Snoweh

If by free camera mode, you mean unhook the camera and move it around like a spaceship. No, not really, at least not in build mode. However, you can change what block the camera faces in build mode, by selecting a block and pressing 'f' for focus. There's a button on the control panel as well. I find myself using this a lot like a free camera, and jump focuses constantly while building. If you want to shift the camera for a screenshot outside of build mode, you can exit to your drone, then zoom into it, and shift the camera to the left or right, using the alt key, to hide it. Then hit f8 to hide the HUD. Though I realize this wasn't really your question.

I've been meaning to try out push turrets. It depends on how powerful they are. on insane difficulty, they might be useful for breaking up big groups of pirates, so you can fight them piecemeal

oh, you're right. I guess when I read 'classic sciFi class' what popped into my head was just naming it whatever sounds cool. But you're right I apologize Mobiyus. I misunderstood you. Maybe that's what I was confused about? From the steam forum: If I had to guess, it has more to do with number of turrets, or omnicron, than mass. I also havent tried this myself, (don't have the funds QQ) so can't be 100% sure.

hehe Well, since a mod said so, I'll keep it in mind ^^

Nice! Allow me to offer my congratulations as well.

Dang! My largest ship is only a 6 slot lol. Yeah, I can agree, people shouldn't be discouraged from building and flying massive capital ships. And immediate influence loss at the slightest mishap is a pretty big disincentive. Still, at least a ship that big could probably take them out like they're flies, when they turn against you ^^

-edit- I reread part of your post. I see what you're saying now. 'You'll never know a ships length width and height in a single word' except you can, more or less. You can know it's volume. Which is a lot more relevant than weather it's a stick or a cube. saying that it's a 3 slot lets you know it' between 128k cm3 and 320k cm3. So 'class 3' or whatever you want to call it provides a lot of useful information about a ship. Namely, it's non-relative size, compared to yours. You can slap on some sort of suffix if you like 'class 3 escort' and it can tell you plenty about it. Then you can even add on it's material type, and you get a really good picture of what sort of ship it is.

No worries ^^ I mean, there is the possibility that it's a bug. And a bug keeping people from getting a portion of their loot would suck. It's just that I've never noticed something like that, so it's better too cover all the bases before reporting it ^^

Sounds like it mainly had to do with how big your ship was. I mean, even a tiny ship will knock off a few hundred points. So perhaps the code scales partially with size? Or maybe it's that stations are very sensitive to damage, or resistant to it. So you did a what it considers a large amount of damage and reacted in turn. Still agree that it sucks tho. About how big was your ship? How many slots? You got me curious ^^ As to your question, sadly im not sure how it would be done. I've never cracked open the XML files and taken a look myself. I'm guessing it would be as simple as opening up your galaxy file, searching for your faction, and editing the rep. I could be wrong tho.

As Tiberium said, Those messages are a warning that alien ships are on the approach. So you can use them to plan things out and be on your toes (conversely, pirates just show up whenever they want, how rude). The rifts however, as far as I know, don't actually grow, it just seems like that, because they're only revealed once they enter your jump distance, or was it your scanner distance? Then again, I remember a post somewhere, where someone thought that they were smart, and actually tried to trap you. I'm a bit skeptical about that though. In any case, they've never moved for me. So no, as far as I know, there's no mitigating them, and they don't fade. However they don't grow as far as I can tell either, and you can sometimes find warpgates and wormholes that jump right over them. So it's not all bad.

I wouldn't worry about it, I would say 90% of the forum atm has less than 50 posts ;) Seeing as it's steam release was so recent. I have to agree with you there. I'd go as far as to say, that probably nothing will be agree'd on here. But that's alright, people are bringing up good points and ideas. So even if a new class system isn't birthed out of it, it'll make existing ones better. People will start using the ideas in their own classification system, and then one of them might catch on with multiple people, and then we might eventually have a popular naming system ^^ Or, who knows, we might eventually have a consensus in this thread? Stranger things have happened! Hmmm, its not a bad system, But it doesn't tell us much about the scale of the ship. After all, one man's 6 slot is a destroyer, while another man's six slot is a battleship. I think that was the original reason why this thread was made, was because people's ship scales are all over the place. Though, it's not as if scale HAS to be involved, but I really think it should be. Though you basically said as much in the next line ;) I think one question we should answer, is if intent of the ship really matters. It's easy enough to give a ship a number or a name based on it's slot size, but a designation for the intent of the ship is a little more nebulus. Seeing as how ships can also easily be converted between any of the three civilian jobs (Mining, asalvaging, and a bit harder, hauling). And a military ship is likely going to be able to handle any job reasonable to it's size class, It might be smart to just leave out the actual ship type, and tell us what it's made out of, what size it is, and whether it's civilian or military. That lacks a little flavor though.

