Ship design

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Player's Design Suggestions

Design Calculators

Specification and Roles

First thing to do is to decide what is the design for. What must it be able to do? What are optional abilities?

Tactics and Strategies

Main article: AI Tactics and Strategies
Main article: Human Player Tactics and Strategies
  • Bulleted list item

Runners, Kites

Kite ships keep out of range of the the ship, while keeping their own weapons in range. Kites normally use missiles because they have the longest range. However, the ring of death is a big problem for kites.

Brawlers

  • Blade appeared in 1st Forum Tournament[1]

Swarmers

  • Hive ship 5 cluster

Multiple ships (or one ship that splits apart into more ships) that swarm the enemy. normally smaller than the enemy ship but can do more damage to different spots. However, this normally means less dps. Before the introduction of the explosive charge separation depended on connected structures getting destroyed by enemy weapons or by using mod parts.

MP:Ring of Death - Pushers

These ships push enemy ships out to the ring of death, which does steady damage over time to each part in the ring of death. A similar design to a rammer.

Ship Configuration

Decide on the ship's design configuration:

Broadside Configuration

  • Shatterer
    posted in @H4zardZ1#231[2]

Also known as Line of battle ships.

Barrage Configuration

  • Zeus
    posted in @H4zardZ1#310[3]

Also known as Bomb vessel ships.


Diagonal Configuration

  • Cuora
    posted in @Lafiel#744[4]

Game building specific due to use of limitation of square tiles, giving rise to this extra configuration. The advantage is a relative more packed frontal surface for weapons. This naturally allows more packed or focused fire. First explored by Lafiel.

Triangle

  • Swift
    posted in @Lafiel#744[5]

Usually a more angled version to reduce frontal size while merging the front and sides in order get rid of the corner weakness. Also called pine type by some players. First explored by Lafiel.

Plier / Crab Claw

  • Pincer
    posted in @H4zardZ1#61[6]

A design which employs side armored covers for protection. It's a similar approach to hammers while allowing an opening in the center for spinal mounted or other weapons. Usually the center is a focused fire design which is either convex or concave. Also called Armadillo by some players. First explored by H4zard.

W ship / M ship

  • Angel Wing Cruiser
    posted in @Lafiel#866[7]

  • Angel Wing BC
    posted in @Lafiel#866[8]

A design which explores fire focus of diagonals combined with weapon firing range arrangement such that all weapons are firing. First explored by Lafiel.

Square Configuration

  • Dominator
    posted in @H4zardZ1#145[9]

The most costly and all-round design.

Rotating Ring

  • Cracklin'
    posted in @H4zardZ1#81[10]

  • Ring of Death
    posted in @Lafiel#887[11]

This variant is designed to rotate and bring all its weapon to bear. This allows the ship to efficiently put all its loaded weapon by constantly moving from used up weapons to fresh weapons. First explored by H4zard.

Pincer Configuration

  • Project Rod prototype
    posted in @H4zardZ1#131[12]

  • Project Rod final
    posted in @H4zardZ1#231[13]

An offensive design using extended section to pin down and using barrages on the enemy. First explored by H4zard.

Anvil Configuration

  • Spear
    posted in @H4zardZ1#131[14]@H4zardZ1#310[15]

A defensive design using a section, usually front, for maximum protection against enemy fire.

Stick Configuration

  • Sting
    posted in @H4zardZ1#310[16]

A variant of the broadsider and anvil.


Crystal Configuration

  • Crystal prototype 1-1

  • Crystal prototype 2-2
    posted in @Lafiel#963[17]

A pseudo symmetric cluster of smaller sections. It can be designed to rotate. It offers a larger surface area, hence, can bring more weapons into battle. The vanilla Beast is of this design. First explored by Lafiel.

Multi-ship/Fractured

  • by Dalas
    2018 September design contest winner[18]

  • posted in Discord by Saris[19]

  • by @Dalas120 and @Cosmopyr
    2019 March design contest winner[20]

Composite Configuration

  • Dakul
    posted in @Lafiel#816[21]

  • Dakul train
    posted in @Lafiel#816[22]

  • Station 0
    posted in @Lafiel#813[23]

  • UMK Mobile Fortress
    posted in @Lafiel#866[24]

  • Abh Arsenal 7022
    posted in @Lafiel#866[link=https://i.imgur.com/zprxzyz.png]

  • Spiral station
    posted in @Lafiel#963[25]

  • Abh mobile shipyard
    posted in @Lafiel#16702[26]

A ship which is composed of many ships locked together. First explored by Lafiel reaching a record of 20+ km with Cosmoteer 0.9.13 to 0.10.x.

Morphable Configuration

A ship with moveable parts or sections. First explored by Lafiel; inspired vanilla mechanical parts.

Drive section/Rammer Configuration

  • max Drive and rammer
    posted in @Lafiel#828[27]

  • Drive and rammer
    posted in @Lafiel#828[28]

Mostly a square form build with only thrusters, crew compartments and reactors. Sometimes with armor for ramming and shields for protecting the rather vulnerable reactors. First expressively designed by Lafiel.

Weapon / Defense setup dominated designs

Catapult / Ejector

This is a design setup in which explosive parts are ejected and "shot" toward a target. This can be done with tractor beams with locked direction and set on autofire. The ejected package would be separated via explosive charge. Before tractor beam and explosive charge were introduced in vanilla this was possible using tractor beams and explosive bolts from mods like the Abh mod or SuperWeapon Starter kit mod.

Toss Bombing / Flingers

This is a design which employs physics in assisting a shot to achieve higher velocity and range. This is done by either a fast ship via inertia or a rotating spinner via centrifugal force. Fast ships are usually nuke bombers. Spinners can be as simple as a baton where the nukes are at the end points or as complicated as a mobile spinner fort (MSF) with multiple arms or tentacles.


Size

The size requires changes as construction progresses. However, for an efficient build the following should be considered: Theory on Surface, Theory on Surface line, Theory on Area, and Theory on Volume.

Weapons

Based on the role of the ship a set of weapons has to be determined. Theory on DPS, Theory on Alpha Strike, Theory on specific weapons

Support System

Based on the weapons determine the support systems required. Read on Theory on Full-power, Theory on Efficiency, and Theory on Supply line.

Defense

Appropriate defense has to be made to protect the internals. Read on Theory on Shields, Theory on Armor.

Flight System

Based on the ship's role and mass decide on the appropriate amount of thrusters. At just ship size and configuration as needed. A ship's design and placement of thrusters influences a ship's handling and the AI's flight logic. Read on Theory on Speed, Theory on Thrust-control, Theory on Maneuverability.

Thruster module design table

General tips

The absolute most important thing about ship design is logistics. A ship with a good logistical design is cheaper, more effective, and more protected. The next important aspect is damage control. How is your ship going to take damage and how do you minimize it. A ship with bad damage control can be destroyed in only 8 standard cannon shots no matter how thick its armor is.

References

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