I've only ever heard the term "Kitbashing" in tabletop wargames like the Ironic Warhammer 40k. This idea sounds fun. It's like the "Uglies" from Star wars.
It is most commonly used in physical model making, but I think it's accurate for SE as well. Your "kit" is just other blueprints in this case. It's definitely a fun project.
@@ShiftyshadowTV You know what even in star wars canon/lore "Corellian Engineering" who made the Millennium Falcon designed a "Kitbash" from which the iconic ship was developed from. Depending on what side of the Star wars Universe you happen to support of course.
My process is similar, I have a kind of blueprint "library" of interior rooms and modules (landing gears, a rover bay, an automated cruise missile assembler/launcher etc) and I arrange them in fun different ways and the try to encase it in nice looking, nicely shaped armor.
Kitbashing has been a long and illustrious tradition in the sci-fi space. Star trek and star wars did it quite a bit, check out EC henry's channel for a bunch of 3d renders of background kit bash ships. for star trek, the nebula, yeager and new orleans class ships were all kitbashes.
its a idea i had rattling in my head for a LONG time but combat teands to leave so little usable left. maybe i just need to make a reserve combat methoid to my games...
If you have the ladder shaft you can just look up to the ladder above or down to the one a floor below you and spam F. Fastest way to move up or down floors.
the new beds are such a game-changer. They've allowed me to fully flesh out my interiors the way I intended, and it's allowed me to get back into space engineers.
Honestly, I totally suck at designing ships and stations so retrofitting pre-existing designs is the majority of my shipbuilding. So when you said that the economy designs have "room for improvement", you weren't kidding. Most of the designs are from years ago and can definitely benefit from being upgraded, modernized, and having redundant blocks replaced with newer streamlined (or modded) blocks.
Retrofitting is the way to go for a lot of people. It's a great way to play the game if you don't want to spend a lot of time building. I've had more time in the past for building, but recently I've found myself retrofitting my own builds more often than building new ones.
You brought up kitbashing and I remembered the first time I heard that phrase, iirc, was in an old magazine called Car-Toons. Two guys were making models, one a stealth bomber and the other a drag car, and the the jet body falls onto the car. They then decided to make an RC, to-scale replica, and ended up wanted by the FBI. Irrelevant story aside, you earned a new sub here. Nice presentation and redesigns.
I'm pretty sure that the primary designer of the KSH ships was Aragath(sp?). From comments he's made here and there, I suspect the gravity generators were added later literally because the block was added after he did the original design. Later builds then had to conform to the style of previous ones, and he was prohibited from using DLC blocks as well. In any case, the IP belongs to the company rather than the employee, so.
Cool. I'm probably clear to upload things. I'll put a note at the top giving credit to the Keen Software House team. If I can find any original blueprints I'll link them. That's kinda what I figured with the gravity generators, but I wasn't sure. They've been around for a long time. The ships were made long before DLC existed though.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Some of them were made before DLC, but not all. The ships that you buy don't (usually) have DLC components, but the NPC editions of the same ships that you can find flying around often do.
@@BrianRonald Indeed As a (poor) example, the LCC3 freighter is just the RUST freighter with a slightly different interior, and different paint scheme.
In warhammer, converting a model to be from the Ork faction is often called “looting”, maybe we should call Turing vanilla ships in space engineers into pirate ships “Plundering”
In the same vein as your kitbashing approach, a thing I like to do regularly is just design parts of a ship without a final ship in mind. Just try variants on crew quarters, a cafeteria, a hangar, a bridge, a corridor, an airlock, an engine nacelle, each in isolation just seeing what I can do within different sizes and shapes. That experience has been invaluable to draw upon so many times when it came to building specific ships. In theory, I could've saved those modules as blueprints and kitbashed them together, but in practice I simply remember all the little tricks. And perhaps more importantly, you develop a sense of how much space a given function needs. Having that instinct saves so much grief.
As you said, developing a sense of space is extremely useful when designing a ship. It's something a lot of newer builders don't realize they lack, I think, and it leads to difficulty making things work. It's one of the reasons I recommend most people build functional blocks first then the hull around it. Instead of falling into the trap of making a cool looking hull, then not being able to fit anything inside it, or ending up with tons of dead space. You can do hull-first, but you really need a solid understanding of what you want inside it and how much room it will take. Generally it's a more difficult build, if you want it to function well too.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Exactly: hull-first results in bad interiors every time. Exterior form should mostly follow from interior function. With experience and iteration, we have plenty of latitude in arranging the interior, so we can end up with roughly the exterior shape we want. I strongly recommend writing a checklist of necessary blocks and features. Segmenting the ship with bulkheads and doors is a good idea. This is also a good moment to blueprint the design and set up a repair projection, in case hull construction goes awry. Adding and shaping the hull is certainly a skill, but there are so many techniques that even a beginner can do an okay job. They'll improve and develop their own style with time. The inevitable interior gaps are a good place for extra batteries, timer blocks, etc. Then it's a matter of carefully naming and grouping everything, tidying up the control panel, automating what you can (airlocks, startup and shutdown sequences, etc), setting up interfaces and button panels for effortless usability, and taking the ship out for a shakedown cruise or two. Honestly this takes at least as long as the initial build to do it right. Sorry for the Tolstoy. I got carried away!
@@mattp1337 Haha, all good. Sounds like we have very similar ship building ideologies. I always have a checklist, and reference it often to make sure I don't forget something crucial early in the build. Often times (especially for small grid) I draw up a conveyor and room layout on graph paper too. The larger the ship the more detailed the blueprint, because it's harder to remember everything and stay on track.
I definitely like to modify/retrofit workshop ships when im not feeling inspired, however my favorite thing to do is to turn them into full modular ships (you know with connectors and merge blocks). Thanks for the reminder on the economy ones, I tend to forget about them but I already have some ideas! Should probably also make a hangar for this too. Edit: I just realized who you are, I've used your ship Luna in a few playthroughs. Great ship
Okay, I somehow never thought of just.. retrofitting stuff that already exists. For some reason, I was always of the mindset that I have to come up with my own stuff. I will endeavour to retrofit. This sounds sensible.
With economy its pretty quick and easy to get a the small hauler, they are only like 5 million and thats doable with just a few loads of cobalt ore (few k), magnesium or refined magnesium (sometimes as little as 120 refined magnesium) that said, ripping out the large engines gives you enough room to do what ever, add a refinery, drill, add more thrusters of course.... but really you can do what ever you want and its often pretty quick. that said... the fun challange, start with a space survival pod. then keep it, add on to it, build it up, and keep as much of it as you can (this gets funny when you add on pistons and merge blocks, cut part of the ship away, extend it out with the piston, then build and reconnect with the merge block. Usually you can keep AT LEAST the cargo, batteries, h2, and engine... though i often like to swap the ion thrusters for the sci-fi ones.
Did exactly this with the B-60 Bulk Freighter. Switched out the hydrogen thrusters for Ion, and added breaking thrusters too. Among other things, the end result was a ship that could travel across Space Engineers as efficiently as possible with multiple means to recharge batteries (Solar Panels, Nuclear Reactors, Wind turbines, and Hydrogen Engines). Added 2 refiners and a crafter (fully upgraded with mods, focusing on q balance of efficiency and speed/yield) into the item transfer network (which did end up up shrinking the 2 side rooms into a single cafe area and bed for 1. Added pistons to both side connectors to allow much easier docking, allowing you to dock then pull the ship in as needed. Reorganized the thrusters and removed the no longer used Hydrogen piping to create vehicle bay below the rear landing bay, allowing a ramp and land vehicle be deployed on planets. Added gun turrets to create a full around defense, mainly for asteroid defense. Added o2 generators, more batteries, an additional 2 Jump Drives. Overall it made the ship nearly a complete 1 stop shop mobile base. I didn't like dealing with Hydrogen because I didn't like dealing with an explosive tank, and also didn't like the extra resource hassle of finding Ice, especially when I couldn't find any ice for the longest time. Plus having options to switch off the reactor and recharge planetside just felt better long term for exploring. Had my small scale Mining ship I used to grind the cash in Survival to buy the B-60 and the poor ion fighters I constantly bought and salvaged to get the thruster components before I was able to find a good amount of Platnium parked on the rear landing pad, ready to go whenever.
