Building Academy

Astrum

CursedPh4nt0m Oh man, didn't realize you were planning to do something to my first variation! If you wanted to offer improvements or a design to test against it, feel free! I still like that design, and envision it as the cheaper counterpart to this one. (In fact, don't be surprised if this current design gets succeeded soon enough).

I took your concerns into account (You were right about the thrusters. I really did throw those around willy nilly. The thruster modules based around the engine rooms were more purpose built, but the other ones were just kinda... there, for more speed. I kind of have a speed addiction, I guess. I really hate slow ships.

And thanks for taking the time to build something. I really do appreciate it!

EDIT: Here it is as of now, in all its tilted, pointy glory! I could probably cut down on armor a bit more if I wanted, but I haven't done that (for aesthetics reasons primarily to be honest... What can I say? It looks better with less holes!).

Worth noting: I've imparted a 1,250,000 credit limit on the design for myself. This is currently at 1,235,600 credits!

image https://i.imgur.com/WTGX7Ap.png

Fort_Master_Gustav

Astrum You like fast speeds? That's a shame, the most recent update killed Ultralights, which were THE speedy ships, 0 armor, all shields, thrusters, and weapons that gained more range with speed, now with the short range of stuff they really don't work as well as they did :p

CursedPh4nt0m

Astrum I've got only one little issue:

CursedPh4nt0m check the door (and corridor) placement

image https://i.imgur.com/suWxzIV.png

Huh, guess I'm still too lazy to go designing when I already have something in that price class....
Have fun fighting one of my few GiF designs that didn't loose almost all firepower with the 0.14.7 update:
image https://i.imgur.com/xyPND7h.png
(Didn't expect my cannon triangle to do that good against your design, guess those missiles are a great counter to the AI piloting....)

Astrum

Fort_Master_Gustav Yeah, I remember seeing some speedy-looking designs from back when I joined. Though back then, I made horrific big heavy ships (maybe I'll post them some day... they are NOT pretty...).

Fort_Master_Gustav

Astrum Don't worry mate, everyone made trash ships at the start XD

Astrum

Fort_Master_Gustav Too true, lol

Astrum

CursedPh4nt0m Missiles have always been the bane of this design, Guess I’ll see how it holds up after some modifications I’ll do today when I’m home.

As for the doors and corridors, I probably have some extra, though I found having double doors around the reactor meant crew retrieved power just a bit faster, so that was the thinking there. As for the 1X1 gap on the left, under the shield, that was where the fire extinguisher went. Guess I forgot to fill it in when I moved it!

Also, the crew below the two crew barracks is arranged and segregated on purpose.I could probably get rid of the two person bunk, but the two quarters down there are only to help power the engines.

Astrum

CursedPh4nt0m Yep, it was the missiles. Having them on meant defeat for my vessel, but turning them off meant I won with only about 37k worth of damages. Stark difference! I guess I need to work in more PD!

By quickly adding 2 PD to each battery, I got... closer, but still not it. Clearly something else needs to change.

...

Or maybe, it's time for a new overhauled design? Definitely a possibility...

Well, did an edit, deciding that the best way to fight your missiles was with more missiles... (Fire fighting fire...?). PD spam did not do much, and I haven't tried flak on a diagonal design (due to flak having limited firing angles).

Created this:
image https://i.imgur.com/J74Movr.png

My design "won" but not by much at all, especially given my design is 1,250,000, and yours is 1,000,000

Aftermath of the battle:
image https://i.imgur.com/8rrMTr1.png

EDIT: Also wasn't expecting cannons on diagonal designs to be any good... Might be making one soon.

CursedPh4nt0m

Astrum You could also connect the thrusters next to the reactor directly to it, consider the amount of money those extra doors cost you, remove the connections between the EBs and the HLBs and consider the crews pathway. Those might seem like small issues, but can improve efficiency quite a bit.

