SHIP DESIGN 101: A Quick Guide for Space Engineers

[@SoundShunter72]

When designing ships you should always keep building even if it doesn't look right in the first place. Once you have everything built you can start adjusting things. I can't remember how many times I've given up on something because it looked like crap in the first few minutes...

[@Pro100tv9]

Yes, this is very important! When starting a project I first create a prototype/proof of concept that usually looks quite bad, and if it works with all the critical components, I start to shape it till the point it looks decent. It's very rare that I like the first iteration of my crafts 😁

[@johnokean8216]

I’m learning and all my ships are ugly. I’ll learn about aesthetics later hahahaha

[@termiusprime]

I had this problem the other day and felt like giving up, but by the end I had one of the best ships I've ever made!

[@therandomlaniusedward2140]

It's basically a Lego but shit actually flies, just remember when you are trying to make something with Lego, shit always looks bad in first few minutes!

[@scoopyrnoopers]

thats the thing i always struggle with, I am good at making them functional and for them to do their jobs but I suck as making them look good which makes me give up halfway through

[@seangray8585]

I definitely appreciate the "make sure your ship fits in the role it was designed for." Sometimes it seems like people are trying to bolt on too many extras onto their build, and they learn the hard way that those extras take away from that primary role.

[@xBloodXGusherx]

Can you do a video on Cameras? You seem to be the only person out here who gets straight to the dam point and not talk about nothing for 20 mins before showing anything lol. Love your content. Thank you so much.

[@Pro100tv9]

Hey Viq, I will definitely consider making such a video. Also thank you for the kind words! ☺️

[@Danjiano]

I would suggest not using the Creative game mode, but rather start the game in Survival Mode, then open the Admin Screen (Alt+F10) and turn on Creative Tools. This makes fuel consumption more accurate, with reactors, generators, engines and weapons actually needing their fuel or ammo to work. Makes it easier to spot mistakes with conveyors. If you need a specific amount of fuel, Shift+F10 lets you spawn any item.

[@SharkStrikeAC]

It's what's always recommended. Use admin creative in survival scenario. It is a guarantee that your project will work in a real survive.

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

@SharkStrikeAC keep in mind, works in creative is a funny term only 1/1000 survival ready ships on the workshop have a drill .solar panels, 30 mins of fuel time and enough o2 gens to refuel in a practical amount of time like 4:1 or 8:1 gen to large tank ratio. timer blocks to respawn hop, full production and under 20k pcu anyone know any actual survival ready workshop creators?

[@aidanmatthewgalea7761]

I force myself to try make ships with as few or even no separate grids as possible so it can actually work without my game crashing

[@RichardGQue]

it's also a real bother to make in survival with subgrids

[@madmo1692]

Agreed. Nothing worse than building a large ship that gets damaged and now I have to remember all those subgrids to repair in survival

[@chaomatic5328]

@@madmo1692 I'm not alone when I say that lots of things in SE is downright masochist, and subgrid printing is one of them. Try to get a mod that fixes that, because I don't think the dev will lift a finger. Just look at the monochrome UI, absolutely disgusting to use

[@odd_bobble9106]

Try linking all the sub grids together using merge blocks. Then you have 1 large subgrid attached in multiple places. Don’t forget to lock the rotors and turn on inertia dampers.

[@odd_bobble9106]

@@chaomatic5328 Can’t you stack projectors to fix that?

[@CrazyDutchguys]

My biggest issue is size. I either set out to make a heavy fighter and it ends up small or i want to make a somewhat compact large grid ship and it ends up FAR larger than intended.

[@Matt_10203]

Generally an issue with capitalising on the size inside. It’s very easy to start making the ship too big because your interiors don’t fit.

[@Myth0l0gic]

The amount of research of other creators and thoughtful editing you've but unto this video is top notch. Amazing work!

[@codywatkins4466]

You arrived at the point within the first seconds of the video, gave super useful info as always, and shouted out community creators that deserve love. easily my favorite SE ytbr.

[@petrus6877]

Always like how well put-together your videos are. Very handy reference guide for people that are new to ship design.

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

Your video was concise, well put together and packed with a lot of info.

[@madmo1692]

One of your best videos yet! Thanks for these inspirations!

[@Pro100tv9]

Thank you!

[@tfairfield42]

Amazing and professional video.

[@sixgill8967]

Nah I love my solid boxes of lead

[@21LOLxPRO]

im not used armor for build utiliti ship XD only utiliti block

[@christianmcdonald419]

Yeah lead blocks

[@InternetJosh]

Brick ship enjoyers unite! 😂

[@flu_nog_777]

I built a super heavy ship with 2 layers of heavy armor all the way around and yeah its a brick lol

[@maxwellfujs6124]

This is such a great video. Definitely great at demystifying the creative process. Thank you!

