I cannot give you all the details, but believe me you've never seen a game where the design of your own units is so free (ingame). There are a LOT of parts available to customize your ship. And you can stack parts (like wings) on other parts (to create double wings), you can put lights on your ships, antenna's, really about everything. I was really amazed when I first started designing my ships. I never expected it to be this much fun and give the player so much freedom.

I think even with the smallest hulls over a billion designs are possible. And with the bonuspak, even more part become available.

c thats the good thing about not haveing a strong social life when a good game comes out u dont lose too much

would anyone care to show us their creations?

Can i make a Borg CUBE???

Can i make a Borg CUBE???

Not with the designs available so far......

Dangit, I wanted to make a Cube or sphere! O well there are thousands of other possibilities.

wow not bad i think some players need ..oh no spend 2 h only to creat them first ship but i am not realy shure of to be free to put the engiens where i wont or waepons it look like more that you can put "structure" on "hardpoints" they don't take realy place or cost something but is only to look good i misunderstand this case or i am right in my opinon?

that means realy i can place evrything of "real" shipcomponents where i want? means i can nearly built Enterprice Souveran-Class or a Warbirt? But do the weapon in battle view realy shut from this pointet weapon in the pictures , sreenshuts is dosen't look like this...i am very intresstet to see how it works in the game...and i hope for the future that STARDOCK will impliment the possibillity to choice battletactic's before the fight beginns or better to act in the battle self that you can retreat holt possision or even crash into the enemie ship...

You don't see the need? Ähm sorry stategie and tactics are based on to do the right thing in the right moment only to take out the easyest targed is nothing and don't will let you win normaly you can destroy the dangerest target because the athers will not harm you. You think reatreat is not tactic or statrgical? lol this is also the essence of battel reatreat in the right moment pull away the fleed from base an repair possibilyties take them out piece per piece so you can destroy a entire battlefleed of big ships while they are slowly ...perhaps stardock don't want this system because of prog-probs i am not a pc-creak but don't say you don't see the point. that makes Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and G.J.Cesar opsolet and sorry it is not thrue

Now unto ship design.

For some dog-eared reason I keep pointing the weapons in a forward facing direction yet use the free-cam to watch the battle scenerios. I have even caught myself placing weapons that could only be fired if I was (in reality) I was pointing my entire ship in the exact direction the opponent is in. Personally I am thinking this is a poor design on my part, no matter how cool it looks when your checking out the final product before adding it to the list of ships for building.

So I have taken a new look at how I place weapons, instead of just dropping them on the hull I now add a pylon, it gives the weapon height and also gives an atmosphere that the weapon is free to rotate, pretty much like modern naval weaponry today.

No little detail is to small, although I have to admit, even though I am a design ship freak, I miss stuff. Thats what overhauls if there fore though. After overhaul I get a StrayKat Mk 2 version with addons/new weapons/engines/defenses that looks similar to the StrayKat Mk 1.5 but definitely a much nicer looking ship and more efficient killer.

I like the way that the design program additionally integrates the pieces togeather on ship forming also, seamless.

Anywho. I feel the design factor is totally freaking awesome.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Tactics: It is Frogboy's opinion that a tactical layer is just a crutch for players so that players won't have to use their brains to do strategy. The reason for this is that players invariably find the exploits in the tactical layer, and then use them. For instance, in Acsendancy, you get Large hulls, and fill them up with the passive damage absorders, leaving just enough room for an engine, power plant, and a weapon. Then, you can fight all the tactical battles you want to, and never lose because your ships are never damaged. In MoO1, you get repulsors and a 2 tile reach weapon, and you'll win 99% of all your battles with zero damage, because your repulsors would push the AI ships out of 1 tile reach weapons, and the AI almost never made ships with 2 tile reach. 1 lone ship in MoO1 can hold off a mega armada (a fleet of 6 stacks of 999 ships) forever, and always win. In the first Total War, all you had to do was take 1 light cav unit, and run it from corner to corner, and you'd always win because the AI could never catch you. Any game with a tactical level of combat has numerous exploits. It's not a function of using tactics to beat the AI, its a function of maximizing the exploits to win.

Second, before the invention of the gatling gun, 99% of all casualties were inflicted when the opposing force tried to retreat. Alexander, Hannibal, Ceaser, Nepolean, none of them ever willingly retreated, because they knew that to retreat was to lose all their forces. There are a few occasions where a feinted retreat was called for, and that led into an ambush, but retreating from an on-going battle was not an actual tactic. They retreated before their opponents could engage them unitl they were willing, or forced, to fight.

Third, the "game setting" doesn't allow for opposing fleets to retreat. They don't just instantly warp away from one another (unlike in say, Star Trek or Star Wars). It's much more of an amphibious assault--- you know, a one way trip for the attacker. They either win (carve out a beachead), or they die trying. There is no retreat for this situation. However, once your fleet has attacked, if your fleet still has moves left, you can then withdrawl on the strategic map, rotate out the damaged units, rotate in new replacements, and then get ready to deploy back to the fight.

Ship pieces are in .X format too so anyone familiar with 3D Studio or Maya or whatever can make their own parts and submit them.  They're pretty easy to create.

But we plant to keep releasing more pieces ourselves and eventually a program that lets you export your creations into some standard format that you could convert them into other formats so that you could insert them into a web page or a spec manual. Sort of like how you can export your movies in The Movies, we want people to be able to take their ship designs and export them for use outside the game.

i like the current system, but ill continue to try to come up with ideas.

like a rare event where a previously thought destroyed ship is suddenly seen limping into port. weeks after the battle it fell in, and requiring extensive repairs. and an exparence loss from casualties....