Okay, but a few pistons with flywheel generators feeding their exhaust into turbines? Fantastic battery production. I always use steam engines. I'm a steamie!
#From The Depths
lost pineBOT
Wait, you all don't use steam turbines?
Like, on their own?
We just build straight-up "steam boiler into turbine" setups and they produce lots of power.
lost pineBOT
Battery power, sure. But not motor power.
lost pineBOT
Oh, yeah, our motor power generators are usually separate from our power generators.
That way if our turbines take a hit we can still move and power everything that runs off engine power, while if our main steam engines go kaboom we can usually power our propellors via electric engines, if we remembered to set the power priorities for that craft. :P
prime forge
i love steam engines
but i usually dont use turbines because of the affect they have on torque of the main drive shaft
in that they build backpressure in the steam piping and that makes it harder for the pistons to drive the shaft as hard as possible
lost pineBOT
..I should make a monitor.
Also, with the help of a KoTL giving critique, I actually built a DWG fan build!
prime forge
Me: I should make a new ship
(Makes another ramming ship with forward arc gun turrets and stern missile silos)
plain axle
so surprisingly the smallest shittiest speedboat in my fleet is the most survivable
it goes like 50 m/s on the water and is very erratic so its hard to hit
my larger surface warship has been doing a lot worse in battle, like it usually just gets its props knocked out and sits there
its interesting designing around campaign constraints as opposed to just dueling in the vehicle designer
like, im actually interested in trying a combined power system of steam and fuel as opposed to just spamming injector fuel engines everywhere
plain axle
alternatively steam turbines and batteries
im considering a railgun as a main gun and i remember for the lylamobile railgun tank i just spammed a shit ton of steam turbines for power
paired with an electric motor
sorry if im cluttering the chat with my vapid ramblings
plain axle
this superstructure may be a bit big
prime forge
Super duper structure
plain axle
bote
foggy oriole
silly device
plain axle
im kinda settling on this, the railgun is a bit underwhelming tho
im hoping if i put more detectors on it can be more accurate
lost pineBOT
Ooh, big railgun...
We're currently working on putting the finishing touches on a frontsider plasma/PAC hovercraft we've been working on for a while. :)
hexed orbit
Actually, we think we're just about done, so we'll share some screenshots!
We decided to name it Project Osprey. It's a frontsider hovercraft, designed specifically to take on frontsiders like the Pyre, Singularity, and such. It can kill the Singularity pretty reliably, and goes toe-to-toe with the Pyre and can win relatively often.
We've attached some screenshots for any who are interested. :)
lost pineBOT
Yeah, 1.5 million mats, 17k blocks, and a couple days straight of work. :P
foggy oriole
i fw that frontsider heavy
this is coming together well
you guys are makin me want to build bote
foggy oriole
you ever think making your boats go 50m/s might be contributing to that high resource usage
plain axle
maybe
plain axle
improved missile boat, i finished the exterior stuff and also the top speed is now like 63 m/s
i will not listen to the haters. my boats are not fast enough
i hope there's a mass retrofit option in the campaign because i have so many of these fucking boats
prime forge
Major problem with your boat
No ram
If you're gonna make em fast you gotta give them the reinforced bow for ramming maneuvers
I've yet to defeat Godly ships without ramming
Ramming is the universal solution
foggy oriole
i hope there's a mass retrofit option in the campaign because i have so many of ...
you gotta individually retrofit I think, but you can probably drag a selection box over them and do it in bulk
foggy oriole
Ramming is the universal solution
I don't design my ships to ram but ftd ai usually ends up bonking something at least once so I tend to put a line of deco'd rams as the tip of the bow since they have the same air resistance as the slopes I would otherwise use
lost pineBOT
I mean 63's pretty good.
lylabean | The Garden ↩️
Also, if it's legally the same file, erm, you can tell them all to update rather then refit.
plain axle
ah yeah i did that last night, it works
lost pineBOT
Update on the frontsider: we built a breadboard evasion sequence and now it's incredibly CRAM resistant. :)
Wyvern ↩️
Hard to hit it when it's constantly strafing in all six axis at de-synchronised intervals. :P
plain axle
this is what the final tiny speedboat ended up looking like
i shuffled around the internals and tweaked the hull to fit more stuff
my next priority is to create some sort of craft to carry resources and repair stuff
i may just download something off the workshop
i also need a fast jet interceptor and a large capital ship
i wish i could just be like the US government and ask raytheon to do all this building and shit for me but i am my own military industrial complex
foggy oriole
now build large boi
plain axle
i think im gonna post the little boat on the workshop, and maybe the railgun one too
maybe all 3 if i can get them all in a shape that im happy with. I'm most happy with the small boat
plain axle
hydrofoil interceptor
at least. its gonna be
i plan to arm it with lasers and torpedoes
to deal with flyers and subs
im probably gonna make the hull and superstructure a little taller, just so there's more room for stuff
this craft is gonna fit into the niche of backline defense, where fast annoying enemies keep trying to backcap me
lost pineBOT
You're the only person who thinks "interceptor" and builds a ship.
