Quality of Life Improvements: Ship Builder

[Lietouren]

So, decided to build my own ship and came across the several annoying issues in the ship builder:

Let's get the easiest one out of the way:

You shouldn't need to Hijack or Buy another ship to build a ship from scratch.

Fix: allow players to build a ship at the relevant stations, merchants and ship services techs without needing to add another ship in their roster.

1)You cannot choose which doors and ports work / are enabled it's all randomish with alot of guess work.

Fix: Add view mode similar to outpost build mode to allow users to turn doors / access ways to various modules etc on and off.

Edit: 28.11.23
2)Resolved Thanks to @Mathias Giovanni.
Nova Galactic Armoury does not display Spacesuits, Helmets or Packs.

Originally posted by Mathias Giovanni:

OP if you want to display a space suit, back pack, helmet on the stand you have to use the equip button. Like if you picked it for your character. And then it will display. It will show the one you choose. Same as if you equiped it on your NPC companion by giving them a set of clothes or armor or weapons etc. Works the same for armor on all storage that can display.

Fix: Display the relevant gear.

Improvement: Allow players to permanent store them i.e. if players want to display legendary spacesuits they've upgraded from, they can tag them as always show on display. If the module is modified etc, move to Cargo space as normal. If ships are sold, they should move to the cargo space and next home ship. Or allow players to sell junk and equipment with ship taking into the account the value of the items if they were sold to merchants. So, players can just chuck all their junk into a ship and sell it one go.

3)Deimos Armoury there are few weapon racks that still do not display weapon racks properly - instead of being stored vertically in various segments.. they are all piled into one horizontal row.

Fix: Display weapons correctly.

Improvement: Often racks have space for smaller arms and weapons, they should be enabled to store as many weapons that are visibly and physically possible.

Improvements / Suggestions / Feedback:

TLDR: Improvements: allow players to add and remove mounting points with-in reason i.e. makes no sense to be able to add mounting points to rear of engines / thruster locations etc. Also allow all ship modules to be flipped.

4)Various structural modules need additional attachment points and the ability to rotate them vertically as opposed to just flipping them port or starboard.

5)All shield modules need to have the ability to flipped - up, down, left or right... some shields make ships look turtles with 'angelic' halo on their heads lol... personally not a fan of that look. Also if you're going for some "futuristic realism" you wouldn't have the shield module exposed to be blasted out into space dust. Also some of the shields look like the ships growing an unsightly wart lol... i.e. The Fortress shields.

6)You cannot rotate hab modules, they are in one fixed orientation - for instance in the Nova Galactic All In One Berth Module B placing a window means you lose a bed. On the opposite side is just a redundant wall which would be better suited to a window. Hard to explain without the ability to upload screenshots.

Then there's the 2x3 Hab Modules which you cannot rotate which really reduces the amount of flexibility you have so you either have to stack your ship like a pancake or turn it in a flying piece toast with booster rockets.

Furthermore placing the Computer core next to the engineering hab module think you get doors automatically appearing in the relevant places?

Forget it, the layout is almost random - some ship layouts will give you a door, sometimes you won't and you'd have to make trek through various hab modules.

There are also often instances were hab modules don't even generate doors this is true regardless what modules and brand of modules you use - mix 'n match or deimos, stroud etc.

For example say you want to connect a nova galactic armoury to a deimos armoury and you place them one after the other, or either side. You might get door leading to the deimos armoury or you won't. In all my years of software testing I've still not found a rhyme or reason why that happens.

It took me days playing around various different modules to actually find layout that works and makes sense for me.

The current front section layout is as follows:

Landing Bay leads to a Captains Quarters Module (attached straight to the Cockpit) on the right hand side is a Nova Galactic Armoury, below it is the deimos armoury accessible via ladder. The on the left handside is a Nova Galactic All In One Berth B leading towards a workshop and below it a lab (accessible via a ladder).

Now, placing windows, portholes and weapon mounts strangely causes the layout to change. If a porthole is placed anywhere on Nova Galactic Armoury the ladder to either deimos armoury is lost or the ladder on the All In Berth B is lost... That is just one example, I've got over several dozen - detailing them will end up making this post into a small book (i'm not joking).

7)Landing Gear - the Pinpoint 3G Landing gear and Hope 5 Landing needs an additional mounting point at the top. As there have been many instances where I've had overhaul the entire design of a ship because the damn modules would not align properly. I get why it was done so I suggest the improvement below.

