Unofficial Ship Building Guide.
Since it was asked for...
from 
GalCiv2 Forums
GalCiv2 Forums
Since there is no guide, let me start one. I designed this guide while using the beta patch. Consider it a sort of gift to the community. Feel free to take this and add to it, correct my mistakes, etc. as you see fit. If you want to.
I: Before you begin
Before you even begin to start building, you should have a plan, which you should keep in mind while you are building the ship. Or, if you are really bloody-minded (like I am...), write it down. I don't mean necessarily pre-designing the ship, though you may choose to do that as well. You should also keep these things in mind:
1: The type and role of the ship. Is it a fighter? Cruiser? This will determine your hull choice. Pick one of the appropriate size that is consistant , as a foundation, with how you would like the ship to look. By role of the ship, I am referring to what the ship will do. Is it for defence? Recon? Is it your menacing juggernaut bristling with weapons? Keeping these things in mind will help you in making your ship's appearance consistant with its purpose.
2: How much freedom of rotation do you want? I would recommend setting your rotation (in the options menu) at 15, or even 5, degrees for maximum control of the positioning of the parts, though when learning the interface it might be easier to set it at a simpler number, such as 45 degrees.
3: The other ships in your fleet. I don't know if this is important for everyone, but I like to have a unified and consistant look to all the ships in my fleet. They should look like they belong together, rather than some patchwork mishmash of varying design styles.
4: Your ship style. The components and hulls that you can choose from depend upon the racial style of your ships. The human and antaran ships tend to be either angular or Star-Trekkish, while the alien styles tend to be much more Curvy and sleek-looking. This choice can be limiting to what you can do.
5: Ship size. Fighters tend to look way better if you choose simpler desings. More complex designs with lots of little bits sticking out everywhere really tends to make them look overdone. Whereas these traits in your big Dreadnaught ships can turn out quite nice.
6: Ship name. I like to choose a class name for the basic version, and then use series names for future versions with upgraded components. (e.g Viper, Viper Mk2, Viper Mk3, Recon Viper, Recon Viper Mk2, etc.) I know it isn't very creative to do it this way, but it will help you later on, when you have 10 different versions of the craft still in service, based on that basic hull design. By the series number, you will immediately know which ones are the older ones, and which are the newer ones.
7: Start simple. Nobody's first ship is going to win any awards. In the beginning, you will just want to get comfortable with the interface, and learning exactly what you can do with it. At first, be happy if your ship doesn't simply have the enemy laughing in their cockpits. Make it symmetrical, and try to have a flow to the design. Engines in back, bridge on top, weapons facing foreward. Once you are comfortable with this, you can get more creative with better results.
II: Interface
Having gone through that, Lets cover the interface. We'll start with the very basics. Open up your shipyard, and click on 'new'. then you will see a list of hulls to choose from. Do so. On the menu of tabs above, you will see next to 'hulls' several more tabs: Extras, and then your various types of components after that.
Extras is the place where you will spend the most time. These do not use hull space, or affect the caracteristics of your ship, except its appearance, and how much memory it uses up
. The other components, (weapons, engines, etc.) are what makes the ship useful. They affect your ship's stats, and take up hull space. You will see, above the image of your ship, an indicator of how much hull space you have, and how much of that you have used. At the bottom of the ship image, you will see to the left the camera controls for the ship viewer. You can also rotate the view and zoom with the mouse weel, and drag the image around when holding the left mouse button. To the bottom middle-ish, you will see three dials (with beta patch), which control the rotation of the components on their X, Y, and Z axes, repsectively. How specifically you can rotate components with the dials depends on what number you put in the options menu. To the right of this is a slider, which determines the size of that component. The middle is the default size, and moving it left or right will make that component smaller or bigger, respectively. Below the ship image are your menu controls. When you are done with your ship, be sure to choose the 'save' option, not the 'done' option, or you might undo all your hard work. Below that are your ship stats, which are fairly self explanatory. The manual covers that information quite well, as do the tutorials.
Click on the 'Extras' tab. You will see a list of components, and some sub-tabs which will let you sort them into three categories, if you like. Those are all things you can stick on your ship.
Now look at the image of your bare hull. It appears to have a case of the measles. If you zoom in, or look closer, you will see that they are actually tiny red arrows. They are known as 'hardpoints', and they are the places that you can join components to your ship. Each component has a top, a bottom, a front, and a back. the orientation of the hardpoint in relation to your hull will determine the orientation of anything you place on it, with the 'top' being the side facing out from the hull, and the 'front' being the point of the arrow.
