ship design thread

[Keon]

I love it.

[Sgt. Spoon]

Thanks for making this thread Ccrack. The old ship design thread in the old forums was one of my favorite threads, so I'll definitely keep my eyes on this one.

Liking the Sailfish. Just like Skrim I've also fancied the idea of a fast ship with slow turning and heavily armed light-gun broadsides. Difference being I kept the fire-power on a single side. The sailing aspect is something I love as well as I'd love to see such ships in GoIO.


...Drew up another ship concept a while ago but scrapped it after watching the kickstarter factions video and finding my anvalan ship to have already been designed by muse.

[Thaago]

Another! I'd forgotten how much I love messing around in 3d.

Presenting: The Sidewing Heavy Lifter 
--> slightly incomplete, missing hull repair and maybe a light gun. Maybe on the topside of the pylons?

A civilian craft designed not below, not above, but Around the balloon! Its pylons act as skids, allowing landing in soft terrain or water, while their topsides are flat to allow for massive cargo loading. The pilot is stationed on top of the balloon, near the turning engines. The main engines are on the pylons.

In its present, military configuration the balloon has been deflated slightly to accommodate the lesser weight. The engines however are still up to hauling spec, giving the Sidewing a respectable speed and acceleration! A medium gun has also been placed in each pylon. Unfortunately, the engineer must crawl into the extremely dangerous under scaffolding of the ship to repair the balloon!

Pros:
2 Medium front guns
Medium/high speed
Medium hull/armor
Small frontal hull target
360 degree visibility

Cons:
Poor bottom visibility
High draft - difficult to bottom
Exposed balloon profile
Balloon/hull proximity - gonna get hit
Low weapon coverage (depends where the light guns go)
2 main engines to repair (separate)


Ps: if anyone wants the files for these models just let me know - I use wings3d and they're really rough
PPS: OH! Just thought of what make this a cooler concept -- close off the hull in front of the balloon completely, leaving it only open in the back! It would be a Lumberjack countership.

[Wundsalz]

Here's a concept for an intermediate ship which is supposed to cater ram/driveby playstyles:



The ship has 3 levels - one platform for the captain. stairs allow to travel to the mid deck which is mostly open-air. 1-2 guns and steering engines are located there. stairs are leading downwards to the lower deck at the front-right part of the ship which holds a heavy gun, a light gun, hull and the main engine. The Left side of the ship doesn't have any points of interest for the crew.

We've got a hull extremity at the front which supports precise rams with the hull. A heavy weapon is placed underneath it.
There are 2-3 weapons on the right side (the rear weapon could be turned further to the ships stern or cut entirely imo). If there are 3 guns on the side a trifecta should be very hard to maintain.
One of the side weapons slots should be usable to support the front weapons if a wide-angle weapon is used and if the ship doesn't approach an opponent directly.

The ship has a giant weak spot on the rear left consisting of hull (ships body and smoke pipes) Enimies positioned there are barely visible for any crew members.
For the captain the view in front and below is obstructed by the ships nose. The view to the top is obstructed by the balloon. He can't see anything to the rear left and he has got an excellent view to the right.


shield: 80%-100% pyra
hull: roughly Junker (should be killable with a single flak volley)
speed: somewhere inbetween mobula and pyra
maneuverbility: inbetween mobula and goldfish - closer to the mobula

[Byron Cavendish]

In general terms I would love to see more Victorian style ships like the Mobula, and another steampunk style ship, or a blend. I would also love to see a Korean styled turtle ship.

[LordFunPants]

i never really knew where to post this up, but hey, why not. i'll join in with ship designs. pretty much one of the earliest  concepts i did of what would eventually be the mobula, though this one was to squid like gameplay wise to be used. 

[Eukari]

The Paladin

• Hull: Low
• Armor: High
• Top speed: Moderate
• Acceleration: Slow
• Turning speed: Slow

    ____
   /        \
/  \____/
|_______---\
|_____        |
|          \___/
\


Basically, imagine an umbrella tipped on its side, being carried by a balloon. The essential idea is that the front of the ship is a massive shield that blocks most, if not all, enemy fire. The main 'body' of the ship forms a counterweight to the shield, connected to it by a catwalk that houses the balloon repair point. In a twist, the turning engines are located forward, across the catwalk and near the shield. It carries four light guns, two facing starboard and two port. The sideways guns can fire somewhat forward, but directly ahead is blocked, obviously, by the shield. The main engine and hull repair points are located within the main body of the ship.

The idea behind this ship is give us a vessel whose playing style is different from our current group, while still feeling 'natural.' The large forward shield means that a frontal assault on the ship is futile, making it relatively easy to close distance. To balance this, the ship and its components are relatively strung out and exposed on the other three sides- the turning engines and balloon are on the central catwalk, and the main engine is on the back. The ship's main firepower is also concentrated away from the shield- you can either shoot the enemy or be protected from the enemy, not both. The pilot has a good view to the sides of the ship, and can see over the shield somewhat, but will have to be alert. The balloon peaks over the shield a little bit, so good shots on the enemy team can attempt to pop it and gain a height advantage.

