What are the most efficient ways to setup your ship?

[Gamer_Z]

I have been a passive reader here, but I'm starting to be active - I kind of like the game, did purchase it already.

But I have been wondering about one thing that keeps bothering me, and that I can't find the answer to - How do I setup my ship?

When I first started the game and completed the tutorial, I wanted to build a big mothership.

And, taking into consideration power regeneration, power tanks, shields, thrust, etc.. the only thing I could think of a a newbie was: Place as much as possible in on as big as possible block.

But, oh well, seems it's not the best way, so, what are tips for novice users (from the pro's out here?) to build a ship?
how should I place power for max efficiency? (power regen/block)
How should I place the shields?
power tanks?
thrust systems?
etc?
How should I make the hull so my ship's core won't be hit with just 2 rockets and can survive long battles?
Any other tips?
What about placing the hull like the editors do? (SMEdit when hollowing a ship?)

Thanks in advance!

 

[z1967]

Power:
The simplest and least likely to be crippled in a fire fight would be to put several long lines of generators until you reach ~1 million.

Alternatively, you can build a "reactor" with a design capitalizing on the X, Y, Z dimensions. As each grows bigger, in a reactor, it makes up for blocks that would be there but are not (in the volume in between the lines that is). Simple, 2D design is an L format. Tape two L's together to get the 3D format that most reactors are made up of (line extending in each direction). Building like this allows you to save resources and exponentially increase your power. It is, however, soft capped at ~1 million. There are ways to bypass that, but that is a more complex topic that requires screen shots.

Power tanks: Not super useful in small amounts (20,000 is usually enough for most space craft) but can be incredibly useful in large ones with lots of blank space. The way that you gain power with these is exponentially based. Each power tank contributes a larger amount than the last power tank added. Make sure that power tank groups are connected at all design costs, they become ridiculously more powerful the more you add. They are not mandatory for each and every ship and I will stress that to you and every person who asks about them.

Shields: Set a goal for how many you want and then fill every nook and cranny of your ship with them. Shields (at the moment) do go down relatively quickly, so plan ahead for that and make sure to have your weapon take them (the hostiles) out first. Shields are mainly for surviving smaller engagements and reducing the amount of stuff you have to repair in larger ones.

Thrusters: From what I am seeing on the forums, it appears these are bugged. But, the way it previously worked was that larger groups (density as opposed to dimensions) produced more power, similar but not quite like power tanks. In their current bugged form, they are more like power generators. reference that section for how to build a system in it's current state.

Hope this helps a bit. It can be a wee bit confusing at first but you will eventually get used to it.

 

[Gamer_Z]

Nice tips, what about hull placement vs weapon penetration?
Because many external editors create such hulls (side view):

but, can light/missilies/ion cannons shoot THROUGH that? like this:

so, can I use the design in the first image OR should I update eacht hull element to this(?):

also, what about protecting the core yet keeping it still accessible to the captain to enter the ship control?
Do I need thousands of blocks around the core or is one hull layer enough?

 

[z1967]

Nice tips, what about hull placement vs weapon penetration?
Because many external editors create such hulls (side view):

but, can light/missilies/ion cannons shoot THROUGH that? like this:

so, can I use the design in the first image OR should I update eacht hull element to this(?):

also, what about protecting the core yet keeping it still accessible to the captain to enter the ship control?
Do I need thousands of blocks around the core or is one hull layer enough?

Although double layers are not always a bad idea, they are not necessary (1st picture is a fine). Lag is always a variable in anything that is done, so don't trust something like that to keep your core safe. Angle pieces are always a good addition to the outside and can make most ships look nice. In design, it is never a bad idea to make a duplicate of your design and put it under the firepower of another ship.

But to answer your question definitively, No weapons will not pierce through like that and the design in picture 3 is just another way to armor your craft.

 

[Syzygy]

Nice tips, what about hull placement vs weapon penetration?

also, what about protecting the core yet keeping it still accessible to the captain to enter the ship control?
Do I need thousands of blocks around the core or is one hull layer enough?

