A Question to all the ship builders.

[A.Wolfrick]

Firstly allow me to thank you for taking the time to read this and (if you choose) reply.

Here's my question to all you ship builders out there, big small, thick, tall, long and strange. How do you come up with your ideas? Pictures? Drawings? The reason I ask this is because I find myself always thinking up a design or a cool idea, I get maybe 60% done with the body and either A, it look completely to small or short. Or B, Its very flat, plain and really looks no better then a floating plain grey cube.

Second question, what would you say are good ways to make a ship look less like something slapped together and more like a purpose build ship. I've seen HUNDREDS of amazing designs in the Shipyard and yet I can't unlock the secrets of their shapes, curves, edges, and even some rather smooth fancy looking ships.

Any tips, tricks are welcome. again thank you for your time and I hope other find this post informative with the answers that are provided.

 

[sayerulz]

I would recommend making a fairly simple shape, and then adding whatever details you think work well on to it. I am not really all that good a builder, but that how I do it. Try to use detailing to break up boring outlines. And be creative with engines, the flat panes of ice crystals get old.

 

[jzimmerman4]

I would recommend you steal. No joke, copying other peoples ideas whether from the fourm or other art work will allow you to practice building curves and such until you are able to create your own ideas. Of course make sure to give credit where credit is due.

I personally use to load in models with SMedit but now im able to come up with my own original ideas

 

[Criss]

I build EVE ships. All of them.

 

[BDLS]

I draw them out on paper, taking some inspiration from google images of fictional spacecraft.

 

[SmilingDemon]

i use pictures of ships from tv shows (so far i made the incredible amount of two ?) .. and try to replicate them manually as good as i can.

and then fill in every spot i couldnt find a clear shot from with my own ideas ^^

 

[TheFloorMatt]

Who says making a ship look like it was slapped together is a bad thing? While I totally understand what you actually mean, it could be fun to investigate purposefully making a scrappy looking ship.

I personally stick to very very simple shapes and detailing, with simple color schemes. Smooth flat hull doesn't always look bad!

 

[Valiant70]

How to design a ship:

1. Get pencil and paper or a whiteboard and dry erase markers
2. Draw a box, or a circle, or whatever the general shape of your ship is.
3. Start adding a few details like hull shapes, engines, windows, gun ports, vents, etc.
4. Plan out power grid locations if it's a smaller ship (under 50k mass) otherwise it's probably too big to matter where you put them.
5. Decide the details look like crap and change all of them.
6. Decide the whole thing looks like crap and start over from scratch.
7. Repeat steps 1-5 a few more times until steps 4 and 5 stop happening, then proceed to step 7.
8. Start building in the game, starting with the area around the core. Make sure the core is in the right place.
9. Get mad at core placement and throw the whole kit and caboodle away and start over at step 1.
10. Repeat steps 1-8 until step 8 stops happening.
11. Build ship according to drawings.
12. Modify ship to look better when it's actually 3d.
13. Realize the whole thing looks like crap again, but don't quit at this point because you spent too much time on it.
14. Talk to some random person who starts fan-girling at the thing and decide you were too hard on yourself the whole time.
15. Add systems, weapons, etc.
16. Test systems and weapons. Realize they're terrible.
17. Yank out the systems and redo them.
18. Repeat steps 15-17 until satisfied.
19. Done...?

 

[kiraen]

How to design a ship:

