Ship Building: How Do You Design Your Ships?

[t3xx3r]

I set up a poll to find out from Starmadians how they design their ships.

I am curious as to find out what the creative processes are among the people who design their epic, awesome ships. If you cannot answer and pick Unspecified, please write out how you would design your ships. In fact, I think it would be awesome to find out how people really create their ships.

As for me, I design it depending on how I process my own thoughts. Normally I'd design from the get-go but I do usually design from the outside-in though I've realized that framing the ship and attempting to build the insides can be a challenging process.

I pick "variety of processes to build the ship as I see fit".

 

[Megacrafter127]

funny, where "design on the go" can lead one randomly:

Spoiler: images

 

[t3xx3r]

LOL! That is very awesome, dude! The first screenshot, I was thinking a cap ship with a huge ring o' beam o' death until it turned out to be a locomotive.

 

[blurb357]

I start from the outside, do a basic shape for the shell then start adding details and curves then interior then systems.

 

[Neon_42]

I design the basic layout on paper first. I mostly choose a form that fits its function. Then I use the copy and paste functions to make the interior from templates I already have saved. Then I add power and engines. Then the Hull. last I do weapons and turrets and docking.

 

[Asmael]

I always design the exterior first. If I'm dealing with a fairly small ship, I build as I go (tho I think about the global shape a bit).

For larger ships, it's a VERY good idea to start by making a "frame", that way you have a good idea of what your ship looks like, and if you're disappointed with a part of the ship, it's easy to just delete a few blocks and redo the frame, instead of huge areas of hull. That helps a lot, especially when dealing with circles, spiky arms and stuff.

The interior is always done once the exterior has been done completely, including detailing.

About Smedit... huh, not using it, but I'll probably have too if I want to copy a certain 6km long ship in Starmade... But I'll probably have a new comp by then. A much, much, much better comp.

 

[VillainousTaco]

I usually start with a big block of weapon systems or salvagers depending on what type of ship it's going to be. I make them long enough so that they stop at approximately what will be the middle of the ship.

After that I start working on the core room directly behind my weapons as it will be well guarded from frontal attacks.

From there it's kind of a mix; I'll start working on parts of the exterior and systems and just piece it together as I go. Generally the "shell" of the ship will be finished before all the systems are in place, but I like placing systems at the same time so I have enough room for everything.

 

[t3xx3r]

I design the basic layout on paper first. I mostly choose a form that fits its function. Then I use the copy and paste functions to make the interior from templates I already have saved. Then I add power and engines. Then the Hull. last I do weapons and turrets and docking.

I'll have to check out your ships!

I always design the exterior first. If I'm dealing with a fairly small ship, I build as I go (tho I think about the global shape a bit).

The interior is always done once the exterior has been done completely, including detailing.

That one is really challenging to new players. Usually designing the outside then proceeding to develop the insides can be daunting, especially those with very low patience. I can get impatient sometimes but gotta bust chops if I want to produce content.

I usually start with a big block of weapon systems or salvagers depending on what type of ship it's going to be. I make them long enough so that they stop at approximately what will be the middle of the ship.

After that I start working on the core room directly behind my weapons as it will be well guarded from frontal attacks.

What do you mean by you stop approximately at the middle of the ship?

So your ship designs usually have the ship core in the mid-aft sections?

 

[VillainousTaco]

I'll have to check out your ships!



That one is really challenging to new players. Usually designing the outside then proceeding to develop the insides can be daunting, especially those with very low patience. I can get impatient sometimes but gotta bust chops if I want to produce content.



What do you mean by you stop approximately at the middle of the ship?

So your ship designs usually have the ship core in the mid-aft sections?

The middle of the ship length wise. The remainder of the systems go mainly at the rear behind the core and to the sides of it. I usually place a concealed entrance at the top or bottom of the ship. I also dock a "shield ship" over the entrance area.

Basically a shield ship is a separate ship that's docked onto your primary ship but is made to look like its part of your ship, and it will be pretty much just shield blocks and hull blocks. I've also used these on the front and sides of my ships, since they have their own separate shields they can be used to soak up damage. You can also rotate your ship to spread the damage around to different shields.

 

[t3xx3r]

Basically a shield ship is a separate ship that's docked onto your primary ship but is made to look like its part of your ship, and it will be pretty much just shield blocks and hull blocks. I've also used these on the front and sides of my ships, since they have their own separate shields they can be used to soak up damage. You can also rotate your ship to spread the damage around to different shields.

Never have thought of it. Once I get my PC up and running, I'll try making a shield ship and see how it fares!

 

[Thalanor]

@VillainousTaco just the way I do it! That means you surely have encountered one of these situations like me:

- Oh shit, the ship is XXX meters long and I have not yet added any thrusters!
- How the hell do I ever power these systems
- I need more hangar space!

