ship designing

[Brainslime1]

how do you guys come up with ship designs, i feel like every thought i have just turns into a box

[Drezhnor]

try all the blocks (olders and newers), pick some inspiration on internet ... the best way to learn is to build and destroy, again and again :)

[herrschaftg35]

Depends if you prefer to focus on "form" or "function". Or even something worse like having a ship that only works in creative mode with thruster damage turned off.

You could use external references to try and mimic certain design features to help aesthetically. It doesn't help that the game is limited to just 5 angles. Ships designed for combat should have layers of armor and gaps surrounding critical blocks. Ships designed for efficiency should be minimalistic.

Internally, you should always plan for your conveyor paths and the space needed for larger blocks.

[woodsguide]

i tend to build from the inside out.. often it forms a simple and efficient box.
over the past few years, ive started adding more to my design. usually this is simply adding more slopes in odds and ends locations.
this can add a lot of personality and depth to your ship with a handful of key placed things.

but yea function over form will create a borg cube almost everytime ;o)

[xor511]

Go on youtube, watch videos by Lunar Kolony.

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Brainslime1:

how do you guys come up with ship designs, i feel like every thought i have just turns into a box

Start with a "box" / brick / wedge / whatever, and then sculpt and shape it, using various half-blocks, angles, and other such pieces to flush it out.

Many of my ships undergo long periods of "evolution", where they start off simple, and I think of different tweaks on different days that make them look and / or perform better, eventually becoming pretty cool IMO. I'm by no means the best designer out there, far from it, but I'm happy with most of my ships. And the ones that never make me happy end up getting scrapped.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142715049
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3370394887

(Just a couple from my bigger fleet)

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, what I like the most is to search the Web to find cool space ships and do my best to Reproduce in-game.
= Doing so gave me more experience.

Also looking at the Workshop and SE screenshots/Artwork links on top of the Forum always give me good ideas, some are very good at this and are real inspiration.

This video may help you add more deatails :

Tips for Adding Detail in Space Engineers | Detail Reference Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGTj6rVkK-0

[Dan2D3D]

For example :

Here is a drawing made by a friend, he sent me the drawings he made and I did my best to Reproduce :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3401257166
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3394639573
You will get better if you keep trying to Reproduce existing ships / images found on the Web.

[Governor]

May sound silly, but I found less thinking helps make it look better!

[Random_Passerby]

Adding to many examples, also try design from internals?

Worth trying and then mastering for being very handy later. Gives very practical, industrial-looking, compact ships. This saves framerate and tick rate, PCU if limits are active, resources for building, then energy for creation and operation.

Extra benefit is that you get to consider every detail of every block and system over time, then consolidate it into a skill. Try often, and you will be able to mix up a pretty ship without any prep at all right on the spot in the world you happen to play at.

An example from recent build session:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413794419
A container lifter. Was designed by arranging system blocks as connected with conveyors as possible, armour blocks being used as filler, cover, smoothing. Exploded view on screenshot shows blocks deemed minimum necessary:
• Full remote control functionality, seated manual control;
• Hydrogen system — supporting ice refueling, O2 for pilot, H2 for thrust;
• Two thruster gondolas are a system themselves — same as two lateral RCS maneuvering blocks but squished, with smaller corner blocks placed as is.;
• Rotor holds big maglock panel and aligner merge block;
• Docking spot — same merge trick for small ships.

Arranging these parts with as few extra conveyors already gives a flyable ship. Then you can make a new iteration with extra armour blocks, as well as re-do some parts on the current one. Further, it is nicely shapeable into a different ship, maybe a sleeker one, just needs moving parts farther apart and adding shaped armour.

More trying — more learning. And same for more looking. That is how you turn the current box into a fine-tuned functional and pretty form-fitting box :D

[Mortus Eclipse]

Also have a look at economy ships. They are fairly simple, but you can get ideas for some basic shapes. Then you can try either updating them with newer blocks and shapes or kit-bashing them together. The ship I am currently using is a ground up kit-bash of the TT-420 and B-980 haulers. The front I have found to have a bit to much of a square profile from the top, but that is an easy fix that I just need to do.

Also, if it's a drilling ship, you just need to resign yourself that it will be fundamentally boxier due to drill placement.

[Captain Canard]

One thing I'm not a fan of is when people try to force round pegs into square holes. Not that Star Trek Federation ships and Star Destroyers aren't cool, but built out of blocks not meant for their shape just makes them look too Minecrafty for my tastes.

I tend to look at genres like The Expanse and Starship Troopers for design ideas, since these are easier to incorporate into SE's block system.

[Caturix]

At first you learn how to make ships functionals and efficient, to the point you make them perfect. And at some point you will start making them a little imperfect, just to give them charakter. And during this, you will have design ideas. Sometimes i have an idea and just make a little scribble. You will see other ships and things that inspire you and suddenly you will have a light bulb above your head!

[DivineEvil]

Your minimum is the internal devices and utilities you want to have in the ship. Distribute and connect them in a way that makes sense, but also take into the account that these internals will define the final shape of the hull. Then add the pathways so that you can access and repair most of them. Then add the vertical and horizontal keels outlining the interior volume. Finally, fill up the spaces between keel lines with armor blocks. Voila, you have a ship.

Whether it will look like a box depends on how you distirbute the internal modules and corridors. If you really trying to make them fit into a box shape, then you will naturally end with a box.

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Caturix:

And at some point you will start making them a little imperfect, just to give them charakter.

I met a guy on one of Keen's server some years back who designed and built a ship using the modern navy as his inspiration, and he'd occasionally get tangled in PvP. Any repairs he did to his ship's armor, he used a worn / rusted paint skin, which gave it a proper sense of being "patched up". It actually looked really cool, giving it character, and it also was a bit of recorded history, since the "patchwork" marked impacts from actual battles!

[WildLynx]

1. Define the requirements.
2. Decide what systems you need to meet those requirements.
3. Cram all those systems together.
4. Optionally, add a boxy hull around those systems to protect them from dirt and bugs.
5. Slam on the cockpit, preferrably connecting it to the conveyor system, so you can access snacks.

Profit.