Post by Gravedust on Feb 2, 2014 1:20:21 GMT -8
=========
BUILD RULES
=========
Hello, and Welcome to University of Mars correspondence course on Starship design and construction! I'm sure you can't wait to get started, so let's dive right in!
These days, Ships are 'built' by arranging compartments on a grid. The type, number, orientation and placement of these individual compartments influences what the final stats of what your ship will be.
There are, however, a few restrictions on where and how you can place your Compartments, so first off let's have a look at those.
=================================
• Ships must stay within size requirements.
Games will usually a limit on the number of compartments a ship can have which can not be exceeded. Certain games may have a minimum size as well.
=================================
• Ships Centering
You do not have to construct your ship in the exact center of the grid. (And in fact some ships will be impossible to center exactly, depending on the number of rows and columns they have in their makeup.) However when your ship is put into a ship grid for the forum game, the GM will center it as much as possible for you.
=================================
• Ships must have a Bridge
The Bridge is the nerve center of the ship and is home to the Captain, essential crewmembers, and most of the ship's computers and other vital systems. If your bridge goes kablooie, it'll take the ship out of action instantly and permanently. So put it somewhere safe. You also may not have more than one bridge per ship, because that would get confusing.
=================================
• Ships must have a layout of compartments that is horizontally symmetrical.
Ships must be horizontally symmetrical when they are built. I.e. the left side must be the same as the right side if they are split down the middle.
Note that the line of symmetry can be between squares, or through the middle of them, as shown in the diagram. Additionally, the exact compartment types to the right and left of the line of symmetry do not have to match, just their placement must be symmetrical.
Additionally, there are other types of compartments (Like Thrusters) that have to be placed symmetrically as well, which will be noted in their individual information. Ships may not stay symmetrical once they've had some pieces blasted off, but they do have to start that way.
=================================
• Directional Compartments must output to a correct location.
Certain compartments are Directional, meaning that when they do whatever they're designed to do, it happens in a particular direction. A good example is weapons, which will have a firing arc that corresponds to their facing. Directional Compartments each have an Output, which is indicated either by an arrow, or a part that extends outside the bounds of it's square.
Some compartments have restrictions that govern how they can be faced, check each compartment's writeup and make sure they are faced in a way that's allowed, and output correctly. Some general rules, though:
-
Weapons must Output into an empty square, and their output path must not be blocked by any part of the ship (You must be able to draw a straight line from the weapon to the edge of the ship grid without intersecting any other compartment)
-
Thrusters must always face South, and must Output into space, or another Thruster. (This is called a daisy-chaining, more on this in a second.) Their output path must also not be blocked.
-
Weapons, thrusters, and any other compartment with restriction "must have an unobstructed output' may not output into a square with another output in it.
-
Note that some compartments can also take multiple Inputs from different directions, such as two ammo compartments feeding the same weapon.
=================================
• Daisy-Chaining
Some, (but not all) compartments can be daisy-chained. A daisy chain occurs when one compartment outputs into another compartment of the same type. What a daisy-chain accomplishes is that the effects of the two (or more) daisy-chained compartments are combined. So in the instance of two daisy-chained engines, the total thrust output is 100, and in the case of two daisy-chained ammunition bays, the total amount of ammo available to the weapon is 8 instead of 4.
In general, Daisy-chaining allows for a bit more flexibility when it comes to building. But it comes with certain disadvantages as well. For example, if one of the compartments in an ammo compartment daisy-chain is broken, it can mean that the weapon can get no ammo at all. Likewise a break in an engine daisy-chain can lead to a greater loss of thrust than just the loss of a single engine.
======================
DESIGNING WITH THE SHIP GRID
======================
Here is a .pdf that you can print out and use as a helpful base for designing ships and later, for figuring out stats:
Buildsheet.pdf (411.72 KB)
For best results, fill in the boxes with a pencil, using abbreviations for compartment names. The orientation of weapons and other directional compartments can be indicated with arrows. Make sure to draw in the size and location of your shield wings.
The sheet is also set up so you can use it as your ship's Compartment grid for tabletop Game.
