Thanks for "holding the door" for me, it's been a frantic push to finish this over the past few days, but we finally got there! I hope you enjoy exploring it as much as I enjoyed putting together the concept and the non-crunch building phases!
Ratings for the competitors.
The scores get more difficult to improve the higher you go, so closer you get to 100 points, the more I will nitpick.
Iota v1.0 by Ua2hk
Exterior: 11/20 points
Ua2hk has one of the most interesting styles I've seen anyone use in this game. The ship uses chamfered corners, asymmetric detailing and external thruster pods to conceal how its fairly boxy. Its covered in all kinds of colorful detailing to make the main hull interesting and straight lines to establish some kind of reference for the beholder's eye to find its way around the design easier.(a white stipe run along the length of the ship and the wings stand out with their uniform blue surface.)
Interior: 11/20 points
Its amazing how much this ship manages to include in such a small hull. the ship under 40m long and under 20 tall but somehow has 3 decks with good room height and a spacious lounge/dining room with a minibar and staircases up and down. The main deck also holds the cabins, airlock and medbay. The upper and lower deck seem to be exclusively for the crew's use who also get all the necessary features.
Luxury: 4/10 points
The ship isn't quite as luxurious as many of the other submissions, but it makes a decent effort and does a lot with the limited space that it has.
Be that fancy patterned floors, minibar, comfortable seats and fancy views from large windows.
Compactness: 10/10 points
Its the most compact and dense submission out of all the contestants.
Safety & security: 8/10 points
the ship has a lot of things that might help in the case of something going wrong. Be it from a medbay to having compartmentalized decks to having blast doors and windows that can be closed. It also has a transporter in the dining area as well as an escape capsule launcher on the upper deck. The ship also has double thick walls in most areas.
Features: 9/10 points
The ship has good maintenance access to most systems and all the cabins are both comfortable and have their own bathrooms, ventilation and entertainment. The ship can dock on most stations thanks to having a USD that's ahead of the ship's hull. The pilots have a great view around them without the need of instruments. The crew have their own bunks, mess area and head. Instead of redactable landing gear, The ship comes with landing skis likely for landing or taking off from on some kind of rail. perhaps some kind of stovl system. The side doors don't come with airlocks or with ramps so the landing area has to provide a ramp. The ship also has hyperdrive capacity and its one of the few submissions that included navigation lights.
Passenger capacity: 10/10 points
The ship has capacity for 8 passengers, which is likely the maximum a ship of this size can comfortably accomidate. There's also enough chairs in the dining area for each passenger.
Creativity: 9/10 points
The ship has a number of design decisions that i've never seen before and again, the style is very unique.
Total points: 71/100 Gets outstanding points for being the most "Small yacht" out of them all.
Atlas Royce by AtraUnam
Exterior: 7/20 points
The ship seems to use somekind of disguise. It looks like it could just as well be some utility vehicle rather than a luxury yacht. Really reminds me of those greek villas that are built plain looking from outside but hide a beautiful gardens behind their tall walls. The styling wins it some points, its not entirely plain to look at.
Interior: 12/20 points
While most of the ship's interiors are maybe a little overlit, I can't fault it for having a fairly light fixture heavy style. It works with the rest of the interior. What I can fault it on is having unfortunately little interior. It could've really used more rooms and space. What it does have serves it really well. Basically a party deck, a private suite deck and a systems/maintenance deck.
Luxury: 7/10 points
The suite comes with an absolutely huge bed. There's also a large bathtub, sofas and storage.
The party deck comes with a nice dancefloor, minibar and a bit more quiet upper balcony for a bit more personal space. There's also the impressive skylight to give passengers great views of planets while in orbit or something. The main hallway also gives a red carpet that leads to where ever the guests wish to go, so they won't accidentally wonder to the engineering area.
Compactness: 9/10 points
The ship gets a high score here thanks to basically being a long box. It can fit in surprisingly small spaces even though its not very compact when it comes to its interior. There's lots of space going unused.
Safety & security: 8/10 points
Its got the mass and structural strength to survive most collisions, but its not quite the castle that some space yachts have been.
It seems to mainly intended to be flown by autopilot or remote control. The coreroom doesn't seem too comfortable for long periods of controlling the ship. The ship itself has only one entrence, which can be bad if that one door fails. Thankfully it does have a good airlock.
The ship gets a lot of points here for its disguise. You can dock it anywhere and nobody is going to think it a valuable target to commandeer.
Features: 9/10 points
I didn't get the outside lightshow/colour selector to work, but I did see it working so it gets points. The ship has a nice large elevator and plenty of cool features I already mentioned here.