[@KelevraEngineering]

Thanks for this great video and the honoring use of my builds. I am trying to get into the tutorial thing by myself and you video is a pretty good baseline for getting into designing. 👍👍👍

[@marty7442]

3:04 I designed a modular ship like that, but with the 3x3 Adv rotor instead to save space. Might be something for others to consider if you only want to say, stick a large ore detector on a small grid ship, attach a survival kit module, or an extra hydrogen tank or batteries, etc... leaving custom turret builds alone, I will subgrid just to save space and components, and it works wonders with things like beacons, timer and programmable blocks, reactors, etc, and allows for attaching jump drives to small grid ships.

[@verivy]

Congrats on 11k! I remember when you had 70-ish😳 awesome news. I got space engineers! My brother got a pc and allowed me to get it on it so now I’m able to play on Wednesdays, thursdays and fridays. Can’t wait to use your creations! Definitely have to learn the game first though

[@Pro100tv9]

Thank you! And that's awesome news! Welcome in Space Engineers family ☺️

[@Polyfron]

Great vide with lots of great tips and directions. A comprehensive starting point for people who want to learn how to make better looking ships. You're easily become one of my favourite SE youtubers.

[@Grebanton]

It‘s been 8 months and I only just now realized that my ship was in this video. You should‘ve told me, stuff like this makes my day :D Thank you!

[@nunivilgamerz2231]

me spending 8 hours designing a mega ship on survival completely forgetting about the extra blocks for shapes.... i was only using the basic full block square of shapes to work with lol

[@stevehamilton5658]

Great vid, super helpful. 😊

[@hayden-corvustenno-warlock7062]

Thanks! I started recently playing SE, and i still lerning. And my "flying wing" fighter can be done better, now i know how to make apper parts better. Thx again! (Sorry english is not my first language)

[@yoyi8285]

Really nice build and great eye for detail.

[@loach5348]

Oh this is gonna be cool

[@MrArbreFleuri]

Another banger video from Pro100tv

[@demize7498]

Damn, if I didn't take so many long breaks and had more time to play SE, maybe I could've gotten on the list haha. Great video nonetheless! Very informative and useful for even experienced players, awesome job!

[@krazyivan007]

Wait...at 9:10 there are letters applied to a sloped surface. How do you do this in Vanilla, or are my eyes tricking me - is that a flat surface?

[@Pro100tv9]

Hi, this sloped surface is in fact flat. The slope is achieved by attaching the whole wing to a hinge 🙂

[@CSGdesign01]

Lovely presentation of tips. Well edited vid too

[@papisalamander1056]

Where can i get the pallet she displayed at 4:56

[@mlq1718]

I’ve been playing this game for a long time, this is a great tutorial. I’m pretty good at building highly-functional ships with decent designs, but I always struggle to either leave space on the hull for decorations or to use the hull space for effective decorations.

[@hurmzz]

Anybody know what ship is at 0:35 ? Thanks a lot!

[@mattp1337]

An old school creator to check out is Dolan. Gorgeous big craft in the style of the Nostromo. Lovely greebling considering how many fewer blocks were available then.

[@user-xsn5ozskwg]

You always give such great tips, By the way, could you tell us what the tank is that appears at 1:12? I didn't see it in any of he builder showcases.

[@whackycracker1987]

I learned that details and good looking features take up pcu that you could have put to railguns or thrusters or other utilities that make your ship more combat viable. Don't go for looks, just put railguns on a super-manuverable grid with some jump drives and bam you have a killer ship.

[@zamba136]

Also remember folks, that you only need 1 small ion thruster in each direction. This leaves more room for Railguns and other utilities.

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

generally yes i agree with you, but there are a lot of things you can do with 1 pcu decorations and the odd 10 pcu one. Plus shape colour, maybe having some of the necessary pcu parts could be exposed in the interior for example.

