StarMade University - Official Thread

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    Thanks for the help, i now have a high level jump drive, a high level scanner, and my shields recharge a fast now. Is there a reason not to set reactor capacity to 100%? does that degrade efficiency?
     

    klawxx

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    View attachment 55484

    Yep, that did it. View attachment 55485

    And it looks like i can level it up too. This is good to know. Now i can finish my test plaftform ship.
    yay! well done! but you chamber is too big, eating up uneeded space: check the values of SIZE and Minimum Size Req! You need a small buffer to keep up it working if some blocks are destroyed, but too much is just dead weight.
    Cheers,
     
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    yay! well done! but you chamber is too big, eating up uneeded space: check the values of SIZE and Minimum Size Req! You need a small buffer to keep up it working if some blocks are destroyed, but too much is just dead weight.
    Cheers,
    So there is a method to that madness: no weapons have been installed yet. so i may need to enlarge my reactor and if so, i don't want to go back and have to adjust those chambers.

    Now for a new problem: How do you make turrets now? 3 years ago i would put a rail docker on a ship core, and fire a docking beam at a turret docker. I went to do that last night and i could not figure out how to dock the first core to the ship. Not sure if there has been a drastic change, or if i am making a mistake somewhere.
     
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    klawxx

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    Thanks for the help, i now have a high level jump drive, a high level scanner, and my shields recharge a fast now. Is there a reason not to set reactor capacity to 100%? does that degrade efficiency?
    Well, you should use as much you can, but do not go over 100%. It will overload the system. Use only use what you need. The more blocks you have the more engine blocks you will need and more power will be needed. Keep it close to your desired base spec. Otherwise you will start with a frigate and end up with a ineffective Titan...

    So there is a method to that madness: no weapons have been installed yet. so i may need to enlarge my reactor and if so, i don't want to go back and have to adjust those chambers.

    Now for a new problem: How do you make turrets now? 3 years ago i would put a rail docker on a ship core, and fire a docking beam at a turret docker. I went to do that last night and i could not figure out how to dock the first core to the ship. Not sure if there has been a drastic change, or if i am making a mistake somewhere.
    First of all, sorry for the grammar here, I'm on a mobile wih different language setup. not a native speaker either so be gentle =)

    The basic mindset for the new power system is:
    The size of your power reactor will determine the size of your ship. this happens because you have a minimum distance between your reactor and the stabilizers groups. I explained this in details on a post above. Check the "University Index"on the OP.

    After you reactor is set and your ship has been wireframed you can start to add chambers, rooms and systems... If its a RP ship it will have more rooms and less systems. If PvP it will be the opposite.

    if you add too much of one system like weapons, e everything else will be hindered, due to power constrains. you can grab more power or reduce comsumption of some systems with specific chambers, but you will also have reactor constrains.... what to favor will deppend on your objectives and skillset. thats the beauty of starmade....

    Now, into turrets...
    You need to start by adding a rail turret axis block to your main fuselage. leave some room, now turrets have colision areas and need clearance.
    after that you need to design a turret base that fits. it usually starts with the horizontal axis. after that you need another turret axis block, but this time on the other axis (vertical). the turret headpiece also needs clearance to rotate inside or outside, your choice, of the other axis (base). it could be quite a challenge at first... but its not that hard. it works just like any real robotic arm or old battleship emplacement!

    important: the bobby ai and the weapon computers go into the headpiece!!! do not forge to attach the weapon blocks to their respective computers.

    start working with this... we can expand later. check my HammerFall Cruiser or the Armageddon Navy Issue on the Community Content! They both have turrets. Take them apart and see how they work on the inside.

    cheers!
     
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    Well, you should use as much you can, but do not go over 100%. It will overload the system. Use only use what you need. The more blocks you have the more engine blocks you will need and more power will be needed. Keep it close to your desired base spec. Otherwise you will start with a frigate and end up with a ineffective Titan...



    First of all, sorry for the grammar here, I'm on a mobile wih different language setup. not a native speaker either so be gentle =)

    The basic mindset for the new power system is:
    The size of your power reactor will determine the size of your ship. this happens because you have a minimum distance between your reactor and the stabilizers groups. I explained this in details on a post above. Check the "University Index"on the OP.

