Advice on a station?

[Paullus]

Sorry all, this week was nuts with a calc, spanish, and physics midterm...

I would still use sniper missiles (missile/beam) for offense however. You want your station's attack to have the longest range possible, else an opponent (including the AI) can engage at a distance without your weaponry being able to hit back. Ships that can move to close the range can get away with other sorts of weapons. Stations that cannot 'must' be armed with the longest ranged weapons possible.

how do you get around AMS's? I feel at ranges we're talking about where the missile/beams are necessary that even a ton of rapid fire missile turrets couldn't distract the systems? At this point do we just accept that we're an immovable object?

Alright, I'd say if you shift all those crane-looking boxes on top around to be asymmetrical, it's perfect. It's just that total symmetry that some people disapprove of - I think it looks cool, personally, to have asymmetric details here and there, but it's harder than a symmetric shape because the human mind LIKES symmetry, but can be CONVINCED to like asymmetry. Or it was phrased something like that in the psychology source I was looking at. It was cool, regardless.

Thanks! I am going to add some large docking beams extending from one side with canisters/armor plates spaced oddly along them. do you think this would create a better anti symmetry?

Personally I plan stations to be usable.

Amenities in easy to spot and easy to access places, labelled drop off with simple auto sorting, and most importantly, teleporters everywhere for the lazy (or confused).
Most of the time 99% of a stations functionality can fit in a single room.
I hate having to travel through a Minotaur labyrinth to reach anything on a station, as pretty as it might be on the way.

The other part of usability is void filling and exposed face reduction, minimise internal void space by filling it (even if its power bricking).
Minimise exposed faces by minimising things like struts, scaffold like structures, etc, and complex grebs.
Players on crappy laptops will thank you.

I am considering adding more structures, what I have now are hangars to support the shipyard. Also one primary aim of this is to be decorative, to accompany my fleet. Thanks for the advice!

Make some room-template areas you can dock mix-n-match areas for people. Lets you use them as nav-markers and teleport locations. EG med-bay, supply drop-off, lounge, landing bay control room, shipyard control room. Last I checked it stops the entire station's shields having to drop to allow visitors, only that "room" feels the burn.

What do you mean by drop shields? when someone teleports to it?

First i think its a great build.

Now for my advice/ideas.

I think that now you have the shipyard. Great ! Time to build the station itself. You know, where people live, have fun, sleep, eat, trade and that kind of things.

So to me taht station is just begun. Attach the shipyard to a station.

Thank you!


I know its a really rough sketch, but it shows extra docking beams from one side, and a tower/armor plates stretched on top and bottom
The drawing in black is the original for what I have now. what do you think? any suggestions before I set myself to building?

Well if you want sniper cannons. It's likely that it will only hit ships with low mobility. Even the highest velocity projectiles may not hit agile ships. Which is okay if the goal is to only defeat large and slow-moving ships. I will caution you however, that of you want to build the station to be capable of defeating large slow-moving ships, It will take a considerable amount of resources.

If you want something direct-fire, long range, and hits often. It's not unreasonable to try beam weapons instead since they are more reliable in hitting smaller targets. But it's up to you.

OH! I need to warn you about swarm missiles. It's entirely possible that they may damage docked entities since they target allies and neutral targets. You can still use them of course, just make sure there's something stopping that tragedy from happening.

Hahaha yeah I've learned my lessons with swam missiles. I'm guessing having a myriad then of turret capabilities? what do you think of keeping a defense fleet posted?

Thanks all for the advice again!

 

[DrTarDIS]

how do you get around AMS's? I feel at ranges we're talking about where the missile/beams are necessary that even a ton of rapid fire missile turrets couldn't distract the systems? At this point do we just accept that we're an immovable object?
...

I'm guessing having a myriad then of turret capabilities? what do you think of keeping a defense fleet posted?

Not @ me but...I'd put "floating" turret bases a couple hundred units to each side of the station. you can mimic a defense fleet with a few turret-docked ships out that far, while retaining main station shield regen/protection.

No matter what you do, an active and patient player can take out your (not home-)base with zero risk to themselves. all they have to do is kite a fleet to one side...or play the ranged game by flying into max range, firing alpha long range swarm, and back out of range so your return-volley never reaches them. With that being said, long-distance specialty is energy intensive, and a station that doesn't care about maneuvering can have a REALLY high cap and regen making that a prohibitive game.

for home base; I'd specialize in short to medium range pirate-killer systems so hunting loot clouds isn't impossible.

if I an outpost; bunch of small "sentry" AMS ships/turrets spaced out and "floating", optional ranged-bombardment turret-ships mixed in.

What do you mean by drop shields? when someone teleports to it?

