This is just a quick update to highlight the last few days work any my plans to really build the ultimate ship builder version.

The current approach is based on a fixed frame methodology, this allows you to make a reasonable amount of shapes along with the extrude frame methods, but it can be quite limited and on a simple level everyone will make very similar designs.

The new approach i am looking to implement has been in my mind for the past year but i wanted to really flesh it out in my mind and no the maths behind it before properly pursuing it. This method is essentially a free form approach where almost any frame layout could be possible. The below is the frame generated from a existing model of the carrier.


The idea being that i have Spline defined frame members that connect at a central joint that can have anything between 2 and 6 (in the extreme) connections. The frame members will come in a number of step sizes (say 0.5m increments) and these frame members when appropiately sized will connect the various ship components to the frame and to each other, with the centre of the frame acting as a walkway (if appropiately sized).

Armour would sit between frame members and up to 2 armour layers can be added, for a wing you could have top and bottom, for a bulkhead you could go central and for just extra reinforcement you can go outer and central. On the outer sides you can extrapolate the armour further over the frame if its possible to do so.



The idea in the ship builder is you could either start with a base frame (as now) or you can start fully freeform and create and connect up all the frame members at joints, adding on the armour, adding your components and then tieing it all together. This should really give the ships some extra depth as well and make it feel more real.

In order to keep weight down you should want to keep small size frame members but to prevent people just putting in min values, i do plan on using a simple beam based FEA to ensure the ship can move without deformation of the ship.

My day and a half of work has produced this sort of graphic for a comparison.



Rather than spend months on this and provide no updates for a long time, my plan is to generate a conversion method to the new approach based on the existing simple frame. This will all be useful work and means that ship designs are not made redundant and it gives me the ability to get feedback on the approach before i completely revise the ship builder which may take a bit longer.

Feel free to leave feedback, if you really like the current ship builder let me know but my feeling is taking it to the next level will really improve both ship designs and graphics, but also your enjoyment of the game!