What are you putting in your space stations?

[aRottenKomquat]

I'm still a relative newb to this game, and wondering how some of you are designing space stations, what you're using them for, and what are some important features.

I'm sure we'll learn more once we finally get the cash to start a station and move our faction homebase off-planet, but for starters I was thinking of a Command Center (Undeathinators + faction block), storage warehouse, factory rooms, a couple hangar, several AI turrets for defense, and maybe Push/Pull Effect turrets to use like tractor beams. Perhaps a salvage turret to quickly scrap ship designs or asteroids towed in from elsewhere. And shield systems everywhere.

EDIT: Summary of ideas posted in this thread

• Command Center, store your faction block here and put in displays with station stats and messages.
• Respawn Rooms (Undeathinators + grav blocks)
• Warehouses, storage blocks with Display Modules to label contents for organization
• Factory Rooms, with all the factory/refinery types and LOTS of factory enhancers
• Hangars of all kinds. A large main hangar for general traffic, repair hangar for construction and maintenance, fighter bay for the station's defense squadrons, utility hangar for small tugs, transports, and repair ships. VIP hangar for important guests and faction leaders.
• Defense turrets
• Utility turrets such as Push/Pull effect, AstroTech repair beams, salvage turrets, power drain, etc.
• Shield systems. Enough rechargers and capacitors to keep your station safe from attack.
• Large reactor groups and power capacitors.
• Officers' and VIP quarters.
• Armories in case you get invaded.
  
• General quarters for low-ranking faction members or guests.
• Docking booms to dock capital ships to your station.
• Conference/meeting rooms. Include Display Modules on the wall to be used like a whiteboard.
  
• Player-owned shops
• Garden or park-like areas.
• Engineering sections to store additional systems (power, shields, scanner, etc)
• Backup command centers in well-armored areas so you can safely command when under attack.
• Observation rooms with good views of the station's exterior.
• Stairs and lifts to travel between decks.
• Airlocks.
• Modular factory to build custom factory circuits for specific manufacturing jobs.
• Warp gates if this is a travel hub
• Logic room to showcase interesting logic circuits.

So what have you done with space station design? What features do you consider important?

 

[Runeseer]

Besides what your RP immigration can dream up...

1. LOTS of docking area
You need a safe place to dock your ships

2. Factory space centrally located for ease of access
On a survival server you will need a factory to make the blocks to build ships (500+ enhancers per factory)

3. Block Sorting array
Check this out as an example ( http://starmadedock.net/content/sort-o-matic.2218/ )

4. Basics
Faction Bock, Shop, Spawn Point

5. Station Defense Turrets

6. Power to run all of the above

 

[CyberTao]

Above all else, you need a garden with a good view. Makes a great place to bring guests/friends and take screenshots/etc.

 

[Viridis00]

A ballin' hangar and a massive power and shield generator to support an array of turrets are the bare essentials for a station in my opinion.

And making it large enough that it turns your graphics card into a housefire waiting to happen.

But in all seriousness, I really like nature habitats in my stations.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

Above all else, you need a garden with a good view. Makes a great place to bring guests/friends and take screenshots/etc.

Gotta do something with all those planet blocks we mined! :D

 

[Runeseer]

I'm still a relative newb to this game, and wondering how some of you are designing space stations, what you're using them for, and what are some important features.

I'm sure we'll learn more once we finally get the cash to start a station and move our faction homebase off-planet, but for starters I was thinking of a Command Center (Undeathinators + faction block), storage warehouse, factory rooms, a couple hangar, several AI turrets for defense, and maybe Push/Pull Effect turrets to use like tractor beams. Perhaps a salvage turret to quickly scrap ship designs or asteroids towed in from elsewhere. And shield systems everywhere.

So what have you done with space station design? What features do you consider important?

And I forgot about needing a warp gate to get to your other stations... you do have plans for galactic conquest???

Speaking of conquest, make sure you have a mix of Turrets:
Point Defense Turrets (cannon + cannon set for missiles)
Nukes (missile + pulse)
Lock-On (missile + beam)
Swarm (missile + missile)

And link different colors to each turret type... Pirate incursions become a festival!