People complained endlessly when they got rid of ladders (they were buggy at the time), then there was much rejoicing when they re-added them. And now you only ever seem to see them being used for aesthetics rather than something practical unless it's on a station or base or something static. They're genuinely useful when you have limited hydrogen for your jet pack or you're doing a no jetpack play through of some kind.
I'm the one guy who likes ladders. I like the atmosphere of climbing up in the calm, sort of anticipation knowing I'm about to go do something crazy, or the frantic climbing when I'm desperately trying to get to where I need to be (but only if I know its not actually urgent lol.)
I think I have an unhealthy addiction to ladders in my ships... I just love the cramped industrial crawlspaces and ventilation shafts. They make me feel things in my soooul
I do like climbing ladders I think it adds a new aesthetic to some ships that you can put them in small ducks that you're not normally in all the time for maintenance areas or things like that.
one of my first retrofits was the Red corvette, because i liked the cockpit so much, i put a bed and some other stuff in it and added guns, also it its black and yellow now
I took the RUST freighter and replaced the central cargo container with a couple refineries, updated the interior, and played around a bit with the styling. I really like the look of a medical kit with a kitchen in front of it - for RP, it's like cooking to heal yourself/recharge.
The interior of that "Kit-bashed" ship is utter chaos but the exterior looks so freaking cool. I'm thinking about trying something with the SPRT NPC ships now.
Yeah, you can tell it's a mess from inside. It's amazing how much a pain job helps the exterior, it also looked ridiculous prior to that. The SPRT ships would be great for this.
nice. I started a new game where i only use the starter ship in space. I had to rebuild the entire thing so it wouldnt despawn if something happened. It now has more thrusters, weapons, refiners, a hangar bay for ships ect. was fun changing it to fit needs
One of my favorite thing to do was make blueprints of all the random encounter derelicts and try to rebuild them in creative. Having the ship torn open/apart like they are when found in survival is a great opportunity to see inside the inner workings and get ideas for improving things on my own designs. Then, i'd rebuild the ships again making my own changes to them. One of my favorite ships to tinker with was the "corvette" random encounter since it was based off a very old design and had been redone several times before finally being added as a random encounter meaning the insides are a jumbled mess leaving a ton of opportunity to change things and test ideas. I probably have 10 iterations of that one ship alone.
The vanilla ships are cool but definitely need some updates, I like doing the NPC quests and buying ships, good way to get some quick parts and stuff if you are too lazy to craft/mine them
Retro fit the red and blue capital ship and see what you can come up with. At some point in one of my save, i retrofitted the red capital ship into a land moving mining platform.
Ladders is something that I put in places where they look good, but where I won't be going often. Ladders can also be used as structural pieces and that's probably the best use for them.
Hi Shifty. This is a great video. I have done lots of reworking the economy since i started playing. I've played so much now that I recognized and called out each each ship section in your kit bashed mothership even with your modernizing them. I know each of those ships well and I agree they make great projects. Some of them are made by Aragath and some are StreamBG. Really enjoyed this look forward to more.
Awesome, thanks for the heads up on the creators, I'll look into getting the other ships out. I've done quite a few retrofits of the economy ships myself, but I can't say I could name them all. Most of them maybe.
One of the first things I "designed" was to put a drill on a really long conveyer tube(15 at least). I call it the mosquito, or probuscuss. I had to then make, the "suckulator", and "dumper outer". A sorter, connecter combo with stones white listed on the sorter, and trash all on the connector. I first put this design on the little yellow ship. The Duck.
Haha, I like it. I do something similar on my large grid utility ships to this day. Only instead of conveyors I use 2-3 pistons, so the proboscis can be retracted. Same setup for tossing rocks.
Great video! I've done exactly your suggestion a few times! When I'm at a loss for an original starting concept, I like to sort workshop blueprints by date and go to the oldest ones from circa 2015. More than a few are invalid now due to time-sensitive exploits and scripts, or fundamental game changes. But it's still cool to revisit someone's original ideas from nearly a decade ago. Some designs really age well. Others tried hard (too hard) to do more than was really practical with the limited block sets available at their time. Some of the workaround or kludges people used to use can still apply for greebling today. And personally, I also like to set certain specs to (re)design to -- maybe the accounting department demands that we cut costs (PCUs) or mass by 10%+ without compromising the ship's functions and/or aesthetics. Maybe an older design had fatal flaws in air tightness, or isn't 1g / atmospheric flight capable (back when planets didn't exist in the SE universe) -- and your local spaceflight agency has introduced scope creep into the mission, requiring a rebuild to bring up to spec. :D Or for new concepts from scratch, I"m not the most artistic guy, so I again like to pick roles and specs to build toward. It also helps to develop a program of features for the ship, like how architects start by creating a program for what a new project is required to do. I've had a lot of fun building within the aforementioned PCU or mass constraints. Or as one very specific example, I build and retrofit racing ships to various performance requirements. This gets a lot deeper when using the Relative Speed Mod to raise top speed up to a modest 300 m/s, and Draygo Korvan's aerodynamics mod, which creates air resistance and lifting surface effects using only existing vanilla armor blocks if so desired. A very particular 3rd place for me goes to a hydrogen fuel mass mod, so that I have to take O2 and H2 mass into account when a ship's tanks are both full and near empty.
Yeah, even looking through my old builds there are some great opportunities for retrofitting. I've been playing since the first months SE was out on Steam and most of my builds from the early years are purely Ion Thrusters. It was the way. Now I'd update them to mixed systems: mainly hydrogen with a few ion and upwards atmospheric. Adding specs to shoot for is a great idea when you're retrofitting. It gives you a clear direction to work towards, which I think is a trouble point for a lot of people new to building. I usually pick a less strict theme just to get my wheels turning. If it turns out different, no big deal. A lot of time inspiration strikes me halfway through a build.
The LLC-3 is one of my favorite ships to redesign, in my newest design I managed to squeeze in a refinery an upgraded assembler w speed upgrades and a few new reactors. It's exterior is also retrofitted with assault turrets and rocket launcher turrets. It was a fun redesign, maybe I'll try kit bashing, see what I can make.
I really enjoy this. The idea of retrofitting ships is so... idk why I´ve never done it... I mean, I shy back from retrofitting my OWN ships XD this may have given me some new steam
I love retrofitting existing builds, it's much easier for me than making my own from scratch... There's one I've been really wanting to rebuild at a 2:1 scale, but I haven't been able to get myself to play.
I’ll take your ladders I find they’re more space efficient if you use them correctly 😅 19:16 I don’t think you can use that landing pad anymore especially since the antenna gives you about 1 1/2 blocks to work with… but either way loving the ship so far!! 😍
I agree that ladders have their place. I use them occasionally. If you could climb them 100% faster and the dismount at the top was smooth I'd love them.
Kitbashing is what I'm good at. I am horrible at building "pretty" ships. I definitely have a style, but it's more about function. I actually have an entire space station that is 3 or 4 different NPC bases just mashed together. I added a few pieces, but you can tell what I added. You'd think with 4k hours in game I would have improved in that area, but nope. Great video, by the way.
Thanks! A KitBashed space station sounds pretty cool. Not everyone ends up good at building from scratch, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and that's just fine. As long as you're having fun you're doing it right. I personally like function over form builds, most of mine start that way. After a lot of practice I've figured out a style which I can apply after designing my ships which will make them look decent. XD Most of my grids are functional bricks + decoration.
Despite what I say, I do build with ladders often. I like the way they look, I just hate the way they feel to use. If they were faster, and the dismount was smooth, I'd love them.
