Ship building Checklist
There are a few things that every ship needs to have, no matter if it is a PvP ship or a career mode ship. This Guide will act like a checklist for that. Depending on your budget, crew size or the available parts you may need to sacrifice some points in favor of others. It also may be that you simply don’t need some parts, such as hyperdrives in a PvP match or a scanner room for a deck-cannon ship.
Core parts
These parts are essential and should be part of every ship.
The Cockpit (or its alternatives) is the part that enables you to control your ship. It requires energy.
Depending on how much redundancy you want, it may be better to use multiple smaller smaller rooms instead of one big room.
The Reactor core (Small, Medium and Big) is the part that generates power for the rest of your ship. The crew will take energy from the reactor and transport it to where it is needed.
Having multiple reactors may increase the fragility of your ship, as a chain reaction could destroy it entirely. You may want to consider using capacitors.
Thrusters are the parts that make your ship move. They require energy.
Thrusters are essential in combat as outmaneuvering your opponent can change the outcome of the battle significantly.
Depending on the size of the ship you may want to invest into engine rooms since they increase the efficiency of nearby thrusters.
The Crew is like blood in the veins of the ship. Without them, nothing works. This is why you need Crew Quarters. They limit the crew capacity of your ship.
It is recommended that you stress-test your ship in creative mode so that you know how much crew is needed.
Helpful parts
These parts are recommended on every ship. You do not need them, but their utility is often required.
Armor is the simplest and most effective type of protection. You should, unless you know what you are doing, always have at least a thin coat of armor on your ships. The more damage your ships should sustain, the more armor you should have. Deckcannon-ships for example often have a thick layer of armor on the front to protect their weapons.
Fire Extinguishers do what their name says: they are used to extinguish fires. Place them near crew quarters so that they are reached quickly. Placing multiple may also help in case of huge fires.
Airlocks allow your crew to enter and exit your ship. This is needed for transporting resources or for building parts of your ship (unless crew-building has been turned off)
Shields are a great tool for protecting the ship, but their weakness to Disruptors and EMPs make them less useful lategame. This does not mean that you shouldn’t use them: they are great for defending areas that can’t have armor, such as the front of a Railgun or your Engines.
Having Anti-Air massively decreases the damage you would receive from rockets and projectiles. It will not always save you, but it gives you extra time to defeat the enemy.
Hyperdrives allow you to Hyper-jump to certain stations and ships. They massively decrease travel time at the cost of Hyperium. They are required for traveling to other systems.
The Sensor Array allows you to detect enemies from much further away, which is a huge help when trying to avoid/fight enemies. It is also an essential part of missile-ships as it allows you to hit your enemies from much further away.
Ship-type dependent parts
Specific types of ships use unique parts not used by others.
The Mining Laser allows you to mine hard ore deposits in asteroids that your crew cannot mine. This part is mostly used for mining ships but some cannon ships also use it for mining sulfur to restock their ammunition.
Factories refine resources into more advanced resources, such as Copper -> Coils. There are Factories for resources and Factories for ammunition.
The factories are mostly used on mining ships, but advanced cannon ships also have them, as the raw materials often take up less space than the ammunition they create while also not being explosive.
Resource Collectors allow you to pick up resources and put them into your storage without having crewmembers exit your ship through airlocks. This can help your ship stay organized. You may also use it for a process called Sun-mining.
They are mostly used for mining ships.
The Hyperdrive Beacon allows ships to Hyper-Jump to that ship, instead of just flying to it. Due to its size and Crew-requirement, it is recommended that you only use it for your big ships.
The Tractor Beam emits several beams that can change the direction of a section of anything that you target. It allows you to turn around enemy ships to hit their weak spots by pulling on one one side and pushing on another side. It also allows you to target asteroids.
Due to their gigantic size and energy use you should only use them on highly specialized ships.
The Explosive Charge allows you to separate pieces from each other. It doesn’t have a lot of uses, but a good example for one is dropping your armor to lose weight, which may help you flee from a fight by increasing your speed.
Due to its niche use, it is also only recommended on highly specialized ships.
Optional parts
If you want to repair after a fight without having a storage ship nearby, you may want to integrate storages into your ship to carry around some essentials for repair. An example for this is having extra hyper-coils to rebuild a large shield.
There are massive downsides to this though. Due to their comparatively low hit points, you are heavily weakening the integrity of your ship. They are rather big too, which is a problem when trying to stay compact. The only reasonable place to put them would be deep inside your ship where armor would only slow you down.
Walkways double the speed of crew if they walk into the indicated direction. You may want to place them if something needs to be transported quickly, such as energy to a shield.
Guide made by CraftingCatIX