Overview
(branding image by “thetaxhaven” on flickr)
Prologue
PROLOGUE
To start this guide off, let me state that I like many designs, and I don’t care for there being any meta or designated best in designing, but merely the pure fun of designing in and of itself by trying new things. Regardless, I’ve often found this game always finds its ways of balancing out extremes, even in certain ways one doesn’t usually expect, meaning certain designs work better at certain things than others.
I’ve often noticed certain styles, patterns or ways things are occasionally designed that I or others have used, and I’ll list some of the most present and effective ones I’ve seen here, which may change, and will most likely be added onto.
Thruster Stacking
THRUSTER STACKING
A very commonplace design that has been used by prettymuch everyone which involves placing one or more thrusters upon another thruster. One of the plus sides is that this uses less surface area on the outside or inside of a ship, and it also has good efficiency as there is less fat or frame required to make it happen. There are also major downsides. Imagine that the entire towering, outgoing bulge of easily hit thrusters takes a major hit, or you’re metamorphing into a different design. Better hunker down, you’ll be going sluggishly for a little while if you’re still alive. You can remedy this somewhat by armoring them well, but then some of the efficiency gained is lost on the weight of the armour. That, or be fast enough to not be hit… once.
Regenerative Thrustering
REGENATIVE THRUSTERING
One thing I’ve always hated is losing all or most of my thrusters when they’re all stacked up, because then you’ve got thrusters waiting upon thrusters that are waiting on other thrusters,… etcetera. Thus, I came up with this form of thruster placement which involves thrusters placed individually along elongated, pole-like frames jutting out from the sides of the ship. The frames consist of thin, fastly regrowing parts that weigh little to nothing and extend from the sides at right angles(90 degrees) away from the front, and have many rods of thrusters placed infront and behind one another which sometimes off give the appearance of real life satelites’ solar panels, and amount to multiple short rods instead of one long rod begging to be cut short. The rods the thrusters are placed upon quickly regenerate should they be destroyed, meaning more thrusters will regenerate all at once instead of waiting on others as with thruster stacking. Placing outer bracing on the edge that connects all the rods at the ends adds to the regeneration as it will close up a lost rod from both ends should it still remain attached. Another bonus is that if the thruster panels are far enough from the center of the ship, half of the thrusters will always be in use in turning, accelerating, braking, and reversing, which is an efficiency bonus as unused thrusters are temporary deadweight. A downside to this design style would have the be the extra weight from the rods the thrusters are attached to, meaning less efficiency in the ratio of mass:thruster power, plus if you don’t place them far enough out from the center, not all of them will be used in turning as originally planned. Also, what is “strafing”? I often catch hearsay of this term that is foreign to this design style.(joke)
Spaced Armour
SPACED ARMOUR
Like fast ships which are low on armour, or just hate highly explosive munitions that cripple systems and covered armour right through frontal armour? Then spaced armour is for you! When it comes to fighter ships or even large destroyer-type designs which emphasize on sacrificing armour for speed, high explosive rounds can penetrate deep and be a major pain. That’s why using forthgoing bracing with multiple connection points all around the ship can aid in absorbing some of this nasty blows! Some good, functional space armour can consist of the thinnest, quickest to regenerate parts, meaning you can turn and take another blow to a different part of the armour while the other part regenerates, effectively sponging up multiple HE blows.
Spinal Columns
SPINAL COLUMNS
Hate waiting for your ship to repair itself or metamorphisize? Try giving your spineless ship more gusto by giving it a backbone! These centralized columns that extend from the command mainly consist of thin, layered rods made of quickly regenerating parts that come in long lines of three or more, for the sake that should the outer rods be caught up in growing/regrowing adjacent parts that take seconds to make instead of contributing the spine, the center rod will only have to spend time on other parts brought forth in a split second! I came up with this one when making gargantuan Tinkrel monstrosities that involve plentiful solar panels/resource storage compartments.
Ejection Pod
EJECTION POD
No ejection pods you say? Wreaking bollocks of hearsay says I! With thrusters mainly attached to the center of the ship, have the majority of your weight and generators in an outer ring of armour, with the generators in past stronger armour yet still on the outer ring while there is enough space between the inner core of the ship and the outer ring to prevent collateral damage from the explosion, and should an enemy do enough damage through the armor to make it to the ring of generators, the generators will explode, setting off others near them with a chain reaction that will shed off your outer ring with collateral damage to allow you less enough weight for a speedier getaway should brute force not prove sufficient! Making a functional design for this can be difficult, and is mostly a fun idea that is hard to work out, and harder to use in battle successfully.
Ending Notes
There may be new things or changes added or done to this guide later on, and with that I hope this is helpful to you, giving you new, fun things to try, and happy building to you all!