Hull isn't that important. Once ships ships get enough damage (200 per shot?) they destroy hardened hull in one shot, making it no better than normal hull, or any other block such as shields. Hull at that point is just cosmetic.

You only need enough hull to be visible. Have that second layer in your third picture be shields or power or thrusters. What matters for an effective ship is how efficiently you use your space, and less of your core placement etc. Make sure to never have non-visible hull, a shield block will serve you better.

In the future this might be different though

 

[Valan]

Power

If you use a large ship and equip power in lines when those lines get hit you'll lose power. A more efficient configuration in large ships is to spread mulitple reactors around the ship. A 24x24 reactor will give 1 million power. Have 5 or 6 of these in strategic positions and you'll stay above the 1 million power mark a lot longer. Redundant systems!

 

[Zedrackis]

I call this the theory of the flying brick. Its ugly, but its also very efficient.

• Start with a brick shaped hull, placing you core at the center. You want an odd sized length on all sides so your ship is evenly spaced around the core. Proportions of Width = Length /3, Height = Width /2
• I like to wrap my outside in one to two layers of hull, just to help spot damage more easily when doing repairs, give you a little buffer against the rare missile strikes, also accidental sun damage, and I noticed that vs. npc pirates damage tends to bleed through when below 50% shields.
  
• Thrust, you only need as enough thrust to counter to mass for quick escapes, not even that if you don't mind a very slow acceleration. Thrusters scale like power regen blocks, place them in straight lines that dont touch for most output per block.
  
• Cockpits, always have two or three. Npc's and turrets always seem to hit these first in a fight.
• Turrets are the best way to use Antimatters, their far more accurate than players tend to be with the same weapon. Remember turrets will use your ships power, but will not use its shields. They will need their own shields and armor. Also remember you can use the structure tab to turn the ai on and off. Or the up/down arrows to jump in and out of your turrets. Lastly always check your angles of fire on your turret, it wont save you if the enemy dodges into its blind spots.
  
• Missiles: KB's actually work very very well of on targets caught unaware or stationary. The trick is to only use 12 blocks per launcher, and to understand that a launchers listed distance is actually flight time. A 12 block launcher can hit out to 800m. For fast moving targets d1000's at close range are a better bet. BB's are just general useless IMO.
  
• Antimatters, if you do control them directly there is two setups to use. One is for busting faction blocks, you just need one gun that does about 200 damage per shoot. The other is for actually fighting, for this you want as many spread out guns as possible. More guns per block count will give you a higher dps, shorter range, but most importantly it will let you shoot more than one block at a time, causing more overall damage when the shields fall.
• Shields, as many as you can get! They use very little power over all, and you really cant have enough. Their is no scaling on how you place them so just lump them anywhere. When using shields as your defense remember they have a recharge delay when you loose all of your shield buffer.
  
• Power Regen and Batteries: Balance your regen against your batteries and usage. If your power instantly drains while shooting and flying at top speed you need more batteries. If it slowly drains you need more regen. Lastly batteries should always be connected and power regen blocks should be placed in lines with no two lines touching each other.

• Doorways, you need one to get in and out of the ship. Don't put in a door that opens directly to the core. Make a little hallway with a bend. Other wise your creating a thin wall with an open space behind it that people can more easily core drill you thru.

Theres a lot more to ship building, but those are some quick pointers.

 

[Keptick]

Here are some tips I can give for making a really big ship.

