I mainly build using the “cock and balls” shape. This is due to me wanting to maximize reverse thrust. Also it works with my fleet tactics since I make use of forward static rail guns in my larger ships. The design allows me to maximize space for my static weapons to snipe targets with rail guns before they get into range.
When I'm building ships, I tend to naturally gravitate towards the highly elegant, yet entirely functional, "brick" shape inspired by legendary examples such as Fiat Ducato, Renault Master, and Volkswagen Transporter. Only very few cars manage to strike the sweet spot of graceful design as the Volvo 740 has, and replicating the essence of those supremely exquisite straight lines has been surprisingly challenging, yet rewarding.
Another thing to remember is function. A logistical frigate will look far different from a missle or screening frigate. Form will follow function and as far a military ships go you should make your the best at what ever job its built for.
I built a Rail Gun destroyer and I specifically built it to look like a sniper riffle from its side profile in order to sell the idea that its main use is long distance combat with the rail gun, plus the longer "barrel" allows for more room to slap on turrets.
an aspect I use when designing my own ships to make them stand out more is what I call "Breaking the center line" where I will deliberately offset some structures like nacelles or the bow of a ship along the lateral axis then add super structures to keep the over all appearance of balance. this is a purely aesthetic design feature but it can create very visually striking ships in the same way asymmetry can.
I'm a fan of the less common horse shoe shape, or "U" shape. It's excellent for industrial roles. Remember, there's more to SE than just PvP ship combat. Personally, I enjoy designing industrial ships, because everyone and their grandma build combat ships, but you don't see industrial or utility ships as often, and it's nice to fill that niche in the workshop. Building novelty ships and base props is also a ton of fun, and again, such builds seem uncommon in the workshop.
Also industrial ships imo are just more fun to make and I find that I end up using them so much more than combat ships. I don’t play on servers and the only combat I do is PVE using MES so I don’t need many combat ships outside of fighters. Also with industrial ships you don’t really need to focus on survivability since they’re not gonna be engaged in combat so you can focus more on the aesthetics and making sure it’s light and fun to fly and not worry about redundancies and armoring.
I’m quite new to space engineers, could you please link some of ur ships from the steam workshop please? I would love to see how you build industrial ships as that’s how I like to play
Building Survival Ready Space Stations is also a fun challenge. Especially if you try to balance form and function, as well as a sprinkle of role play.
There's also weird things possible like industrial-military, where there is significantly more armor on the ship exterior than any station within the planetary system
I almost exclusively play single player survival without combat so my qualifications for a vessels shape are entirely different. I let the utility of the the ship determine it's final shape. I'll start with defining a ships purpose (mining, hauling, etc) and start by connecting all of the largest blocks like jump drives and hydrogen tanks together in a rough shape then move things around little by little until i can neatly fit in all the small functional blocks like batteries, gyros, and assemblers in the ship. Once it's has all the utility blocks i want i'll add the minimal amount of armor blocks necessary to protect the most vulnerable parts and perhaps a little more to make the form flow a little better. In the end it's the large blocks that get added that will determine the ships overall size, in that way i maximize the ships utility and minimize things like redundant conveyor lines and wasted space between the outer armor and the internal components thus keeping the ship as light and cheap to build as possible.
Me too.. I don't get the idea of making boxes or plates of armour and building inside that... I know how big a section needs to be, AFTER the functional components are in! :)
@@D_Rogers Yeah outside-in building never worked for me, partly because I consider the interior layout of the ship just as important as the exterior, and it's much easier to beautify the exterior of a built-up interior than the other way around.
Another few suggestions I would give for this: Give your faction a main shape - For example the winged dagger shape for most of my fleet, giving most of your ships a similar shape allows for a more cohesive faction design. Don't be afraid to try different shapes - Even if you set a main shape for your faction, feel free to try other shapes that compliment it well. A front heavy hammerhead and a back heavy winged dagger both compliment each other by being opposites. Make your ships distinct - While ships from a faction should all look similar, you should make them identifiable by a black and white silhouette. Try asymmetry - Even as simple as putting an antenna on one side and not on the other, or as complex as making each half of the ship look completely different, it can add uniqueness to a build. Don't have everything smooth - Even if your faction's style is smoothed out curved ships, adding some raised bits with some sharper angles gives more visual interest to the build.
Asymmetric builds can be so damn confusing to build but sometimes absolutely cool. Easiest way to do them is propably building a survival ship as your base and just add stuff as needed. :D First its a Drill, then some day its a carrier. Sometimes they even get to look really cool but certainly confusing for everyone who isnt used to it.
I dislike normalizing shapes across a fleet; many of my factions hold very different formats of ship, and the faction’s purpose and principle informs the design more. Designs tend to fit next to one another even in spite of their different notes!
I wouldn't worry so much about hull shape as I would system layout, especially if you're making a H2 ship. Build your internals layout first, then figure out your hull shape. Nothing's worse than making an awesome looking ship, but then you have no internal space to add vital systems and make good looking, well thought out interiors.
Whats with vertical designs? Be it in the homeworld mothership layout or with thrust gravity in mind like in the expanse? I think i saw a few of the former designs in the workshop.
In my experience vertical ship design have cons of u cant make ur ship pancake flat as u need 3x3 interior to have a decent space but you dont need grav gens to have a good life. Just thrust in a way, turn off dampeners, and if u wanna reorient turn ur own jetpack with dampeners on. Also you can save resources by having 1 big thruster for atmo landing and main thrusters.
The problem with Expanse ship builds in SE is that big Expanse ships need elevators to make them practical. SE elevators, while doable, take up too much space for what they provide. Half your skyscraper ship's interior will be elevators, unless you want to spend a half hour on a one-way trip through your ship with ladders to get to a control station every time you are attacked.
