SageThe13th

My thinking is more of the reverse of this. If the devs think making a ship should be easy because otherwise it would make the game too hard to get into. Then why is trading and turret production so obtuse and completely different from how ships are made. Even though those elements don't really seem to fit with the logic the rest of the game works on? That, and you can't even make ship systems. You can only upgrade them at a research lab. Which can also do with turrets. Also, this it doesn't cost anything. The labs just freely combine items together and reroll the stats. That means there are three totally different ways of making ship parts, if you include the ship itself as just a part. Three methods of creation that have no logical connection to each other.

Certainly one of the oddest things about Avorion is that I can create a whole ship including a hyperdrive from raw iron mined straight from an asteroid. Yet making any sort of gun requires all sorts of different items that need to be made in a factory. Factories which pipeline doesn't include any of the materials I make ships out of. It's like the whole inventory and trading system exists in some parallel universe with no logical connection to the rest of the game.

Star Trek also uses more proper roles, some of the original creators were in the military after all, but it's not focused on war so most people probably don't know. Federation ships are roles are as follows. Scout Destroyer Light Cruiser Heavy Cruiser Dreadnought Interestingly, Federation Heavy Cruisers are a match for Klingon Battlecruisers in TOS and by TNG era are actually superior. Star Wars and other popular games are probably the reason some people think destroyers are bigger than cruisers. However, it's odd that in Avorion the battleship is the biggest ship type above dreadnought. Since, most Sci-Fi use dreadnoughts as the biggest type of battleship.

Obviously, it's easy to run out of names with 15 slots to fill. Though, if you look what volumes slots unlock you can see slots unlock with increasingly smaller volume increase percentages as ships get bigger. System Slot Code f – <= 200 blocks, intended as a fighter design 1 – < 51 k m3 2 – 51 k m3 3 – 128 k m3, 151 % increase 4 – 320 k m3, 150 % increase 5 – 800 k m3, 150 % increase 6 – 2,000 k m3, 150 % increase 7 – 5,000 k m3, 150 % increase 8 – 12,500 k m3, 150 % increase 9 – 19,764 k m3, 58 % increase 10 – 31,250 k m3, 58 % increase 11 – 43,065 k m3, 38 % increase 12 – 59,348 k m3, 38 % increase 13 – 78,125 k m3, 32 % increase 14 – 107,554 k m3, 38 % increase 15 – 148,371 k m3, 38 % increase Ex – >= 200,000 k m3, 135 % increase This led me to the idea of combining two slots for larger ship roles. So, I get this system. Strike Craft Interceptor, armed with anti-fighter and anti-torpedo weapons. Anti-fighter guns, point defense chainguns, or point defense lasers. Fighter, armed with general purpose weapons. Chainguns, bolters, plasma, lasers, pulse cannons, or tesla guns. Bomber, armed with anti-ship weapons. Cannons, railguns, launchers, or lightning guns. Patrol Ships 1, Gunship 2, Cutter Escort Ships 3, Corvette 4, Frigate 5, Destroyer Pseudo Capital Ships 6, Light Cruiser/Escort Carrier 7, Heavy Cruiser/Assault Carrier Legitimate Capital Ships 8-9, Battlecruiser/Light Carrier 10-11, Battleship/Medium Carrier 12-13, Dreadnaught/Heavy Carrier Super Capital Ships 14-15, Superdreadnaught/Supercarrier Ex, Command Ship/Mothership I still think this approach is less helpful and less versatile than the U.S.C. System I posted earlier. But, it has certain uses for a Stempunk faction I'm thinking of, since they would use naval terms.

Avorion's in built system it still messed up. It goes: Corvette Frigate Cruiser Destroyer Dreadnought Battleship Most people would, as has been pointed out many times, put cruisers above destroyers and dreadnoughts above battleships. Dreadnought was never really an official classification in real life. But rather a pattern of building battleships with a centralized gun line that became the focus of the design. Dreadnought continued to be used as a slang term along with the rather confusing battlewagon to describe battleships in WWII since by then they were all being built according to the dreadnought pattern. Superdreadnought was a slang term used to describe even bigger battleships, as ship designs increased in size drastically during the war. Battlecruisers are an interesting case as well. Most people don't realize that they were actually bigger than battleships in term of length a lot of time. However, lighter armor placed them below battleships because Navies go by displacement. You could pull this of in Avorion as well. Having a battlecruiser at the same slot size as a battleship but giving the battlecruiser trinium armor and the battleship organite. I don't use the term Titan for ships in my fictional worlds it's always used as a term for the largest type of mech. But, to each there own.

Well, with the number torpedo types that kill, shutdown, or bypass shields. I think this a topic worth revisiting.

Well, looks like this is the update I was waiting for. Time to start playing again.

Simple and clever. I love the dark lines.

