Vis

True, more customization of the weapons it builds would be nice. I would like to see more of a point buy system kind of like when you build a fighter.

I think giving orders for fighters to attack at point blank range, optimal range, max range, and orbit shouldn't be built into the fighter, but should be something you can change when needed to use different tactics when fighting different ships. But they also need to make it so you can actually make fleets in the game and assign a flag ship for a fleet and even be able to set orders and formations for fleets. But I do think fighter cost should be lowered and HP increased. As for fighters getting hit, I think it should depend more on the fighter's maneuverability, pilot's skill and speed vs the weapons type, accuracy, rate of fire and turret turn speed of the weapon shooting at them. (Turrets should also tell you what their turn rate is. So faster turning turrets will be better at tracking fighters. So even non-PD turrets still have a small chance to land a hit on a fighter if they have good stats in all of those.) The 'dodge' skill should just increase the fighter's maneuverability for a short time making the chance of it getting hit a lot lower, not make the fighter 100% immune to damage. And yes this will have a bit of a cooldown, but maybe have it based on the pilot's skill. Something I have seen in other games like this is that most of the time fighters are just OP or completely useless. It always seems like balancing fighters is just an impossible thing to do. So I think fighters should work best when used under the right conditions, and get completely destroyed under the wrong conditions. Here are a few examples of what I am talking about. -Let's say you are attacking a ship with only railguns. A Railgun has very high accuracy, long range, and a lot of damage. But they have a very slow turret turn speed and slow rate of fire. (At what range should you order your fighters to attack?) At 'max range' or 'point blank range'? If the enemy ship has only railguns it is very unlikely you will out range their railguns, even if your fighters also have railguns. The smaller railguns of a fighter will also have a little less range as well as less damage. And because railguns do so much damage any fighter would get one shot by them. So you might win if you just have the max number of fighters, but with the enemy ship's railguns having very high accuracy you are very likely to lose a few fighters in the battle. So what about 'point blank range'? In most cases being closer to the enemy would be even more dangerous, but in this case it would actually be the better option. At 'max range' the enemy ship's railgun's high accuracy can slowly pick off your fighters one-by-one. But at 'point blank range' the high accuracy of the railguns is negated by it's very slow turret turn speed. Because your fighters are at such close range the railgun turrets now have to turn a lot more to even track and aim at your fighters. So under these conditions your fighter squadrons should win with very little to no losses... Cannons would be even worse because at max range they wouldn't have the high accuracy that railguns have along with a much slower projectile speed. -Let's look at another example. This time you are trying to take down a ship that has nothing but anti-fighter turrets. (aka Flak Turrets. I really hate how they are called "anti-fighter turrets" because they can also be used against torpedoes and they burst in space without needing to impact a target as if they were set off by a timed or proximity fuze the way many flak weapons do in real life. They need to just change the name of them to "Flak Turrets". >_>) So I'm just going to call them 'flak turrets' anyways because that is what they really are. Flak turrets as things are now might be too good at taking down fighters. They should be great, but only under the right conditions. Flak turrets do a very low amount of damage so fighters should be able to take a few hits before going down, but flak should also have an AoE effect that can cause damage to more than one fighter at once. Now this would give flak an almost guaranteed chance to hit fighters but because of the low damage you would have time to recall your fighters before they all get shot down. So an all flak turret ship seems like it would be impossible for fighters to take down. As the game is now, yes. But if you could give your fighters orders to attack at different ranges you could give the order to attack at 'max range'. If your fighters had a long range weapon like railguns, you could easily just out range the enemy ship's turrets. If your fighters have a very short range weapon then you might not have the right tool for the job. But in that case the chances of your fighters winning should be higher at 'point blank range' if you have very fast and maneuverable fighters. The flak turrets should have much better turret turn speed than a railgun or cannon, but not as good as a chaingun. You will still very likely lose many fighters. How much may depend on the HP and shields of the enemy ship and if your fighters can just kill it first, before all it's flak turrets can get off enough aimed shots to kill all your fighters. But being just inside a flak turrets 'max range' would be suicide. XD -Lastly, what if a ship has only chainguns? In this case the best option is always going to be 'max range'. Chainguns would have the fastest turret turning speed (especially PD chainguns) so they can easily track and aim at even the most fastest and maneuverable fighters. The chaingun has low accuracy and would rely more on it's volume of fire to hit fighters at range. So you are going to want to use fighters that have a very long range weapon like missiles or railguns and get as much range between you and the enemy ship's guns. 'Point blank range' in this case would be suicide. XD So while there is a few changes that need to be made to balance things. I think what we really need more, is the ability to actually form fleets with formations as well as give squadrons of fighters better orders. That way fighters can be used more tactically. Well I think this post is long enough, but I still have a lot more I could talk about. XD

Yeah, I like the variety of turrets in the game, but the thing I hate the most about the game is that you are basically forced to use random turrets on your ships because there is no way to make copies of turrets. So if you find a turret factory that has a turret you really like and want to make it a standard weapon on all your ships. You first have to get all the parts to make all the turrets you need. But before you can get everything you need for all the turrets, an update resets all the turret factories and that turret is now lost forever. :'( There needs to be a way to copy/clone turrets. Also redstone in Minecraft sucks. It is just too slow and clunky. Unless you have the wiring stuff from the Red Power 2/Project Red mod, then it is a lot better. Terraria's wire system is much better. I hate when things are way too simple because that greatly limits customization and flexibility. So things can't be too simple.

