Building Academy

Oneye

PotatoBoiler Yeah, there really isnt a very good middle ground between effective and pretty, you can do both but its best to do them on different ships.

PotatoBoiler Do's and Don'ts.

Then I'd suggest reading my much bigger and more up to date guide here: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/7783-cosmoteer-ultimate-ship-design-and-part-guide

PotatoBoiler

Oneye
I did, a few minutes ago. Those ships are all pre-0.14.5.

Oneye Yeah, there really isnt a very good middle ground between effective and pretty, you can do both but its best to do them on different ships.

I can see that now, but I didn't a while ago.

PotatoBoiler

Here's a few of my more recent ships.

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

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

image https://i.imgur.com/q6AtcNK.png

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

image https://i.imgur.com/6aMxwS0.png

image https://i.imgur.com/ps6pny2.png

Alpha

PotatoBoiler Most of those, especially the bigger ones lack firepower. Flak is good and can also serve as a weapon, but it doesn't replace weapons and does not enough damage to ships.

Jabenyezaa

Hello I just started back playing the game and I've wanted to make more competitively viable ships, I made one here. Also I looked at a few of the guidelines from a few different ship building threads, so I was wondering how to improve this ship, so I can learn how to build better ships in general.

image https://i.imgur.com/Vt7dH2f.png

chief_chaman478

Jabenyezaa i am not one of the teachers/judges but it seems pretty good though in your compartments you use armour as a filler. A corridor could do much better.
image https://i.imgur.com/9vjHv6s.png

Alpha

Jabenyezaa First of all, your ship is aesthetically pleasing. (I really like the shape) It's also very good yo see you're using modules, however, these could be improved. I'm not going to talk about removing some armor, since that isn't your first priority. (I mean, your ship doesn't have its center filled with armor like some do.)

But I'm going to talk about some other things to tweak:

First get rid of corridors that will never be used. Like here above the EMP factory:

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

Also, certainly follow kieffer5101's advice. It's worth the risk to directly attach your reactors to shields,similiar with factories & cannons.
If you can shorten the path of crew by moving/adding an extra door, do it. Examples for this are the PD at the sides, two of them can be directly attached to the energy storage. It doesn't change much, but the faster a crew memeber can deliver his battery, the faster he can go do something else.
Not all small cannons have armor between them and the shields, you should consider adding it to all of them. The longer shields stay alive, the better.
I think 2 launchers are too much for one EMP factory, but it depends on if you want faster firing or a bigger starting barrage.
The central flak don't have an optimal amount of factories.
The small engine pod in the center of your ship does littly while it still has a reactor. You might want to just remove it. (Or keep it if it's just for aesthetics.)
Crew bunks are to be avoided, replace as much as possible with crew quarters. (Cheaper and uses less space for the amount of crew you get.)

Perhaps you could improve by practice against this older ship of mine. (Don't copy the modules, they're outdated.)

image https://i.imgur.com/3AHRF0P.png

Jabenyezaa

chief_chaman478 I know that compartment is a weak side of my ship, but thanks for the suggestions. Also the ship has FTL drives, because it was a bounty Hunter ship.

Alpha

chief_chaman478 What did you say, corridor as a filler? Blasphemy, that costs too much! 😂

Jabenyezaa
Zones that are unlikely to get hit should have little armor, so don't use armor as fillers, use structures and/or leave places empty.

I will take a more in depth look later, but I can't use my computer at the moment.

kieffer5101

chief_chaman478 first of all, put that reactor right behind those 2 shields. And yes, remove a lot of armor, as 0neye once said to me: you should only place armor where you know you will need it, and not where you think yo will need it.

chief_chaman478

kieffer5101 i think hes said that o everyone XD

Jabenyezaa

Alpha thanks for the feedback I'll use it to try and improve my ship, and sorry about the slow responses, I have been busy.

CursedPh4nt0m

Crest12 You know there's a diagonal design three posts above?

Astrum

Also:

Oneye

Alpha

And that are only some few.
There are some guides on designs, guess you could check those too.

Oneye

Alpha Flak actually does some 7200 damage a second (large cannon is 2k) but it is really hard to get a good amount firing at the same spot on an enemy ship, and they are hard to protect, also the damage is so spread out it usually looks like it isn't doing much. I have a flak rammer design I submitted to GiF though:
image https://i.imgur.com/WRdjV7N.png

CursedPh4nt0m

Alpha Could be you overlooked this?

CursedPh4nt0m
You think a shielded version of this could be useful for anti-missile/fighter support?

Alpha

CursedPh4nt0m Seems like I have. My opinion is that anti-missile fighters are not worth the cost. Personally I would just add extra defense to my main ship.

Perhaps a shielded version could be useful, but only if it had more firepower and slightly less PD.

Astrum

Oof, sorry about the long delay, I have been more busy than anticipated.

Still, I further refined my 1 million diagonal design, with the hopes of creating a 1.5 million one very soon!

The new 1 million triangle was able to beat the I/C wall design offered by CursedPh4nt0m in several test battles.

image https://i.imgur.com/N1h927e.png

One aftermath photo. I have also had battles where my ship suffered less damage, but I don't have a screenshot on hand of that. I might do more tests later, however.

image https://i.imgur.com/PgOz6Wl.jpg

EDIT: Accidentally removed the aftermath picture while I was editing this post. Oops. Re-added.

EDIT 2: Also defeated CursedPh4nt0m's Cannon triangle in 2/3 of my test battles:

Aftermath:
image https://i.imgur.com/SfC3Kkd.jpg

and

image https://i.imgur.com/0TF9FJX.jpg

As you can see, changing up the weaponry made a big difference. Small lasers FTW!

Still thinking on how I'm going to make a 1.5 million design. Not sure if I am gonna make it a small cannon, large cannon, or laser based design. Lasers have the best firing arcs of the three, making it the best choice for concentrated fire (crucial for a triangle design), yet I can't ignore the power of cannons... (and they use waaaay less power, needing power only for the factories in small amounts, leaving the rest for shields and EBs). I also want to include some flak for much better missile defense this time around.

CursedPh4nt0m

Alpha Tried a version with shields and EB and gotta say that's not worth it. I expected the offense to work way better than just simple bullet spray from max distance....
Thanks anyway.

Emperor

I'm in love with your capital ships

Astrum

Emperor You didn't reply to anyone. Who's ships?

Crest12

Do any of you have ideas for ships that're not walls cause I suck at most ship designs other than walls