Thundercraft's Ship Parts (DTU)

[Thundercraft]

This is my catalog of parts which I use to build ships. I wish to freely share them, both to help others in shipbuilding and in the hope of seeing more creative and high performance ship designs out there.

 

For instructions on how to copy and paste with these .xml files as parts, see this post.

 

Some tips:

• You will probably need to hold down [Alt] to select a certain block as the anchor in order to get these to fit or line up properly. Usually, the biggest block closest to the base works best, but sometimes a middle or edge block works better.
  
• Don't forget to adjust the Grid Size to make these line up properly. Often, I end up reducing it to 0.1 or 0.05.
  
• Don't forget that you can adjust the Scale Step and hold down W, A, S, D to scale these parts up or down. Want even larger cargo containers? You can do that.

 

• Cargo Containers
  
• Engine and Thruster Props
  
• Thruster Nacelles & Leverage Arms
  
• Void Tech Blocks (coming soon-ish)
  
• Prototype Shapes

[Thundercraft]

Cargo Containers

 

As mentioned here, the Cargo Bay scales weirdly. Despite being the same in volume, building a single 10x10x10 Cargo Bay is 685% more efficient than building 1000 1x1x1 Cargo Bays. (I'm not even exaggerating. :()

 

The extreme way it scales strongly encourages The Cube Meta. It's such that I design my freighters around this mechanic. And they end up with only one or two large cargo bays (usually just one). My latest freighter designs (soon to be released) are all based on a single, huge, cube-shaped Cargo Bay with a cubic ship literally built around it:

 

 

In my attempt to subvert the Cargo Bay Cube Meta, I've created a series of "cargo containers" that are copy/paste friendly, are aesthetically pleasing, and are rather space efficient. They come in a variety of sizessuit different sized ships. However, all have roughly the same length of about 9.7 units. I design most of my ships around this length and that makes them interchangeable.

 

Note 1: These have IFGs. Often, I hide them, like at the intersection of bands. They're not all perfect, though. My "Cargo 336 Ir" has some red straps on the side that are not covered. (Though, I fixed that and other flaws in my "Cargo 336 Ti" the upgraded Titanium version.)

 

Note 2: These use solar panels for the bands, for lighter weight and some extra energy.

 

Note 3: The smallest two containers, size 74 and size 176, are not very easy to remove (delete). However, my larger cargo containers should be painless to remove if you turn Safe Mode off and delete the long IFG strip or the strap closest to your ship's hull.

 

Download: See attachment at the bottom.

 

! Thun_Cargo 74 Ir Vol-0.06m.xml (Abbreviations: 74 cargo space, Iron, 0.06 million in volume)

 

! Thun_Cargo 176 Ir Vol-0.11m.xml (Abbreviations: 176 cargo space, Iron, 0.11 million in volume)

 

! Thun_Cargo 336 Ir Vol-0.18m.xml (Abbreviations: 336 cargo space, Iron, 0.18 million in volume)

 

! Thun_Cargo 876 Ir-Ti Vol-0.4m.xml (Abbreviations: 876 cargo space, Iron-Titanium mix, 0.4 million in volume)

 

! Thun_Cargo 336 Ti Vol-0.18m.xml (Abbreviations: 336 cargo space, Titanium, 0.18 million in volume)

_Thun_Cargo_Pack.zip

[Thundercraft]

Engine and Thruster Props

 

In my mind, protecting thrusters and engines with armor or by burying deep inside are valid strategies. Thrusters are vulnerable and easy to destroy. Engines don't seem quite as flimsy, but I think they're weaker than regular hull - certainly weaker than armor.

 

Granted, I also like the glow of engines. And I like the look of thrusters firing. So, for me, there is some trade off. But I also create engine glow props and thruster props to make it look like it has external engines and thrusters.

 

Props like this:

 

 

! Thun_Engine glow (1 x 1).xml

! Thun_Engine glow (2 x 2).xml

! Thun_Engine glow (3.5 x 3.5).xml

 

What they look like on a ship:

 

 

Or, how about a "recessed" engine prop like this:

 

 

! Thun_Engine recessed (1 x 1).xml

(This version has tiny IFGs already integrated. But you should still have a plate of armor between this and your engines.)

 

Download: See attachment below.