CursedPh4nt0m

Astrum Using cannons is rather tricky on those designs and I honestly decided on this design because of their accuracy and slow projectile speed, which results in reduced hits against faster builds like yours (they deal quite some damage against walls tho). Took me quite a while to get that ship even remotely as effective and the missiles are great at countering it's weaknesses. (It's rather slow, the cannons have some spread, it could turn better, ...)
I've seen some guys using flak near the ships tip with quite some effect, guess one could have a similar one by placing it anywhere else tho.
It's time for the actual fight then:

image https://i.imgur.com/QrTtlon.png
(You could test basically anything against this, there is a reason I like it that much. Still have to get better flak modules tho.)

Oneye

CursedPh4nt0m Astrum Here's a ship I submitted to GiF a while back, although it was in a dm so that's why you haven't seen it before. It's a cannon triangle with missiles, but with different placement and flak at the front. Was updated after 14.5 came out. Feel free to test against it.
image https://i.imgur.com/MBWBu8u.png

Astrum

CursedPh4nt0m Awesome, will do some testing soon, since I now have more time on my hands.

Also, I managed to make a variation of my design that is sub 1 million credits:

image https://i.imgur.com/ysIaT2B.png

EDIT: Figured I'd also mention I modified my original diagonal ship into a 500k version (at the cost of just about everything, but such is the cost of reducing well... cost!)

image https://i.imgur.com/5hSivRK.png

Astrum

CursedPh4nt0m Finally did some testing, and I was able to beat your wall with my own wall (Only did one battle though, maybe it was a fluke. Will update shortly):

image https://i.imgur.com/JY7sUv0.png

Still haven't tested your design against my triangle, though it I expect it do at least decently, since my triangle was able to beat this particular wall design a few times (not consistently though... It depended on how the A.I. prioritized targets during a given battle).

EDIT:
Did another battle against my wall, same results.

Aftermath:

image https://i.imgur.com/iOO7JBk.png

EDIT 2:

Did a third fight for good measure. Things got interesting this time, as your wall managed to sever mine into two pieces at the beginning! Still, due to the placement of CRs (which I believe was advice I got from you in the first place 😉 ), the broken wall piece flew on as its own ship.

Aftermath:
image https://i.imgur.com/EgMdhcu.png

I recognize that your design is a lot more versatile though, as it has flak, and a wider array of weapons. I think mine only won because it overpowered yours with sheer cannon spam.

EDIT 3:
Welp, my triangle lost. It did manage to do some decent damage, though:

image https://i.imgur.com/Zwvk597.png

Still, I'll see what I can do to improve it. Though I might just end up making a new design soon enough anyways!

CursedPh4nt0m

Oneye It seems somewhat slow and the distance between the missile launchers and the missile factories might reduce firerate, despite the obvious point behind that decision. Did it make it through testing? (I can guess why you designed it like that, but honestly don't like the dual flak that much, it seems to reduce structural integrity quite a bit...)

Astrum

Oneye Ah, that's a nice ship! Will definitely do some testing/assessing of the design. Thanks a lot!

Oneye

CursedPh4nt0m It does make the front weaker, like I said it was an updated older design and I did not want to make the gap between the modules bigger at the time, it still passes testing though and is a good ship nonetheless.

Oneye

Astrum Since you made a 500k version I have a very old 500k triangle to test against, although it is incredibly slow it can deal lots of damage and has good survivability for its cost. The reason it is so slow is that it was built before the realization that speed let you fight on your own terms (basically when everything but kiters were slow, also right after the tournaments started).
image https://i.imgur.com/m39jWti.png

CursedPh4nt0m

Astrum The normal cannon (spam) wall.... Seems like those are the natural enemy to my 'allrounder' designs. I didn't fight that many, all of the fights ended with my designs loosing tho.
The normal version shoots faster and the projectiles are faster too, resulting in way more hits compared to the large cannon. You can also fit more weapons in the same space, need less ammo factories and have more room for shields. Now that I think of it, how come I didn't build any yet? (That design could need some more side-facing thrusters and possibly some flak and/or ion beams and the outer CRs are too far out, the rest seems okay so far. Will check it ingame later.)

Terket

Diags will be extra useful thanks to the new update.

Astrum

Terket How so? Just curious. I really like diagonal ships, so I'm interested.

Terket

Astrum Turrets will now automatically aim for target even if they can't reach it either by being out-arced or just simply outranged.

Astrum

Terket Ah, I remember reading that in the changelog, but didn't think about it that way. That is rather neat.