To put a component onto your ship, click on one in the components menu, and you will see that it is stuck to your curser in the ship view window. point the arrow of your curser over one of the hardpoints on the hull, and you will see how it would look if you put it there. To put it there, simply left click. You can place another of the same component elsewhere by doing the same thing. To unselect that component, right click. You will now see at the top of the ship view there is little icon of that component.
Don't want that component there after all? Then you can either click on that component directly, or its icon at the top. You will see that it is highlited on the ship. Press delete on your keyboard, or right click, to delete the component. To unselect it, left-click elsewhere on the ship view.
If you want to rotate that component the opposite way, then first select that component in the components menu, then click to the 'six o'clock' position on the middle (y axis) dial. This means that you are turning it around 180 degrees. Then hover your curser over a hardpoint, and you will see it is pointing the opposite way. once again, left click to place it. Or don't. Its your choice. You are the one in charge, after all.
Changing the size of the component, or rotating it other ways works in the same way.
You will notice that you will see hardpoints on the components that you place. This is what makes it possible to build your ship up and out, or glue weapons onto the ends of wings.
I have noticed that when you are trying to put an object on a hardpoint when there are a whole bunch of them crowded together, it can be hard to get the right one. In these situations, zooming in helps a little. Also, moving your curser just a little bit around the area of that hardpoint will help you get it too. You'll know you have it when you see your object pointing in the intended direction.
When you are done with this, it would be a good idea now to click the 'Save' button. Choose a cool name for your ship, and a short description of it. You will then be back in the shipyard menu. Click on your ship, click 'Edit', and get ready to put the good stuff on it.
III: Components
When you are done placing extras and your fearsome war-machine is finally done to your satisfaction, it is time to place the REAL components. These are not just cosmetic additions. Placing them is exactly like placing the extras on your ship, but when they are attatched, they will affect its stats.
It is important to bear in mind, when choosing components, that all ships already have three basic things even without components on them: Engines, sensors, and support. They are all very basic, and short-range, but your ship will be able to move even if you don't put an engine component on it. It just won't go as fast as if you did. The same is true for sensors and support. I was quite relieved when this fact donned on me, as at first I thought the tiny hull was too small for both weapons and engines (wich it is, but only for add-on engines). In reality, your first fighter will only have the basic integrated engine, by necessity, because you can't add an engine to it.
The thing you will learn immediately, is that you never have enough space on those tiny to medium-sized hulls for all the stuff you want to put in them. Your first early-game fighter will probably only be able to carry a weapon and maybe a couple basic support pods or a sensor pod. This will change, as you advance technologically. Improved versions of components are smaller, which means you can fit more of them in. Improved types of technology (i.e, from Lasers to Plasmas) will do more damage; A laser has an attack of 1, while a plasma has 2. So as you discover improved ship technologies, it is important to update your designs. This is why I earlier recommended numbering each design. This way, you easily know how old it is. For example, your old 'Fighter' has a laser and a sensor, and a life support pod. A couple years later, you now have plasmas, and Improved Impulse drive, enhanced life support. You will be able to double the capability of your fighter when you update your design. You may even be able to fit some armor or shields on there. You update the design, and save it as 'Fighter 2'. Back in the shipyard screen, you can then mark your old 'Fighter' obsolete, so it won't appear in the ship-building menu anymore. You can, at this time, also decommission all of the old models. I personally don't like to do that. It is better to upgrade them. Or just use them up. (waste not, want not!)
Once you have upgraded a ship design, it is important that you set all your shipyards, using the governor, that are building the old model to switch to the new model. Due to some miner issues with the current beta, you may need to do this BEFORE you mark the design obsolete.
IV: Ship design tips.
This is the part that lots of other people would probably have better tips than I do, but here are some basic principals:
>Keep it symmetrical. A lopsided ship is usually just silly. (Sometimes it can turn out cool, though)
>Keep the design consistant with the ship's purpose.
>Experiment with similar components. There are a lot of parts that are variations on a similar theme, and some of them might be more suited to your intentions than others are.
>Don't be afraid to delete components, if you decide that they don't look good after all.
>Sometimes hardpoints on opposite sides of a ship don't QUITE line up symmetrically. Such as on the first (human) tiny hull, I tried making an 'X-wing' type design, and found that the port wings were slightly higher than starboard. When you notice this, there are two things you can do. Choose different hardpoints, of place another component outside those hardpoints, and use the points on that.
