Post by Philip on Jul 11, 2004 0:36:05 GMT -5
I would like these 'concept' threads to be for the 'brainstorming' of concepts and how they would play out, and ultimately link together with other 'concept' threads.
I would like to design a 'base concept' of 40K were all the 'fluff' becomes 'interpretations' of the base concept, but the base concept has to hold together...
This has been redesigned, please see later posts.
=Original Concept for Hives in 40K=
I originally posted this on the Black Library's forum. This is the remains of the post after one of the mods removed a lot of the replies. Fortunately they left many of zhould's contributions.
The design set out is in retrospect a specific type of hive used for colonisation of new star systems and acts as a power base for that area of space. The hive is modular and grows with the population. I imagine this type of hive to be based on the STCS (standard template construction system) and hail from the golden age of technology. I called it the STCS Hive: Emperor Class (though during the golden age I doubt they called it this).
The forums at the Black Library are basic and because of this replies to posts can be difficult to read, so I've add quote tags and chopped the post into lots of little posts.
Hive design.
I was reading the thread about the ‘Hiveworlds’ being too small, and it got me thinking about what a real Hive would look like, and how it would function. I did a bit of research, but I didn’t find a ‘Hives’. All my knowledge is related to what the characters look like, and I haven’t paid much attention to the design of Imperial cities. There’s a large pyramid in the background of my Inferno 41 cover; its Necron not Imperium, but I figure triangle shapes are the way to go with truly massive structures. As Hives are so big has anyone actually designed one? The closest I have seen is City Fight.
I’m thinking of putting a destroyed hive in the background of a future work.
‘My Hive Vision Notes’
=Base structure of a Hive City Unit=
The hive would be constructed of many spheres half a km in diameter, arranged in a formation similar to the carbon molecules within diamonds. The external overall shape of the Hive would be a tetrahedron (not a pyramid) about the size of the centre of London. The top would be ‘cut off’, but with three massive towers for housing noble families at each of the corners, and a colossal church like dome in the centre (a place of pilgrimage for the hive population, containing a church and holy artefacts). At the centre, deep in the heart of the hive, would be the core. This core is a nuclear reactor providing all the hives power requirements.
=Pluming=
In between the Spheres would be all the traffic lanes, piping and trading centres, the glue that keeps the spheres acting as a hive and not a collection of sealed units. These areas would be patrolled by the police, but justice within the spheres is controlled by the elders of that sphere.
=Home=
Each sphere would be run by a clan or gang and is in essence a bio-sphere: able to grow its own food and reprocess its waste. As the spheres are solid and as no natural light can get to the plants contained within, I would image them to be divided into layers each containing plant beds (fields) each with its own array of lighting (hung from the floor above). The plant beds could grow anything; even be pools of stagnant algae (yum!), maybe an old twisted tree could be in there for the completion of mob justice… I digress.
To power the vast number of bulbs would take a lot of power; which the clan has to buy from the Hive Administration’s ‘electrical department’. The living quarters (town) would be on the upper levels, and the reprocessing plants on the lower levels (Sump).
Each sphere is connected to adjacent sphere directly (so large family clans can extend beyond there original sphere) and to the public system to allow travel to any other sphere and to trading zones.
=Armaments and Defences=
Externally I imagine some very large defence lasers mounted at the three corners at the base, and smaller cannon on top of the noble’s towers. Millions of smaller cannon dotted all over the sides.
Internally sphere entrances and exits have a ‘fire doors’ that are controlled by its clan (but can be overridden by the Hive Administration). As a control measure, all spheres are equipped with an ‘inferno device’, which is used to completely incinerate the contents of a sphere’s interior. The inferno device is use to terminate uncontrollable clans, control diseases, and in cases of invasion: lost spheres can be ‘fired’ when enemy troop enter them (forcing enemy troops into the straight public highways and areas)
=Construction=
First the core in constructed off world (Mars) and shipped to the location. Once core is in place the construction of the bio-sphere and internal system begins. The hive is constructed in layers one bio-sphere thick, each sphere is built on site and is basically a tetrahedron with a hollow middle. The first spheres to be built surround the core, and then new layers are added to the first surfaces (like growing a crystal). At this early stage it just looks like a little version of what it will be later.
