how do you build ships?

[robertkor]

how do you build ships!



do yuo do a frame then do subsystems and coat it in hull to acheive a specific look or do you wing it and see what you get?



personaly i build

a hard core room with minor shielding to protect myself while building then i

build a frame out of grey or white hull

add to the frame to the point where it meeds the design i want.

add hard hull to on top of the frame to suite my needs and look.

i save it at this point

then i do weapons systems

then power systems to where movement and fireing does not drain.

then i make the interior as far as walkways lighting control rooms ect. i fill whatever is left with shields.





what do you do?

 

[War Dog]

Just wing it.

A good deal of my designs fail (And badly), but I get really lucky every now and then. I build the internal systems and then just coat it with hull; maybe adding a bit here and there.I try to use as little hull as possible since hull just plain sucks in terms of efficiency.

My ships have very little in terms of aesthetics. I only use white hull in hopes that it will blind the enemy so they aren\'t as accurate. Almost no internals either, since I design all my ships to be able to be used as turrets.

As a result, I tend to get powerful ships that are really ugly.

 

[Raichor]

For big ships I make a Core room with all computer systems, and from then on i basicly just wing it.

For small ships I build the basic shape i want to achieve then add onto that.

 

[robertkor]

lol i like that



My ships have very little in terms of aesthetics. I only use white hull in hopes that it will blind the enemy so they aren\'t as accurate. Almost no internals either, since I design all my ships to be able to be used as turrets.

As a result, I tend to get powerful ships that are really ugly.





i liek this plan

 

[z1967]

As overstated in the title, I come up with a plan, this is just a fragment of my thought process. BTW typed on mobile

step one: the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, my first step is get insanely bored (repetitive music, boring TV shows, Etc.)

Step two comes when you become bored enough to start day dreaming. Eventually, a ship design may pop into your head (or something else, I don\'t know you enough to guess)

step three involves sketching it out, it can look like a whale or some really radically designed skateboard, draw it.

step four: compile your boredom sketches and edit/eliminate the sketches

step five: begin to plan out your amazing ship (some may look weird at first, but hey, at least it\'s not a PVP cube) and build a small scale (optional)

step 6 is simple, GET\'ER DONE. Begin build phase by constructing your internal structure (hallways, hangars, toilets, etc.) before beginning on anything else.

step 7 has the actual outer hull come next, accents of certain colors (like lava on black hull or blue on white) can really bring out a good color schemes

step 8 fill it with power, shields and lasers but not in that specific order.

step 9 type about results on forums, get horribly downvoted, cry in ccorner well that is my guide, there are many re-steps in my advanced guide, but that gets complex.

 

[Gnuispir8]

I personally followed a method like this for my corvette, which has been the only ship I\'ve really gone and built properly so far:

I started by planning the role for my ship. Once I had that, I tried to think of a nice design for that role. I looked at some pictures online and such for some inspiration, and then an idea came to me.

Once I had a design idea, I grabbed a pencil and some paper and made a very rough sketch of what I wanted to build. The sketch was literally only a basic overhead view of the ship, followed by a front view. I then went and added in some ranges for the dimensions of the ship, and began to actually build it.

To start, I of course placed my core, and then began to frame my planned dimensions. I just did a basic line of hull in each direction for my maximum dimensions. From there, I outlined the ship from the overhead view. I then outlined the largest feature on my ship, which was the engine in the back. from there, I slowly closed in the design and made the outer shell. I tweaked it as I saw necessary, and began work on some of the extras to the frame.

Once I had my frame built, I simply filled it in as I saw fit. I started with a few power blocks just for being able to test weapons later. I then went ahead and made a sort of core room, which contained all of my weapons computers and whatnot. I filled in the weapons systems as I deemed fit, and then filled the rest of the space with power generation, power storage, engines, and shields. Essentially, I built a purely functional ship with no aesthetics. Had I wanted any itnerior features though, I likely would have done them just after completing the frame.

Of course, that\'s just the method that works best for me. I had tried once before to make a ship from the inside out, but it just didn\'t work for me.

 

[Zyrr]

For me, the beginning is always the same, but afterwards it is different.



For my usual projects, large ships, I place the core and turn on my symmetry modes. In all my builds, I try to keep the core as close to the middle and as protected as possible. After that, I do basic framework with black hull ( length + height + width).

