Thor's Mess Hall, Medibay, Core Room, and Halls are completed

After weeks of production, the internal main-stream traffic hallways, Core Room, Medibay, and Mess Hall are completed, along with the closure of the hull surrounding the crew quarters and engine facilities.

Crew Quarters, shield and jamming facilities, and some other basics like waste disposal and engine supporting systems still needed to be fit... but Thor's overall production was fast approaching launch.

The front of the Core Room was fit with one of several Gravity Syncronisers, as well as three Matter Banks for storage of various materials necessary to repair and maintain the frigate.

The Port Wing access hallway was completed awhile ago, and grants access to the external port airlock among other things.

Looking sternwards from the Core (through an open blast door) is the ramp to the Bridge, and the hallways leading to the Mess Hall, Medibay, and Crew Quarters.

The ramp upwards to the Bridge.

Looking back from the main hallway to the Core Room, past the base of the ramp to the Bridge.

Further back down the main hallway looking forwards towards the Core Room, showing access to the ramp up to Medibay.

Thor's Medibay sports two triage beds as well as a central operations table, state of the art and fully automated, able to repair a body short of necrononomy.

One of two triage beds.

Triage beds can be darkened to allow a patient to rest if necessary.

Main computing core of the Medibay provides access to most systems, as well as a vocal AI that can assist with most diagnosis and treatments.

A little further down the hallway from the Medibay access is the entrance to the Mess Hall.

Mess Hell serves 6 at once (Thor's entire crew) with all food and utensils provided by the Epicurian Combinator and a waste-disposal chute disposes of finished meals and utensils to be broken down and re-combined as necessary.

I found that during the build I was beginning to use Thor's systems and facilities more than Alannis's and even more than Dry Station due to their high degree of comfort and accessibility.

I was still sleeping in freefal in my suit, however once Thor's crew quarters were complete I knew that I would be using them as my main digs...

FRG Thor's Bridge, Turrets, and Engines are completed

FRG Thor was proving to be quite a complex and interesting project.

Her missile systems, shield and power systems, and armor were the first to be completed. I then began work on her engines, turrets, armor greeble, Bridge, wings interior, access airlocks and passage ways, and some minor details.

Several trips out to the asteroid fields in SVG Excavator were necessary to retrieve the necessary materials to build FRG Thor's systems... although I was unable to find some minerals... something I would have to solve sooner or later.

Thor as seen from the shipyard deck closest to the factory module.

 I fit the top and underside of Thor's wings with missile-targeting fast-shooting micro-turrets, although during tests it seemed they were as efficient at shooting down Thor's own missiles as they were at defending her from incoming enemy missiles.

I hoped I was able to resolve this with better programming, but resigned myself to the possibility that I would need to convert them over to targeting enemy ships' shields instead of missiles.

Thor's anti-missile micro-turrets were 3x2x3m, unshielded rapid-fire cannons that proved quite effective at shooting missiles out of the sky, and covered 88% of FRG Thor's visibile space with only these four  micro-turrets.

Her engines were a new design of Nuclear Fusion which provided far greater thrust than her predessors fitted to Alannis and Excavator.

Taking parts of Excavator's Fusion Engines and combining it with parts of Alannis's Ion Compression engines has resulted in much more powerful engines for the same space and mass being occupied. FRG Thor is more manuevable than any other ship I've built (except Taxi), despite being much greater in mass.

While most of Thor's external armour and greeble were now completed, a few systems still need to be fitted.

Apart from crew facilities, FRG Thor was now fully operational.

By far the largest ship I've built so far, Thor tests the docking capability of the shipyard to the maximum.

While Thor's internal engineering decks were reasonably raw and cramped, her officer and crew areas were much brighter, cleaner and more organised, with access to key systems being prioritised over rapid access to the rawer underlying systems that drive them.

Thor's Core has access passages to her two main forward passages (at deck 4 level), her two wings, and aft to her bridge, crew quarters, and engines.

Port-side passageway between Core and port wing allows access to engineering systems and ventilation shafts if necessary.

At the end of the wing passageway (a mirror image of starboard side) is the internal access junction, where the interior of the wing can be accessed, and also where the port side airlock can be entered.

