StarMade for Skrubs-A Guide by TheDerpGamer

[TheDerpGamerX]

I've decided to use my experience in StarMade to start a sort of series teaching others what I know. I'll try to update this thread as much as possible. If you have any suggestions or want to share any of your own knowledge please let me know in the comments.

StarMade For Skrubs

Faction Ship Design
Let's say you want to make an official fleet for your faction. A set of standardized uniform ships. But where to start? Allow me to help.

Spoiler: Part One:Design Sketching

Step One:Draw Some Designs
For step one, all you have to to is draw some cool designs. These will help you decide what you want your fleets to look like. You don't have to be a fantastic artist.

(excuse the crappy image quality)
NDV-Hurricane Class Heavy Cruiser

Step Two:Color and Labeling
Color scheming your ship helps a LOT in it's final design. You don't have to color everything perfectly, just a few stripes or whatever is good. In addition, try to label important stuff like the bridge or hangars or even the ship's total length.

NDV-Atlas Class Carrier

Step Three:Plan Out Turret Locations
You always want to have a good idea of where you want your turrets. I label the general area of where I want them to go using different shapes for different turret types. This will help me make sure that I don't have to re design the hull later when I'm adding turrets.

NDV-Poseidon Class Dreadnaught

Step Four:Final Drawing
This step isn't necessary, but I like to do it anyways. I simply retrace my drawing in Adobe Illustrator.

NDV-Maelstrom Class Battleship

Now you're ready to build!

Notes:

• You don't have to design your ships like these. They can be any shape, this guide is just for the design process itself.

Spoiler: Part Two:Hull Designing

(WIP)

Logic n' Stuff
Cool Logic Stuffs and Things

(WIP)

 

[Nosajimiki]

This actually raises a more general topic worth mentioning typically referred to as the 3 design strategies (Exterior first, Interior first, and systems first)

The above example is actually a really good demonstration of the first method "Exterior first"; however, the method you choose has a lot to do with your goals. Exterior first is the ideal method for making sci-fi replicas or designing ships with specific aesthetics in mind.

The second method, Interior first, is recommended if you want to place emphasis on what your ship will feel like on the inside. If you start with a hard set hull outline, you will often find yourself having to squeeze rooms and systems into shapes that don't quite accomodate them; so, to avoid that, some players start off by designing the bridge, crew quarters, hangers, etc. Then they build the systems around the interior, then design the Hull last. The final shape of a ship built like this is a bit less predictable, but if you are for example designing a ship for shooting a YouTube RolePlay series in, that extra emphasis on interior is ideal.

The third method, and the most popular among the PvP crowd is the systems first approach. Here you begin not with a drawing but with math. You start off by determining exactly how much shields/weapons etc. you want along with what chambers you will use. From that you derive the size reactor you need based on the power draw of said systems (you'll want to buffer a bit of extra power to account for lag, damage, and thrust). At this point, you'll have an accurate feel for your final mass so you can figure out thruster size needed to hit your TTM goal. Once you have all these sizes figured out you lay out your systems in space in cubes. Next, you want to place your turret rails in space being mindful of firing arcs. Since you already know how many weapon blocks you will use, you can approximate how much each turret will occlude if trying to stagger them. The most important thing is to make sure they will all be able to aim forward without being in each other's way. Then you design the actual turrets to verify that they have good range of motion (adjust docking points if needed). At this point your ships is systems-complete. This is a good time to fly it around, make sure it performs well, test weapons, etc. engines should be overpowered at this point, to account for the hull you've yet to add. Then you design the interior. Lastly you design your hull to fit with your systems, turrets, and interior.

The latter 2 methods give less control over your final design, but they do not exclude fleet standardization. If you always layout your systems and interiors in the same relative pattern, you'll always have similarly shaped ships when you are done. Then you use "common motifs" to maintain a uniform look. These can be anything from armor plates that you like to build in certain shapes, patterns of lights, color scheme, logos, etc. You could also take this opportunity to screenshot your systems & interior complete ship and draw over it to figure out your design.