Here's the final version of my system. I'm curious if anyone can come up with some more ship roles I haven't covered. Universal Ship Categorization System (U.S.C.S.) Material code: Ir (Iron), Ti (Titanium), Na (Naonite), Tr (Trinium), Xa (Xanon), Og (Oganite), or Av (Avorion) System slot code: 1-15, f, or EX Role or Type: Whatever you want. It can be descriptive or just cool sounding. List the material code and system slot code separated by a hyphen/minus sign (-). Add the ship’s role to the end. Optionally, you can include the ship’s class at the front. The material code is the highest tier material used in a ship's construction. 1 thru 15 is the number of slots a ship has, f is for labeling designs intended for fighters, and EX (EXtreme) is used to list ships that are at least 35% bigger than the volume needed to unlock slot 15. EX ships warrant a more detailed look as there no upward limit and they can be absolutely massive. Format: class MM-SS role Basic Ship Roles: This isn’t really part of the U.S.C.S. system. But, this overview of basic ship roles may be helpful to you. Fighters Interceptor, fast anti-fighter weapons. Bomber, slow anti-ship weapons. Ships Warship, designed for combat. Focus on speed, armor, power, and shields. There are three main subtypes. Fast Warship, focus on speed with light armor. In naval terms frigates, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, and battlecruisers are all this type of warship. Heavy Warship, focus on armor and shielding. In naval terms corvettes, destroyers, battleships, and dreadnoughts are all this type of warship. Carrier, focus on hangar space. In game you don’t give up much to add a hanger to a design. So, most carrier designs are battlecarriers or battlestars; carriers with the firepower of a battleship. Transport Ship, the name is pretty self explanatory. There are four subtypes. Cargo Ship, focus on cargo space. Ideal for traders. Blockade Runner, focus on cargo, speed, armor, and shields. Designed to get goods through dangerous areas. Passenger Ship, focus on crew space. It’s a bit of a niche, but it’s something you can build for. Troop Ship, focus on crew space, speed, armor, and shields. These would be ideal for boarding actions when that feature is added. Until then, these are the safest way to move crew around when trying to staff a larger ship that requires multiple trips to find recruits. Utility Ship, general purpose ships that don’t have a focus. One subtype. Mining Ship, Focus on armor and compact simple design. This type of ship relies as much on exterior design as it does on internal systems. It’s defenses focus on collision damage. Since shields don’t stop collision damage there no need for strong shields. Keeping the design simple, compact, and armored will make it easier to maneuver through asteroid fields and repair damage in case of a crash or scrape. Again, if you can think of any other ship types. I'd love to hear about them.

Reading through this topic again I decided my simpler system was better. Since, the naval classes are used in game and will be used to describe player designed NPC faction ships. It's just too unhelpful to also try and use them describe my designs as well. Thanks to everyone who's posted. Your opinions were quite helpful. Still haven't typed up the final version of my system. But, I'm going describe all fighter designs with an f for the system slots and Ex (Extreme) for what I was calling slot 16. Here's a list of ships I plan on building in the future. Shape Wars (PvP): 1 Darkstar Av-15 War Sphere 2 Conformity Cube Av-15 War Cube 3 Attack Pyramid Av-15 War Prism 4 Star Dozer Av-15 War Wedge The United Nations of Sol (UNS)/United Space Forces (USF): 1 Imperator class Xa-12 Warship 2 Lichtor class Xa-10 Warship 3 Pretorian class Xa-8 Warship 4 SB-17 Centurion Xa-f Bomber 5 SI-18 Legionnaire Xa-f Interceptor Sellswords (Mercenaries): 1 Swordbreaker class Tr-11 Warship 2 Twinblade class Tr-9 Warship 3 SF-4 Trident Tr-f Fighter Blues (Enforcers): 1 Hammerhead class Tr-11 Patrol Ship 2 Manta class Tr-7 Patrol Ship 3 SI-12e Marlin Tr-f Fighter Mongrels (Pirates): 1 Hammerhead class Tr-11 Pirate Ship 2 Swordbreaker class Tr-11 Pirate Ship 3 Twinblade class Tr-9 Pirate Ship 4 Manta class Tr-7 Pirate Ship 5 SF-4p Trident Tr-f Pirate Fighter 6 SI-12p Marlin Tr-f Pirate Fighter 7 Hyena Tr-f Pirate Bomber 8 Jackal Tr-f Pirate Interceptor

I love Trypticon too!

I love the overtly evil aesthetic. The unlimited power! core is the best part.

People are free add pineapple to pizza. I just won't eat it.

I've been thinking about this. But, the trouble with trying to apply ship roles has always been the fact that it's easy to change a ship's role on the fly by switching systems and weapons. This why the U.S.C.S. focuses on material and slot number. Because, they're the only thing that doesn't change by switching equipment. The role list I provide was just sort of a list of suggestions.