1. Get pencil and paper or a whiteboard and dry erase markers
2. Draw a box, or a circle, or whatever the general shape of your ship is.
3. Start adding a few details like hull shapes, engines, windows, gun ports, vents, etc.
4. Plan out power grid locations if it's a smaller ship (under 50k mass) otherwise it's probably too big to matter where you put them.
5. Decide the details look like crap and change all of them.
6. Decide the whole thing looks like crap and start over from scratch.
7. Repeat steps 1-5 a few more times until steps 4 and 5 stop happening, then proceed to step 7.
8. Start building in the game, starting with the area around the core. Make sure the core is in the right place.
9. Get mad at core placement and throw the whole kit and caboodle away and start over at step 1.
10. Repeat steps 1-8 until step 8 stops happening.
11. Build ship according to drawings.
12. Modify ship to look better when it's actually 3d.
13. Realize the whole thing looks like crap again, but don't quit at this point because you spent too much time on it.
14. Talk to some random person who starts fan-girling at the thing and decide you were too hard on yourself the whole time.
15. Add systems, weapons, etc.
16. Test systems and weapons. Realize they're terrible.
17. Yank out the systems and redo them.
18. Repeat steps 15-17 until satisfied.
19. Done...?

You forgot a few steps. Let me fix that...

• 2.5 Looks like crap, start over.
• 4.5 Realize you subconsciously copied Crusader's design, beat yourself up, start over.
  
• 7.5 Looks like crap, start over.
• 9.5 Obsess over the configuration of two block out of a 20k pattern, start over
  
• 9.8 Scrap it all and start over because you were off in your numbers by half of a block.
• 15.5 Looks like crap, start over.
• 15.7 Realize you copied keptick's design, start over.
• 20 Realize this is totally not what you wanted in the first place, start over.
• 21 Realize your shuttle is the wrong color, copy/replace every single hull.
• 22 Go to 1, start planning the ship your shuttle docks to.

 

[Lord Daro]

I use technological requiremetents i decid on for my universe. (I do like to build with role play in mind)

With that the basic shape gets partially defined by how the ship would be supposed to function. The details i put in then often modeled with the same concept. (Stuff like radiators, reactors, shield emitters and so on)

If i think the surface is TOO plain somewhere, i usually try to brake that with some increments.

Im also somewhat influenced by star trek and a little by other scyfi media.

 

[FlyingDebris]

I get a vague image in my head of what I want it to look like, what color scheme I want to use, what sort of systems, and about how large it'll be, and then go from there. Always start with the reactor lines running the length of the ship, then build the top, front, and engines first.

 

[Parameter]

I'll usually start with a basic shape in mind for the ship, like "two flattened hemispheres connected by a central core". Usually this involves a sketch or two.

Then I lay in power generation first, because it's the finickiest, then weapon systems, because I suck at them and have to redo them a lot. Then I start adding a shell of hull to outline the rest of the space I have left.

I've found that large flat spaces on a ship are awesome. It allows me to practice greebling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble). You can really soup up a boring shape by adding some 1-block ridges, or a little platform, or some mesh over a light, or an angled protrusion, etc.

Worst case, if you can't figure out how to style a flat wall, you can build it up into a curve with hull pieces, then hollow it out and stuff shields in it. :D

 

[Loadout]

my design principle is pretty simple. start small and get bigger.

i use mini versions to form simple shapes and make a profile of my ship.

with the mini for inspiration i can build a larger scale version. after that though, all bets are off as i start gluing shapes on that ive used on other ships. just look at the nose of my savannah, its turrets, and the mesa.

recycling!

also greebling is incredibly useful. add a few squares or rectangles or diamonds on top of your flat spaces. eventually you'll make it nice.

truth is though like many have said this is an iterative process. you're going to go through about 80 versions of suck before you get one version of awesome.


tldr? everyone fails 90 percent of the time. keep going though and dont be afraid to copy, either yourself or others.

 

[jayman38]

Detailed planning is my primary concern, because I have more time for 2D design outside the game than playing the game itself.