I think the reason why the Economy ships use the old style of making beds and such is because all the proper beds are locked behind DLCs (which is a shame in my opinion, at least the Decorative 1 bed+bathroom and maybe the Deco 2 shower should be in the base game) - and those ships are supposed to be for everyone. The designs are relatively modern otherwise
I recently got a chance to talk with their original creator. The ships were apparently designed "a long time ago", I'm assuming that means before new blocks, or DLC, were created. Either way, it's cool that the overall designs stand the test of time.
I like climbing ladders in Space Engineers It makes it feel more realistic I think and looks cool in engine rooms and the like, but... I only (most of the time) employ them, where I don't go too often, because their slow speed is a bit of a hassle.
Ladderman greatly disapproves of your tastes. 😹 I think ladders are cool specially for tight or industrial spaces, the 1st ship you showed had a ladder, it beats just the empty space to fall off to get in the cockpit. 👍
Yeah, I like the way they look and the utility they bring, I just don't like how it feels to use them. If they were faster and had a smooth dismount they would be one of my favorite blocks. For now I only use them for looks, I fly whenever I get to them (if possible).
I love "mutation builds" in truth for me, no 2 economy ships are the same. i buy them then modify them for what i'm currently doing in my play. the hauler being one of my fav's and sometimes becoming ice miners, others pure h2 ships with some guns, in others pure atmospheric. Though as yo know my fav mutations in the starting rescue ship. that thing gets turned into everything from mining ships, cargo ships its had atmosphic and h2 thrusters added to it... Its even been turned into a Luxury ship complete with jump drive.
I don't dislike ladders, but I wouldn't say I like them. In Splitsies "Scrapyard" scenario there's a few POIs that spawn that the ladders are rather rewarding... When you see ladders in it you know there's something good coming. Especially if you play it as intended where your jetpack is disabled.
Hmmm, that's cool. It's nice to get a reward for climbing them and I would definitely use them if I had no jetpack. I add them to a lot of builds specifically for that case, but I wish they were more satisfying to use in all scenarios.
If I'm doing a more decorative build I often start at the cockpit or bridge as well. You're going to spend a lot of time there, might as well make sure it's going to be nice.
I have both an F22 and F35 that came from somebody's F22 build, thing had like 60 small reactors and nothing plumbed in. I found out after I printed in survival. (Couple years ago). I cut it up and rebuilt it. Had to build a telehandler as well to move parts and also batteries without losing power cells.
Hmmm, that would be interesting. Not sure how compatible it would be with the block system. Maybe you could have a solver approximate your design using the available block shapes. Or restrict angles in your CAD program to ensure compatibility. Someone could probably write a program that takes a 3D model and roughly converts it to a blueprint shell. It would probably still take a lot of polishing afterwards. This is all assuming your not taking about just building with the same blocks, but in a CAD style interface.
@@ShiftyshadowTV That would be great yes and save a lot on time when drafting a desing. But what I have in mind is something more in the like of Lego Digital Designer. A dedicated tool where you can rotate the model on itself (instead of having to move around it) and have all available blocks in a sidebar. Also, being able to paste/merge two grids into each other with precision, with the option to choose wich of the two is kept where they intersect. This way, we could easily divide a project into smaller sections and merge them all at the end. Another cool feature would be the ability to paint blocks that wouln't be accessible with your character and to have a fill function such in Paint, to quickly be able to change color scheme. And, most wanted of all, CTRL-Z.
@@matf8812 Ah, that would be nice. I believe there is a mod for CTRL-Z. Might be worth adding to a design world if you have one. Haven't tried it myself.
Concerning ladders, they were removed from the game early on and a huge number of players asked (begged really) keen to re-add them (which they did in 2018 or 2019, can't remember which). Then, there are servers (server admins) and players that turn off/disable the use of the jet pack, so you'd be in bad shape without ladders.
I've done a few playthroughs without jetpacks myself. I definitely use ladders and actually think they're a great block. What I don't like is how slow they are and how clumsy the top dismount is. Fix those two things and they would be in my top 5 favorite block types. I think the reason I give them grief is because they're so close to being so much better.
grav on top is probably to "add detail" to the exterior, or so is my guess.... I prefere to hide those as well, but I can see people wanting more variety, specially back then when there was a lot less option for it
First of all - great narration and video sequence. Second - butchering existing ships really helps understanding how things work to improve the practicality of your own builds, and overall design to some extent too, but.. at the same time I caught myself on not progressing with ship design while modifying another captured LCC3 Freighter for the 40th time. Like I made my "Perfect B-60 Bulk Freighter" on full hydrogen thrust, still using highly modified Cursor as main fighter, even merged three LCC3 ships together for fun once. But still every time I'm trying to build my own large grid ship from scrap it's either overcomplicated, ugly, not functional, too heavy, too niche, etc. Pick at least 3 for every ship, while "ugly" is by default. There's something more with SE that makes it so hard to come up with a truly original, functional and beautiful design. Probably main reason I still play this game tho :)
Thanks! Yeah, there's more to it for sure. I think this is a good thing to try out (especially if you're new or looking for an inspiring project), but at some point you need to transition to working on your own builds from scratch. There's really no substitute for the real thing. I've been thinking of making a tutorial series for building from scratch, but it's really hard to decide where to start. Everyone learns differently and at their own pace.
Never heard of this game but referred by the algorithm b/c I love Satisfactory. Reminds me a bit of Starfield’s ship crafting which I loved. Might check this one out! Great vid! Cheers!
I don't know how similar it is to Satisfactory or Starfield, as I've never played them, but Space Engineers is fun if you like designing things, making up your own challenges, and experimenting with mods. The Steam workshop is filled with a decade of great blueprints to use, mods to explore, and NPCs to fight. As with any multiplayer game, it's significantly more fun with friends. I recommend joining a friendly server or playing with someone who knows the game already. It will make learning the basics way easier and jumpstart your enjoyment. If you decide to give it a go, you're welcome to stop by my discord. It's fairly laid back and we run a server which is primarily PvE. (Discord link in video description.)
The trick I've always used is to just start on a new ship every time you get a little bored of your current ship. This way, you have hundreds of blueprints of half built ships you have to sort though every time, and barely any finished ships to show for the thousands of hours you've played the game.
given your reaction to ladders i my friend happent o be one of thoes ladder fine souls. hell both a static base i got and a moble base has ladders to access the main areas. (now i will admite my workshop in seaid static, were i live as well is ground floor access. but thats because i intend to drone build in it a ton) but i use laddesr were i feel it can fit in the industrial style i tend to build in is. so round hangers and just a number of spots were i dont care about traffic. centeral zones will often be stairs unless its a small opperation or your only ment to use one ladder set most of the time.
I am the one guy who likes climbing ladders. Mostly because I play a lot with a super nerfed jetpack so flying isn't an option in gravity and a long spiral staircase is much more painful to me than a ladder. That and I do like the animation for it. Most games don't bother with making a solid climbing animation and it's a bit wasted in SE as most people will just fly up instead. So it's nice to give it some use. But I don't like ladders when it's just 1 or 2 blocks or a route I travel a lot. They do take longer than stairs and the space saved isn't worth adding 10+ seconds every time I want to go up the ladder so having stairs is what I choose there.
That's a lot to break down, but I've been planning to do something like it for a while. Every time I sit down to record a video like that I'm a bit overwhelmed. There's just so much to consider and everyone plays the game differently. There's no single solution to everything, just different styles. I could break down how I do it (with a disclaimer that it's not the only way), but even that might end up being an hour long (after lots of editing).
Most of the economy ships are from the Devs themself and are fair game. Aragath made the B-60, H-01, Ambassador, others are from Xocliv, iirc. Really no one cares if these get reposted. It is true tho to workshop specific ships to ask. Also, I'm your ladder guy. Why? Immersion. You want mostly to conserve as much weight and as much space as possible, thinking from a fuel/energy and resource point. I get they are tedious to walk, but I build space ships, not yachts :) edit: typo.
