Building Academy

Warning64

Crest12 Nope. Checked multiple times. My data is still there tho (somehow) I just had to redo load it.

Warning64

Ok time to rebuild the shell of my dreadnaught.

Astrum

Warning64 Sorry to hear the game vanished. That's bizarre. Anyways, good luck on your dreadnought. I love the Eclipse! The Executor gets a lot of love, but one shouldn't forget the Eclipse too!

Warning64

Astrum Yep, I love the eclipse. All of the variants are good, this is just the easiest to build on cosmoteer

newageofpower

@Alpha ... I'm back for tractors!

Regarding push tractors, having a hard time keeping them powered even with 38 crew in a compartment and 3 reactors. I noticed like half the crew are sitting around in their rooms doing jack squat.

What do?

Equalizer

newageofpower Yes crew are stupid. If you don't care about cost, try using power storage as a buffer to aggregate the power from multiple reactors.

Seems to be the only way to provide increased power supply (should be enough to sustain push) but is very cost inefficient.
image https://i.imgur.com/RcizJlx.png
(Note: Reactor clustering is unavoidable here due to the crew needing to be able to go quickly between them as they run out of power.)

Astrum

Tried my hand at creating my first diagonal ship!

image https://i.imgur.com/FAqaMN0.png

I was inspired by a design I saw that was posted a few years ago, and based it off of that, as a proof of concept (I will find and post the reference design). Mine needs some work, but this was basically a proof of concept.

I really, really like how these things look aesthetically. I will definitely be making some more, or at least refining this one into my own design.

EDIT: Inspiration design, as promised.
image https://i.imgur.com/EdBBDWe.png

EDIT 2: I keep reuploading the design when I make changes, so it may change from time to time as you see this post.

EDIT 3: Also gave a painting a real try this time, I like how it came out.

CursedPh4nt0m

Astrum Might be that changed with 0.14.7, but I remember a single generator beeing cabable of powering way more than just one shield and one heavy laser.... (At least add some eb and pd to those modules. Will help against shields and missiles, two things your current design is quite weak against. Simply move your lasers one block towards the back for the eb, still have to think of an efficient way to add pd to those modules.)

Astrum

CursedPh4nt0m No, you're probably right about the power thing. I almost never use heavy lasers, so I leaned on the side of caution. I knew I had to add more PD, but wasn't sure how to do that with the way its set up now. I'll start experimenting with that and I will add EBs. I think I got all distracted by the whole paining thing 🙂

Super quick EDIT:

image https://i.imgur.com/aJsD9gT.png

Power bar says I'm below the minimum, but we'll see with actual testing. Adding the PD removed some of the armor for the shields, not sure if that's worth it or not. But I threw this together super quickly. I'll keep refining!

EDIT 2: Firing arc on the electrobolters seems to be impacted by the steep sloping of the ship. Will most likely have to bring those forward.

Fort_Master_Gustav

Astrum
This is how I did a recent HB triangle, of course, you shouldn't put the heavy blasters in this arrangement due to friendly fire, but the shield/Heavy-Blaster/Reactor/Energy Storage/Crew ratio is good, works pretty well.

Edit: I'd definetly do the front of it in a different arrangement, I was very displeased with how weak the front is, but then again, the smaller the frontal pine-cone the better, one'd hopefully have better EB integration within one's modules to have a better triangle, together with the better spreading of he HB arrangement.
image https://i.imgur.com/OIgT8jG.png

Astrum

Fort_Master_Gustav Awesome, thanks for the design to reference!, I'll be sure to take a close look. Made some changes to my own just before (or maybe right after, idk) you posted this, and updated my comment above.