plain axle
i like botes
foggy oriole
silly bote
plain axle
how much engine power should i expect a non-shit offensive laser system to use
foggy oriole
idk I just build the laser however big I want and then make the engine match it
lost pineBOT
^^^
plain axle
did a 100% revamp of the hull
not as fast but i like the shape a lot more
its a little bit independence class LCS
they're like, spinblock pontoons on the bottom that swivel a bit to turn and have big propellors on the end
foggy oriole
it looks good
plain axle
done
it's fast and amazing at swatting small and medium aircraft
but also so incredibly fragile
and probably very powerhungry
plain axle
foggy oriole
ohh spensive
foggy oriole
you should test it against the tephra
that can take down functionally any quantity of small aircraft
and a lot of big scarlet dawn jets
foggy oriole
you should test it against the tephra
as in (boat vs planes) vs (boat vs planes) not boat vs boat
plain axle
im spamming flying squirrels vs an equivalent resource cost of your ship and my ship
its not going well 😔
lost pineBOT
Yeah, Alex's OYN Tephra is really good at its job.
plain axle
nah what i meant by that is they got whooped
lost pineBOT
Ohhhhhh.
plain axle
tho the flying squirrel is a bastard. Whoever thought of putting a large missile on that little shit
plain axle
yeah its like a short little large missile, i dont even know if it has guidance
foggy oriole
oh god they buffed it again huh
foggy oriole
Yeah, Alex's OYN Tephra is *really* good at its job.
I didn't know you'd tested it
maybe try em against something that isn't a thousand flying squirrels lyla lol
foggy oriole
I designed it to fight steel striders and scarlet dawn planes
plain axle
the fly zapper
plain axle
you have 0q and my laser is a 3q
like a zap zap zap instead of a VOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
foggy oriole
yeah I just think it looks cooler lol
plain axle
honestly it kinda does
lost pineBOT
Yeah, we actually took inspiration from it when designing our AA destroyer line.
Alex ↩️
foggy oriole
neat
lost pineBOT
Though ours was around 200k and packed torpedoes, interceptor missiles, and anti-ship missiles.
Meant to "plug the gaps" in any detatchment that needs AA, anti-sub tools, or missile defense.
plain axle
yeah that's a good niche to fill
lost pineBOT
(Also we found proximity fuse small missiles work pretty well against aircraft.)
plain axle
we considered torpedoes and still may do them but like, idunno, this isn't a ship that's meant for fleet combat
foggy oriole
I likea da laser
plain axle
its very fragile and more for like, patrol in less contested water where u only gotta worry about small fast flyers buzzing past ur main fleet
hence why its so fast too, to be able to cover more water
plain axle
the lineup
lost pineBOT
...you seem to very much enjoy hydrofoils and other fast boats. :)
plain axle
yup
being able to dictate range is very powerful
most of these craft just orbit at like 2km and spam missiles
foggy oriole
now makea da big boy
plain axle
the laser boat kinda sucks butt sauce in the actual campaign
i only tested it in calm waves and the second it gets too wavy it just sort of flies vertical and flips on its back
foggy oriole
lmao oh no
plain axle
ok update i just put a downward facing small jet on the bow and its fine
foggy oriole
W
foggy oriole
ey
plain axle
i dub the laser skimmer "the scone"
foggy oriole
cone
lost pineBOT
...this was not supposed to become a plane, but it appears it has??
lusty marsh
I....
I think I've found peak
https://youtu.be/e2nbdgEmfco?si=nOMt66ISR55h_Jyv
foggy oriole
oh thank god thats just a rantsona my "only ftd vtuber" title remains intact
wait what
10 hours
lusty marsh
It's uhh
Yeahhh
Long
And also has its own set of characters
I've never see an FTD playthrough like that
vague topaz
I just picked up the game, played a bit of tutorial, I got this lol
I do think it is funny that the devs kind of passively judge you for what settings you select in the descriptions for them
However, the buttons that move my vertical plane in build mode changing with the angle of my camera is annoying and I am glad to be away with that. It's fine on the horizontal, but yea, I am good on all that
I guess it makes sense, they seem to have pride in their custom builder system
lost pineBOT
Yeah, felt. Keyboard based building took us ages to get used to.
