How to blueprint a ship?

[Freeman]

I want to make a new ship and will be much quicker to just blueprint the one I already have. I am currently able to go anywhere, my ship is orbiting Nauvis right now, trying to work out how to copy/paste to save time, so I can have a ship that literally ships all sciences to gleba non stop. Do I need to first send up a space platform then copy my current ship to that? Or just copy the whole thing?

[kremlin]

Use the create blueprint button as usual and select the entire platform. When you grab the blueprint from your blueprint book it will automatically position it appropriately centered around the platform hub. You do have to send up the starter pack before you can place the blueprint, but you can set your rocket silo to use logistics requests and it will automatically ship everything up to assemble the platform if it's available in the logistics network.

[Oop 'scuse me]

Make the platform with a starter pack, then copy your existing ship, then select the new ship, then paste over it. You can also copy -> hold shift while dragging the copy box to make a blueprint.

[Ccrack]

Originally posted by kremlin:

Use the create blueprint button as usual and select the entire platform. When you grab the blueprint from your blueprint book it will automatically position it appropriately centered around the platform hub. You do have to send up the starter pack before you can place the blueprint, but you can set your rocket silo to use logistics requests and it will automatically ship everything up to assemble the platform if it's available in the logistics network.

i havnt used the logistics option for rockets yet
do they need to be chest fed or can bots interact with them directly?

[Boothy]

Originally posted by Ccrack:

Originally posted by kremlin:

Use the create blueprint button as usual and select the entire platform. When you grab the blueprint from your blueprint book it will automatically position it appropriately centered around the platform hub. You do have to send up the starter pack before you can place the blueprint, but you can set your rocket silo to use logistics requests and it will automatically ship everything up to assemble the platform if it's available in the logistics network.

i havnt used the logistics option for rockets yet
do they need to be chest fed or can bots interact with them directly?

Rocket silos basically act like automated requester chests when you tick the auto mode on.

Any platform requesting items (either for construction or a logistics request), will ask any silo in auto mode to fulfil the orders automatically. You just need to make sure you have enough stuff to build the rockets with, and of course whatever items are needed for the request itself. The bots will do the rest.

[Boothy]

Oh, just to add, if requesting items on a platform, they have a rocket stack size. For construction they will try to fill a rocket, so if you request say 10 fast inserters, you'll end up with 50.
You can set custom partial loads if you want, you just need to add the item to a request (same as you would for personal inventory), but if you then select that item, there is a custom amount slider. Default is a full rocket, but that can be a lot for lighter items.

[Ccrack]

Originally posted by Boothy:

whatever items are needed for the request itself. The bots will do the rest.

this was what i was getting at. so the bots will place items directly in to the rocket silo? the games ui dosnt really mention it anywhere so i was unsure

[Boothy]

One tip for when pasting a ship blueprint, it will also paste any routes from the original ship, including activating it.

So as soon as you place the blueprint, go into the hub and make sure Automatic mode is switched off!

If you don't do this, then the moment you have at least one thruster being fed with fuel and oxidizer, even a tiny amount, the ship will set off! Which if you've not got turrets up and running yet with ammo, could be catastrophic!

[Boothy]

Originally posted by Ccrack:

Originally posted by Boothy:

whatever items are needed for the request itself. The bots will do the rest.

this was what i was getting at. so the bots will place items directly in to the rocket silo? the games ui dosnt really mention it anywhere so i was unsure

Yes, exactly.

Note, you need to tick the box in the hub to request missing construction materials.

So image a new ship and you place a few foundations and other items (or a pasted blueprint).

A new request section will show up at the top of the platforms hub screen (above the normal group request that you manually create yourself). This 'auto' list will show anything needed for construction, how many, and will request them from the planet you are in orbit of.

Items will show with an amber/light brown if they are being fulfilled.

If any of these are red, hover the mouse over them to see what the issue is. For example you might not have enough of something in stock (if no info message states why it's red, it is usually due to just not got to that item yet, as it can only process so many orders at once, depending on how many silos in auto mode you have planet side).

Any silos set to auto, will try to fulfil these orders, and if you have multiple silos set to auto, it will use as many as it can to fulfil the order as quickly as possible. As far as I know, they can only carry one type of item at a time automatically (you can mix things if manually loading).

Bots will automatically go fetch items from stock (passive providers etc), and deliver to the silo. Once the rocket is full with that item, it will launch and deliver to the platform. Rinse and repeat.

One tip, if you are still early game, and haven't got much production yet for rocket parts, instead of using the automatic mode for everything, which sends up full stacks which you might not need, you could manually load up a rocket with a mix of the smaller items (such as inserters, belts etc) and just send up what you need in one launch (pad the rocket out with foundations if needed).

If placing foundations, I'd switch on auto mode, as large ships need lots of foundations!

[GAMING_Alligator]

It works the same way as anything else that you want to blueprint in the game.

Build a ship that you want to turn into a blueprint, hit ctrl-c, drag area around it, and add it to your blueprint library.

And yeah, you'll need to create thee starter platform for it first. I can't see a way around that, since you it's the only way to create a map in space.