Improvement: Allow players to turn attachment points on or off. This will allow for greater flexibility and creativity.

8)Add more to all mounting points to engine types, for instance you can't simply attach a radiator either side of White Dwarf engines (left or right) without having to re-work a design. Or if you want to simply add equipment mounting plates or weapon mounting plates on either side - you can't. Yet, you can add port hole on top of the engine... go figure...

9) Finally landing bays, not all landing bays can be flipped left or right which again reduces flexibility and creativity.

Improvements: allow all landing bays and landing gears to be flipped around.

I'll be uploading some screenshots of my current ship design separately to the screenshot section.

Edit:
10) Ability to scrap ships for salvage at outposts, scrap yards and relevant merchants. When scrapping ships for salvage, the modules get stored in an outpost inventory for use later or to be sold. This would add additional depth to the ship building mechanic and would allow an additional avenue for quests, story lines and relevant content whether DLC or community mods.

[Goof]

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

[Drake Ravenwolf]

Originally posted by Goof:

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

And there isn't even a mod to fix that either >.>

[Goof]

yeah, if they dont change it, I hope that i can do something with the creation kit

[indigo]

I don't actually mind hijacking the smallest, cheapest POS ship I can get my hands on, stripping it to nothing, and then building something new.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/indigorage/screenshot/2306467913470962963/

I made that that way. I call it "Squire XH". It has a cargo capacity of 7000, and outperforms its stats due to its design. Not bad for an A-class.

Of course, doing the same with a much larger and more "valuable" ship, affords one more working credits when scrapping a ship. I'll just need some time to farm up some credits to do a B-class and C-class, and I have some... very interesting designs in mind. I've already done some experimental design work, so I know exactly how much these will cost.

[Drake Ravenwolf]

Originally posted by indigo:

I don't actually mind hijacking the smallest, cheapest POS ship I can get my hands on, stripping it to nothing, and then building something new.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/indigorage/screenshot/2306467913470962963/

I made that that way. I call it "Squire XH". It has a cargo capacity of 7000, and outperforms its stats due to its design. Not bad for an A-class.

Of course, doing the same with a much larger and more "valuable" ship, affords one more working credits when scrapping a ship. I'll just need some time to farm up some credits to do a B-class and C-class, and I have some... very interesting designs in mind. I've already done some experimental design work, so I know exactly how much these will cost.

Wait until the "stolen ship reset" bug hits you

[Lietouren]

Originally posted by Goof:

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

Partially Agree. I can understand the logic behind that gate keeping though as it sort gives players some element of progression. As after all you could literally max out the ship from the get go and ship battles would be quite dull.

Don't suppose you have built a ship builder in an outpost yet?

That gives you access to more than just structural modules.

[Goof]

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Originally posted by Goof:

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

Partially Agree. I can understand the logic behind that gate keeping though as it sort gives players some element of progression. As after all you could literally max out the ship from the get go and ship battles would be quite dull.

Don't suppose you have built a ship builder in an outpost yet?

That gives you access to more than just structural modules.

I feel like if I have level 4 ship design, it should be just about finding the parts and affording them, to lock them behind levels is an artificial gate imo

I always build at my outpost and then go the manufacturers for their exotic parts

[Lietouren]

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Partially Agree. I can understand the logic behind that gate keeping though as it sort gives players some element of progression. As after all you could literally max out the ship from the get go and ship battles would be quite dull.

Don't suppose you have built a ship builder in an outpost yet?

That gives you access to more than just structural modules.

Originally posted by Goof:

I feel like if I have level 4 ship design, it should be just about finding the parts and affording them, to lock them behind levels is an artificial gate imo

Fair point and it is an artificial gate. Not to mention, it's a solo game so no one is impacted by players using consoles, trainers, cheat tables. So the artificial gate is pretty much pointless other than to serve as a form of progression mechanic (a very clumsy one at that).

Originally posted by Goof:

I always build at my outpost and then go the manufacturers for their exotic parts

I see, that is the way to go and being able to mix and match rank A, B and C parts gives a fair amount of flexibility.

I use Rank A weapons, a Class C Shield, a Class B grav drive, Class C Reactor and Class A Engines x4..

I do wish there was an ability to break down ships for salvage at your outpost, dealers and salvage yards too... 🤔 I'll add that to the first post. That would make for interesting quest story lines imo.