Fort_Master_Gustav

Astrum
Sure, you should definetly not try to copy my design, although taking inspiration is fine, some good tips are:

-Predicting the fiering arc of the weapons, and building the slope of the triangle accordingly;
-Predicting where the enemy's projectiles will come from, considering it's a triangle they won't be coming directly, rather at a steep angle, and positioning your shielding accordingly;
-Always try to make the frontal pine cone as small as possible, it saves up on money and weight, it's an essencial but not that important part of the triangle, although it can be used effectively for defense (also do the stope on it according to the weapon's fiering arc);
-Make the weapons and then place the thruster modules inside of the triangle based on the shape that the weapons create, that keeps all the angles consistant, and shouldn't interfere with the thrust;
-You really only need about 2-3 CRs on these designs, maybe even put one, and generally on the thrusters down the center, because if people even get there you're most likely already incapacitated.

Astrum

Fort_Master_Gustav Wonderful points. I definitely won't just copy. I don't really like doing that at all anyways. The weapon angle issue is something I'm working through right now. I definitely plan on reorienting it as I go, and I know it needs work for this design.

I've never made a diagonal design before, so weapon angle issues are kind of a whole new playground, so to speak.

Astrum

Okay, I've done some things. Some positive... some.. debatable.

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

I'm struggling to find a way to place the HBs and the EBs in a position where both have good focus fire ability. Ultimately, I've decided that the HBs get priority, as the main damage dealers. The ship can essentially rotate as a "broadsider", to unleash it's EBs, and then focus back to front with its HBs to punch through the now shieldless hole.

EDIT: sorta screwed up the above design, removing it until I fix it.

EDIT: Re-added. I think I'm gonna take a break for a few hours on this design, but I'll definitely come back. I think I'm confusing myself with the whole tilted perspective thing when building.

Fort_Master_Gustav

Astrum You are progressing! Usually on a module you want to push the reactor to the limit of its efficiency, and putting the EB and PD helps with that.
Also, yes, that is a way to use triangles, wiggling side-to-side to expose half of your ship at once and half at the other time is not only a valid strat but oftentimes a beneficial one, although, the way that your EBs are arranged, it seems to be a necessity, I'd probably re-do the module's positioning in a way that the 1x1 slope connected directly to the EB, rather than being 1 block farther up.
Also, I see a problem, the front of yor triangle is rather weakn, unshielded and without much armor, that is a problem, as if the actual tip of the triangle is gone you are severely exposed, since then the enemy has a clear shot to the undefended sides of your modules, and they destroy your sides extremely quick by doing so.

kieffer5101

Astrum those eb wont be able to fire infront of the ship, try pushing each module up one block. you also dont have a armor cone on the top making it easy for ships to dig into your ship from the front

Fort_Master_Gustav

Astrum It's pretty intuitive, you'll see, most of it is, the way I do it, copying a module and placing it in sequence, and then seeing how the red weapon arc projections compare to the next module, to make sure that their aiming capacity isn't hindered.

Astrum

Fort_Master_Gustav Gotcha. Thanks a ton for the advice. I really do appreciate it. I will take all of that into consideration when I return in a bit. I took your advice along with kieffer5101 and uparmored the nose cone at the loss of some PD.

Final design, for right this moment:

image https://i.imgur.com/D6jDRr8.png

EDIT: I will say, even if it isn't an effective design... I must say it's gotta be my favorite visually. I love the way these angled ships look. Also forgot to mention, trying to keep the price under 750k, but its not a huge deal if i go over in this case. After all, this is my first design of this type.

Astrum

kieffer5101 Yeah, the EB need some work, but this whole thing is starting to hurt my eyes after a while. I'll come around and fix some problems after a well needed break. As for the armor cone, I have point defense up there, which needs to be accessible by crew. Not sure how to up armor it much more.

kieffer5101

Astrum you also might want some engine rooms to boost your thrusters, here is one of my ships as an example (yes, the paint is broken)
image https://i.imgur.com/SAfmTBw.png

Astrum

kieffer5101 Ooh, that's a neat design. I considered adding engine rooms, but ultimately this design is rather tiny. Maybe on a future design that can afford more space. Also, how well does the flak work there? I noticed the flak gun's poor turning radius even on flat wall designs, hence why I didn't even attempt to include it here (along with the aforementioned "the design is small" problem).

EDIT: Also what do you mean, "the paint is broken"? Seems pretty snazzy to me. Looks better than mine. Or am I missing something?