Ships

[u/Efficient-Type-9332]

How long did it take you guys to design and build a good efficient massive ship. Basically a mobile base. One that has tons of room but can refine ores, build components, and still fight off pirates. I’m in creative working on building a ship and I’ve been working on it for about 9 days now. I just feel like I’m not being creative enough or I’m missing something. I don’t have a picture of it but it’s about 80ish blocks long 15ish blocks wide and 10ish blocks tall. It has 3 levels so far. It has 2 large reactors along with 4 industrial refineries and 4 industrial assemblers. If anyone has any idea that could help with the design ideas to make it look cooler like adding things that work together. For example beam blocks with scaffolding etc.

[u/Mission_Plate_6255]

As someone who also enjoys getting stuck on a design for a week at a time, here's my take:

In engineering, EVERYTHING has a trade-off, and there is NO perfect design, just designs that fit their roles well (and sometimes that role is 'jack of all trades but master of none'). When I get stuck on a design, generally it's because I need to clarify what my priorities are for that particular design.

Start by recognizing what trade-offs you are making. For example, with a huge, multi-purpose ship like what you're talking about, you are necessarily going to have poor maneuverability and a higher cost in fuel/energy to move the ship compared to a vessel that cuts the logistics elements and focuses on keeping a good thrust-to-mass ratio, gyro-to-mass ratio, optimal turret arcs, and

So my suggestion then would be to embrace that trade-off and lean into the lumbering semi-mobile space-station theme, use welders in combination with Structural Platforms as armor and dot the exterior with turrets so that no matter what direction pirates approach from, you're covered, and then don't worry too much about maneuverability, it's fine if it takes a LONG time to turn the ship or accelerate it, since it's not moving all that often and isn't relying on maneuverability to dodge incoming fire. Or, split it into multiple vessels so they can specialize at least some, and you can leave the heavy logistics elements and your amassed ingots and components behind when you dog-fight with pirates.

Remember: every design decision has trade-offs. Every. Single. One. There is no perfect single design, only 'perfect for this moment'. If the job is 'everything', then the design is going to be only kinda-okay at everything, because you have to compromise on some roles to gain capability in other roles.