CYBERSPACE SHIPYARDS

[Gmodism]

Nice craft! Inform me when it is out if I miss it, would be a good review with a fresh nice new system craft on show

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Nice craft! Inform me when it is out if I miss it, would be a good review with a fresh nice new system craft on show

Hey, nice to see you stop by over here. And thanks, I'm glad you like it. I will definitely notify you when it's done and up on the Dock.

The biggest obstacle in continuing this new "Sobek Dreadnought" ship is the weapons update. I don't really feel like building its turrets or weapons when we can't know how weapons will work after the update... But I might do the interior until then.

 

[ProfDriftwood]

Neat thrusters, I like it! I have been working on a ship with a similar concept for the thrusters.

Spoiler

I hope they add the Accelerometer block sometime soon. I love vectoring thrusters, and it'd be awesome if they could detect your ship's direction and assume an appropriate orientation automatically.

 

[Gmodism]

Hey, nice to see you stop by over here. And thanks, I'm glad you like it. I will definitely notify you when it's done and up on the Dock.

The biggest obstacle in continuing this new "Sobek Dreadnought" ship is the weapons update. I don't really feel like building its turrets or weapons when we can't know how weapons will work after the update... But I might do the interior until then.

Yea totally focus in interiors, be cafefull to not use pulse or any strange system that might dissaprear though

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Neat thrusters, I like it! I have been working on a ship with a similar concept for the thrusters.

Spoiler: REPLY

Nice to see you too stopping by, ProfDriftwood. Glad to hear that you like those thrusters on my new dreadnought. I too like those rotatable thrusters of your's, and the whole ship you shared as well. Its overall form diverges from the norm quite a bit, in a good way, and I find that bridge, your decorative use of the "stabilizer snake", and those "solar wind intake gills" towards the back particularly appealing. - Have fun finishing it!

I hope they add the Accelerometer block sometime soon. I love vectoring thrusters, and it'd be awesome if they could detect your ship's direction and assume an appropriate orientation automatically.

I wasn't aware that they have an accelerometer block planned, but I actually had the same idea that you brought up when working on this "Sobek" ship's movable engines. Having a way to signal logic stuff on our ships based on acceleration certainly would be an awesome feature.

I was thinking about a do-it-yourself solution to movement detection that would involve an "accelerometer room" with a small non-docked entity held in place as the mother ship moves by alternating push- and pull-effect beams hitting from both the front-rear, left-right, and up-down directions. In very optimistic theory, the beams would keep the separate entity centralized, but when the mother ship would accelerate in any direction, it would momentarily displace from the center point, which would be detected by Area Triggers, the outputs of which would be used for any desired logic reactions. (But of course in practice all this would be hopelessly problematic... so I would definitely like to see an accelerometer block some day.)

Yea totally focus in interiors, be cafefull to not use pulse or any strange system that might dissaprear though

I will keep in mind your advises, including the "be cafefull" part - I will definitely make sure to be full of coffee when designing the interior

 

[Nosajimiki]

Neat ship... one comment though if you are planning on using it as a warship is that a lot of capital ships in this game are on the scale of 250k-1000k mass; so, unless it is deceptively large, I would not necessarily classify it as a dreadnaught.

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Neat ship... one comment though if you are planning on using it as a warship is that a lot of capital ships in this game are on the scale of 250k-1000k mass; so, unless it is deceptively large, I would not necessarily classify it as a dreadnaught.

Spoiler: REPLY

Thank you for the feedback, I'm happy to know you like it. Given my past habits, I probably won't actually use it for what its classification and equipment would suggest it's meant for (it's intended to be mostly roleplay-oriented really), but yes, giving it some thought now, it will probably fall short of the "dreadnought" class.

I always relied on this classification system (Ship Classification) ever since I felt the need to use one, and judging from my previous comparable work, this "Sobek" ship might not reach 100K mass when completed (the aforementioned classification system says that dreadnought = battleship = 100K-500K mass range).

Might have to rename it, we'll see.

