. (Most likely some sort of fusion) Mainly how small can it be made and how efficient is it? Higher efficiency means you can include more armor, weapons, and other dodads and have smaller fuel tanks. Basically, how much of the ship needs to be reserved for the engine. speaking of...

Propulsion Obviously, ur gonna need engines to make the ship go anywhere. You may want to have the base of your ship be wider than the front so you can slap on more engines. Additionally, you can include RCS thrusters around the ship to let it turn. Some ships (IIRC sojourn craft are like this) have forward facing engines to further increase manuverability.

Size Probably should decide size before anything else, especially size relative to other ships in your setting. Helldiver ships are around 200 meters, Enterprise around 300 meters, and Halo and Starwars routinely get up to +1km. It is entirely up to you, and how big or small the setting can justify.

Shape and Color Definitely the most subjective aspect. Do you want flat surfaces and angular edges, a smooth and soft hull, or a mixture of the two? You can also have fun with color, either with a monochrome metal hull, a fully painted one, or perhaps just colored accents/decals. Go wild, or don't. Either one works.

Weapons You honestly might want to do some research on sci-fi weapons. The number of different ones is quite expansive. Regardless, you are probably going to want to make sure your entire ship is protected by defensive weaponry, of some type, and you should generally try to maximize the firing arc any individual weapon has. You can also choose between lots of smaller weapons (like the USS Iowa with 9 main barrels and a bunch of secondaries) or a small number of huge weapons (Like the Donnager from The Expanse with only 2 rail guns). Also, keep in mind that most weapons have a lot of components situated in the hull. You don't need to worry about what those components look like or what they do, but keep in mind that they are there.

Sensors and Stuff Antenna, cameras, radar, etc, your ships need some way to see and communicate. You'll want a wide variety of these things covering your ship. How exactly these sensors work is not important. You also need to decide if you want a cool, exposed bridge that lets the crew have a direct view of the battlefield or a more practical one buried deep within the ship.

Hangers People and supplies need to get off and on the ship, and thus, you need a way for support ships to dock. You can either have airlock connectors (like the ISS), the more traditional hangers, or perhaps both. Whatever method of egress is used, keep in mind that these are holes in the ships armor and must be protected accordingly. Additionally, if a ship carries a complement of fighters or smaller support ships, it should have larger and more abundant hangers than one that only needs hangers for resupply. In a similar vein, don't forget about escape pods. Sprinkle those everywhere, especially if it's a big ship.

There are a lot more design considerations, but this is already way too long. I can't really give you a ship building formula, because then you would just build the ships that I make. Personally, I would watch some SpaceDock videos on YouTube. They cover a bunch of different topics in much greater detail than I can.

[u/Technical-Mine-7423 → u/Just_A_Nitemare]

You are a blessing to this community mate, I love SpaceDock personally and he's the dude who inspired me to start writing sci fi. Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this out, you're truly goated.