 

[Lidren]

In addition to small to medium ship docking, you should have a massive capital ship gantry or two. You covered all the basics, now go with runeseers suggestion and figure out what you/your avatar would want to have on the station. My main rp character requires meditation space, a fully stocked pub, exercise room, boardroom for corporate meetings, command and control center, flight control tower, secret/hidden passages, you get the idea.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I've done some brainstorming and come up with a station idea. It's mainly cylindrical with generally disc-shaped decks (some may be rectangular) at non-regular intervals. The Central Core runs the full length of the station and contains a power core, some misc engineering, and ramps/elevators to move between decks. There may be exterior space between decks which is where some of the defensive turrets can be mounted.

Then there are 16 decks:

1. Main Command Deck. Undeathinators, command room, conference rooms, faction blocks, displays, observation.
2. Officers' Quarters. Also contains some VIP quarters, small factory, conference room, Undeathinator, and an armory.
3. VIP Hangar. Small hangar for officer/VIP vessels.
4. The Promenade. Large general-purpose deck. Player-owned shops, decorative areas, parks, all styled up using planet blocks for an outdoor park-like setting.
5. General Quarters. Small suites for player homes.
6. Engineering. Space for power, shields, scanners, factory enhancers, computers, etc. Power reactor "tendrils" will extend into this deck from the Central Core to increase the bounding box of reactor groups. Also includes a backup command center and an armory, and exterior turrets along the perimeter.
   
7. Manufacturing. Includes several of each factory type, capsule refineries, and microassemblers, with LOTS of factory enhancers and some storage.
8. Main Hangar. Large general-purpose hangar for the bulk of the station's hangar needs. Adjacency to the Manufacturing Deck makes this a good place for new ship construction. Includes upper catwalks for observation and security. Internal AstroTech turrets to assist with ship repair. Includes passageways in the floor into the Hangar Storage deck below.
9. Hangar Storage. Additional docking areas and ship storage, can be accessed via holes in the deck above.
10. Engineering Deck. Similar to previous engineering deck.
11. Utility Hangar. Small hangar for storage of transports, repair ships, tugs, miners, etc.
12. Drone Hangar. Storage and deployment of AI drones.
13. Fighter Bay. Hangar space dedicated to the storage of fighters, bombers, and scouts. Include efficient docking pattern to pack many ships in tightly. Undeathinators for fighter crews so they can quickly respawn, grab a new ship, and return to battle.
14. Engineering Deck.
15. Capital Ship Dock. Four large docking booms extend radially, used to dock capital ships.
16. Lower Command Deck. Duplicate of the Main Command Deck, used for backup.

 

[Lidren]

I've done some brainstorming and come up with a station idea. It's mainly cylindrical with generally disc-shaped decks (some may be rectangular) at non-regular intervals. The Central Core runs the full length of the station and contains a power core, some misc engineering, and ramps/elevators to move between decks. There may be exterior space between decks which is where some of the defensive turrets can be mounted.

Then there are 16 decks:

1. Main Command Deck. Undeathinators, command room, conference rooms, faction blocks, displays, observation.
2. Officers' Quarters. Also contains some VIP quarters, small factory, conference room, Undeathinator, and an armory.
3. VIP Hangar. Small hangar for officer/VIP vessels.
4. The Promenade. Large general-purpose deck. Player-owned shops, decorative areas, parks, all styled up using planet blocks for an outdoor park-like setting.
5. General Quarters. Small suites for player homes.
6. Engineering. Space for power, shields, scanners, factory enhancers, computers, etc. Power reactor "tendrils" will extend into this deck from the Central Core to increase the bounding box of reactor groups. Also includes a backup command center and an armory, and exterior turrets along the perimeter.
   
7. Manufacturing. Includes several of each factory type, capsule refineries, and microassemblers, with LOTS of factory enhancers and some storage.
8. Main Hangar. Large general-purpose hangar for the bulk of the station's hangar needs. Adjacency to the Manufacturing Deck makes this a good place for new ship construction. Includes upper catwalks for observation and security. Internal AstroTech turrets to assist with ship repair. Includes passageways in the floor into the Hangar Storage deck below.
9. Hangar Storage. Additional docking areas and ship storage, can be accessed via holes in the deck above.
10. Engineering Deck. Similar to previous engineering deck.
11. Utility Hangar. Small hangar for storage of transports, repair ships, tugs, miners, etc.
12. Drone Hangar. Storage and deployment of AI drones.
13. Fighter Bay. Hangar space dedicated to the storage of fighters, bombers, and scouts. Include efficient docking pattern to pack many ships in tightly. Undeathinators for fighter crews so they can quickly respawn, grab a new ship, and return to battle.
14. Engineering Deck.
15. Capital Ship Dock. Four large docking booms extend radially, used to dock capital ships.
16. Lower Command Deck. Duplicate of the Main Command Deck, used for backup.