@@tackytrooperladders and proper redundancy completely debunk that. Besides, ships in the Expanse are A) utilitarian, with little to no unused space, and B), have crews. The crew stays where they’re assigned. Engineers aren’t climbing to the helm, captains aren’t going to the breaching pods, and gunners aren’t tweaking the reactor. That’s shit you have to do in SE, of course you’d be climbing up and down ladders without a crew. Thinking otherwise just blows your argument out of the water like a dead fish
@@CMTechnica I said the problem with Expanse ship builds *in SE* not the problem with Expanse ships in general. You just debunked nothing I said. I said having to spend half your life on ladders to keep a vertical SE ship running is a problem, and it is.
Honestly one of my favorite vessel shapes is similar to an IRL rocket. Basically you have tube body and a set of perpendicular wings (in the shape of a cross) on the back. You can put gatling guns on the ends of the wings for good missile defense/all around protection. A diagonal cross is better for landing on planets, and a horizontal + vertical cross is better for conveyor efficiency. Usually I put the guns resting on the body aligned with the empty space between the wings so they can shoot behind the ship. Then I make sure the guns at the front are lower than the back so they can fire forward all at once (similar to the wedge design). Great for 360 protection, and great for running a blockade I suppose. I recommend experimenting with different shapes, adding more wings, etc to fit your needs as the standard design I've set here is very limiting in space. I don't find it likely you'll have an interior and instead will just use it for combat.
I've been working on a destroyer with a Hammerhead shape in starship Evo recently. The idea being that it could use it's big head to block shots, kinda like a physical shield.
Very good tipps for designing different ships. :) I wanna share my ... lets say key moment of getting experience in building stuff in SE. The kinda only real big ship i designed out of survival was build around a Big Bertha from the Mod Battle Cannons and Turrets. It became a (way to) huge flagship in the end because i just wanted to fullfill EVERY aspect. Firepower, Immersion, etc. The main cockpit was kind of in the middle of the ship since i had a V shaped front along the gun, with embedded broadside and defensive guns on the outside aswell as a shaft to all those components and a few thrusters. inside the V i got my front thrusters mainly around the barrel. Behind i then made life support, power, barracks on the outside for having cool windows and because sleeping crewmates under fire are useless crewmates anyway. :D A lot of corridors to every section. Own full production and resource and then Hangars with dedicated dropship, fighters and utility sections, with opening doors to the upper and lower side of the ship (lower for atmosphere or low orbit launches mostly). even special small drone hangars on some key locations for repair drones. And in the end and very much centered the engine room with some massive batteries of hydrogen drives. Gyroscopes and batteries were all over the ship where they fitted. I still somehow managed to got my center of mass pretty much in the middle and got somewhat decent thrust and maneuverbility ... but it crashed my PC back then if i wanted to load it in another world ... to big. :D But what learned from building this monster over months helped me a lot in every future build from small planetary scout rovers to space stations. The Shape mostly follows the function for me. Core systems or Role system comes first, then they get shapes fitting their purpose. With time you find out how to make really cool looking ships that do everything you want them to be capable of. So, to everyone that wants to or is still learning i'd recommend to surely look up some stuff from the workshop, but then just start your own thing. Make an empty world in creative, no asteroids, no nothing (may get the builders skybox) and dedicate it to a singular build. Dont start over and over, just go for it, remove stuff, add stuff, the idea might change from a freighter to a carrierbattleship and gets massive. Don't work on the intend of using it ... work for the sake of building it. :D Everything you learn doing that you can then use everywhere else. You might just build something that is completely useless, but looks cool. Or you build something that is absolutely effective but looks horrible at first. But then you can just go from there.
I've been playing this game since it came out, I built to vessels when I started, both named the Q Bound, one standard, and the other was an upgraded version both about the size of a Aircraft carrier. I now found I am building bits of vessels, I.e. rear engine sections, forward cockpit, middle sections, etc, then play around by joining them together with merg connectors.
I'm not really sure who still pays attention to this video's comment section still, however there is one ship design shape that most forget about: the barbell. Great for massive thrust as well as the advantages of the hammerhead and possibly mounting points for a carrier's compliment of support craft with the same minimal space drawbacks as the pure rectangular style.
From my 9 years playing: Build from inside out. Stop making everything smooth. Take a break from military ships. Stop making triangles. Give all armor a purpose- don't just add a nose or a pylon that protects or houses nothing. More advanced tips: Avoid repeating textures. Don't be scared of flat surfaces. Give yourself limitations. Echo design elements. Limit fake greeble.
One of my friends just got me into Space Engineers. I was surprised to find myself struggling with the kit-bashing aspect of ship building and such. This was a very helpful way to think about ship building. Thank you 😊
Currently experimenting with a Flying Wing type design for a one-off ship focused mainly on forward firepower with turrets on top and beneath the ship. Main issue I'm having is that it's rather thinly armoured at certain points as well as trying to organize the interior since the shape is rather different than conventional designs.
I make Space Boats and Space Airplanes. People who doubt the power of those shapes have never been destroyed by them. Or they went against aestheitc designs In Non-combat designs, i use as many external walkways as possible, keeping maybe 1 or 2 pressurized habitation modules.
Excellent video! These ships look very nice and are obviously made with great care, with that said, I do want others to understand though that these designs and shapes are only going to be effective within RP like servers. Space Engineers PvP servers call for vastly different design concepts if you want your ships it be as optimal as possible in defeating your enemy. This video gives a great basis for anyone learning the game though. For anyone looking for a Space Engineers PvP experience, you'll eventually discover why these shapes, and layouts sadly can't work well within Space Engineers PvP. If you're only looking into to designing cool looking ships, then simply ignore my comment. Again, great video. Good to see the Space Engineers community continue to grow!
I typically design my PvE ships as if they are going to be in PvP, because, I figure, if it can survive PvP, there's very little an NPC enemy can do to threaten it.
Interesting! My basic wessel shape is often undecided until I see the shape of the interior blocks/conveyors and weapon layout I need already built... I try not to use any armoured blocks until I have a working ship and can gauge how much heavier I can safely make it.. :) I'll build a ladder chassis to start a rover, but I never build a ship on a "frame", I just build a working ship from components, then coat it in armour....