Inspection hatches to both micro-turrets allow crew to take manual control of them at any time, as well as their controlling systems.

The airlock contains a gravity activation module and is currently the fastest way to access the Core from the factory, which it faces.  For this reason, this airlock is high traffic at the moment during the build.

Thor's Bridge had control points for officers overseeing the ships main systems, a captain's chair overseeing all officer's stations, and a 7x4m view screen, and bright lighting. 

The Bridge is accessed from the rear by two large ramps coming up on either side of the Captain's Station from the Core.  The Obs Deck blast door is next to the Captain's chair, and gives access to her main cannon's control computers if necessary.

The Engineering Station gives readouts and direct control over many of Thor's most critical systems, including Radar Jamming, Shielding, Power generation and storage, weapons systems overview, superstructure, AI, doors and hatches, and engines.

While the ship was able to be operated by myself, it was far more efficient to crew her with deck officers capable of directly interacting with her systems simultaneously.

She was now estimated to be approximately 80% completed, and her launch was anticipated to be in approximately 2 more months (one real-time day is equivalent to one game-month).

FRG Thor

With the resources gathered from the destroyed Gundabadt Station by SVG Excavator, I began construction on my biggest build to date - my first frigate, FRG Thor.

Early build of FRG Thor showing armour, basic fuselage nose rocket launcher and some computer systems installed.

She was planned to build on what I had learned about missiles from my turret building, by multiplied many times over.  I discovered that by altering the composition and layout of missile systems that I could fire massively powerful rockets at a target and inflict considerable damage.

Thor, therefore, would house the single biggest rocket launcher I had ever seen.

But not only would she be a rocket frigate, she would also boast some impressive shielding, radar jamming, and be supported by side, rear, upward and downward firing homing missile bays as auxilliary weapons.  In addition to all this I intended to build some very small missile-killer turrets... although I was concerned that I may not be able to program them to differentiate between my missiles and those of the enemy which would be pretty useless to me... worst case I would outfit them to be EMP weapons instead.

Although Thor would be completed automated, I was building her to also operate with a crew and serve the needs of human passengers.

When focusing on building a particular section, I place work lights so that I can easily see what I'm working on.

The work lights make all the difference to a dark or shaded hull.

The rocket launcher installed into Thor's nose measures 38m from nose to core room, and consists of 16 columns feeding into the final chamber, and costs 444750e to fire, doing 44750 damage over a 12 meter radius up to 3.2km from target.

View from Thor's incomplete rear through what will be the engines, crew facilities, support modules, escape bays, bridge, power storage, and core.  Visible in the nose section of the fuselage is the mostly completed front systems, detailed in the below images.

Forward of the Core (the top of which is visible at the bottom of the image) are 9 5x5x5 power/shield combination generators, granting a total power output of 90058.4e/sec recharge, shield cap of 18809 (+643s/sec).  Further shields will be added to the frigate.

The lower three decks of the cone will be entirely energy storage, granting an estimated 1.3 million energy storage, allowing Thor to fire her energy-hungry cannons several times before depleting her energy reserves.

Deck 4 is a missile systems inspection and engineering deck.  Full access to the entire length of the missile systems is on this deck, plus supporting systems like haudraulics and computers.  Some systems still need to be installed.

Deck 5 is to inspect the lower part of the Combination Generators and the systems linking the generators with the missile systems.

Deck 5 inspects the upper part of the Combination Generators and also accesses much of the super structure holding it all together.  Again some systems still need to be installed, mostly between the deck and pressure hull.

Deck 6 looking back towards the nose.  At the nose end are most of the computer systems driving the link between the Combination Generators, and it is also possible to watch a rocket for a split second as it fires out from beneath your feet towards a target... although it passes out of view very fast as you're basically looking down at the muzzle.

Deck 7 is not really a deck but more of a series of crawl spaces.  This deck will allow close-inspection and repair of critical systems and will be the perfect place for a Xenomorph to set up camp.  Currently it's open and unpopulated. This image shows the view from the bow to the stern, with much of this gap being filled with goodies in the coming days.

