Writers Block - Need help with Ship design

from GalCiv2 Forums
I have run into a wall. I can't creativley come up with any new ship designs. I have started and restarted 3 different hull designs over 20 times.

I would really appriciate some tips and techniques you guys have found building your ships to achieve certain looks.

One particular problem I am having is bulking out ships, nothing seems to look right, and when I do some where what I like, I can't figure out how to hide the "Engine" pieces of the parts i used.

I know this is a really difficult request, but any help would be most appriciated.
21,334 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hey dude,

I had a hard time designing a big, bulky Terran massive hull, the one used for the Lucky Ranger ships. One trick I found was to find centerline hardpoints on the bottom of the ship and flip them so that more of the added big boxy bulking piece is obscured by the existing ship hull. As for hiding engine parts, I'm a big fan of all the fin/paddle shapes, since enginey pieces usually have a hardpoint just outside the nozzle of each engine. I'll post a few screenshots of what I mean later..
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just a thought... I've reduced engines before, but I'm not sure how small you can reduce them. Is it possible to reduce them to the point they are barely noticeable?
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wasn't talking about the engine components. I was talking about the "Extras" you add on. Some of them have the blueish part at the end of the piece that is supposed to be the "Engine". I run into a problem of hiding that part.

I'll try your suggestion Nortonius. Any more from any source would be welcome.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
what trick i do is to zoom all the way into the ship itself so you cut into the model and see the inside of the ship. There are hardpoints inside of the ship, so you can mount engines or whatever in there. You might have to rotate abit so you clip into it,.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This might seem really basic, but trust me, this is the best way to defeat "writer's block": sketch out what you want to see in your ships on paper first. Once you have a visual reference you can work from, the process of assembling 3D models becomes much easier. I realize that the stuff you draw and the parts you have to work with are different, but this method is fast, easy, and never fails. Working straight from your imagination can work, too, but more often than not, it leads to frustration, and you can fail.

Of course, for technical issues like dealing with the hardpoints, you're just going to have to learn the properties of each piece by playing with each one. I imagine that the new ship editor in the 1.1 add-on should help make this easier.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The game is perfectly happy to let you overlap components, so if you want you can put something on that covers your entines up. Many of the pieces with a patch of engine have an attachment point right in the middle of the engine patch. Careful resizing of some of the flat boxes can cover it up pretty well.

When I'm having a creative block I'll usually just make something bland and functional, and redesign it later. Another option is to just scroll down the list and start adding pieces at random, and see if I get any ideas from the mess.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
what trick i do is to zoom all the way into the ship itself so you cut into the model and see the inside of the ship. There are hardpoints inside of the ship, so you can mount engines or whatever in there. You might have to rotate abit so you clip into it,.


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