I am sure other people have many more tips for this section. Please feel free to add them.
I: Before you begin
Before you even begin to start building, you should have a plan, which you should keep in mind while you are building the ship. Or, if you are really bloody-minded (like I am...), write it down. I don't mean necessarily pre-designing the ship, though you may choose to do that as well. You should also keep these things in mind:
1: The type and role of the ship. Is it a fighter? Cruiser? This will determine your hull choice. Pick one of the appropriate size that is consistant , as a foundation, with how you would like the ship to look. By role of the ship, I am referring to what the ship will do. Is it for defence? Recon? Is it your menacing juggernaut bristling with weapons? Keeping these things in mind will help you in making your ship's appearance consistant with its purpose.
2: How much freedom of rotation do you want? I would recommend setting your rotation (in the options menu) at 15, or even 5, degrees for maximum control of the positioning of the parts, though when learning the interface it might be easier to set it at a simpler number, such as 45 degrees.
3: The other ships in your fleet. I don't know if this is important for everyone, but I like to have a unified and consistant look to all the ships in my fleet. They should look like they belong together, rather than some patchwork mishmash of varying design styles.
4: Your ship style. The components and hulls that you can choose from depend upon the racial style of your ships. The human and antaran ships tend to be either angular or Star-Trekkish, while the alien styles tend to be much more Curvy and sleek-looking. This choice can be limiting to what you can do.
5: Ship size. Fighters tend to look way better if you choose simpler desings. More complex designs with lots of little bits sticking out everywhere really tends to make them look overdone. Whereas these traits in your big Dreadnaught ships can turn out quite nice.
6: Ship name. I like to choose a class name for the basic version, and then use series names for future versions with upgraded components. (e.g Viper, Viper Mk2, Viper Mk3, Recon Viper, Recon Viper Mk2, etc.) I know it isn't very creative to do it this way, but it will help you later on, when you have 10 different versions of the craft still in service, based on that basic hull design. By the series number, you will immediately know which ones are the older ones, and which are the newer ones.
7: Start simple. Nobody's first ship is going to win any awards. In the beginning, you will just want to get comfortable with the interface, and learning exactly what you can do with it. At first, be happy if your ship doesn't simply have the enemy laughing in their cockpits. Make it symmetrical, and try to have a flow to the design. Engines in back, bridge on top, weapons facing foreward. Once you are comfortable with this, you can get more creative with better results.
II: Interface
Having gone through that, Lets cover the interface. We'll start with the very basics. Open up your shipyard, and click on 'new'. then you will see a list of hulls to choose from. Do so. On the menu of tabs above, you will see next to 'hulls' several more tabs: Extras, and then your various types of components after that.
Extras is the place where you will spend the most time. These do not use hull space, or affect the caracteristics of your ship, except its appearance, and how much memory it uses up
. The other components, (weapons, engines, etc.) are what makes the ship useful. They affect your ship's stats, and take up hull space. You will see, above the image of your ship, an indicator of how much hull space you have, and how much of that you have used. At the bottom of the ship image, you will see to the left the camera controls for the ship viewer. You can also rotate the view and zoom with the mouse weel, and drag the image around when holding the left mouse button. To the bottom middle-ish, you will see three dials (with beta patch), which control the rotation of the components on their X, Y, and Z axes, repsectively. How specifically you can rotate components with the dials depends on what number you put in the options menu. To the right of this is a slider, which determines the size of that component. The middle is the default size, and moving it left or right will make that component smaller or bigger, respectively. Below the ship image are your menu controls. When you are done with your ship, be sure to choose the 'save' option, not the 'done' option, or you might undo all your hard work. Below that are your ship stats, which are fairly self explanatory. The manual covers that information quite well, as do the tutorials. Click on the 'Extras' tab. You will see a list of components, and some sub-tabs which will let you sort them into three categories, if you like. Those are all things you can stick on your ship.
Now look at the image of your bare hull. It appears to have a case of the measles. If you zoom in, or look closer, you will see that they are actually tiny red arrows. They are known as 'hardpoints', and they are the places that you can join components to your ship. Each component has a top, a bottom, a front, and a back. the orientation of the hardpoint in relation to your hull will determine the orientation of anything you place on it, with the 'top' being the side facing out from the hull, and the 'front' being the point of the arrow.