Auberon ↩️
Have fun trying to build all manner of craft! If you ever need examples of relatively up-to-date stuff, you can take apart the enemy faction craft by loading them up in build mode and see how they work. 
(It's very fun to see what insanity some people have cooked up.)
vague topaz
Oh question, why did my craft controls seem to switch between WASD and UHJK
I am unsure what triggers that to change but it does seem to just swap between them sometimes
Aha, it had to do with my character being active(?)
lost pineBOT
That sounds right, yeah.
vague topaz
Behold the first ship I have ever designed
there is an attempt to make a somewhat efficient steam engine and I wanted the laser to be strong, there's some sticks of frequency doublers in there and some of the cylinders on the engine are using recycled steam
ok lol, my first version of the laser was apparently so pathetic the enemy I spawned in as a test totally ignored me in favor of shooting the base you spawn at starting up designer, now it just instantly disarmed me of course, that's kinda funny I guess
Maybe my next attempt will actually be armored and maybe I'll try some missiles and an APS, and maybe try a fuel engine instead of a steam one
I'm less trying to make something good yet rather than getting a sense of my tools, I guess
the laser lesson I learned is that you need to use those connectors to make it so a bunch of couplers make one big laser, instead of making one barrel fire multiple lasers. I also observed the template designs sorta fill empty spaces with those doubler sticks
Which seems to sort of increase the effective "armor piercing" rather than the actual numerical damage
I also made the steam engine directly drive the propellers and idk if that has a reverse throttle option
lost pineBOT
Add a transmission!
Auberon ↩️
vague topaz
I did it only went forward
I'll check again later
vague topaz
I did find the issue, the propeller was in "automatic" mode and not manual
I also made the worst railgun ever
I was trying to see how high I could get the sustained fire rate of an advanced cannon and got up to like 200rpm or so
However railguns seem to like to fire really, really fast if you don't tell them not to
I can see the potential applications anyway. Still just entirely lost on configuring a decent shell though
lost pineBOT
APS shell design is complicated. We have somewhere in the realm of 400-500 hours and we still go to the Discord to consult a guide made by people with more free time than us to think about how to configure our shells.
Auberon ↩️
vague topaz
The laser weapon is indeed far simpler to understand, I have yet to take an honest attempt at any other weapon yet
But I could probably make a somewhat competent APS now if I wanted
From what I can tell the particle cannon is super simple in theory, the missiles should be straighforwardish and cram cannons involve some rediculous space management
lost pineBOT
As a general rule of thumb, the shorter/lower caliber the APS shell, the more you want to focus on "payload" type shells: frag, HEAT, and HESH work well in small sizes. Low-caliber HE is a trap; the explosive damage calculations are complicated, but essentially, more damage is much better than the numbers alone would indicate, to the point that you almost never want to use HE unless the explosion deals at least 10k damage.
As you go larger, past about 5-6m shell length and 300mm+ or so, that's the point where it becomes worthwhile to switch to AP-Payload type shells; stuff that punches through armor and then fuzes inside the enemy vessel. AP-Frag is simple and reliable, APHE is a classic, SAPHE (semi-armor penetrating; explodes inside their armor to maximize damage) is great, AP-HEAT can bypass an airgap, and AP-Incendiary is an interesting shell type we haven't experimented much with but seems promising.
PACs are theoretically simple, yeah! Big tube, wind it around to make it as long as possible, stick a cap on the end, boom, big blast. In practice you need to think about armoring them properly, since a breach in the tube will make you damage yourself, and there's a balance to be struck between different stats.
Missiles are easy to set up, and not too complicated to get working.
CRAM cannons are... honestly we've never touched them. Their tetris is weird to us. They have their uses, though!
Auberon ↩️
vague topaz
The particular shell I made was a 1m shell with like all frag and one railgun propellant thing
lost pineBOT
Railgun casing?
vague topaz
The idea was that I was firing them so fast I suppose I could saturate a target with fragments
Railgun casing yes
I basically made a crude imitation of a sandblaster, as the community calls them
lost pineBOT
Funny story: those are a trap. 😔
Gunpowder casings can be combo-ed with rail power to launch shells faster, railgun casing bonuses are... not all that useful, and you don't need any railgun casings to give a shell rail-assist; any shell can get boosted by rails.