I get what your saying. In reality a fleet carrier is any carrier that operates in a fleet. So this include light carriers and above and excludes assault carriers and escort carrier. It's a board category of it's own. Not really a ship type. But, I needed names. Also, a battle carrier is just a carrier with big guns. Which, in Avorion will pretty much be every carrier since turrets don't interfere with hangars. I just put battlecarrier at the same size as battleship because they both have battle in the name. Even though I was stretching I still didn't have enough names since you can make a pretty descent carrier with a 5 slot ship. In the grant tradition of Sci-fi I'd probably give every ship I could a descent hangar and never really class them as carriers. So, if I had a Dreadnaught it would probably carry some crazy number of fighters.

The current version of my system. Universal Ship Categorization System (U.S.C.S.) List the material code and system slot code separated by a hyphen/minus sign (-). Add the ship’s type to the end. Optionally you can include the ship’s class at the front. Format: class MM-SS type Material code: Ir (Iron), Ti (Titanium), Na (Naonite), Tr (Trinium), Xa (Xanon), Og (Oganite), or Av (Avorion) System slot code: 1-16, f, or b Role or Type: Whatever you want. It can be descriptive or just cool sounding. Ship slot unlocks and preferred ship types: The system accounts for fighter and carriers even though they currently aren't viable. Strike Craft f - fighter (F), fast anti-strike weapons b - bomber (B), slow anti-ship weapons Patrol Ships 1 - light gunship (PGL) 2 - 51k m*3 - gunship (PG) 3 - 128k m*3 - light cutter (PCL) 4 - 320k m*3 - cutter(PC) Escort Ships 5 - 800k m*3 - light corvette (FSL) 6 - 2,000k m*3 - corvette (FS) 7 - 5,000k m*3 - light frigate (FFL), attack transport (APA) 8 - 12,500k m*3 - frigate (FF), auxiliary carrier (ACV) 9 - 19,764k m*3 - escort destroyer (DDE), escort carrier (CVE) 10 - 31,250k m*3 - destroyer (DD), assault carrier (CVA) Independent Action Ships 11 - 43,065k m*3 - light cruiser (CL), light carrier (CVL) 12 - 59,348k m*3 - heavy cruiser (CA), cruiser-carrier (CCV) 13 - 78,125k m*3 - battlecruiser (BC), medium carrier (CVV) Capital Ships 14 - 107,554k m*3 - battleship (BB), battle carrier (BCV) 15 - 148,371k m*3 - dreadnought (BD), fleet carrier (CVF) Super-Capital Ships 16 - 0.2 billion (200,000k) m*3 - superdreadnought (SBD), supercarrier (SCV) No new slot unlocked but roughly 35% bigger than a 15 slot ship. Which is worth noting. Examples: Tr-12 heavy cruiser, Tr-16 mothership, model DD8-Xa-10 destroyer, Vindicator class Av-15 dreadnaught. Note: Only the first example follows the chart above.

Scott Manly actually covered the game already. That's how I heard about Avorion. I'm not really playing the game right now because I've made the mistake of playing early access games to much and getting used to a particular build only to be frustrated when things got changed later. This has already happened with the changes to IF generators earlier in the year. I'll pop in if there's and update to see what's different. But, I'm not planning on playing the game seriously until it's full release. I think that's one thing. We're waiting for the next big update so there's no new content right now to keep things interesting.

I too want as much control over the look of the my weapons as possible. I actually prefer not having control over my weapon's stats. Because as someone who played From the Depths I found that when I built my weapons I ended up building the same weapon over and over again. With a loot based weapons the game can surprise me and I'll try things I wouldn't normally go for based on the stats of the weapons I'm given.

I agree with this. I like the idea. But the player needs to be able to build and control infrastructure such as mining stations, supply fleets, and construct fleets more easily. This would help with players collecting resources to quickly cause you need somewhere safe to keep it all. And massive building projects would require you to be able mobilize various assets to run the project smoothly. We just need to be able to do all that first.

That's some serious all caps rage.

If you pick up a bunch of pirates I could see them being opportunistic enough to join your crew instead of facing the law. Pirate ships may use forced labor anyhow.

I like this idea. Basically having the ability to "salvage" crew from enemy ships. Also, makes me feel like less of a heartless monster who slaughters all in my path.

This is easy. Make the resource tab collapse/expand when you click a little button in the top left corner. I think I recall the Dev saying he was making room for the groups window. But, that could be placed left middle like in many MMOs.

We had a long talk about cube ships here: http://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,2332.0.html The cube meta or any single shape meta is going to largely be a PvP "problem". But, with the RNG I'm pretty sure that PvP balance is screwed anyway.

Um, cool? I'd say post this the bug section, but I guess you can't really expect to duplicate the bug. Seems like a freak one in a million chance.