Haven't really played much around with SE, considering I just picked up the game recently, but one way I've been thinking about designing ships has been to start with the interior space based on the ships purpose and then building the hull around the rooms. It probably won't work for every ship out there, but for some ships that need specific kinds of interiors, such as carriers or freighters, or ships where the builder wants to have a very specific kind of interior layout. This design approach probably works best with small grid ships as well, since Large grid ships might end up ballooning in size.
I always start with the frame first, it lets me know what amount space I have to work with and where I should place components, all of my ships are a box shape, but with each ship I get better and better with detailing
At the start the video kinda made me feel like I could never make a ship that looked as good as the ones you showed but by the end I was inspired to keep working
I'm very new to SE, (and shipbuilding in general, I also enjoy Empyrion) but the hammerhead pattern mentioned here is what I am working towards with my current rover. I have been frustrated by the vehicle flipping a lot. I worked out how to stop it from flipping to the sides and front, but then forgot to add enough length at the back to prevent it from flipping backwards. People sometimes say that you should have all your weight in one place, at the direct center of the ship; but as I experiment more I am discovering that I need to distribute it evenly if I want to avoid problems.
I've found dagger and wedge shaped ships to be the most effective in combat because of the sheer amount of guns you can lay on target. I setup ai battles with two different ships, one a dagger shaped frigate with railguns and lasers, and another destroyer looking like a WW2 battleship. Despite the destroyer weighing 1.5 million kgs more, having thicker armor, and big quad batteries of 600mm guns it got clapped every single time by the frigate because of how much firepower it could constantly lay out. With the wedge shape and not being overly tall you can have 2-3 sides of the ship always facing your enemy. Also with the ship angled at 45 degrees cause of the wedge it makes your armor thicker. 5:17
Some of Yaki's ships seem to be builds of the Imperial ships from the anime OVA Legends of the Galactic Heroes, nice to see my favourite sci-fi get some love in space engineers!
when i build i do think of finding out a new shape or at least decide on one, then see if it fits the function, sometimes i do this in reverse. usually my builds tend to be functionel over form so i guess 75% function 25% form. im now my weakness is making lots of details/decals, thou in having that im excellent in making smooth designs. in knowing so, ive started to build most of the ship and then break it appart here and there for details, like a sculpture adding or taking away parts. hope this makes sense for others or maybe helpful. :)
I've always wanted to just throw all of these guidelines out of a window and just build a massive cube. Stud its surfaces with all kinds of guns and instruments, add gravity generators on the outside and insides of all faces so you can run on them, and you have the ultimate functional ship. The simple geometry also means its easy to implement welder armor.
Most of my ships have a Junker or Miner style to it, it mostly consist of multiple ship stitch together and reconstructed. My Rovers are just Hot dogs that evolves everytime i get an idea.
I have learned to equip my freighters and seed ships with top thrusters. You would probably call it front thrusters since you build them laned and not towered. I obeserved that trespassing the void with max 100m/s, hostile drones could not reach the front but rather the back of my ships. Or the bottom as i would call it. Turrets are also safe if placed halfway the ship since drones actually are flying into the burst but can not respond within the same range.
I always end up building the UNN ships from the expanse. Working in a Leonidas Class Battleship atm. Have built the Truman Class Dreadnought twice on official servers. Pcu must be managed well. Nice Into btw.
It does affect the size, but I like to turn and face my thrusters towards each. This allows for a different style off looks and placement for fixed mounted weapons to be focused forward and centered effectively. I see a lot of detail on these ships. I guess it is about time that I take a look at some of my old ships and think about how I want to modify with a lot of the dlc. I don't mind mods. It is easier to join games when I stick to basic parts.
That first ship the “Equinox” I can’t find anywhere on the workshop, playing on ps5. Is it by chance called something else or not on the workshop anymore?
When I build a spaceship, I start dreaming about a beautiful detailed exterior. But during the construction process, I increase armor here and there, add bulwarks, smooth out the corners for better turret firing angles... and in the end, I get a flying trash can. Tenacious, combative, but ugly
I like to give my ships spaced armor and crew and and captain rooms. I normally make them look like blades or pincers with connectors on the outside for other craft
I like to let my ship designs follow the function of their primary parts. For example, you will want to put big power/fuel generators and consumers (H2 tanks, reactors and thrust packs) close together because the infrastructure between them has to be as short as possible: 'Big H2 pipes and electrical buses are heavy.' In the same headcanon, you will want to put the crew habitat areas as far away from any hazards (thrusters, weapons, reactors, grav gens) as possible and put the hazardous parts in an isolated area of the ship, maybe even have some way to jettison them in an emergency. Those rules will already define some basic layout for most ships -- usually engines in the back, living quarters in the front and center where they are least vulnerable.
one thing i noticed is, paint is important, i just finished a mobile base corveta (at least i consider), the mono color designe was shit, but when i add details, and oh boy, i love my little corveta
I made a rib cage shape (alternating between light armour blocks and windows with the spine being the main conveyor line), slapped a goofy skull/head shape on the front to be the bridge with the opening mouth as one of the main entrances and a big tail in the back to put thrusters and guns on. I call it The Sewer Mermaid. As someone who's never tried PvP, I can only assume that google recommended me this video so that I might stop. But I shan't. The world must experience my abominations.
Ive seen time after time this sleek thin profile used in SE where in rear is fatter than the front. I was wondering about 4 design ideas. 1 a "hammerhead" design like KoToR or the Tau from warhammer 40k. This creates a forwardcentric firing arc that a large platform for weapons and, 2 a full 180 on ship design that put it "big butt" to the fore of the ship helping to protect the flanks from frontal fire while minorly impinging on weaponry. 3. Why do people STILL put the bridge on the "top" of ship? It needs to be in the center of the ship to protect the command crew, you can have a few camera's on the sides (all 6) of the ship. 4. Why arent large people guided camera anti capital missile platforms used as frigate style shop killers?
