vs size comparison chart

Alien-Carrot · Post by **Alien-Carrot** » 2007-09-06 09:59am

So ive been looking around onm the forums for a while now, and i havnt seen a size comparison chart as expansive as this...

While im sure there have been others posted, i still like this one.

Please let me know if any of the stated sizes are wrong, and ill edit the pic.

lord Martiya · Post by **lord Martiya** » 2007-09-06 11:10am

The size of the Dominion biggest ship is uncertain. In the first appareance it was two times a Galaxy, in the second it was bigger.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-09-06 11:12am

lord Martiya wrote:The size of the Dominion biggest ship is uncertain. In the first appareance it was two times a Galaxy, in the second it was bigger.

There's three models, actually. The one on the chart is a dodgy FX scale-up from the fleet shot in WYLB Pt 2. It's size depends on which other ship you scale it against.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2007-09-06 11:27am

IIRC, the SSD's length has been retconned to 19km.

Frankly, I think it makes more sense for the 17.6km figure, but hey.

Elmca · Post by **Elmca** » 2007-09-06 01:43pm

I got some definitely NSFW pop-ups when I clicked on your chart.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2007-09-06 01:48pm

The White Star's size is WAY out of whack. If it's half again the size of a Sunhawk or Corvan why is it so unusual for a ship 'that small' to be able to open a jump point?
Besides, we've seen them close to EA Omegas and B5 itself numerous times and NEVER were they anywhere that big.
The White Star is at best 250m long.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2007-09-06 02:09pm

That chart from Star Trek Minutiae was updated (with for example the length of the Executor corrected) some time ago (the updated version can be found here).

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-09-06 02:30pm

Public Service Announcement: if you haven't seen it yet, Starship Dimensions is an excellent site for scale comparisons. It has ships, artefacts and characters from a huge number of sci-fi sources with clean side renders, at several different scales, and you can drag the images around for side-by-side comparison.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-09-06 02:35pm

Oh it is NOT. It's run by a spineless pussy who refuses to change any 'scaling' that might bother his forumites - witness the hilarious events surrounding SW ships. It's pretty, but often totally worthless and wrong. Their idea of 'scaling' is pretty loose: including Unicron (for whom there is basically no consistent scaling even POSSIBLE) is a good example of this.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2007-09-06 03:44pm

Elmca wrote:I got some definitely NSFW pop-ups when I clicked on your chart.

Imageshack FTL. And yes, its popup attack slices through Firefox equipped with Noscript due to it loading on clicking the pic. Very underhanded and user-hostile.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-06 04:46pm

I'm trying to imagine a mile-wide Shadow crab thing. But my imagination isn't that good.

Alien-Carrot · Post by **Alien-Carrot** » 2007-09-07 04:34am

thx for the updated image, but now some of the exact numbers have been changed to rough approximations. while its nice that they admit they dont know the exact size, seeint a approx is kind of annoying

and i found that merzo.net site to be total garbage.

half the numbers are completly wrong, and like stark said, there is no way to compare unicron to anything but a deathstar or dyson sphere.

HE'S A FUCKING PLANET FOR EMPERORS SAKE.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-09-07 11:57am

Howedar wrote:I'm trying to imagine a mile-wide Shadow crab thing. But my imagination isn't that good.

Frankly, I don't see the problem there. I've never seen any concrete scalings for 'em. Just that they're 'huge.' This makes them look pretty big, for example.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-09-07 12:06pm

As long as we're talking about the spiders, I quite frankly think both the Shadows and Vorlons have always looked totally retarded, and their mere existence severely dumbs down Babylon 5. What the fuck are all those spines and tentacles supposed to be for? What functional purpose do they serve? It's obvious that JMS wants them to look like squids or spiders, and the quasi-religious significance he assigns to the Shadows and Vorlons seems to instinctively turn off peoples' capacity for critical thought. "Oh, they're godlike, so they don't have to make sense!"

But if you reactivate your brain, you can't help but look at Shadow and Vorlon vessels, with their ridiculous spines and tentacles, and think "that's the dumbest spaceship design I've ever seen".