Ye, last I checked using a teleporter drops that entity's shields to 0%(because, reasons?). That drop doesn't go down the entity chain.

It's also nice to be able to use the nav window to guide visitors to a location. "open your nav, make sure you can see docked entities, search for '__public dock' and go dock at the number 5 marker"
-> they get to find the dock easilly. (important vs any new visitor, especially noobies.
->the dock can have a built in factioned-teleporter that goes to some location you can meet them(also a nav locateable point, dodging your station losing all shields), life is easer.

It's just a trick I picked up after spending too many minutes pointing out docking points to visitors. Nav beacons. Important thingies. (ed) Also why I replace that first station block with the main core-dock of shipyards. Finding needles in haystacks can be a PITA

 

[Panpiper]

how do you get around AMS's? I feel at ranges we're talking about where the missile/beams are necessary that even a ton of rapid fire missile turrets couldn't distract the systems? At this point do we just accept that we're an immovable object?

What I do is to launch a spread of decoys at the same time and from the same launcher for every single large warhead. So for instance a missile turret might have a 1200 block missile/beam/explosive warhead. I'll have the launch point for that warhead buried deep in the back of the turret. At the very front of the turret (just under the armor) I'll have ten or so two block missile/beam warheads spread out in a waffle pattern that covers the front area of the turret. AMS turrets will be presented with a wall of targets to select from. They won't have time to engage more than a few. Meanwhile the warhead they want to actually hit is behind the decoys and not being fired upon.

Another thing you can do which is actually a lot of fun to see in action is to create a large number of energy starved turrets. It is best to do this on a separate station chain, mixed in with your main station's turrets, as you don't actually want your main station to be energy starved. Have that station generate no surplus power, just enough to run it's own shields, etc.. Make it such that each of it's turrets can only use the power it self generates. Then build a large network of relatively small turrets that generate say, 54K power per second and stores only that much, but contain ~45 12 block missile/beam/whatever missiles that each use up precisely that one second's generation with each firing. The turret will fire one maximum range, maximum speed seeking warhead every second. Given such a constant dispersed barrage, an enemy's AMS turrets are going to be firing every which way trying to track those things, which will make the main turret's job of sneaking in the big warheads a lot easier.

It's been a while since I built such a system, pre-rails actually, so you might have to fiddle a bit with energy ratios to get the last working properly.

 

[Scypio]

Hahaha yeah I've learned my lessons with swam missiles. I'm guessing having a myriad then of turret capabilities? what do you think of keeping a defense fleet posted?

Actually i was thinking about a logic clock that would fire swarm missiles on the main station when the shields drops below, for example, 90%.
Btw it's safier for allies and neutrals to not be there when this station get attacked.

 

[Paullus]

Not @ me but...I'd put "floating" turret bases a couple hundred units to each side of the station. you can mimic a defense fleet with a few turret-docked ships out that far, while retaining main station shield regen/protection.

No matter what you do, an active and patient player can take out your (not home-)base with zero risk to themselves. all they have to do is kite a fleet to one side...or play the ranged game by flying into max range, firing alpha long range swarm, and back out of range so your return-volley never reaches them. With that being said, long-distance specialty is energy intensive, and a station that doesn't care about maneuvering can have a REALLY high cap and regen making that a prohibitive game.

for home base; I'd specialize in short to medium range pirate-killer systems so hunting loot clouds isn't impossible.

if I an outpost; bunch of small "sentry" AMS ships/turrets spaced out and "floating", optional ranged-bombardment turret-ships mixed in.


Ye, last I checked using a teleporter drops that entity's shields to 0%(because, reasons?). That drop doesn't go down the entity chain.
...

The station is more of a faction station for my style of builds I'm currently using, So I think I'll put a mix? the idea of this station is that it would never be anywhere near enemy lines, so it could always count on backup. I'm looking into Cannon/Cannon OV turrets then with some long range missiles then?

What I do is to launch a spread of decoys at the same time and from the same launcher for every single large warhead. So for instance a missile turret might have a 1200 block missile/beam/explosive warhead. I'll have the launch point for that warhead buried deep in the back of the turret. At the very front of the turret (just under the armor) I'll have ten or so two block missile/beam warheads spread out in a waffle pattern that covers the front area of the turret. AMS turrets will be presented with a wall of targets to select from. They won't have time to engage more than a few. Meanwhile the warhead they want to actually hit is behind the decoys and not being fired upon.

This is actually a really great idea that I've never thought of before. I'm going to test that now

 

[Paullus]

Thanks all for the advice! I have an exterior I'm pretty happy with. I still need to design some turrets to go on the end of the docking pylons but any advice on turret placement would be great. the turrets I designed while ago (based on some I think skylord luke build) are rapid fire ~2000 dps cannons, and I think I'll build some missile turrets for the next ones.