• If you want to make it aestetically pleasing, make the hull first (empty shell). And fill in with systems after that.
• (I need to do some testing but this is how I think it works) Power generation works with additive dimensions. So, for example, a 20 block long line in the x direction will generate the same power as an L shape going 10m in the x direction and 10m in the y direction (adding the two dimensions up equal 20). Keep in mind that the bonus is exponential, meaning that a single 200m line (or something that adds up to 200) is better than two seperate 100m lines (this is why small cube reactors are bad in big ships). This "additive dimensions" mechanic only works up to a 1.2 million e/sec soft cap. After that you can either spam them in cubes (making sure not to touch the original power lines) or, if you have the patience, keep making a powergrid so that it stays functional if you suffer heavy damage.
• Power storage works as a blob. The bigger the group is the more efficient it gets. You'll want to make sure that each block are well connected together. You can even build alternative connections in prevision of one getting severed.
• Thrust: works in multiplicative dimensions. Just make a 100 x 100 L shape and add a single block on the other dimension and you'll understand what I mean.
• Shields: they don't work in any specific mechanic, just spam them all over the place. the blocks don't need to touch each other and all give the same amount of shields (after a certain point).

Sorry if it's long read but tried t b a precise a could. Hope this helps :D

 

[Keptick]

Sorry for any grammar derps on my previous post. I'm on my phone and it was doing some weird things (big text I guess). I forgot to mention, bricks are the most efficient shape but also the ugliest. They won't bring you any respect (so basically, don't make them). Unless you're making a 100% combat ship and don't give a crap about what others think, obviously

Edit: just did some testing and I can confirm that the way I described power in the previous post is correct. You'll want to make your generator so that each "added dimensions" lines stretch out as much as possible in each axis.

 

[NeonSturm]

You can also try to make multi-part ships instead of single bigger ones.
Basically they are ships with 2/4 huge missing boxes in their hull for ships (not turrets).

• Shields give 800, 400, 400, 300, 300, ... shield points and slowly decrease to 1 per new block.
  • dividing them to a left docked and right docked ship will increase efficiency if you
    • engage your enemy in front
    • get attacked from multiple small ships in different directions
    • turn around to always present the enemy your charged shields.
• That also has the advantage that the 1-million power cap works 2/4 times AFAIK (if it is not changed in the new versions), so you can also use drain beams on them to buff your main ships thrusters
  
• These docked ships can be equipped with AI modules to allow for power-drain on additional reactors while they apply auto-targeting fire-power on the selected target or all enemies.
• Look prettier and can help prevent core-drilling with their shields.

Disadvantages:

• Each part individually has about 2/3 or 1/2 shield, depending on if you have 2 or 4 docks (left/right, bottom/top)
• They do not rotate like turrets.

 

[Gamer_Z]

^ that's some really interesting logic, orr... just build the ship hull from faction modules and shields only XD

 

[Lt_Duckweed]

Here is a simple ship systems layout. Throw down 80 500m lines of reactor blocks. This will get you all of the 1m bonus while being extremely redundant at the same time, plus an additional 1m from the 25 e/s per block. Then throw down 320,000 energy regen blocks for a further 8m for 10m total. Add in 100,000 energy storage, 100,000 thrust blocks in a big clump, 100 groups of 1000 d1000, 20 groups of 1000 amc, fill the rest in with shields, and put some hull over it to make it pretty. Then slap on a ton of self powered turrets. It will not look nice or be the best ship ever, but it works.

 

[Zephlos]

My best tip is to go download some of the better ships off of here and rip them apart to learn how their systems work first hand. That's how I learned the basics of large scale power arrays and systems.

 

[MineCatFTW]

I've been with the game for almost a year, and I still learned some new things on this thread.

 

[Crashmaster]

You can also try to make multi-part ships instead of single bigger ones.

I've been making ships like this enough to consider it my build style.

Turning speed is important to me. Minimize length and width for the best turning speeds but maximize both within the dimension ranges corresponding to whichever turning and pitching speeds you choose, height is irrelevant and docked entities don't count.

Docked AI AMCs trump human aiming at enemies but can't be shot at planets, asteroids or overheating wrecks for fun or (less)profit.

I'm pretty sure power-draining docked generators stopped working but never tried them myself.