    After you reactor is set and your ship has been wireframed you can start to add chambers, rooms and systems... If its a RP ship it will have more rooms and less systems. If PvP it will be the opposite.

    if you add too much of one system like weapons, e everything else will be hindered, due to power constrains. you can grab more power or reduce comsumption of some systems with specific chambers, but you will also have reactor constrains.... what to favor will deppend on your objectives and skillset. thats the beauty of starmade....

    Now, into turrets...
    You need to start by adding a rail turret axis block to your main fuselage. leave some room, now turrets have colision areas and need clearance.
    after that you need to design a turret base that fits. it usually starts with the horizontal axis. after that you need another turret axis block, but this time on the other axis (vertical). the turret headpiece also needs clearance to rotate inside or outside, your choice, of the other axis (base). it could be quite a challenge at first... but its not that hard. it works just like any real robotic arm or old battleship emplacement!

    important: the bobby ai and the weapon computers go into the headpiece!!! do not forge to attach the weapon blocks to their respective computers.

    start working with this... we can expand later. check my HammerFall Cruiser or the Armageddon Navy Issue on the Community Content! They both have turrets. Take them apart and see how they work on the inside.

    cheers!
    Don't worry about the grammar, i has multiple college duhgrees and still screw up my own language, a lot.

    One caveat that is going to screw with things, is that i am running the quickfire config, with the quickfire initiative. So someof the power features are different, like stabilizer distance is disabled. Seeing as i have been gone for a while i view this as a noob test for that config: is it easier to pick up or does it make the game harder? I think that it has helped me get back into the game a bit because there is a big thread on it with good details on the mechanics. Also from what i understand, that config will be standard in the universe update. So any ship i make will already be prepared for that update...

    This throws a wrench into things, because i have to figure out what is a vanilla mechanic, and what is a mechanic that was changed. I have to keep that in mind to make sure i ask the appropriate question in the appropriate thread.

    As for the turrets, do they need ship cores for the axis blocks, or can i attach those directly from the ship? I will play around with it and send screenshots. When the rail update came out each axis needed a ship core, and i assumed that is still the case...
     
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    klawxx

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    Don't worry about the grammar, i has multiple college duhgrees and still screw up my own language, a lot.

    One caveat that is going to screw with things, is that i am running the quickfire config, with the quickfire initiative. So someof the power features are different, like stabilizer distance is disabled. Seeing as i have been gone for a while i view this as a noob test for that config: is it easier to pick up or does it make the game harder? I think that it has helped me get back into the game a bit because there is a big thread on it with good details on the mechanics. Also from what i understand, that config will be standard in the universe update. So any ship i make will already be prepared for that update...

    This throws a wrench into things, because i have to figure out what is a vanilla mechanic, and what is a mechanic that was changed. I have to keep that in mind to make sure i ask the appropriate question in the appropriate thread.

    As for the turrets, do they need ship cores for the axis blocks, or can i attach those directly from the ship? I will play around with it and send screenshots. When the rail update came out each axis needed a ship core, and i assumed that is still the case...
    Hum.... Well, quickfire is just a change of the values of the game files, no mechanic was changed, but you will need more blocks of a kind and less of the others... I aways run with stable so they xan really help you with the tunning. but yea, for turrets you still need one core per section, but the hp works different you ship will not overheat by the core, but by the reactor.... Im most a role play decorator guy so I may not be a good adivice on stats and systems but I can somewhat help you with general design, logic and rails.
     
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    20191217140647_1.jpg

    So yeah, i have the turret docker on the ship, and a rail on the core, but i can not get them to dock. Am i using the right blocks? There is no docking beam like in the past, how do i attach a core to a rail dock?

    Never mind, i figured out what i was doing wrong,it was a Rail DOCKER i needed.... boy do i feel stupid.

    Thanks for the help so far. I got a lot done that i would have struggled with otherwise...
     
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    klawxx

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    View attachment 55486

    So yeah, i have the turret docker on the ship, and a rail on the core, but i can not get them to dock. Am i using the right blocks? There is no docking beam like in the past, how do i attach a core to a rail dock?

    Never mind, i figured out what i was doing wrong,it was a Rail DOCKER i needed.... boy do i feel stupid.

    Thanks for the help so far. I got a lot done that i would have struggled with otherwise...
    I believe you flipped the system

    On the ship you need a rail turret axis and on the turret a Rail Docker. Only the presence of a rail docker block allow you to have a docking beam... You should take a look on the Wiki too, theres some good info there: https://starmadepedia.net/wiki/Turret, for example.
     
