Ship Design

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 Power Reactor Module and Power Systems)

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.

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:

• Basic Hull with 0.05 Mass, 5 System HP, 50 Armour HP, 75 Block HP and 0 Block Armour (Per block)
• Standard Armour with 0.15 Mass, 5 System HP, 75 Armour HP, 100 Block HP and 0.6 Block Armour (Per block)
• Advanced Armour with 0.25 Mass, 5 System HP, 100 Armour HP, 250 Block HP and 0.8 Block Armour (Per Block)
• Crystal Armour with the same stats as Advanced Armour, however is transparent (Somewhat Opaque)

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.

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.

Weaponry

Weaponry is necessary for any ship to attack or defend in a battle. There are four primary Weapon Systems:

• Cannons - Standard projectile weaponry
• Missiles - Missile weaponry that explodes on impact
• Damage Beams - Beam weaponry that does instantaneous damage at a limited range
• Damage Pulse - A pulse that damages anything in a small area

Certain Weapon Systems can be slaved to others to have varying effects:

• Cannons increases weapon's fire rate
• Missiles increases projectile count per shot (when slaved to Missiles, fire mode is set to heat-seeking)
• Damage Beams increases weapon's range (when slaved to Missiles, fire mode is set to lock-on)
• Damage Pulse increases weapon's raw damage output per shot

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/Cannon (Machine Gun), Missiles/Damage Beam (Standard use Missile/Lock on Missile) and Damage Beam/Damage Pulse (Anti-shield beam.)

Along with the ability to slave Weapons to one another to create new types of Weapons, there are also Effects which further increase the customization possible for a ship's weaponry. There are nine Effects in total:

• EMP - Puts damage into targets power system rather than hull, damaging the amount of power in its capacitors, while dealing less hull damage
• Ion - Puts damage into shield damage, causing more damage to shields but less to hull
• Explosive - Adds additional AOE damage, while reducing the primary impact damage
• Punch-Through - Increases block and armor damage
• Pierce - Increases block damage and decreases opponent's armor efficiency, but decreases shield damage
• Push - Converts damage to momentum which pushes the target, but reduces the raw damage output
• Pull - Converts damage to momentum which pulls the target towards the one firing, but reduces the raw damage output
• Stop - Converts damage to momentum which stops/slows the target, but reduces the raw damage output
• 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/Damage Pulse/Ion, and a common anti-hull cannon would consist of Cannon/Cannon/Explosive.

For a detailed info-graphic on the various Weapon Systems and Effects, please see here: Starmade Dock: A Simple Graph for Weapon Linking

Note: Piercing and Punch-Through effects once granted damage propagation, however as of 0.19282 their effects have changed to match the new armor mechanics and the natural damage propagation of cannons and beams

Defence

Defence, like Weaponry is one of the most important aspects of any combat ship. While defence is very commonly found in the form of shields (Shield Capacitors and Shield Rechargers), it's also just as prominent in the form of armour 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 armour tank, then it's not uncommon for shield systems to act as a layer of system armour, similar to how Thrusters can be used, protecting the more crucial systems beneath it.

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

• EMP - Protects against EMP damage
• Ion - Protects against Shield damage
• Explosive - Protects against momentum weapons (Push, Pull and Stop)
• Punch-Through - Reduces damage against blocks
• Pierce - Reduces damage from Pierce/Punch effects
• Push - Adds thrust to forward vector, increasing speed for moving forwards but decreasing it for moving backwards
• Pull - Adds thrust to backwards vector, increasing speed for moving backwards but decreasing it for moving forwards
• Stop - Makes the ship less easily manipulated by gravity or momentum weapons (Push, Pull and Stop)
• Overdrive - Increases speed

For a detailed info-graphic on the various Weapon Systems and their Effects, please see here: A Simple Graph for Weapon Linking

Using these Effects will allow a ship to reach it's full potential, whether it's in combat or not. For example, an armour tanked ship would generally use Punch-Through and Pierce so as to increase the effectiveness of one's armour, while a shield tanked ship would use Ion to increase the effectiveness of one's shields. A fighter may use Overdrive in order to avoid being shot down by the larger Turrets and Weapons.

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]