1. Remember a ship from fiction, usually a TV show or movie.
2. Research said ship and try to obtain pictures. As many as can be found.
3. Import pictures into OpenOffice/LibreOffice Draw with snapping set to 1/10 inch on 30x30 in pages.
(If I ever build something bigger than about 250 m on a side, I'll just expand my page size again.)
4. Scale any blueprint/orthographic/direct-facing pictures to the size they should be (1 inch = 10 meters).
(Hint for pre-center-of-mass versions: Try to keep the beam-width an odd number of meters, to place the core in the center.)
5. Start placing squares and triangles in 2D space over the picture to approximate StarMade blocks.
(Helpful hint 1: when coring was a thing, I'd try to place the core roughly in the center.)
(Helpful hint 2: Go into "Area" and set the transparancy, so you can work while keeping an eye on the underlying picture.)
6. Make copies for details in the third dimension as needed. (Typically, I'll just make up the 3D details as I actually build, but it might help.)
7. Come to peace with the fact that StarMade is on a grid, and you don't have to stick to the original shape to make it work in StarMade.
8. Look for shortcuts where you can remove whole sections of the interior to place much-needed systems.
9. Look for places where a sliding rail door can be placed. (Requires a large amount of space for proper logic control.)
10. Lay down the core and connected blocks as designed. Simultaneously build out the interior and exterior of the ship.
(Look for details where system blocks can be placed instead of armor/hull, for better functionality.)
11. Count out space where things need to go, so there is no problem with a misplaced core, or having to rebuild half the ship.
(Triple check those symmetry mirrors!)
12. Build a separate test platform ship for building-out and optimizing logic connections.
(Place activation blocks along every slider rail everywhere. You never know when you'll need that logic trigger at that point along the slide.)
13. Redesign the 2D plans as changes are found in 3D building. (basically revising steps 5-12)
14. Keep your eye on the ship's stats, so you stay motivated to finish it.

 

[Valiant70]

I've found that large flat spaces on a ship are awesome. It allows me to practice greebling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble). You can really soup up a boring shape by adding some 1-block ridges, or a little platform, or some mesh over a light, or an angled protrusion, etc.

I have yet to fully master greebling. Any tips?

 

[Groovrider]

I have yet to fully master greebling. Any tips?

I've always had a problem with this too. My issue is that I have trouble adding details that don't do anything.

 

[sayerulz]

For greebling, I like to make recessed black areas on ships surfaces, then just randomly place black hull in those areas. Easy to do, and looks decent. I also like to put vents and such in various spots on the hulls.

 

[Loadout]

I have yet to fully master greebling. Any tips?

1. make a flat panel or wall.

2. add one layer of blocks on top of that(or behind it) in whatever shape you want. Try squares, then rounding the edges.

3. change the shape till it looks cool.

4. add some different kinds of blocks

5.change the colors up a bit!

practice makes perfect. You will never get it right the first try, no matter how often you do this. This is a built up process, like legos. You don't make a lego T-rex in 2 steps. It takes dozens of steps, each building on the last.

 

[Jerry_Brinefield]

I just copy ships from star wars or mass effect like the dirty thief i am.

 

[Parameter]

I have yet to fully master greebling. Any tips?

Sure thing!

I find that greebling is kind of a wandering creative process. I usually start by plopping a shape or some blocks down on a surface. I'll play around with the shape some until an idea strikes me, then place a few more blocks to try to realize the new idea. The core concept is to keep building up details as long as your brain keeps coming up with cool ideas and thoughts. The Rule of Cool is in effect here - if you get an idea for something cool, follow it!

Place some more blocks to support your new idea. You want to put down enough blocks that when you look at the greebled surface your brain starts trying to connect all the dots and imagine what they can be. Play with hard and soft edges, lights, overlapping shapes, the kinds of things that add complexity to an object. It's OK it you don't know what it is yet - usually after I've "doodled" a bit my brain starts to collect my little details into a few more fleshed out ideas. If I run out of neat things to build, I start playing with the basic details again. I can always erase stuff that's not quite right.

I'll often end up with a theme or core idea that I can riff on to make the details more consistent, but even just some neat details and a few "spacey" things can make your brain say "Cool" instead of "Meh."

I think it's better if I can show an example. Check the link for a big GIF of me greebling up a boring box ship, the Greebler-1.

Greebler-1, Mining Edition:
http://www.gfycat.com/SoulfulCalmAlleycat