My current ship design geared for battle-efficiency focuses the core ship's role on thrust, power and docking area support. Main weapons , shielding and exterior hull are restricted to docked entities only to keep turning speed acceptable. It only takes two entities to completely enclose the entire ship from all sides if you do it right giving you the powerful option of shield-cycling.

There is a lot you can do with docking. I just need to fly one of things for a change.

 

[Valan]

I've been making ships like this enough to consider it my build style.

With multi part ships what happens when any docking extenders get hit does the ship automatically detach?

You've also said height doesn't matter, only X and Z matter for turning speed. I've read all three dimensions matter to manoeuvrability. Do you mean turning on two axis is all that matters?

The multi part ship idea has always appealed to me but I'm just starting playing with different ideas. With a multi part ship you can have a multi role ship. You can dock a weapons module, you could dock a fighter dock.

 

[Krazykat]

I've been making ships like this enough to consider it my build style.

Turning speed is important to me. Minimize length and width for the best turning speeds but maximize both within the dimension ranges corresponding to whichever turning and pitching speeds you choose, height is irrelevant and docked entities don't count.

Docked AI AMCs trump human aiming at enemies but can't be shot at planets, asteroids or overheating wrecks for fun or (less)profit.

I'm pretty sure power-draining docked generators stopped working but never tried them myself.

My current ship design geared for battle-efficiency focuses the core ship's role on thrust, power and docking area support. Main weapons , shielding and exterior hull are restricted to docked entities only to keep turning speed acceptable. It only takes two entities to completely enclose the entire ship from all sides if you do it right giving you the powerful option of shield-cycling.

There is a lot you can do with docking. I just need to fly one of things for a change.

but shielding is not shared between docked objects, so that's very risky...

 

[Crashmaster]

With multi part ships what happens when any docking extenders get hit does the ship automatically detach?

Yes, it would automatically detach. Unless you have built redundant sets of docking enhancer groups for each important docking module that are spread out to opposite corners of the ship.

but shielding is not shared between docked objects, so that's very risky...

True that shielding is not shared but the exterior shielded entities near-totally cover the interior ones, no different then loosing your shields on a one-core ship exposing the gooey center. I have 5.2mil shields on each side and turn at 1.2.

At 5mil shields from 500k shield blocks each additional block gives only 6 more shield points with further decreasing returns the more you add. Adding 500k more shield blocks would be mass inefficient for decent returns (2 mil more shields or so?) but the same number of blocks as docked hull/shielding gives you another full 5mil.

 

[Trafalgar]

True that shielding is not shared but the exterior shielded entities near-totally cover the interior ones, no different then loosing your shields on a one-core ship exposing the gooey center. I have 5.2mil shields on each side and turn at 1.2.

At 5mil shields from 500k shield blocks each additional block gives only 6 more shield points with further decreasing returns the more you add. Adding 500k more shield blocks would be mass inefficient for decent returns (2 mil more shields or so?) but the same number of blocks as docked hull/shielding gives you another full 5mil.

And if you use multiple layers, if someone penetrated one layer, you could just turn a bit and they'd no longer be able to hit the inner layer from where they were. That would mean they'd have to core each shield layer in their way to reliably punch all the way through the shields. If you can spin around faster than they can strafe around you, and you aren't surrounded or facing overwhelming firepower, you might be able to last indefinitely...

(As an aside, I started building a small-scale version of one of these ships last year - capable of perma-cloaking with docked turrets which were firing while it was cloaked, draining the power but not decloaking it, because bugs, but I stopped working on it because the server I was on kept crashing or something like that)

 

[Valan]

And if you use multiple layers, if someone penetrated one layer, you could just turn a bit and they'd no longer be able to hit the inner layer from where they were. That would mean they'd have to core each shield layer in their way to reliably punch all the way through the shields. If you can spin around faster than they can strafe around you, and you aren't surrounded or facing overwhelming firepower, you might be able to last indefinitely...

Actually would still help when surrounded as the surrounding ships are trying overload numerous sets of shields instead of one.