Im curious since those are large enough to store considerable part of their empires, how large are lorewise , i understand that ingame limitations make them a bit larger than other dreadnoughts which is totally fine but , they are suppose to have populations of millions living on them ( i guess ) how big would they need to be there is anything on that ?

Thanks beforehand. <3

They are about 1.25/1.3 km in length, which makes them larger than Carrier-type ships by about a quarter.

OK. So lets assume, they are about 1 km width,then the largest floor is about 1.3 million square meters.

The Ark has a upside down pyramid shape. So floors would be smaller towards the bottom.

Lets assume the height is about the same as the length, 1.3 km.

How larger are the Vodyani? They are gargantuan, so I'd assume 5 meter floor height for calculation. Maybe it should have been more? Then you can have 260 floors to stack to 1.3 km height.

Volume of a Pyramid is 1/3 times height, times its largest floor. So calculatated with 5 meter floor heigh that would give something like 112 millinon square meters of floor space divided on the 260 floors.

How much of that is habitat, and how much is structure and modules?

Hard to say, but if there is a million Vodyani or slaves on board this is maximum 112 square meters per person if we count all space habitable. That sounds like very little, consider these 112 square meters are supposed to cover both workspace, homespace, church space(!), shop space, life support systems and possibly large structures that keep them shielded from the outer space. I consider the modules we add to the ark is probably the workspace, so I didn't list modules.

I'd say there are probably less than a million Vodyani on board... but who knows?

Lol.

1.25km is a little short don't you think? From the one picture that pops up when somebody leeches your population you can see that the leech ship is about the length of a city center, which could easily be 800-1000m. 

Ullern wrote:

OK. So lets assume, they are about 1 km width,then the largest floor is about 1.3 million square meters.

The Ark has a upside down pyramid shape. So floors would be smaller towards the bottom.

Lets assume the height is about the same as the length, 1.3 km.

How larger are the Vodyani? They are gargantuan, so I'd assume 5 meter floor height for calculation. Maybe it should have been more? Then you can have 260 floors to stack to 1.3 km height.

Volume of a Pyramid is 1/3 times height, times its largest floor. So calculatated with 5 meter floor heigh that would give something like 112 millinon square meters of floor space divided on the 260 floors.

How much of that is habitat, and how much is structure and modules?

Hard to say, but if there is a million Vodyani or slaves on board this is maximum 112 square meters per person if we count all space habitable. That sounds like very little, consider these 112 square meters are supposed to cover both workspace, homespace, church space(!), shop space, life support systems and possibly large structures that keep them shielded from the outer space. I consider the modules we add to the ark is probably the workspace, so I didn't list modules.

I'd say there are probably less than a million Vodyani on board... but who knows?

Lol.

You have to redo your calculations. The Vodyani are not "Gargantuan", they're roughly 5-6ft in height. 

The 'Gargantuan population' trait is a reference to the enormous (numerical) size of their population, which is probably including the non-Vodyani, organic slaves. It is not a reference to their physical features. 

As you can see in the art from in game. 

(for this last photo, the central Vodyani 'lancer' simply appears larger due to her being at the forefront of the work of art, while the Lumerians appear smaller b/c they are farther in the background, aka, if this was the view you got from looking at it IRL, the Lumerians are farther away and the Vodyani are closer to you). 

In game they look enourmous like 1/10 of a planet.
At least that is how i remember and imagine then :D

Neron wrote:

In game they look enourmous like 1/10 of a planet.
At least that is how i remember and imagine then :D

+1 

Suis3i wrote:

You have to redo your calculations. The Vodyani are not "Gargantuan", they're roughly 5-6ft in height. 

The 'Gargantuan population' trait is a reference to the enormous (numerical) size of their population, which is probably including the non-Vodyani, organic slaves. It is not a reference to their physical features. 

Ah! You are correct. Well. What you say 5-6 feet, is like regular human size, and in our homes (western at least) will typical vary from 7-8 feet floor to ceiling although both smaller and larger exists, but you got the structure in between floors on top of that. So I'd say about 3 meters/10 feet then. That would increase number of floors to 430.  And increase floor space to 186 square meters per person if there are a million on board. Maybe there is a million on board then.

Other input?

Note that I'm basing my answer on the in-game models, which itself is based on limitations of the battle scene itself (the battle space is about 4*4km, so if an Ark was any bigger, it wouldn't move at all). Canonically, it might be meant to be different. It is also possible that just like the Church controls Cloth feedback on individuals, some other form of living might be achieved in a more enclosed state.

Something to keep in mind as well is that without a "purpose", you have no reason to grow your population if you're immortal. My only point of comparison is the elven population on Middle-Earth, which is basically stable/slowly declining. Considering that the Vodyani narrowly escaped extinction, it would not be absurd for their population to be quite significantly lower than other empires'.