 

[Nosajimiki]

That size chart is from 2015. A more current standard looks more like this:

Snub Fighter - Runabout 0-100 Mass
Generally ships in this range are useless in a fight and might as well be left unarmed. (these have not really changed)

Light Fighter/Fighter/Heavy Fighter/Gunship 100-2K Mass
Most pirates fall into this range. Light fighters on the low end of this scale are typically expendable harassers meant to do little more than distract turrets for a short period of time. On the heavier side, we find ships that can start to be a threat in numbers to larger ships.

Corvettes & Frigate 2K-35K Mass
Most people no longer differentiate corvettes and frigates so much by mass, as by function. Frigates are generally in the same mass range as corvettes; however, they are generally designed and treated as drone attack ships designed to swarm and destroy larger ships; whereas, Corvettes are designed to server as player piloted PvE ships for destroying fleets of pirates. As such, frigates tend to favor more lag optimisation, much higher DPS, Lower speed, lower shields, and focus on systems that do not require a human pilot. Pirate flagships are typically Frigates.

Destroyer 35K-100K Mass
A military work horse, can carry weapons that can be a threat in major fleet engagements, though it's life expectancy should it be targeted in such engagements is very short. Ships of this class can be used to bring down typical pirate stations. These ships are often gifted to recruits by larger factions as support ships, and rarely see 1v1 combat. Turrets start to be major portions of the ship's offensive capacity.

Light Cruiser/Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser 100K-300K Mass
These tend to be the ships of choice for most players to actually fly about. Ships smaller than this are simply too easy to destroy and ships much larger tend to cost excessive lag and resources for most players' linkings.

Battlecruiser/Battleship/Dreadnaught 300K-700K Mass
These tend to be the ships of choice for the more established factions. Most often seen in 1v1 conflicts, but still often deployed 2-3 at a time for major offensive operations. Lag mitigating building techniques become very important in this size range.

Titan 700K Mass+
These ships are as often as not the ceremonial flagships of their respective factions, but rarely see battle. There is no upper limit to a Titan's potential mass; however, most servers have a mass cap between 500k and 2000k. Most factions have abandoned the use of Titans because the amount of effort that needs to go into lag mitigation often exceeds the added military value of a more massive ship, and the risk of them causing crashes that can result in them being lost to inferior forces.

SIDE_NOTE: Many non-pvp factions do tend to build smaller and may not agree with theses scales, but properly classifying ships is far more important in a PvP context IMO, because it predicates whether your design will be able to live up to its intended function.

 

[Gmodism]

Nice to see you too stopping by, ProfDriftwood. Glad to hear that you like those thrusters on my new dreadnought. I too like those rotatable thrusters of your's, and the whole ship you shared as well. Its overall form diverges from the norm quite a bit, in a good way, and I find that bridge, your decorative use of the "stabilizer snake", and those "solar wind intake gills" towards the back particularly appealing. - Have fun finishing it!




I wasn't aware that they have an accelerometer block planned, but I actually had the same idea that you brought up when working on this "Sobek" ship's movable engines. Having a way to signal logic stuff on our ships based on acceleration certainly would be an awesome feature.

I was thinking about a do-it-yourself solution to movement detection that would involve an "accelerometer room" with a small non-docked entity held in place as the mother ship moves by alternating push- and pull-effect beams hitting from both the front-rear, left-right, and up-down directions. In very optimistic theory, the beams would keep the separate entity centralized, but when the mother ship would accelerate in any direction, it would momentarily displace from the center point, which would be detected by Area Triggers, the outputs of which would be used for any desired logic reactions. (But of course in practice all this would be hopelessly problematic... so I would definitely like to see an accelerometer block some day.)




I will keep in mind your advises, including the "be cafefull" part - I will definitely make sure to be full of coffee when designing the interior

Hahaha, it seems my fingers have an intellectual advantage over the part I am concious of, nice surprise ^^

 

[ProfDriftwood]

Solar Wind Intake Gills--that's an interesting concept. I tend to think of them as radiator fins. I appreciate your comments on my ship. I do a lot of builds from existing works of sci-fi, it was nice to work on something that was a style of my own.

