Ship Design

[steveb]

I've put in a lot of hours now. And I like this game a lot. But so far I've gone for diplomatic or tech victories. I'd like to indulge in some serious warfare. But I can't get going with the ship designer. Is this in its finished state? The components seem too big for the hulls. And they're not easy to place. It's much esier to end up with somethng that looks like a giant metal hedgehog than it is to ceate a sleek looking warship. I'd like to be able to open the standard ship designs to modify them - or at least see how they're put togather. It could be just me - is everyone else fine with it?

[Nyphur]

Messaggio originale di steveb:

I've put in a lot of hours now. And I like this game a lot. But so far I've gone for diplomatic or tech victories. I'd like to indulge in some serious warfare. But I can't get going with the ship designer. Is this in its finished state? The components seem too big for the hulls. And they're not easy to place. It's much esier to end up with somethng that looks like a giant metal hedgehog than it is to ceate a sleek looking warship. I'd like to be able to open the standard ship designs to modify them - or at least see how they're put togather. It could be just me - is everyone else fine with it?

Hey steveb,

The ship designer is now in its final iteration, so the core features aren't going to change but there are a few races of ship parts still to come and the UI could definitely stand improvement in some areas (for example, tooltips for all the modules and weapons).

The most important thing to know (which admittedly isn't in the tutorial so it may be easily missed) is that if you single left click on a part after placing it, it will be selected and the Toolbox will open to let you move, scale, rotate and mirror that part. Once you get a hang of the tools, it should be relatively easy to make nice symmetrical designs. If you're still having difficulty using it, I'd love to get some feedback on it and possibly a screenshot if it shows the problem you're having.

To answer your second query, you can open the pre-designed ships to use them as a starting point and see how they are put together. Just click the New Ship Design button to open the editor and there'll be two sections for you to choose from: "Select Pre-Made Design" or "Select Base Hull". You can select one of the pre-made designs and then modify it any way you like and add ship modules and weapons. The pre-made designs are all 100% built out of Crew Quarters, Engines, and Cosmetic components so they make a good base to start from.

Cheers,
-- Brendan, Lead Developer

[Razguul]

Took over a month for the dev to reply. Not good.

[Nyphur]

Messaggio originale di Razguul:

Took over a month for the dev to reply. Not good.

Hey Razguul,

Long time fans will be able to confirm that we normally reply pretty promptly unless we miss a thread for some reason, unfortunately we've had a lot of unavoidable real life stuff going on for the past 2 months that have really slowed down development and taken my attention off the forum.

That's not an excuse, and I'm aware of how important it is to respond to fans promptly. This was entirely my fault, I apologise for it and will endeavour to ensure that I get back to responding to fans in a timely manner again.

Cheers,
-- Brendan, Lead Developer