The New Ship Generator does make much better looking ships... I would still never use any of them, but at least it will be easier to tell what is a ship and what is wreckage. XD I still really hate how there is no way to make copies of a turret. After an update resets all the turret factories there is no way to get more of a turret that I really liked from this one factory other then a like 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance that RNGesus makes it drop from a pirate ship I kill. There needs to be a way to copy/blueprint turrets so a turret design we want all our ships to have is not just lost forever when a new update hits. :(

Yes, the new RNG generated ships look much better... I would still never use them, but at least it will be easier to tell what is a ship and what is just wreckage.

It doesn't look like too bad of a ship. My warship designs take a long time too, much longer than my work/civilian style ships. But that is because of the weird angles in the designs of my warships. When I finish my destroyer design I might show some pictures of them on here. You should also give your ship a nice paint job and some custom turrets.

I would never use RNG ships. XD I designed a 'station starter' ship which starts with the basic stuff needed for a station and I just add modules/other parts to the station as needed.

Yes, that color looks a lot more like the color most of the ships are colored in. Also it looks like you used the twisted corners on the engine bays on the side of this one. Looks much better. You should update the other one.

But that's no fun... The best thing about this game is building/designing your own ships. And the RNG ships are just terrible. XD You can also turn an RNG ship into a station, there is an option for it at the shipyard.

I watched the 1st and 2nd episode of 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis - Encounter', and those ships are totally more of a green color. XD Also you should try to use the twisted corner pieces on those engine bays on the lower sides of the ship instead of just the normal corners. They can be tricky to work with at first, but once you figure it out, you can make some ships with some really cool angles. 8)

Yeah, I do plan to make a post to show some of my ship designs some day, but I want to have a few more made first. I only have 1 mining ship design, 1 salvage ship, 1 small cargo ship, 1 large cargo ship, 1 explorer type ship but like 3 versions of it, 1 frigate design and 4 fighter designs. I need to finish my destroyer design because that is still not done, but the main problem with ships in this game comes after you have build them and you need to arm them with turrets. :( Every time I go around to all the turret factories to see which turrets I want my ships to have and get all the parts to build some of those turrets, an update resets all the turret factories so that design is lost forever. This is why I have never made more than 2 of the same kind of ship. :'( So until we can blueprint/make copies of turret designs, I just sit in my home sector just outside the inner circle of the galaxy and design new ships while getting money and resources. Some day, when I can fully arm a fleet of ships, I will go to war and conquer the center of the galaxy. :-\

Right now the ship order system is absolute garbage! We need a system more like the schedule for trains in Factorio or like something you see in other games with trains. You should be able to click on a ship and see a small window that shows it's list of orders that you can add and remove orders to as well as move them up or down in the order of operations. This system also needs to have many sub options for every order you give a ship. So if you give an order to 'jump to sector' then 'mine asteroids'. You pick the sector you want it to jump to, then for 'mine asteroids' you have the options to 'mine all ores', 'only (selected ore here)' then other conditions like mine until: 'X time as passed', 'X amount of ore in cargo', 'cargo is full', 'no more ore detected' Then you should be able to add in "IF", "ELSE", "AND", "OR" etc... statements. So you can have a mining ship set to 'jump to sector' then 'mine ore' until 'no more ore detected' "OR" 'cargo full' Then set a condition. "IF" 'no more ore detected' ->'jump to sector'/'next order' "IF" 'cargo full' -> 'jump to sector' and the sector you pick for this "IF" statement will be one with a refinery that you can then give the ship orders to 'dock' and 'refine ores'. After that you can set it to 'skip to order' which will let you pick a number from the list of orders to execute next. So you could have it jump to the next sector it would have if it didn't get it's cargo full and continue it's mining loop, or have it start the loop over if you picked 'skip to order #1'. There should also be an option to turn off notices and add in your own. So you can have your ships send you whatever message you want it to say if the conditions you set are met and you could even set up a loop so it will send the message every 10 minutes or however long or short you want it. Right now I just don't give my ships orders to do anything but patrol the sector I am in. Because the way you give ships orders right now just doesn't work and is terrible! XD

One of these days I will post pictures of all my cool fighter designs. I only have 4 right now and only 2 in service. Just a Gun Fighter and a Pulse Fighter. The other 2 are for a Laser Fighter and a Railgun Fighter. I was going to make Laser Fighters, but they massively nerfed lasers so I was like, nah I guess I won't make any of those then. So now it's just a blueprint sitting in a folder. :(

