Ship Design Philosophy

[xdesperado]

So been playing with the Ship Designer and curious to hear people's design philosophies.

Curious about how much of a good thing is to much? When do you reach a point of diminishing returns with a design?

I typically play a Gun Bunny/Boarding style Military Officer. Lovw engaging in Spy Wars, Blockades and Commerce Raiding against those Syndicate scum. Even before the Ship Designer came out I found that packing too many guns on a ship made chances of blowing up said ship before having a chance to loot it much higher.
The current Custom ship I'm running has 30 guns with no upgrades and I've ended up destroying a number of targets I'd liked to have looted so the extra guns my Home Faction Thulun allows (up to 31) is overkill unless I'm always facing off against large heavily armored targets. i.e. too much of a good thing.
Looking at designing my next beast and I check the Javat yards and they can pack on extra engines. Hmmm 42 engines on a size 14 hull, 3 less on max guns but that's fine, Question is how much benefit will I get from that 3-1 ratio of Engine to Hull? Is it a case of needless excess with little return? Would I be better off increasing Hull size to like 18 for the extra Cargo space and couple more points of Armor?
Do extreme engine to hull ratios produce a huge positive net gain in combat or are they minor and will a design that just barely reaches a Speed/agility threshold perform equally well making it a question of Crew/Cargo size and efficiency rather than combat advantage?

[athios]

I think from Cory's previous comments, there are no significant benefits to extreme ratios. There are two things that matter, Ratio (less than 1:2 or more than 2:1) and bonuses from having more than 20 sails, and another for more than 30 sails. Beyond these factors, I think your skill matter more than your ship stats.

As to your original question, my first non-starter custom ship had 34 guns and I was perfectly fine. The next version had 51 guns and I immediately regretted it. For the other stats, you can play around to find something that matches your play style. Just think about what your most common complaints are about non-custom ships, and follow that trail...

[crackshotcerberus]

Out of curiosity why did you regret it?

[slayernz]

Much higher kill vs capture ratio.

Although I've got 45 guns and still get a healthy amount of loot
My biggest regret with my NR2, is that I only have 2x torp tubes. Although I'm reluctant to torp - instead getting close and taking out engines, I still like to use torps occasionally.

Edit ... what am I saying ... I don't have any regrets, the NR2 is AWESOME
startradersrpg.proboards.com/post/83834/thread

[athios]

Yes, too many blow ups. By that point, contracts were no big deal, but it meant that I couldn't loot any WF or luxury goods during desperate times.

[crackshotcerberus]

When I make my first custom ship without it being the starter I have over 100k extra (so about 600k). No desperate times for me.

[athios]

I meant Desperate as in, I'm in Red Sectors as far as the map can see, completely out of WF, and morale is 2...

[slayernz]

Yeah ... in that situation, you are gonna be in a world of hurt regardless of what your ship is.

I'm wondering - if you had a particularly nasty encounter, deep in red space, and you were the only crew member left - could you ever mutiny against yourself? I think it needs testing some time

[qbspy]

I always use the ship designer for my starting ship. I play with it until I've maxed about everything. This is done in consideration of being around medium. I roll with my beasty ship until I buy a better one. Don't count on luck. You're not Locke, in this quadrant. For making ships later in the game I think it's too expensive. Once you've upgraded your starting ship its way beyond most you would encounter for many AU. Greed can still kill you though. Trese coded morality into ST.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

I tend to go for minimal fuel usage more than anything. Any extra crew you have to man extra guns adds to your fuel consumption. I am patient as well. So, I will run a ship with the minimum possible guns/hull ratio with the maximum sails(engines)/hull ratio, with sails and engines >30. I have taken down giant xeno ships on impossible with a tiny starter ship that I think only had around 8 guns.

[chronic]

Bigger is better and biggest is best.

[ChocoCrowbar]

I have a similar style of playing, so I sat down and made my ship around pirating and looting while being very mobile in battle. This is what I came up with. The almost quadruple engines to hull did seem to give me a lot of mobility. No ship could close in on me.

May 11, 2014 21:58:23 GMT -5 ChocoCrowbar said:

So with the ship designer out, what is your dream ship within the limits established?

I call mine...

The Choco Rush^{Patent pending}

Hull: 15
Armor: 9
Engines: 42 + 13 = 55
Sails: 35
Crew: 57
Hold: 121
Guns: 17 + 3 = 20
Torps: 17

All I need to build this baby is the Master Contractor award (and the Wealthy Trader, but I already have that one).

I plan on duck taping some 11 more engines on this baby with Ancient Reactors and Titan Components. If there's room, I might even super glue some Titan Gun Batteries, 2 more engines to this beast.

I might approach about 95% the speed of light changing from medium to short range.

.

[beuns]

Hey ChocoCrowbar, I love your new avatar. Where did you find it ?

[ChocoCrowbar]

Here it is. Just cropped it.

[beuns]

Wow it's awesome in large !