You can also use graph paper, or just try to freehand everything. Additionally, the Compartment sections will have compartment images in case you want to try your hand at assembling the pieces in an art program.
Before you begin building though, it's probably best to understand what compartments you have available, and what they do. Before you begin to put something together you might want to have a look at the files in the Compartments area to check out all your options.
====================
CALCULATING A SHIP'S STATS
====================
Once you have your compartments arranged to your liking, you can determine what stats your ship has as a result.
The top section of the Build Sheet .pdf has a section where this information can be figured and recorded.
----------------------------------------
• Calculating Regen
The amount of Regen your ship has is equal to the number of Reactors it has. Simple as that.
----------------------------------------
• Calculating Energy
The amount of Energy your ship can hold is equal to the 4 times the number of Batteries it has. (Or another way to think of it, each battery can hold 4 energy)
----------------------------------------
• Calculating Ship Movement
In a nutshell, the formula for figuring out how many movement points your ship get is this:
[Total Thrust] divided by [The number of Compartments + Ship Width Penalty] = Movement
Basically, the bigger and wider your ship is, the slower it'll be.
Each Thruster on your ship adds 50 Thrust, so count the number of Thrusters you have, and add up all those 50's to find the total thrust.
Total number of Compartments simply means how many compartments your ship has.
Ship width refers to the number of compartments at it's widest (East to west) point. Count this out and then refer to the following chart. (there is also one on the .pdf)
::Width penalty::
01 compartments: (1)
02 compartments: (2)
03 compartments: (3)
04 compartments: (5)
05 compartments: (10)
06 compartments: (15)
07 compartments: (20)
08 compartments: (30)
09 compartments: (40)
10 compartments: (50)
11 compartments: (60)
12 compartments: (70)
13 compartments: (80)
14 compartments: (100)
15 compartments: (120)
16 compartments: (140)
17 compartments: (160)
18 compartments: (180)
19 compartments: (200)
20 compartments: (225)
Add the width penalty to the total number of compartments to get a figure we'll call Drag.
Then divide you ship's Thrust by it's Drag to find the movement. Remember to always round down to the nearest whole number. (8.999 = 8)
___________________________________________
Note that due to the inscrutable laws of the universe, a ship's Movement can never exceed 15, even if you have a ton of extra thrust.
If your ship happens to lose an engine during a mission, this calculation should be done again to see how it effects your ship's movement.
================
SUBMITTING A DESIGN
================
When submitting a design, it is very important that the ship grid be visible, and the stats should be included as well. How you go about this is up to you.
You can scan a paper version of the ship grid and post it here, or if you have image editing software you can try to construct a mockup of your ship's design using the compartment icons that are provided on their various pages. If you wish to preserve the transparent parts of the .png files, right-click save them to your computer and then open them rather trying to copy them off the page. OR, you can download all of them here: ( gravedust.com/ssd/comp/Comp72.zip ) (1.7 Mb)
If you choose to go the image route, here is a grid that may help you keep everything aligned. ( i.imgur.com/D16CcDG.jpg )
In any case case, be sure to include the Ship's intended stats somewhere on the image or in the associated text of the post.
While you might not want to worry about making a design until right before a mission (Since the mission might have factors that could influence your design) you can design and submit ships whenever you like and post them in the Ship Bin for anyone to look at and possibly use.
Be aware though, that if there are any serious changes to the ship building rules that would change the stats or construction restrictions of a ship, it is very likely that the entire contents of Ship Bin will be deleted, so be sure to keep your designs backed up so you can resubmit them if you wish.
In order to save time, I will only do thorough check ships that are about to be taken into a mission, however I will try to glance at everything and let you know if there are any serious or obvious errors.
BUILD RULES
=========
Hello, and Welcome to University of Mars correspondence course on Starship design and construction! I'm sure you can't wait to get started, so let's dive right in!
These days, Ships are 'built' by arranging compartments on a grid. The type, number, orientation and placement of these individual compartments influences what the final stats of what your ship will be.
There are, however, a few restrictions on where and how you can place your Compartments, so first off let's have a look at those.