After that, I usually fill in the framework with black hull, and divide building into three sections; middle, rear and front. I usually do the middle first (barring those odd builds with complicated fronts/backs), which mostly consists of a quick core room and completely filling in the framework. After that, I usually do the rear, which I try to completely filll with systems.

After finishing the basic rear, I usually start putting armor plates (for my usual designs) on the middle and back, so I know what I\'m going to do with the front. After armor plating, I put shields, possibly thrusters and power in the middle.

After all that, I start the front of the build. The way I build capitals is simple; you\'re supposed to engage from the front. Because of that, most of the armor and work goes into designing to front (my largest capital had 10+ hardened hull thickness in the front in most places). I do the framework for the front, then fill the framework in. Then I do the armor plating and start designing weapon barrels and missile pods. That is usually followed by the placement of primary AMC cannons and a quick weapons test. Finally, I add the secondary AMC\'s and missiles and do an extensive weapons, maneurvability and speed test.

That usually is the end to my big builds, barring some extra detail work and interiors.

Smaller builds are a bit different and more simplistic.

I start like before, placing the core. However, sometimes I don\'t try to put the core in the middle of the build due to space issues, making it a bigger target. That\'s followed by some basic framework and the filling in of framework.

After that, I usually put in interiors so I know what I have to work with space-wise, followed by starting the systems and weapons.

After that, it\'s pretty simple. I finish the exterior, finish up systems and weapons and do a quick weapons test.



That\'s my way, overdetailed and inefficient.

 

[PIRATEONTHERUN]

I like to build in this order:

1. Frame of hull based around core, outlining all major aesthetic elements.

2. Fill in bottom and side walls, but not top (makes it easy to see inside and get light from sun).

3. Add some generators so I can work around them.

4. Build core room and interior.

5. Systems (AMC\'s, engines, etc.).

6. Finish exterior hull + aesthetics.

7. Dock turrets.

 

[Kitts]

I put down a core and just start building my energy structure without any plans on anything whatsoever.

I put one block here, one there, change the form a little, hm maybe a little more, then do that and this and..

And then i see where it goes.

Once the energy structure is laid, i fill in with shield blocks in between the energy rows.

Once that is done i might put down some rows of anti-matter blocks, if i can see something fitting - if i can\'t i just start putting down the hull in a fitting way.

Once the hull is laid i start designing some cool engines and might remove a bit of the already laid hull, to better suit the engines.



I find that building without a plan is more fun and rewarding.

 

[MisterVec]

the process is very straight-forward, at least for my VFW ships.

Step 1) place core.
Step 2) black hardened hull blocks to outline the top/bottom and left/right cross sections for the foreward hull
Step 3) Build back and frame out the drive sections (usually pretty minimal as they may need to be shifted forward or backward later)
Step 4) Fill in the foreward hull with black blocks.
Step 5) Layer with yellow blocks.
Step 6) Fill out drive sections
Step7) Fill out aft hull.
Step 8) Add observation towers, gun emplacements.
Step 9) Paint job!
Step 10) Central corridor/backup power generator for the forward hull
Step 11) lots of tedious internal detailing/shield block adding.

Step Random) I may add turrets at any point during the construction.

 

[eeg]

For mining ships, I build the salvager array first and then design the ship around that.

For small to medium-small ships I don\'t have any kind of definite process, I just lay things out and fiddle with them for a while.

For anything large, I:
1: Design the core area.
2: Lay out power generators to get a feel for the dimensions the ship will have.
3: Completely design the basic shape of the hull.
4: Fill out all internal systems, weapons, shields, power tanks, etc., EXCEPT thrusters.
5: Add turrets, external nurbles, and so on.
6: Design the interior.
7: Add thrusters.

 

[HadrasVorshoth]

Varies for me. Generally on a multiplayer server, I\'ll start with the inside, and work on making a route through the ship that looks nice. Then I work on the outside to make that look nice. i generally gravitate towards the layout of the Ebon Hawk\'s interior, from the Star wars Kotor games, mostly because it\'s the spaceship I\'m most familiar with the interior design of.

In Single Player though I generally draw out my design on paper, then do some math, maybe even make a mockup using borders in Excel or draw it in Paint.Net. This is why my single player projects tend to be big, so big that I get tired of them and abandon them.