The ship shines in dictating the flow of battle. Capable of essentially blocking the enemy's fire towards a part of the sky, the Paladin can cover for teammates, keep itself from getting double-teamed (by keeping its shield toward one foe while firing on the other), deny line-of-sight and give itself time to repair in the middle of a skirmish. It would be somewhat awkward to fly at first- no beginner ship this- but mastery would provide a captain with a unique experience unlike any other ship.

[Sgt. Spoon]

I know there weren't supposed to be a faster ship than the squid, but that pre-mobula is pretty damn cool. Would be neat to have it high speed, low turning/rise/falling, or something.

And I gotta say, the Paladin would introduce a very interesting new play-style. Especially for well oiled teams with good coordination.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

Eukari, I really like your idea. You thought about balance too, quite awesome!

Added originally as a solution in the "strafing ship" thread, but well... I'm gonna give it a try here too. I'm not as talented as any of you drawing stuff though, so please forgive me.
My drawing skills aren't the best, so I just stilized it. The idea is, that this ship would move sideways since the helm is turned around 90° to one side, positioned on a plateau a bit higher than the weapons. If the weapons would only be on one side, as shown below, this could be a fast moving but hardly ever turning ship with 3 light guns on one side.
Idea is that you could ram with the spear (?) in the front whilst shooting on another enemy. If there are only enemies on your front though, you had to choose whether you want to ram or to turn slowly. 3 sides would be vulnerable.
To the steering technique: it will be used just like a normal ship. R to accelerate, but you accelerate to the side. A and D to turn, the pilot just has to think if he wants to turn away from the enemy or towards him. Nothing has to be changed on the engine that is currently being used.

So it's kinda like a Junker but with a twist ("twist"). Just take a look at the images below.

From the top.
From the side.

EDIT: I missed something. You could place the balloon repair spot top of the helm, on a bridge between those two balloons. Makes it a bit harder to repair.

[Eukari]

I tried to boil down each ship to its base, to better give an idea of any "gaps" where a new ship could be inserted. These are just the first few things that came to mind when I was thinking about each ship; if anyone has anything to add, we can hopefully further refine our descriptions.

Goldfish: Forward firepower, good disabler, average stats. "Flying gun."
Squid: Hit-and-run, fast, lightly armored. "Fragile speedster."
Junker: Strong broadsides, good arcs, slow, moderate tanking ability. "Jack-of-all-trades."
Galleon: Powerful broadsides, limited arcs, little movement, good tanking. "Flying fortress."
Pyramidion: Forward firepower, limited arcs, fast, bad turning. "Vanguard."
Spire: Forward firepower, good arcs, slow, lightly armored. "Glass cannon."
Mobula: Excellent forward firepower, easy trifecta, slow, big blind spot. "Weapons platform."

I think any new ship would necessarily need to not easily fit into any of those descriptions if it was to stand out on its own. The trick is figuring out stuff that we don't have already, but would be interesting enough to add.

[Gorath]

I had this ship idea stuck in my head ALL DAY along with some other ones but it was my favorite so I drew it up. It's done kind of fast and loose, balloon seems too small, might put more work into it later. Anyway, this is the base concept, hope you guys enjoy it!

The Hydra Marauder!

Based on a few ideas: my desire for an anglo-saxon, viking style ship (probably anglean); there are no ships with two front heavy guns; with a pyra nerf coming, we need another good ramming ship!

This would be just a bit bigger than a goldfish, excellent top speed, high armor, medium hull health. Nearly as heavy as a Galleon. Awful agility, not much up and down or turning capacity. The front end is a REAL terror. Two heavy weapons and a mean capacity for massive rams. No side guns for balance reasons.

[Nidh]

Whoa 10/10 would fly ^

[Zander Broda]

The Hydra, yes please! oh man, the mental image of dual hwacha followed by a ram! it puts some hot air into my balloon, if ya know what i mean.

(yes, i am aware that Hwachas are awful armor breakers.)

[Sgt. Spoon]

Now that just an awedome looking design. Could definately see this as an Anglean ship, and I always wanted a ship with that classic curved strake.

Though 2 forward facing heavy guns migth be a bit OP.

[Zander Broda]

the design for a ship i thought up awhile ago would be similar...but worse. think of the pyra's nose/balloon, make it bigger and put three levels of scaffolding around the balloon, with 4 engines like the squid on the back, two on the top most scaffolding and 2 on the bottom. the very front would be more armored with a single light gun on the top, with the helm and two engines, on the middle deck you have the hull armor, a rear facing heavy weapon and two rear facing light guns that are on an outward diagonal, and the bottom deck has the other two engines and the balloon each level would have two ways to get to any other level of the ship, one on each side.

it would be about the size of a junker and have a lot of armor, but not much hull, decent speed and be pretty moderate on all other stats, the idea is that you would want to ram and then run. i call it...The Bodkin!

please forgive my awful MS-Paint skills