How does one make a good looking ship?

[FireG0dz]

I have always been able to make MaxPower reactors, have a good shield to shield recharge ratio, have had great weapon systems, even make good looking interiors, but there is always one thing i struggle with. Aesthetics. I can never make the hull of a ship look good. Its always boxy or plain, or is just stupid looking. If anyone has techniques on how to build a great looking hull, please post them here!

 

[StarWars1981]

Yeah - place blocks in shapes until something looks right.
Honestly, just step back from it, figuratively and literally in-game. Slide your view back, and look at the whole hull. Find a shape, a design, an artistic flair, some little piece, anything you like, and then compliment it. Build off of what's good about it. Find a general shape for the whole thing in your head if you can, or if you can't, find a reference point. Something that worked. Build off it - add shapes that fit with it, expanding your hull or contracting it to end. Add onto that with similar or even wildly different but complimentary shapes and devices.
If you can get one thing you like, if you just build off of it, it will work.
And once you've built a part of it, if you can't find the next flash of inspiration for a shape, do what I do: find the logical and necessary next step. I was building a ship, and I had the side down, but I couldn't figure out a good look for the central hull or the bottom ... so I said, what must I build next? And I found it. The result isn't art, I'll not build such amazing artworks as you can find in Comm. Content at least for a long time, but it looks good. It works as a unit. So it's complete. It's finished, it's done, and I don't have to fiddle with it to be perfect.
Now that it's done ... if I ever want to, I can go back.

TL;DR the rambling: Slide back from what you have, and find a point you like. Add complimenting things on there - add to what you like, or make something contrasting to draw the eye. Find spots you can build in - find locations for devices and shapes, shapes that hint at purposes beyond just "blocks" or "wedges" but to grills, vents, weapons, access hatches, battle scars, machinery ... and when all's said and done, you'll find that you've either built a ship you like, or pieces you like. But make certain you don't sacrifice aesthetics to functionality. We can all build Borg cubes - we want to see masterpieces. If you can't build a masterpiece, build something you can be proud to fly around in. It may not be the prettiest box for the biggest gun, but it's got the gun and it's not ugly.
If all else fails, make a reproduction, or several, of ships you like. Get some ideas. Use them or adapt them or find a better one. It just requires work and a bit of vision, or inspiration.

TL;DR too bad. I'm not making that point any shorter, lol.
FIRST!
Good luck. Post some images, maybe those of us who like to pretend we know what's going on can give you some ideas. We're a helpful bunch.
(Yes, we are! -Oh, really?- YES! -Are you so sure?- OF COURSE I'M SURE!)

 

[Comradecolonel]

What's going through your head when you sit down and begin to build a hull?

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I take queues from Sci-Fi and fact. If you look at a lot of the recent games, movie, tv shows and series, there are a bunch of designs that you could borrow from. You could make a mash-up of different ideas and wrap it around your interior. Something I'm doing a lot these days.

My preferred method now is to start with an interior and build around it, but there are instances where I chop off a whole section of interior to accommodate an exterior look or fix a design flaw.

 

[KiloZulu]

I look at a lot of sci-fi art and pick out things I like - it might be a wing, an engine, an antenna array, or whatever. As I'm laying out a ship, I look for places where I can use those designs, or take inspiration from them for something new. Also, I look for patterns - pieces that I can use repeatedly to fill in empty spaces on a ship. It creates a common theme across the ship and ties pieces together. What's more, it makes a handy device for tying multiple ships together that can be identified as coming from the same manufacturer or faction.

 

[Lukwan]

Nature, sacred geometry, Fibonacci-series & a good color palette.

 

[sayerulz]

You need to pray to the dark gods. But possibly not Khorne, because then you end up putting too much blood on your ships.

 

[Proxima_Centauri]

Build more ships.

 

[Valck]

Build more ships.

This. Build ships, improve them, scrap them, build new ships. Practice.

