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Please add design-a-ship ability!

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Please add design-a-ship ability!

Custom ships ftw!

from Sins Forums
Many 4X games have a ship designer part where you can start off by researching and selecting a hull and then filling it up with equipment, shields, weapons and whatever else is suitable or researched.

PLEASE add something like this to Sins?? I know there are some limits because it is a 3D game but I think it would be ok just to use an existing hull graphic design. Just give the ability to change some aspects of it like weapons and other equipment? Or change engine size and so forth?

Perhaps one way could be to introduce new research trees and "empty" ship hulls which you then populate the slots of the ship yourself? This would avoid needing to change the existing game ship mechanics and instead add new feature.
68,153 views 46 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top
Perhaps including something like the Homeworld series has, that lets us customize our fleets colors and all would be a nice addition....
Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top
I admit it would be nice to see some sort of variable weapons or extra shield options on our ships but this will require some major recoding of the game, which i doubt is on anyones table at stardock.

Now maybe in the future we can add in a MOD with new ships, or something to do with a variable weapon layout/system for the original ships, but we will just have to see what the mod tools look like, they may not allow model import or exports. Ya never know.

Id suggest looking into Space Empires V, or Gal Civ 2, Moo 3 or even Sword of the stars. I myself still run moo, nothing like stuffing 30 lasers into a frigate and send a squad in, or two stellar converters in a dreadnought hull.
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Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top
Now maybe in the future we can add in a MOD with new ships, or something to do with a variable weapon layout/system for the original ships, but we will just have to see what the mod tools look like, they may not allow model import or exports. Ya never know.
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Uh, what? I just posted that variable weapons are possible and implemented, and of course there will be model imports.
Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top


Uh, what? I just posted that variable weapons are possible and implemented, and of course there will be model imports.
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Your doing that capitol-ship based mod, right?

I'm not sure thats quite what he's talking about :D
I admit it would be nice to see some sort of variable weapons or extra shield options on our ships but this will require some major recoding of the game, which i doubt is on anyones table at stardock.
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Which is why we're discussing (or I was, anyway) ideas towards either an expansion or a sequel. Obviously everything we're discussing is outside the realm of a patch.
Reply #30 from Sins Forums Top



Uh, what? I just posted that variable weapons are possible and implemented, and of course there will be model imports.


Your doing that capitol-ship based mod, right?

I'm not sure thats quite what he's talking about
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Yeah, it's not like "new ships" as in you can build it up from the ground, but the underlying system is possible and implementable is what I'm saying.
Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, it's not like "new ships" as in you can build it up from the ground, but the underlying system is possible and implementable is what I'm saying.
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Eh... giving capitol ship abilities based on research is probably doable, but it denies them a lot of other things. Like their actual special abilities.
Reply #32 from Sins Forums Top


Yeah, it's not like "new ships" as in you can build it up from the ground, but the underlying system is possible and implementable is what I'm saying.


Eh... giving capitol ship abilities based on research is probably doable, but it denies them a lot of other things. Like their actual special abilities.
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Well, depends on two factors: 1. if you can use more than the top 4 UI slots and 2. how many different guns you want. The approach I'm taking for DoV is like two or three customs and then maybe a passive ability on the side. It works surprisingly well and looks and works exactly the same as a regular weapon except you can target it manually if you want now or turn it off for local cease-fires.
Reply #33 from Sins Forums Top
Personally, I'm still going to clamor for a more 4X research tree and a slot-based ship design function for either an expansion (doubt that'll happen, but I will ask) or sequel (I'll be pretty strident there :D ).

Best part about such a system is that it could easily be "automated" with a "design ship" function -- sure, you'll get slightly substandard results compared to something designed to fit your play style exactly, but thats life.

And the "side effects" of such a system would be nice, too. The necessity of retrofitting ships would turn shipyards into a much more valuable structure for "front line" deployment... especially if you may the ability to "dry dock and repair" an option as well :D

(In fact, one of the things I would like in an expansion is to have trade / refinery ships be built on a "space available" basis in shipyards, then fly to their assigned routes... E. G. they'll build only when the shipyard is otherwise "idle", rather than just appearing out of thin air...)
Reply #34 from Sins Forums Top
I don't think that a full-on ship designer would work in game... but it would be interesting to have modular ship designs. Basically the concept would be that you could select specific upgrades for ships, but each ship would have limited upgrade space.

A ship designer could be interesting, especially if you could save designs for later games. The problem with the idea is that it would take a lot of effort to balance.
Reply #35 from Sins Forums Top
Daikaze, I think my "slot design" idea and your modular ship design are one in the same.

