Difference between revisions of "Ship Design"

Latest revision as of 16:49, 7 May 2018

This article describes basic and intermediate ship design.

The Basics

For a ship to be considered a ship, it must have the following components

A Ship Core
At least one Propulsion System (usually a thruster)
A power source (see Reactors)

While a ship can technically consist of just a Ship Core, this has mediocre thrust, no defense should it be attacked, and serves no functional purpose other than quick transport over small distances. The same can be said for a ship with just a Ship Core, a single Reactor and a single Thruster Module: such entities are often referred to as "pods" "shuttles" or "spacebikes", and are also used to quickly and easily travel over small distances (less than a sector, normally).

Hull and Armour

Hull and Armour is a major means of defending against incoming attacks, providing basic protection and increasing the overall survivability of a ship. Door blocks also have statistics similar to armor blocks of the same tier, but do not contribute any SHP. This is because doors can become intangible (when opened), and could be exploited to make invulnerable (or much harder to kill) ships if they contributed SHP to a ship.

Hull and Armor Statistics
Block	HP	Armor	AHP	SHP	Mass
Hull	75	0%	50	5	0.05
Glass Door	75	0%	50	0	0.05
Standard Armor	100	60%	75	5	0.15
Plex Door	100	60%	75	0	0.15
Advanced Armor	250	75%	100	5	0.25
Crystal Armor	250	75%	100	5	0.25
Blast Door	250	75%	100	0	0.25

Production

The cost of manufacturing armor is proportional to its strength, and the recipes for all types of armor and door are listed below:

Hull and Glass Doors

Production Info
Produced in a		Basic Factory
Requires		To create
Alloyed Metal Mesh	x1	Grey Hull	x1
Crystal Composite	x1

Production Info
Produced in a		Basic Factory
Requires		To create
Crystal Composite	x5	Glass Door	x1

Standard Armor and Plex Doors

Production Info
Produced in a		Standard Factory
Requires		To create
Grey Hull	x1	Grey Standard Armor	x1
Standard Hardener	x1

Production Info
Produced in a		Basic Factory
Requires		To create
Alloyed Metal Mesh	x15	Plex Door	x1

Advanced Armor, Crystal Armor and Blast Doors

Production Info
Produced in a		Advanced Factory
Requires		To create
Grey Standard Armor	x1	Grey Advanced Armor	x1
Advanced Hardener	x1

Production Info
Produced in a		Advanced Factory
Requires		To create
White Standard Armor	x1	White Crystal Armor	x1
Parseen Crystal	x6

Production Info
Produced in a		Advanced Factory
Requires		To create
Varat Capsule	x38	Blast Door	x1

Armor Positioning

Although Hull and Armor blocks can serve decoratively, armor's primary use is to mitigate damage, and this purpose is best fulfilled through careful placement.

The front of a ship is often most at risk, and so heavy armor plating on the front profile of a vessel is usually advised. Depending on ship size, this may exceed ten meters in thickness. An overall "skin" of armor on a ship is also common, and is usually 1 or 2 meters thick, with thicker plating at points of high risk. To increase the difficulty for intruders to access it, the Ship Core (and the room it is situated in) may be armored, usually including Blast Doors in the entrance to this room. Weapon computers and other vital system controllers, being quite vulnerable and of significant importance to a ship's operation, are often kept in a separate cluster with significant armor plating, reducing the likelihood of a system outage due to computer damage. Power Auxiliaries are also rather vulnerable and, given that they will explode dangerously, should be encased in armor, and often interspersed with armored plates to absorb internal damage (making sure that these do not break up the Power Auxiliary grouping).

Coloring

Hull and Armor blocks can also be colored, though this is rather tedious to accomplish:

Hull is colored by running Grey Hull and Paint of the desired color through a Basic Factory.
Standard Armor is colored by running a colored Hull block and a Standard Hardener through a Standard Factory.
Advanced Armor is colored by running colored Standard Armor and an Advanced Hardener through an Advanced Factory.
Crystal Armor is produced by running colored Standard Armor and a number of Crystal blocks through an Advanced Factory.

Weaponry

Weaponry is necessary for any ship to damage other entities. Weapons can also be linked to other weapons, creating combinations that modify the statistics of the primary weapon. This is explained in detail on a separate page.

Main article: Weapon Systems

As well as basic weapons and their combinations, Effects can be added to further modify the output of a weapon, specializing it in various ways.

