rustic steppe
The goal of this guide is to simply show things you shouldn't be doing, this will cover things like shells, armor schemes, odd things, ect.
For armor related things this guide will show I refer you to #1191289701085229126 for additional information.
(CONTENT WARNING: The following images maybe harmful to some viewers, viewer discretion is advised)
With all that said, I welcome other community members to share there images of mistakes/odd design choices or things you shouldn't be doing.
Example:
Mass Up-prop spam, this not only requires engine power, it also makes it so your ship is tied to your engines remaining intact throughout the course of a battle to remain floating.
As such they shouldn't be the only thing making the craft float.
APS Clips in which the shells are visible, no reason to use these outside of deco, they can cause extreme performance issues.
Use the solid ones instead or just auto loaders.
HEAT/HESH protecting chunks of solid armor that run from one side of a craft to the other, this offers no benefits, just down sides, like your armor taking damage from HEAT/HESH which it could of just harmlessly gone though without spawning frags.
I see this actually quite a lot for some reason... You should not back app-panels with ERA or vice versa, why?
Because app-panels activate both HEAT/HESH on contact spawning frags behind it, which hit the ERA, destroying the block and anything behind it.
Don't do this °_°
Using 1m blocks every where, this a bad idea due to small bocks having very little HP, larger blocks receive progressively more HP the larger they are, like the 4m beam receiving 20% more HP over if you had place 4 1m blocks in a line.
(Note: this applies to armor blocks only, Ducts don't count)
This is a lonely planer shield, he has no HEAT/HESH protection but most importantly he has no EMP protection making him effectively useless if the enemy uses any of the above.
Do not leave them unprotected, well protected planer Shields can mean the difference between a loss or a win
This is what the final stages of wedge cope looks like... Wedges backing wedges or wedges backed by ERA... These poor creations only suffer from there careless owners ;-;
Wedges should not be viewed as armor, for on there own they're next to useless, without backing wedges can't reliably stop AP shells.
Wedges backed by ERA are useless against everything but HEAT/HESH, Due to the wedges already inherent weaknesses, like low HP, even still, simple spaced armor is more effective than ERA and you could fit multiple spaced armor layers in the space the wedge/ERA takes up...
Never abuse your builds like this, they don't deserve it.
(One exception, see #1191289701085229126 message for more info)
Don't use 557 repair bots, enough said.
round goblet
Despite what #ftd-general might have you believe, Sabot munition defense (formerly known as flak) is not good at all. Munition defense has the lowest damage of any of the chemical shell varieties and gets even worse when you add a sabot head. Sabot reduces the already abysmal damage down to 25% of the original. Just use aphe or apfrag, they’re better in all circumstances.
amber merlin
Mixed-payload 'party shells.'
While there are exceptions, in most cases mixing payload types is the epitome of 'jack of all trades, master of none,' and in FtD this is typically worse than 'master of one.' Design shells and/or missiles to deliver a single type of payload as well as possible in as large a quantity as possible. This is especially true for payload types that get appreciating returns from being applied in large quantities in a single hit, such as HE or incendiary, or for payload types that deal damage in a fundamentally different way from others, like EMP, or again for payloads with fundamentally different roles, like munition defense shells or missile interceptor heads (don't add other payloads to missile interceptors! They don't help).
There are exceptions to this guideline, like adding frag to very large CRAM shells once explosion radius becomes a limiting concern. This also does not apply to mixing payload with kinetic damage types, which is a common practice (as long as you don't use sabot for this!). In short, don't mix payload unless you absolutely know what you're doing. Most instances of party shells we see are bad design, so by default you should usually just use one type of payload at once.
Pictured: stolen example of a party shell (original author's identity concealed; if you don't care let me know and I'll give you credit).
ember lantern
Mixed-payload 'party shells.'
While there are exceptions, in most cases mixing ...
One thing to add to exceptions I think, pure payload like incin/frag/he/emp can benefit from hesh/heat nose/head as it has increased shell speed and can get a random crit some times (assuming shell doesn't have enough kinetic energy for aphead to be worth it, or you just want that contact fuse)
round goblet
Another exception would be with disruptor conduits. APS emp damage sucks, so using it isn't ideal. However, some disruptor shells have leftover space for warhead, and it would be a waste to not use it. In this case, use frag, heat or incin depending on preference.
tiny pilot
Whatever the hell this APS deckgun shell is. Purportedly APHE 
Credit to @rare pivot
rare pivot