 

[robertkor]

currently working on a new ship called the athena class, doing this one a bit weird.



started with core room,

then engines

then foreguns

salvage equipment

then power systems

then sheilds

then inner hull

then 3 layer thick outer hull

then decorating and placing turrets as well as undership sniper cannon

 

[FlyingDebris]

1.) Core room
2.) Dimensional tests, ( building the length of the ship to test yaw pitch roll etc.)
3.) Main floor layout- build ship contour for core level
4.) Decks and hangars
5.) Shielding and power
6 ) cannons
7.) Engines
8.) Outer hull layers
9.) Turrets
10.) Detail work
11.) Add and test as neccesary
12.) Active duty service
13.) Decommisioning
14.) Salvaging
15.) Parts repurposing

 

[vladnuke]

build a large cross of power supply around core



form the mainroom with hardend hull around box you make with cross

engines go next, two large blocks of engine usually cover the speed

more power surrounding that

now time for the big fat antimatter checker array for maximum wreckage

surrounding that system is the fat tracking missle array

build a big fat hull

make it look nice

where there\'s space left near the cannons, strap salvage cannons

fill entire hull with shields

just keep adding more shields

nothing special added, just the basics, but a whole lot of them

add a giant box w/ a door up top

now you have a carrier

 

[FlyingDebris]

It seems like there is a consistent pattern in the building style of the people who have posted on this thread.

We all start by building a core room first, and then building off of that.

 

[robertkor]

structuraly speaking core rooms make sence HH is capable of taking slightly more of a beating than say a sheild block by itself or a normal hull so it sort of kinda gives that last line of defence, that said most weapons 1 hit HH

 

[TechnoMagician]

I generally build a core room, move onto a frame of the hull, this is when I add power systems as I find most other things can fit around the power systems while power systems need to not touch each other and are numerous. I fill in any space I think I might gloss over because of complex power system curves with shields and then I move on to finish the hull. Make the inner rooms, and now the rest is empty space to fit weapons into as I wish. I finish with accenting with wedges or the like around the hull to make it pretty, but I sometimes skip that to keep weight low.



Just recently though I actually just got 10x10x10 quick build and make a huge black cube, then I made an outline of my ship on each side and took away anything outside of the outline(have an outline from the top and Side and maybe the front but thats more difficult to imagine). now i have a sort of smaller ship like shape so I decide to eat away on the outside between the angles to make all the curves look nicer, generally in a nice patern(3 up eat one in and repeat to make a slope for instance). After the outside was of the shape I wanted i hollowed it out. Start with digging into the smaller side and dige a straight hole towards the large side so you won\'t eat through a wall by accident. once you get the obvious stuff out of the way you work on makeing the walls a bit thinner, but it\'s ok if some hull is a bit too thick if you want to save time, I personall make the outside a really easy pattern so i just did the pattern again on the inside for easy hollowing. Now the inside is hollow and you can add al your systems, VOILA you are done!

 

[HadrasVorshoth]

I generally start with a drawing, then use that to work out where the core \'cockpit\' room should go, then move on from that.

I generally try to have some walking space inside my ships, and keep them contained of air inside except for the hangar/entry point.

Where possible, I fit cannons into hull-encased tunnels with slope blocks to give a pointy gun opening effect.

I try to avoid checkerboard things, even if it is more efficient, unless it\'s a ship I want nobody to see or if I can work it so it looks nice with the ship design, both inside and outside.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Mostly I just wing it, I\'ve only built one ship so far with an actual pre-designed layout and I only used the internal structure. I build ships from the inside out with a heavy emphasis on internal accommodations, I like my ships to feel like they could be real on the inside.

For large ships I start with a blueprint that has a 5x5 power generator hanging off the bottom of a core so I have basic power and shields to protect from pirate raids. From there I lay out the core room, internal hallways, then general hull shape, layout then armor main weapons, plan out large structures like cargo bays and docking ports



After that I have no real method, which I need to develop. Hull, power, shields, internal structure, external mounts all get randomly worked on and I usually jump around like a squirrel while building leaving parts half finished to be filled in later. I\' have started to work on my sketching ability so I can pre plan ships out better and not have to make major modifications later.

For smaller ships that intend to be docked I now with the core, faction block and one hull piece below the core and I dock it on the desired docking size and build within confines so it will fit where it needs to.

Occasionally I also have a unique idea for a ship that requires a different approach such as my Woodchuck which have to accommodate a specific structure.