Hi! What are the names of the blocks that look like half-constructed light armor plates? You use them on the pirated Ambassador Explorer for the entrance, and in a few interior places to cover up conveyor hatches so you can still reach them. You're pointing directly at them at 19:30
Really love your content! I love the fact that you dont cut the video every 2 seconds and have obnoxious music playing over the top of it all. Do you think you could do a tutorial or something on how to actually kitbash? Im not really sure what the best way to do it is with the SE building mechanics.
Thanks! It depends on the video, some of them I do cut more often. I haven't gotten into adding music much though, I just talk a lot, haha. There should be some good tutorials out there on setting up a creative world and using the creative tools (mainly cut and paste). Maybe I'll make one eventually, but it's low on my list, sorry.
You can place and delete blocks in lines or planes (look up hotkeys for your devices in the game menu). Use this to chop up old ships. Then use copy/paste (can be looked up too) to put them together however you like. Note that the block you are aiming at when you copy will be the block centered on your cursor when you paste. Use this to make positioning easier.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Thanks so much for the info! I have over 2000 hours in the game and still know nothing... I think you're a really good commentator and you explain your points well. If you're ever making kitbashes again, consider recording the process, or even streaming it? You've definitely gained a new sub!
I like ladders because I’m stingy using my suit thrusters planetside in survival mode. I hate wasting hydrogen. 🤷♂️ I only have like 350hrs in the game tho so I’m not over ladders haha. Also dammit, I didn’t realize you did build competitions! I’ll have to join the next one. Badass kitbash!
Nice, do you ever actually climb that ladder, or do you just fly up and down? I tend to set mine up so that I can look at the right angle and spam F, jumping on and off the ladder to travel upward, more like an elevator.
@@ShiftyshadowTV it's the only way to travel my ship in gravity. the only external entrance is at the bottom and the ship is tower shaped. in space, you can walk along it normally though
i got question I've catch some trade faction ships from vanilla ships, sprt ship like the military minelayer and escort tried to rebuild them but have no clue were start on.
I find that it helps to pick a role for your new version. Will it be used for combat, cargo hauling, mining, long distance travel, none, or all of those? (The options are unlimited.) From there you can figure out what blocks it has that will help it achieve those goals and what blocks it still needs. Maybe you just want to make it a comfortable home, strip all the functional bits, attach it to an asteroid, and turn it into an apartment.
I just got done watching this and wanted to ask something. Would you be interested in doing a video about improving, critiquing or advising about some of my ship designs? I know thats a weird question, but I'm a relatively novice ps5 player and I want to see some things I may have either overlooked or messed up in my designs. I gladly give full permission to modify them to your liking to show improvements or tips about how to better build in the future.
I do build reviews on my community channel. If you want something looked at, you can join my discord and post a link to your workshop item in the "review_my_build" channel. Alternatively you can try to catch me streaming on Twitch. Discord: discord.gg/fP6Ug3qPK9 Community Channel youtube.com/@more_shifty Twitch twitch.tv/shiftyshadowtv
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
I've only ever heard the term "Kitbashing" in tabletop wargames like the Ironic Warhammer 40k. This idea sounds fun. It's like the "Uglies" from Star wars.
It is most commonly used in physical model making, but I think it's accurate for SE as well. Your "kit" is just other blueprints in this case. It's definitely a fun project.
@@ShiftyshadowTV You know what even in star wars canon/lore "Corellian Engineering" who made the Millennium Falcon designed a "Kitbash" from which the iconic ship was developed from. Depending on what side of the Star wars Universe you happen to support of course.
@@djphroop Huh, interesting.
My process is similar, I have a kind of blueprint "library" of interior rooms and modules (landing gears, a rover bay, an automated cruise missile assembler/launcher etc) and I arrange them in fun different ways and the try to encase it in nice looking, nicely shaped armor.
Kitbashing has been a long and illustrious tradition in the sci-fi space.
Star trek and star wars did it quite a bit, check out EC henry's channel for a bunch of 3d renders of background kit bash ships. for star trek, the nebula, yeager and new orleans class ships were all kitbashes.
I like using merge blocks to build space hulks which is really just a whole bunch of space debris and damaged ships bound together
Mad max : Space
A very ork-like concept
that's a fun way to play nomadic, just float from location to location
@RichyN25 and as long as the space hulk has a solar panel and oxygen generators then it can just float for an eternity lol
its a idea i had rattling in my head for a LONG time but combat teands to leave so little usable left. maybe i just need to make a reserve combat methoid to my games...
Ladders: When I'm in a rush no. If I'm just chillin, absolutely love em for the compactness they provide
Yeah, they have great utility. I put them on a lot of builds in case I'm in a no-jetpack situation. When I'm not I fly up them though XD.
If you have the ladder shaft you can just look up to the ladder above or down to the one a floor below you and spam F. Fastest way to move up or down floors.
@@Yukimaru0 For sure, this is the only way I use ladders XD. It's faster than flying too.
the new beds are such a game-changer. They've allowed me to fully flesh out my interiors the way I intended, and it's allowed me to get back into space engineers.
They are some of the best DLC in the game.
@@ShiftyshadowTV agreed, along with the other accompanying blocks.
@@Savsgames The new inset blocks really did expand design options.
Righy you are! I live in a prospector now.
Honestly, I totally suck at designing ships and stations so retrofitting pre-existing designs is the majority of my shipbuilding. So when you said that the economy designs have "room for improvement", you weren't kidding. Most of the designs are from years ago and can definitely benefit from being upgraded, modernized, and having redundant blocks replaced with newer streamlined (or modded) blocks.
Retrofitting is the way to go for a lot of people. It's a great way to play the game if you don't want to spend a lot of time building. I've had more time in the past for building, but recently I've found myself retrofitting my own builds more often than building new ones.
@@ShiftyshadowTV if something works well enough no need to fix just change
@@ShiftyshadowTVyeah me too lol I just got started and I’m still working on my first carrier ship
You brought up kitbashing and I remembered the first time I heard that phrase, iirc, was in an old magazine called Car-Toons. Two guys were making models, one a stealth bomber and the other a drag car, and the the jet body falls onto the car. They then decided to make an RC, to-scale replica, and ended up wanted by the FBI.
Irrelevant story aside, you earned a new sub here. Nice presentation and redesigns.
That's wild, hahaha. Thanks, glad you enjoyed.
WTF how did kitbashing result in FBI like did they just, make it out of scrap or go activly raiding some places they not ment too.
I'm pretty sure that the primary designer of the KSH ships was Aragath(sp?). From comments he's made here and there, I suspect the gravity generators were added later literally because the block was added after he did the original design. Later builds then had to conform to the style of previous ones, and he was prohibited from using DLC blocks as well. In any case, the IP belongs to the company rather than the employee, so.
Cool. I'm probably clear to upload things. I'll put a note at the top giving credit to the Keen Software House team. If I can find any original blueprints I'll link them.
That's kinda what I figured with the gravity generators, but I wasn't sure. They've been around for a long time. The ships were made long before DLC existed though.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Some of them were made before DLC, but not all. The ships that you buy don't (usually) have DLC components, but the NPC editions of the same ships that you can find flying around often do.
@@BrianRonald Indeed
As a (poor) example, the LCC3 freighter is just the RUST freighter with a slightly different interior, and different paint scheme.
@@robertdelaney7033 Interesting, I haven't played with vanilla Encounters and NPCs in a while I guess.
@@BrianRonald a safty messure, as who knows if the play has only 1 dlc or all of em. (my existince just missing 2 dlcs)
In warhammer, converting a model to be from the Ork faction is often called “looting”, maybe we should call Turing vanilla ships in space engineers into pirate ships “Plundering”
Haha, I like it.