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    Noob questions about turrets (I hope I'm not too off-topic):

    1. If in any position the turrets fit entirely into the mothership/station shield sphere, does the mothership or station shield also protect its turrets? I think the answer may be different for stations and for ships, not sure.

    2. I like having all my turrets autonomous. I mean, if for any reason I detach them they should become a sort of drone without thrusters but with the firepower of a turret. So, I will place a reactor inside each one of them, to feed their weapons when detached. Now, while attached to a ship or a station, does that reactor (which is in the "head" or barrel. The turret base my style is just 3 blocks usually: Core, rail docker, turret dock for the head and nothing else, with a lot of free space between core and rail docker to make turret barrel seem floating above fuselage with no physical connection between them) , does that reactor feed the turret's weapons? Or is it inactive and turret's weapons are only eating up power from the mothership as long as the turret is docked?

    3. This question matters only if the turret's reactor is active while docked. If the mothership has more important chambers on it and only the turret has permanent scanning, max level, how does that scanner benefit the person in the ship's core, not turret's core?
     
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    1. Turrets are protected by the mothership or station they are docked with.
    2. Docked power is no longer a thing. It would not benefit you anyway because docked entities stay docked even if the rail its docked to is blown up. It was changed to prevent lots of collisions when turrets were detached.
     
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    Thank you! So docked reactors use no chambers and feed no weapons, they are simply inactive?

    I noticed that by docking ships to a station that had more than enough power for the station (shields and factory blocks and factory enhancers) said station gets unpowered because it tries to feed the also self-sufficient ships from its own reactor and not from theirs, which is simply stupid. So turrets would do the same, you say. They will get power from whatever they are docked to, even if they are also self-sufficient.

    It seems so retarded it's hard to believe, but if you say so, I do believe you. I'm not talking about docked reactors feeding power back into their mothership with power rays, I'm talking about the ships docked to a 6 blocks Home Base should shoot their guts out every time an enemy is approaching while being invulnerable due to being docked to HB, just like they did in the past. Not stay idle because the 6 blocks HB can't power them.

    This also means undocked turrets (by the Structure menu or by logic) would start using their own power only after undocking or will they keep sucking power out of your ship even when you jump out of sector, leaving them behind? I'm not sure I understood your answer to this one.

    Not to mention in older versions, those collisions used to kick a few times, then teleport both the undocked turret and the ship a few hundred meters away. Which was very useful, since undocking turrets is my last move before jumping out, when I'm loosing. The sudden repositioning of my ship and the fact that for the enemy AI suddenly there are 9 targets instead of one and that one stopped shooting buys me the 5 seconds to jump away, and that matters a lot. Eliminating the collisions is not doing me any favor.

    Sometimes I also leave turrets in space to guard something, like an enemy base, without even docking them to something. With their only thruster, they won't wonder too far anyway. And dropping the turrets you carry with you then replacing them later on your ship from BPs is a lot faster than building new turrets or placing factioned mines all around for every place you need guarded.

    Making turrets self sufficient means they are actually oversized unshielded drones, with just 1 or a few thrusters for their mass (and they tend to be 1k mass or more), but still oversized drones with 99% power in weapons. Turrets on a 100k mass ship of mine often are bigger and hit way harder than my 2-3k mass fighters. I also tend to design them like independent ships (visually) that just fly in formation around the mothership or station they are actually connected to. I hope Schema will not make a ship made with 2 blocks here (core and the rail docker docked under the hull with blast doors replacing hull only above them) and 1 turret dock 20 or more meters apart from them, well off the hull (with nothing between the 2 and the one, not even deactivated forcefields) fall apart, because that is always my turret base. If he does, I can't make turrets dock to visually nothing anymore and I swear I will never make turrets again.
     
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    You can undock turrets deliberately if you want. Getting them shot of however will not work. If you undock them by hand, they will operate under their own power. If they are docked power modules will essentially be dead weight.

    You can fiddle with the power priorities a bit on the mothership. I do wish there was an option to stop providing power to certain things though.

    As for shields. I didn’t mention that in my previous post, but I believe a motherships shields will only provide coverage for turrets if the shield is above 50%. Not tested that recently. But it used to be a thing.
     
