The Destroyer

For what I would argue is my first real step into some serious conceptulising for this project I decided to go about designing the ins and outs of the Destroyer class of vessel. As we have already established the Destroyers are the main damage dealers of your fleet and with them being the main constituent of your fleet I though it would be a good idea to develop them first.

Destroyers are modular ships, or at least more so than the other classes. Unlike the Capital ships and the Support Frigates which are composed of two pieces, the engines and main ship part (whatever you'd call that. Superstructure perhaps?), Destroyers are composed of three pieces, the Bow, the Main Truss and the Engines. The front middle and back as it stands. With the layout pre-established it was only natural that I began proper design work afterwards.

I started with some sketches in my sketchbook with one page for the Russians and one for the Americans.

The CAC designs are more chaotic and asymmetrical. The USA follows an opposite school of aesthetic with the designs being more orderly and symmetrical.  

These were both fun and excruciating to produce.

Et viola. The constituent parts for the ships. But Quinn? You ask, weren't the ships also supposed to have solar panels and weapons, where are those?

I'm glad you asked.

Solar panels, radiators, guns and missile pods all waiting to be copied and pasted at a moments notice.

And this is where the real fun begins. Thanks to the modular nature of the Destroyers I can use my concepts of modules to make concepts of actual ships.

Hashed together concepts with arbitrary names.

The idea is that different parts will have different pros and cons. Some engines will be faster than others but hold less fuel, some trusses will have better armour than others but hold less weaponry and some bows will hold more crew than others but weigh more, making your ship slower. 

Solar panels likewise give your ship more available energy but weigh it down. Radiators allow your ship's systems to cool down quicker making action turnaround faster, but they likewise add weight.

Parts of the Destroyer.

A later concept of a Destroyer (R) reconciled with my earlier concept for the general layout. Note that the bridge and truss have swapped positions.