=================================
• Ships must stay within size requirements.
Games will usually a limit on the number of compartments a ship can have which can not be exceeded. Certain games may have a minimum size as well.
=================================
• Ships Centering
You do not have to construct your ship in the exact center of the grid. (And in fact some ships will be impossible to center exactly, depending on the number of rows and columns they have in their makeup.) However when your ship is put into a ship grid for the forum game, the GM will center it as much as possible for you.
=================================
• Ships must have a Bridge
The Bridge is the nerve center of the ship and is home to the Captain, essential crewmembers, and most of the ship's computers and other vital systems. If your bridge goes kablooie, it'll take the ship out of action instantly and permanently. So put it somewhere safe. You also may not have more than one bridge per ship, because that would get confusing.
=================================
• Ships must have a layout of compartments that is horizontally symmetrical.
Ships must be horizontally symmetrical when they are built. I.e. the left side must be the same as the right side if they are split down the middle.
Note that the line of symmetry can be between squares, or through the middle of them, as shown in the diagram. Additionally, the exact compartment types to the right and left of the line of symmetry do not have to match, just their placement must be symmetrical.
Additionally, there are other types of compartments (Like Thrusters) that have to be placed symmetrically as well, which will be noted in their individual information. Ships may not stay symmetrical once they've had some pieces blasted off, but they do have to start that way.
=================================
• Directional Compartments must output to a correct location.
Certain compartments are Directional, meaning that when they do whatever they're designed to do, it happens in a particular direction. A good example is weapons, which will have a firing arc that corresponds to their facing. Directional Compartments each have an Output, which is indicated either by an arrow, or a part that extends outside the bounds of it's square.
Some compartments have restrictions that govern how they can be faced, check each compartment's writeup and make sure they are faced in a way that's allowed, and output correctly. Some general rules, though:
-
Weapons must Output into an empty square, and their output path must not be blocked by any part of the ship (You must be able to draw a straight line from the weapon to the edge of the ship grid without intersecting any other compartment)
-
Thrusters must always face South, and must Output into space, or another Thruster. (This is called a daisy-chaining, more on this in a second.) Their output path must also not be blocked.
-
Weapons, thrusters, and any other compartment with restriction "must have an unobstructed output' may not output into a square with another output in it.
-
Note that some compartments can also take multiple Inputs from different directions, such as two ammo compartments feeding the same weapon.
=================================
• Daisy-Chaining
Some, (but not all) compartments can be daisy-chained. A daisy chain occurs when one compartment outputs into another compartment of the same type. What a daisy-chain accomplishes is that the effects of the two (or more) daisy-chained compartments are combined. So in the instance of two daisy-chained engines, the total thrust output is 100, and in the case of two daisy-chained ammunition bays, the total amount of ammo available to the weapon is 8 instead of 4.
In general, Daisy-chaining allows for a bit more flexibility when it comes to building. But it comes with certain disadvantages as well. For example, if one of the compartments in an ammo compartment daisy-chain is broken, it can mean that the weapon can get no ammo at all. Likewise a break in an engine daisy-chain can lead to a greater loss of thrust than just the loss of a single engine.
======================
DESIGNING WITH THE SHIP GRID
======================
Here is a .pdf that you can print out and use as a helpful base for designing ships and later, for figuring out stats:
Buildsheet.pdf (411.72 KB)
For best results, fill in the boxes with a pencil, using abbreviations for compartment names. The orientation of weapons and other directional compartments can be indicated with arrows. Make sure to draw in the size and location of your shield wings.
The sheet is also set up so you can use it as your ship's Compartment grid for tabletop Game.
You can also use graph paper, or just try to freehand everything. Additionally, the Compartment sections will have compartment images in case you want to try your hand at assembling the pieces in an art program.
Before you begin building though, it's probably best to understand what compartments you have available, and what they do. Before you begin to put something together you might want to have a look at the files in the Compartments area to check out all your options.
====================
CALCULATING A SHIP'S STATS
====================
Once you have your compartments arranged to your liking, you can determine what stats your ship has as a result.
