Well if someone is gonna buy it (which would be me. since it looks great)
It might work as a space hospital.
And back on earth a loooonngg lime ago liners were evacuating people from the mainland of Europe to America and some to England because of WWII (If I remember correctly)
' Wrote:ti remember that in ww2 - those were sometimes passengerships that were ( not really modified in a technical sense ) but totally overloaded.
It's a lovely ship, it truly is. But your suggestion of no frills and amenities removed to slap on additional plating doesn't stack up with the image you proposed.
This model looks great, but it doesn't stack up. First, anytime a ship is armored heavily it's also given rudimentary weaponry at the very least. Second, it doesn't really look over armored. Maybe make the armor plates more discernable and easily recognizeable. Third, all the windows make it look like a naval command ship, not a no frills people hauler. Fourth, it would be easier, and more cost effective, to convert an unfinished prison liner to this duty than a luxliner.
I like the idea, just not the implementation. I'd say take the prison liner, add some obvious armor plating and a gunboat mount or two for defense, and presto-changeo.....Refugee Liner.
When I read the title I pictured a run down looking piece of flying scrap metal that would barely be fit to take it's occupants to safe harbour. This looks far too sleek and modern for my vision of what a refugee liner would look like.
why is it not a run-down piece of crap? - bretonians are no junkers... and even when hard pressed by warfare, they will not nail some pieces of scrap metal together and call it a ship.
what makes it a "cheap" ship is the design, which is down to the basics. - a tube practicly.
why is it a refugee liner? - refugee liners may be very hastily modified liners - but usually only in the very last minute ( as i said before ) ... however... planets like leeds are populated by billions. - it is one megacity ( compare it to earth, which is FAR from being one megacity ) - and imagine how many liners it takes to evacuate it.
a liner needs to be :
- safe
- have a maximum capacity for people
- reliable ( its political suicide to loose such a liner full of civilians - as opposed to loosing a military liner, cause those people signed up for the possibility to die )
and since its a house....
- it should still represent some kind of dignity - which sounds stupid .. but i believe its still of political importance.
in rp - people are of course also carried off in prison or lux liners, maybe even royal liners ( although i doubt that ) - but in order to achive maximum efficiency - you d need a liner that is larger and offers much more room for the people.
when an evacuation becomes critical - they would also deploy rusty barges to ship the desperate ( or poor ) people off - cause at that time, it doesn t matter anymore how... but it only matters that it h appens.
so - such a ship is still well designed. evacuation of a whole planet is not a matter of weeks or months.... its a matter of years and may still happen while gallia has invaded even the planet. for me - it depends on the faction using .. or in need of such a ship.
when zoners had to evacuate GC - they would probably use a lot more ships not designed for it - like whales or warships. - but bretonia ( as was so often said ) is a house with a lot more capacities when it comes to deploying ships ( like liberty, kusari, rheinland ) - they have no need to squeeze people into a shetlands container - not yet that is.
That is an excellent looking model, however it is the name 'refugee liner' that limits its potential for in game use. Why not go with a more generic name and make it a plain jane passenger transport. Surely the the regular masses need some form of coach class transit, and suggest in the info card that when war hit, the vessel is simply retrofitted to suit whatever function is required, whether that be troop transport, medical frigate, munitions runner, or refugee transport.
I know no one like a RL historical example, but that is exactly what Great Britain did to its civilian steamer fleet during both world wars. The sister ship to the the Titanic, the Olympic was turned into a troopship for WW1, and my grandfather was sent to Europe aboard the Queen Elizabeth. (Fun history fact, the Queen Elizabeth was one of the few WW2 supply ships to operate outside of a convoy, because German U-Boats could not catch it)
Making the model is simple and showing it off. Submitting it is another Journey which sometimes turn out from a great hard work to a useless effort at the end when the Devs rejects it.
Remove the bretonian textures, make it a borderworlds gray or something, and it could serve as a passengers liner. I mean, not a LUXURY liner, but a ship to carry common people. What are the currently available liners? Luxury, prison, slave... So if you're not a prisoner or a slave, you have to be rich in order to travel. Ok then, arrest me so I'll travel free! Not every citizen can spend thousands of credits to travel in space. Tickets for this new ship would be cheaper, so the ship carries more people with slightly less comfort to have a profit.