Need Advice.

[Thugs4Less]

I just picked up the game last week. After exploring in creative, playing with other users ship creations, and learning game basics I decided to try and build a ship from an image I found on imgur.

 

 

I've watched videos on the basics of building and I've experimented with small scale ships.

How do I go about planning out the ships system requirements or the amount of blocks they would need? How should I start building on a ship of this scale?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Dan the Brickman]

I recommend building some lose open framework in creative mode. first figure out how long/wide you wand it, and then create some basic squared and rectangle sections out of the scaffold that you can easily delete later. after you have the general frame done, you can start putting some hull sections on, and start placing some giant system blocks "inside".

 

shields are based on the scale of the generator, so pick a number you want, 30k? 100k? 1 million? and scale up shield generators to give that output.

 

then, slap on a giant rock section to the bottom of the hold, and place your engines on the ship. (note, engines CAN be covered, and dont have to be fully visible). be sure to work the ship over to a nearby station, crew up and then see how the ship flies. Then with all these systems running, you can build your generator to be big enough to provide power for the other systems. be sure to leave excess power for system slots, etc.

 

oh, also once you figure out how it handles with the giant rock attached, remove it. its just to help account for the extra mass of the ships outer plating and decorations later...

 

so, once you play with systems and get something working, start filling in secondary things like cargo hold, or hanger bays, additional crew quarters, and then armor. once you filled in the gaps, start streamlining the outer hull and armor to match the design you want, and place decorations....

 

 

there uh.... does that help?

 

 

 

[Thugs4Less]

Yes, that does help. Thank you :)

[Ravien]

If you are building in creative mode in single player, you can also use the admin tools to automatically add crew to your ship, give you random turrets/modules appropriate to the area you're in, and many other things. This really helps when building because having to travel to stations to juggle your crew with half a built ship is a pain!

 

Just type the following command into chat and a new button will appear on your screen that you can click to access the admin window. Once you have your ship built the way you want and are happy with the handling and defenses, you can save it and then build it on your survival or multiplayer game.

 

/run Entity():addScript("lib/entitydbg.lua")

[Warrax]

Another small piece of advice is to start small(ish).

 

By that i mean start off building smaller ships.  As your building skills increase you can take on larger projects that require more and more detail.

Plus, as a learning player, your tastes and preferences can be better incorporated into your own designs as you better understand mechanics and do not wind up frustrated.

 

As well, keep in mind that is game - especially ship design - is highly nuanced.  Scan the forums for ideas in design, and enjoy yourself.

 

Me?  Well, i really like this game.  The Devs are doing a fab job !!