Controlling big ships

[thiextar]

So i recently built a a new starship, but i just cannot get any control over it without covering the entire outside of the ship with thrusters, and that would completely ruin the looks. I've tried everything, directional thrusters, normal thrusters, inertial dampeners, a massive gyro, but i barely get any control at all.

 

Is there any way to mod the thruster output? Is there any trick i'm missing, or is there some fix planned for this? Cause right now i find it impossible to actually build a ship that isn't just coated in thrusters.

[Sable Phoenix]

I think you should include the XML of the blueprint that you're having trouble with, because frankly, I don't see how there can be a problem.  Even my purely iron corvette handles pretty well using a combination of thrusters and gyros, and iron is the heaviest material there is.  Oh, an it doesn't have a single visible thruster, either.

[AstroOwl]

... cannot get any control over it without covering the entire outside of the ship with thrusters, and that would completely ruin the looks ...

 

You don't need to place thrusters outside the ship. They are working even when covered. Place them inside. They would take considerable portion of ship's volume, it is absolutely normal.

Place them further from COM for bigger momentum.

[thiextar]

Well, its only surface are that counts, and thruster stacking doesn't work anymore, even with spaces between the thrusters right? so im not sure how im supposed to get any kind of volume with them other than making a shell out of them. Ill send the xml later today if i cant figure it out until then.

[thedamngod]

Thrusters are now also volume based. You should also use directional thrusters, they really make a difference.

 

You can just place bigger blocks and cover them for example with armor or other blocks. Just try it: Place a big thruster block and put a layer of other blocks around it. You will see that your stats will decrease slightly from the additional weight of the other blocks, but your stats  won't be reset to 0.

Also, as astroowl said, you should try to place them away from the center of mass. The center of mass is indicated by the cross of the red, green and blue light (small coordinate axis). Although this is a optimization and not a basic requirement for thrusters to work reasonably.

[thiextar]

Awesome! The volume thing actually works, i somehow got it into my head that it was only surface area. Thank you all for helping me out peeps, really appreciate it!

 

My wip bc-304 can now control itself

[Sable Phoenix]

Awesome! The volume thing actually works, i somehow got it into my head that it was only surface area. Thank you all for helping me out peeps, really appreciate it!

 

My wip bc-304 can now control itself

 

It indeed used to be based on surface area, just like solar panels, resulting in people putting stacks and stacks of minimum-width thruster sheets inside their ships.  That was changed a couple patches ago, thankfully.  So you're not wrong, just a little behind the curve.

 

Thrusters, and all other components, have all always functioned normally no matter if they're covered with other blocks or not (excluding hangar bays, which require at least one face to be unobstructed).

 

Nice looking Daedalus, by the way.  Hope to see an XML of it when it's done.

[thiextar]

Sure thing! It is very much wip right now tho, i like to build empty shells in creative mode which i can then gradually fill up with stuff in adventure mode :D

[Warrax]

Or ... Download a ship that has the properties you like and then take it apart.

 

Thruster placement requires a bit of trial and error, but you may be able to learn tonnes from a builder who has competed many ship designs.

[harrymcb]

this thread was a HUGE inspiration to me. i assumed that only open faces worked thus the front of my ship is covered with directional thrusters.

[MoronicCinamun]

Wow, this thread sure learned me well.

 

The loading tip last I checked thought says thrusters and solar panels care about surface area, not volume, so maybe that needs changing.

[Jester]

I tried Warrax's builds ... they are a sweet drive.  Maybe you could reverse engineer his designs, or just drop yourself the XML and use that?

[Perq]

If you have trouble with your ship not having enough thrusters for you to turn, there is also an option to use gyros. The drawback is that they do not prevent you from drifting while turning.

 

I'd say for bigger ships it is necessary to balance those two, as thrusters proved to be never enough on their own on my bigger ships. I may also be pretty bad at building ships. :P