While the Core is functional, it is still under construction.  It must wait for all other critical systems to be installed before it can be finalised.

Above the Core and towards the stern, at the top of the frigate is where the Bridge will be.  Above that will be an observation deck (completed), which will be sealed behind a blast door to protect the bridge in case the observation deck becomes damaged and loses pressure.  This image shows the view upwards into the ramp leading to the observation deck from what will be the Bridge.

View back down the ramp of the Observation Deck back towards the yet-to-be-built Bridge.  The Core can be seen, which is basically at the center of the frigate.

View from the gangway in the Observation Deck, looking forward and slightly to port.

Observation Deck as seen from outside, with stern shown to the left of image.  Behind the Obs Deck can be seen the Officer's Escape Boat assembly.  This is designed to accomodate the full compliment of officers on the Bridge, and be accessed rapidly in the event of an emergency, and jettison straight upwards from the rear of the frigate and away.  Other crew have different (and closer to them) escape boats located elsewhere on the frigate.

My little collection of ships is growing.  Note: Gustav never got rebuilt after pirates decimated my base so long ago... although I do still have the plans for her if ever I want a small battle scout again.

Shipyard with FRG Thor under construction and SVG Speeder (and her homing missile turrets) acting as an outward turret emplacement during the built. My basic factory is shown on the right attached to the shipyard, busilly producing paint and converting minerals into capsules, among other things.

FRG Thor's internal computers and systems are visible and accessible from outside (which serves a purpose) but protected from attack by her shields and automated close-quarters defenses, and mostly tucked behind gauss mesh which when on active duty will have 40,000 volts passing through it at all times.

FRG Thor at about the halfway point in production.

Although Thor's armour and hull are in place, she still needs to have her Omni-direction Missile Defense System installed, as well as a bunch of blast doors and greeble and such.  She also needs all crew compartments and operational systems fitted in the center and wings, and her thrusters and other critical and support systems installed in the aft.

I expect Thor to be quite a powerful little boat once completed... and I look forward to hunting down more pirate stations and expanding my little patch of space.

Cramped Quarters

Alannis's internal systems were now fully fitted and operational (except the turret systems and the rebuild of the escape pod damaged in the first pirate wave from Gundabadt Station).

While she looked naked without her armour, the Alannis was complete inside and technically able to to fly.  Totally without teeth, but able to fly.

Her internal systems include large dual ion compression engines, energy dispersal shields, an escape pod bay, front underside hatch access, rear shielded heat dispersal radiators, thick dorsal, starboard, and portside armour plates, 4x small homing missile turrets, 1x large topside long range beam turret, top and bottom front cameras, rear camera, port and starboard cameras, and internal access to all major systems for inspection and repair from within shields while under fire.

Alannis's central core and control room.

Hatch access is in the bottom starboard side of the control room, which accesses the turret and computing maintenance area, and from there a plex door exits directly into space underneath the ship within the protection of the shield and armour.

The main deck of Alannis.

Alannis's main deck has navigation and diagnostic computers and read-outs, medical facilities, shield and gravity control, and access all areas, including the front passageways leading to the port and starboard engine maintenance (shown in picture), the port and starboard rear reactor maintenance areas, the rear escape pod passage, and the turret and computing access way underneath the main control room.

Starboard engine maintenance access passage.

Standing at the white light shown on the right of the previous picture and looking down and back along the engine, this passageway accesses all the engines on the starboard side back to the reactor.

Port passage to the reactor access passageway.

Looking immediately port of the control room the shield and gravity control panels can be seen, and behind them the passage that leads down to the port side reactor.  A mirror image passage (with slightly different systems lining it) exists on the starboard side also.

Escape Pod Bay inspection port

Standing in the passage shown in the previous image, an inspection port can be used to view the condition (or observe the docking) of small craft in the escape pod bay.

Portside reactor inspection passageway.

One of the reactor's tanks is visible on the right, with the various computer and fluid dispersal systems visible on the left and at the back of the passage.  An access metal grill hatch at the back of the passage allows a crew member to wriggle through to the rear heat-dispersal radiators if necessary.