[Vellari]

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Originally posted by Goof:

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

Partially Agree. I can understand the logic behind that gate keeping though as it sort gives players some element of progression. As after all you could literally max out the ship from the get go and ship battles would be quite dull.

No, you couldn't. Piloting skill and Ship Design poses limits as it is. Level blocking ship parts is entirely unnecessary.

[coffinwood]

Originally posted by Goof:

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

It makes sense to lock the grav drive that could kill a planet's atmosphere away from a total noob that managed to hijack a ship with a gun they borrowed from their uncle.

Not every ship part has to be available from the start. And they're all too cheap.

[Lietouren]

Originally posted by Vellari:

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Partially Agree. I can understand the logic behind that gate keeping though as it sort gives players some element of progression. As after all you could literally max out the ship from the get go and ship battles would be quite dull.

No, you couldn't. Piloting skill and Ship Design poses limits as it is. Level blocking ship parts is entirely unnecessary.

Yes, you can If you max out Piloting Skills and Ship designs in a play through lol....

I did say "I partially agree" as I don't support the clumsy mechanic of level blocking modules. However, I can see the logic behind it but that only applies to the first play through and how a players plays the game.

It's entirely possible to not even use the ship building mechanics and finish the game. A colleague finished the game with just the Razorleaf without modifying it let alone upgrading it. Difficulty level played on? no idea and it's their prerogative how they play the game.

Originally posted by coffinwood:

Originally posted by Goof:

i would also add that locking ship parts behind player level also needs to be removed. Theres no reason that new parts spawn every 10 levels

It makes sense to lock the grav drive that could kill a planet's atmosphere away from a total noob that managed to hijack a ship with a gun they borrowed from their uncle.

Not every ship part has to be available from the start. And they're all too cheap.

As funny as your comment is 👍🏽🤣 I have to say for those who take thinks literally a grav drive cannot be enabled planet side due to gameplay mechanics lol. Sure, you could put power into it during the 'launch scene' of flying into orbit but you can't activate it as it's only via a separate menu.

[Vellari]

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Originally posted by Vellari:

No, you couldn't. Piloting skill and Ship Design poses limits as it is. Level blocking ship parts is entirely unnecessary.

Yes, you can If you max out Piloting Skills and Ship designs in a play through lol....

That is not "from the get go". Of course you can do it in a single playthrough...that'd be beyond ridiculous if you couldn't. But given the last parts unlock L60+ means a pretty thorough first playthrough to be able to build "whatever you want".

[Lietouren]

Originally posted by Vellari:

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Yes, you can If you max out Piloting Skills and Ship designs in a play through lol....

Originally posted by Vellari:

That is not "from the get go".

Semantics eash, If you want to be picky about it OP comment didn't refer to piloting and starship design skills so, yes without these two factors "it is from the get go".

Originally posted by Vellari:

Of course you can do it in a single playthrough...that'd be beyond ridiculous if you couldn't. But given the last parts unlock L60+ means a pretty thorough first playthrough to be able to build "whatever you want".

Depending on how you play the game it is verrrry easy to rank up Piloting skills and Starship Design. The latter simply scrap a ship, make a crappy ship and shove different modules on it. Rinse and repeat.

The former? plenty of ships that can be blasted to space dust and with very cheap upgrades on Normal difficulty.

Hell, it's very easy to rake in credits too.

Again, it depends as I said how you play the game and that it's a very clumsy progression mechanic.

[Mathias Giovanni]

Originally posted by Vellari:

Originally posted by Lietouren:

Partially Agree. I can understand the logic behind that gate keeping though as it sort gives players some element of progression. As after all you could literally max out the ship from the get go and ship battles would be quite dull.

No, you couldn't. Piloting skill and Ship Design poses limits as it is. Level blocking ship parts is entirely unnecessary.

Disagree. Progression for the first 100 hours is important. Having everything available from the start is horrible design. It's like playing diablo and giving everyone all the unlocks. Progression and having new things show up as you play especially in the first 100 hours is good design. It also limits options initially as players are learning the game.

After you NG+ you are basically unlocked if you chose that path so you can do what you desire after you have followed the standard progression path. And likely some new things unlock if you look around.

[Mathias Giovanni]

OP if you want to display a space suit, back pack, helmet on the stand you have to use the equip button. Like if you picked it for your character. And then it will display. It will show the one you choose. Same as if you equiped it on your NPC companion by giving them a set of clothes or armor or weapons etc. Works the same for armor on all storage that can display.