... which then leads to a significant length increase :D

 

[DrTarDIS]

overall shape -> try to incorporate various "features" (glitches) I know of in the game -> Discover new "features" associated with the "features" -> modify shape -> power systems -> "gimmick" & utility devices -> solidify hull shapes -> basic logic -> Turrets -> Modify turret areas of hull -> hull turrets -> Support craft -> Interior spaces -> detail hull -> fill in "gaps" with bonus shielding or storage -> logic details -> new game version alters fundamental nature of craft, start fresh.

 

[Jonj57]

Generally I try and get an idea then draw it as in-depth as possible on paper then I do a bunch of a skeletal work, then fill in the shell, then fill safety things like a few shield generator/basic power, then I do a basic interior layout, finish the interior, then stuff the thing with as many shields, power, etc as I can possibly fit.

 

[RedDwarfIV]

I've used several techniques to build my things. with the Ceres, I started from the front and worked my way backwards, fitting systems as I went. While I like the look of the Ceres, it was pretty poorly built, and I learned lessons from it.

Next, with the Siberia, I took one of my existing spacecraft drawings and thought "I could make this in Starmade". I'd already scanned the image, so I had something I could put straight into Paint.NET. I then resized the image to the intended length, and et voila! One pixel = one block. This time, I started off building the centre of the spacecraft around the core. A big problem I had with the Ceres was missiles taking out the Command Section (where the core was) at the front of the spacecraft, leaving the rest intact but useless. I mostly used the drawings as a guide though, changing it when I thought it looked wrong in 3D. The engine nacelles in particular needed to hug much more closely to the engine section's core. I built a little Flight Deck for the core, then worked on the exterior. When that was mostly done, I focused on building the interior, before finally fitting the systems.

Then I built the Juno. I started by drawing a side-view on my E-Slate tablet, but it quickly became apparent in-game that it wasn't nearly long enough. It was originally intended as a frigate but became a destroyer. Unfortunately, I had a brain fart and put the core in the nose again, but at least the computers weren't in the core room. No, I put them in a seperate room in front of the core room. Clearly I was on top form when I made that decision.

I'm currently building the Ida frigate, which had no plans, and I pretty much built as I went along. I remembered to put the core in (roughly) the centre this time. There were some major revisions, but it's only a 160 metre long craft so that didn't waste much time. And again, I'm building the shell, the internals, then systems.

 

[jayman38]

I make heavy use of LibreOffice's Draw (you can use Open Office for the same thing) to draw. I snap to grid with a 1/10 inch snap level to simulate block-level detail, and zoom in and out as needed for detail vs. large-scale design work.

I'll start out with some basic concepts, like what a ship should have. In this first case, I decided I wanted an Isanth-sized hanger bay with a fly-through flight deck. For the relatively small size of my design, this added significantly to hull size and limited my options, but forced me to focus my design.

One of the first designs is the core room. This will be the place you visit frequently, so it really needs to look neat and interesting.

Another concept I implement is the age-old artists trick of detail study. I'll create a separate ship and build it up to create a specific feature that I want for my ship. It's only a prototype, so no need to save it. Break it down, having learned lessons on how to lay things out.

 

[marcus87]

My process

I start with the basic shape my ship will have. In there get basic energy, thrust and shields.

Spoiler: step 1

Next come some details, here I wanted the ship to get some bigger turrets.

Spoiler: step 2

Next come the main weapons and the energyregeneration and storage needed

Spoiler: step 3

Keep addind details

Spoiler: details

I also use prebuild parts, rooms, reactors, weapons, armor ..... . It really makes building a lot faster.
Dock your ship to a station or other ship which holds all your parts. Then you can switch cores and quickly copy the needed parts. This way you can save all your parts easy too.

Spoiler: prebuild parts

 

[Malacodor]

I design my ships outside in after drawing them on paper and in Paint, so it's option 2 and 3. Designing the inside doesn't make much sense to me while weapons are still subject to significant changes and the HP-system isn't even in the game, yet, so I don't even know how many layers of armor I need.

I also use prebuild parts, rooms, reactors, weapons, armor ..... . It really makes building a lot faster.
Dock your ship to a station or other ship which holds all your parts. Then you can switch cores and quickly copy the needed parts. This way you can save all your parts easy too.

You can work with save and load now.

 

[NuclearFun]

For me it turns out best when i start with just a basic idea (maybe a very crude sketch) and work from inside out.

 

[marcus87]

I design my ships outside in after drawing them on paper and in Paint, so it's option 2 and 3. Designing the inside doesn't make much sense to me while weapons are still subject to significant changes and the HP-system isn't even in the game, yet, so I don't even know how many layers of armor I need.


You can work with save and load now.

I know but I like to see the parts

 

[Spartan-228]

I have used a number of methods, but I have come to like building from the inside out. That way I can make sure everything fits and I can make sure everything has the proper amount of internal armor before I move onto the outer hull.