Passenger capacity: 1/10 points
The ship could've fit more than one cabin/suite.
Creativity: 10/10 points
Despite its plain looks, the ship is not boring, its a great execution of a surprisingly fun idea. It stands out amongst the other submissions and it has features no other ship here implemented.
Total points: 63/100
Lambda v1.0 by Ua2hk
Exterior: 10/20 points
Much like the Iota, this ship doesn't hald back with the colours. It uses them very methodically. With a blue outer layer and a red underlayer plates followed by the actual hull. Much like the Iota, the thrusters are also in easily detachable pods which give the ship a more interesting shape.
Interior: 9/20 points
The style remains similar to the Iota, but there's more space to go around for more rooms, and so rooms haven't had to be combined like they were on the Iota. Somehow still, this ship manages to do a lot less with what it has available. Most of the space has been allocated to the shuttle hangar, which is nice to have, but had it not been there, the ship itself could be shrunk down to perhaps work in shuttle duties itself.
The hangar does offer capability for the ship to be adapted to all kinds of different duties later on however.
The ship gives great access to most of the systems and there's a great cockpit with plenty of visibility.
Luxury: 7/10 points
The ship has a number of neat features like a gym and the aforementioned shuttle hangar. It also comes with very beautiful ceiling and floor patterns, arches, hanging lights and wall decorations. I personally believe it would've looked better by sticking with a distinct and restrained set of decorations and focused on making them fit to each other and to the overall style of the ship. Right now every room has its own type of light fixtures and wall decorations.
Compactness: 3/10 points
This ship is a very wide package and due to the shuttle hangar, it doesn't feel like it uses its available space too well, even if almost all of its volume is given to interior, which is why it still gets some points.
Safety & security: 6/10 points
The ship is well compartmentalized and there's both escape capsules and a shuttle.
Features: 6/10 points
The ship is well equipped, by all the things mentioned above. Like the Iota It has one USD ring and 2 doors.
Passenger capacity: 3/10 points
The ship only has 2 cabins with 2 beds each, which seems very low for a yacht that has up to 6 crew. It would make more sense for a VIP shuttle, but for a yacht it does seem less than ideal.
Creativity: 9/10 points
The ship stands out and despite not filling all the desired features too well, its full of character and immensely fun.
Total: 53/100 points
Gold Vein by DeepspaceMechanic
Exterior: 11/20 points
While there's nothing wrong with the ship's exterior, its not the most eye-catching design. It does a lot of very disciplined detailing but it could use more of it. There's plenty of area that feels like it could use more details. The style overall relies fairly heavily on repetitive patterns or features and there's nothing wrong with that, but it would be nice to see some of those disrupted by unexpected variation. The ship would be far more interesting for it. The colours could maybe be more interesting too. they don't really contrast but neither do they blend too well.
What I'd do is I'd replace the yellow or the beige with a neutral colour such as white or black.
Interior: 19/20 points
Simply fantastic! I had to lower every other ship's score just to capture how high this ship set the bar for interior. From the room layout to the furniture to the little details like brown stairs next to brown slab walls, arched doorways and such. One point taken off for there being implied rooms that are not actually present. such as the medical room or restrooms. Some of the floors and ceilings are a little flat but that's a minor nitpick.
Luxury: 10/10 points
The cabins are perhaps the largest out of any of the contestants. They unfortunately don't have their own bathrooms but neither did the cabins in my yacht. The dining room comes with a large dancefloor and bar/galley. By the looks of it, the dining room is for the actual passengers while the pool/social area on the upper deck seems to be meant for larger parties judging by the number of seating.
Compactness: 5/10 points
The ship is on the larger side and it could've fit a lot more interior. The ship is however made up of a single solid hull, so it could've been worse.
Safety & security: 7/10 points
The ship has a docking denial feature as well as an escape shuttle, but falls short on compartmentalization. Lets say something bumps into the ship and ruptures the bar room's observation area glass. Assuming the elevator is at the bottom level, There's no security doors between the bar room on the lower deck and the cockpit on the top of the ship. The shields are really strong by the looks of them.
The ship also has a gun to perhaps fend off a pirate of some kind.
Features: 9/10 points
The ship has some of the nicest airlocks I've seen in a while. Looking at all the things mentioned above, it deserves a high score.
Passenger capacity: 7/10 points
I probably should give a lower score, because this ship has the space to easily triple the capacity it has, but right now the 7 cabins it has are really nice and large, and this was supposed to be the small yacht competition, so I can't fault the ship for having a number of cabins you'd expect on a small yacht.
