How to do systems In a quick manner?

[<SCRIPTKITTY>]

I've been taking on a lot of larger projects lately but I always get tired of doing the systems, I know how to do systems good someone has taught me how to do weapon systems and I have a checklist for that. But filling hulls gets exhausting for me since it takes about 400x the time it took to build the hull itself.
Anyone know any good tricks and tips for making this part of the build flow better/quicker?

 

[Sgtwisky]

Well, I don't have any tricks for filling the hull up with system blocks. To tell you the truth, building the hull always takes me WAY longer. But that is due to being bad at building good looking things....

I'm going to assume you do, but just to be sure, are you using symmetry modes in advanced build mod? If not that could help you.

Other then symmetry, I'm not sure about a faster way to place system blocks.

 

[Jarraff]

If you are building in a shipyard or anytime you are building within the bounding box of a station i have found that placing large amounts of blocks gets very laggy. If you build large ships in single player you can do it away from any other bounding boxes and turn the adv build dimensions up to 100 and place blocks very quickly.

But I think your talking about filling in irregular hull in witch case it can be time consuming.

Someday we might get a fill option.

 

[AtraUnam]

Systems can be done quickly if you do them badly. Effort in = Effect out

 

[jayman38]

My tips:
1. Fill in angled corners as needed to create straight lines in cardinal directions, which in turn create empty rectangular-block-shaped spaces, then use advanced mode to put in an entire block of systems at once.
2. When creating checker-board systems, such as power lines or checkerboard weapon/salvage arrays, place one type of block first in the checkerboard pattern with spaces between the sticks, then use advanced build mode to place a whole 3D block (not just a line) of the other type of block in the area. The placed blocks will not replace any of the existing checkerboard "sticks", and will only fill in the spaces. Example: placing power lines and then using advanced mode to place multiple power capacitor or thruster "filler" between the power lines.

 

[<SCRIPTKITTY>]

Everyone has made some good points here thank you guys.

 

[Lecic]

Systems can be done quickly if you do them badly. Effort in = Effect out

Exactly what I was going to say. Rome wasn't built in a day, after all.

 

[Chances_Ghost]

make a spreadsheet knowing how many blocks your hull is vs how many blocks of space you have for systems

then adjust ratios to meet your particular thrust/power/weapon specs wtc and then once done just place the number of any given systems worth of blocks inside the hull in the location of your chosing. its a little bit of effort but you end up with what is essentially the most efficiant systems possable

 

[Lecic]

make a spreadsheet knowing how many blocks your hull is vs how many blocks of space you have for systems

then adjust ratios to meet your particular thrust/power/weapon specs wtc and then once done just place the number of any given systems worth of blocks inside the hull in the location of your chosing. its a little bit of effort but you end up with what is essentially the most efficiant systems possable

Isn't it rather difficult to calculate the internal space of a ship that isn't a brick of some variety?

 

[Master_Artificer]

Honestly, systems are a pain. Takes me like 2 weeks to do it, as well as a week of testing, rebuilding, and 'bugfixing'.

Weapons and power take the longest, in terms of how much you need/can support, with placement and protective inner armor being important as well.
Then it's thrust, then shields, then more thrust, then removing blocks to fit in defensive effects.
Those last steps can be done in a day, but the power and weapons testing is a pain in the neck.
Although I do think I spend more time on the hull than the systems, shooting up the hull and finding out weak points and if I can armor it more or negate the effect of the weakness as much as possible.
Obviously all good ships have weaknesses but it's how you manage those weak points that make a vessel.

Isn't it rather difficult to calculate the internal space of a ship that isn't a brick of some variety?

Throw it in water and measure the displacement or something. Eureka

 

[Chances_Ghost]

Isn't it rather difficult to calculate the internal space of a ship that isn't a brick of some variety?

you just fill up the hull and subtract its total block count while empty from its total block count while full.... then just mass remove all those shield modules you used to fill it with using the advanced build mode....

not a whole lot of effort concidering the advantage of being able to have aboslutlly perfect block ratios with no wasted blocks or space.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

I normally break it down into sections, starting from the front. There's no "quick" way, but I find being a bit systematic and organised speeds things up a bit compared to placing at random.

 

[Lukwan]

Each builder will be proficient in different areas. Know your strengths and plan ahead. It helps to decide first if your build will focus on style or efficient design. Of course you will try to make it perfect in both regards but you will usually have to favor one or the other.

For me starting with hull means: Style First. So, I make the hull bigger than is needed to get fine details and to have room to build inside. With extra room it is easier to make long rows of weapon-mods using advanced build mode & symmetry. Shift-click to link an entire group of mods to their computer. Other systems can be placed in rows as well to speed the build...and later tweaking.

This is key: don't feel it is required to fill all the air-spaces! This will make your job filling MUCH easier because you wont be nitpicking every corner. Air space is an effective defense. When explosive radius is calculated on a flat wall: half of your damage is wasted on the hemisphere of empty space out side the hull. Similarly Punch-through damage will hurt blocks behind the target block but will not travel indefinitely through empty space. (I think the effect stops after 3 or 4 meters.) So...empty space is your friend.

*Tricks for Speed Building:
-Advanced build mode lets you drop many blocks with one click. Also SYMMETRY-MODE.
-Sometimes laying 2-4 block rows (in ADV BM) can allow for more versatility than trying to fiddle with long rows of 10 or more.
-Build-Helper will allow you do a 'Block-replace' move. (Swaps one block-type for another within the bounding area.) Also good for cool 'filtered remove' IE: 'get rid of all blocks of this type.'
-Mirrored-mode will orient slabs correctly in symmetry-mode.
-Advanced build mode has a powerful Template function. Using Copy then 'Paste-Mode' you can replicate small build areas and paste them all over the place. Templates are a reusable resource that can be saved for later use.
-Modular-System BPs can be designed as independent dock-able entities. Power-transfer beams allow for docked reactors and the new thruster-mechanic now allows us to 'inherit thrust' from docked entities. You can make dock-able engine nacelles and mount them internally or externally.

These advanced techniques take time to master but will it will greatly help you in you future builds. Having had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and struggling with 'Trigger-Finger' I do everything I can to limit keystrokes and button-clicks. Each click in ADV BM saves 10 in regular build mode on average. Totally worth it. :D

I hope this helps, Cheers
Lukwan

 

[Lecic]

Similarly Punch-through damage will hurt blocks behind the target block but will not travel indefinitely through empty space. (I think the effect stops after 3 or 4 meters.)

False. While spaced armor is very useful against missiles, it does NOT do anything to punchthrough.

 

[Lukwan]

False. While spaced armor is very useful against missiles, it does NOT do anything to punchthrough.

Thanks Lecic. How about piercing? Does piercing-effect also keep going after the target block? (through space)

note *I should do more more testing myself but there are sooooo many things to do.

 

[Lecic]

Thanks Lecic. How about piercing? Does piercing-effect also keep going after the target block? (through space)

note *I should do more more testing myself but there are sooooo many things to do.

I'm not sure if cannons can actually get the "piercing" damage type any more, now that they have innate punch. Pretty sure pierce effect just buffs cannon damage to blocks.

Beams use the piercing damage system. I'm not sure if that can go through empty space or not.

 

[Master_Artificer]

All punch through does now is increase block damage, and also adds a damage multiplier to whatever is routed to the armor bar.

Peirce still does not shield damage (unless you stick it on missiles) and does even more damage to blocks and causes less of the damage to be "lost" to the armor bar.
On missiles I'm pretty sure it is like a minor overdrive effect with increased block damage and increased blast radius.
Crack open those configuration with notepad ++ or something, it helps.