Block Material Analysis Guide

[Shadowflare]

Just a quick info post, and my first post on the forums! Hello everyone! I decided to do some research to see if certain materials had merits for certain kinds of blocks. There wasn't as much variety as I'd hoped, but here you go.

 

Technical Block Characteristics

 

Thrust (M/(s^2)) to Mass (tons) for Engines (tested with a 2x2x2 cube 8m3 volume) and GW usage (of same cube)

Iron 0.76:1 (32 mw)

Titanium 2.22:1 (30.55 mw)

Naonite 1.84:1 (28.8 mw)

Trinium 4.50:1 (27.03 mw)

Xanion 2.74:1 (25.41 mw)

Ogonite 0.99:1 (24 mw)

Avorion 1.54:1 (22.81 mw)

Higher tier engines are (somewhat) more energy efficient. Thrusters follow a similar trend. Trinium recommended unless durability is required.

 

Generators

MW per Ton ratios

Titanium 2.06:1

Naonite 2.13:1

Trinium 3.88:1

Xanion 3.48:1

Ogonite 2.5:1

Avorion 3.67:1

MW per volume increases per tier. Might consider skipping Ogonite (it's very heavy)

 

GJ storage of Energy Containers (of a 2x2x2 cube 8m3 volume)

Titanium 6.6

Naonite 7.5

Trinium 8.7

Xanion 10.2

Ogonite 12

Avorion 14.1

Per volume, efficiency scales with tier, but trinium has a similar mass to GJ storage ratio as avorion, being only slightly lower.

 

"Non functional blocks" (hull, armor, cargo)

The mass/HP comparisons are covered in the wiki, and are generally uniform across respective block tiers and types. If you are concerned about block HP, typically go higher tier. If you are concerned about mass (manuverability!), stick to trinium.

 

The only difference between blocks like crew quarters, solar panels, hangars, between tiers is mass, and HP. Stick to trinium in most cases.

 

Gyro arrays: Energy usage increases with tier. Trinium is very mass efficient if you are concerned about braking and thrust, but higher materials will yield better results for yaw/pitch and roll.

 

Inertial Dampeners: Not much selection here. Iron is heavier, but uses less energy, also providing less brake thrust. Avorion is lighter, but uses somewhat more energy but also provides much more brake thrust.

 

Computer Cores: Unless you care about power, stick to Trinium, higher tier materials do not provide more processing power. (but are more energy efficient at the trade off of weighing more.)

 

Integrity Field Generators: Mass increases based on material. Trinium recommended. Power use does not change between tiers. Material does not affect field range.

 

Assembly: These get better based on the tier of material they are made of. If concerned with mass and less about production speed, go to trinium.

 

Hyperspace Cores: Range gets better with material, though mass changes between materials will slightly change your hyperspace cooldown. Even a tiny Avorion core can let you jump over hyperspace tears on the map.

 

TLDR: HP goes up by tier. Everything except Trinium and Avorion is bad unless you're hull tanking or still progressing (Xanion/Trinium recommended pre-center, even if you find Ogonite outside the center)

 

[Shrooblord]

Thanks for this analysis! Interesting to see that Trinium comes out the best in effectiveness / mass ratios almost completely across the board. I've been using Trinium a lot simply because Xanion supply wasn't so high; good to see I've accidentally been doing the most efficient thing, mass-wise at least, all along. ;)

[SpaceMonkey]

Thanks for this! Useful bit of meta. I'll certainly use this going forward!

[_OMAR_]

Thanks a lot! So basically I can build bigger and more efficient with trinium!

[astraltor]

How do crew quartering costs (mass of crew quarter blocks and crew paycheck) affect this?

 

All this information is on the wiki too, though some of the numbers seem to deviate from yours?

 

Could you add this data to the block pages on the wiki? https://avorion.gamepedia.com/Category:Blocks

[Shadowflare]

As far as I know material does not affect how much crew space you get or how much you have to pay the crew. I have no idea how to format wikis. Someone else can add the info if they desire.

[Loony Liberator]

Excellent analysis, Something that I too have noticed when it comes to ship performance.

In my designs pre-centre certain materials are delegated to specific blocks.

 

Trinium - Gyro, Crew Quarters, Thrusters, Engines, Cargo, Armour, Integrity Fields.

Xanion - Generators, Energy storage, Shields, Hyperspace Core.

 

The reason for Crew quarters and Cargo blocks being Trinium is due to there being no benefit from higher tiered materials thus

the best Mass to Volume material is used.

 

If you only have early materials available though use Titanium/Naonite in place of Trinium/Xanion.

[Kampfkrapfn]

I would make this one a sticky, if I could ...

[Jester]

This is good info.

 

Even if out of date, the methodology is sound.