I have noted that many ships spend a lot of design effort integrating and justifying reverse thrust, and most of my crafts are almost entirely focused on forward thrust, with the expectation of steering for “turn and burn” in the event that complex maneuvers are needed. This is more efficient and allows for more valuable space on the exterior of the ship. Larger vessels have trouble doing maneuvers like that, so I just avoid making colossal shit when I need a thing that can change vectors quickly.
My design approach is closer to 'put things until it works', it involves wrapping everything in unreasonable volumes of armor. The result is a vehicle that moves slower than a rock that causes its target to self destruct from the thought of ram force, only practical for assaulting a station that has no craft within one light-year.
I had my Jericho class frigate/carrier it used a gentlemen sausage lay out and that thing was my baby I was not able to get it in the workshop before my laptop died so now I am making the Jericho 2.0 and this helps a lot
First thing’s first, lay out your critical systems how you want, then build around that or else you’ll run into serious square footage issues. Don’t try to build inwards, but instead build outwards.
In survival I build the minimum required for the function of the ship, with the exception that they tend to have an excessive amount of thrust. In creative I build flying bricks with redundancies to the point that they can usually keep flying and fighting even when cut in half and cored through bow to stern, with enough facillities to eventually repair the damage. (Cutting in half and coring the ship is part of my standard stress tests.) None of my ships are pretty.
Maneuverability is also a huge thing with shape. Long shaped ships arent that ideal since the torque required to tilt up/down or left/right is way larger than wide and tall ships. A wide ship will require way less torque when tilting up and down while a tall ship is the same except for right and left. Long ships are better at rolling left snd right. All of these lack the capabilities of the other but these are things to consider If youre making a ship with more weapons on top than the sides, it might be better to try to go for pitching up and down mixed with rolling (A wide + long variant)
Most of my warships tend to be quite rectangular as it allows a large area for weapon placement but then again I build for functionality not looks😅 couldn't care less if it's ugly as long as it's a beast in a fight
Fighters can have lots of shapes, but for large ships, the rectangular shape is best for corvettes, the cock n balls is best for destroyers, the kangoroo cock n balls (cangoroos have their balls on top of the penis instead of below, so its ok to call shapes like 5:55 that) are best for frigates that carry small ships and the hammerhead design is better for attack frigates or cruisers. For dreadnoughts and battlecruisers the wedge shape is the best for it gives lots of angles for the guns and maximises the gun placement potential. For carriers it can be similar to a irl carrier but I prefer a mix of the wedge and cock n balls design with a big long one, where the hangar is, and a slit on the tip, where the hangar entrance is
Majority of my ships are cock and balls but I’ve been experimenting with wedges and angled armour. deflection is totally a thing and angled armour deflects most shots with minimal damage
Or just do what I do: Make a long rod out of steel blocks, strap sime batteries and thrusters on, then stick everything else on in a roughly symmetrical pattern adding blocks as needed, then cover in armor and guns. Ain't pretty, but at least it works.
“There’s five primary shapes…” Yeah I’m familiar with probably the most popular one, but surely there’s a better term than something phall-“ “I like to call this one the *cock and balls* design.”
I don't know how anyone else does their ships (and frankly I don't care), but I personally start with a spontaneous general idea for a part of a ship or the entire hull (depending on the idea) and work from there. Do my ships end up being useless for pretty much everything? Yes, yes they do; but I build with an idea in mind, and I don't care if it is plausible or not, If I stuck to how I used to build I would still be making gun bricks lol.
I mainly build using the “cock and balls” shape. This is due to me wanting to maximize reverse thrust. Also it works with my fleet tactics since I make use of forward static rail guns in my larger ships. The design allows me to maximize space for my static weapons to snipe targets with rail guns before they get into range.
Yeah exactly, the cock and balls is so efficient even nature arrived with that shape
Hehe.
Nature made a manufacturing shape that fits the cock and ball shape to
Exactly gives me more room for broarside railguns
The "Cock and Balls" Shape lmao
quite effective for small hit and run tactics.
Ive found it near impossible to avoid due to how incredibly powerful it is compared to all other options
When I'm building ships, I tend to naturally gravitate towards the highly elegant, yet entirely functional, "brick" shape inspired by legendary examples such as Fiat Ducato, Renault Master, and Volkswagen Transporter. Only very few cars manage to strike the sweet spot of graceful design as the Volvo 740 has, and replicating the essence of those supremely exquisite straight lines has been surprisingly challenging, yet rewarding.
Another thing to remember is function.
A logistical frigate will look far different from a missle or screening frigate.
Form will follow function and as far a military ships go you should make your the best at what ever job its built for.
I built a Rail Gun destroyer and I specifically built it to look like a sniper riffle from its side profile in order to sell the idea that its main use is long distance combat with the rail gun, plus the longer "barrel" allows for more room to slap on turrets.
@@Gamer_G33kscope as bridge?
@@CASA-dy4vs Actually I went with a bottom placed bridge. Kinda like the Destroyers from Hell Divers.
@@Gamer_G33k lmao w
an aspect I use when designing my own ships to make them stand out more is what I call "Breaking the center line" where I will deliberately offset some structures like nacelles or the bow of a ship along the lateral axis then add super structures to keep the over all appearance of balance. this is a purely aesthetic design feature but it can create very visually striking ships in the same way asymmetry can.
Gimme some of that tasty asymmetry. Who need aerodynamics in vacuumed?
Asymmetric bifurcation is the cornerstone of sci-fi design
4:35 got me so good, that delivery was impeccable.
I'm a fan of the less common horse shoe shape, or "U" shape.
It's excellent for industrial roles.
Remember, there's more to SE than just PvP ship combat.
Personally, I enjoy designing industrial ships, because everyone and their grandma build combat ships, but you don't see industrial or utility ships as often, and it's nice to fill that niche in the workshop. Building novelty ships and base props is also a ton of fun, and again, such builds seem uncommon in the workshop.