Over generations the hive would be built up, and as they did so, the population would increase in number and the more powerful families rising in authority, to become nobles. A completed hive would take eons to build.
=Appearance=
I imagine the outside to have an appearance of a gothic cathedral, or rather thousands of gothic cathedrals built in the hive like shape. The sides are not ‘flat’ but are covered with thousands, if not millions of spires, domes, windows, and walkways. It would be dark grey/ brown in colour, with signs weathering and centuries of battle damage. It is possible that outer layers haven’t been completed, or new layers are being added, and this would look similar to an Aztec stepped pyramid (but tetrahedron).
=What a Hive requires from the Imperium=
It would require fuel for central core (supplied under Imperial sanction?), materials for its workshops, and external contracts.
=What a Hive supplies to the Imperium=
Imperial Guard regiments, tools and equipment. Basically a hive is an Imperial Guard Factory making cannon fodder for the endless war that is 40K.
As an artist I imagine the Hive s to be this way mainly because of the visual impact such a design would have. I also think it holds true to the concept and methodology of a ‘standard template construction system’ that the Imperium uses.
Any thoughts welcome…
Philip Sibbering
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Added 15 July 2004 14:48
=Bio-Sphere=
At the heart of this hive is the Bio-Sphere. Without it, the Hive would cease to be viable. The Bio-Sphere is a very large unit (originally 500m diameter, but I think 100m to 200, sounds good) for growing food and is run by a clan of many families. The large Sphere is divided up into levels every 5-10m and is stacked with huge cabinets containing trays of algae and biomatter. Each tray has a built in lid with lighting powered by electrify supplied by the hive administration from the Core (central reactor of the Hive).
Some levels are open fields, well levels 10m without cabinets and proper plants growing in the open under glow bulbs from above. May have trees may not, very misty though.
They Bio-Sphere has full reprocessing and recycling facilities, all carbon dioxide it relocked into food, and converted back to oxygen and water, the carbon making the plant. Exported plants remove carbon from the system, which has to be brought back in (pumped or block). The import of this carbon is only required if the Bio-Sphere exports food.
All the power is supplied by the Core, the Core supplies all the Bio-Spheres.
I would like to design a 'base concept' of 40K were all the 'fluff' becomes 'interpretations' of the base concept, but the base concept has to hold together...
This has been redesigned, please see later posts.
=Original Concept for Hives in 40K=
I originally posted this on the Black Library's forum. This is the remains of the post after one of the mods removed a lot of the replies. Fortunately they left many of zhould's contributions.
The design set out is in retrospect a specific type of hive used for colonisation of new star systems and acts as a power base for that area of space. The hive is modular and grows with the population. I imagine this type of hive to be based on the STCS (standard template construction system) and hail from the golden age of technology. I called it the STCS Hive: Emperor Class (though during the golden age I doubt they called it this).
The forums at the Black Library are basic and because of this replies to posts can be difficult to read, so I've add quote tags and chopped the post into lots of little posts.
Hive design.
I was reading the thread about the ‘Hiveworlds’ being too small, and it got me thinking about what a real Hive would look like, and how it would function. I did a bit of research, but I didn’t find a ‘Hives’. All my knowledge is related to what the characters look like, and I haven’t paid much attention to the design of Imperial cities. There’s a large pyramid in the background of my Inferno 41 cover; its Necron not Imperium, but I figure triangle shapes are the way to go with truly massive structures. As Hives are so big has anyone actually designed one? The closest I have seen is City Fight.
I’m thinking of putting a destroyed hive in the background of a future work.
‘My Hive Vision Notes’
=Base structure of a Hive City Unit=
The hive would be constructed of many spheres half a km in diameter, arranged in a formation similar to the carbon molecules within diamonds. The external overall shape of the Hive would be a tetrahedron (not a pyramid) about the size of the centre of London. The top would be ‘cut off’, but with three massive towers for housing noble families at each of the corners, and a colossal church like dome in the centre (a place of pilgrimage for the hive population, containing a church and holy artefacts). At the centre, deep in the heart of the hive, would be the core. This core is a nuclear reactor providing all the hives power requirements.