 

On how to protect them with IFGs:

 

I put these on top of armor or something to protect my actual engines and/or thrusters. If not armor, I'd use a thin layer of hull block or solar panels. But, underneath that armor or whatever, I place a thin (0.1 or 0.05) plate or strip of Integrity Field Generator. Then, I'd have my actual engines and/or thrusters. Though, if this is for a thruster nacelle (see below), I'd merely use a thin (0.05) plate of engine - just enough to give my prop a nice glowing trail whenever I engage the afterburners.

 

Note: Usually, an integrity field plate of 0.05 is thick enough to protect my engine glow props. However, on larger ships or when I use thick armor, I find that I need to make it thicker.

 

 

On decorative thruster props:

 

Perhaps you're like me in that you also want to hide your thrusters behind armor or something. Or, perhaps you dislike how ugly thrusters are or want something that is more eye-catching. If this suits your fancy, you're free to rip the decorative thruster props from my thruster nacelles (see below).

 

However, instead of copy/pasting from a one-size-fits all prop, I usually find the need to customize a thruster prop to fit the design. If nothing else, though, you can see how I make them. Originally, I used thin wedge strips to give the appearance of a vent. But, even protected by IFGs, I found that these frequently broke off in combat. My later nacelles use thin dark gray hologram wedges for a similar appearance. Since weapon fire passes right through holograms, they never break.

_Thun_Engine_Props.zip

[Thundercraft]

Thruster Nacelles & Leverage Arms

 

Some words on thruster changes:

 

Many of you should be aware of how thrusters have been (or will be) changed. Regular thrusters got a roughly 75% nerf. Now, to get the same Yaw/Pitch/Roll, we need many times the usual volume of thrusters, with a much larger power requirement.

 

In addition, we now have Directional Thrusters, Gyro Array, and Inertia Dampeners.

 

Directional Thrusters are a lot like regular Thrusters, but they provide thrust in only one direction. Also, they use less energy and require maybe a 5'th of the Engineers that Regular Thrusters do.

 

Inertia Dampeners provide Brake Thrust. But they can only be made of iron. And why use those when you can use Directional Thrusters to get both Brake Thrust and Pitch/Yaw?

 

Gyro Arrays are like Regular Thrusters in that they provide thrust in all directions. But, unlike Regular or Directional Thrusters, their performance is independent of distance from the ship's center of mass. As such, they're much easier to slap onto an older or non-optimized design to get a decent Yaw/Pitch/Roll. However, they do not provide any Brake Thrust. You'll still need to add thrusters or Inertia Dampeners for that. Also, they are rather power hungry.

 

 

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Why use thruster arms and Directional Thrusters; suggestions on placement:

 

In my experience, Directional Thrusters are more effective than regular Thrusters. On my designs, anyway, I could get more than double the maneuvering thrust with Directional Thrusters (in place of regular Thrusters) by having them face forward on leverage arms. Doing it that way, they provide lots of Brake Thrust with a very significant added bonus of either Yaw or Pitch (never Roll, though). It's rather easy to end up with more Brake Thrust than Engine Thrust. Only a small fraction of my Directional Thrusters are aimed in any direction but forward (maybe 10 or 15%) and that's mostly to get a bit of Roll.

 

Some of you may point out that thrusters on leverage arms is a weak point that can be exploited. It depends on how you design it. For combat ships, my leverage arms consist of no more than four blocks - two if I can manage. And I place these in such a way that at least two neighboring blocks would need to be destroyed before it would break off.

 

Because they consist of only a few blocks, each block has considerable HP. With IFGs, an enemy would have to do more than half of the whole ship's HP to sheer one off. And that's just to get one of them. It's simply not worth the effort, especially as maneuverable as I design my ships.

 

Directional thrusters achieve max efficiency when pointed forward (to increase both Brake Thrust and either Yaw or Pitch) on long leverage arms that are perpendicular to the center of mass. Placing forward-facing thruster nacelles at the back or front will waste a not-insignificant amount of thrust potential. Ideally, you'd to place them near the middle, with the base of each wing close to the center of mass.

 

 

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Here are thruster arms (leverage arms + thruster nacelles) ripped from ships that I've designed. These are all "DTU" or Direct Thruster Upgraded, meaning they all use Direct Thrusters. And that means they (currently) require the Beta branch.

 

! Thun_Wing_Cutter.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Caravel.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Monitor.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Predator_side.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Predator_dbl.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Tetralenos.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Trilen.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Trilenos.xml

 

! Thun_Wing_Azugalenos.xml

 

Download: See attachment below.

 

Note that most of my nacelles have at least some solar panels for added power. Usually, they're hidden under armor. They have less mass than hull blocks or most other blocks.

