The Wisteria in Tinselfly, where they player will spend most of their time, is a research vessel. It ferries researchers to places where there’s demand for research, and, once there, acts as a centrally located research campus.

Decks 6-10 of the ship are entirely about research operations: labs, offices, housing for the researchers themselves… and a large shuttle bay, where researchers go, when they need to go somewhere else nearby to do their research.

Shuttle Bay

I suspect that crew who don’t normally work on the flight deck would occasionally stop by during rush hours to assist with loading, unloading, and directing researchers to their shuttles.

This environment is not at all complete yet. Visually, I haven’t given a lot of thought into how to make this look interesting or futuristic or unique to this universe, but It’s likely I’ll be able to add unique details on a prop-by-prop, structure-by-structure basis.

So: without going into any visual or aesthetic detail, here’s some random brainstorming for additions, structured from the point of view of a researcher.

* * *

Upon exiting the lift and walking on deck, I’d expect to be greeted by a schedule board and maybe a crewperson at an information booth, to answer questions. There would be some benches where I could sit and wait, and maybe even some snacks and magazines or something to look at while waiting.

There would need to be a changing room with lockers and spacesuits and showers, just in case that was needed upon getting to the planet surface.

And of course a bathroom off the waiting area.

There would be clearly labeled parking stands (I just learned that term) for the shuttles. There could be fuel pumps at each stand, and equipment to do exterior scans of the shuttles for maintenance purposes, and maybe a crane built into the deck ceiling. And dollies and palette jacks and such.

The shuttles themselves would be purpose-built, in a variety of shapes and sizes, as many shuttles would not just be transports, but might contain specialized sensor equipment of their own.

I guess I’d expect to see other shuttles too, ones that aren’t going to flown any time soon, in storage bays.

Somewhere, possibly on the opposite side of the bay as the waiting area (where civilians wouldn’t be expected to go), I’d expect to see a repair bay, with spare parts and tools and whatnot.

Finally, there should probably be some kind of control room with big windows overlooking the whole bay. That may be… tough to squeeze in, given the shape of this space.

* * *

Back to Star Trek. Conceptually, this is what I think of, when I think of Trek, but if I may say so, the Wisteria has the potential to be… a fascinatingly unique construction in spite of how much of a rabid Star Trek fan I am. All of what appeared in this post, and what will appear in the upcoming labs & offices posts makes a decent amount of sense to me, for what a Star Trek-y science vessel might feel like. And yet, I have never seen anything quite like this in a game, or on film. The trick is going to be to clearly express, visually and mechanically, what makes this ship — this place— fascinating to me.