Auberon ↩️
vague topaz
aha
lost pineBOT
Even one with no casings whatsoever, last we checked.
vague topaz
I assume you will preserve rail energy by hybridising your shells
lost pineBOT
Railguns are really good, to be clear; you just get more mileage by using gunpowder casings over railgun casings, since more gunpowder speeds up the shell.
Gunpowder provides a base speed, and rails add speed on top of that; hybridising can save energy by reducing how much rail power you need to reach your target speed, yes!
vague topaz
the net effect yea
It seems the placement of some parts can be kinda restrictive too, like the bits that accelerate the speed of the rail charging
and the placement of coolers/gauge increasers seems rather restrictive to a degree too
lost pineBOT
Yeah, APS tetris is difficult. In general tetris-ing anything takes a lot of practice with learning what can connect to what and how to cram things in.
Coolers and gauge increasers connect to each other and to the firing piece. The multi-way coolers cost as much as the straight ones, so use whatever. Chargers can connect to each other in a straight line, and to gauge increasers/coolers. Recoil absorbers also go on gauge increasers/coolers.
vague topaz
the 6 sided adapter also seems incompatible with the coolers/gauge increasers but is compatible with autoloaders
lost pineBOT
Oh, yeah, the connector is... odd. Has its uses, though.
vague topaz
I was trying to incorporate a whole lot of autoloaders to give me a high sustained fire rate
lost pineBOT
Also, yeah, autoloaders! Those go on increasers/coolers too. :P
And clips go on them! They speed up the fire rate like an autoloader, but they're cheaper, at the cost of being a bit complicated to set up properly, since they don't connect on all sides.
vague topaz
Oh you can connect autoloaders to those
I was just connecting autoloaders to autoloaders
and then coating them in clips and input feeders
lost pineBOT
And you need ammo ejectors and the emergency ejection defuse module on your shells if you use clips. Autoloaders don't detonate when damaged, but if clips contain shells with explosives they will cook off and chain-react if hit. This can be avoided by sticking ejectors on them, which eject shells when damaged instead of cooking off, and the emergency ejection defuse bit, which makes those ejected shells not live. Otherwise they'll explode inside the turret anyways.
vague topaz
my techniques remain unrefined
but I assume I don't need 20 autoloaders for any future serious gun
lost pineBOT
Yep, a few with clips works wonders! We usually do 3-clip loaders, since we can make a grid somewhat easily with them, but 2-clip loaders are pretty cheap and even easier to tile.
vague topaz
Very well
vague topaz
I managed to make a gun with like 1200rpm this time in a much more reasonable footprint so I feel better about that particular fascination
plain axle
ive always been a missiles + railguns lover
mostly missiles because they're relatively simple
plain axle
the lineup
these r my boats #myboats
lost pineBOT
We usually run some kind of main weapon (lasers, railguns, plasma drills, or PACs), then add backup missiles for confirming kills on crippled targets, interceptor missiles, and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. Also CIWS occasionally.
vague topaz
I wanna think this is a decent gun
lost pineBOT
Ooh, pretty nice! Good firerate, pure Frag, small rail speed boost...
vague topaz
Probably would eat up a softer target quickly, is the idea
definitely my best gun yet, though this hovercraft platform is a horrible firing platform
vague topaz
I'm wondering something about APS
So, there's the shells available, and if a system is allowed to fire faster than the inputs can sustain, it will, right?
The overall average would be the advertised rpm but the momentary rpm can be way higher, as I am observing at least with railgun systems here
I also see this particular gun I am viewing is purely a railgun accelerated cannon and the projectile has no gunpowder so it does not need cooling, of course
I guess this railgun can burst fire like this because it's not being cooling limited (it actually appears to hit an energy limit and there must be a system built into this craft to forbid firing again until it reaches max energy again)
vague topaz
Ah for reference I was checking out the Scarlet Dawn's Dominus
plain axle
I'm wondering something about APS
So, there's the shells available, and if a sys...
yeah that is correct, you can fire as fast as you can cool for as many shells are immediately loaded from the autoloaders, then once that buffer runs out it fires at the rate the autoloaders reload into the firing piece
you can do some utter horesshit APS bombers with this concept i think
foggy oriole
I guess this railgun can burst fire like this because it's not being cooling lim...
this is all built into the aps firing piece as settings
vague topaz
Yea I know, I have done so already in my own designs
I just was understanding it poorly