=Pluming=
In between the Spheres would be all the traffic lanes, piping and trading centres, the glue that keeps the spheres acting as a hive and not a collection of sealed units. These areas would be patrolled by the police, but justice within the spheres is controlled by the elders of that sphere.
=Home=
Each sphere would be run by a clan or gang and is in essence a bio-sphere: able to grow its own food and reprocess its waste. As the spheres are solid and as no natural light can get to the plants contained within, I would image them to be divided into layers each containing plant beds (fields) each with its own array of lighting (hung from the floor above). The plant beds could grow anything; even be pools of stagnant algae (yum!), maybe an old twisted tree could be in there for the completion of mob justice… I digress.
To power the vast number of bulbs would take a lot of power; which the clan has to buy from the Hive Administration’s ‘electrical department’. The living quarters (town) would be on the upper levels, and the reprocessing plants on the lower levels (Sump).
Each sphere is connected to adjacent sphere directly (so large family clans can extend beyond there original sphere) and to the public system to allow travel to any other sphere and to trading zones.
=Armaments and Defences=
Externally I imagine some very large defence lasers mounted at the three corners at the base, and smaller cannon on top of the noble’s towers. Millions of smaller cannon dotted all over the sides.
Internally sphere entrances and exits have a ‘fire doors’ that are controlled by its clan (but can be overridden by the Hive Administration). As a control measure, all spheres are equipped with an ‘inferno device’, which is used to completely incinerate the contents of a sphere’s interior. The inferno device is use to terminate uncontrollable clans, control diseases, and in cases of invasion: lost spheres can be ‘fired’ when enemy troop enter them (forcing enemy troops into the straight public highways and areas)
=Construction=
First the core in constructed off world (Mars) and shipped to the location. Once core is in place the construction of the bio-sphere and internal system begins. The hive is constructed in layers one bio-sphere thick, each sphere is built on site and is basically a tetrahedron with a hollow middle. The first spheres to be built surround the core, and then new layers are added to the first surfaces (like growing a crystal). At this early stage it just looks like a little version of what it will be later.
Over generations the hive would be built up, and as they did so, the population would increase in number and the more powerful families rising in authority, to become nobles. A completed hive would take eons to build.
=Appearance=
I imagine the outside to have an appearance of a gothic cathedral, or rather thousands of gothic cathedrals built in the hive like shape. The sides are not ‘flat’ but are covered with thousands, if not millions of spires, domes, windows, and walkways. It would be dark grey/ brown in colour, with signs weathering and centuries of battle damage. It is possible that outer layers haven’t been completed, or new layers are being added, and this would look similar to an Aztec stepped pyramid (but tetrahedron).
=What a Hive requires from the Imperium=
It would require fuel for central core (supplied under Imperial sanction?), materials for its workshops, and external contracts.
=What a Hive supplies to the Imperium=
Imperial Guard regiments, tools and equipment. Basically a hive is an Imperial Guard Factory making cannon fodder for the endless war that is 40K.
As an artist I imagine the Hive s to be this way mainly because of the visual impact such a design would have. I also think it holds true to the concept and methodology of a ‘standard template construction system’ that the Imperium uses.
Any thoughts welcome…
Philip Sibbering
Reply
Back To Thread Navigation
Added 15 July 2004 14:48
=Bio-Sphere=
At the heart of this hive is the Bio-Sphere. Without it, the Hive would cease to be viable. The Bio-Sphere is a very large unit (originally 500m diameter, but I think 100m to 200, sounds good) for growing food and is run by a clan of many families. The large Sphere is divided up into levels every 5-10m and is stacked with huge cabinets containing trays of algae and biomatter. Each tray has a built in lid with lighting powered by electrify supplied by the hive administration from the Core (central reactor of the Hive).
Some levels are open fields, well levels 10m without cabinets and proper plants growing in the open under glow bulbs from above. May have trees may not, very misty though.
They Bio-Sphere has full reprocessing and recycling facilities, all carbon dioxide it relocked into food, and converted back to oxygen and water, the carbon making the plant. Exported plants remove carbon from the system, which has to be brought back in (pumped or block). The import of this carbon is only required if the Bio-Sphere exports food.
All the power is supplied by the Core, the Core supplies all the Bio-Spheres.