Creativity: 7/10 points
The quality of the interior is carrying this score. Most of the ship overall is nothing that hasn't been seen before, but there's still loads of little things here to learn from and get inspired by inside the ship.
Total: 75/100 points
Black Diamond by Papy McBites
Exterior: 17/20 points
This ship looks amazing basically from any angle or distance. However, it is very large and loses a bit of points for that.
Interior: 15/20 points
Definitely gives a deluxe vibe the moment one enters. The style is very consistent and beautiful. The main social space itself has a really nice layout and the furniture all looks great. The ship could've used more interior considering the size of the hull.
Luxury: 10/10 points
Top tier. No notes.
Compactness: 0/10 points
The ship is very big and most of it is either empty or inaccessible systems.
Safety & security: 6/10 points
The ship has an escape pod big enough to fit the whole social club and the crew. Like many of the other contestants, the ship has fairly few compartments but it also has the heft to likely survive most bumps or collisions.
Features: 7/10 points
The ship only has one door which lacks an airlock, gravity unit. The cockpit could've been fitted with a window, but there's nothing really wrong with relying just on instruments. All the logic stuff is nice. like the doors, elevator and escape pod mechanism
Passenger capacity: 4/10 points
There's plenty of room and opportunity to install more cabins, right now, five small cabins seems a little stingy for a luxury yacht.
Creativity: 10/10 points
I've never seen a ship that looks quite like this.
Total: 69/100 points
UGH Harrison by Captainzach
Exterior: 4/20 points
Its very large and very blue. Its actual hull is very bulbous and shares a lot of design language with the central hubs of many space stations I've seen in Starmade. It doesn't exactly promote the idea of a luxury yacht like most other ships here. It wasn't advertised to be that though, so I think its better to rate it in the VIP shuttle category. Again its very large and reminds me more of an entire flying embassy than a simple means of transportation for VIPs.
Interior: 1/20 points
Its certainly ambitious, but unfortunately also missing from the ship at the time this ship was submitted. I'd suggest instead of having so many uniform blue 3 block tall decks, you combine some areas into taller more open spaces and divide some areas into smaller rooms with corridors leading to larger areas. Also having specific decks set aside for certain things helps and keeps the ship from becoming too labyrinthian. Like leaving one deck for cabins only, one deck for dining, one deck of crew only, few decks as social spaces, maybe one as just entertainment facilities or decks for the offices where diplomatic work can be undertaken be done. etc.
Luxury: 0/10 points
Instead of luxury, lets look at its capability. Right now it has one conference room that's only 3 blocks tall and doesn't seem to have ventilation.
Compactness: 4/10 points
The ship is the maximum allowed size, but to its credit, filled to the brim with planned interior" So we can say it uses a lot of the space it demands. or hopefully will use once furnished.
Safety & security: 5/10 points
The ship is protected very well by its surrounding ring. Hoping to see a security checkpoint at the entrance too. There is also a shuttle and a number of escape pods.
Features: 3/10 points
The ship is too incomplete for me to properly judge it on features.
Points for the biome gardens at the top though. The elevator is very nice.
Passenger capacity: 0/10 points
there's no capacity at the current state
Creativity: 8/10 points
Its a really nice idea. Maybe not the right fit for this competition but its clear a lot of effort went into it and Its got the potential to turn into a great space embassy.
Total: 25/100 points
Star-Chaser by Dr. Whammy
Exterior: 20/20 points
Its a beautiful ship. I really enjoy Dr. Whammy's style. The keel is a bit boxy but it fits the style.
The open skylight seems to be a popular addition in this competition.
Interior: 14/20 points
It really reminds me of Empire strikes back, clean white interiors. The styling is very nice if a bit less fancy than some of the others.
the open design of the cockpit and the ship's overall layout suggests that the ship is intended to be flown and operated by the passengers. Making this more of a camper van in a way.
Luxury: 8/10 points
Every cabin has plenty of space, large window and a bathroom.
There's a large pool and bar. Everything you'd want on a yacht
Compactness: 7/10 points
A lot of the ship's lower deck is given to the shuttle there's space to perhaps make it perhaps slightly denser and fit one or two more rooms.
I love that the reactor room is included.
Safety & security: 9/10 points
The ship armed and has turrets that stand out, making any to be assailants think twice. The interior has compartments, stairs have guardrails, there's airlocks. There's also escape pods and the mentioned shuttle
Features: 7/10 points
All the mentioned stuff above gives a nice score. Nice to see directional thrusters included. The thruster shutoff button is fun. There doesn't seem to be gravity units which is an easy fix. no accommodation for possible crew loses points.