 

At first glance, Wing_Azugalenos and Wing_Trilenos may look identical. However, the nacelle on Wing_Azugalenos is off-center to provide more Yaw (or Pitch) on off-center designs - those with less than 4 thruster arms. Look at Wing_Predator_side for a clearer idea.

 

Also, Wing_Azugalenos and Wing_Trilenos both have rather large crew quarters and a large generator. Each is practically a ship in and of itself. For that matter, Wing_Tetralenos and Wing_Trilen have a small amount of crew quarters and power generators.

 

By appearance, one may assume that these have beefy Engines. But, I only added thin wafers of Engines - enough for a glowing trail when boosting. (In my ships, about 98% of the Engines are in the main body.)

 

Do note that most of these are made of at least some iron. In particular, 'Wing_Cutter' is 100% iron. Most of the rest have a titanium exterior, with void tech (see below) iron directional thrusters. But 'Wing_Azugalenos' and 'Wing_Trilenos' are 99% titanium. (I left a bit of iron holograms, which are invulnerable and shouldn't weigh anything.)

 

If you don't like how these are iron or titanium, this can be changed. See the Upgrade Your Ships Materials topic to see how easy file editing the materials is. There's also Build Mode's transform tool. Or, you could paste as a Template and change the material from the drop-down menu. (Props to Delvar for pointing that last one out.)

 

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TIP 1: Don't forget that you can hold down the "X", "Y", and "Z" keys while pasting in order to flip a part's orientation. Specifically: Since most of these are right-side wings, you can hold down the "X" key to flip it so it becomes a perfectly-matched left-side wing!

 

TIP 2: It's usually easy to edit these. What I do is either copy/paste a nacelle's side panel into my Templates or I copy/paste it elsewhere. Then, I edit the interior. Finally, I paste the panel back into place. Usually, I do this with X-Mirror on so I edit both wings at the same time.

 

Important: Most of these use 'void tech' directional thrusters. I say "most" because 'Wing_Azugalenos', 'Wing_Trilen', and 'Wing_Trilenos' are exceptions. They're built the old fashioned way.

 

See the Scytales Laboratories topic for Void Tech examples and details. It's worth mentioning for several reasons. For one, some players may consider it cheating.

 

Basically, a little file editing allows me to fit five times the amount of thrusters in the same amount of space. This not only saves a lot of space, it allows me to protect my thrusters with armor without using so much armor that it slows down the ship. (Without void tech, it can be a vicious cycle...)

 

To avoid cheesing, I only stack them five times, though more is possible. And, as it's built inside a framework, they're fragile past the armor. A single solid hit will likely destroy them.

 

If you don't like the void tech thrusters, you're free to turn Safe Mode off and delete them, replacing them with regular thrusters, engines, or whatever.

_Thun_Wing_Pack.zip

[Thundercraft]

Void Tech Blocks (reserved, coming soon-ish™)

[Thundercraft]

Prototype Shapes

 

Here are some 'prototype' shapes that I started on:

 

#Thun_Diamond I.xml (This shell already supports 4 modules.)

 

#Thun_Diamond II.xml (This shell already supports 4 modules.)

 

#Thun_Diamond III.xml (This shell already supports 3 modules.)

 

#Thun_Diamond IV.xml (This shell already supports 3 modules.)

 

#Thun_PRE-claw.xml (This shell already supports 5 modules.)

 

#Thun_PRE-cross.xml (This shell already supports 5 modules.)

 

These are not finished ships, just a starting point. They're completely hollow in the back. Here's what the "Claw" looks like from the back:

 

 

I may, some day, build on these. Maybe. But they're free to use or modify as you please, if you'd like.

 

Download: Thun_Prototypes.zip

[Thundercraft]

Miscellaneous Parts (reserved spot)

[Blondersheel]

Nice part designs!

[Delvar]

I thought you could change the material of a template by using the drop down in the top right corner of the block picker?.

[Thundercraft]

I thought you could change the material of a template by using the drop down in the top right corner of the block picker?.

 

Huh... ??? I didn't see that. Has that always been there, or is it new?

[Delvar]

Huh... ??? I didn't see that. Has that always been there, or is it new?

 

Been there since i started playing, im on stable not beta. :)

[Thundercraft]

I had some free time, so I've added the Prototype Shapes that I've been planning to share.

 

Enjoy.  ;D

[Pob]

nice idea, nice parts too