What's most important to you when designing a ship?

[NeonSturm]

A good way to increase weight is just using double-layered floors/ceilings.
Efficient design without open machinery but many rooms has light in walls to avoid having lights in the floor one deck higher.


But white light is very bright and thus I don't want peoples having to look directly into it.
I've got good results with covered light such as a metal-mesh in front of the light or coloured light, but it is hard to get indirect/ambient light without adding too much mass, thus I started to have walls, floors and ceilings hollow triple-layers.
I am currently searching for alternatives to plex-lights, but don't want to use ice crystals like I am used to, because they will not be in shops any longer.

Hollow triple-layers are ideal to even out high differences in decks or placing logic in walls. But if you want multiple power arrays to cross your ship and also have 1 whole thrust array, not many small ones, you need a quad-layer for either ceilings or walls at least in every second ceiling.

 

[Ithirahad]

Meh, I just get a general shape in mind and build a frame, then try to fill the contours. Sometimes it looks weird (I still have to fix the nose of the Eser-Kalan... It makes the ship look like a boot!) but normally it works out.

 

[Unnamed25]

Guns and stats.
I really suck at everything else so..

Also my wip is ugly as crap but it can 1 shot a planet(yes, 10mil+ damage.)
Yes its missiles
No its not pulse slave
No its not overdrive effect

 

[NeonSturm]

:DNewbies will hate you!1/5
:D:DRole-Players will hate you too! 2/5
:D:D:D"Old-PC users" will hate you again! 3/5


:D:D:D:DBalance will hate you! 4/5

:D:D:D:D:DDo you really want to complete this ship? 5/5

 

[Terramort]

I had to cast my vote with "Internal Design". By that, I do mean a pretty internal ship, but rather, the internal mechanics. I design a ship for functionality, to fulfill a specific roll. I start with my core, and design it's internal shields, expand out to my reactor bays, and then begin building various section based on ship purpose (stealth, speed, shield, etc). After I add my primary weapons systems to compliment said roll. Then it's time to to make it look pretty. Finally, I comb the ship for blind spots/weak points and add supplementary firepower to discourage being outmaneuvered by smaller fighters.

 

[Thomas Jetson]

Are there any forum categories or threads for those who prefer functional design and maximum performance/efficiency? (the 7.3%) If not, I think that would become an interesting group to watch/contribute to.

 

[starhaiden]

the ships I used to build were rectangular prisms with little detail just flat walls on the outside not many curved surfaces. the first best ship I made was my frigate defence it was shaped like a ship but still a bit boxy it was a small ship about 50m long it had about 11 turrets and a fixer/escape pod at the back of the ship. A bit over half the ship was interior and the rest systems. It had a viewing deck at the front of the ship with plex glass. it wasn't a very powerful ship but it did serve as a good distraction for the pirates it saved my faction once.
I think status is more important then aesthetic but I always have a corridor or walk way of some kind in my ship. My main goal is to reach 1.2 million power for ships over 80m long. I like building over 100m long ships with a little plant room. war ships should intimate people

 

[Winterhome]

These days, I build the main gun where I think it'll go. Then I build some secondary weapons nearby.

After I've finished that, I build something that looks like a gun housing for both - hull it in, make sure they have enough power to fire occasionally, etc.

After the weapons are finished, I start work on the rest of the ship - first by outlining the main body, then by filling in flat spaces on the outline with a primary and secondary color. I'll then go over and start work on larger projections - towers, external shield generators, bridges, turret panels.

With the main body of the ship done, I start detailing the HELL out of it - to the extent that my windows are actual windows leading into actual hallways with proper design and lighting (even if those hallways are disconnected from anything). Add lines of my primary color through the wide areas of secondary, make sure that vertical surfaces have windows, add hatches here and there for anything that's not meant to look like a bunch of plates strapped together... etc.

With the guns and the exterior finished, I move on to the interior and the systems. Some rooms get interior made out of systems.

 

[starhaiden]

also I make a corridor thought the middle of the ship and name it main corridor

 

[KingofCalamity]

Still new but I come at building two ways.

1. System First: this is mostly for my larger ships that are being built to house said weapon. In this case I do all math and work up a minimum safe energy level and a stable shield capacity. Then I layout the gun housing, and finally the weapon itself.

2. Hull First: this is something I'm just getting into as I'm putting together some of my smaller ships which need a certain look.

I still neglect my interiors as I just don't know what to do with them. I can make them look neat but I don't often lounge around on my ships, I prefer my still incomplete station... it'll get done when I finish up my current large build, hopefully.