*waves frantically at Slowhands*

Frogsquadron wrote:

... so if an Ark was any bigger, it wouldn't move at all....

Seeing a ginormous (even if immobile) ark in the battle space would've been impressive though. 

Frogsquadron wrote:

Note that I'm basing my answer on the in-game models, which itself is based on limitations of the battle scene itself (the battle space is about 4*4km, so if an Ark was any bigger, it wouldn't move at all). Canonically, it might be meant to be different. It is also possible that just like the Church controls Cloth feedback on individuals, some other form of living might be achieved in a more enclosed state.

Something to keep in mind as well is that without a "purpose", you have no reason to grow your population if you're immortal. My only point of comparison is the elven population on Middle-Earth, which is basically stable/slowly declining. Considering that the Vodyani narrowly escaped extinction, it would not be absurd for their population to be quite significantly lower than other empires'.

*waves frantically at Slowhands*

It makes alot of sense, after all vodyani doesnt require food in the conventional sense, oxygen ( i dont think they breath), pressured rooms, beds and other stuff so their living space may be smaller than normal, maybe they have their minds in computers or somethin while inside the ships in order to occupy even less space, although there is still the problem of slaves which still have conventional requeriments, still i believe that 1.3 km is too small for an ark ship ( from a lore point of view gameplay wise makes total sense), still your theory sounds far cooler than just having a gargantuan ship :p.

Frogsquadron wrote:

Note that I'm basing my answer on the in-game models, which itself is based on limitations of the battle scene itself (the battle space is about 4*4km, so if an Ark was any bigger, it wouldn't move at all). Canonically, it might be meant to be different. It is also possible that just like the Church controls Cloth feedback on individuals, some other form of living might be achieved in a more enclosed state.

Something to keep in mind as well is that without a "purpose", you have no reason to grow your population if you're immortal. My only point of comparison is the elven population on Middle-Earth, which is basically stable/slowly declining. Considering that the Vodyani narrowly escaped extinction, it would not be absurd for their population to be quite significantly lower than other empires'.

*waves frantically at Slowhands*

Ohhh okay, I thought the original specifications you gave were for the canonical size of the Arks, not the gameplay size. My b. 

@solrac137; From what I saw in the comics, it doesn't seem to be that the Vodyani are lacking in the size, as their common spaces/rooms/etc all seem to be what we would consider, average. Also in regards to Vodyani suit mechanics, this is from a post that Slowhand wrote: 

. . . The Vodyani suits (the "Cloth") allow them to be somewhat immortal as they can replace their bodies, though it should be noted that the process is difficult if you have lived in a particular Cloth for a long time--as the Cloth and its wearer interact they become more efficient and powerful, but this deeper linkage makes separating the two riskier.

And as mentioned in the Vodyani Main Quest, Isyara shuts the suit down of a Vodyani who (I believe) gorged too much on slaves, effectively trapping him inside his suit. 

So I don't think the Vodyani leave their suits unless absolutely necessary, so they probably have normal sized rooms. 

Also they Vodyani do require food, they just have the slaves eat it instead so they can consume the slaves essence, if I'm not mistaken. 

 Back @Frogsquadron since I diverged quite a bit:

I get the whole comparison to the Elven factions of Middle-Earth, where the Vodyani no longer need to increase their population b/c they seem to have no purpose for an increased pop. 

But, wasn't the Vodyanis purpose to conquer the galaxy and bring all to worship the Virtual Endless, and make those worthy of the 'Cloth' become Vodyani, whether they like it or not (this is true if you follow the Religious path of the Vodyani Main Quest). That is part of the reasoning why  Varb St Zouieina is converted from a Mezari clan member and farmer to a Vodyani citizen. But yeah their population would be lower, but they are one of the oldest factions (I don't think the Riftborn count since a vast majority of the Riftborn still lived in Coroz). 

*Also waves frantically at Slowhands* 

I've often wondered how ship space is used in Arks.

I've imagined them as massive manufacturing and resource processing Centers, where the actual Vodyani exist in their version of a Virtual 'Matrix' so their physical presence would then depend on the requirements of their Virtual existence, and be mostly utilitarian in function. That's why they don't seem to take in other species on the Arks and distribute their labor across a system, how they interact with other factions and have facilities able to build their Carriers within the Arks themselves. Like how cool would it be to see an Ark open its manufacturing bay and see a huge brand new Carrier emerge from within.

And that like how Jack Harper is cloned in the 2013 Oblivion film, that the Vodyani could follow a similar process for the physical vessels they use outside of their Virtual existence, and that aside from the use of robotics and/or other automated systems to have a presence on different worlds once they have adapted the physical tech to function optimally on those worlds. That way they could have fewer individuals, but eventually compete with and out pace other empires, through their mastery over Virtualization.