Main article: Effects

Defense

Defense, like Weaponry, is one of the most important aspects of any combat ship. While defense is very commonly found in the form of shields (Shield Capacitors and Shield-Rechargers), it's also just as prominent in the form of armor and Effects.

Shields are the simplest and most abundant forms of tanking a ship, and simply involves spreading large amounts of Shield Capacitors and Shield-Rechargers throughout a ship. Like Thruster Modules, Shield Capacitors and Shield-Rechargers do not benefit from adjacent blocks of the same type, and as such can be thrown around carelessly, either in groups or individually, and are often used to fill up small holes throughout ships. If a player is focusing on more of an armor tank, then it's not uncommon for shield systems to act as a layer of system armor, similar to how Thrusters can be used, protecting the more crucial systems beneath it.

Armor is the most prominent form of tanking a ship, and is just as simple as shielding. Armor inherently takes up the majority of the ship and acts as it's hull, and as such is usually buffing a ship's armor HP from the get-go. In order to effectively armor tank a ship, it's recommended to use multiple layers of armor, with Standard Armor being the most abundant armor type (making up the exterior armor plates/hull), with Advanced Armor making up the interior and having Basic Hull for details, to add to the aesthetics. All of this makes for a quality armor set-up already without the proper placement, and can make a ship much more comfortable in terms of cost. Layering armor is also quite common, with having multiple armor layers on the exterior so as to provide increased protection to the systems on the inside.

Effects, while being able to manipulate weaponry and specialize it, also have various "passive" abilities, all of which benefit the ship in some way when activated: These are detailed on the Effects page.

Using these Effects will allow a ship to reach it's full potential, whether it's in combat or not. For example, an armor tanked ship would generally use Punch-Through Effect and Piercing Effect to increase the effectiveness of its armor, while a shield tanked ship would use Ion Effect to increase the effectiveness of its shields. A fighter may use Overdrive Effect in order to provide increased mobility, decreasing the odds of larger vessels being able to successfully hit it.

Other considerations

Multiple people on a single ship
Damage and repair

Instructional Videos

The following YouTubers are known to make high quality builds and instructional videos for building ships.

[1]

