Systems / Volume Breakdown. How to build systems 101.

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    Where is the balance point and how do you equip / fill a ship so that it is 'balanced?'

    In the current system there are three systems that use power. Weapons, Thrust & Shields. For simplicity I'm ignoring the ship size vs thrust mechanics and am simply going to state that a 'balanced ship' requires 1/3rd of it's power to each of these systems.

    Reactor Power.
    The reactor mechanics now mean that for every 'unit of power' (100 e/sec,) you need one reactor and one stabilizer. You also need to consider chambers.
    A single chamber is approximately 1/10th reactor count. Once again to keep it simple I will assume a 10 chamber ship, on a 10 chamber ship the reactor requires 1 chamber block for every reactor/stabilizer unit.

    ie; For a 10 chamber ship a 'unit of power' (100 e/sec,) = 1 reactor + 1 stabilizer + 1 chamber = 3 blocks volume.


    Breaking Down Power Use.
    How much power does each system use?

    100 e/sec = 1 weapon block.

    100 e/sec = 4 thruster blocks.

    100 e/sec = 2 shield re-charger + 2 shield capacitor blocks. (For a balanced 50/50 shield.)
    ie 100 e/sec = 4 shield blocks

    Now we know that 100 e/sec requires 3 blocks volume of reactor/stabilizer/chamber and that if we are trying to balance the ship then we need to allocate an equal amount of power to each system.

    1 'unit of weapons' = 1 weapon + 1 reactor + 1 stabilizer + 1 chamber. = 4 block volume.

    1 'unit of thrust' = 4 thrusters + 1 reactor + 1 stabilizer + 1 chamber. = 7 block volume.

    1 'unit of shield' = 2 rechargers + 2 capacitors + 1 reactor + 1 stabilizer + 1 chamber. = 7 block volume.

    The volume ratio of the theoretical balanced ship is then;

    4 weapons volume : 7 thrusters volume : 7 shield volume = 18 volume

    It can also be shown as;

    1 weapon : 4 thrusters : 2 re-chargers : 2 capacitors : 3 reactors : 3 stabilizers : 3 chambers = 18 volume.

    For powered 'system units';
    4/18 = volume required for weapons
    7/18 = volume required for shields
    7/18 = volume required for thrusters.

    The number of 'reactor units' can also be calculated as;
    3/18 + 3/18 + 3/18 = 9/18 or 50% of the total volume.

    For base module block count;
    1/18 = volume weapon modules
    4/18 = volume thruster modules
    2/18 = each of recharges & capacitors
    3/18 = each of reactor, stabilizer & chambers.


    From these numbers and the total volume of our ship we can now work out the block counts we need.
    I'm going to use a 9000 volume ship as an example because the numbers work out nicely.

    If my ship has a volume of 9000.

    9000 x 1/18 = 500 weapon modules

    9000 x 4/18 = 2000 thruster modules

    9000 x 2/18 = 1000 each of capacitor & re-charger modules.

    9000 x 3/18 = 1500 each of reactor / stabilizer / chamber modules.

    So our 9000 volume 10 chamber ship consists of 500 weapons + 2000 thruster + 1000 each capacitors & rechargers + 1500 each of reactors, stabilizers & chambers.


    This is a very simplified way of looking at it but for a beginner it is a great starting point.
    There are a lot of caveats, exceptions and personal preferences that undoubtedly effect these ratios eg;

    Missile systems require Missile Capacity and therefore extra volume.
    Turrets and docked entities require Rail Mass Enhancers and will also need extra volume.
    The number of desired chambers for the ship, for me 10 is a few too many, I usually find 7 to 9 chambers is enough.
    A large battle ship has most of it's weapons on turrets external to the ships hull volume so the weapons module count can be reduced / removed from the equation.
    Smaller ships require less thrust, larger ships more thrust. Somewhere in the middle is a balance point. This is the main issue with this basic system calculation and experimentation is required to work out your own thrust preferences.
    Ships can 'redline' reactors. ie; use more power then they generate. For instance, large battleships do not necessarily go full thrust all the time so there is 'extra' power available when thrust is idle that can be put into shields & weapons. (This can also be used to mitigate the thrust / mass issues of larger ships to some extent by simply piling on extra thrusters. Your ship will redline and lose power if you go full thrust, full shields & all weapons on, but you won't be doing that as you're just sitting there blasting everything in sight.)


    Cheers guys, I hope this can help some players get an understanding of where to start their builds and the approximate number of blocks they're going to need for the various systems.

    MrGrey1.

    ps. these numbers are very easy to put in a spreadsheet and make fancy graphs from...

    9000_balanced_ship.png
     
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    I had difficulty finding this post again, was suggested that it needs a reply to come up in searches so please excuse my self bump.