Your Must-Haves for Your Small Ship Designs

[Darkaiser]

One thing that is easy to see on the Workshop is that different creators favor different styles. Everyone has their own preferred way of doing things and that's great. When I'm building a small ship, unless it's for some funky or unique purpose (like a bomb) I have a list of things that I generally HAVE to have:

1) Camera: I suck at parking and docking and I hate having to go 3rd person all the time, especially in tight spaces.

2) Multiple Thrusters: I can't tell you how many times I've knocked a thruster off of a drone and it was the only one in that direction.

3) Dected Thrusters: By this I mean at least light armor around the nozzle to prevent thrusters from getting pranged by stuff

4) Storage: I ALWAYS want at least a small storage container on almost any ship to carry spare O2, tools etc

5) Lights: Since DX11 everything seems darker which is realistic but after a year of playing the old way I need light to work

6) Sensors: For the same reason as #1 I usually include a Sensor to detect when I'm too close to other things.


So...what sorts of things do you consider a must for your small ships?

[Jon Archer]

Projector for easy repair. Camera for zooming in.

[SpetS]

antenna or beacon so I dont lose it

[Twelve]

im guilty of making all small ships remote controllable even if they dont need to be.

[EntropicMonk]

Originally posted by Twelve:

im guilty of making all small ships remote controllable even if they dont need to be.

Yeah but now all your ships have the ability to be sent on autopilot. Bam! Doesn't look so foolish anymore, does it? (I did the same thing with mine and now I'm happy.)

If I make a small ship, it has to have automated systems. Usually it's at least a docking cycle timer that switches connector lock, shuts off dampeners / thrusters and sets battery to recharge. (Undocking shuts the connector off for about 4 seconds so no more fighting the magnetic pull.) If I have a tool on / off it turns other systems on and off (turning on welders makes grinders shut off, etc.)

[cy-one]

Originally posted by ExtropicMonk:

Originally posted by Twelve:

im guilty of making all small ships remote controllable even if they dont need to be.

Yeah but now all your ships have the ability to be sent on autopilot. Bam! Doesn't look so foolish anymore, does it? (I did the same thing with mine and now I'm happy.)

If I make a small ship, it has to have automated systems. Usually it's at least a docking cycle timer that switches connector lock, shuts off dampeners / thrusters and sets battery to recharge. (Undocking shuts the connector off for about 4 seconds so no more fighting the magnetic pull.) If I have a tool on / off it turns other systems on and off (turning on welders makes grinders shut off, etc.)

I will steal that idea.
While it adds quite some more effort to build a small ship, those are definitely good additions.

[EntropicMonk]

Originally posted by cy-one:

I will steal that idea.
While it adds quite some more effort to build a small ship, those are definitely good additions.

Have at it. The docking cycle is easiest to do with 3 timers. I have a test ship (vanilla) made to show how it works:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422539074

Here's a tip for building your automated systems in survival from a blueprint: Though timers' toolbars won't populate correctly if blocks are not built in the correct order or damage is repaired, you can assign the pesky ones to groups instead. Adding a block to a group that is part of a timer will auto-add it to the timer.