@@ShiftyshadowTV I’ll put up pictures on discord one of these days
One more thing. “Plundering” your own ships can also be surprisingly fun.
In the same vein as your kitbashing approach, a thing I like to do regularly is just design parts of a ship without a final ship in mind. Just try variants on crew quarters, a cafeteria, a hangar, a bridge, a corridor, an airlock, an engine nacelle, each in isolation just seeing what I can do within different sizes and shapes. That experience has been invaluable to draw upon so many times when it came to building specific ships. In theory, I could've saved those modules as blueprints and kitbashed them together, but in practice I simply remember all the little tricks. And perhaps more importantly, you develop a sense of how much space a given function needs. Having that instinct saves so much grief.
As you said, developing a sense of space is extremely useful when designing a ship. It's something a lot of newer builders don't realize they lack, I think, and it leads to difficulty making things work.
It's one of the reasons I recommend most people build functional blocks first then the hull around it. Instead of falling into the trap of making a cool looking hull, then not being able to fit anything inside it, or ending up with tons of dead space. You can do hull-first, but you really need a solid understanding of what you want inside it and how much room it will take. Generally it's a more difficult build, if you want it to function well too.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Exactly: hull-first results in bad interiors every time. Exterior form should mostly follow from interior function.
With experience and iteration, we have plenty of latitude in arranging the interior, so we can end up with roughly the exterior shape we want. I strongly recommend writing a checklist of necessary blocks and features. Segmenting the ship with bulkheads and doors is a good idea. This is also a good moment to blueprint the design and set up a repair projection, in case hull construction goes awry.
Adding and shaping the hull is certainly a skill, but there are so many techniques that even a beginner can do an okay job. They'll improve and develop their own style with time. The inevitable interior gaps are a good place for extra batteries, timer blocks, etc.
Then it's a matter of carefully naming and grouping everything, tidying up the control panel, automating what you can (airlocks, startup and shutdown sequences, etc), setting up interfaces and button panels for effortless usability, and taking the ship out for a shakedown cruise or two. Honestly this takes at least as long as the initial build to do it right.
Sorry for the Tolstoy. I got carried away!
@@mattp1337 Haha, all good. Sounds like we have very similar ship building ideologies.
I always have a checklist, and reference it often to make sure I don't forget something crucial early in the build. Often times (especially for small grid) I draw up a conveyor and room layout on graph paper too. The larger the ship the more detailed the blueprint, because it's harder to remember everything and stay on track.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Trying out ideas on paper is often a good step, It does bias toward 2D thinking, but for most ship designs, that is fine.
I definitely like to modify/retrofit workshop ships when im not feeling inspired, however my favorite thing to do is to turn them into full modular ships (you know with connectors and merge blocks). Thanks for the reminder on the economy ones, I tend to forget about them but I already have some ideas! Should probably also make a hangar for this too.
Edit: I just realized who you are, I've used your ship Luna in a few playthroughs. Great ship
Definitely, modular projects are fun too. I've done a few myself. Glad your getting some use out of Luna!
7:00- I always finish the ship and then go 'oh, F--- GYROS!".
It happens to all of us at some point. Haha.
I love ladders, I put them as the main access-route to any & all areas of my base where I don't actually need to go.
Hahaha.
Okay, I somehow never thought of just.. retrofitting stuff that already exists. For some reason, I was always of the mindset that I have to come up with my own stuff.
I will endeavour to retrofit. This sounds sensible.
Good luck and have fun!
With economy its pretty quick and easy to get a the small hauler, they are only like 5 million and thats doable with just a few loads of cobalt ore (few k), magnesium or refined magnesium (sometimes as little as 120 refined magnesium)
that said, ripping out the large engines gives you enough room to do what ever, add a refinery, drill, add more thrusters of course.... but really you can do what ever you want and its often pretty quick.
that said... the fun challange, start with a space survival pod. then keep it, add on to it, build it up, and keep as much of it as you can (this gets funny when you add on pistons and merge blocks, cut part of the ship away, extend it out with the piston, then build and reconnect with the merge block. Usually you can keep AT LEAST the cargo, batteries, h2, and engine... though i often like to swap the ion thrusters for the sci-fi ones.
Did exactly this with the B-60 Bulk Freighter. Switched out the hydrogen thrusters for Ion, and added breaking thrusters too. Among other things, the end result was a ship that could travel across Space Engineers as efficiently as possible with multiple means to recharge batteries (Solar Panels, Nuclear Reactors, Wind turbines, and Hydrogen Engines). Added 2 refiners and a crafter (fully upgraded with mods, focusing on q balance of efficiency and speed/yield) into the item transfer network (which did end up up shrinking the 2 side rooms into a single cafe area and bed for 1.
Added pistons to both side connectors to allow much easier docking, allowing you to dock then pull the ship in as needed.
Reorganized the thrusters and removed the no longer used Hydrogen piping to create vehicle bay below the rear landing bay, allowing a ramp and land vehicle be deployed on planets.
Added gun turrets to create a full around defense, mainly for asteroid defense.
Added o2 generators, more batteries, an additional 2 Jump Drives.
Overall it made the ship nearly a complete 1 stop shop mobile base.
I didn't like dealing with Hydrogen because I didn't like dealing with an explosive tank, and also didn't like the extra resource hassle of finding Ice, especially when I couldn't find any ice for the longest time. Plus having options to switch off the reactor and recharge planetside just felt better long term for exploring.
Had my small scale Mining ship I used to grind the cash in Survival to buy the B-60 and the poor ion fighters I constantly bought and salvaged to get the thruster components before I was able to find a good amount of Platnium parked on the rear landing pad, ready to go whenever.
How do you get on and off a planet without hydrogen? (I know there are plenty of ways, just curious which you're using.)
People complained endlessly when they got rid of ladders (they were buggy at the time), then there was much rejoicing when they re-added them. And now you only ever seem to see them being used for aesthetics rather than something practical unless it's on a station or base or something static. They're genuinely useful when you have limited hydrogen for your jet pack or you're doing a no jetpack play through of some kind.
Yeah, I add them to builds in case I run out of jetpack fuel, or don't have one, but I never climb them if I do.
Same, I use them to keep things efficient for space, and in case im low on hydrogen for my jetpack.
I'm the one guy who likes ladders. I like the atmosphere of climbing up in the calm, sort of anticipation knowing I'm about to go do something crazy, or the frantic climbing when I'm desperately trying to get to where I need to be (but only if I know its not actually urgent lol.)
I like the cozy interior designs you've implemented here.
Thanks, I strive for cozy ships (and also cramming ever available space with something). XD
It's crazy to me how it feels much more spacious than what it suggests from the outside, it's amazing.
I think I have an unhealthy addiction to ladders in my ships... I just love the cramped industrial crawlspaces and ventilation shafts. They make me feel things in my soooul
They're nice looking, and great for adding access to tight spaces. I'm just not patient enough to climb them, unless I have no jetpack.
I do like climbing ladders I think it adds a new aesthetic to some ships that you can put them in small ducks that you're not normally in all the time for maintenance areas or things like that.
i love ladders! they immerse me more, and i dont mind them
one of my first retrofits was the Red corvette, because i liked the cockpit so much, i put a bed and some other stuff in it and added guns,
also it its black and yellow now
First space engineer i've ever subbed to congrats, you have my admiration
I took the RUST freighter and replaced the central cargo container with a couple refineries, updated the interior, and played around a bit with the styling. I really like the look of a medical kit with a kitchen in front of it - for RP, it's like cooking to heal yourself/recharge.
Sounds like a nice refit. The med kitchen is an interesting idea, I'll have to try it out.
My favorite thing is to take a ship and take bits I like off, slap em on a new ship, and ta-da new ship
The interior of that "Kit-bashed" ship is utter chaos but the exterior looks so freaking cool. I'm thinking about trying something with the SPRT NPC ships now.
Yeah, you can tell it's a mess from inside. It's amazing how much a pain job helps the exterior, it also looked ridiculous prior to that.