Passenger capacity: 5/10 points
A little low maybe, for how big the ship is and how much crew it might need, considering there's no bunks for the crew and I don't think they want to sleep on the escape shuttle benches or beach chairs.
Creativity: 2/10 points
Doesn't have too much unique stuff. Its fairly traditional and there's a lot of other more creative submissions here.
Total: 72/100 points
ORBA Helios by ComCardinal
Exterior: 15/20 points
This ship instantly strikes the beholder as a luxury ship Its styled after real world yachts by the looks of it. Its pretty hefty, loses points for size.
Interior: 19/20 points
The work here is amazing. We've got basically all that a ship like this could need. I especially love the pillars and interior layout. Even the crew quarters are nice. We've got a pool, jacuzzi, dining hall/conference room with a kitchen and even an observation deck. Would've been full points if there were better maintenance areas for the reactor or other systems. Also, despite having nice large elevators, their doors are tiny, which makes carrying stock down to the kitchen difficult. The stalls in the common restrooms seem to be a bit tight, considering they seem to be the main intended place for passengers to change into swimming clothes unless they wish to do so in their cabins in which case there might be some wet floors. No points reduced for that though.
Luxury: 10/10 points
No notes. Gold vein yacht and Black Diamond are the only ones to match what is at offer here.
Compactness: 6/10 points
It has basically everything one could ask for, but it could've been delivered in a leaner, denser package, still very well done.
The smaller ships obviously get higher points.
Safety & security: 10/10 points
Airlocks always have one door open, which means they don't really work and they're dangerous, but the doors can always be manually operated so no points lost. We've got escape pods, nav lights, amazing compartmentalization and
Features: 10/10 points
All mentioned above is enough to give 10 points. Storage space seems to be slightly low but that's fixable. There could've been some kind of janitor's closet or possibly a medical room like others have included, but these are such nitpicks.
Passenger capacity: 10/10 points
9 comfortable cabins. Basically what you'd expect in a space yacht of this size.
Creativity: 4/10 points
Implementing the water landing mode is nice but overall, this ship doesn't have too much going on that hasn't been seen before. A point for the jacuzzi. Others outshine it in creativity.
Total: 84/100 points
Assuming I didn't count the points wrong.. The outstanding winner is ComCardinal's Helios. Posted in just the nick of time. technically after the time closed but I had agreed to give them extra time, and its my competition, anyone would've got extra time had they asked.
The 2nd place goes to DeepspaceMechanic, 3rd place goes to Dr. Whammy, 4th goes to Ua2hk.
The winner of the nicest exterior is Star-Chaser by Dr. Whammy
The winner of the nicest interior is Gold Vein by DeepspaceMechanic
The winner of most luxurious looking ship is Black Diamond by Papy McBites
The winner of most compact ship is Iota v1.0 by Ua2hk
The winner of most safe ship is ORBA Helios by ComCardinal
The winner of most features is ORBA Helios by ComCardinal
The winner of passanger capacity is ORBA Helios by ComCardinal (grrr, my yacht would've had more )
The winner of creativity is Atlas Royce by AtraUnam (Yes, the logic box wins, the black diamond comes very very close.)
Thank you all so much for participating! I hope I'll see you all next competition. I'll rate the disqualified entries tomorrow.
Thank you very much for second place and the detailed review!
I applaud you for giving such in-depth feedback for all contestants. This came as pleasantly ironic for me, cause I recently participated in a small literary contest (submitted a short sci-fi novel of mine to be scored on a similar, 5-to-10 factor point scale, by other writers) and waited for months for nothing but one-liner opinions like "the plot development is followable, the characters are likeable". So even writers didn't have the conscientiousness to type out substantial criticisms, but we weren't let down here
I agree with most of what you said about my ship. Some very perceptive remarks there, like how my style relied heavily on repetitive patterns. And thanks for calling some of my detail work disciplined. It's always nice to meet someone who gets it. I mean, in various contexts, self-discipline is the ability to carry out a task despite not finding any joy / finding frustration in parts of the process, or sometimes all of it. Many people don't understand that creative effort isn't just "indulging in mild fun". If one cares enough about detail, precision, elegance, then it can get unpleasantly effortful, but we push through it out of a reverence for certain higher ideals like beauty or good work. Grand terms for something like voxel building, but the idea generalizes to all arts, crafts, endeavors.
That being said, I'm both obsessive andlazy, hence the repetitiveness. Not only in a single ship, but between my ships (certain elements are always there, but I aim to build some stuff one day that are very much unlike my usual style).
I did record my first reaction to the ships, but whether that's what people want to see vs. something with a little more production, let me know.
(E.g. Videos making Logic features I would add/improve on the entries)
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