ScrumbleShip is the most accurate space combat simulation devised to date. Gather resources, construct a capital ship out of individual blocks, then pilot it with AI or human help against other players.
S.S. Queen Mary Ann - Dominance angle.
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I've heard it suggested that the low angle shots of Imperial Star Destroyers in the original Star Wars suggested "Dominance" - So I took a screenshot of Insolent's S.S. Queen Mary Ann at a low angle!
This is a large ship.
Cheers,
-Dirk
Queen Mary Ann, space dominatrix!
She'd have my head if she knew I said this.
It does look pretty scary from a low angle, it's true. I imagine it'll look even scarier with great whacking guns all over it and bombers boiling out!
This is indeed a large ship.
I'm curious though... from what I can see of other's creations, they're all quite... massive. Is the focus going to be on these behemoths, or on all sizes? 'Cause personally I like building smaller, simpler ships. :)
A certain size will be required to have all the systems required to survive in space. But most ships people are building are much larger than what would be needed to fly around and have a cool battle. People are still using solid blocks, for example, which are quite inefficient for resource use.
The average size of ships should shrink as I code more and more scarcity and gameplay into the system. However, larger and larger ships should become possible - My heat math, for example, has gone so efficiently that I've actually revised my estimate /up/ for the largest possible ship we can deal with.
1.5 kilometer ships? Entirely in the realm of possibility. But so are 30 meter long ones.
Cheers,
-Dirk
Mary Ann is currently the largest ship built and I think this record will last for a long time.
I too like smaller ships better than large. My CKS Erinye fighter is the lightest ship submitted so far (698 tonnes, 12x12x12 metres in size) and building it was a great challenge - it is too small to carry its own energy generator or life support systems, to name a few.
Compared to that, big ships are very tedious to build. I am working at CKS Elysium for ten days already and there's not much to show, despite it being 160 metres long and weighing over 200 thousand tonnes. So far, the whole thing is 16 hangars for the Erinye fighters, nothing more, and I still have to add four more hangars before working on the ship itself.
There are quite a few small ships submitted, though, it's just that larger ships are more impressive and get posted here more frequently.
The Elysium sounds pretty impressive, despite what you seem to think of her! I'd like to see some pics when you think she's ready to show off.
As for ship size, clearly I favor building big - I like to think of my ships as something people wouldn't mind living on for months at a time. Small ships definitely have a place, though, and will become more the norm when we have to scrape asteroids for every scrap of material we can find!
The lack of life support shouldn't be a big problem for your fighter - fighter pilots would wear spacesuits, and the ship can only hold enough fuel for short jaunts anyway. The suit's air supply should hold out long enough - if not, they can land and resupply (assuming they haven't been picked off). You sure you can't fit a small diesel engine in there, and a small fuel tank?
As of now, Elysium is just twenty metal boxes welded together. I'll make sure to share when there's anything to look at!
What I find impressive is that not only you find the will to build huge megaprojects, you also make them look like artworks. One has no choice but to salute you for that.
If Dirkson adds a specialised fighter terminal, I might be able to fit life support to the cabin. Elysium's hangars are going to be pressurized, so maybe we will see suitless, Star Wars style dogfights :D
As for power generation, the fighter initially had a small diesel engine with 2 cubic metres of fuel but ended swapping it for four power cells because of problems with refueling - diesel would require another pipe to lead through the ship, wich was quite a problem. Power cells are volatile, but the entire rear of the ship is a fuel tank with rocket fuel, so it does not matter that much.
Thanks! I do try. I just imagine what flying and battling with my ships will be like when all that is implemented, and it propels me to build big and (hopefully) build smart.
Good news - Dirkson did add a fighter terminal! I believe it's available in the latest bleeding edge releases, and will show up in the other releases sometime in the future. That should free up some room for you to add silly luxuries like life support. :D
Power cells could be a good alternative to a diesel generator, especially if we get some kind of ion thruster that can somehow propel ships fast enough to be useful.
We will see how silly life support is when your life will depend on the finest maneuvers and you will try to do them in a clumsy suit! :D
This is something that would take me forever to do, I could do it, yes, but I'm impatient, so I'd get 5% through and then give up. The fact that this thing is even possible to build without going mad is amazing.
Maybe you'll change your tune when you can simply place big chunks of blueprint blocks down with tools like "line", "plane", "cube", and "sphere". Then the clones (and any other players you can sucker) will fill them in for you, while you sit back sipping a mojito. :D
Course you and your crew will still have to mine the materials for the blocks, but it'll be easier than building a colossus block by friggin' block!
This looks like a Kedable Battleship from Star Wars Empire At War Forces of Corruption
Wow, I Googled that, and you're right - they look incredibly alike! Interesting.
When I designed the QMA, I basically thought of all the different kinds of large spaceships I could recall and pulled the most pleasing features from each - a nose shaped kind of like an assault rifle, wings, a prominent bridge. And the end result was very like a Keldabe Battleship! I guess there is really nothing new under the sun. And just when I thought I'd made up something original. :P