The SPRT ships would be great for this.
nice. I started a new game where i only use the starter ship in space. I had to rebuild the entire thing so it wouldnt despawn if something happened. It now has more thrusters, weapons, refiners, a hangar bay for ships ect. was fun changing it to fit needs
Sounds like a fun playthrough.
One of my favorite thing to do was make blueprints of all the random encounter derelicts and try to rebuild them in creative. Having the ship torn open/apart like they are when found in survival is a great opportunity to see inside the inner workings and get ideas for improving things on my own designs. Then, i'd rebuild the ships again making my own changes to them.
One of my favorite ships to tinker with was the "corvette" random encounter since it was based off a very old design and had been redone several times before finally being added as a random encounter meaning the insides are a jumbled mess leaving a ton of opportunity to change things and test ideas. I probably have 10 iterations of that one ship alone.
Nice, I also always grab a blueprint of the random encounters. I've only reworked a few of them though.
The vanilla ships are cool but definitely need some updates, I like doing the NPC quests and buying ships, good way to get some quick parts and stuff if you are too lazy to craft/mine them
Retro fit the red and blue capital ship and see what you can come up with. At some point in one of my save, i retrofitted the red capital ship into a land moving mining platform.
Dang, that a pretty extreme change. Haha, sounds cool though.
I generally slap a gravity generator on my miners so they can poop out the stone. And with negative Gs it shoots it away from my ship.
Ladders is something that I put in places where they look good, but where I won't be going often. Ladders can also be used as structural pieces and that's probably the best use for them.
A cool feature they could add is the ability for players to buy and sell ships or blueprints to each other on an in-game exchange for space credits
That would be really cool. Load blueprints into a data pad or something.
Hi Shifty. This is a great video. I have done lots of reworking the economy since i started playing. I've played so much now that I recognized and called out each each ship section in your kit bashed mothership even with your modernizing them. I know each of those ships well and I agree they make great projects. Some of them are made by Aragath and some are StreamBG. Really enjoyed this look forward to more.
Awesome, thanks for the heads up on the creators, I'll look into getting the other ships out. I've done quite a few retrofits of the economy ships myself, but I can't say I could name them all. Most of them maybe.
One of the first things I "designed" was to put a drill on a really long conveyer tube(15 at least). I call it the mosquito, or probuscuss. I had to then make, the "suckulator", and "dumper outer". A sorter, connecter combo with stones white listed on the sorter, and trash all on the connector.
I first put this design on the little yellow ship. The Duck.
Haha, I like it. I do something similar on my large grid utility ships to this day. Only instead of conveyors I use 2-3 pistons, so the proboscis can be retracted. Same setup for tossing rocks.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Noice;)
Great video!
I've done exactly your suggestion a few times! When I'm at a loss for an original starting concept, I like to sort workshop blueprints by date and go to the oldest ones from circa 2015. More than a few are invalid now due to time-sensitive exploits and scripts, or fundamental game changes. But it's still cool to revisit someone's original ideas from nearly a decade ago. Some designs really age well. Others tried hard (too hard) to do more than was really practical with the limited block sets available at their time. Some of the workaround or kludges people used to use can still apply for greebling today.
And personally, I also like to set certain specs to (re)design to -- maybe the accounting department demands that we cut costs (PCUs) or mass by 10%+ without compromising the ship's functions and/or aesthetics. Maybe an older design had fatal flaws in air tightness, or isn't 1g / atmospheric flight capable (back when planets didn't exist in the SE universe) -- and your local spaceflight agency has introduced scope creep into the mission, requiring a rebuild to bring up to spec. :D
Or for new concepts from scratch, I"m not the most artistic guy, so I again like to pick roles and specs to build toward. It also helps to develop a program of features for the ship, like how architects start by creating a program for what a new project is required to do. I've had a lot of fun building within the aforementioned PCU or mass constraints. Or as one very specific example, I build and retrofit racing ships to various performance requirements. This gets a lot deeper when using the Relative Speed Mod to raise top speed up to a modest 300 m/s, and Draygo Korvan's aerodynamics mod, which creates air resistance and lifting surface effects using only existing vanilla armor blocks if so desired. A very particular 3rd place for me goes to a hydrogen fuel mass mod, so that I have to take O2 and H2 mass into account when a ship's tanks are both full and near empty.
Yeah, even looking through my old builds there are some great opportunities for retrofitting. I've been playing since the first months SE was out on Steam and most of my builds from the early years are purely Ion Thrusters. It was the way. Now I'd update them to mixed systems: mainly hydrogen with a few ion and upwards atmospheric.
Adding specs to shoot for is a great idea when you're retrofitting. It gives you a clear direction to work towards, which I think is a trouble point for a lot of people new to building. I usually pick a less strict theme just to get my wheels turning. If it turns out different, no big deal. A lot of time inspiration strikes me halfway through a build.
I use ladders, though only in tight spaces, access to maintenance spaces, or for details.
Yeah, I like them for backup access in case I don't have a jetpack. They look cool too, but I really don't like climbing them. XD
The LLC-3 is one of my favorite ships to redesign, in my newest design I managed to squeeze in a refinery an upgraded assembler w speed upgrades and a few new reactors. It's exterior is also retrofitted with assault turrets and rocket launcher turrets. It was a fun redesign, maybe I'll try kit bashing, see what I can make.
Sounds cool. You should definitely try it, even just slapping two ships together. The result is always unique and fun.
I really enjoy this. The idea of retrofitting ships is so... idk why I´ve never done it... I mean, I shy back from retrofitting my OWN ships XD this may have given me some new steam
It's definitely worth giving a try. I find it very relaxing.
I love retrofitting existing builds, it's much easier for me than making my own from scratch... There's one I've been really wanting to rebuild at a 2:1 scale, but I haven't been able to get myself to play.
It's definitely something a lot of people enjoy. No worries, it's a game and should be fun, play it when you feel inspired to do so.
I’ll take your ladders I find they’re more space efficient if you use them correctly 😅
19:16 I don’t think you can use that landing pad anymore especially since the antenna gives you about 1 1/2 blocks to work with… but either way loving the ship so far!! 😍
Excellent! You can have them all! Haha, yeah. Maybe one of my small fighters could sneak in there.
I agree that ladders have their place. I use them occasionally. If you could climb them 100% faster and the dismount at the top was smooth I'd love them.
@@ShiftyshadowTV 100% faster? Boy I’d love that! 😆
@@chrisbacon3071 That's the dream.
i dabbled in kit bashing before i knew what it was and im not good at it but i enjoy it
If you're having fun, you're doing it right. :)
Kitbashing is what I'm good at. I am horrible at building "pretty" ships. I definitely have a style, but it's more about function. I actually have an entire space station that is 3 or 4 different NPC bases just mashed together. I added a few pieces, but you can tell what I added. You'd think with 4k hours in game I would have improved in that area, but nope. Great video, by the way.
Thanks! A KitBashed space station sounds pretty cool. Not everyone ends up good at building from scratch, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and that's just fine. As long as you're having fun you're doing it right.
I personally like function over form builds, most of mine start that way. After a lot of practice I've figured out a style which I can apply after designing my ships which will make them look decent. XD Most of my grids are functional bricks + decoration.
I do actually like ladders in certain places. Use them a lot in engineering and on the outside of ship for high gravity planets to save on hydrogen.
Despite what I say, I do build with ladders often. I like the way they look, I just hate the way they feel to use. If they were faster, and the dismount was smooth, I'd love them.
I have over 2000 hours on SE and this still helped me improve
The more you play the more you realize that there's always room for improvement. That's part of what makes a great game. :)
Have fun! Better and become a builder. Got it.
A unexpectedly common way to read that title, but it makes me laugh every time. XD
Amazing job!
Will you consider making a pirate NPC mod with your "New Age Pirates" fleet for MES? The Mothership would make a great boss encounter.