 

[FireG0dz]

You guys... you guys are truly amazing. I've come up with multiple shape ideas now. However the purpose of this ship is to be a planet buster, so a good ship build around a massive missile:beam:explosive weapon. I've heard elsewhere that a good way to start is by making a skeleton, and basing it off of that. So i will start this now, and will post it here in a little while, where you can give me more tips and where to go next.
I can't thank you guys enough,
FireG0dz

 

[Madman198237]

Missile-pulse-explosive actually makes for a more powerful alpha weapon (That combo is usually referred to as a nuke) than missile-beam-explosive. That said, depends on your intended function. How you intend to bust planets, really.

 

[FireG0dz]

Missile-pulse-explosive actually makes for a more powerful alpha weapon (That combo is usually referred to as a nuke) than missile-beam-explosive. That said, depends on your intended function. How you intend to bust planets, really.

Just a big missile that can blow up a planet in one shot. Thanks for the advice. The skeleton is done, i have screenshots and will be posting shortly.
[DOUBLEPOST=1466603037,1466602789][/DOUBLEPOST]Here is the skeleton. I took ideas based on a few sci-fi shapes, but now much. The main missile will be connected to rails and will be housed in a bay until it is time to use it. I want honest feedback. Not much offends me. If it sucks, tell me so, and how to fix it. On the other hand, don't just make fun of me. If you're going to tell me it sucks, tell me why and how i can improve it.

Spoiler: Pictures

sorry if the shipyard got in the way, it's kind of bright. Pretty much all i want to know is if the design will work, and how to continue from here.
Thanks for your help,
FireG0dz

 

[Madman198237]

Put some more framing in there. Figure out the top and bottom hull shapes.

Why a retractable missile?

 

[FireG0dz]

because not only will it look cool, but it will make sure the missile gets less damaged getting to its target (yes it will have shields)
[DOUBLEPOST=1466617328,1466614866][/DOUBLEPOST]Sadly, i cant make the ship because every 10 minutes or so the game makes me force restart my computer. I will continue to work on it once the situation is resolved

 

[jayman38]

I figure if you put a missile weapon system on a rail-attached entity, you won't be able to use the lock-on capability unless you switch entities. Could be neat. You'll just have to keep a limit on the number of other rail-attached entities, so that you don't have to flip around many times just to get to the missile entity, and back.

Or maybe you can just use wireless logic to dumb-fire the thing. A planet won't jump out of the way, so lock-on is entirely optional for a planet buster.

 

[Madman198237]

Ummmm.....I think you're talking about some sort of torpedo. The missile modules/slaves we're talking about are missile launcher things....No missile can ever have a shield, or (Right now) any health besides 1 HP. So, are you planning to launch a missile launcher of some kind into space, fly it to the target, then fire the missile?

A torpedo uses warhead blocks and is one-time-use (And actually has blocks physically move from your ship to the target), while a missile uses missile modules (And no blocks move in the process, just a missile entity that flies off to hit your target).
Something's being lost in translation.

 

[FireG0dz]

I was planning on making an missle - Pulse - Explosive layout. It would be an extendable cannon that's housed in a hangar bay. It would also be useful becasue it could be swapped out for almost any other weapon. But thats not happening anymore due to my game issue:
I have a very big problem with my game client

 

[nightrune]

Only beams can destroy planet cores right now.

 

[jontyfreack]

You need to pray to the dark gods. But possibly not Khorne, because then you end up putting too much blood on your ships.

I feel that was aimed towards me :p

I would suggest using different types of hull block on the exterior of ships. such as using a pinstripe of hull of the same colour to make it appear as if the hull is assembled out of plates, or to give it some interesting patterns. colour can play a massive part in the exterior of ships, even if you want to keep the ship generally the same colour it is always good to have a bit of variation in the colour.

and another thing, adding armour plates can help to make the shape a bit more interesting, such as a few panels on the underside of your ship could help to break up how flat it looks, and between those plates further details can be added. Also making a ship a split hull can help make the shape more interesting.


currently about to board a plane so if I see anything I can reply to, it will be late.