[@Hailstrumm]

i love making fighters for one reason: taking in account where they will be used, when they will be used, the methods of delivery, its use, and making it as compact as possible. here is a fighter design i came up with: a fighter that can be deployed mid battle to 1: overwhealm enemy defences, and 2: destroy integral parts of a ship (perferably asap). therefore it must have reloadable rockets, which for convinence ill stick into the wings. now: considering a fighters 2nd biggest threat. other fighters. since this is a hit and run bomber/fighter it will be more than useful to have a gatling gun, or in this case, a gatling turret, which we could easily impliment due to the verticle nature of the medium cargo containers put on all ECF ships, and top down docking system. this will also allow the pilot to focus on their misson objective without having to swat away enemy fighters, and allow for a wider kill area on our fighter/bomber. now for the integeral part of any ship: her thrust. due to the mobalised and space oriented reality of ECF outposts, mostly consisting of space stations, and also for convience we use Ion thrusters. this is because i cant be bothered to work with the limitations hydrogen provides. now to overview. the (theoretical fighter/bomber) is meant to be carried on the ECF KR - 06 "Orcin" Spacecraft carrier, and deployed mid battle to assist frontline naval defences with quick bombing runs on enemy ships vital systems, to achive this it has 2 reloadable rocket launchers and a gatling turret manned by ai to swat away opposing fighters. overall a pretty well rounded ship (if i didnt miss anything)

[@helfexer9019]

nice video, I have over 2k hours in space engineers but every ship I made looks like a GOD DAMN BOX

[@captaindarksign3589]

Same here XD

[@davidmartensson273]

Well, first step would be to make it an interesting box :) Instead of trying to change everything, just adding detail and depth to a plain box can be a good exercise and you do not need to create an interesting shape to begin with. Once you get the detailing working for a box, then you start with different shapes.

[@rextron6437]

Amazing video! Your builds are super well made and creative. I haven't found anyone with as useful and complex as what you have made. I do have 1 suggestion for your videos which is to increase the volume of your voice it is quieter then some of the other sounds in your videos and I have to turn up my volume on KZbin to hear you properly. Make your voice to be a bit loader then the music at the end of the video would be great.

[@danielthorp8717]

I'm not sure if this is a consideration, but I have found that if you apply a gyroscope to each engine, the craft you build. This helps the craft to manoeuvre better.

[@jacksonbarkerthebluehairedfox]

I'd also like to point out the creator Smokki. If ya don't know who they are, they're the one who built several worlds and builds used in some of Keen's trailers for the game such as Carcosa Valley (Full release trailer), Sparks of the Future (Sparks of the Future trailer), Port Argos R & D Site (Style Pack trailer), and Rust Point Colony (Heavy Industry trailer).

[@cameronhill8279]

PrimoSuperT is an amazing creator too. He does all the scifi stuff you can think of

[@The_Envix]

I would like to learn how to make ship interiors on large grid ships and how to space rooms out and connect them

[@DrummClem]

I needed this. Tanks

[@Redfur2002]

Saw this video in my down time, I'm designing a company called Foxtech (company as faction tag) series of vehicles and bases, they are Mars based and use a mixture of rovers, ships and stations, rn I'm focusing on Project Ahphitanu, project 3 of 26, it's a carrier pushing 150k PCU and I'm probably gonna finish it by the 18th of August this year, and then I'd release it world form then the individual blueprints later on

[@dani-dv]

3:12 is the ship on the workshop?

[@dusty4896]

What is a good amount of armor? I usually have to rely on shield mods to give a decent amount of defense, and not have to repair ships after every minor encounter. Current armor can't really protect even just a small amount of fire, and that weakness doesn't go well when people make ships literally covered in weapons.

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

build a small ship with i dunno 8 artillery cannons tight, go into creative with your design and shoot hydro tanks, jump drives, the cargo boxes under your guns, critical conveyor lines etc those things above should at least survive one shot

[@maquard3223]

Very impressive! But how do i combine large and small grids!?

[@proadventurer]

Through rotor or connector

[@Sscorpion07]

6:00 What name of that ship? Can i get link to it?

[@Pro100tv9]

That's Kelevra's Argo Mole, the link is in the description

[@daveotoole2k7]

The ship at 0.02 in what is it it looks so good

[@Generalphoenix8438]

I dont play this game but i like the concepts and ideas. For my spaceship drsigns i mostly use star wars and halo. One design is a semi circle design with a large tower for the structure and weapkns all around with wings on the sides and the bottom area with a longer tower structure. The side wings are for thrusters. The bottom also acts as a bridge and a hidden hanger. The top also has an observation platform.

[@YukariYakumoRanMode]

my god, what a great video

[@wittyjoker4631]

Building ships to look a certain way is the fundamental flaw that results in weak underperforming ships.

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

you can cut the difference, you can build a strong survival balanced ship internal. Then get your functional armour in place then send some time adding the odd decorative block here or there. It can be done, you can put function first and still have good looking ships. but i agree form over function is trash one of the ships shown, had a decorative exposed jump drive. That's obvious nonsense.