I asked about detecting thrust direction when I started on the ship, and was linked this thread:

Read by Schine - Accelerometer (Logic Block)

The devs commented on it. I vaguely remember the response being more optimistic than it was when I re-read it a few moments ago. But they didn't say "no" to it, so there's a chance they'll add it. Perhaps if we beg Schema =p.

If you come up with an improvised accelerometer I would be very interested to see how it works, if you ever get it to. Your concept is interesting, though I can't say if it'll work. They're supposed to redo the push/pull blocks with the weapon update, maybe it'll make that plausible.

 

[Nosajimiki]

You can already do that using sensors

 

[MChain]

Thank you, sir, your approval is much appreciated! - But it's actually more of a "he" than a "she", because its namesake appears to be male

Sorry for mistake, I thought a ship is "she" in English... Since I'm not a native english-speaker, there's always space for improvement...

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

properly classifying ships is far more important in a PvP context IMO

Spoiler: REPLY

Agreed. And conversely, it's not that important in RP/aesthetic building, so "dreadnought" it shall be... 'cuz that just sounds dope, which fits well with our "If it looks good, it is good" lighthearted philosophy

Solar Wind Intake Gills--that's an interesting concept. I tend to think of them as radiator fins. I appreciate your comments on my ship. I do a lot of builds from existing works of sci-fi, it was nice to work on something that was a style of my own.

I used a lot of those aerodynamic engineering-inspired design elements myself; came up at some point with the "stellar wind intake gill" sci-fi explanation for kind of a "suspension of disbelief" effect, but your "radiator fins" approach evokes good vibes too, makes the thing feel more real and serious, which is good. Definitely nice work. (As for the accelerometer... we'll have to see, if I ever attempt a DIY solution, it will only happen after the push/pull effect rework you mentioned.)

You can already do that using sensors

Could you please share how can one achieve thrust direction detection with the sensors?

 

[Nosajimiki]

Sorry for mistake, I thought a ship is "she" in English... Since I'm not a native english-speaker, there's always space for improvement...

Yes, most English speaking countries follow the maritime tradition of calling ships "she", even when they male names. It is a bit of a tongue-and-cheek reference to the unpredictability and high amount of maintenance that goes into naval vessels.

Agreed. And conversely, it's not that important in RP/aesthetic building, so "dreadnought" it shall be... 'cuz that just sounds dope, which fits well with our "If it looks good, it is good" lighthearted philosophy

That is total fine. I guess my point was that if you plan to put it on the dock for download, that other players looking for a "dreadnaught", might be disappointed and review it worse than if you labeled it as a heavy destroyer or light cruiser.

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Sorry for mistake, I thought a ship is "she" in English... Since I'm not a native english-speaker, there's always space for improvement...

Spoiler: REPLY

*High-five*, I'm not from one of the english-speaking nations either. But you are right, ships often seem to be referred to as "she". I just wanted to mention that it's named after a mythological figure (which, although fictional, actually has a gender, unlike machines)

I guess my point was that if you plan to put it on the dock for download, that other players looking for a "dreadnaught", might be disappointed and review it worse than if you labeled it as a heavy destroyer or light cruiser.

Nah, they will most probably be too blown away by its roleplay/aesthetic merits to be disappointed about anything, naturally
If someone can't appreciate that kind of stuff, such merits at least make it clear that they shouldn't use the pew-pewing machine scale if they care to rate (the RP-PvP qualitative distinction is of course more important than the quantitative class distinctions within the PvP school). Cheers!

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

PROGRESS UPDATE POST #20​

I just released the recent focus of this thread: Sobek Dreadnought [1st edition: Shell with engine rotation functions]

Since it had to be put to rest for a while until the weapons update hits, I decided to try to build a shipyard station large enough to accommodate that 430m long ship.

I heard that StarMade's shipyard feature is buggy and should be avoided, but this station is meant to be mainly roleplay-oriented (it will still have a functioning shipyard system, and many other desirable basic systems as well - it's already shielded as shown in one of the pictures).



PLANNED FEATURES:

• Robotic arms and animated cranes in shipyard area;
• Automated utility drones with claws and building material transporter vehicles flying all around on invisible rails;
• Heavily industrial details (like huge tanks, pipelines, etc) on the yet-unbuilt industrial yard areas marked out below.