Now you're talking! :D

 

[Snk]

Giant space ship washing machine

 

[NeonSturm]

You forgot toilets!
Wanna walk 10 decks to your crew quarter to get to one? :p

1. Human-Needs-Template : At least a small one per deck, one per (200m)^2
   
   1. Toilets.
      
   2. Medical supplies
   3. Re-supplies for toilets and cleaners.
   4. Stairs/Lifts.
   5. Personal Room (Security officers, Standby Peoples)
2. For every 1600m^2
   1. 2..4x Air-Locks (at least connected to an emergency button)
      
   2. 1..4x Com-Station (WLAN-Hotspot :D for the internal communication network)
   3. 1..2x Plasma-Fire Extinguisher
   4. 1x Broadcast-Screen
   5. 1x Medical Cabinet
3. Public Docking-Deck
   1. Reception / Info
   2. Mac-Donalds, Burger King -> SM-Burgers, SM-Pizzas

 

[Runeseer]

Final 3 words on this topic...

Grav Tube Syatem

 

[Snk]

You forgot toilets!
Wanna walk 10 decks to your crew quarter to get to one? :p

1. Human-Needs-Template : At least a small one per deck, one per (200m)^2
   1. Toilets.
      
   2. Medical supplies
   3. Re-supplies for toilets and cleaners.
   4. Stairs/Lifts.
   5. Personal Room (Security officers, Standby Peoples)
2. For every 1600m^2
   1. 2..4x Air-Locks (at least connected to an emergency button)
      
   2. 1..4x Com-Station (WLAN-Hotspot :D for the internal communication network)
   3. 1..2x Plasma-Fire Extinguisher
   4. 1x Broadcast-Screen
   5. 1x Medical Cabinet
3. Public Docking-Deck
   1. Reception / Info
   2. Mac-Donalds, Burger King -> SM-Burgers, SM-Pizzas

Instead of all that junk, why not a self sustaining biome inside the ship? That way the crew can get whatever they need from nature, like our ancestors did.

 

[KiloZulu]

I've never bothered to do much with stations, choosing to focus on ship design, instead. My station is a jumble of docking modules for all of my ships (and those of faction members.) It has a robust factory that automates most block construction. There are several warp gates that lead to other faction stations and ally stations. A few RP modifications have been made over time - a comm array, conference room, shuttle hangars, and terminal kiosks.

My favorite addition, however, is the "logic room," which displays many of the circuits I've built or found online (thanks to the logic thread!) to help players understand logic better, or simply copy for their ship.

 

[NeonSturm]

I've never bothered to do much with stations, choosing to focus on ship design, instead.

Some things you can build for stations also make sense in ships.

There are several warp gates that lead to other faction stations and ally stations.

+1 like : If you have many for small player-pods and a few big for real ships, this could fill a Gate-Hub-Deck

Just like underground rail-stations nowadays.

My favorite addition, however, is the "logic room," which displays many of the circuits I've built or found online (thanks to the logic thread!) to help players understand logic better, or simply copy for their ship.

+1 like : Your school? Teachers = KI, NPCs?


aRottenKomquat Will the OP get a summary?
I think there is some similar thread from past months.


I'd like a list ingame which admins may add/edit and which has some entries in the default game.
It would make stations of all players more interesting => more interesting universe.
Ofcourse optional as a Hint, What do you think about that?

 

[aRottenKomquat]

Sure, I can put a summary in the OP.

 

[MacThule]

I always include a sealed room. No doors, no windows. This is where the faction block and shop block go, as well as the reserve storage.
Only people that can access this room are people with edit permission; so it keeps the vitals and the faction treasury safe.

 

[psteiner]

Escape pods