Something like X-Com 1-3, or the new Empires Mod, comes to mind right away as a "design inspiration", and I think I've seen other examples. (The only one that comes to mind was from a rather bad X-Com clone called "xenocide"... and I refuse to admit I even bought that game at this point. And its only "improvement" was that it included a defense slot for the ships...)
Reply #36 from Sins Forums Top
Ron Lugge's Reply #15 is very interesting, in what concerns pointing in the direction of a feasible approach -- call it "slot design" or "modular design".

As he suggests, it would have to be developed for a major expansion or a sequel.

It could make human-vs-human games more dramatic, as creative ship-designers could surprise their adversaries with original component-combos.
Reply #37 from Sins Forums Top

Something like X-Com 1-3, or the new Empires Mod, comes to mind right away as a "design inspiration", and I think I've seen other examples.
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Empires was exactly my inspiration, actually. I would like to see a expansion with custom ships but keep in mind that not only does it take time to make the ships, big games like SoaSE also have to preserve fleet diversity and that's harder if you make ships really customizable.
Reply #38 from Sins Forums Top
I think the slot based idea might be the best one? Or have it like this:

- Slot based mechanics for ingame. So you can research and develop hulls, modules and change things around like that

- External (not in the game) editor for changing models and painting.
Reply #39 from Stardock Forums Top
An outside editor with lots of scope so we can make our own BSG without having to have a degree in computer science :CONGRAT: A good idea for an expansion but never going to be in a patch (maybe dev tools released? Never say never).
Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top
I disagree with the "Theres no time in a real-time RTS to create ships"
My last match lasted 17 hours!!
There were times when a fleet was waiting for reinforcements, and i just sat there for 15 mins waiting, doing nothing.
Theres planty of time, and the ships do need to get more personal, they're so cold and like cannon fodder.
Reply #41 from Sins Forums Top
Ron describes it very well! Yes by ship design I mean actual component changes for a hull type and not spending time painting them and adding spoilers

So just like Ron describes! Perhaps a new Tech Tree called Modular Technology??

1) So you research the basic hull.
2) Then you can research modules like shields, engines.
3) Then you can put the modules in the hull slots.
4) Save the design for next time
5) Produce!

So! just like now you have Fleet Points which determine how many cap ships and other things you can have, same for Module Points which can determine what modules a Modular Ship can take.

I really don't think a modular/slot method like that would take very long times since it is just extra researching and building options. Maybe cost more and take longer but that would be the price of modular ships. So you could spend the time and resources on the regular pre defined ships or instead invest in modular ones, so it sort of balances out.

Just one example! Say you want different defense platform instead of Missile Defense around your planet.

1) Research "Modular Defense Platform"
2) Research "Modular Laser"
3) Produce a MDP, and then "upgrade" it with the modular laser.
4) (save the Laser Tower design)
5) Produce Laser Towers as you would normal installations.

See, it wouldn't take such huge times? Yet it could add so much variety as well!
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That would really nock my shoes of if something like this would be made for Sins witch I already find as one of my absolute best games ever!

Mush like one of my old times favourite games: "Imperium Galactica II - Alliances".
Reply #42 from Sins Forums Top
I would imagine that there are potentially serious balance and AI issues to be overcome in order to implement a 'module' ship designer.
Reply #43 from Sins Forums Top
That's why it might only be implemented for a boxed (not-free) expansion : resolving the "serious balance and AI issues" you are refering to would cost a lot of person-hours of paid work -- and a lot of unpaid fun for the pre-order beta-tester like some of us  :d .
Reply #44 from Sins Forums Top
With such a feature it would be impossible to balance 3 factions :/
Reply #45 from Sins Forums Top

With such a feature it would be impossible to balance 3 factions :/
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Why? Have each new weapon simply represent the same 5% increase that current weapon increases do and you have no balance issues. Same goes for HP, Armor, shields, etc. You do get the (potential) for increased price... however, that is easily balanced by increasing the scope and scale of resource enhancing technologies.
Reply #46 from Sins Forums Top


With such a feature it would be impossible to balance 3 factions :/


Why? Have each new weapon simply represent the same 5% increase that current weapon increases do and you have no balance issues. Same goes for HP, Armor, shields, etc. You do get the (potential) for increased price... however, that is easily balanced by increasing the scope and scale of resource enhancing technologies.
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Wouldn't that simply reduce it to a graphical change, like painting your ship pink and add a Hello Kitty logo? What you get is a more "cool" ship but it doesn't change anything in the game at all.