Bench

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 * A [[Ship Core]]
 * At least one [[Propulsion Systems|Propulsion System]] (usually a thruster)
-* A power source (see [[Power Reactor Module]] and [[Power Systems]])
+* A power source (see [[Reactors]])
-While a ship can technically consist of just a [[Ship Core]], this has mediocre thrust, no defense should it be attacked, and serves no functional purpose other than quick transport over small distances. The same can be said for a ship with just a [[Ship Core]], a single [[Power Reactor Module]] and a single [[Thruster Module]], which is more commonly made to serve the same purpose as just having the [[Ship Core]].
+While a ship can technically consist of just a [[Ship Core]], this has mediocre thrust, no defense should it be attacked, and serves no functional purpose other than quick transport over small distances. The same can be said for a ship with just a Ship Core, a single [[Reactor]] and a single [[Thruster Module]]: such entities are often referred to as "pods" "shuttles" or "spacebikes", and are also used to quickly and easily travel over small distances (less than a sector, normally).
 ==Hull and Armour==
-Hulls and Armour is the primary means of defending against incoming attacks, providing basic protection and will generally increase the survivability of a ship. There are four types of Hull/Armour:
+Hull and Armour is a major means of defending against incoming attacks, providing basic protection and increasing the overall survivability of a ship. Door blocks also have statistics similar to armor blocks of the same tier, but do not contribute any SHP. This is because doors can become intangible (when opened), and could be exploited to make invulnerable (or much harder to kill) ships ''if'' they contributed SHP to a ship.
-*[[Basic Hull]] with 0.05 Mass, 5 System HP, 50 Armour HP, 75 Block HP and 0 Block Armour (Per block)
+{|class="wikitable"
-*[[Standard Armour]] with 0.15 Mass, 5 System HP, 75 Armour HP, 100 Block HP and 0.6 Block Armour (Per block)
+|+ Hull and Armor Statistics
-*[[Advanced Armour]] with 0.25 Mass, 5 System HP, 100 Armour HP, 250 Block HP and 0.8 Block Armour (Per Block)
+! Block !! HP !! Armor !! AHP !! SHP !! Mass
-*[[Crystal Armour]] with the same stats as Advanced Armour, however is transparent (Somewhat Opaque)
+|-
+| [[Grey Hull|Hull]] || style="text-align:right" | 75 || style="text-align:right" | 0% || style="text-align:right" | 50 || style="text-align:right" | 5 || style="text-align:right" | 0.05
+|-
+| [[Glass Door]] || style="text-align:right" | 75 || style="text-align:right" | 0% || style="text-align:right" | 50 || style="text-align:right" | 0 || style="text-align:right" | 0.05
+|-
+| [[Grey Standard Armor|Standard Armor]] || style="text-align:right" | 100 || style="text-align:right" | 60% || style="text-align:right" | 75 || style="text-align:right" | 5 || style="text-align:right" | 0.15
+|-
+| [[Plex Door]] || style="text-align:right" | 100 || style="text-align:right" | 60% || style="text-align:right" | 75 || style="text-align:right" | 0 || style="text-align:right" | 0.15
+|-
+| [[Grey Advanced Armor|Advanced Armor]] || style="text-align:right" | 250 || style="text-align:right" | 75% || style="text-align:right" | 100 || style="text-align:right" | 5 || style="text-align:right" | 0.25
+|-
+| [[White Crystal Armor|Crystal Armor]] || style="text-align:right" | 250 || style="text-align:right" | 75% || style="text-align:right" | 100 || style="text-align:right" | 5 || style="text-align:right" | 0.25
+|-
+| [[Blast Door]] || style="text-align:right" | 250 || style="text-align:right" | 75% || style="text-align:right" | 100 || style="text-align:right" | 0 || style="text-align:right" | 0.25
+|}
-The cost of the armour increases as the quality does, with [[Basic Hull]] requiring only [[Alloyed Metal Mesh]] and [[Crystal Composite]] to be made, with [[Standard Armour]] requiring the [[Basic Hull]] and a [[Standard hardener]], [[Advanced Armour]] requiring [[Standard Armour]] and an [[Advanced Hardener]] and [[Crystal Armour]] requiring [[Advanced Armour]] and a Crystal Block.
-Most times it's best to vary between the different armour types, as each provides their own look and allows for making the outer hull of a ship look better. Often times [[Standard Armour]] is used for the primary armour shell that covers the majority of the ship, with [[Advanced Armour]] claiming the interior and the central systems and [[Basic Hull]] being used for details, while [[Crystal Armour]] is used for glass/windows. However, the player is encouraged to vary between them all for every part of the ship to attain the best decorative value, and sometimes using only one armour type can be useful.
+===Production===
+The cost of manufacturing armor is proportional to its strength, and the recipes for all types of armor and door are listed below:
