Still working on mine. I should have it ready on time. Are you guys building with Steel or Hardened Steel? I figure Combat is later game and harder to get the weight to power usage ratio low enough for a single Lg T1 Genny. Some great looking ships so far, Good job to all.
I went mostly normal Steel, with a HS/S/HS sandwich for the spine and keel. Originally it had HS/CS/HS for the spine/keel, but it was too heavy, so I reverted the CS to normal steel.
My ship is made out of regular steel full blocks and hardened steel half blocks. I did design the ship so there would be some layering from the outside such as the engine pods and the rails on the side. The vital areas of my ship all have at least a second layer of protection. I did use combat steel blocks on one small undercarriage spot as one of those blocks blowing up would expose the generator (albeit at a weird and difficult to reach angle). You could realistically make a very decent ship all out of hardened steel but combat steel would probably shrink your ship uncomfortably for this challenge. All part of the fun right? Cheers!
I made a lvl 15 version of my ship out of full Combat Steel and a T2 Gen and it came out 3x heavier requiring some much larger thrusters. However still rather cheap (except in Sathium) to build and still quite effective. Definitely not a POI buster or PvP ship, but useful in a survival mobile base way. Also good for delivering 3-4 heavy tanks to a POI destruction party
Similar to me ;-) My "normal" Version of that Ship does have CS and 6x Large T1 Gen (I don't like that super huge T2 ;-) and it's 18.3kt heavy; yep it's indeed x3 heavier too. Cheapness is a factor of your general wealthyness ;-) because mine needs >4000 of Z&E each ;-) But with full weapon and turret amount (minus arty turrets, I don't like these on smaller CV vessels) it can burst through about all Space-POIs as my Battle tests showed. But that was the design behind it this time; it's not a standard mobile Base as my Base Star Vessels were, it's a fast Assault Dropship ;-) One of the big Changes are that the Wings are not empty/open but filled with Thrusters and more...
now... that WAS my point ;-) you can always break the challenge going into the CP doing something... but the chief now has spoken and I had to change my vessel and remove such flexibility. but we should stop now talking about that (I could get angry again otherwise ;-)
The ship meets the challenge, I will edit this to a more in-depth review after I get back from work. (lunch break) Not part of the challenge, just a suggestion for the top turrets.... -edit- Now that I have more time to explore I found a hotspot. The gravity generator in the hanger can irradiate a player if they get too close to the wall. Moving the gravity generator either 1 block up or 1 block forward will solve this. Very good block and texture work, good use of truss blocks. Devices are accessible to the player W/O having to use the control panel. Dedicated crew quarters and med bay. Thrusters, spotlights, & ventilators are behind vents, and logically exposed. Not part of the challenge, but one other suggestion so folks do not fall down in front of the pilots seat. Note, the change - rotate tool works on glass railings as well as windows.
Actually the one thing that was quite annoying is the 1 switch per block area on a CV, We literally need a control interface with multiple assignable switches allowing for proper control panels for things like lights, doors, silent running and so on. Would allow tangible settings for everything instead of allowing everything through the PDA.
I know there was talk of having LCD panels that could have toggles and readouts instead of flat text. That would be amazing. What I would really like is a block+light option like in Planet Nomads. A steel block that has a built in light. That would make designing smaller room so much easier. Cheers, *Edit: Planet Nomads, not Planet Explorers*
View attachment 39382 [/QUOTE] Thanks for taking the time to review and coming up with good suggestions. I appreciate it and will look into it.
I did not realize it gave off radiation until the previous challenge, that was how I solved it in my build. Off topic, but I had a thought for the next challenge. How would everyone feel about a poverty build challenge? Really simple rules. It has to look like a ship. A HV must use below 150 iron and cannot go over 100 ingots of any other type. A SV must use below 100 ingots of any type. CV's must use below 1k ingots of any type. The more you can cram into it the better.
TBH, I was expecting the next challenge to be Double T1 Large Generator or Single T2 Large Generator. I like these themes as it allows us to explore builds more technically. Also "CV's must use below 1k ingots of any type." have kinda been explored in the previous challenge and with "A HV must use below 150 iron and cannot go over 100 ingots of any other type. A SV must use below 100 ingots of any type." we'll probably end up with bare bones builds. Although, with some adjustments to the material requirement it could be worth exploring. Just a random thought, since the first challenge seems to be a compact survival CV and this challenge seems like a compact carrier CV challenge maybe the next challenge should focus on combat. The rules can be for example; Have full loadouts. Each gun must have it's own ammo box, ship must weigh below 10ktons. Bonus is cramming the survival elements.