To put a component onto your ship, click on one in the components menu, and you will see that it is stuck to your curser in the ship view window. point the arrow of your curser over one of the hardpoints on the hull, and you will see how it would look if you put it there. To put it there, simply left click. You can place another of the same component elsewhere by doing the same thing. To unselect that component, right click. You will now see at the top of the ship view there is little icon of that component.
Don't want that component there after all? Then you can either click on that component directly, or its icon at the top. You will see that it is highlited on the ship. Press delete on your keyboard, or right click, to delete the component. To unselect it, left-click elsewhere on the ship view.
If you want to rotate that component the opposite way, then first select that component in the components menu, then click to the 'six o'clock' position on the middle (y axis) dial. This means that you are turning it around 180 degrees. Then hover your curser over a hardpoint, and you will see it is pointing the opposite way. once again, left click to place it. Or don't. Its your choice. You are the one in charge, after all.
Changing the size of the component, or rotating it other ways works in the same way.
You will notice that you will see hardpoints on the components that you place. This is what makes it possible to build your ship up and out, or glue weapons onto the ends of wings.
I have noticed that when you are trying to put an object on a hardpoint when there are a whole bunch of them crowded together, it can be hard to get the right one. In these situations, zooming in helps a little. Also, moving your curser just a little bit around the area of that hardpoint will help you get it too. You'll know you have it when you see your object pointing in the intended direction.
When you are done with this, it would be a good idea now to click the 'Save' button. Choose a cool name for your ship, and a short description of it. You will then be back in the shipyard menu. Click on your ship, click 'Edit', and get ready to put the good stuff on it.
III: Components
When you are done placing extras and your fearsome war-machine is finally done to your satisfaction, it is time to place the REAL components. These are not just cosmetic additions. Placing them is exactly like placing the extras on your ship, but when they are attatched, they will affect its stats.
It is important to bear in mind, when choosing components, that all ships already have three basic things even without components on them: Engines, sensors, and support. They are all very basic, and short-range, but your ship will be able to move even if you don't put an engine component on it. It just won't go as fast as if you did. The same is true for sensors and support. I was quite relieved when this fact donned on me, as at first I thought the tiny hull was too small for both weapons and engines (wich it is, but only for add-on engines). In reality, your first fighter will only have the basic integrated engine, by necessity, because you can't add an engine to it.
The thing you will learn immediately, is that you never have enough space on those tiny to medium-sized hulls for all the stuff you want to put in them. Your first early-game fighter will probably only be able to carry a weapon and maybe a couple basic support pods or a sensor pod. This will change, as you advance technologically. Improved versions of components are smaller, which means you can fit more of them in. Improved types of technology (i.e, from Lasers to Plasmas) will do more damage; A laser has an attack of 1, while a plasma has 2. So as you discover improved ship technologies, it is important to update your designs. This is why I earlier recommended numbering each design. This way, you easily know how old it is. For example, your old 'Fighter' has a laser and a sensor, and a life support pod. A couple years later, you now have plasmas, and Improved Impulse drive, enhanced life support. You will be able to double the capability of your fighter when you update your design. You may even be able to fit some armor or shields on there. You update the design, and save it as 'Fighter 2'. Back in the shipyard screen, you can then mark your old 'Fighter' obsolete, so it won't appear in the ship-building menu anymore. You can, at this time, also decommission all of the old models. I personally don't like to do that. It is better to upgrade them. Or just use them up. (waste not, want not!)
Once you have upgraded a ship design, it is important that you set all your shipyards, using the governor, that are building the old model to switch to the new model. Due to some miner issues with the current beta, you may need to do this BEFORE you mark the design obsolete.
IV: Ship design tips.
This is the part that lots of other people would probably have better tips than I do, but here are some basic principals:
>Keep it symmetrical. A lopsided ship is usually just silly. (Sometimes it can turn out cool, though)
>Keep the design consistant with the ship's purpose.
>Experiment with similar components. There are a lot of parts that are variations on a similar theme, and some of them might be more suited to your intentions than others are.
>Don't be afraid to delete components, if you decide that they don't look good after all.
>Sometimes hardpoints on opposite sides of a ship don't QUITE line up symmetrically. Such as on the first (human) tiny hull, I tried making an 'X-wing' type design, and found that the port wings were slightly higher than starboard. When you notice this, there are two things you can do. Choose different hardpoints, of place another component outside those hardpoints, and use the points on that.
I am sure other people have many more tips for this section. Please feel free to add them.
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