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

PROGRESS UPDATE POST #21​

The new station is taking shape... Let me explain stuff in steps, a little per each picture:




1) I've extended it sideways quite a bit. The new lateral parts of the structure will require more of those huge glass capsules with the blue glow (they are the shield rechargers), but I think I will be able to cover the whole thing with just four additional ones. Also, note the four grey octagons on those vertical framework pillars in the foreground - some of the station's medium-size offensive turrets will sit atop those.





2) I've surpassed what I originally predicted in the previous post; the station became 521 long, 861 wide, and 170 tall. Unlike my previous shipyard station (PetroFlux H56 Refueling & Repair), this one has its shipyard aligned with the galactic North (the orientation assumed by ships when we press 'C' in flight mode). Below we are looking at it from the rear, and as you can see, its asymmetry is already emerging.

Left side: industrial yard / Right side: repair docks for smaller ships





3) Before I started building this station, I wanted to make a down-scaled model to see the general structure of the thing. But then I ended up focusing only on how buildings and machinery would be arranged on the final station's industrial yard. This was a very quick job, it's mostly made of templates from older projects.





4) Since the model was built onto a ship core, I've flown it to where such buildings and detail elements will reside in the real thing.





5) The model turned out to be not-so-miniature after all. These represent the actual scale of what will be found at this industrial yard part of the station, which will be able to accommodate around 9x the area of the mock-up below (9x this amount of stuff, but on roughly the same scale). In its final form, this industrial yard will be INSANE - ridiculously detailed and as realistic as possible in StarMade. I have a long list of fun and extremely immersive roleplay features to add. And I must say, if you like the industrial style as much as I do, than you will love this.





6) And here's a final shot. I like this view so much. This is the side where the repair docks for smaller ships will be, with extendable/retractable refueling pipes and some of the renewed astrotech repair system.

As for its name... I had a name, one very close to my heart, for a long while, without something to attach it to:
The 'StormRefuge' Industrial Complex - which will very likely be my StarMade masterpiece if the construction goes as planned.

Wish me luck, and don't hesitate to share your thoughts about it if you would like to see it finished!

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

PROGRESS UPDATE POST #22​

Heck, did I really neglect this place for more than two months? :D

A week ago, I uploaded something to the CC section that might end up being my best-received StarMade creation (gathered 6 reviews and 47 downloads in its first week). Check it out here: MEGA PROJECT: The Mysterious Science Station

I didn't showcase or mention this project in this thread at any stage of its construction while it was a work-in-progress, but after 29 days of building, I'm proud to present "Quasar E77".

It's called a "science station" for good reasons (you'll find loads of sciency stuff inside), and it's labeled "mysterious" for good reasons too (you'll find loads of SECRETS inside, if you are explorative enough).

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

PROGRESS UPDATE POST #23​

After finishing the thing in the previous post, I had no idea what to build.

Then I had a spark of inspiration: AN ALIEN STATION! - I personally didn't see that done in StarMade before.

But then I asked myself, what would make an alien station fun besides looking alien? - Well, maybe something I already wished to include one day in a station project: A DEFENSE FLEET!


And thus a pretty ambitious plan has born:

• huge purple station...
• green glow emitting from everywhere...
• a set of huge glass capsules attached somewhere...
• insectile AI drone ships asleep in the liquid content of said capsules, like in the "Matrix", except it will be the machines who are encapsulated this time around...
• until a decrease in shields is sensed, at which point the capsule lids burst open, the AI drones "wake up", fly out, open their buggy armor, start flapping/spinning their wings, and attack the enemy!

Progress so far (expect gradual updates in the following days):



The four docked exoskeletal wing covers can already be both OPENED AND SPUN:

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

PROGRESS UPDATE POST #24​

Testing directly uploading GIFs to SMD (instead of Imgur). Uploading seems to work, but the game seems to have broken the file when I tried to start the spinning of the wings.

Does the GIF freeze for you guys too?

EDIT: I reloaded the page and now it doesn't freeze, but turned all low-res and foggy, and still cuts off too early.

Anyways, how you like the progress on this alien insect ship?

​