GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Deck Plan stuff

POSTED BY: GALFRIDUS
UPDATED: Monday, August 30, 2004 20:42
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Friday, August 27, 2004 7:53 PM

GALFRIDUS


I'm planning on running a Firefly RPG at a con next year (Gen Con, maybe other cons as well). As a certified map nut, I started looking around for Serenity deckplans. I already had the lovely d20 plans, as well as the stellar plans drawn up by gaidheal and posted on this site. However, in trying to overlay those plans onto top-view exterior shots of Serenity, I noticed that a few things in gaidheal's drawings didn't seem to line up. In particular:

1) The dining room area seems to be too wide on the "octagon side" and not wide enough on the other side. In particular, as the centerline of the ship seems to run down the middle of that room, its asymmetry creates either a lot of extra space on one side or (and this seems more likely) not enough space for the octagon.

2) At the scale they are drawn, there's nowhere near enough space for the infirmary and passenger dorms on the back bottom level. Not even close.

I'm reviewing episodes for more detail, but I'm not the best estimator of distance. Does anyone out there happen to know more about whether these actually worked out, or if they didn't worry about it when making the sets?




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Saturday, August 28, 2004 4:10 AM

THEREALME


Somewhere, I believe on this site, is a drawing of the actual sets used, two very long sets, of course. There is no internal detail, but it does give the shape. I printed it months ago when I went searching for Serenity or Firefly deck plans. Look in old Blue Sun Room threads. Or try searches. I'll see if I can track down that printout. I loaned it to a friend.

It is possible that the sets do not synch up in any reasonable fashion.

The Real Me

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Saturday, August 28, 2004 4:21 AM

GALFRIDUS


Hey!

If you're referring to this:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=515

...I did look at this, but there isn't enough detail to work with, at least not for my meager brain. :( Right now it looks like detailed episode analysis is in order -- or intervention from powers that be. :)

If you're referring to something else, let me know -- I didn't see anything else like this in the Blue Sun Room.



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Saturday, August 28, 2004 4:28 AM

THEREALME


That is it!

If you are only looking at whether or not other sets of deckplans are reasonable, you can match them to the outer dimensions of the set. IF THE SET IS OF THE WRONG DIMENSIONS, then you won't be able to get anything better by viewing episodes.

What I'm talking about is the possibility (for example) that the SET has the cargo bay too far forward to fit inside the cut-way side view.

The Real Me

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Monday, August 30, 2004 5:51 AM

GALFRIDUS


Yeah, from those plans it does look like both errors I've noticed are innate -- i.e., the set as constructed would probably not fit into the external Serenty model as pictured. Alas.

I'll keep looking to make sure, or at least to figure what tweaks would be least obstrusive.

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Monday, August 30, 2004 7:53 AM

BEATLE


I also remember a side shot from here...
http://www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=513

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Monday, August 30, 2004 8:29 AM

HANS


Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems matching the internal sets to the model. In addition to the width of the dining area and the placement of the sickbay/passenger quarters, there is:

1. The angle of the forward hallway up to the bridge in the set does not appear nearly steep enough to match the same angle on the model. In other words, the bridge should be higher up (on the set) if you go by trying to line up the windows (on the model).

2. In a related problem to the above, there is a set of stairs at the forward end of the bridge that goes down to somewhere, but there does not seem to be room under the bridge for another level (especially if you are trying to get the bridge as low as possible in order to match the sets with the model). Maybe it's just a crawlspace?

3. The shuttlecraft seem to be mounted too high on the side of the ship. If you design a side view of the ship and leave in space for the cargo bay and dining area above it, it looks like the shuttles should be lower down than they are on the exterior view.

Hans

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Monday, August 30, 2004 3:23 PM

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Could you please just make it stranger? Stranger. Odder. Could be weirder. More bizarre. How about uncanny?


[url] http://www.wam.umd.edu/~cadre/ [/url]

About halfway down the page, under Adventure Resources, you'll find what you need. It's the best I've seen yet, and I use it for my current Deadlands system-based Firefly RPG here at home.

It's not mine, so I won't take credit, but man is it nice. PDF format, btw.



Hope this helps!

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Monday, August 30, 2004 4:25 PM

GAIDHEAL


In response to your deck plan problems... there is no reconciliation between the deck plans I created and the CGI exterior shots of Serenity done by Zoic. My deck plans were created from watching the series several times, making screen captures of every available Serenity interior shot, and comparing screen capture distances of character heights and room dimensions in order to construct the shooting sets. Zoic came very close to creating a model that would accommodate the physical reality of the sets, but no cigar.

There is a full room (though small) below the cockpit. It can be reached by the stairs down from the cockpit or through the door to the left of the stairs leading up to the cockpit from the forward corridor.

I've always assumed that those two doors opposite the kitchen in the dining area led off to either airlocks or more storage area. That addresses the asymmetry feel to the upper-level deck plans. I didn't put anything on the plans that wasn't viewable by me other than the proposed additional crew quarters below or the possible rear corridor behind the infirmary.

The set of deck plans I created appear to be fairly accurate though based on distances. When I transposed the upper deck onto the lower deck, the staircases actually lined up. I was very pleasantly surprised.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to post or ask.

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Monday, August 30, 2004 4:41 PM

LONE


Have you seen these plans yet?




from: http://www.fireflywiki.org/Firefly/Serenity

and there is a side shot, as mentioned above, at the bottom of this page: http://www.fireflywiki.org/Firefly/FireflyTransport


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Monday, August 30, 2004 5:32 PM

GALFRIDUS


Gaidheal,

Thanks! Now I'm wondering if the actual in-show shots of Serenity are any different, but that's easy enough to figure out on my own. Let me say again that your plans are awesome -- many thanks for posting them!

Lone, the plans you posted are gaidheal's.

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Monday, August 30, 2004 5:38 PM

GAIDHEAL


Quote:

Originally posted by Galfridus:


Now I'm wondering if the actual in-show shots of Serenity are any different...




These plans were created from in-show screen captures. Or am I misunderstanding you?

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Monday, August 30, 2004 5:43 PM

GALFRIDUS


No, you were right, I misread your post. Time for sleep. :)

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Monday, August 30, 2004 6:57 PM

RATNUT12


I don't know if I'm any help at all here, but I do recall a thread awhile back either here or the official movie site where someone had noticed that the model used in the pilot (and part of The Train Job) was different than the model used in the rest of the series. If I recall correctly I believe the newer model was sleeker. So this could be a case of apples and oranges depending on which models these plans come from.

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Monday, August 30, 2004 8:19 PM

HARDY


i made a online-shiptour:

http://beam.to/firefly/schiff.html

maybe this will help a little...




Mal: "Everybody dies alone"

http://beam.to/firefly

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Monday, August 30, 2004 8:42 PM

THEREALME


Gaidheal?

YOU were the one to create those magnificent plans of Serenity?

You are mad, I say, MAD!

And I'm quite happy about that. Keep up the good work!



The Real Me

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