Also industrial ships imo are just more fun to make and I find that I end up using them so much more than combat ships. I don’t play on servers and the only combat I do is PVE using MES so I don’t need many combat ships outside of fighters. Also with industrial ships you don’t really need to focus on survivability since they’re not gonna be engaged in combat so you can focus more on the aesthetics and making sure it’s light and fun to fly and not worry about redundancies and armoring.
I’m quite new to space engineers, could you please link some of ur ships from the steam workshop please? I would love to see how you build industrial ships as that’s how I like to play
Building Survival Ready Space Stations is also a fun challenge. Especially if you try to balance form and function, as well as a sprinkle of role play.
There's also weird things possible like industrial-military, where there is significantly more armor on the ship exterior than any station within the planetary system
I’m a fan of the H design. Can just look so gorgeous
I almost exclusively play single player survival without combat so my qualifications for a vessels shape are entirely different. I let the utility of the the ship determine it's final shape. I'll start with defining a ships purpose (mining, hauling, etc) and start by connecting all of the largest blocks like jump drives and hydrogen tanks together in a rough shape then move things around little by little until i can neatly fit in all the small functional blocks like batteries, gyros, and assemblers in the ship. Once it's has all the utility blocks i want i'll add the minimal amount of armor blocks necessary to protect the most vulnerable parts and perhaps a little more to make the form flow a little better.
In the end it's the large blocks that get added that will determine the ships overall size, in that way i maximize the ships utility and minimize things like redundant conveyor lines and wasted space between the outer armor and the internal components thus keeping the ship as light and cheap to build as possible.
Me too..
I don't get the idea of making boxes or plates of armour and building inside that... I know how big a section needs to be, AFTER the functional components are in! :)
@@D_Rogers Yeah outside-in building never worked for me, partly because I consider the interior layout of the ship just as important as the exterior, and it's much easier to beautify the exterior of a built-up interior than the other way around.
Another few suggestions I would give for this:
Give your faction a main shape - For example the winged dagger shape for most of my fleet, giving most of your ships a similar shape allows for a more cohesive faction design.
Don't be afraid to try different shapes - Even if you set a main shape for your faction, feel free to try other shapes that compliment it well. A front heavy hammerhead and a back heavy winged dagger both compliment each other by being opposites.
Make your ships distinct - While ships from a faction should all look similar, you should make them identifiable by a black and white silhouette.
Try asymmetry - Even as simple as putting an antenna on one side and not on the other, or as complex as making each half of the ship look completely different, it can add uniqueness to a build.
Don't have everything smooth - Even if your faction's style is smoothed out curved ships, adding some raised bits with some sharper angles gives more visual interest to the build.
Asymmetric builds can be so damn confusing to build but sometimes absolutely cool.
Easiest way to do them is propably building a survival ship as your base and just add stuff as needed. :D First its a Drill, then some day its a carrier.
Sometimes they even get to look really cool but certainly confusing for everyone who isnt used to it.
I dislike normalizing shapes across a fleet; many of my factions hold very different formats of ship, and the faction’s purpose and principle informs the design more. Designs tend to fit next to one another even in spite of their different notes!
I wouldn't worry so much about hull shape as I would system layout, especially if you're making a H2 ship.
Build your internals layout first, then figure out your hull shape. Nothing's worse than making an awesome looking ship, but then you have no internal space to add vital systems and make good looking, well thought out interiors.
Whats with vertical designs? Be it in the homeworld mothership layout or with thrust gravity in mind like in the expanse? I think i saw a few of the former designs in the workshop.
will cover stack ships in an interior video in the future
In my experience vertical ship design have cons of u cant make ur ship pancake flat as u need 3x3 interior to have a decent space but you dont need grav gens to have a good life. Just thrust in a way, turn off dampeners, and if u wanna reorient turn ur own jetpack with dampeners on. Also you can save resources by having 1 big thruster for atmo landing and main thrusters.
The problem with Expanse ship builds in SE is that big Expanse ships need elevators to make them practical. SE elevators, while doable, take up too much space for what they provide. Half your skyscraper ship's interior will be elevators, unless you want to spend a half hour on a one-way trip through your ship with ladders to get to a control station every time you are attacked.
@@tackytrooperladders and proper redundancy completely debunk that. Besides, ships in the Expanse are A) utilitarian, with little to no unused space, and B), have crews. The crew stays where they’re assigned. Engineers aren’t climbing to the helm, captains aren’t going to the breaching pods, and gunners aren’t tweaking the reactor. That’s shit you have to do in SE, of course you’d be climbing up and down ladders without a crew. Thinking otherwise just blows your argument out of the water like a dead fish
@@CMTechnica I said the problem with Expanse ship builds *in SE* not the problem with Expanse ships in general. You just debunked nothing I said. I said having to spend half your life on ladders to keep a vertical SE ship running is a problem, and it is.
The kok n baulls shape
Also, I like the new intro, though your intro is the reason I listen to that one abba song
Might change the song to that again :)
Honestly one of my favorite vessel shapes is similar to an IRL rocket.
Basically you have tube body and a set of perpendicular wings (in the shape of a cross) on the back.
You can put gatling guns on the ends of the wings for good missile defense/all around protection.
A diagonal cross is better for landing on planets, and a horizontal + vertical cross is better for conveyor efficiency.
Usually I put the guns resting on the body aligned with the empty space between the wings so they can shoot behind the ship.
Then I make sure the guns at the front are lower than the back so they can fire forward all at once (similar to the wedge design).
Great for 360 protection, and great for running a blockade I suppose.
I recommend experimenting with different shapes, adding more wings, etc to fit your needs as the standard design I've set here is very limiting in space. I don't find it likely you'll have an interior and instead will just use it for combat.
Another huge thing to consider is if the vessel needs to land on a planet.
I've been working on a destroyer with a Hammerhead shape in starship Evo recently. The idea being that it could use it's big head to block shots, kinda like a physical shield.
Yeah exactly, the hammer head gives the bridge a lot more armour
Very good tipps for designing different ships. :)
I wanna share my ... lets say key moment of getting experience in building stuff in SE.