Although, it should be pointed out, that this was probably done to reduce lag. If you have a massive battle, and then another big fleet loads in, then thes erver has that fleet, plus the wreckage to worry about, and may start to get overloaded. Ideally, there would be a server config (for both single and multiplayer) that would allow you to change the despawn settings to fit your system. The dev probably just doesn't have enough time to implement it yet is all, and did this to help keep everything running smoothly, until they have time to get to a better solution. Though I don't want to speak for them, since I havent been following development closely. Still, they must be juggling work on a LOT of features right now. Especially with how many suggestions keep flowing in.

Ahhh, see, I was planning on making a small fleet of my own. Things were getting pretty dicey for just one ship. I'm also using tritium/xantium. Problem being that I don't want the ships just getting chewed up and spat out within a minute or so, poor return on investment and all that. Still, Can't really afford it, unless they're all around the size of heimdahl. Also, all red and purple? not bad. I only learned a bit ago how to use the research station, so my ship still has mostly yellows, with a couple reds and a purple. If I make a fleet, they're likely to have mostly yellows, outside the lead ship. I may load up the Ylva later, and see how she performs ^^ though it may be a two ship fleet, since I'm a bit low on cash right now. Still, I think it might work. And it'll let me play with a small fleet until I get my new one designed, I'm having a bit of a mental block right now. But I'm planning on a fleet withone 6 slot Cruiser armoured (CA) two five slot Cruiser Light's (CL) and three four slot Destroyers (DD). So the Ylva should be a pretty good test of how well a four slot can survive. I'm looking forward to it ^^

There are a few other things they could be. I've mistaken color packages for ores multiple times, they have a tendency to have a similar color. Another is credits, which also happen to look like ingots. Sure they weren't either of those?

You couldn't get them to work? Huh, that would be an awful shame. I was thinking about making a support ship for my fleet, and running it myself. I guess I'll have to confirm whether the repair laser works or not, before I start on designs.

It feels a bit short to me too. I play on insane, and usually don't have a ton of firepower, so it can take quite a while to clean up pirates. I end up missing out on a lot of modules and resources these days. The salvaging laser resetting the salvage timer would be great. Also, if it does affect them, then salvage sectors, wether with salvage yards, or the mass signature, should prolly remain untouched

Just loaded the rosalina into my save, It's smaller than I thought, or I should say, my ships are bigger than I thought. It's even more beautiful in person though. Do you even have trouble with systems being shot out, with that much unarmoured area though? I wonder how well these would work in my save. It's a insane difficulty save, so if you don't have a good tank, ships get chewed up pretty quickly

Hehe, not sure how to take that, but thanks ;) I'll have to think about it. I don't have a dropbox or anything, and I'm pretty sure it makes you download software, which I don't particularly want. But I'll consider it, it makes me really happy that you like them enough to want to download it ^^

I like the idea of including material. It could be good to know what era it's in. The idea of using mass is really interesting too. It could give you an idea of how much armour a ship has, it would be a little complex to add though. I'm not sure how much cargo space, or hangar space would affect things though. If you knew a ship was a carrier or a hauler, and you knew it's size, you could get a rough estimate I would think. It's up to debate though. I think personally I like the idea of Size, Intent and Material. Though, I spose you do make a point when you say any ship can be turned into a warship, if need be, but it's not going to be a very good one. It would be lacking in shields and power, and probably speed. That's three slots right there that can't go into more turrets, just to make sure you're not creamed corn. So I still think the intended purpose of the ship is important, or at the very least, wether it's meant to be civilian or military

I actually didn't realize that. I had always been wondering why the ship had sucha hard time stabalizing itself, while Iw as turning it. I'm a little embarrassed I didn't connect the dots. Thanks for the tip ;)

I really like these! It's making for good inspiration fodder. Less the look of the ships, although I love the look, but the idea of them. A smaller multirole frame that can be modified to suit needs. My designs tend to be rather rigid, I leave a bit of space int hem for upgrading, but they go obsolete rather quickly. I may have to take this idea and run with it, I hope you don't mind ^^ As for the actual look of the designs, it's gorgeous. So much small detail put into everything. You're really taking advantage of the games design engine, and I really look forward to seeing more (and hearing more of your stories ;) )

