- Joined
- Jan 27, 2016
- Messages
- 169
- Reaction score
- 195
I start with a concept, fighter, frigate, destroyer, carrier, etc, and make a short list of design requirements. I draw a lot of concept ideas from WW2 and WW1 naval history, my most recent ship is a light cruiser loosely inspired by accounts I've read of IJN ships in WW2 mounting excessive amounts of 20mm cannons to boost AA capabilities later in the war. Take that as a starting point, mix in some of the ideas that became popular once missiles started becoming useful, and then make that work in a game like Starmade.
I want it to have around 350K blocks toal, mount 6-8 75mm cannon light turrets (250 Cannon, 250 Cannon, 250 Punch), all the turrets need to be able to engage a target off the prow while simultaneously providing full 360 upper and lower covering fire, and a T/M Ratio of 1.2+ would be ideal.
The next step is putting some rough sketches into a notebook, jotting down rough dimensions, and getting the shape roughly pinned down. Recently, my turrets configuration is the number one determining factor of a ships shape.
Then I build a shell out of hull blocks, figure out the turret wells, and mount the primary turrets. Next I got through and plan out and mount the AMS grid, and start doing a rough layout of the interior decks. Then install the white armor plating over the dark grey hull, and then wedge everything.
Then I'll do a rough detail pass from prow to stern, installing windows, figuring out where the RCS thrusters will go, installing the USD, and any other large details. Sometimes here, setting the details is just a matter of glueing a display module to the hull and making a note of what I plan on putting there.
Part of this process is what I call an efficiency pass. I'll replace all the dark grey hull I used with pink hull, and then go around the exterior of the ship and replace all the visible pink with whatever armor I'll be using for the ship's outer hull. Once no pink is showing, I'll do another mass block replacement and change out all the pink hull for shield capacitors. When I've done this on older ships, I usually net about a 5% gain in internal block count to devote to systems.
This is usually where I switch from detailing to filling in systems, before I go any further I want to see what kind of performance and final mass numbers I'll be looking at when the ship is finished. I need to figure out any major design shifts here, and once I'm done the ship is incredibly fugly, but functionally complete.
After that, I go back into detailing mode and I'll make another 1-3 detailing passes from prow to stern. This is where I finalize all my exterior details, make any other medium to large changes I decide is necessary, add grey blocks here and there to represent maintenance and access points, and finally hit the Engine Pron on the stern and my usual BFG Pron on the bow .
The final step is to add whatever "unit markings" I feel best fit the ship. Currently yellow stripes are for fire support, red for recon/skirmishers, blue for autocannon-heavy, orange for civilian/mining ships. I also add a unit crest and ship crest here. All ships of the same class will have the same ship crest, but depending on variant they will be given different striping and unit crests.
The last phase, and the one I have the most difficulty with, is detailing the interior. It takes me a while, and I freely admit my exterior detailing is far superior to my interior detailing. I'm slowly getting better, but I have a hard time getting past a militaristic take on the 90's-Sterile Star Trek: TNG Sci-Fi look.
Oh yeah, and I'll post my biggest secret on ship building. The hidden backbone of my entire building style, without which I couldn't play this game! A large, temporary, bank of display blocks,usually 5 to 7 wide and 3 to 4 high around 10 blocks forward of the core and completely filled with to-do notes. As I'm building, and I get a cool idea, I'll make a note of it.
As I'm doing chores around the house, or at work, if I get a cool idea I'll make a note of it in my phone and transfer it my cheat sheet ASAP. As I either implement, or discard, the ideas I have listed on the display blocks, I erase them, and as they dwindle, it kind of serves as a very slow visual countdown to when the ship will be complete.
I also use my display-block-virtual-notebook (DBVN) to keep track of what weapon mixes I've installed, numbers and types of turrets, potential class and ship names that occur to me, and so on. It's also very useful to have those kinds of details in a DBVN when I return to a ship I set aside for a few months for whatever reason.
I want it to have around 350K blocks toal, mount 6-8 75mm cannon light turrets (250 Cannon, 250 Cannon, 250 Punch), all the turrets need to be able to engage a target off the prow while simultaneously providing full 360 upper and lower covering fire, and a T/M Ratio of 1.2+ would be ideal.
The next step is putting some rough sketches into a notebook, jotting down rough dimensions, and getting the shape roughly pinned down. Recently, my turrets configuration is the number one determining factor of a ships shape.
Then I build a shell out of hull blocks, figure out the turret wells, and mount the primary turrets. Next I got through and plan out and mount the AMS grid, and start doing a rough layout of the interior decks. Then install the white armor plating over the dark grey hull, and then wedge everything.
Then I'll do a rough detail pass from prow to stern, installing windows, figuring out where the RCS thrusters will go, installing the USD, and any other large details. Sometimes here, setting the details is just a matter of glueing a display module to the hull and making a note of what I plan on putting there.
Part of this process is what I call an efficiency pass. I'll replace all the dark grey hull I used with pink hull, and then go around the exterior of the ship and replace all the visible pink with whatever armor I'll be using for the ship's outer hull. Once no pink is showing, I'll do another mass block replacement and change out all the pink hull for shield capacitors. When I've done this on older ships, I usually net about a 5% gain in internal block count to devote to systems.
This is usually where I switch from detailing to filling in systems, before I go any further I want to see what kind of performance and final mass numbers I'll be looking at when the ship is finished. I need to figure out any major design shifts here, and once I'm done the ship is incredibly fugly, but functionally complete.
After that, I go back into detailing mode and I'll make another 1-3 detailing passes from prow to stern. This is where I finalize all my exterior details, make any other medium to large changes I decide is necessary, add grey blocks here and there to represent maintenance and access points, and finally hit the Engine Pron on the stern and my usual BFG Pron on the bow .
The final step is to add whatever "unit markings" I feel best fit the ship. Currently yellow stripes are for fire support, red for recon/skirmishers, blue for autocannon-heavy, orange for civilian/mining ships. I also add a unit crest and ship crest here. All ships of the same class will have the same ship crest, but depending on variant they will be given different striping and unit crests.
The last phase, and the one I have the most difficulty with, is detailing the interior. It takes me a while, and I freely admit my exterior detailing is far superior to my interior detailing. I'm slowly getting better, but I have a hard time getting past a militaristic take on the 90's-Sterile Star Trek: TNG Sci-Fi look.
Oh yeah, and I'll post my biggest secret on ship building. The hidden backbone of my entire building style, without which I couldn't play this game! A large, temporary, bank of display blocks,usually 5 to 7 wide and 3 to 4 high around 10 blocks forward of the core and completely filled with to-do notes. As I'm building, and I get a cool idea, I'll make a note of it.
As I'm doing chores around the house, or at work, if I get a cool idea I'll make a note of it in my phone and transfer it my cheat sheet ASAP. As I either implement, or discard, the ideas I have listed on the display blocks, I erase them, and as they dwindle, it kind of serves as a very slow visual countdown to when the ship will be complete.
I also use my display-block-virtual-notebook (DBVN) to keep track of what weapon mixes I've installed, numbers and types of turrets, potential class and ship names that occur to me, and so on. It's also very useful to have those kinds of details in a DBVN when I return to a ship I set aside for a few months for whatever reason.
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