The kinda only real big ship i designed out of survival was build around a Big Bertha from the Mod Battle Cannons and Turrets. It became a (way to) huge flagship in the end because i just wanted to fullfill EVERY aspect. Firepower, Immersion, etc.
The main cockpit was kind of in the middle of the ship since i had a V shaped front along the gun, with embedded broadside and defensive guns on the outside aswell as a shaft to all those components and a few thrusters. inside the V i got my front thrusters mainly around the barrel. Behind i then made life support, power, barracks on the outside for having cool windows and because sleeping crewmates under fire are useless crewmates anyway. :D A lot of corridors to every section. Own full production and resource and then Hangars with dedicated dropship, fighters and utility sections, with opening doors to the upper and lower side of the ship (lower for atmosphere or low orbit launches mostly). even special small drone hangars on some key locations for repair drones. And in the end and very much centered the engine room with some massive batteries of hydrogen drives. Gyroscopes and batteries were all over the ship where they fitted.
I still somehow managed to got my center of mass pretty much in the middle and got somewhat decent thrust and maneuverbility ... but it crashed my PC back then if i wanted to load it in another world ... to big. :D
But what learned from building this monster over months helped me a lot in every future build from small planetary scout rovers to space stations.
The Shape mostly follows the function for me. Core systems or Role system comes first, then they get shapes fitting their purpose. With time you find out how to make really cool looking ships that do everything you want them to be capable of.
So, to everyone that wants to or is still learning i'd recommend to surely look up some stuff from the workshop, but then just start your own thing. Make an empty world in creative, no asteroids, no nothing (may get the builders skybox) and dedicate it to a singular build.
Dont start over and over, just go for it, remove stuff, add stuff, the idea might change from a freighter to a carrierbattleship and gets massive.
Don't work on the intend of using it ... work for the sake of building it. :D
Everything you learn doing that you can then use everywhere else. You might just build something that is completely useless, but looks cool. Or you build something that is absolutely effective but looks horrible at first. But then you can just go from there.
I've been playing this game since it came out, I built to vessels when I started, both named the Q Bound, one standard, and the other was an upgraded version both about the size of a Aircraft carrier. I now found I am building bits of vessels, I.e. rear engine sections, forward cockpit, middle sections, etc, then play around by joining them together with merg connectors.
I'm not really sure who still pays attention to this video's comment section still, however there is one ship design shape that most forget about: the barbell. Great for massive thrust as well as the advantages of the hammerhead and possibly mounting points for a carrier's compliment of support craft with the same minimal space drawbacks as the pure rectangular style.
Nice job including a variety of styles and functions! That was a good roundup of the most popular shapes I see on servers.
From my 9 years playing: Build from inside out. Stop making everything smooth. Take a break from military ships. Stop making triangles. Give all armor a purpose- don't just add a nose or a pylon that protects or houses nothing.
More advanced tips:
Avoid repeating textures. Don't be scared of flat surfaces. Give yourself limitations. Echo design elements. Limit fake greeble.
I am glad you have continued your series. These videos are great. Thanks for you hard work.
glad you enjoyed Peter :)
must say i love the new intro
thank you!
One of my friends just got me into Space Engineers. I was surprised to find myself struggling with the kit-bashing aspect of ship building and such. This was a very helpful way to think about ship building. Thank you 😊
Liking the new intro, definitely a step up.
Currently experimenting with a Flying Wing type design for a one-off ship focused mainly on forward firepower with turrets on top and beneath the ship. Main issue I'm having is that it's rather thinly armoured at certain points as well as trying to organize the interior since the shape is rather different than conventional designs.
You have no idea how useful that was. Many thanks.
I make Space Boats and Space Airplanes. People who doubt the power of those shapes have never been destroyed by them. Or they went against aestheitc designs
In Non-combat designs, i use as many external walkways as possible, keeping maybe 1 or 2 pressurized habitation modules.
Excellent video! These ships look very nice and are obviously made with great care, with that said, I do want others to understand though that these designs and shapes are only going to be effective within RP like servers. Space Engineers PvP servers call for vastly different design concepts if you want your ships it be as optimal as possible in defeating your enemy. This video gives a great basis for anyone learning the game though. For anyone looking for a Space Engineers PvP experience, you'll eventually discover why these shapes, and layouts sadly can't work well within Space Engineers PvP. If you're only looking into to designing cool looking ships, then simply ignore my comment. Again, great video. Good to see the Space Engineers community continue to grow!
I typically design my PvE ships as if they are going to be in PvP, because, I figure, if it can survive PvP, there's very little an NPC enemy can do to threaten it.
Very nice video am glad someone mensond firing arc no one ever talks about this stuff
Caught me off guard when you said “cock and balls design”
I’m glad I’m not the only one who seems to naturally stuff all my maneuvering thrusters into two testicles for my ship.
🤣🤣🤣
4:33 - I was sitting down. I stood up...just so I could properly fall to my knees 😂🤣
Interesting!
My basic wessel shape is often undecided until I see the shape of the interior blocks/conveyors and weapon layout I need already built...
I try not to use any armoured blocks until I have a working ship and can gauge how much heavier I can safely make it.. :)
I'll build a ladder chassis to start a rover, but I never build a ship on a "frame", I just build a working ship from components, then coat it in armour....
Nice new Intro. although I do miss abba now.
thinking on having the new intro with the old abba music
I LOVE YOUR SHAPES!
Haven't really played much around with SE, considering I just picked up the game recently, but one way I've been thinking about designing ships has been to start with the interior space based on the ships purpose and then building the hull around the rooms. It probably won't work for every ship out there, but for some ships that need specific kinds of interiors, such as carriers or freighters, or ships where the builder wants to have a very specific kind of interior layout. This design approach probably works best with small grid ships as well, since Large grid ships might end up ballooning in size.
Most ppl: build complex ship forms
Me: *T R I A N G L E*
Please do more build focused videos like these, I love them.