[@nritten6142]

Great video. I am usually torn between looks and survivability, usually leaning towards survivability.. Cool looks don't last long in turret and rocket fire..

[@nyxborne1786]

This is a GREAT video! my only qualm with it is that people use Conveyor Junctions WAY TOO MUCH. Junctions are weird with Keen's coding in that it tries to push the items out of EACH side when an item is transported through it, and with ships that have frequent item traffic it can really lag a server down. I would suggest using the C-shaped, T-shaped, and X-shaped conveyors instead as this helps clear up lag issues that ALOT of ships bring from the workshop. For example the "miner" that you started the video with. That has way too many junctions in it's conveyor system for a ship that will constantly have item traffic. Yes they make good placeholders, so why the thrust system is determined, those junctions need to be removed and replaced accordingly.

[@YoStu242]

I sympathise The Borg when I try to design something cool looking

[@The_CavemanOfficial]

Spite not being on this list is almost criminal

[@bruckenpfeiler6550]

you forgot Newfang on your list! i know, i might sound like "that type of guy that allways knows better people etc" but check him out! he is (imo) the best when it comes to multi-grid, detail and original builds. PS: i love your videos! keep it up okay :)

[@Pro100tv9]

Very nice workshop, I saw the Lunar Shuttle published not so long ago. I'll definitely follow this person's work. Thanks for reference! 🙂

[@vadernation1233]

YES newfang has really helped me improve my building in SE. Definitely my favorite builder.

[@Flakintosh]

How do you get different colour galaxies?

[@Pro100tv9]

You can look up different skyboxes on workshop and add them to your world in the world settings in "mods" tab

[@atheosathonille130]

I have 3.5k hours in the game I haven't played in about a year or so.. The problem is. Once you build all the cool things and have crafted so many ideas, etc There's just nothing to do .... There's no story. No challenge to overcome.. No real threats. And most highly populated servers that are well maintained are just a bunch of griefers, cheaters, inside traders, etc without many dozens of mods that make vanilla building blocks useless.

[@gelobledo]

When i started i was building to make ships look cool or nice. once i started playing more with Hostile NPCs i started building more practical ships that can take a beating and keep going. find that crashing ships and getting attacked will show the flaws that need to be addressed. so get out there and pew pew even with ships that are not for combat that way you know if your miner has to run it will survive long enough to get away

[@Gottaculat]

I like to build with a task in mind, and make it as survival-friendly as possible, as well as vanilla builds only (for maximum compatibility). My stuff isn't spectacular, but it's also not bad for survival. I do need to update some builds, though, as some features have been broken (like door-less air locks). I also heavily favor the industrial, well used style that I loved so much about the original Star Wars trilogy. I love that look that conveys the fact ships are expensive not only to buy, but to maintain, too, and not everyone would have the time or money to keep them flying in pristine condition. It's also fun to post some silly stuff, or even functional prop builds that can add flavor to your world or custom scenarios. I only upload the builds I feel are polished enough to be uploaded. I have so many crazy builds that are really neat, but I never upload them due to not being happy with how they turned out. Funny thing is, my most popular build was one I never intended to make public, but some players saw it, and said it was so legit that they wanted it, too. If anyone is curious, this is my latest, and most popular build: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834250701

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

this is exactly what i was looking for. No one builds ship you can actually use in multiplayer

[@Kaciu-_-]

I'm currently trying ro build a big cargo ship, I am not a good builder and I want it to look good so I'll see how it looks, rnI've only made it's "hood" and on it's own it looks not bad not good, Idk if I will remake it because I have another idea that wil lbe easier to make and bettter looking I think

[@Pro100tv9]

Hi, it's always worth to iterate. Combining best features from each iteration brings good results 🙂

[@Holey2662]

I think Lunar colony is a very good builder too

[@Lambda420]

Start with the box. Then expand and add systems.

[@itswindyyy]

0:39 I am going to steal that ship.

[@lordbellonn3007]

Hey can you make a video on cluster bombs and cluster missiles? I’ve seen other KZbinrs show off their neat designs but I would like a tutorial. Regardless, love your work, really inspires me. Looking forward to seeing your next video!!!😅

[@Duckdoingstuff]

Where do i find the calculator

[@Pro100tv9]

I used this one in the video: 343n.github.io/spaceengineers-thrust-calc/ But there's also an up to date table with values for each thruster on official Space Engineers Wiki: www.spaceengineerswiki.com/Thruster

[@chaomatic5328]

OP: Try to add angles that aren't 90°, mix small and large grids Servers: 👁👅👁

[@ReconRaccoon]

How did you color the ship at once?

