Addicted to the ship designer! » Forum Post by Ordo

I played with it for the first time today. Loved it. A little frustrating getting things exactly where I wanted them, but still tons of fun.

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i forgot to upgrade my video card drivers for the new video card that i got (made for some very interesting first game) but after i finally figured that out game workered perfectly and i to got addicted to the ship designer.

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Yeah, I love the thing. I just used the 'flip hardpoint' modifier part and stuck one of the 'attachment spire' extenders to it. The spire now points up and *through* the hull, poking out the other side! Not at all bad looking, either.

Jon "what? the designer has a game inside?" S

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It is so easy to get lost in the ship designer. I generally build my ships so that little or none of the original hull is visible under the stuff I've added, and it doesn't actually take that long to do it once you get used to all the options.

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While I like the idea of it, what sort of annoys me is that I feel trapped doing little more than slapping accessories on an already established keel. Why can't I lay down my own keel as well as slapping wings and whatnot on?

i'm not asking for a full blown CAD suite to design a keel from the ground up but all the designs I have seen thus far can be predicated on being based on a rectangular frame. Why isn't there a cylindrical one or opposing triangles?

Instead of the red plastic mount points, balls or some other marker could be used to show connectivity points where one beam could connect to the other for the basis of the keel.

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I love the ship designer too. Like I said before it is one of the coolest custom features I've seen in a strategy game. There are so many options! I know it probably isn't as big a deal to every player but for someone who really enjoyed GalCiv I it is an awesome feature to be able to design unque ships instead of always having to use the generic core vessels.

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I love it myself I think I threatened the dregin into surrender with what I called troops in a can

tiny hull
Troop Module

and thats it 1 square a turn, No weapons, No Defences but Durt Cheap

I have a question though, Can you fleet Troop ships to drop more troops than you can rase on 1 world at a time

for instance If you have support cap of 8

4 troops in a can at 500 each = 2k in one drop

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Flipping hardpoints makes things easy, though I wish I could turn the direction the hardpoint's facing outward rather than on a single axis. Most of the designs I've build recently bear no resemblance at all to their original hulls. I think I've even figured out a way to include long cylindrical sections to the ships themselves.

My main problem right now, though, is that I'm designing ships when I'm not even at my computer.

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I have a question though, Can you fleet Troop ships to drop more troops than you can rase on 1 world at a time

for instance If you have support cap of 8

4 troops in a can at 500 each = 2k in one drop

Yes, yes you can ::evilgrin:: Works better with 3 hulls with 2500 troops in each one though

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Flipping hardpoints makes things easy, though I wish I could turn the direction the hardpoint's facing outward rather than on a single axis. Most of the designs I've build recently bear no resemblance at all to their original hulls. I think I've even figured out a way to include long cylindrical sections to the ships themselves.

Ok, what is this hardpoint 'flipping' and how do I accomplish this feat?

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There are attachments in the extras section of the ship designer that lets you change the orientation of individual hardpoints. With experimentation, I was able to build ships like this:

Lance Front and Back:

Explorer Front and Back:

Worker Front and Back

I now have access to all the hulls available. I will begin designing a full navy starting sometime this evening.

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wow...

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Very nicely done. I wish Kryo's mod worked for me though. I just love the idea of mixing all the race's ship up while I'm playing a custom race. Maybe this could be added later on?

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None of the stuff I've built or will build with use Kryo's mod. If passing ships around becomes common, I want to make sure my design are as compatible as possible. As it is, only those with the Collector's Edition content will likely be able to run them.

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I have the CE and all the bonus material, but for the life of me can't remember seeing any extras that would do that. I have built like 10 ships thus far...do they look like the little light accessories?

I'll have to dig deeper this evening.

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Wow. I really like how the "Worker" came out. Making those rings lay horizontally was very creative!!! Good Show!

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Iokiju: There is a scale slider that lets you change the size of the accessory before placing it. All three designs use the same eight or so pieces pointing in different directions and resized to different degrees.

Ordo: Thank you. So far, I've only been able to find one accessory with a hardpoint that places those rings horizontally. However, now that I know it exists and how small I can make it, it might be possible to brute force spheroid designs into the game.

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As promised, now that I have access to all of the hulls, I am working up a Navy for the humans. This is a Human Large Hull, and I've been playing with placing hardpoints inside structures to give it that lean, mean look. The the first of hopefully many templates that are dependant only on the hull rather than its equipment to show up in the ship building list. I won't deny that much of my tastes for starships is influenced a bit by Babylon 5, and Wing Commander, just to a degree. In future designs, I will try to work a bit of the new BSG into the look -- if it fits.

This is the front of the base Battleship template. It's got a lot of hardpoints here for all kinds of nasty weapons.

This is the side. It's got a utilitarian feel to it. Slightly naval, but definitely adapted to space.

The back of the ship shows the massive engines necessary to push this thing. You'll notice it also flares out a little here.

And finally a long shot from the bottom up. Human hulls can definitely be long and THIN if done right.

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Wow Doronron! That is how I envisioned a battleship. I really like the small details. Especially using the lights at the ends of the antenna. I have yet to use the lights...do they blink by chance? It would be nice if there were some components that animated some action.

What context are you captureing the screen shots...is it in combat viewer or the shipyard? I would like to post some and like the full screen format you are using.

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Hey Ordo. As far as I can tell, the lights do not blink. None of the pieces are animated outside of weapons effects. The shots I have here are all taken in the shipyard. This was a blank hull with no weapons. The next ship I'll post, though, will have at least one shot in combat.

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Human Dreadnaught Hull. Complete with Main Gun.

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