Why do you build big ships?

[Edymnion]

One reason I usually end up with large ships are things like rail doors, elevators, etc. Moving parts. Thing is, to make moving parts, you need lots of space to house all of the background bits that make things move (the rails, the logic, etc).

Even when I don't use rails to make large "moving" doors I use lots of logic to make the doors "open" and "close" one row at a time to make it look like they are rolling up/down even when they aren't.

And even when I don't do any fancy animation for doors, I still like having round 3x3 hatches with wedges in the corners on either side of a square 3x3 to make it look like a funcional hatch instead of just a square of plex door in a wall.

Finally, we have no good way of making unobtrusive turrets. If you want a turret that is worth putting on a ship, it has to be big enough to pack a punch, which means if you don't want a turret half the size of the rest of the ship you have to scale the ship up to make it look less obnoxious.

So yeah, combination of "I want detail", "I need room for logic and moving parts", and a bit of "Big ships are impressive!" thrown in for good measure.

 

[Keptick]

I like (and make) ships in all sizes. As for my titan, my original goal was to have something epic to fly around in, and it still is.

It also gives me a platform into which I can cram all the crazy/ridiculous stuff I come up with (like drone racks).

 

[NeonSturm]

I make heavy use of round shapes, and these simply don't look round on small ships.

Agree.
Although I prefer 22.5° angles to make things look really tall (gothic churches and alike) which faces the same issue.

Stuff then turns out unrealistic big, even if slabs fix quite some cases, others still stick out.

One reason I usually end up with large ships are things like rail doors, elevators, etc. Moving parts. Thing is, to make moving parts, you need lots of space to house all of the background bits that make things move (the rails, the logic, etc).

Sometimes you can put that into in-between engineers-only decks.
I hope this changes with API and mods, but we can't expect this soon.

For this reason I am looking forward to Seeds of Andromeda, which use 1/2m blocks and multi-block texture overlays. But they currently only support Windows …

Finally, we have no good way of making unobtrusive turrets. If you want a turret that is worth putting on a ship, it has to be big enough to pack a punch, which means if you don't want a turret half the size of the rest of the ship you have to scale the ship up to make it look less obnoxious.

Very true.
It is a bit sad that block-damage dooms them. Inaccuracy of turrets (even beam) could solve that partially.
IRL Sun-Earth is 7.6 light minutes I think, thus assuming 1 minute per sector isn't that wrong. That justifies at least a slight inaccuracy of beam-weaponry on moving targets.

Have you tried making a sort of a MG bunker (where the MG turns mostly inside of a tiny hole) or smaller turrets on a irregularly rotating floating platform/ring structure?

It also gives me a platform into which I can cram all the crazy/ridiculous stuff I come up with (like drone racks).

As long as it doesn't mess with the look Nothing worse than screw all that hard work by accident.

 

[Qweesdy]

Hi,

Have you tried making a sort of a MG bunker (where the MG turns mostly inside of a tiny hole) or smaller turrets on a irregularly rotating floating platform/ring structure?

I do turrets, like...

Imagine the base is buried inside the ship, but has a single block (the docking block) far away from the rest and ends up on the outside of the ship. Then imagine the barrel part completely surrounds the base's docking block.

It ends up looking like the turret is floating in space next to the ship and isn't attached at all. No part of the base is visible.

This is a picture that describes it better (but the turret base isn't hidden/buried in this case):

Hope that makes sense...

Anyway, with all of the base hidden it makes the turret look much smaller.

 

[Malacodor]

Hi,



I do turrets, like...

Imagine the base is buried inside the ship, but has a single block (the docking block) far away from the rest and ends up on the outside of the ship. Then imagine the barrel part completely surrounds the base's docking block.

It ends up looking like the turret is floating in space next to the ship and isn't attached at all. No part of the base is visible.

This is a picture that describes it better (but the turret base isn't hidden/buried in this case):

Hope that makes sense...

Anyway, with all of the base hidden it makes the turret look much smaller.

Let's just hope the breaking off mechanics never makes it to the vanilla game.

 

[terra mining corp.]

I like to make my stations and ships fairly large so my character and npc's can move around and also have function , its hard to fit this into a small fighter chassis (under 300),so most of my ships are of corvette size(1000+) (my ship classifications),but hats off to these guys/gals that spend all that time to build incredible titan class ships (I can't stay focused longer then building a corvette

 

[Keptick]

Let's just hope the breaking off mechanics never makes it to the vanilla game.

Right? I generally try to build with some physical connection between parts, but that's not always possible. I can't imagine how many designs would become invalid if break-off was made default.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

A not insignificant amount of my builds would become entirely detached cores.

 

[Lecic]

I don't. I try and fit as murderous a package as I can in a small space.

 

[AtraUnam]

Right? I generally try to build with some physical connection between parts, but that's not always possible. I can't imagine how many designs would become invalid if break-off was made default.