I always start with the frame first, it lets me know what amount space I have to work with and where I should place components, all of my ships are a box shape, but with each ship I get better and better with detailing
Yeah I also usually like to do a frame
Same!
new intro is cool
cheers!
At the start the video kinda made me feel like I could never make a ship that looked as good as the ones you showed but by the end I was inspired to keep working
Glad to hear that!
Ayo that new intro be look’n good tho you should use in the one from here onwards!! 😁😁
cheers! might replace the music with the classic abba intro song haha
@@LunarKolony can’t wait to hear it!!
Great vid. Excellent info presented.
Thanks!
I'm very new to SE, (and shipbuilding in general, I also enjoy Empyrion) but the hammerhead pattern mentioned here is what I am working towards with my current rover. I have been frustrated by the vehicle flipping a lot. I worked out how to stop it from flipping to the sides and front, but then forgot to add enough length at the back to prevent it from flipping backwards. People sometimes say that you should have all your weight in one place, at the direct center of the ship; but as I experiment more I am discovering that I need to distribute it evenly if I want to avoid problems.
I've found dagger and wedge shaped ships to be the most effective in combat because of the sheer amount of guns you can lay on target. I setup ai battles with two different ships, one a dagger shaped frigate with railguns and lasers, and another destroyer looking like a WW2 battleship. Despite the destroyer weighing 1.5 million kgs more, having thicker armor, and big quad batteries of 600mm guns it got clapped every single time by the frigate because of how much firepower it could constantly lay out.
With the wedge shape and not being overly tall you can have 2-3 sides of the ship always facing your enemy. Also with the ship angled at 45 degrees cause of the wedge it makes your armor thicker. 5:17
new intro is nice and very helpful tips thank you my good sir
glad you enjoyed
Some of Yaki's ships seem to be builds of the Imperial ships from the anime OVA Legends of the Galactic Heroes, nice to see my favourite sci-fi get some love in space engineers!
Never heard of that, but they certainly look great!
i know they are based off LoGH, idk what faction tho
@@LunarKolony if you're into anime and like sci-fi, go watch it. My favourite show of all time.
@@Zipplandia ones shown in the video where two imperial ships, don't know the exact class or type tho
when i build i do think of finding out a new shape or at least decide on one, then see if it fits the function, sometimes i do this in reverse.
usually my builds tend to be functionel over form so i guess 75% function 25% form.
im now my weakness is making lots of details/decals, thou in having that im excellent in making smooth designs.
in knowing so, ive started to build most of the ship and then break it appart here and there for details, like a sculpture adding or taking away parts.
hope this makes sense for others or maybe helpful. :)
have you got a video on how to setup the internals, or just a full how to build guide on one of these top tier vessels?
I've always wanted to just throw all of these guidelines out of a window and just build a massive cube.
Stud its surfaces with all kinds of guns and instruments, add gravity generators on the outside and insides of all faces so you can run on them, and you have the ultimate functional ship.
The simple geometry also means its easy to implement welder armor.
Most of my ships have a Junker or Miner style to it, it mostly consist of multiple ship stitch together and reconstructed. My Rovers are just Hot dogs that evolves everytime i get an idea.
I'm curious about your thoughts on size/realish and block size in game. How you'd define these types of ships.
I have learned to equip my freighters and seed ships with top thrusters. You would probably call it front thrusters since you build them laned and not towered. I obeserved that trespassing the void with max 100m/s, hostile drones could not reach the front but rather the back of my ships. Or the bottom as i would call it. Turrets are also safe if placed halfway the ship since drones actually are flying into the burst but can not respond within the same range.
I always end up building the UNN ships from the expanse. Working in a Leonidas Class Battleship atm. Have built the Truman Class Dreadnought twice on official servers. Pcu must be managed well. Nice Into btw.
Build whatever you like! love those ships
I build skeletal structure, then the guts, then the shit, the ship designs itself for me so it often classifies itself.
It does affect the size, but I like to turn and face my thrusters towards each. This allows for a different style off looks and placement for fixed mounted weapons to be focused forward and centered effectively. I see a lot of detail on these ships. I guess it is about time that I take a look at some of my old ships and think about how I want to modify with a lot of the dlc. I don't mind mods. It is easier to join games when I stick to basic parts.
That first ship the “Equinox” I can’t find anywhere on the workshop, playing on ps5. Is it by chance called something else or not on the workshop anymore?
When I build a spaceship, I start dreaming about a beautiful detailed exterior. But during the construction process, I increase armor here and there, add bulwarks, smooth out the corners for better turret firing angles... and in the end, I get a flying trash can. Tenacious, combative, but ugly
How do you make the Diagonal wings? Tried it before but the one in this video looked amazing. What block are you using to get the angle?
The most efficient shape is a two spheres with a long rod originating from between them.
.|.
? :D
I like to give my ships spaced armor and crew and and captain rooms. I normally make them look like blades or pincers with connectors on the outside for other craft
I like to let my ship designs follow the function of their primary parts. For example, you will want to put big power/fuel generators and consumers (H2 tanks, reactors and thrust packs) close together because the infrastructure between them has to be as short as possible: 'Big H2 pipes and electrical buses are heavy.' In the same headcanon, you will want to put the crew habitat areas as far away from any hazards (thrusters, weapons, reactors, grav gens) as possible and put the hazardous parts in an isolated area of the ship, maybe even have some way to jettison them in an emergency.
Those rules will already define some basic layout for most ships -- usually engines in the back, living quarters in the front and center where they are least vulnerable.
one thing i noticed is, paint is important, i just finished a mobile base corveta (at least i consider), the mono color designe was shit, but when i add details, and oh boy, i love my little corveta
I would like to keep up with an FTL Style of ship, Brings back many memories.
I made a rib cage shape (alternating between light armour blocks and windows with the spine being the main conveyor line), slapped a goofy skull/head shape on the front to be the bridge with the opening mouth as one of the main entrances and a big tail in the back to put thrusters and guns on. I call it The Sewer Mermaid.
