How do you make a well armoured ship that isnt a cube?

[Korhaka]

With integrity fields no longer protecting blocks completely and only raising their durability, how do you make ships that survive a few hits without losing function but also look better than a cube of 1500mm armour plates. Even a large iron thruster has just a few hp, any hit with or without the IFG they will break off very quickly. Adding a shield generator is not an option until later where Naonite is available.

[Kane Hart]

I'm a bit confused on this I assume the answer is you don't. I remember reading the logs the entire point of it was to stop people building ugly blocks but now it seems that is what is needed now again :( The idea of a real structural integrity field was cool but now it's not plausible unless you want to be weak period. Meaning it's time you lay your ship with a ton of armor plating on the outside because a few PvPer's whined :P

[nitrogameace]

basically different armor block shapes are need to get the design of our ship while maintaining strength. I'm not much on pvp but i agreed that the Field Integrity block is op, or needed a much higher energy cost to offset light weight protection it provided vs heavy armor protection

[Dashychan]

You can put armor plating directly on a thruster and not lose any function from it.  I'm unsure of the the thickness that will obstruct them(if any), but I have a large front thruster covered in several meters of armor that still functions exactly the same as if no armor is there(minus the lost thrust due to tonnage).

[Tchey]

I'm unsure of the the thickness that will obstruct them(if any)

 

You can cover all your thusters with anything you like, you will only get penalty based on tonage and mass, not based on covering them. Happily. Because i really dislike how shiny and invasive they visually are.

[Korhaka]

An idea I thought of would be instead if they protect your blocks but that protection starts to fail at around 25-50% hull strength. You can still build good looking ships then and run away once your health starts to fall.

 

Edit: I also hear that where are weapons that can penetrate shields, so relying only on shields is also not an option for trying to make nice looking ships.

[SageThe13th]

I'm having problems as well.  My ships tend to have a lot of little bits hanging off them.  Antennas and such that get sheared off rather easily.  I know that's realistic but it's a lot less fun.  Also turret pop is a problem as turrets are often times be irreplaceable but there's no good way to keep them safe.  Again I get what people didn't like about ships being one giant mass of HP but I feel the integrity fields provide way too little protection now.

[LordHavoc]

Get up to shield level asap and you have a lot less issues with stuff breaking off.

Before you get there, make sure you put turrets on large armour blocks reinforced with integrity fields.

[Falkenherz]

How about reverting integrity fields to the old "one hp block" principle, but restrain this only to the blocks which are actually connected to an integrity field block? This way, if would make sense to finally also build larger integrity field blocks into your ship, and you would have to think about how and where to put them. Right now, they are just a "nobrainer" pick everywhere and could just be left out, gamedesign-wise. If you want it more complex, you could exempt the integrity field block itself and just bind all connected blocks in one hp block. Lots of tinkering possible like this. =)

 

I have played Children of a Dead Earth, and the armor principle there was to either only coat one "broadside" which always points to the enemy, or do like the real warships of old a "citadel" on the ship where all vital functions are concentrated and covered.

 

Right now, I have settled on a "upside broadside" approach, as this is the side you will always show to an enemy while firing. The rest is about positioning and according maneuvering.

[dialtone888]

like this?

[Falkenherz]

I like! =) But even like this, every single armor part stands for itself and will dissolve under enemy fire. One huge block would still be more advantageous. But not so with my above idea about the integrity field. I feel that they could be a very important part for good design.

[dialtone888]

scratch that

[Thundercraft]

The idea of a real structural integrity field was cool but now it's not plausible unless you want to be weak period. Meaning it's time you lay your ship with a ton of armor plating on the outside because a few PvPer's whined :P

 

I'm just now discovering this trade off of how using integrity fields makes my ships weaker.

All because of a few PvP whiners?  >:(

 

basically different armor block shapes are need to get the design of our ship while maintaining strength.

 

This! We really need to be able to build armor as well as other types of blocks (like integrity fields and power generators) into wedges and other shapes. Limiting everything to just cubes is rather stifling to ship design creativity.

 

...I'm not much on pvp but i agreed that the Field Integrity block is op, or needed a much higher energy cost to offset light weight protection it provided vs heavy armor protection

 

IMO, giving field integrity blocks a much higher energy cost would have been a much better balance adjustment than nerfing it like this.

 

You can put armor plating directly on a thruster and not lose any function from it.

 

Why must we cover up our beautiful engines?!  :( I want to cry...

 

You can cover all your thusters with anything you like, you will only get penalty based on tonage and mass, not based on covering them. Happily. Because i really dislike how shiny and invasive they visually are.

 

I'll concede that the engine glow is way too bright. And I'll agree that this may be a matter of taste. But I think the glow of engines is one of things I like most about Avorion. Depending on the ship design, it can greatly add to the visual appeal!

 

How about reverting integrity fields to the old "one hp block" principle, but restrain this only to the blocks which are actually connected to an integrity field block? This way, if would make sense to finally also build larger integrity field blocks into your ship, and you would have to think about how and where to put them. Right now, they are just a "nobrainer" pick everywhere and could just be left out, gamedesign-wise. If you want it more complex, you could exempt the integrity field block itself and just bind all connected blocks in one hp block.

 

Sound like a sensible solution to me. Though, I think I would prefer if there were two different kinds of integrity field blocks: one that only protects blocks which are directly connected, like you suggest, and another kind which protects like they use to, but with a much higher energy cost (like nitrogameace suggested).

[Korhaka]

Has anyone ever come into problems with high block count? If it is ok to go into the 1000s then it wouldn't be so bad to apply a thin layer of armour to protect from the weapons that do penetrate shields.

[Thundercraft]

Has anyone ever come into problems with high block count? If it is ok to go into the 1000s then it wouldn't be so bad to apply a thin layer of armour to protect from the weapons that do penetrate shields.

 

I recently released my Eos Mk. I freighter ship design, which has well over 3000 blocks and I have not noticed any issues. At least, I did not notice glitches, an increase in crashes or a drop in framerate or anything. (BTW: Most of those 3000 blocks goes into the thousands of nearly microscopic thrusters I hid inside hollow compartments.)