I imagine it would be worked in such a way that floaty parts wouldn't instantly disconnect.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Technically, I do build large ships however, they are essentially large mobile space stations that fit the Axis fleet inside of them.

The average length for a Star Axis ship is about 100 meters. Their mass ranges between 4000-8000. I use basic interiors to show a control room, engineering compartment, air locks, main corridor and often, medical bays and fighter bays. Axis ships are modular; often equipping turrets, cargo containers, fighters, power armor, automated salvagers and logic controlled weapons.

This example; ASC Challenger, has all of the above yet remains only 110 meters long and 8500 mass.

Spoiler

Looks kinda small on the outside...



...the the bays open up to reveal the goodies inside. Fighters or power armor; take your pick.



I am WAITING... ever so patiently for the devs to buff warheads so I can be an evil little rat bastard...

A ship of this size is a perfect fit for my Command System's docking bays. When my new base is complete, I'll be able to fit at least 4 of these kinds of ships inside my mobile base with plenty of room for cargo, fighters and utility modules.

Spoiler

 

[Winterhome]

I only build "large" ships because I have to in order to stay competitive in PVP. Usually my ships are, after a few dozen refinements, able to meet my specifications.

Typically, I build ships in the 200k-400k block ranges, though, because that's roughly the smallest range in which I can fit all of my logic and experimental shenanigans. I don't particularly like flying things larger than that. It's very uncomfortable to fly "large" stuff, I feel.

 

[PriZm]

i prefer "small" ships. At least im sure most of you would consider them small, while beginners usually consider them massive the fun in designing and building a ship for me is more trying to make them as efficient as possible, use logic for neat features, use powerful passive effects with full effect% etc. I can scale up my ships whenever i feel like starmade and servers are REALLY ready for it. Iirc, i didnt get beyond the 1 mil block mark yet and im not planning to in the near future, while most of my ships are sth between 10k (mostly relying on the soft capped 2mil e/s) and 40k mass (using 1-8 docked power supply units depending on size/role).

 

[MacThule]

I don't. I build under 50K mass almost always.
I would build bigger, but after that they start causing lag. I'm not trying to lag-sploit kill people, and I don't want to crash ppl's clients when I fly past their bases, so ships that cause lag to players with low-end systems are basically non-functional. Cool to spawn in SP and explore/test, but pretty useless from practical perspectives.

Some players like to claim that the size of their ship is some credit to their "skill." The truth is that with creative mode advanced build ANYONE can build a giant scale ship. Skill, IMO, is achieving better results within the same size range than another person does, not piling more cannon modules onto a ship than someone else did. So I don't bother building big. And big ships are easy to avoid in MP, so they rarely pose a threat.

 

[StarWars1981]

My largest current ship is an empty hull still, incomplete but getting there. It's sitting at, I believe, 89K blocks. I built it big because I got a good idea for a big ship, and I wanted to see it, so I built it. Mostly. The design changed, but I still thing some refinement and greebling will make it look pretty good. Its job is to be powerful and cool, and yet it still isn't too big. At nearly 250 meters already, it's a nice sized warship, but it's not going to be the best on the block, just (hopefully) a versatile and effective vessel. The only reason I went big is that I got that idea. If I had more ideas for small-scale vessels, I'd build them as a plan to. I still think a fast strike ship with long-range, high-alpha weapons would be effective, and I want to be the ship that moves and does not stop no matter what, so I can kill big bad Titans with my puny cruiser.

 

[wanzer]

I build them small cause im lazy and spend to much time looking at it
and even small ships take to much time

 

[Captainredfox]

I don't build large ships, I don't have the patience to make them.

Although my "small" is probably your "is that a dead pixel?"

 

[Keptick]

I don't. I try and fit as murderous a package as I can in a small space.

I try and fit as murderous a package in a large space
[DOUBLEPOST=1460426008,1460425037][/DOUBLEPOST]

I only build "large" ships because I have to in order to stay competitive in PVP. Usually my ships are, after a few dozen refinements, able to meet my specifications.

Typically, I build ships in the 200k-400k block ranges, though, because that's roughly the smallest range in which I can fit all of my logic and experimental shenanigans. I don't particularly like flying things larger than that. It's very uncomfortable to fly "large" stuff, I feel.

Yea, same here. While I have certainly built bigger stuff, I tend to gravitate towards 30k mass ships between 200 and 300m long as the thing I'll actually use on servers. Any bigger is just too sluggish for my taste.

 

[Jananton]

Well, I'm missing the option "I don't", but size is a matter of personal opinion anyway.

Personally I play mostly single player survival, so all blocks, systems and whatever else needs to be salvaged or manufactured first.
With the above in mind, large, or big I would consider a size of two to three hundred blocks in length max, but since I started a new galaxy with the fleet update I'm not there yet.
Also, apart from the very first ship in a new game, all my ships should have an interior that's enter-able and usable. So no hull cramped to the rim with systems and guns.

Greets,

Jan