[@Pro100tv9]

Shift + P + MMB while aiming at the grid

[@ReconRaccoon]

@@Pro100tv9 ty so much!

[@Logarinq]

Hi / Witam. Nice gameplay from Space Engineers. LIKE for this video. Greetings from Poland / Pozdrowienia z Polski. See Yaa.

[@Pro100tv9]

Dziękuję! 🙂

[@PraetorPaktu]

Intresting.

[@ned760]

i liked the video

[@daxtermc9330]

Nice video)

[@thefirstblank607]

sometimes adding a mod can help but you should always try all ways and find the smartest way, ive build fighter that needs to be fast and agile with atmo thrusters but 7 batteries could not do it so i tried bigger thrusters and still not quiet right than i tried hydrogen but i never tried it and think a fighter should not use it becouse it can fail an takes space so i used a mod that gives me more batteries that are stronger but way more expensive and it looks like 2 tier 2 batteries with 40Mw might be enough, it first felt unfair but its not becouse loosing one fighter hurts more and you only can spam print them if you dont have recource problems. After 6 trys my fighter works but needs more testing before i make more, it has 6 autocannons and is for fast strikes to take down the enemy when it attacks my base or for a fast bomb mission, sometimes it takes a long time to finish something but thats what makes fun, im allways lookung for balanced mods.

[@mightymicroworlds4566]

I get my inspiration from elite dangerous and the expanse

[@Shalnoy2013]

best of best~ !

[@MertDizemen]

i used der makrat products i modified hektor cargo ship now its names Vektor Miner its the best solutions for mining

[@KerboOnYT]

My builds are definitely the top half of the thumbnail

[@Chazzee23]

I like building space stations and the l;ike. Not very good at making ships look good though haha

[@articchar-lf]

Check out New Fang. The kid is on YT and he build gorgeous complex small grids.

[@Pro100tv9]

Very nice channel, thanks for referencing!

[@Shalnoy2013]

ah this is megaSuper!

[@captaindarksign3589]

The sad part here is, that in PvP boxes with guns are the most efficient design😖

[@odd_bobble9106]

Not really, especially one you get into suicide drones. Can they shoot missiles and small craft out of the air? Sure, but good luck targeting a wall of decoy blocks, missiles, and suicide drones

[@KittenyKat]

Need lots of truss :3

[@zamba136]

Honestly, I think I make my Large Ships too small. I think that is the main reason for why it's so hard to fit detail in.

[@K-Anator]

There is a disconnect between this YT channel and it's Twitch counterpart that I don't understand.

[@jackiewelles973]

Say no more, I want kids from you

[@iloveplayingpr]

The only thing that is keeping me from fully enjoying Space Engineer are the Servers, my ping is too high for the closest one, and the lack of players as well.

[@Light.--]

Get the paint gun mod

[@matthewwagner47]

Making a pretty ship is fine but needs to be built so it's effective in a fight but just neat looking. Most fights are joust and this should be taken into account. Simular to how helicopters fly. Using atmospheric tactics for a space vehicle combat is nonsense.

[@Eanso-706]

I just wanna make my silly little submarine realistic space ships :(

[@CedricPaire]

Référencement

[@JV-un7qw]

They say: create in creative, build in survival. Me: What is creative?

[@pedropimenta896]

I want to improve my computer!

[@Tommy-T448]

Watch video Open the game Build a brick Close the game

[@drmaserlie5571]

Друг, дай, пожалуйста, русские субтитры, если можно. Очень помогло бы. Ролик шикарный, но не всегда понятный

[@MANU-dw9dh]

My constructions are like: ⬛

[@Bolek063]

why am watching this i donteven have the game

[@tidalgrunt]

Should have called this video Cosmetic Ship Design instead, very misleading and not what I was looking for.

[@The_Crab_Master]

WHY U TOOK SHIP FROM ELITE DANGEROUS AND DIDNT MENTIONED IT😭😭😭😭😭

[@Pro100tv9]

Hey, check the video description, all the workshop reference links are there 🙂

[@The_Crab_Master]

@@Pro100tv9 Im just joking. Elite little fanboy here lol

[@DoremiFasolatido1979]

How to build ships that are completely unusable in multiplayer...

[@captaindarksign3589]

Sadly

[@CanuckNews-fv3qj]

yea but you can build a bare bones conveyor skeloton using say Luca's principles, then come here and get some idea on how to fillin the rest to look good knowing your ship still have enough fuel, production, guns, respawns w.e