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2007-09-07 12:14pm

Darth Wong wrote:As long as we're talking about the spiders, I quite frankly think both the Shadows and Vorlons have always looked totally retarded, and their mere existence severely dumbs down Babylon 5. What the fuck are all those spines and tentacles supposed to be for? What functional purpose do they serve? It's obvious that JMS wants them to look like squids or spiders, and the quasi-religious significance he assigns to the Shadows and Vorlons seems to instinctively turn off peoples' capacity for critical thought. "Oh, they're godlike, so they don't have to make sense!"

But if you reactivate your brain, you can't help but look at Shadow and Vorlon vessels, with their ridiculous spines and tentacles, and think "that's the dumbest spaceship design I've ever seen".

That's because they are the UBER ORGANIC!!!11!!.

To be honest, I never understood why he alluded that organic would become like that unless he think he upsizing a cell to ship level.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-09-07 12:24pm

I wouldn't even want to guess what the in-universe function of those things is. The blue 'segments' inside the tentacles of the Vorlon cruisers presumably do something. What it is god only knows. I doubt JMS or anyone else does.

Of course, given the Shadows' and Vorlons' entire philosophies and raison d'être, looking scary or awe inspiring probably is the point. No one else is a serious threat to them, and they're not seriously interested in destroying each other, but they're all about making impressions on the peons.

Look at the Shadow planet killer. They could probably do something much more efficient than that (though it does make a nice blockade...) but they're clearly more interested in causing terror than being efficient. The Vorlon one is at least a mostly sensible design. A great big gun.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-09-07 12:26pm

Ghost Rider wrote:That's because they are the UBER ORGANIC!!!11!!.

Urk. You know, the Vorlon ships always looked more like some sort of shapeshifting plastic to me, than anything organic.

Which would have been far more interesting, less silly, and cooler anyway.

Paradox244 · Post by **Paradox244** » 2007-09-07 01:29pm

NecronLord wrote:
Ghost Rider wrote:That's because they are the UBER ORGANIC!!!11!!.
Urk. You know, the Vorlon ships always looked more like some sort of shapeshifting plastic to me, than anything organic.

Which would have been far more interesting, less silly, and cooler anyway.

The impression I got was that the plastic look was just bad CGI.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2007-09-07 01:29pm

one explanation is to bve found ion B5 Wars. The tentacles are the Vorlons ships weapon system. The lightning cannon and the spines on a Shadow ship are the way it bleeds excess energy into space.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-09-07 02:26pm

Darth Wong wrote:As long as we're talking about the spiders, I quite frankly think both the Shadows and Vorlons have always looked totally retarded, and their mere existence severely dumbs down Babylon 5. What the fuck are all those spines and tentacles supposed to be for? What functional purpose do they serve? It's obvious that JMS wants them to look like squids or spiders, and the quasi-religious significance he assigns to the Shadows and Vorlons seems to instinctively turn off peoples' capacity for critical thought. "Oh, they're godlike, so they don't have to make sense!"

But if you reactivate your brain, you can't help but look at Shadow and Vorlon vessels, with their ridiculous spines and tentacles, and think "that's the dumbest spaceship design I've ever seen".

Especially when one remembers that when Earth built destroyers using "Shadow tech" they had those same spines.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-09-07 02:38pm

Typhonis 1 wrote:one explanation is to bve found ion B5 Wars. The tentacles are the Vorlons ships weapon system. The lightning cannon and the spines on a Shadow ship are the way it bleeds excess energy into space.

That's only an "explanation" in the sense that "God did it" is an explanation for lightning. It's not a meaningful explanation; it's just something you wallpaper on top of what was obviously a cheesy stylistic decision. It doesn't make it appear to be a logical design decision.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2007-09-07 03:28pm

Omega class destroyer rotating section. That should tell you all about B5 and logical design decisions.

lord Martiya · Post by **lord Martiya** » 2007-09-07 04:11pm

That rotating section IS a logical design decision, to simulate gravity.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2007-09-07 04:13pm

HAVING one is. Designing it that way is NOT.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-09-07 04:22pm

Hey. It's not like the Omega was their own design. It's a 2010 tribute.

Of course, I like the look of the Omega. Even though something like Rama would make infinitely more sense.