-Hull/Armour can also be coloured, though with rather tedious methods. In order to get coloured [[Basic Hull]], a player must run both [[Grey Hull]] and the [[Paint]] of their choice through a [[Basic Factory]], producing the [[Basic Hull]] of that colour. To attain coloured [[Standard Armour]], a player must run the coloured hull of their choice and a [[Standard Hardener]] through a [[Standard Factory]]. To produce coloured [[Advanced Armour]], a player must run the coloured [[Standard Armour]] of their choice and an [[Advanced Hardener]] through an [[Advanced Factory]]. To gain [[Crystal Armour]], a player must run the coloured [[Advanced Armour]] of their choice and the corresponding Crystal Block of that colour.
+====Hull and Glass Doors====
+{{mfg
+|using=Basic Factory
+|it1=Alloyed Metal Mesh
+|ic1=1
+|it2=Crystal Composite
+|ic2=1
+|ot1=Grey Hull
-==Weaponry==
+}}
+{{mfg
+|using=Basic Factory
+|it1=Crystal Composite
+|ic1=5
+|ot1=Glass Door
+}}
+====Standard Armor and Plex Doors====
+{{mfg
+|using=Standard Factory
+|it1=Grey Hull
+|ic1=1
+|it2=Standard Hardener
+|ic2=1
+|ot1=Grey Standard Armor
+}}
+{{mfg
+|using=Basic Factory
+|it1=Alloyed Metal Mesh
+|ic1=15
+|ot1=Plex Door
+}}
+====Advanced Armor, Crystal Armor and Blast Doors====
+{{mfg
+|using=Advanced Factory
+|it1=Grey Standard Armor
+|ic1=1
+|it2=Advanced Hardener
+|ic2=1
+|ot1=Grey Advanced Armor
+}}
+{{mfg
+|using=Advanced Factory
+|it1=White Standard Armor
+|ic1=1
+|it2=Parseen Crystal
+|ic2=6
+|ot1=White Crystal Armor
+}}
-Weaponry is necessary for any ship to attack or defend in a battle. There are four primary [[Weapon Systems]]:
+{{mfg
+|using=Advanced Factory
+|it1=Varat Capsule
+|ic1=38
+|ot1=Blast Door
+}}
-*[[Cannon Computer|Cannons]] - Standard projectile weaponry
+===Armor Positioning===
-*[[Missile Computer|Missiles]] - Missile weaponry that explodes on impact
+Although Hull and Armor blocks can serve decoratively, armor's primary use is to mitigate damage, and this purpose is best fulfilled through careful placement.
-*[[Damage Beam Computer|Damage Beams]] - Beam weaponry that does instantaneous damage at a limited range
-*[[Damage Pulse Computer|Damage Pulse]] - A pulse that damages anything in a small area
+The front of a ship is often most at risk, and so heavy armor plating on the front profile of a vessel is usually advised. Depending on ship size, this may exceed ten meters in thickness. An overall "skin" of armor on a ship is also common, and is usually 1 or 2 meters thick, with thicker plating at points of high risk. To increase the difficulty for intruders to access it, the Ship Core (and the room it is situated in) may be armored, usually including Blast Doors in the entrance to this room. Weapon computers and other vital system controllers, being quite vulnerable and of significant importance to a ship's operation, are often kept in a separate cluster with significant armor plating, reducing the likelihood of a system outage due to computer damage. [[Power Auxiliary|Power Auxiliaries]] are also rather vulnerable and, given that they will explode dangerously, should be encased in armor, and often interspersed with armored plates to absorb internal damage (making sure that these do not break up the Power Auxiliary grouping).
-Certain [[Weapon Systems]] can be slaved to others to have varying effects:
+===Coloring===
+Hull and Armor blocks can also be colored, though this is rather tedious to accomplish:
+*Hull is colored by running Grey Hull and Paint of the desired color through a Basic Factory.
+*Standard Armor is colored by running a colored Hull block and a Standard Hardener through a Standard Factory.
+*Advanced Armor is colored by running colored Standard Armor and an Advanced Hardener through an Advanced Factory.
+*Crystal Armor is produced by running colored Standard Armor and a number of Crystal blocks through an Advanced Factory.
-*[[Cannon Computer|Cannons]] increases weapon's fire rate
+==Weaponry==
-*[[Missile Computer|Missiles]] increases projectile count per shot (when slaved to [[Missile Computer|Missiles]], fire mode is set to heat-seeking)
-*[[Damage Beam Computer|Damage Beams]] increases weapon's range (when slaved to [[Missile Computer|Missiles]], fire mode is set to lock-on)
-*[[Damage Pulse Computer|Damage Pulse]] increases weapon's raw damage output per shot
+Weaponry is necessary for any ship to damage other entities. Weapons can also be [[Linking|linked]] to other weapons, creating combinations that modify the statistics of the primary weapon. This is explained in detail on a separate page.
+{{Main|Weapon Systems}}
-Each of these acting as slaves allows for a more diverse rang of weaponry, giving players more freedom over the construction of their ships. A couple of rather popular combinations would consist of [[Cannon Computer|Cannon]]/[[Cannon Computer|Cannon]] (Machine Gun), [[Missile Computer|Missiles]]/[[Damage Beam Computer|Damage Beam]] (Standard use Missile/Lock on Missile) and [[Damage Beam Computer|Damage Beam]]/[[Damage Pulse Computer|Damage Pulse]] (Anti-shield beam.)
+As well as basic weapons and their combinations, Effects can be added to further modify the output of a weapon, specializing it in various ways.
+{{Main|Effects}}
