How to build nice ships ?

[solarapple]

eeeEasy! you do teh SCIENCE and watch people burN with hourScinece!

In all serious though, my method is to STEEEL URIGIONAL CHURACTERS. Well, atleast get as much inspiration as you can. Spawn in some test ships, replicate artwork, copy/paste parts of good builders. So throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks, keep what you like and eliminate the bad. Then start coming up with the shape of your ships, setup structural rules such as piping and engine systems and SAVE ALL OF THE GREEBLING AND DETAILS YOU MAKE and whala! You just chruned out your own building style from millions of others!

As for my building style (which might change with the new update), I start with sections of the ship that fit out s purpose such as drone carrying, turret holding, bridges, you get the deal. Add your greebling in areas that would be considered "under the hood," then add your piping, and external tanks in appropriate areas. Coat the thing in triangular/rectangular armor plates and you've got a planetary annihilation orbital unit. Have fun!

EXAMPLES:

[DOUBLEPOST=1456893402,1456893052][/DOUBLEPOST]ANd for some reason I can't edit my reply, but I forgot one VERY IMPORTANT THING: COLOR SCHEMES. Get yourself a good set of colors. For me, I pick grey and black for greebling/details, and white/red for pipes and armor plates. My next color scheme for this update is gonna be:
-Black for greebling
-Grey for details
-Yellow for pipes and tanks
-Red and white for interior and armor plates
-All for others

 

[ZektorSK]

eeeEasy! you do teh SCIENCE and watch people burN with hourScinece!

In all serious though, my method is to STEEEL URIGIONAL CHURACTERS. Well, atleast get as much inspiration as you can. Spawn in some test ships, replicate artwork, copy/paste parts of good builders. So throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks, keep what you like and eliminate the bad. Then start coming up with the shape of your ships, setup structural rules such as piping and engine systems and SAVE ALL OF THE GREEBLING AND DETAILS YOU MAKE and whala! You just chruned out your own building style from millions of others!

As for my building style (which might change with the new update), I start with sections of the ship that fit out s purpose such as drone carrying, turret holding, bridges, you get the deal. Add your greebling in areas that would be considered "under the hood," then add your piping, and external tanks in appropriate areas. Coat the thing in triangular/rectangular armor plates and you've got a planetary annihilation orbital unit. Have fun!

EXAMPLES:

[DOUBLEPOST=1456893402,1456893052][/DOUBLEPOST]ANd for some reason I can't edit my reply, but I forgot one VERY IMPORTANT THING: COLOR SCHEMES. Get yourself a good set of colors. For me, I pick grey and black for greebling/details, and white/red for pipes and armor plates. My next color scheme for this update is gonna be:
-Black for greebling
-Grey for details
-Yellow for pipes and tanks
-Red and white for interior and armor plates
-All for others

So basically I have to steal someone's ship,and edit it into my own ship ?

 

[Nickizzy]

So basically I have to steal someone's ship,and edit it into my own ship ?

Hmph. I suppose in a slight way, but more like finding a cool shape or design from a few guys, look arround for some textures and create your own.

 

[solarapple]

Not really. Think of it as throwing a bunch of ships in the kitchen sink, cutting off the parts you dont like about them, and analyzing the stuff you do like. Then do something from scratch with the properties in mind. Then follow this: Get idea and build. If it looks good, it's done. If not, see what you can improve, improve that, and ask the same question. Repeat as many times as neccessary. Unless you are really just a gifted builder from the start/have been doing it for years, you should never stop after 2 improvements or less. If you are, you're doing something w r o n g.

After looking at some popular ships from very good builders in the community, as well as some deviantart stuff and PA titans, I've come to realize that I like complex systems to be integrated into the hull as main greebling, to be covered by armor plates. I'm currently working on an anti-shield heavy corvette to be part of a new fleet command thing. Here's an example of that one and the first ship I ever made when I was still doing the kitchen sink ship butchery:

Current:

Anti-shield corvette - Here I've got yellow as fuel tanks and piping to the engine exhaust. Advanced Grey serves as a cable/wire cage and reinforcement for the main shell of Standard Grey. The framework is done with Advanced Black.

Starting:

Missile Boat - Still trying to setup a building style and color scheme, this ship has armor plates and belts as reinforcements to important areas. There's some straps holding them down as well as breaks in the hull, and many cables/pipes. Also a vent, so there's that.