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    Thank you! And many thanks for the OP! His idea of a SM University benefited me and probably more noobs after me a year after the thread was opened.
     
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    The weapons etc on docked ships (not including turrets) should honestly be disabled outright, non-functional and not drawing power until they're undocked.
     
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    The weapons etc on docked ships (not including turrets) should honestly be disabled outright, non-functional and not drawing power until they're undocked.
    So the HB should just sit and watch you coming in with warheads and making it swiss cheese while perfectly apt warships with activated AIs are docked to it, if it has no turrets?
     
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    ===================================================================
    Starship Military Branch - Armor Plates
    ===================================================================

    Armor plates are a crucial component of any ship. Armor can be used to protect vital components, contribute to a certain aesthetic, and everything in between. There are four different types of armor: Basic Armor, Standard Armor, Advanced Armor, and Crystal Armor (Advanced and Crystal Armor have identical statistics). Here is a quick comparison of the three types of armor:

    Armor TypeMassHPArmor
    Basic.054000
    Standard.13004
    Advanced/Crystal.215015

    On the surface, Advanced Armor may appear to be the best option for combat ships; however, the high mass of Advanced Armor means that a full layer of Advanced Armor significantly reduces a ship's thruster performance. Because of this, Advanced Armor is best used to protect vital ship components such as reactors, shields, and the core. In most cases, Standard Armor will provide sufficient protection, and Basic Armor can be used when speed is of utmost concern (ex. FIghters, race ships).

    ===================================================================
    (1) Armor Layering
    ===================================================================

    Many larger ships will use multiple layers of armor to protect certain systems. The game does not make explicit mention of how the armor value scales, but it is possible to calculate this function for pure layers (i.e. only one type of armor). For Standard Armor, the armor value follows the linear function 4.424b-0.53 where b is the number of armor blocks placed or the thickness. For Advanced Armor, the armor value follows the linear function 15.655b-0.6. This can be used to calculate the net armor value of any combination of Standard and Advanced Armor (simply add the two values together and round to the nearest whole).

    But this is only one piece of the puzzle. The other is the mass efficiency of the armor layering. This is important because many builders look to create the strongest defense possible while also maintaining a reasonable mass. To this end, a range of different armor combinations was tested to determine the performance of each. The results are as follows:
    Standard: Advanced RatioMassArmorBlocks/IterationArmor/MassArmor/BlockMass/Block
    1:1 (Tested as 2:2).84045010.2
    1:2.535.537111.833.167
    1:3.751472.85712.75.175
    1:4.966.5573.88913.3.18
    2:1.4243608.133
    2:3.855.5569.37511.1.16
    3:1.528.54577.125.125
    3:2.744562.8578.8.14
    3:41.175.5768.63610.786.157
    4:31647649.143.143

    This table can help a builder choose the best armor pattern for the ship in question. This is not a complete table, but it does show some of the more common armor layouts used in combat ships.

    The metrics used are as follows:
    Armor/Mass: How much armor is provided by one unit of mass of the given ratio.
    Armor/Block: "Armor Density" or how resilient and compact the ratio is (A higher ratio is better).
    Mass/Block: Another density metric that shows how mass efficient the armor ratio is.

    Given this information, the following points can be made (note that the ratios listed are suggestions and may vary with the specifications of each ship):

    1) Using a 1:4 ratio of standard to advanced armor is one of the heaviest but provides the most armor. This combination or a similar one (1:3, 2:3,3:4) should be used to protect vital components or where mass is not a huge concern (i.e. Stations).

    2) Smaller ships should use a lighter armor combination (3:1, 2:1,4:3,2:3) to maintain a reasonable level of protection while keeping mass to a minimum.

    3) For capital ships, a 2:3 or 1:4 ratio provides high armor while also keeping mass to a reasonable level. The 1:2 combination layered twice is also a competitive option.

    ===================================================================
    Return to the Index
    ===================================================================
     
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    ===================================================================
    Starship Military Branch - Advanced Shielding
    ===================================================================


    First, if you have not read the Basic Shielding article and are new to StarMade, please do so before continuing.

    For small ships, a small shield generator will be sufficient to cover the entire ship; however, for larger ships, the shielding situation becomes much more complicated. In this page, we will take a closer look at the in-game mechanics behind shielding and ways to shield larger vessels.