Well, I have to say... That "sounds" awesome!!! :D

Will there ever be an update that adds in a way for us to clone/blueprint/make copies of turrets? Or should I just uninstall the game right now? XD Because the thing I hate most about this game is that you are basically forced to have random turrets on all your ships. I like the variety of turrets in the game, but you can never get enough dropped turrets to make them become a standard weapon for a fleet of ships, so your only option is to build turrets at a turret factory. That and 99.9% of dropped turrets suck compared to factory built turrets. The problem is after you find a turret factory that builds a turret you like and you start getting the components for those turrets then build a hand full of them. An update resets all the turret factories and that turret design is now lost forever. :'( It makes sense for pirates to have completely random ships with completely random turrets, but it doesn't for factions that have a well funded and organized military. If we could make a blueprint of a turret and then take it to any turret factory to build more of that same design, this would fix the problem. Even if an update resets all the turret factories, those designs you have as a standard weapon for all your warships wouldn't be lost forever.

LOL, I never really looked at the enemy fighters. I always shoot them down before ever seeing them up close, but wow they look like crap. XD I mean most of the AI ships do, but still for a fighter the long blocky poll style is even worse for them.

Not a bad looking ship. I think you used the same color I use for my warships. But looking at pictures of the ship you based it on you should have gone with a more greenish color. Maybe 'Sea Green'.

Well, one cool thing about putting multiple muzzle points in a circle like that is they shoot from each of the points in a circular pattern. If only the muzzle flash effect didn't look like crap. XD It's just a single soft dot that flashes when the weapon fires. It's pretty lame looking. I don't know enough about coding games to change it, but I could draw a way better looking muzzle flash effect. ::)

LOL, 'struggle to finish ships'? :D Ship building is easy when you don't use very rounded shapes in your designs. But your turret bases do make it much better. Also, sadly you can't make the barrels spin on a mini-gun design. XD

Do you ever make custom turret designs on your ships? I would raise the center front turret up so it can shoot over those 2 blue parts on your carrier. Most of the time I have my custom turrets raise up on a small base. Like this. The blue part under the turret is part of the station and not the actual turret.

Yes, your windows do look cool. Most of my civilian ships have windows like that on them, but a little smaller. I have one mining ship design, built 2 of that design and the color is white with yellow lines. One salvage ship design, (2 built) that is a light brown color with orange lines. A large cargo ship (only one built) that is white with orange lines, and a small cargo ship (only one built) that is a dark orange with lighter orange lines. I might change the color on those last 2. Maybe I will do all mining ships with yellow, all salvage ships with orange, all cargo ships some other color, (maybe green?) and maybe if I have a passenger ship it will use light blue.

For now, yes. When I can mass produce the ships and when I have my destroyer design finished I will make a thread with screen shots showing the designs. But the integrity field placement will still have to be classified. ;) Also, do you have the same color scheme for all your civilian and military ships? Because my mining ship is also colored white and yellow. My military ships have a very dark color scheme with black and a very dark teal as the main colors. 8)

My war ship designs have like these 6 fins sticking out of the main body of the ship that hold the engines and have turrets on the ends of them. But for my frigate, just about any angle an enemy ship could come from there is at least 6 turrets that can fire at them. 8) If only arming the ships with turrets wasn't such a problem. They need to make it possible to copy any turret from any turret factory. That way if an update resets all the turret factories, at least the design we wanted for many or all of are ships is not lost forever. :'(

Every time I find a turret factory that has a turret that I decide will be a standard on my ships, an update resets all the turret factories so I can never get that turret ever again. :'( Most of my ships also take a very long time to make because I use a lot of rounded/curved shapes and weird angles on them. Also the way I do my integrity field placement is very tedious, but works well. So I might not ever have a fully armed fleet. :( Also, are all your ship's turret placements only on the top? I design my war ships for maximum firing arc in all directions. ;D

Your ship designs have gotten much better from the titanium tubes you started off making. LOL! :D I have only made one war ship "officially" and I have one still in the shipyard that has been sitting there forever... I just don't feel like finishing it because I hate arming my ships with random turrets and after a recent update all the turret factories were reset, so I would have to go to like 100+ sectors to find all the best turrets, then get all the parts to make them and I would have to make a lot more if I wanted to make more than one of the same kind of ship... DX I really wish we could just blueprint turrets and make copies of them the way we can with fighters... Maybe when that day comes I will finally finish the Destroyer I have sitting in the shipyard and then make my own thread showing all my weird ship designs. :-\ Also, I too thought of Planet Explorers when I first saw this game... Such an underrated game. Also, Also, Nice job on the letters on your ships. I didn't leave any space on my ships for fancy letters like yours, but I guess it doesn't matter because I don't have any names for any of them anyways. XD