-Along with the ability to slave [[Weapon Systems|Weapons]] to one another to create new types of [[Weapon Systems|Weapons]], there are also [[Effects]] which further increase the customization possible for a ship's weaponry. There are nine [[Effects]] in total:
-*[[EMP Effect Computer|EMP]] - Puts damage into targets power system rather than hull, damaging the amount of power in its capacitors, while dealing less hull damage
+==Defense==
-*[[Ion Effect Computer|Ion]] - Puts damage into shield damage, causing more damage to shields but less to hull
-*[[Explosive Effect Computer|Explosive]] - Adds additional AOE damage, while reducing the primary impact damage
-*[[Punch-Through Effect Computer|Punch-Through]] - Increases block and armor damage
-*[[Piercing Effect Computer|Pierce]] - Increases block damage and decreases opponents' armor efficiency, but decreases shield damage
-*[[Push Effect Computer|Push]] - Converts damage to momentum which pushes the target, but reduces the raw damage output
-*[[Pull Effect Computer|Pull]] - Converts damage to momentum which pulls the target towards the one firing, but reduces the raw damage output
-*[[Stop Effect Computer|Stop]] - Converts damage to momentum which stops/slows the target, but reduces the raw damage output
-*[[Overdrive Effect Computer|Overdrive]] - Increases damage but greatly increases power consumption
-Using these [[Effects]] a player can create highly specialized weapons. For example, a common anti-shield weapon would consist of [[Damage Beam Computer|Damage Beam]]/[[Damage Pulse Computer|Damage Pulse]]/[[Ion Effect Computer|Ion]], and a common anti-hull cannon would consist of [[Cannon Computer|Cannon]]/[[Cannon Computer|Cannon]]/[[Explosive Effect Computer|Explosive]].
+Defense, like [[Weapon Systems|Weaponry]], is one of the most important aspects of any combat ship. While defense is very commonly found in the form of  shields (Shield Capacitors and Shield-Rechargers), it's also just as prominent in the form of armor and [[Effects]].
-For a detailed infographic on the various [[Weapon Systems]] and [[Effects]], please see here: [https://starmadedock.net/threads/a-simple-graph-for-weapon-linking.3751/ Starmade Dock: A Small Graph for Weapon Linking]
+Shields are the simplest and most abundant forms of tanking a ship, and simply involves spreading large amounts of Shield Capacitors and Shield-Rechargers throughout a ship. Like [[Thruster Module|Thruster Modules]], Shield Capacitors and Shield-Rechargers do not benefit from adjacent blocks of the same type, and as such can be thrown around carelessly, either in groups or individually, and are often used to fill up small holes throughout ships. If a player is focusing on more of an armor tank, then it's not uncommon for shield systems to act as a layer of system armor, similar to how [[Thruster Module|Thrusters]] can be used, protecting the more crucial systems beneath it.
-Note: Piercing and Punch-Through effects once granted damage propagation, however as of [http://star-made.org/news/starmade-v0-19282-putting-more-fun-into-battles-also-boarding 0.19282] their effects have changed to match the new armor mechanics and the natural damage propagation of cannons and beams
+Armor is the most prominent form of tanking a ship, and is just as simple as shielding. Armor inherently takes up the majority of the ship and acts as it's hull, and as such is usually buffing a ship's armor HP from the get-go. In order to effectively armor tank a ship, it's recommended to use multiple layers of armor, with [[Standard Armor]] being the most abundant armor type (making up the exterior armor plates/hull), with [[Advanced Armor]] making up the interior and having [[Basic Hull]] for details, to add to the aesthetics. All of this makes for a quality armor set-up already without the proper placement, and can make a ship much more comfortable in terms of cost. Layering armor is also quite common, with having multiple armor layers on the exterior so as to provide increased protection to the systems on the inside.
-==Utility==
+Effects, while being able to manipulate weaponry and specialize it, also have various "passive" abilities, all of which benefit the ship in some way when activated: These are detailed on the [[Effects#Defensive Use|Effects]] page.
-* [[Docking]]
+Using these Effects will allow a ship to reach it's full potential, whether it's in combat or not. For example, an armor tanked ship would generally use [[Punch-Through Effect Computer|Punch-Through Effect]] and [[Piercing Effect Computer|Piercing Effect]] to increase the effectiveness of its armor, while a shield tanked ship would use [[Ion Effect Computer|Ion Effect]] to increase the effectiveness of its shields. A fighter may use [[Overdrive Effect Computer|Overdrive Effect]] in order to provide increased mobility, decreasing the odds of larger vessels being able to successfully hit it.
-* [[Turrets]]
-* [[Plex Door|Doors]]
-* [[Lights]]
 ==Other considerations==
@@ Line 81: / Line 142: @@
 * [https://www.youtube.com/user/00Raiben]
+* [https://www.youtube.com/user/benchminecraft Bench]
 [[Category:Ship]]

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