    ===================================================================
    1) Shield Mechanics
    ===================================================================


    Shields in StarMade consist of two blocks: Shield Rechargers and Shield Capacitors. The shield's radius can be somewhat difficult to predict, but it follows the equation radius=.0301(b^2)-1.358b+16.193 where b is the number of shield rechargers placed (to find the number of blocks necessary to achieve a given radius, simply swap the variables). Each shield recharger provides 5 regen/second and draws 50 power/second. Each shield capacitor reduces regen by 1. Turrets within a shield will be covered as long as the shield has hp remaining. Note that the missile-missile combination ignores shield strength, so point-defense is necessary on larger ships.

    ===================================================================
    2) Heavy Shielding
    ===================================================================


    Pre-Weapons 2.0 shields applied to the entirety of a ship, regardless of distance. With the new shields, the same effect can be created, but the shield will take up a significant volume inside the ship. Fortunately, large ships will almost invariably have very strong shields. Different types of shields can be found on capital (very large) ships; two broad categories are:

    1) Regen-optimized shields: Lower health but regenerates very quickly. Useful against swarms of smaller enemies.

    2) Health-optimized shields: Lower regen but very high health. Useful against single powerful targets.

    Reactor Defence chambers provide additional specialization, but shields are vulnerable to beam weaponry.

    On rare occasions, it may be necessary to have multiple shield generators for a given ship or (more frequently) station. Shipyards may find themselves with multiple shield generators if they include a warp gate, but this is dependent on the design of the shipyard. Larger ships will rarely use separate shield generators, but capital ships from an external source may not have enough space available for a single contiguous shield generator and will find separate generators necessary. This is, however, a special circumstance and most large ships will have no problems fitting a single large shield generator if designed properly (see the Hull Design (Ship Exterior) page for more information).

    ===================================================================
    Return to the Index
    ===================================================================
     
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    After you reactor is set and your ship has been wireframed you can start to add chambers, rooms and systems... If its a RP ship it will have more rooms and less systems. If PvP it will be the opposite.
    Empty space is good on pvp ships too not just on rp ones but for different reasons.
    If the opponent weapons fires at emptiness it might just waste the shots.
    While in rp ships room is useful for looking more similar to real life stuff or the fiction you imagined.
    Shields in StarMade consist of two blocks: Shield Rechargers and Shield Capacitors. The shield's radius can be somewhat difficult to predict, but it follows the equation radius=.0301(b^2)-1.358b+16.193 where b is the number of shield rechargers placed (to find the number of blocks necessary to achieve a given radius, simply swap the variables). Each shield recharger provides 5 regen/second and draws 50 power/second. Each shield capacitor reduces regen by 1. Turrets within a shield will be covered as long as the shield has hp remaining. Note that the missile-missile combination ignores shield strength, so point-defense is necessary on larger ships.
    Please note that it is a really bad idea to use point defence in amounts sufficient to counter missile swarming because you will lag everything to death.
    Even 8 pd turrets is a lot of entity count(with a dozen of ships that have 8 pd turrets each you already lag the game a lot) and everyone knows entity count messes the game very fast.
    If you make a big ship you will likely need 30+ pd turrets and it can quickly become an absolute horror for servers.
    So if you feel the need to use pd on big ships then do not build big ships on servers (you can do that in single player since you are the only victim of your desires).
     
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    Please note that it is a really bad idea to use point defence in amounts sufficient to counter missile swarming because you will lag everything to death.
    Missiles have a shield strength directly related to the damage they do. It is theoretically possible to defend a ship with as few as 4-6 point defence turrets (depending on the specific design of the ship). And the kinetic effect module can be used to shift all damage to kinetic damage, thereby increasing the damage per second. This can be used with the cannon-cannon weapon combination to quickly destroy missiles.
     
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    You did not understood what missile swarming was.
    Imagine 9000 missiles going toward your ship.
    Even if each missile is killed in one hit 6 pd turrets will barely change anything (even with magically good can can turrets that kills one missile per shot instead of missing and that also shoots 10 times a second: you will still kill at most 10% of the incoming missiles(in practice less due to misses and to the fact multiple pd turrets might shoot at the same missile)).
    Missile swarming is about missile count and not about missile hp else I would not use the term of swarming.
    Big ships are much harder to protect from all the directions with pd turrets so they usually need more pd turrets.
     
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