The top section of the Build Sheet .pdf has a section where this information can be figured and recorded.
----------------------------------------
• Calculating Regen
The amount of Regen your ship has is equal to the number of Reactors it has. Simple as that.
----------------------------------------
• Calculating Energy
The amount of Energy your ship can hold is equal to the 4 times the number of Batteries it has. (Or another way to think of it, each battery can hold 4 energy)
----------------------------------------
• Calculating Ship Movement
In a nutshell, the formula for figuring out how many movement points your ship get is this:
[Total Thrust] divided by [The number of Compartments + Ship Width Penalty] = Movement
Basically, the bigger and wider your ship is, the slower it'll be.
Each Thruster on your ship adds 50 Thrust, so count the number of Thrusters you have, and add up all those 50's to find the total thrust.
Total number of Compartments simply means how many compartments your ship has.
Ship width refers to the number of compartments at it's widest (East to west) point. Count this out and then refer to the following chart. (there is also one on the .pdf)
::Width penalty::
01 compartments: (1)
02 compartments: (2)
03 compartments: (3)
04 compartments: (5)
05 compartments: (10)
06 compartments: (15)
07 compartments: (20)
08 compartments: (30)
09 compartments: (40)
10 compartments: (50)
11 compartments: (60)
12 compartments: (70)
13 compartments: (80)
14 compartments: (100)
15 compartments: (120)
16 compartments: (140)
17 compartments: (160)
18 compartments: (180)
19 compartments: (200)
20 compartments: (225)
Add the width penalty to the total number of compartments to get a figure we'll call Drag.
Then divide you ship's Thrust by it's Drag to find the movement. Remember to always round down to the nearest whole number. (8.999 = 8)
___________________________________________
To show an example of how to find movement, let's figure out the movement of this ship:
It has 4 engines, for at total of 200 thrust. ( 4x50 = 200 )
It is 5 compartments wide at it's widest point, so it has a width penalty of 10.
There is a a total of 16 compartments, so adding the width penalty to that gives us a Drag of 26. (16+10 = 26)
Dividing the Thrust (200) by the drag (26) gives us a movement of 7 (7.692 rounded down to 7)
It has 4 engines, for at total of 200 thrust. ( 4x50 = 200 )
It is 5 compartments wide at it's widest point, so it has a width penalty of 10.
There is a a total of 16 compartments, so adding the width penalty to that gives us a Drag of 26. (16+10 = 26)
Dividing the Thrust (200) by the drag (26) gives us a movement of 7 (7.692 rounded down to 7)
Note that due to the inscrutable laws of the universe, a ship's Movement can never exceed 15, even if you have a ton of extra thrust.
If your ship happens to lose an engine during a mission, this calculation should be done again to see how it effects your ship's movement.
================
SUBMITTING A DESIGN
================
When submitting a design, it is very important that the ship grid be visible, and the stats should be included as well. How you go about this is up to you.
You can scan a paper version of the ship grid and post it here, or if you have image editing software you can try to construct a mockup of your ship's design using the compartment icons that are provided on their various pages. If you wish to preserve the transparent parts of the .png files, right-click save them to your computer and then open them rather trying to copy them off the page. OR, you can download all of them here: ( gravedust.com/ssd/comp/Comp72.zip ) (1.7 Mb)
If you choose to go the image route, here is a grid that may help you keep everything aligned. ( i.imgur.com/D16CcDG.jpg )
In any case case, be sure to include the Ship's intended stats somewhere on the image or in the associated text of the post.
While you might not want to worry about making a design until right before a mission (Since the mission might have factors that could influence your design) you can design and submit ships whenever you like and post them in the Ship Bin for anyone to look at and possibly use.
Be aware though, that if there are any serious changes to the ship building rules that would change the stats or construction restrictions of a ship, it is very likely that the entire contents of Ship Bin will be deleted, so be sure to keep your designs backed up so you can resubmit them if you wish.
In order to save time, I will only do thorough check ships that are about to be taken into a mission, however I will try to glance at everything and let you know if there are any serious or obvious errors.