Wow, nice post Thundercraft, you're actually putting a lot of thought into this. Maybe I need to step up my game ;) First I should clarify that I withhold any promises of actually using any system put forth. I realize the usefulness of a universal class system. But I have a small non-conformist streak lol Anyway, I see you point, of not being able to distinguish someone using the naming system or not. That's actually a really valid point I hadn't thought of. So I'll take it into consideration for my next batch of suggestions. I could be wrong, but I think the most important parts of a naming system, are that it conveys intent, scale and sounds cool. Knowing if a ship is 20000cm3 is great, but it doesn't help if you don't know if it's a warship or a civilian ship. The opposite is also true. (your point about omnicron made me think about this) I also personally think it should sound cool, otherwise no one is going to want to use it for their own ships. So what this gets me thinking of is a little bit different from a hull classification. More like, a compound tag you can give your ships. It would combine the intent and size of the ship. For example, using Navy Hull Classifications (http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/us-navy-ship-classifications.asp) and the slot scale you could get a ship name like. {12AK} [HMS] Majesty And know from a glance that it's a supermassive cargo ship, owned by the HMS corp, called Majesty. You could use different variations. Maybe instead of using navy designtions, you could make up your own simpler system. Maybe just distinguish between civilian and military ships. Idk, I'm just throwing out ideas. But then designers could give a ship whatever class name they wanted. It could be an excalibur class, or dreadnaught class, or sphagetti class. But then they could also give it a designation, like 5DD, and you would know it's some sort of armed escort ship, with 5 slots. Also, to make sizes a bit more distinguishable, you could divide each slot rating up. Though that might get a bit complex. Sorry if this post is a bit illegible, it's getting late here lol. Idk, The idea is coming from every ship getting to have a unique designation number, and then it's own name. Like, if you had a a small fleet with 3 cargo ships. You might designate them as HMS05AK01 HMS05AK02 HMS06AK03, breaking down into (HMS) <- your corp tag (05) <- Ship Size (AK) <- ship type/purpose (01-02-03) Ship's ID number. The ID number would probably be unique to that class of ship, but not to the entire fleet. For example you might have a DD01 and a AK01. SInce they're different kinds of ships, their ID's don't collide. But that's starting to get off topic. Sorry. If this is too confusing, I'll make a better post later. I'm a stream of conscious kind of person, and think as I'm writing, so it tends to end up a jumbled mess.

Thought I would take the time to show off some of my better ships ^^ For Starters, It'll be my series of three Naval Destroyer inspired ships. My Titanium Era Destroyer: The first of the naval ships I actually managed to finish, I learned a lot from this build, and it's various prototypes. It has excellent Forward Turret Coverage, though it's a bit lacking when it comes to shooting below and especially behind. This isn't a huge issue though, as the ship isn't so ridiculously large that it can't turn quickly (that's for my cruiser that's in the works ^^) It also features a very sleek conning tower, that would be completely impractical in a real spaceship, and has a bad habit of being shot off. In the read is a small hangar, only six lots if I remember correctly, not bad for a destroyer though! Sadly the rear of the ship is pretty vulnerable. Not much I could do about it though. --------------------------------- Second Up is the ship that ended up replacing the old one, a Tritum Era Destroyer, with a... yellow ore... core. Still can't remember the name of that stuff. THis is the ship I'm currently using in my playthrough. I decided to use a more modern destroyer as a basis, since it's using more modern materials. Like it's older sister, this ship comes fully featured with a hangar, however this one is twice as large. (Despite the ships being roughly the same volume) Here'as a shot of the front decoration and of the engine cluster I'm really proud of this ship, and consider it my best yet. Tho, I'm a bit iffy on the color scheme ;) ------------------------------------------------------------- I also made a small corvette, as an escort ship, which is probably about half the size. It was designed pretty much simultaneously with her bigger sister, so you might even call them twins. To the point where all I have is family photos ^^ here's a size comparison between the three and here's a comparison between the twin's engine clusters. The corvette's, I feel, turned out particularly well. Mainly due tot he way I shaped the hull at the very beginning of the build. That's all for now ^^ I have a miner design that's pretty radically different from them, but I'm too lazy to go get screenshots. Hope you enjoy ^^ -edit- I changed to imgur for hosting, hopefully the size will be more manageable now.

You're going to have a tough time getting anyone to follow a standardized system methinks ^^ I prefer using traditional names, and the ones suggested by Arkhanglesk are pretty close to what I would use. There is an ingame mechanic that sorts ships based off of size, in a way. The system/module slots. Maybe it would be interesting to classify ships based on how many slots they have, before computers are put into the calculation? Though, because of the exponential growth, it wouldn't be a very fined tuned system. Still, might be interesting. Another way it could be done is based on their omnicron. I'm pretty sure that's how the game does it internally. Altho, basing it off of their intended role and size, may ultimately be the best way to do it. And seems to be what most people in the creations area does, with a heavy leaning towards intended role of course ^^

While I do feel you have a point, I would have to disagree about them being useless. I find myself using Shield and energy upgrades very often. Some of these can pretty close to double your shields or energy recharge rate, and it's incredibly useful. Though, part of that is, I usually spend several hours to a day designing each of my ships and am kind of at a loath to just slap more shields or what have you to the outside. (Though I do build some empty space on the inside, for future upgrades. This space get's used up pretty quick though). For reference I play on insane, or whatever the hardest difficulty is called. Another way to think of it, is that the moduals are worth their weight in materials. 100% extra shields is basically another 40k Xanion or nanite or trinium, or whatever you built your shields out of. So of course building a bigger ship, is the better solution. but until you can manage that, using system upgrades provides a great stopgap, and increases the longevity of more rigid ship designs.