Building Academy

CATMASTER

Astrum not much point to make your shield and lasers separate,and they only need 1 reactor (4 lasers 2 shields) btw i would recomand adding bolt to the edgy of the front

Astrum

CATMASTER

I did that for compartamentalization reasons, but I might experiment with only one reactor for each shield/laser battery. I just worry that the overall efficency will drop if I do.

Alpha

chief_chaman478 We don't work with modded ships (yet) in this thread. Most mods are unbalanced and prefer you spam OP stuff instead of making tactfully designed ships.

Perhaps in the future we will have dedicated help with ship aesthetics, I think some mods are really impressive on that part. .

Alpha

chief_chaman478

Let's put it this way, you've got a long way to go. At least you use some modules, which most don't do when they start.

First things first, make sure everything in the ship has crew access.

image https://i.imgur.com/iBZ0bHH.png

Second, remove ammo storage and make sure your factories touch the cannons.
Next, why are missile factories so far away from the launchers? Why are missile storages next to the factories? Make some dedicated missile modules, like this:

image https://i.imgur.com/75XGuhQ.png

Then, so much armor in places not needing extra protection, remove some to make your ship lighter, faster & cheaper.
Next, try not to mix weapons so crazily in modules. It's much easier to design a module focussing on one weapon type.
Also, in most cases stationary weapons (ion beams, railguns, nukes) are bad when not facing the enemy . It's better to remove those on the sides. Especially the small railgun, that one is almost useless.
Make sure to put armor above shields where you haven't already.
Perhaps your fighters could use some fire extinquishers?

And at last: move the main railguns a tiny bit more to the back and if possible add an extra shield layer there; Those railguns do great damage, try to keep them alive for most of the fight.

Challenge

Try to beat this ship by making AI fight AI, without making your ship cost over 4,5 million:

image https://i.imgur.com/0GbxF0S.png

chief_chaman478

Alpha i fixed the shield problem but it must not have save (aka i forgot to save)

kieffer5101

Alpha waaaaaaaay to many crew on that missile module, half of that would be too much...

Astrum

Alpha

Decided to try and beat your ship for fun, and made this... monstrosity:

image https://i.imgur.com/VitR6uO.png

It worked, though not well, and its gotta be the ugliest thing I've made in a while. I could've improved it a lot, but for a ship I threw together (and it was well under 1 million, to boot). The only problem was when my ship would split yours into pieces, which would cause mine to be threatened if it got too close to these fragments. Other than that, it simply hovered outside range and slowly but surely ate away at yours.

EDIT:
Also improved my other wall design a little bit, still haven't tried the large cannons though.

image https://i.imgur.com/M7ou4VV.png

EDIT 2: Large cannon variant

image https://i.imgur.com/Gs7L1BF.png

I've noted that the ship tends to be split apart when a module's reactors are destroyed, so I'll work on a fix for that at some point. I'd also love to find a way to add more point defense, to help against missiles.

Alpha

Astrum Try to get rid of the corridors without use in the middle, those power storages also have little effect.

I'm not an expert with small cannons, I rarely use them. But I think this might be a better module to install. It should fit normally and keep enough room for eventual decorations.

image https://i.imgur.com/U7jhS4T.png

chief_chaman478

Alpha looking at that cannon module i can hardly believe that that reactor would be enough for everything. suppose thats y reactor spam is so common

Astrum

Alpha

Thanks!

Just tested the module you made. It's far cheaper AND quite effective. I think I'm gonna try my hand at a large cannon module variant, and see which is better. I plan on making a new design with whichever I find I prefer. Is there a particular reason you prefer larger cannons over their smaller variant?

Alpha

chief_chaman478 Well, that was actually the tiniest problem I could find (Fixable by adding a corridor and door). Those other things I mentioned are the more serious stuff.

chief_chaman478

Alpha yes personnelly think id a better job with modules in the modded ship. and armour i thought would be good but ill try cutting down on it. thx

Alpha

chief_chaman478

chief_chaman478 armour i thought would be good

(Aha, British English)

I'm mostly talking about the gigantic chunks of armour in the left and right top corners of the ship. A ridiculous amount of armour is good for missile barges, but just a dead weight for most other ships.

chief_chaman478

Alpha nope ireland but thats close enough

Alpha

chief_chaman478 The factories use almost no power, the cannons none. The shields being next to the reacor get suplied perfectly enough power. 😉

Alpha

chief_chaman478 I mean most people use American English around here (armor). You used British English by saying "armour".

chief_chaman478

Alpha thx very useful

Alpha

chief_chaman478 No problem!

Alpha

kieffer5101 Thank you, I'm not really used to using those small cannons. I'm a large cannon fanboy. 😃

kieffer5101

Alpha I'm talking about the missile module though 😐

Alpha

kieffer5101 😶

But all that crew is running around non stop...

Alpha

kieffer5101 Okay, perhaps you're right. I do think half would be to few, but perhaps four crew less would be better.

Alpha

kieffer5101

Alpha but perhaps four crew less would be better.

I could lower the amount even further than four, but that would mean moving the reactor closer to the factory. That's rather explosive, I'm not sure if it's worth the lower cost.