As someone who's never tried PvP, I can only assume that google recommended me this video so that I might stop. But I shan't. The world must experience my abominations.
Luna will no longer make us remember on every video that he kissed the teacher 🤣. Pog new intro
Ive seen time after time this sleek thin profile used in SE where in rear is fatter than the front. I was wondering about 4 design ideas.
1 a "hammerhead" design like KoToR or the Tau from warhammer 40k. This creates a forwardcentric firing arc that a large platform for weapons and,
2 a full 180 on ship design that put it "big butt" to the fore of the ship helping to protect the flanks from frontal fire while minorly impinging on weaponry.
3.
Why do people STILL put the bridge on the "top" of ship? It needs to be in the center of the ship to protect the command crew, you can have a few camera's on the sides (all 6) of the ship.
4. Why arent large people guided camera anti capital missile platforms used as frigate style shop killers?
I have noted that many ships spend a lot of design effort integrating and justifying reverse thrust, and most of my crafts are almost entirely focused on forward thrust, with the expectation of steering for “turn and burn” in the event that complex maneuvers are needed. This is more efficient and allows for more valuable space on the exterior of the ship. Larger vessels have trouble doing maneuvers like that, so I just avoid making colossal shit when I need a thing that can change vectors quickly.
Do you have any ideas on how to get rid of builder block .
My design approach is closer to 'put things until it works', it involves wrapping everything in unreasonable volumes of armor. The result is a vehicle that moves slower than a rock that causes its target to self destruct from the thought of ram force, only practical for assaulting a station that has no craft within one light-year.
I don't know why, but i always find myself gravitating to the cock-n-ball design.
What I'm more curious about beyond the shapes is how to get that color gradient.
Had me at C*ck and balls design 😂
I had my Jericho class frigate/carrier it used a gentlemen sausage lay out and that thing was my baby I was not able to get it in the workshop before my laptop died so now I am making the Jericho 2.0 and this helps a lot
When designing a ship, how to avoid vertical surfaces, which will receive more fire in combat, while not visually boring?
New intro is suave brother
thanks!
I want to design a bar shape, or flying wing shaped BBS. Surprised this wasn't one of the 5, and that it is not more common in SpEngy.
I miss the old intro lol
I like the visuals, but the old song was sorta a LK classic
Maybe new intro + old song 🤔
There are so many things you need to consider when making something it’s entierly overwhelming
First thing’s first, lay out your critical systems how you want, then build around that or else you’ll run into serious square footage issues. Don’t try to build inwards, but instead build outwards.
In survival I build the minimum required for the function of the ship, with the exception that they tend to have an excessive amount of thrust.
In creative I build flying bricks with redundancies to the point that they can usually keep flying and fighting even when cut in half and cored through bow to stern, with enough facillities to eventually repair the damage. (Cutting in half and coring the ship is part of my standard stress tests.)
None of my ships are pretty.
Maneuverability is also a huge thing with shape. Long shaped ships arent that ideal since the torque required to tilt up/down or left/right is way larger than wide and tall ships. A wide ship will require way less torque when tilting up and down while a tall ship is the same except for right and left. Long ships are better at rolling left snd right. All of these lack the capabilities of the other but these are things to consider
If youre making a ship with more weapons on top than the sides, it might be better to try to go for pitching up and down mixed with rolling (A wide + long variant)
Most of my warships tend to be quite rectangular as it allows a large area for weapon placement but then again I build for functionality not looks😅 couldn't care less if it's ugly as long as it's a beast in a fight
The best shape for combat ship is
*TRIANGLE*
im going to try to build ships in the Expanse way, sky scrapper with one big ass engine at the bottom.
Fighters can have lots of shapes, but for large ships, the rectangular shape is best for corvettes, the cock n balls is best for destroyers, the kangoroo cock n balls (cangoroos have their balls on top of the penis instead of below, so its ok to call shapes like 5:55 that) are best for frigates that carry small ships and the hammerhead design is better for attack frigates or cruisers. For dreadnoughts and battlecruisers the wedge shape is the best for it gives lots of angles for the guns and maximises the gun placement potential. For carriers it can be similar to a irl carrier but I prefer a mix of the wedge and cock n balls design with a big long one, where the hangar is, and a slit on the tip, where the hangar entrance is
Majority of my ships are cock and balls but I’ve been experimenting with wedges and angled armour. deflection is totally a thing and angled armour deflects most shots with minimal damage
Ship min 4:21??
Equinox exploration frigate
Or just do what I do:
Make a long rod out of steel blocks, strap sime batteries and thrusters on, then stick everything else on in a roughly symmetrical pattern adding blocks as needed, then cover in armor and guns. Ain't pretty, but at least it works.
In general most of the ships seem to be built as if they were ocean going vessels picked up and thrown into space.
“There’s five primary shapes…”
Yeah I’m familiar with probably the most popular one, but surely there’s a better term than something phall-“
“I like to call this one the *cock and balls* design.”
Damn, I'm 200 hours in and still on planet.
I mase produce boosters that I can lobb at things.
All my ships come out in a cube like shape. My fleet looks like its the Borg coming after you...
I do not care for shape, i'll build whatever, then cry when it doesnt fly.
I create awesome, powerfull ships and I break all of these rules 😆
Ah yes. Caulk and Bowls 🥲🤌🏼
Just make a block, all sides fire, all sides are forward. it's the best tactical design.
You totally forgot to add the pancake design
Is that your new intro?
yap
@@LunarKolony cool
as a new engineer that doesnt understand alot of mechanics yet.... my builds have been efficient but not pretty....
I don't know how anyone else does their ships (and frankly I don't care), but I personally start with a spontaneous general idea for a part of a ship or the entire hull (depending on the idea) and work from there. Do my ships end up being useless for pretty much everything? Yes, yes they do; but I build with an idea in mind, and I don't care if it is plausible or not, If I stuck to how I used to build I would still be making gun bricks lol.