Tired of updating ships? Make them hollow.

[Saba]

Hi, haven't posted in about 3 years and I am very sad to say I noticed a lot of people giving up because they have to rebuild their ships whenever big updates come out. Here is my solution.

If you are like me you enjoy having a beautiful ship. I understand it makes it a bit harder to BUILD the ship, but if you make the ship hollow, or at least the outer skin and main portions of the interior, then save the ship you can later update the ship fairly easily when new updates come out. Systems, at least for me, are far easier to create than the looks of the ship, and most systems can be built to accommodate for randomly sized areas.

Do not be afraid of building a tad bit to big, having a little empty space is nothing to be afraid of.

The concept of building a vessel then focusing on systems is also what many real world manufacturers do as it allows them to first meet the size/functionality requirements then focus on making it actually work.

 

[JinM]

When you join a server and look at the majority of players, I think they are more concerned about systems than about the looks or the rp part. They want to use that ship and fight with it.

Anyway. I agree and I like the approach, as I am more of an rp style builder.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I have a few promising RP ships and "hollows" built mainly for show but no amount of eye candy is going to keep the citizens of the United Star Axis safe from pirates and warlords. As such, I tend to follow the "A-10 Warthog" Philosophy. Meaning I build a big gun, then I mount a ship to that gun. This has caused many of my ships to essentially become big guns with attractive fusion reactors bolted onto them. From a multi-player/survival aspect; if I don't know what it will take to power my weapons, building a ship is basically a waste of time.

So for now, I've halted ship production and focused on station and artificial planet construction. That way, I'll have plenty of space to put systems when they're re-implemented. When the update is finally released, I will strip all systems from the interiors of my ships then refit them with the new reactors, stabilizers etc while giving them a slight cosmetic enhancement.

 

[Zekester81]

Dr. Whammy +1 for working the words the A-10 Warthog into a Starmade post.

 

[josemik]

Before i finish a ship i always do a backup without subsystems (power, shields..), if they change something i just fill the ship with the new stuff and its done

 

[HorribleHedgehog]

I usually build crucial systems (main armament, power, thrust) first both to get a feel for how the ship is going to handle, and to work out the shape of the ship. Now I'm trying to build a ship shell-first (well, mostly; I couldn't resist making the main gun already, but I'm holding out on power until the relevant update comes through), and it's an absolute pain from aesthetic point of view. Never before has a ship of mine suffered from so many flat surfaces and hard angles.

Not helping the fact is that this is my first proper armour tank, and I'm not used to ensuring that every possible surface has at least four meters of advanced armour.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I usually build crucial systems (main armament, power, thrust) first both to get a feel for how the ship is going to handle, and to work out the shape of the ship. Now I'm trying to build a ship shell-first (well, mostly; I couldn't resist making the main gun already, but I'm holding out on power until the relevant update comes through), and it's an absolute pain from aesthetic point of view. Never before has a ship of mine suffered from so many flat surfaces and hard angles.

Not helping the fact is that this is my first proper armour tank, and I'm not used to ensuring that every possible surface has at least four meters of advanced armour.

How... horrible...

 

[Saba]

I have a few promising RP ships and "hollows" built mainly for show but no amount of eye candy is going to keep the citizens of the United Star Axis safe from pirates and warlords. As such, I tend to follow the "A-10 Warthog" Philosophy. Meaning I build a big gun, then I mount a ship to that gun. This has caused many of my ships to essentially become big guns with attractive fusion reactors bolted onto them. From a multi-player/survival aspect; if I don't know what it will take to power my weapons, building a ship is basically a waste of time.

So for now, I've halted ship production and focused on station and artificial planet construction. That way, I'll have plenty of space to put systems when they're re-implemented. When the update is finally released, I will strip all systems from the interiors of my ships then refit them with the new reactors, stabilizers etc while giving them a slight cosmetic enhancement.

TBH I do much the same, but after I have the hollow ships I add plenty of systems. My builds tend to be overkill in the extreme. :3
[doublepost=1501123586,1501123482][/doublepost]

I usually build crucial systems (main armament, power, thrust) first both to get a feel for how the ship is going to handle, and to work out the shape of the ship. Now I'm trying to build a ship shell-first (well, mostly; I couldn't resist making the main gun already, but I'm holding out on power until the relevant update comes through), and it's an absolute pain from aesthetic point of view. Never before has a ship of mine suffered from so many flat surfaces and hard angles.

Not helping the fact is that this is my first proper armour tank, and I'm not used to ensuring that every possible surface has at least four meters of advanced armour.

F..f....four meters of advanced armor wtf is this!?
Eh, to each his own, I only use armor aesthetically and most everything else is shields :3

 

[StormWing0]

Honestly I haven't heard too much about armor tanks with less than 5m advanced armor, the insane people use 10m and above. >.>

 

[Kelpaz]

With the way I build I just can't build a shell I need to build in a certain order to make my ships meet my goals which goes as follows.
- Appearance
- Shield and power goals
- Weapon systems
- Turret systems

Usually I combine the appearance with the ship mounted weapons, which makes building the "faceplate" the first priority, but building weapons requires a room for the computers. So my build order is usually a little bit scattered as I tend to incrementally build systems attached to interiors with exterior following the shape of systems, without systems I don't know where the outer hull is or how thick the armor needs to be.