 

[Calhoun]

mfw when dovan makes a design post

 

[The Judge]

Step 1: Draw a nice looking ship
Step 2: BRICK

 

[TheDerpGamerX]

mfw when dovan makes a design post

wOW dAT is the BIGG ruDe

Step 1: Draw a nice looking ship
Step 2: BRICK

yep. exactly how i make ships. right here

 

[Nosajimiki]

Step 1: Draw a nice looking ship
Step 2: BRICK

This also reminds me, of something that seems to be missing from your exterior first guide which is wireframing. A lot of people have a hard time translating design to ship in starmade; so, if you start with a bunch of spaghetti lines of hull blocks, you can "sketch" the shape first, then zoom out and pan around to see where it falls flat and adjust. Do this a few times and you can get the shape right before filling things in. Then when filling time comes, you just interpolate the shapes between the lines so that you don't lose big picture when zoomed in on the small details

 

[EricBlank]

You both forgot "mashing shit together at random because you have only a vague understanding of what you want the final product to be and then scrapping and rebuilding entire sections or everything multiple times"

Not like thats how i create my beautiful works of art or anything, no siree!

 

[FlyingDebris]

all of my designs were created with no prior planning whatsoever

 

[The Judge]

all of my designs were created with no prior planning whatsoever

In true Trinovan style I do the same

 

[Calhoun]

In true Trinovan style I do the same

*design

 

[JinM]

all of my designs were created with no prior planning whatsoever

I am not sure if irony or not, but your ships kinda have a simmiliar look on them. This could be ofcourse because you like it this way, or because you actually don't plan designs and thus don't have a point in your build process, where you put in new ideas or some unique parts onto new ships.

 

[Calhoun]

I am not sure if irony or not, but your ships kinda have a simmiliar look on them. This could be ofcourse because you like it this way, or because you actually don't plan designs and thus don't have a point in your build process, where you put in new ideas or some unique parts onto new ships.

Did you ever consider that it's because he runs a faction and wants to have a matching aesthetic for all the faction ships

 

[TheDerpGamerX]

Did you ever consider that it's because he runs a faction and wants to have a matching aesthetic for all the faction ships

*ran a faction
Trinova = ded now

Also why I'm copying their designs now.

 

[The Judge]

Did you ever consider that it's because he runs a faction and wants to have a matching aesthetic for all the faction ships

I'll be honest to immerse myself in Trinovan architecture I looked at Trinovan ships for 30 minutes every day for a week, and even took some notes on them, and Debris' building style. I don't take notes for shit irl so idk what the frick* (I forgot, no swearing) I am doing with my life

 

[Crimson-Artist]

My design philosophy:
"Is it too Detailed?"
NEVER!

 

[JinM]

My design philosophy:
"Is it too Detailed?"
NEVER!

Spagetti Hull confirmed.
[doublepost=1520762844,1520762595][/doublepost]

Did you ever consider that it's because he runs a faction and wants to have a matching aesthetic for all the faction ships

Uhm I didn't ask you what you think he thought when he designed his ships?

I still don't know from him if it was a conscious decission or if he was serious when he said he wouldn't plan. You might know him better but I rather ask if a stranger means irony or not.

If he is still mad at me for things in the past no problem. But I don't need you as man in the middle, as you are not answering my original question and write in a tone I don't really think is justified.

 

[virtue1987]

Me: I have an idea for a interesting and good lookign shipdesing that will fit my fleet.

After a few hours:

Well....fuck

 

[EricBlank]

Is that supposed to be what warhammer ships would look like mushed together after a high speed collision?

 

[virtue1987]

Is that supposed to be what warhammer ships would look like mushed together after a high speed collision?

Pretty much that.
Edit: This pic is suppose to show that i would go all over the place when building a ship, but to be honest, if i could pull this off in SM, that would be pretty awesome.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

I never do out-of-game planning.

I usually just give an approximate boxdim in which I want to place the ship, to determine very vaguely the mass range, then trace the very basic shape with hull blocks, then comes the interior, but already laid out so there's enough space to install some good systems for decent stats. Then a plain basic shape is made, after that the edges rounded somewhat, turret emplacements formed, then come the systems to determine if I need adjustments on the hull for more system space to reach the desired stats. Then, more details both on interior and exterior, and if there's any, the logic circuits installed as a final touch. And then, for days/weeks, fine tuning both systems and hull details as I come up with better ideas for them or experiment with different layouts.