 

[ZektorSK]

Not really. Think of it as throwing a bunch of ships in the kitchen sink, cutting off the parts you dont like about them, and analyzing the stuff you do like. Then do something from scratch with the properties in mind. Then follow this: Get idea and build. If it looks good, it's done. If not, see what you can improve, improve that, and ask the same question. Repeat as many times as neccessary. Unless you are really just a gifted builder from the start/have been doing it for years, you should never stop after 2 improvements or less. If you are, you're doing something w r o n g.

After looking at some popular ships from very good builders in the community, as well as some deviantart stuff and PA titans, I've come to realize that I like complex systems to be integrated into the hull as main greebling, to be covered by armor plates. I'm currently working on an anti-shield heavy corvette to be part of a new fleet command thing. Here's an example of that one and the first ship I ever made when I was still doing the kitchen sink ship butchery:

Current:

Anti-shield corvette - Here I've got yellow as fuel tanks and piping to the engine exhaust. Advanced Grey serves as a cable/wire cage and reinforcement for the main shell of Standard Grey. The framework is done with Advanced Black.

Starting:

Missile Boat - Still trying to setup a building style and color scheme, this ship has armor plates and belts as reinforcements to important areas. There's some straps holding them down as well as breaks in the hull, and many cables/pipes. Also a vent, so there's that.

I have mostly problem with the hull type.. It just don't want to look nice.. everytime I do wireframe,it is just stupid... And I try 10x time and it just can't look good...Even when I first draw it into paper

 

[solarapple]

s

I have mostly problem with the hull type.. It just don't want to look nice.. everytime I do wireframe,it is just stupid... And I try 10x time and it just can't look good...Even when I first draw it into paper

try starting by flipping geometric shapes into a wedge. then try more complex thugs like vertical designs, wings, walls of cannons, etc. pick a shape that fits what you're building and go for it.

 

[Edymnion]

So basically I have to steal someone's ship,and edit it into my own ship ?

In the art world, we call that "drawing inspiration from", but essentially yes.

Find a design you like, and freaking copy it. Then tweak it a bit to make it more like you want.

Don't feel bad about doing that either. Pretty much all of cinema and literature tell the same basic stories over and over again, just changing minor details like names and locations.

I mean, look at what is generally considered one of the most original ships of her time, the TOS Enterprise. How did it end up looking that way? Gene said "Don't give me a flying saucer or a Flash Gordon rocket ship", so what did they do? They stuck three Flash Gordon rocket ships and a flying saucer together with sticks, and called it done. Seriously, look at the underside of the TOS saucer section for the triangle markings. Those were supposed to be landing gear where the saucer could separate and land like a flying saucer (but it never got used for budget reasons, though the idea was recycled into Next Generation where it was again barely used because of how expensive the shot was at the time).

Don't be afraid to literally look up "cool spaceships" on google images, pick out ones you like, and mash them together. Some of the greatest ship designs in the genre were built exactly that way.

 

[TFlok]

I personally think very highly of my ship designs and prefer this sort of plain look, for example this new ship I built yesterday:



Powerful modded salvage array to allow more interior. It's about 14 blocks long that rapid salvage cannon. At the bottom of this alien vessel is a single powerful overdriven rapid fire cannon which is about the length of the entire ship.



Cargo bay in the back and an extra emergency airlock on the top, has a systems room in the front, pilot's command and living room in the center, first aid and teleporter room in the middle of cargo bay and an airlock to the pilot's command/living room.

I don't care if it's an eyesore to the rest of you because it's not an eyesore to me (except the lighting bugs). Period.

 

[ZektorSK]

I personally think very highly of my ship designs and prefer this sort of plain look, for example this new ship I built yesterday:

View attachment 23072

Powerful modded salvage array to allow more interior. It's about 14 blocks long that rapid salvage cannon. At the bottom of this alien vessel is a single powerful overdriven rapid fire cannon which is about the length of the entire ship.

View attachment 23073

Cargo bay in the back and an extra emergency airlock on the top, has a systems room in the front, pilot's command and living room in the center, first aid and teleporter room in the middle of cargo bay and an airlock to the pilot's command/living room.

I don't care if it's an eyesore to the rest of you because it's not an eyesore to me (except the lighting bugs). Period.

Where did you get pink hull ?

 

[TFlok]

Where did you get pink hull ?

Pink? What? No the hull's purple. It's the purple crystal glass that's pink for some reason.

And I use creative mode so, frell if I know.