When a ship is already built however complete overhauls aren't out of the question, when the systems update hits I'll use one of my oldest unloved designs to test reactor builds, then when I gained enough knowledge I'll apply it to all other ships and turrets.
Hopefully it will be worth the wait.

 

[Zekester81]

Honestly I haven't heard too much about armor tanks with less than 5m advanced armor, the insane people use 10m and above. >.>

I must be crazy, lol. On some of my builds(large ones) I tend to have 20m+ on surfaces that would point towards the enemy the most. Bow and forward facing surfaces usually. That's probably why they all turn like a pig in mud.

 

[Ithirahad]

Honestly I haven't heard too much about armor tanks with less than 5m advanced armor, the insane people use 10m and above. >.>

That's not insane, just slow.

 

[HorribleHedgehog]

Honestly I haven't heard too much about armor tanks with less than 5m advanced armor, the insane people use 10m and above. >.>

Welp, back to the drawing board I guess...

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I must be crazy, lol. On some of my builds(large ones) I tend to have 20m+ on surfaces that would point towards the enemy the most. Bow and forward facing surfaces usually. That's probably why they all turn like a pig in mud.

20 meters? See... this is why I follow the A-10 philosophy.

My experiences in multi-player have caused me to take it for granted that all other ships I might encounter have 500 Million shields and 50 meters of armor on all sides. At a minimum...
[doublepost=1501165030,1501162108][/doublepost]The average size of my ships is between 90-150 meters and between 6,000 and 15,000 mass.

This is how I act after an encounter with a capital ship...

I don't often build capitals of my own so to survive in multi-player I am forced to build big flying guns with engines bolted onto them that punch far above their own weight.


The exterior aesthetics are nothing more than a pretty package for my gunshi... err... um... ship-guns. This is why I'm waiting for the power update.

 

[MacThule]

I recently saw accounts of a ship with AA plating up to 80m thick in places, which seems absurd to me, but I bet it's damn hard to shoot through.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I recently saw accounts of a ship with AA plating up to 80m thick in places, which seems absurd to me, but I bet it's damn hard to shoot through.

I'll bet it maneuvers like a wet sponge too.

Seriously; that's some WarHammer 40K level stuff.

 

[MacThule]

I'll bet it maneuvers like a wet sponge too.

Seriously; that's some WarHammer 40K level stuff.

Yes it is.

Even is it's basically a mobile defense platform at that point though, it probably makes every other client that loads it across a server so unstable they can't effectively out-maneuver anything anyway, because armor like that is probably docked and then so are several dozen other entities I'd imagine.

"I've got a lock-on! Wait... WTF?!?! Did he seriously just teleport 1km away??? Ok, let me just... ...and I've got him... NOOOO!!! Now he's back where he was before. And I'm dead from doom-turrets."
"You died already? What even happened? I didn't see anything, my client crashed when we jumped in... "

RIP

 

[Zekester81]

[doublepost=1501165030,1501162108][/doublepost]The average size of my ships is between 90-150 meters and between 6,000 and 15,000 mass.

That's a featherweight. I think my average is about 200-250m, and around 250,000 mass. Most are under-armed cause I build full interiors. I tend to skimp on shields some too.

Edit: Here's my latest project, on hold until power update. I have about 3 months in on it, mostly on the launching/landing equipment. So far, it will hold 96 fighters in lower bay, 36 heavy fighters in upper bay, 2 transports piggybacked on rear, and 4 patrol ships in the distended belly.

I can't remember the mass, but it's a lot. Length is about 820m. A true fleet carrier.

I might have overestimated my average mass by about 100,000, but that project has somewhere near a million. I have a station project that I may never finish thats already up to 12.5 million. The game can barely handle loading it, it also has 10m adv armor almost everywhere.

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

I recently saw accounts of a ship with AA plating up to 80m thick in places, which seems absurd to me, but I bet it's damn hard to shoot through.

I'm reminded of Flying Debris' NDF Cherokee, and it's 100m frontal plate.
It's fairly old too, posted (and last updated) in December 2015.
NFD Cherokee, CA-122B Heavy Cruiser

I don't recall ever cutting it open to see if that was a solid slab, or spaced out along the length from face to core, but that's still 100m of ADV armor.

And it states outright that it has closer to 10~20m everywhere else.

 

[Markus_McCloud]

"I've got a lock-on! Wait... WTF?!?! Did he seriously just teleport 1km away??? Ok, let me just... ...and I've got him... NOOOO!!! Now he's back where he was before. And I'm dead from doom-turrets."
"You died already? What even happened? I didn't see anything, my client crashed when we jumped in... "

This is why most of my ships are pretty small. Whether I'm just turning a little to the side or pulling a "Crazy Ivan", I typically need a high turning speed to get the most fun out of my armaments.

As for the ship updating, I already had plans to give most of my UGPD ships an overhaul. I built the MK I versions before I fully understood the concept of efficient layouts. At the time, I didn't know that this:
█████
█░░░░
█░███
█░█░░
█░█░█
...produced more power than this:
█████
█████
█████
█████
█████
My only thoughts were, "Oh, I need more power? SPAM TEH REAKTORZ!!1!"

Perhaps after the update, I can swap out some of the current power blocks with some extra shielding and thrust; they could definitely use a little more of both! All I know is that, as my current designs stand, I don't think they would make fantastic shells...