Yes, I'm hoping to do so. I have not ever made that type of mod before, but I think I'll be able to figure it out. *fingers crossed*
I love NAPs too, think I'm gonna take one right now.
I think the reason why the Economy ships use the old style of making beds and such is because all the proper beds are locked behind DLCs (which is a shame in my opinion, at least the Decorative 1 bed+bathroom and maybe the Deco 2 shower should be in the base game) - and those ships are supposed to be for everyone. The designs are relatively modern otherwise
I recently got a chance to talk with their original creator. The ships were apparently designed "a long time ago", I'm assuming that means before new blocks, or DLC, were created. Either way, it's cool that the overall designs stand the test of time.
I like climbing ladders in Space Engineers
It makes it feel more realistic I think and looks cool in engine rooms and the like,
but...
I only (most of the time) employ them, where I don't go too often, because their slow speed is a bit of a hassle.
They definitely look cool, and I use them myself fairly often. They need to be twice as fast though, and the dismount at the top feels terrible.
This video gave me the inspiration to do a game where I cannot build my own ships. I have to buy and retrofit the economy ships.
Sounds like a fun playthrough, good luck!
This is useful for ppl like me who suck at building but also this entire video gives me "House Flipper" vibes lol
Ladders actually act as a seat if you have to jump. Saved me a few times in the ship tunnels! Also great vid, Subed.
Cool, I actually did not know that.
Ladderman greatly disapproves of your tastes. 😹
I think ladders are cool specially for tight or industrial spaces, the 1st ship you showed had a ladder, it beats just the empty space to fall off to get in the cockpit. 👍
Yeah, I like the way they look and the utility they bring, I just don't like how it feels to use them. If they were faster and had a smooth dismount they would be one of my favorite blocks. For now I only use them for looks, I fly whenever I get to them (if possible).
What a cool video! I love the modifications you made.
Thanks, it was a fun project.
I love "mutation builds" in truth for me, no 2 economy ships are the same. i buy them then modify them for what i'm currently doing in my play. the hauler being one of my fav's and sometimes becoming ice miners, others pure h2 ships with some guns, in others pure atmospheric.
Though as yo know my fav mutations in the starting rescue ship. that thing gets turned into everything from mining ships, cargo ships its had atmosphic and h2 thrusters added to it...
Its even been turned into a Luxury ship complete with jump drive.
Maybe the gravity gen on the outside was intended to act as Greebling?
I don't dislike ladders, but I wouldn't say I like them. In Splitsies "Scrapyard" scenario there's a few POIs that spawn that the ladders are rather rewarding... When you see ladders in it you know there's something good coming. Especially if you play it as intended where your jetpack is disabled.
Hmmm, that's cool. It's nice to get a reward for climbing them and I would definitely use them if I had no jetpack. I add them to a lot of builds specifically for that case, but I wish they were more satisfying to use in all scenarios.
I personally like to start at the cockpit but you have to have an idea of what you want to build
If I'm doing a more decorative build I often start at the cockpit or bridge as well. You're going to spend a lot of time there, might as well make sure it's going to be nice.
@@ShiftyshadowTV it also lets get a good idea of the size and shape for smaller ships
Excellent editing on the ships and the video! I enjoyed this alot 👊
Thanks, both were interesting projects.
@@ShiftyshadowTV I can imagine! By editing is mild with moments of brilliance and frustration lol. Best of luck to you and keep up the good work 👍
I have both an F22 and F35 that came from somebody's F22 build, thing had like 60 small reactors and nothing plumbed in. I found out after I printed in survival. (Couple years ago). I cut it up and rebuilt it. Had to build a telehandler as well to move parts and also batteries without losing power cells.
What I would love to be added to the game is CAD like tool to design ships.
Hmmm, that would be interesting. Not sure how compatible it would be with the block system. Maybe you could have a solver approximate your design using the available block shapes. Or restrict angles in your CAD program to ensure compatibility.
Someone could probably write a program that takes a 3D model and roughly converts it to a blueprint shell. It would probably still take a lot of polishing afterwards.
This is all assuming your not taking about just building with the same blocks, but in a CAD style interface.
@@ShiftyshadowTV That would be great yes and save a lot on time when drafting a desing.
But what I have in mind is something more in the like of Lego Digital Designer. A dedicated tool where you can rotate the model on itself (instead of having to move around it) and have all available blocks in a sidebar. Also, being able to paste/merge two grids into each other with precision, with the option to choose wich of the two is kept where they intersect. This way, we could easily divide a project into smaller sections and merge them all at the end. Another cool feature would be the ability to paint blocks that wouln't be accessible with your character and to have a fill function such in Paint, to quickly be able to change color scheme. And, most wanted of all, CTRL-Z.
@@matf8812 Ah, that would be nice. I believe there is a mod for CTRL-Z. Might be worth adding to a design world if you have one. Haven't tried it myself.
Concerning ladders, they were removed from the game early on and a huge number of players asked (begged really) keen to re-add them (which they did in 2018 or 2019, can't remember which). Then, there are servers (server admins) and players that turn off/disable the use of the jet pack, so you'd be in bad shape without ladders.
I've done a few playthroughs without jetpacks myself. I definitely use ladders and actually think they're a great block. What I don't like is how slow they are and how clumsy the top dismount is. Fix those two things and they would be in my top 5 favorite block types.
I think the reason I give them grief is because they're so close to being so much better.
@@ShiftyshadowTV I hear you (I see you - avatar).
grav on top is probably to "add detail" to the exterior, or so is my guess.... I prefere to hide those as well, but I can see people wanting more variety, specially back then when there was a lot less option for it
True. The ship was probably designed a long time ago.
First of all - great narration and video sequence. Second - butchering existing ships really helps understanding how things work to improve the practicality of your own builds, and overall design to some extent too, but.. at the same time I caught myself on not progressing with ship design while modifying another captured LCC3 Freighter for the 40th time. Like I made my "Perfect B-60 Bulk Freighter" on full hydrogen thrust, still using highly modified Cursor as main fighter, even merged three LCC3 ships together for fun once. But still every time I'm trying to build my own large grid ship from scrap it's either overcomplicated, ugly, not functional, too heavy, too niche, etc. Pick at least 3 for every ship, while "ugly" is by default. There's something more with SE that makes it so hard to come up with a truly original, functional and beautiful design. Probably main reason I still play this game tho :)
Thanks! Yeah, there's more to it for sure. I think this is a good thing to try out (especially if you're new or looking for an inspiring project), but at some point you need to transition to working on your own builds from scratch. There's really no substitute for the real thing. I've been thinking of making a tutorial series for building from scratch, but it's really hard to decide where to start. Everyone learns differently and at their own pace.
I'm that guy! Always looking for ways to save hydrogen, while engaging in activities requiring vertical displacement.
Haha, here you go.
H
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Enjoy! XD
i retro fit the rust freighter to make it a long range battleship that can jump 4000K and had a railgun
Very nice.
Never heard of this game but referred by the algorithm b/c I love Satisfactory. Reminds me a bit of Starfield’s ship crafting which I loved. Might check this one out! Great vid! Cheers!
I don't know how similar it is to Satisfactory or Starfield, as I've never played them, but Space Engineers is fun if you like designing things, making up your own challenges, and experimenting with mods. The Steam workshop is filled with a decade of great blueprints to use, mods to explore, and NPCs to fight.
As with any multiplayer game, it's significantly more fun with friends. I recommend joining a friendly server or playing with someone who knows the game already. It will make learning the basics way easier and jumpstart your enjoyment.
If you decide to give it a go, you're welcome to stop by my discord. It's fairly laid back and we run a server which is primarily PvE. (Discord link in video description.)
One of my mates I play SE with loves building on planets and he loves ladders puts them on all of his ships. xD
They're nice when you need a way up and you have no jetpack, but I can't make myself use them if I do. They look cool though.