 

[Saber]

My advice? Keep being awesome! :D

 

[StarWars1981]

Really awesome station. Just amazing. It's sort of Halo-esque, definitely sci-fi but towards the more realistic-looking scifi. I'd suggest completely detached turrets, ball shaped maybe, so they don't have many collision checks if any at all. That reduces lag. Also, they get full freedom for fire range, which is awesome. And if you build them right, they look cool. Plus, they'll look really cool with a field of them around your station. Oh, and a bunch of floating mines around the station will look cool, too.
Maybe you should dock some warheads on moving pieces docked inside the station, which must have insane shields. Rig a puzzle so you can only get in if you have A. the proper wireless logic to deactivate the system or B. a very dang fast ship or C. the correct timing and movement pattern to get inside past the minefield.
Or just say "No Uninvited Guests" and set your faction to consider neutrals hostile.

 

[Zekester81]

Actually i was thinking about a logic clock that would fire swarm missiles on the main station when the shields drops below, for example, 90%.
Btw it's safier for allies and neutrals to not be there when this station get attacked.

The logic clock thing for that would work great with the new sensor block.

Paullus Also swarmers are super effective, but to get around their downside it's best to make them 100% ion, IMO. They will also cover for other missile systems that are not swarmers/ion, plus the ion will only hurt your shields if they hit you or a friendly, as opposed to blowing giant holes in your/friendlies' ship. Basically, to keep the enemy shields down and distract enemy AMS making your other weapons more effective. Still best to not have friendlies or neutrals nearby, but you'll do much less damage to them that way if they are.

Oh, and I love your station.

 

[Paullus]

My advice? Keep being awesome! :D

Really awesome station. Just amazing. It's sort of Halo-esque, definitely sci-fi but towards the more realistic-looking scifi. I'd suggest completely detached turrets, ball shaped maybe, so they don't have many collision checks if any at all. That reduces lag. Also, they get full freedom for fire range, which is awesome. And if you build them right, they look cool. Plus, they'll look really cool with a field of them around your station. Oh, and a bunch of floating mines around the station will look cool, too.
Maybe you should dock some warheads on moving pieces docked inside the station, which must have insane shields. Rig a puzzle so you can only get in if you have A. the proper wireless logic to deactivate the system or B. a very dang fast ship or C. the correct timing and movement pattern to get inside past the minefield.
Or just say "No Uninvited Guests" and set your faction to consider neutrals hostile.

The logic clock thing for that would work great with the new sensor block.

Paullus Also swarmers are super effective, but to get around their downside it's best to make them 100% ion, IMO. They will also cover for other missile systems that are not swarmers/ion, plus the ion will only hurt your shields if they hit you or a friendly, as opposed to blowing giant holes in your/friendlies' ship. Basically, to keep the enemy shields down and distract enemy AMS making your other weapons more effective. Still best to not have friendlies or neutrals nearby, but you'll do much less damage to them that way if they are.

Oh, and I love your station.

Thanks all again for the kind remarks and advice everyone :D hahaha I'm still going to have to think about all this advanced weaponry. It sounds freaking amazing but I do want it to be functional as an approachable shipyard. You did give me an idea for a station called "the minelayer"...

 

[Xacktar]

Looks awesome! Keep it up!

 

[Zyrr]

Really cannot reiterate enough how much I love this station.

 

[MacThule]

Beautiful design. Tip: The most common shortfall I see in stations is docking capacity. Builders install 5-10 docking points then invite you to "come see my station" and when you arrive there's no place to park because their faction's ship collection fills all the spaces. If it's meant to be a proper station which might role as a home base for someone, ensure that it has 20+ docking points to accommodate ships and shuttles of various sizes.

 

[Anubis Evo]

I'm really late to see this thread but I think it all looks pretty fantastic! Really awesome looking station!

 

[greatmatt]

Dude, this station is awesome! I really loved the human/industrial look of the station and that shipyard in the middle could house a powerful, yet beautiful, ship. Keep up the great work!!!

 

[StarWars1981]

Now you need to build a ship to go in the shipyard as decoration/player offensive firepower. Something similar, yet decidedly unique and amazing in its own way. Asymmetry, anyone? Not too horrible, just a small difference aft ... hmm, now I've got ideas.
Something of a similar design philosophy would just go so well in the middle there, with a couple more around it. Maybe you could create an "under-construction" variant JUST for decoration in the middle of the shipyard, that you can undock/redock at will to use the shipyard or decorate it.