The trick I've always used is to just start on a new ship every time you get a little bored of your current ship. This way, you have hundreds of blueprints of half built ships you have to sort though every time, and barely any finished ships to show for the thousands of hours you've played the game.
Hahaha, sounds about right. I only complete things that I plan to use in survival at some point.
I like ladders, I just wish they worked a bit smoother with magnet boots.
Same for me really. If they were more satisfying to use they'd be one of my favorite block types.
sir i shall take all of your ladders. i like using them in non jetpack playthroughs i do.
given your reaction to ladders i my friend happent o be one of thoes ladder fine souls. hell both a static base i got and a moble base has ladders to access the main areas. (now i will admite my workshop in seaid static, were i live as well is ground floor access. but thats because i intend to drone build in it a ton) but i use laddesr were i feel it can fit in the industrial style i tend to build in is. so round hangers and just a number of spots were i dont care about traffic. centeral zones will often be stairs unless its a small opperation or your only ment to use one ladder set most of the time.
I love ladders all my builds have ladders. They are not needed in normal use at all but they are there in case H2 runs out.
I actually do the same if I don't have room for a staircase. I just like to dramatized how slow ladders are. XD
@@ShiftyshadowTV I have Gravity on my ships so I just blast off up the tube or jump down it and airbrake
I am the one guy who likes climbing ladders. Mostly because I play a lot with a super nerfed jetpack so flying isn't an option in gravity and a long spiral staircase is much more painful to me than a ladder. That and I do like the animation for it. Most games don't bother with making a solid climbing animation and it's a bit wasted in SE as most people will just fly up instead. So it's nice to give it some use. But I don't like ladders when it's just 1 or 2 blocks or a route I travel a lot. They do take longer than stairs and the space saved isn't worth adding 10+ seconds every time I want to go up the ladder so having stairs is what I choose there.
Ladders are useful when you mod out the jetpack 😂
True. I still hate chiming them though. XD
I need a full blown tutorial on how to make a ship or rover look good is efficient and functions in creative and survival
That's a lot to break down, but I've been planning to do something like it for a while.
Every time I sit down to record a video like that I'm a bit overwhelmed. There's just so much to consider and everyone plays the game differently. There's no single solution to everything, just different styles.
I could break down how I do it (with a disclaimer that it's not the only way), but even that might end up being an hour long (after lots of editing).
I like ladders, just not for something you use often or you need to get to fast.
we need another economy update to bring all the ships up to date
Even leaving the old ones as is, and adding up-to-date new ones would be cool.
Hot take but I like ladders
I like ladders, but only for decor, i hate using them XD
Same. If you have them enclosed you can kind of use them like an elevator by looking at the one above or below you and pressing F really fast.
Most of the economy ships are from the Devs themself and are fair game. Aragath made the B-60, H-01, Ambassador, others are from Xocliv, iirc. Really no one cares if these get reposted. It is true tho to workshop specific ships to ask.
Also, I'm your ladder guy. Why? Immersion. You want mostly to conserve as much weight and as much space as possible, thinking from a fuel/energy and resource point. I get they are tedious to walk, but I build space ships, not yachts :)
edit: typo.
Ships, maybe, are designs before gravity generators were in game?
Its quite possible. I didn't think of that.
"Gravity Generator just slapped on top" .... Dude doesnt know R2-D2 when he sees him lol
They do give a similar vibe.
Hi! What are the names of the blocks that look like half-constructed light armor plates? You use them on the pirated Ambassador Explorer for the entrance, and in a few interior places to cover up conveyor hatches so you can still reach them. You're pointing directly at them at 19:30
I think they're called catwalk blocks. I usually use the DLC "grated catwalks".
I made a huge boat, but it was 386489937000000 lbs and on alien planet so i couldnt get it in the air. It took 3 weeks.
Really love your content! I love the fact that you dont cut the video every 2 seconds and have obnoxious music playing over the top of it all. Do you think you could do a tutorial or something on how to actually kitbash? Im not really sure what the best way to do it is with the SE building mechanics.
Thanks! It depends on the video, some of them I do cut more often. I haven't gotten into adding music much though, I just talk a lot, haha.
There should be some good tutorials out there on setting up a creative world and using the creative tools (mainly cut and paste). Maybe I'll make one eventually, but it's low on my list, sorry.
You can place and delete blocks in lines or planes (look up hotkeys for your devices in the game menu).
Use this to chop up old ships.
Then use copy/paste (can be looked up too) to put them together however you like. Note that the block you are aiming at when you copy will be the block centered on your cursor when you paste. Use this to make positioning easier.
@@ShiftyshadowTV Thanks so much for the info! I have over 2000 hours in the game and still know nothing... I think you're a really good commentator and you explain your points well. If you're ever making kitbashes again, consider recording the process, or even streaming it? You've definitely gained a new sub!
@@ludbud57 Thanks, hopefully I can find time to stream regularly again. I've enjoyed it a lot in the past.
I prefer Independent Contractor. Being called a pirate is so negative :)
I like ladders because I’m stingy using my suit thrusters planetside in survival mode. I hate wasting hydrogen. 🤷♂️ I only have like 350hrs in the game tho so I’m not over ladders haha.
Also dammit, I didn’t realize you did build competitions! I’ll have to join the next one. Badass kitbash!
Yup, they're pretty laid back. Mostly just a prompt to give people inspiration and something to work on.
@@ShiftyshadowTVI’m pumped for the next one! I love the kitbashed mothership, I’m definitely going to mess around with that vessel & that concept.
I'm the guy. I like ladders. My main ship has a huge one for when it's in planetary gravity.
Nice, do you ever actually climb that ladder, or do you just fly up and down? I tend to set mine up so that I can look at the right angle and spam F, jumping on and off the ladder to travel upward, more like an elevator.
@@ShiftyshadowTV it's the only way to travel my ship in gravity. the only external entrance is at the bottom and the ship is tower shaped.
in space, you can walk along it normally though
@@zamba136 Cool. I wish ladders were faster and had a smooth dismount. They'd be one of my favorite blocks.
I play with no jetpack. So yeah, ladders. Everywhere.
Understandable.
How did you join two ships together? Merge blocks? The tour was nice but it would've been nice to see the process.
I built the golem ship in creative using copy and paste. Same hotkeys as you'd expect if you're on pc.
"Have fun! Better and become builder"
"Have Fun! BETTER and become a BUILDER"
Almost makes sense.
2:03 "all the floor in here is salad"
wut
Buahaha, that was great.
i got question I've catch some trade faction ships from vanilla ships, sprt ship like the military minelayer and escort tried to rebuild them but have no clue were start on.
I find that it helps to pick a role for your new version. Will it be used for combat, cargo hauling, mining, long distance travel, none, or all of those? (The options are unlimited.) From there you can figure out what blocks it has that will help it achieve those goals and what blocks it still needs.
Maybe you just want to make it a comfortable home, strip all the functional bits, attach it to an asteroid, and turn it into an apartment.
Nice video. I'm the guy who likes ladders btw
Haha, nice.
All the vanilla stuff is built by Aragath
Cool, thanks!
Give me ALL your ladders!
Please take them!
I just got done watching this and wanted to ask something. Would you be interested in doing a video about improving, critiquing or advising about some of my ship designs? I know thats a weird question, but I'm a relatively novice ps5 player and I want to see some things I may have either overlooked or messed up in my designs. I gladly give full permission to modify them to your liking to show improvements or tips about how to better build in the future.
I do build reviews on my community channel. If you want something looked at, you can join my discord and post a link to your workshop item in the "review_my_build" channel. Alternatively you can try to catch me streaming on Twitch.
Discord:
discord.gg/fP6Ug3qPK9
Community Channel
youtube.com/@more_shifty
Twitch
twitch.tv/shiftyshadowtv
To be fair a lot of the Keen ships leave a lot to be desired.
How do you copy and paste sections of ships? How do you make them to merge and stick